Today the emptying of the Chung-Am-Kok food store continues with additional lorries and more help. It looks as if very soon the Japs will overrun the road to the Fort. So it is essential to get as many stores in as possible.
I arrive at the food store as soon as it is daylight. The store had been unlocked as the door had been damaged. I could see that some Canadians had been in during the night. Some tins of milk and bully beef had been used, but they must have been surprised in the act of shaving. I noticed a stump of a candle, a mirror and a safety razor with hair in it. Also lying about are some antigas capes, respirators, two pairs of boots (Canadian) and two sets of identity discs. There was also a fully loaded Japanese magazine from an automatic weapon similar to our Bren gun. The Indian troops were very nervous, so I had a good look round the areas and found nothing else suspicious. The lorry was loaded in quick time but the Indians refused to stay and returned to the Fort with me. On the way I met two more lorries, so I stopped and warned them to be cautious. I took the Jap magazine, the boots, gas cape, respirator and identity discs to the guard room in Stanley Fort. Before I could return the two lorries I had met came tearing into the Fort and said they had been fired on at the food store. So that was the end of any more visits to Chong-Am-Kok that day. Somehow I have a feeling that there are Japs roaming about in Canadian battledress.
I am kept busy with Hammond and Tuck and Mr Wood sorting out and issuing rations until late afternoon. Then an order comes through by telephone from GHQ for Staff Sgt. Sheridan and Sgt. Hammond to report at Stanley Pier at 6p.m. We gather up what little kit we have and get one of the drivers to take us near the Pier. It is now almost dark as we reach the Pier. It is a wooden structure about 50 yds long and is guarded by two concrete Pill boxes. The concrete boxes are manned by men from the Middlesex Regiment. I obtain permission from the officer in charge for Hammond and myself to go on to the Pier. But first he warns the Pill box men not to fire on us. We hang about on the Pier until about 9p.m. and watch and hear a lot of tracers, very lights ((Very lights were used for night-time illumination of combat areas)) and machine gun fire from across the other side of Stanley Bay. An RA Sgt. Major and some Sikhs from a mountain Battery arrive and are waiting to unload Howitzer gun ammunition which is expected on two MTBs ((Motor Torpedo Boats)) from Aberdeen, a fishing village on the south side of HK Island. We hear the noise of two Motor Torpedo boats approaching the Pier. Our own searchlights focus on the boats and give their position away. As soon as the two boats pull along side the Pier the Japs open up with tracers ((illuminated bullets)) from across the Bay. The former Coxwain of HMS Cicala ((This ship had been sunk in Lamma Channel on December 21; the former Coxswain, transferred to MTB 10, was Chief Petty Officer Gilbert 'Tom' Thums, who took part in the 'great escape' involving Admiral Chan Chak on December 25)) whom I knew from playing hockey against their team, was in charge of MTB No. 10. A tracer clips him across the back of his hand, but he wraps his white scarf around it and gives orders to Hammond and myself to jump on and lie down in the shelter of the wheelhouse. The Howitzer gun ammunition is quickly dumped off and we pull away from the Pier. There is a lot of shrapnel and tracer bullets flying about but no one else gets hit. The other boat follows us out into the Bay, and we have a good view of a lot of noisy activity on the hillside above Chung-Am-Kok. Although we are still lying prone on the deck a sailor comes and gives us a bottle of beer each. Talking to him I find he comes from a place near Cloyne Co. Cork. ((Staff-Sergeant Sheridan attended school in County Cork.)) Just as I am about to have a drink of my beer a hand appears through the Cabin window and a voice says “Give us a swig mate”. I pass the bottle in, and it is returned half empty.
The speed of the Torpedo boat slackens and we make our way cautiously into Aberdeen Bay. It is pitch dark and needs expert navigation. When the boat is anchored, we are taken below deck to a very tiny cabin and are treated to an excellent meal, which both Hammond and I enjoyed as it was the first meal of the day since breakfast and it was now about 10.30p.m. About 14 of us sat round the table in the sailors’ mess. This crew have been going day and night since the attack started. They have had a few attacks on the Japs invasion boats, and inflicted plenty of casualties, but they are in the best of spirits.
About 11p.m. a sailor escorts us ashore, this is quite a feat as the little harbour is choc-a-bloc with Chinese junks and hundreds of sampans all moored side by side. We climb over and through about a dozen to get ashore. The occupants of some were not too pleased, being asleep and woken up by us.
We were taken to a Boys’ Industrial school which was being used as a temporary hospital, Naval HQ and a sort of rest centre for troops. There were a lot of wounded here being tended by Naval sick berth staff.
It is not safe for Hammond and myself to go any further in the darkness. I try to telephone GHQ but no success, so we settle down on the concrete floor, but later we are assigned a bed with no mattress in the former boys’ dormitory. Parts of the building had been shelled so we remained on the ground floor. We were not allowed to divest of any clothing or equipment. Mortar shells kept us awake and during the night we had two stand-tos, when we had to get outside, but they were false alarms.