On the 18th December, under cover of a further heavy barrage and smoke screen, they started to invade the Island. The attack was made from the Kai Tak area by landing craft and other small shipping, including ferry boats, which had fallen into enemy hands. The landing points were being made along the waterfront from North Point to Pak Sha Wan.
Unfortunately, when a pillbox gave the first warning of an attack to Battle Headquarters, it was ignored until the attack was later confirmed. By the time badly needed reinforcements were sent it was too late, the enemy had already landed in force.
Our 6” Battery at Pak Sha Wan (manned by Gunners of the HKVDC) were firing pointblank at landing craft, junks, rafts, etc., loaded with enemy troops, at a range of 300 yards or less, and continued to fire until they were eventually attacked from the rear by Japanese who had landed in Shau Kei Wan. They were caught unaware, and many were cut down on the gun platforms. Some of the men jumped into the water and by swimming, managed to reach our forces at Cape Collinson, others who were able to get away climbed up to Lyemun Barracks but, unknown to them, Lyemun was already in Japanese hands, and they were mown down by machine-gun fire while crossing the parade ground and other open spaces. Confusion reigned, most of our troops had fallen back to the hills although there were some units who had not been informed of the attack and were cut off. In one instance, to escape from some heavy shelling, one of our men dived under the foundations of the guard room at Lyemun Barracks where he was joined a few minutes later by a Japanese patrol who, fortunately, did not notice him in the darkness and confusion. He later escaped and joined our forces in the Ty Tam area.
The following incident is from an eyewitness of a 2 Pdr. gun troop sent to reinforce the Tai Koo Dockyard area.
At about 7 p.m. we proceeded to the Dockyard, arriving to find a heavy barrage in progress. The Dockyard was in flames, but we directed fire from one of the slipways on a number of small boats and sampans loaded with enemy troops approaching across the harbour.
The shelling was too fierce however, and the slipway was burning under our feet, so we destroyed the gun and retreated to cover in among the dockyard buildings where we stayed until about midnight. Unknown to us, troops in the vicinity had been ordered to retreat earlier and our own guns were using our position as a target.
We continued to fire with small arms at the attacking enemy who were by this time swarming across the harbour until about half of our detachment had been killed or wounded. We were then forced to leave the dockyard, only to find that all that particular area was in enemy hands. We were fortunate, however, in finding a lorry just inside the dockyard and we piled in, praying that it would start. Fortunately, it did.
We drove madly through Sai Wan Ho and Shau Kei Wan with small arms fire directed at us from all sides. Many buildings were in flames but in the dark and confusion we finally reached safety at Ty Tam. It was not until we arrived that we discovered that in the back of the lorry were stacked boxes of ammunition. We then realised how lucky we had been, when we thought of what would have happened if a shot had detonated that load.
Also, on that never-to-be-forgotten night, many of our trucks taking reinforcements and stores along the waterfront ran into Japanese ambushes in the vicinity of North Point and many casualties resulted including a good friend of mine, L/Sgt. Downes.
At one point a Medical Store and Dressing Station located at the Salesian Mission on Island Road at Shau Kei Wan were surrounded and captured. The men were stripped and with their hands tied behind their backs, taken outside, lined up on the edge of a nullah (storm drain) and bayonetted. Three men survived, although badly injured, by pretending to be dead. One man, Cpl. Leath, RAMC crawled nearly two miles to safety with a deep sword wound in his neck.