I remember on the night of the 9th six lorries were required to proceed to Wongneichong Gap to collect some Canadians and take them to the Yaumati Ferry – it took almost three quarters of an hour before six drivers could be located.
On 9th I was sent up town to try and get the keys for the APC and Texaco petrol pumps situated at Happy Valley, but on calling on the offices no one knew where they were and no duplicates could be found. We were filling up lorries from gallon tins and a small hand operated tank which was of course a very slow and tedious business. I noticed most shops had their doors and windows barricaded and there was a tense atmosphere in the streets. However, on looking in at the Hongkong Hotel I found the lounge doing a roaring business and what surprised me in particular was the large number of Army Officers present.
That afternoon, I went over to Kowloon with Capt. Strellet HKVDC to get some stores for Stanley Fort from the Hongkong & Kowloon Wharf godowns. These stores, cigarettes, tinned milk and chocolate, could have all been moved weeks before and thus our lorries could have been much more usefully employed. We were engaged on this work also on the 10th.
Up till this time there had been very little sign of enemy activity, barring two or three air raids a day, which I must say were all directed at military objectives and the bombing was very accurate, largely due no doubt to the fact we had no planes to send up against the Japs and the very inaccurate aim of our anti air gunners.
Our troops were established on the Kowloon line and we heard everything was going well when suddenly news came that the Shingmun Redoubt which was the strong point in the line had been captured. Some say a phoney message which the recipient failed to check back was the cause of this.
The road blocks which had been so carefully prepared from Fanling to Kowloon along both the Taipo and Castle Peak roads and which were expected to hold up the Japs for many days were either not blown or proved quite ineffective for they advanced along both roads, meeting it would seem very little if any opposition, till they reached the main line of defence in the neighbourhood of Shatin on the Taipo Road and the Hongkong brewery on the Castle Peak road.
They advanced through the mountain paths, empounding the peasants to drag their light field guns up seemingly impossible hills so that all our carefully placed pillboxes were overlook or outflanked, and we knew the end of the mainland defence was fast approaching when we heard they had scaled down Lion Rock above Shatin which was considered impossible, and had reached Tsun Wan on the Castle Peak Road.