Diary pages from this date

Heard planes coming over just when I went to get congee, and arrived back in room just before kyushu (air raid alarm) went.  A long time after, planes came round our area, and dive-bombed Waglan.

Bright and sunny.

I flew down to hospital bout 12.15; during tiffin planes came round again. They came in waves.  I saw 2 planes crash, one collided with the other; the first one had flames coming out of the tail and fell pretty quickly, fairly high up on this side of the Peak.  The other fell very slowly; one pilot baled out, another airman had his parachute out but couldn't get free of the plane.  One piece of wing was slowly turning over and over in the air for a long time.
 
There was a rumour that leaflets were dropped, but turned out only to be packing from ack-ack shells.  Spent alot of time up in Ward 4 with Fleur (Cheape, aged 4); she was frightened but kept her self control very well.  ((We crouched together under a small table in the ward. I knew her as she lived with her mother on the landing near us in Block 3, Married Quarters.))
 
Apparently the planes were after a machine gun on the end of the gaol.  A couple of bombs (or shells) landed on the rocks beside the gaol about 200 yards away from us at the hospital.  Pom-pom guns, mahine guns, blast - terrifying.  Mum says it was like that in the Jockey Club hospital during the battle.
 
The Operating Theatre window blew in, and some windows in Ward 6.   Some one said they thought Jap HQ (on a knoll in the camp) had been hit, then Watanabe came to the hospital, saying 2 people in Bungalow C had been hurt, one 'on the point of death'; he asked for help.  Volunteers went off with stretchers etc., and about ten minutes later, Mr Owen Evans came tearing down and said that nearly every one in Bungalow C had been killed.

Then 14 were reported dead:

• Mr & Mrs A. Hyde Lay
• Mr. A. Holland
• Mr & Mrs E. Searle
• Mrs. A. E. Guerin
• Mrs. Davies ((sister of our friend Norman Whitley who was also in Stanley))
• Mr. A. J. Dennis
• Mr. G. Stopani-Johnson
• Mrs I. Johnson (whose husband died in Stanley last year)
• Mr. G. Willoughby
• Mr S. F. Bishop
• Mr. Oscar Eager
• Mr S.F. Balfour ((for a short time prewar he was my boss at the Secretariat)).

Didn't get up from hospital till almost 6pm, when Clifton had come down with Mr Blake on a stretcher - who'd got shrapnel in leg while rice-grinding. Clifton raced Olive and I up the slope to the Married Q., and more planes were coming over. Clifton had been up at the bungalow to help dig, and to take Father Hessler.  The bomb fell in courtyard between Tony's ex-room and garage. ((Tony Cole of ARP Dept., who had only recently moved out from Bunglow C.))

We slept in our clothes.

((The remains of one of the American planes that crashed on this day were located in 2011. See: http://gwulo.com/node/15925))

((Barbara's future brother-in-law, Clifton Large, picked up one of the American bullets from that raid, and it is still in the family's possession today:

A day of prolonged aerial bombardment, ending in tragedy.

The bombing begins at 8.30 a.m. and goes on for about 4 hours. Then it moves closer to Stanley. Mutal Fielder is walking back from a lecture with her Russian teacher 39 year old Government cadet,  Stephen Balfour; they are continuing the discussion of Pushkin:

The path forked and Stephen turned  to the right, walking towards Bungalow C, where he lived with a group of other internees, and I went to the left towards the Indian quarters. Suddenly there was the roar of aircraft and the sound of explosions as bombs were dropped.

Two American aircraft collide and one pilot parachutes out in full view of the internees. Three bombs drop on Stanley Prison from where a gun's been firing.

George Wright-Nooth:

A fourth bomb landed outside the prison walls. While all this was going on we had a magnificent view of the planes as they dived over. They carried one long bomb underneath.

A bomb hits Bungalow C between the main building and the garage and 14 people are killed. One man, Mr. C. T. Bailey, is talking to one of the victims but survives because he's protected by a pillar.

Edith Hamson:

Agonising screams penetrated the deep rumble of the continuing battle...Men from our bungalow {A} rushed outside in an attempt to save the injured, but they were forced back by gunfire.

Margaret Louisa ('Peggy') Davies, a 35 year old school teacher, lies dead, buried in the rubble with her left arm sticking out and gold wedding ring visible. It's looted, like much else from the Bungalow.

A Japanese guard arrives and makes all present stand in silence while he presents arms.

The other victims were:

Sidney Frank Bishop, aged 51 (Green Island Cement Company)

Oscar Eager, 57 (Hong Kong Land Investment)

Mrs A. T. Shields Guerin, 57 (homemaker)

Adam Morrison Holland, 53 (Public Works Department, Inspector)

Alexander H. Hyde Lay, 51, (merchant)

Elizabeth Fleming ('Betty') Hyde Lay, 51 (home  maker)

Mabel Searle, 40 (home maker)

Edward Valentine Searle, 53 (electrical engineer)

George Gordon Stopani-Thompson, 41 (electrical engineer)

George Willoughby, 46 (Watson's chemist)

Isabelle Johnson, 54

Albert James Dennis, 56 (Dodwell & Co.)

Sources:

Balfour: Derek Round, Barbed Wire Between Us, 2002, 152

Fighting, Davies: George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 239-240

Hamson: Allana Corbin, Prisoners of the East, 2002, 254

Names of Victims: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945, Appendix 111.

Note:

Accounts of this day differ in details; I've tried to put together a plausible composite.

In an article in the 2017 edition of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Steven K. Bailey argues that the bombing was not, as usually claimed, accidental, but a deliberate attempt to destroy what were believed to be Japanese installations. The pilots, he suggests, did not know the internment camp was where it was, and their mission reports indicate that they never realised they had dropped bombs on Allied civilians. Bailey makes a powerful case, but there is as yet no positive statement of pilot ignorance to clinch his hypothesis.

Fire over Hong Kong. Yesterday and today. We have been subjected to a real blitz by the American Air Force. We had a real taste of their might, unfortunately with tragedy to themselves and to ourselves.

Yesterday the raid was heavy and we were in high spirits at the strafing both Hong Kong and what we presumed was the New Territory and also shipping. However today the first relay of bombers came over at 8.45 am and kept up a continuous bombing of Hong Kong and even near to us.

Waves of bombers came over and this continued to 12 noon, when there was quiet, but not for long for about 2 pm more came over and we saw 8 planes in one formation and 5 in another just close behind. They appeared like silver bullets in the sky when suddenly we saw the left hand plane in the first formation swing over to the right and strike his companion. A terrific sheet of flame shot out and the first plane came lurching down, but the pilot bailed out and then the second plane made a big effort to get under control but to no avail, the fellow jumped but was caught in his incline and eventually crashed in the region of Mount Parker, also a wing came slowly to the ground.

Wave after wave of planes came over until later about between five and six o'clock, while I was collecting my chow in the front hall of St. Stephens, planes dropped bombs on a lighter, a crane barge and a sunken vessel in Stanley Bay. The water spouted high and the explosion was terrific. Then another was dropped and this unfortunately landed in the compound, between the garage and C bungalow.

The walls of the garage collapsed and the roof fell in and killed Adam Holland, G. Willoughby, Mrs Davis and Mrs Guerin, the first two were living in the garage and the other two ran there for shelter. The whole back of the bungalow was blown in, we imagine it was a 50 lb bomb and 10 more people were killed so that out of a total of resident strength of 28 of whom 2 were elsewhere 14 people were killed including Mr and Mrs Alec Hyde Lay. Mrs MacLeod and Bobby Taylor had miraculous escapes. Some were injured slightly but all the survivors suffered from shock. The following is the death roll, O. Eager, Alec and Betty Hyde Lay, Mr and Mrs G. Searle, J. Dennis, A. Holland, G. Willoughby, Stopani Johnson, Balfour, Bishop, Mrs Guerin, Mrs Davis, Mrs Johnson, 9 men and 5 women. Their bodies were brought from C bungalow and placed just outside our back window in the courtyard between blocks 8 and 9.

It was a terrible calamity to happen in this camp, but one must face the facts that war is a terrible thing. All are to be buried tomorrow in one grave. We could see fires all over Hong Kong and these carried on well into the night.

Another incident I saw was a plane crashing down into Tyki Bay, at any rate I couldn't see him come out of his dive. All this would appear to us as if an invasion of Hong Kong is not far off. We hope there is a task force not far away. It seemed to us that the planes were all carrier borne.

Very heavy 4-hr raid a.m. 5pm Bungalow "C" hit - 14 killed + pm 2 US planes crashed overhead, burst into flames - one man bailed out parachute

((Deaths #)) 92-105

Alert at dawn and then lively raids all day. Several fires Taikoo, Kowloon and Repulse Bay. People in street hurt. Thrilling dive bombing. Paper says 300 raiders. Claimed 14 down, one probable and 10 damaged. Didn't seem like it. Macao said to have been bombed thrice on 16th. Portuguese and Third Nationals killed.   

((The bombing of Stanley Camp happened on the 16th of January, not the 17th as written below.))

On the 17th January, 1945 the whole camp was bombed by the Americans who mistakenly thought it was a Japanese only camp.  It was really terrifying as they flew low with bullets coming from all sides, smashing windows and doors.  We threw ourselves on the floor and hoped for the best.  One bomb actually hit one of the bungalows, in which there were fourteen internees who were all killed.  Many were badly hurt in the raid.

Clear, cold, wind stronger.

Air-raid 8.45 – 11.15am by many single engined US planes. All districts strafed, big fire Taikoo direction. All clear noon.

Planes over again 12.45pm. 2 planes collided 1 pilot parachuted OK the other went with his plane. Local spots machine gunned & bombed. Prison, Prep School. 3 Jap vessels took refuge in bay close by Camp.

C Bungalow hit, 14 killed, 4 injured. All clear 6.30pm. ((He lists the 14 killed:))

• Balfour 39,
• O. Eager 57.
• S. Thompson 41, 
• M. Davis 35,
• Bishop 51,
• Mrs I. Johnson 54,
• A. Guerin 37,
• A. Dennis 56.
• Mr & Mrs Searle 53 54,
• Mr & Mrs Lay 51 45,
• G. Willoughby 36,
• A. Holland 53.

The raid was reported in the next day's Hongkong News:

It's mentioned in the 18th Jan issue too, this time talking about the bomb that hit Stanley camp:

And again in the 19th Jan issue, this time talking about Grumman fighter planes attacking Hong Kong:

and also printing a letter from F C Gimson in Stanley Camp: