Diary pages from this date

On the 24th, heavy enemy artillery fire was directed on the Central District, the Naval Yard and Victoria Barracks, and there were many fires in the town.  Leighton Hill was in enemy hands, and the defence line ran from Canal Road in Wanchai, to the Lee Theatre, thence to Morrison Hill, Mount Parrish, Wanchai Gap to Bennett’s Hill.  The Stanley force was concentrated on to the Peninsula and awaited the final assault.   Two platoons of No 3 Company HKVDC were holding Chung Am Kok peninsula.  The first line of defence at Stanley ran from the village to Tytam Beach, and was held by the remainder of No 2 Company, the “Stanley Platoon” (the European warders of the gaol), “C” Company Middlesex and “B” Company Royal Rifles.  South of St. Stephen’s College was the second line, held by the gunners of First Battery HKVDC and “A” and “C” Companies Royal Rifles.  The residue of the Stanley force was manning the third line – from St. Stephen’s Preparatory School to Tweed Bay.             This force had been gathering since the 19th, and included survivors from Shek O, Tytam and Repulse Bay together with a large number of civilian refugees

By the 24th, the first defence line across the narrow neck of the isthmus was established and all troops not required for the operation of guns or other services in the Stanley Fort were utilized in this line.  The main attack came at ten minutes to nine on Christmas Eve.

((Source - a dramatization of the history of the Hong Kong Volunteers, which was broadcast over Radio Hong Kong on 31st May 1954 as part of the HKVDC Centenary Celebrations))

Went to see Sid again. Olive and Topper came to see him just as I left.

On the 24th. December, each carrying ones own baggage, we were marched to North Point Camp. The conditions there were very bad. Washing was done with sea water. Sanitation, nil, open air latrines only, water supply, 8 buckets daily for all purposes for 150 civilians and soldiers arriving. Food, rice and later soya beans. Medical supplies, nil. Wounded were constantly arriving.

The Middlesex are living up to their regimental nickname - the Die-hards - stubbornly holding up the Japanese advance to Victoria.

Down on the Stanley Peninsula the Canadians and members of the HKVDC spend the evening in a bitter firefight with the invading troops. Today and tomorrow parts of what will soon become the Stanley Internment Camp are engulfed in violence, something the internees will never quite forget.

Bill Hudson and his fellow Stanley Platoon (prison officers) were involved in some of this fighting. They were called up on December 19 and have had a relatively peaceful time until today:

Then the nightmare came at 8.50 p.m. on Christmas Eve. They attacked the Village ((Stanley Village)) with small tanks and thousands of troops, it was hell let loose, machine guns every, {sic} some of the Volunteers defended the left of the Village and the Mary Knoll, but the attack came direct for us from the Beach and the Lower Beach Road, for three and  half hours we fought so, with lulls between, then they would come on again screaming their heads off, just to be mowed down....

Bill Hudson survives, and, like some of the other Prison Officers, is sent to Stanley in spite of being captured in uniform. {See tomorrow's entry.}

Conditions in town are deteriorating, as leading surgeon Li Shu-Fan testifies:

Towards the end of the eighteen days, most of the doctors had been in the city where the appalling health conditions frightened us. Malignant malaria, cholera, and other diseases were breaking out, and the hospital was getting its first quota of these. One had only to glance at the Hong Kong streets to see the reason for the epidemics. Stagnant pools of water, filthy tin cans, broken vessels and cesspools – all these, everywhere, were excellent breeding places for mosquitoes. The Sanitary Department had ceased to function and the coolies refused to work since the streets were unsafe during battle; so, too, anti-malarial squads stopped work and the scavenging coolies abandoned their rounds. Garbage and filth, accumulated in heaps everywhere, bred an unprecedented number of flies; and the thousands of decaying bodies scattered on the hillsides were additional breeding grounds….The swarms {of flies} brought on a wave of the four major bowel complaints – cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and diarrhoea.

Andrew Leiper and his fellow HKSBC Essential Workers open the Bank but very few customers appear.  Leiper goes shopping:

Lane Crawford was one of the few shops still open, and I went there through an almost deserted street to buy some tins of food, toilet articles, a few odds and ends of clothing, and a small canvas bag to hold all that remained of my worldly belongings. The Portuguese assistant who served me said that he regretted he could not charge the purchase to my account as usual, and I would have to pay cash as all credit sales had been suspended.

George Kennedy-Skipton and Henry Refo go into work and then try to get back to the house they were forced to abandon on the night of December 22. They're after supplies for their large group:

Christmas Eve the men went back to work {at the Billetting Office}. After work Henry and Mr. Skipton decided to go back to Mt. Cameron in the big car. Planes sighting it and supposing it to be an officer's car dived and bombed it. Hearing the roar as the plane dived down, Henry and Mr. Skipton attempted to stop and get out. The first bomb landed some fifteen feet to the rear but struck the embankment above the car. Had it struck the road it would have been really serious. As it was, only one piece of shrapnel hit the car. It went through the rear window and embedded itself in the front seat a half inch from Henry's back. The plane returned and dropped one or two more small bombs that went wide of the car and of the men who by this time were far down the road. A little later they returned to the car, anxiously looked it over, got in, turned around and returned home as fast as they could.

Gwen Priestwood, who's been driving a truck delivering food all through the fighting, realises that the great and the small intertwine to create the experience of war:

I drove the gray truck all Christmas Eve and got home that night tired and dirty. There was a small package on the table. Wearily I opened it up.

Six pairs of sheer American silk stockings!

I almost cried. Well, I suppose any woman would have. Here I was, at a great moment of tragedy in the history of the British Empire, a city in flaming ruin around me, surrender to the Japanese a few hours away - and to me the silk stockings seemed the most beautiful things in the world.

The civilians captured at the Repulse Bay Hotel are given five minutes to pack. Mathilde ('Mimi') Compton has to leave her 'paralytic' husband Albert Henry  ('Harry', the head of Sassoons since 1918) behind, and they are not to be re-united for months; some Chinese men are frantic at having to leave their wives and children in Japanese hands. The party is not told where they're going, but ordered to start marching.  They're taken on a long, hard walk, up past the dead bodies in the Wong Nei Chong Gap:

Near the top of the peak Mr Needa I think it was, commandeered a passing truck being driven by a Jap soldier and managed to get it turned around in the direction we were going. Into it were loaded the mothers and children, the sick and the aged, a few of the bags. I suppose that some of our group would have died along the road without the help of this truck.

They continue downward through Happy Valley, close to No Man's Land. A short halt gives them hope they might be allowed to pass through to British lines:

But that hope died quickly; we were kicked into motion again, and descended the hillside to the Tai Koo light plant at the east end of Victoria City. From the weakest to the strongest, all of us were done in...

Just before dark they are taken into the filthy, looted Duro paint factory on the waterfront to spend the night.

But at the Hong Kong Hotel regulars are still allowed to sign chits for their bar drinks.

And back in Britain - well, hope springs eternal:

Hong Kong Hammered, Hits Back

Though facing new onslaughts from freshly-landed Jap troops, and having suffered 'very heavy casualties,' the weary defenders of Hong Kong are striking back at the enemy with tigerish ferocity.

The page 1 report goes on to suggest that the Japanese have fallen into a clever trap: they were allowed to march almost unopposed 'across the Tytam Reservoir dams' down to Stanley. The dams 'form a causeway' which was then blown up and the Japanese, cut-off from their bases, were subjected to withering fire.

Although it reports the death of two senior Canadian officers, the paper's also upbeat about the problems the Japanese will face in wresting the western half of the island from the defenders. And the back page continuation of the article stresses Hong Kong's strategic importance and quotes sources in London to the effect that if the Colony is captured there will be a counter-attack.

The Daily Express story on page one also claims success on the southern front with the 'town' of Stanley being retaken by the defenders.

Sources:

Bill Hudson: http://blunderingblindlybackwards.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/amanuensis-monday-letter-from-bill_22.html

Conditions in town: Li Shu-Fan, Hong Kong Surgeon, 1964, 103-104.

Leiper: G. A. Leiper, A Yen For My Thoughts, 1982, 86

Kennedy-Skipton and Refo: Sally Refo's Letter, available to members of the Yahoo Stanley Group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stanley_camp/messages

Priestwood: Gwen Priestwood, Through Japanese Barbed Wire, 1943, 25

Repulse Bay - 'Five minutes to pack', the Comptons, Chinese men, 'Near the top': Gwen Dew, Prisoner of the Japs, 1943, 63-64

Repulse Bay - 'But that hope': Jan Marsman, I Escaped From Hong Kong, 1942, 95

Chits: Greg Leck, Captives of Empire, 2006, 62

Our vocabulary is now increasing and we have learned to use the expressions “Pongo” “Matloe” and “Pani” with accuracy. This was X’mas Eve and here we were again alongside our old friend the ferry, improving our speed in getting down especially when one shell hit the bow of the ferry, doing no damage.

There were one or two amusing incidents during the morning; the A.B. who, while carefully crossing the gangplank, was affected by the wave of a passing boat, fell in, and, on emerging, cursed the Navy, the War, the Japs, the Far East in general, and Aberdeen in particular, and, during the tirade, managed to find time for a detailed account of the Aberdeen sanitary system, with special reference to the ultimate destination of the sanitary engineer who had planned the same; the two small Chinese children whose air raid shelter consisted of a large wicker basket, the lid of which was closed during air raids and shelling; and our friend “Jixer” Prest (the Coxswain) who, while climbing out of the conning tower with the rum jar heard a shell coming – ducked – remembered the rum – reappeared, shielding the rum next his heart – and again carefully ducked to what shelter the thin planking of the vessel could afford. One last feat of gallantry worth recording is that of that gallant sailor Lieut. Ashby who, when a shell burst, instead of going flat, bowed gracefully showing a shiny polished blue serge “bottom” as his means of all round defence. Again, though, one had the feeling that it was good to be with such people. The whole business became a game played with Good Companions and a shell burst something to occasion a joke. By this time too, we had come fully to realise what Naval Hospitality means. In dealing with the army, one felt that they had no objection to your being with them but the navy somehow conveyed the impression that they would have objected to your not being with them.

And so, being Christmas eve a bottle of champagne was split among the two crews; the C.O.C. having warned troops against over celebration, and, under the impression that I was going on ahead that night with Parsons in 27 (the silent boat) as a scout I was looking forward to night, but again no orders, and so to bed, for what, although we did not know, was to be our last night in HK.

         On the morning of the 24th December the Japanese took a roll call on the lawn in front of the Hotel of all occupants of the Hotel including third nationals. 

On completion of the roll call we were ordered to our rooms to await examination of belongings etc.  We were told at the roll call that we should be vacating the Hotel.  We were not told our destination, but we were instructed that we should be allowed only one suit case each as we would have to walk to our destination wherever it was.

         Sister Mosey elected to remain upon the premises to attend to two seriously wounded British soldiers who had been brought in during the hostilities to the sick bay.

         At 10.a.m. on the 24th December we were again paraded with our baggage and walked off.  We proceeded by the Repulse Bay Road to North Point.  We halted outside the Commercial Press premises at North Point at about 2.30 p.m., and remained there until 6.30 p.m., when we were lodged for the night in the Duro Paint factory premises. 

         When I left the Repulse Bay Hotel the majority of the windows there had sustained breakage or other damage, and many doors were cracked and split, but the structure of the building was intact.

         With regard to the contents of the Hotel, stocks of food had completely run out.  Linen Stocks, crockery and glassware and silver stocks were of normal quantities as per stock sheets, and were intact when I left the Hotel.  Furniture, carpets and other fittings to the rooms were also all there.

Again out of bread, and no hawker around. We noted without enthusiasm that some of our neighbours are leaving the Valley to take up residence in a Central office building.

We had to do something about water. Among its preparations, the Government had made ready concrete slabs to be fitted into the nullahs which perpetually carry mountain spring water to the sea, thus to form little local reservoirs. One deep nullah runs past our front door. The slabs are there, but no one put them in position. The water anyway is not usable. The nullah is carpeted with garbage, and on this now rests a corpse. We explored our own flush water well, but oil from the pump had fouled it badly. Our neighbour was more fortunate; the water in his well was clear and sweet, and we drew from there.

In the afternoon, from a back window, we saw the Japanese coming over Broadwood Ridge near Warren's Castle, to Broadwood Road which would bring them down into the Valley. They offered a good target, and I phoned the defence headquarters. Then we watched to see our shells arrive. But none came, and the Japanese continued to pour over the ridge and move swiftly along Broadwood Road towards its junction with Sports Road. Sounds of battle came from Leighton Hill, at that end of the Valley. In the twilight the Japanese guns systematically shelled the civil servants’ quarters on Leighton Hill and set them afire. Then they methodically and very accurately shelled all the houses high up on the western side of the Valley above the cemeteries. The houses below Morrison Hill next received a hammering, and soon green flares went up at the Police Recreation Club corner.

We went up to the roof to ease our tension. The Japanese are in full possession of Broadwood Ridge, and flashes behind it tell of their guns firing across the racecourse to Mount Parish and Morrison Hill. Their guns in Kowloon are also firing, starting several fires in the headquarters area. Glares of older fires in Kowloon balance the awful picture.

The uproar quietened and we came down to hear the B.B.C. news. Then strident war cries as the enemy charge across the racecourse. In the large Jockey Club grandstand is a relief hospital to which civilian wounded and sick have been removed from other hospitals. My sister Flo is working there as an auxiliary nurse. There are about 150 patients. The building has been under artillery and machine-gun fire all day.

On Christmas Eve we brought in a potted tree and trimmed it. The children had memorized a few hymns with Reverend Buuck’s help. They had also learned some recitations, so on Christmas Eve we had a short children’s service. The children had decorated a house plant with tinsel and called it our Christmas tree. This “tree” was in the hall or entry. Mother had a candy bar for each of us and the Buuck’s also had a small gift to be placed under the tree. Rev. Buuck was delegated to place the gifts in their proper places mainly because his cot was nearest the door.

Don't know what is going on - we are completely cut off from the land fighting - and our only means of communication is by W/T. Enemy aircraft active - particularly over Mt. Davis and Pokfulum.

We can only conjecture, the general feeling is that the situation looks ominous - we are busy preparing for a flip when the time comes.  I hope my crew are keeping in touch. It's very difficult to get into communication with them.

Might be able to do something tonight. All codes, C.B.'s etc. destroyed (just using simple one now). M.T.B.'s and "Robin" appear to be the only craft afloat now - the rest, "Tern", A.P.V.'s have all been scuttled. A pity. Have yet to make up my mind (re going). The temptation to go is very strong and I know one's duty - but in this case there are several reasons which counter that.

It will be very hard to have to leave my dear wife and child behind virtually in the hands of the enemy, while I am away and unable  to know what has happened - it will be a terrible weight on my mind.

There is my crew also - if they are left I think I shall remain, anyway I am still hanging on - and will reserve my final decision until the final order comes through. Must have a word with my C.O. and see what he thinks.

No luck tonight, unable to get to Aberdeen - remained in Waterfall  Bay as Striking Force.

Night passed without mishap and returned to South Applichau at dawn. Dispositions 10, 11, 27 South Applichau. 09, 07 at Waterfall Bay.

Just remembered it is Christmas Eve.

Since the 19^th the fighting has been very confused.  It was on the 20^th I think that we tried to make a counter attack in Wong Nei Chong from two directions simultaneously.  One attack was to be made by the Canadians from Repulse Bay the other by a scratch collection of troops from the direction of little Hong Kong.  The first attack never started because the Canadians and their Commander were drunk.  The General sent Temple out from Stanley to take charge of the situation.  I think that because the Canadians could not attack the other was cancelled.  From that moment the fate of the island was sealed.  If we had been able to recapture Wong Nei Chong it is just possible, though most improbable, that we would have been able to clear the enemy off the island.

We, gunners, have been having great difficulty with our communications.  All the Hong Kong Regiments O.P’s ((artillery observation posts)) were officially sited for their view over the beaches; For fighting on the island itself they are in many cases quite useless.  As they and the section positions are all connected by buried cable to the group exchanges, the Hong Kong Regiment were never supposed to hold more than their peacetime quota of field cable.  We have had to put out new O.Ps and we should have more than we have now got but it is impossible to find any more cable.  All the reserve stocks were held at the “Ridge”, which was surrounded when Wong Nei Chong fell.  It held out for two days but since then nothing has been heard of them and they must have been captured. 

Another trouble is this problem of crest clearance.  The number of possible positions on the Island are very limited.  I honestly think that we are already occupying the lot.  Our line is now so close to our position that it is extremely hard to find guns to clear down to certain targets.  During the fighting at Wong Nei Chong we were continually being asked to put down fire on the police hut, but were unable to do so as not a single gun still remaining in our hands was able to clear down to it.  Paddy had been unhelpful by destroying, in an excess of zeal, the traces for Austin which is still in action.  I haven’t been able to control him as much as I should have liked.  He is much older than me, he was doing the job temporarily for two months before I took over, and in some respects he certainly knows more about it than I do, though in others he was not a quarter of the knowledge.

We have been doing a number of shoots with infantry observers.  When they know the procedure, which is not invariably the case, they have been most successful.  One shoot which resulted in the destruction of an enemy gun had an extraordinary chain of communications.  The observer I think was Henry Marsh of the Middlesex Regt., who had his O.P. in a private house and used the civil telephone to one of the “g” duty officers in the “g” ops room.  They sent the observations over to me, and I passed them out to Lundy Duncan at East Group, from there they were passed on to the section.

At Stanley we appear to be holding a semicircular line about 500 yards north of the police station.  Though the Japs hold all the intervening country between there and Wong Nei Chong gap they have made no attempt to cut the cables and we are still in telephonic communication.  The Stanley guns have given us in the west the most effective artillery support we have had.  Dewar, who is in the Little Hong Kong Magazines which are also surrounded, has directed the fire of Stanley guns with great effect whenever he has seen the Japs massing in Black Link for an attack on Mt. Cameron.  As the Magazines are surrounded the ammunition situation would have been very serious if it had not been for Barman, B.Q.M.S of 4Bty, who night after night has taken a convoy of lorries down to Little Hong Kong, fought his way into the Magazine, collected sufficient ammunition to last the guns on the Peak for about a day, and then fought his way out.  We have been running out by M.T.B., ammunition for their only 3.7 How at Stanley.

In the west we hold Aberdeen.  Brick Hill is cut off.  We hold a few localities with Naval and RAF personnel rather west of Shouson Hill.  Some sort of a line then runs up to Wanchai Gap and then down to Causeway Bay.  There is street fighting on the outskirts of Wanchai.

A few days ago Bird, Neve and Boxer went down to look at the position at Aberdeen.  While they were there they took it into their heads to lead a local counter attack.  Now all three are wounded in hospital.  One of them might have done such a thing, but three staff officers together is folly.

The other night Andrews, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, who used to be an emergency reserve officer of the Hong Kong Regt, came into H.Q.  He appeared rather shell shocked but he had a tremendous story to tell.  On the night of the Jap landing he was down at Lyemun Magazines drawing ammunition.  He took shelter with some others in the magazines.  The Japs lobbed in a few hand grenades but did no damage.  Early next morning all seemed quiet.  He crept out, saw no sign of the Nip, found his car where he had left it and drove off towards Tytam Gap.  Halfway there he met a company of Canadians by the side of the road.  He told them his story and suggested that they reoccupy the place at once.  They didn’t take much notice of him being far too intent on getting their breakfast.  He went on to Tytam Gap; apparently he didn’t get much sympathy there.  He went on round to Headquarters, but found Wong Nei Chong occupied and found himself with a number of other men besieged in a house at the lower end of Repulse Bay road.  They tried to break out but going down the road they were ambushed.  They took refuge in another house.  He himself got out at night, swam across Deepwater Bay and then made his way to Aberdeen. ((Other diaries have more details of Andrews's adventures.))

I have shot Buzz.  Up to now the bombardment has only puzzled and startled him; it has never really frightened him, but yesterday and today he has been terrified by every exploding bomb or shell.  It is obvious that very soon we shall all be dead or will surrender.  He is better off out of the way though I don’t suppose I shall have another dog his equal. I have paid Ah Tong his wages up to the end of the month and have given him his annual cumshaw (tip). He has stood by me very well.  This place has been heavily bombed and shelled, unlike the other boys he has not run away.  Whenever I come in he always produces a meal for me and usually water for a wash or a bath.  He was fond of Buzz and looked after him very well.

Yesterday whilst we were off duty Bill Squires and I went to the Gripps for lunch.  The restaurant and ballroom is now a hospital, food is served in Mac’s Cafeteria.  Olivinsky seemed very cool, calm and collected.  The lunch was not up to the usual standard but it was only $1.50 and the times, to say the least, are unusual.  But roast pork and tinned fruit are a welcome change from bully and bread and butter. After lunch I had my hair cut.  I was greatly impressed by the barber, a Chinese.  Shortly after he had started there was an air raid.  A bomb landed nearby which put out the electric lights.  He sent for a coolly to hold a candle and carried on, quite unperturbed.

When I got back to Battle H.Q. I found that the C.R.A. was going around the Jubilee area and wanted me to go with him.  We found everybody surprisingly cheerful.  On our way back we went out to the Queen Mary Hospital to see Mrs Macleod and the George Neve/Boxer crowd who had been wounded near Aberdeen.  Mrs Macleod is recovering from a strained knee after falling down some stairs.  She is very angry with her enforced inactivity and longs to be up and working at Bowen Road.  George Neve was very cheerful, Boxer was sitting up and looked fit though they told me he had a lost a lot of blood.  Micky Hahn was dancing attendance.  Bird seemed quite chirpy.

Shelling continued and the hospital received a great deal of further damage . For example : 

( 1 ) A shell burst just outside the west end of No. 5 Ward . A fragment of shrapnel pierced the ' typhoon shutter ' , and wounded one of the bed casualties .

( 2 ) A shell exploded outside the wall of the side - cabin of No. 5 Ward . A large fragment passed through the ' typhoon shutters ' of the cabin , cut the electric light flex , traversed the substantial door of the cabin , passed across a corridor and came to rest buried in the door of the operating theatre There were two bed patients in the cabin itself and people were standing on either side of the door of the theatre Nevertheless , no person was hit ! 

On this day the Commodore , R.N. , who himself had visited the hospital almost daily , brought H.E. The Governor of Hong Kong on a tour of inspection . 

Later on this day , the Royal Naval Hospital , Hong Kong , found itself so much in the centre of the battle raging outside , that the P.M.O. frequently had to order off the premises groups of British soldiers who were attempting to take up strategic positions there . Also , having now been warned that the enemy might filter into the hospital at any time , the P.M.O. ordered all the valuables taken from patients for safe custody to be returned to them .

As soon as it got dark last night my job was to collect the European bakers and bring them to the Exchange Building. The Chinese bakers made their own way to wherever they lived or were going to stay the might. Some remained at the bakeries and we supplied them with rice and vegetables. My No. 1 Baker, Leung Choy had located us yesterday and brought a few more bakers with him. We can make use of them. In the Exchange building our sleeping accommodation was on the Mezzanine Floor which is normally the bedding and furniture showroom. We have single mattresses to sleep on, quite a luxury. Evening meal and breakfast in the basement Café Wiseman. There are a lot of people in the building including women and children. The top floor of this seven storey building is the Main Telephone Exchange. A lot of the European men who work in the Exchange are in the H.K.V.D.C. and I think some of the women and children are their families.

We are up and away at daylight and take the men to the bakeries. Our first job is to ask the Fire Brigade to bring water to the Bakeries. Edgar and I with the help of the Hong Kong Police break into a janitor’s shop in Queens Road central and remove two new household baths, beautiful sky blue ones to hold a supply of water on our Chinese bakeries at No. 62 and 84 Queens Road. We expect to produce about 5000 lbs of bread today, less than half of what is required. Edgar and I decide to risk a trip to Stubbs Road Bakery in Happy Valley as we need more flour, yeast and other supplies. I drive the big Bedford van. The Japs are on the far side of the racecourse. Bullets and shrapnel are flying about, and we get some through the sides of the van. An occasional shell lands on the roadway but does not do much damage as they are mostly anti-personnel shells, and only pockmark the surrounding buildings. I drive fast across any open spaces and we make the shelter of the buildings without mishap. We load up with flour, yeast, etc. and as Edgar has the keys of the cold storage, we load frozen turkeys, chocolate, Xmas cakes and sundries, including a crate of beer and cases of tinned fruit. We try and dodge the flak on the way back, and meet some lads of the Middlesex Regiment in Tin Lok Lane. We stop and give them a bottle of beer each and some tinned fruit. They look tired but are in good spirits. We make two more trips during the day, and bring out a lot of perishable goods, especially butter, meat, eggs and such like. It is all placed in the cold storage next to the Café Wiseman which is not dependent on electric power, and has a diesel generator, which also supplies light and power to the building as well as to the Telephone Exchange on the top floor. This is a very busy and exhausting day, both Edgar and I have not even stopped for a drink. On our last trip to Happy Valley we nearly had our chips. The Middlesex Regts. lads had gone and on our return we spotted some Japs behind the Cricket Club building ((probably the CSCC)). They opened up on us with a machine gun as we crossed an open space, but the Bedford was travelling so fast we were not hit. I had the accelerator hard down on the floor boards and zigzagged in and out of the debris on the roadway. Water is still a great problem, but the Fire Brigade are doing their best. I don’t know where they get it from as the main water supply from the Mainland has been cut off by the Japs.

Shells are also landing on the roadway near Garden Road, the Cheerio Club and in front of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. I put a good spurt on through this area, but still get a few holes through the bodywork of the Bedford van. While Edgar does another job I take supplies to Nos. 62 and 84 and collect some bread and take it to the Queen Mary Hospital, also to the Hong Kong Hotel which is used as a temporary hospital. Things are now becoming acute, no electric power and a grave shortage of water. Quite a number of dead bodies lying about with no one available to bury them.

Little One Darling,

No news yet this morning - a fairly quiet night - we were invaded by about 30 P.W.D men last night - I had gone over the building with Nicol and had said of course we'd do what we could for them. Purves rang up later and said 6 or 7 were coming - it was dark when they came. I was sorry for them but they were noisy! We are holding our own I think - water is the serious problem. This day last year! - what heavenly  bliss! - as I write 9.30 am I was just about getting off the ship. What excitement! Well there will be all the excitement of our next meeting and we must just look forward to that. The C.S. is coming to see us this morning.     B.

I heard from the C.S. today that the boat N.L. was on and I hope also my Christmas parcel got through safely to Singapore. I do so hope my parcel was on it - and that it has reached you - I shall think of you all tomorrow of course - I should be happier if I knew you had got it - I can only pretend that I know to hope. I think I'll try and find out. I phoned up the Post Office and after making some enquiries around the Deputy Supt. of Parcels tells me that he is sure it was on that boat. I am so glad and I shall have a much happier Christmas for I think you will like what I sent. Oh! I am cheered up. I never enquired before as we were all sure the ship was sunk!  And wondered if N.L. had survived. Cheers!   

Very little action today but a shell hit N.T.C. away up in the corner - an amazing thing - there was no explosion and only a little glass broken. We have searched and can find no fragments of shell etc. And so we are convinced that it came in and went out again. They have fired a lot of duds - one was found to have been made in Britain in 1918! I hear that 152 is still o.k. but a shell hit 151 in Ralston's flat. ((151 & 152 The Peak, part of the Homestead Flats & Houses.))

What a Christmas eve this is, however, compared with last year's - next one I am sure will be gloriously happy again. Just keep hoping Darling and do try so hard to keep well. - all of you. For I need you all so much. So we must be all fit and well and we shall have some glorious years yet.

All my love for all time.   Billie.

Frying bacon on a Chinese chatty in the middle of a dance floor has its humourous side. Grabbed some salvage, tinned peas, cocoa, milk & packet of Woodbines & a Mills bomb.

Shelling commence 11.30AM & ended 1PM leaving us with a 5.9 dud at our door. Shop next door damaged so we collected more salvage, mineral waters mostly.

Planes bombed Fort & snipers active locally.

All set for night watches but at 7.30PM Major Forsyth took over & our section changed position to SE corner of wooden hut E of Police Station. Lousy position too with a frontage that shut off the view at 20* due to rise in ground. Left flank was the road, right flank McTavish & one section, rear Vickers guns in strengthened position on the fork in the road. Canadians marched out.

8.50PM heard the rattle of tanks on Island Rd as they approached the village (Jap). 2 knocked out by anti-tank gun & hell broke loose. Everything opened up on them & the Jap troops with them who were urged on by peculiar cries from their Commander.

The Japs spread out each side of the Rd. & bombed our lads out. We got on to the Rd. hoping to get a better advantage point but we could only see as far as the police station. Shot at by our own men. (Grants section, I think) bullets tore up the rd. 3 ft. from me. Got on to Fort Rd to cover Middlx. position. Ran out of ammunition so retired 100 yds to Garage. Middlx. grenaded out and we made our way to the Fort at about 2.30AM