Fine, warmer.
Ground rice for Mary.
Took Bonnie for swim aft. with O.B. ((Who/what is "O.B."? Barbara Anslow suggests it may have been Captain Oscar Basham, master mariner, aged 53, who is included in Greg Leck's list of internees.))
Choir went over very well again tonight.
Wrote my 200 word letter.
20Y issued.
158 lbs.
Average total weight of food per head per day including bones, stalks etc. 20 ½ ozs.
Adored, I've been thinking of you all evening and I'm sure you have been thinking of me. 25 Years ago today - how I can picture the whole scene again - on the stairs and in Esther's sitting room - she was away getting the supper! Soon it will be THE day and it is a shame we can't be together. There is still just a slender hope as I hear we are going to Goa and not Lourenco Marques and I might be able to fly from India. But I fear it won't come true. But I really hope and believe that we'll be together for Christmas.
Dutch banker Jacobus van der Laan has finally been sent from the Sun Wah Hotel to Stanley. Today he writes his first letter from camp, addressed to his parents-in-law and his daughter:
Dear Daddy, Mammy, Guillaumine and everybody,
Classical concert ((for details see 22nd July))
Elma Kelly spoke to me on Friday and she said that when she was cleaning out a handbag of hers she "found" inside a fountain pen with a gold band round it and my name on it. Do you remember it? She must have "scrounged" it when she was in 152. I almost wish she had looted some more things! I wakened very early this morning - my "lodger" woke me up 6am - 9p.m. with you on Saturday night.
Matron E. M. B. Dyson sends a letter home:
Dearest Mother,
Glad to tell you that all members of the unit are fit and fairly well, but in excellent spirits, facing this life with cheerful courage, making full use of this enforced holiday by language courses, lectures, commercial and art classes, camp fatigues, all types of housework from laundry to kitchen, walking, the more robust swim, but games definitely too strenuous nowadays....Weight now nine and a half stones...
The diary of R. E. Jones reflects the internees' interest in and excitement at the US Air Force raids on Hong Kong. They are almost the only visible sign they have of Allied action in the war. Not much has been done since the initial attacks of late October 1942, but today is the first of three consecutive days on which the American planes take the war to Japanese Hong Kong.
Details provided by a website devoted to the Sino-Japanese air war:
Resignation of Mussolini announced - Air raid over HK 5pm, - Blackout
"Firefighting"- J.C. Fitzg((unclear)) ((David: This was probably J C S Fitzhenry, as he was a member of the fire brigade.))
We are all excited over the news - we get only a garbled version but we feel sure Italy has capitulated. Mussolini is out of the way at least. Then some bombers came over H.K. today and the A.A. guns were firing but we don't know what happened yet. Surely it is nearly the end in Europe now and then we can get busy with the Nips. Cheers! B.
OBJECTIVE: Bomb a Japanese freighter reported to be at anchor near Stonecutters Island
TIME OVER TARGET: ~3:15 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Six B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) and ten P-40s from the 74th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group). Possibly pilots and aircraft from the 16th Fighter Squadron are involved as well. All aircraft are based at Kweilin and belong to the 14th Air Force.
I completed and typed your letter and dated it Sat 24th July and posted it same day at the C.S. Office and I trust Nell that it arrives at you safely sometime. I am well and tho' down in weight, still I'm in fair condition.
On Friday we received 70Yen each which was very welcome as funds were low and even the banana comfort looked as if it would have to go west. However I'll now get something from the canteen on Tuesday.
9.45 am raid - B.O.
OBJECTIVE: Bomb HK & Whampoa dockyard
TIME OVER TARGET: ~7:15 a.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Six B-25s from the 11th Bomb Squadron (341st Medium Bomb Group) escorted by nine P-40K and P-40Ms from the 74th FS (23rd Fighter Group). All aircraft belong to the 14th Air Force.
AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW:
2.45 pm raid - B.O.
"Full House" by Ivor Novello - p. S. Mackinlay
cast - S. Mackinlay, E.C. Luscombe, L.A. Searle, Ray Mabb, J.B ((unclear)), D. Wilson, Nina Valentine, H.R.B.Hancock, J. M ((unclear)), F. Penfold, C. Chattery. - Piano - Drown. Theme song "Won't anybody marry ((unclear)) by Betty Drown.