On this day the hospital's hot water system failed , and from then onwards all hot water had to be fetched from the galley and surgical instruments had to be boiled over a large four - jet primus stove .
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As we seem to be running low in firewood and coke, I obtain a lorry and some coolies and make a trip into the Queens Road Supply Depot. I drive the lorry myself. What a contrast from a week ago. Plenty of signs of bombing and shelling. Damaged buildings, wrecked cars and lorries everywhere. The tramline wires are strewn across the road. Some dead bodies lie about on the roadways and not a living soul in sight. On reaching the Supply Depot I find it has been shelled. Ip Fak ((He worked for the Barrack Stores at the RASC Queen’s Rd.
Dearest – another day with a nasty blitz in the morning and then another peace offer. The HK Bank was hit twice – one shell going into the office next to the one used by Septic but he wasn’t there. They have moved Medical H.Q. again. Another hit a room in Gloucester next to one used by the Rings but they weren’t there either – they hit the clock too. But the damage is infinitesimal.
Planes over & bombarding at dawn. 2 A.A. guns N.W. of Prison.
Japs truce 11AM to 4.15PM to give us time to give in. Gov. told them where to step off.
Waterfront & Central catching it badly.
Lights began to flicker during the evening.
Matilda Hospital 17th December to 4th January 1942
I picked up another car around noon and returned to Shouson Hill, where I found Major Dewer in a huddle with Lt. Andrews R.A. on my scheme. Twenty lorries had been allotted and Major Dewer was coming along himself and would control the traffic from the rendezvous at Tytam.
"The night was the darkest I have ever seen. ... overcast, cloudy, rain at intervals, otherwise mostly drizzle. In addition, the enemy had set alight the oil tanks near North Point, and the smoke drifted over the island. ...
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.
Bombs fell in vicinity of the tunnel. The concussion made our hair go up on end and wave backwards and forwards. The CSO garages were burnt out and or bombed. A lot of Indian policemen were injured and carried into the tunnel. I wished so much that I knew something about first aid, to see these great bleeding people groaning. All I could do was tear up a sheet some one produced into bandages. Bombing in the middle of Garden Road and Volunteer HQ as well.
After heavy preliminary shelling on the 18th. December Nipponese forces landed on the Island. Some at the Refinery Wharf and Dockyard quickly passed up the road through the camp en route to Stanley or Wong Nee Cheong. The staff at Woodside spent the night in the basement. At daybreak numerous bodies of troops were watched on the road. I saw one officer whose name I do not know fire deliberately five shots presumably at refugees.
Tony Banham sets the scene:
It is Hong Kong's last morning of siege. The defences are in place, waiting for the inevitable invasion, as the artillery and aerial bombardment reaches a new intensity.
In Central Market the Jesuit Father Ryan is helping with the distribution of rice to the poor. It's about 13.15:
Today we had tiffin in town – a habit we were falling into as our activities took us more and more around town during day. Those meals were very interesting – seeing how the restaurants, formerly our haunts of tiffin dates and gins were now converted into set price canteens or, in the case of the Parisian Grill a canteen for the various organisations connected with the Civil Defence.
After the 18th December our contact with town by road ceased entirely, and we were forced to subsist upon the stocks of food remaining at the Hotel, which I issued upon a severely rationed basis.
| ((Original text)) | ((Jill Fell's translation)) |
| Nuit tranquille. Mais la canonnade a repris dès le matin. Le journal n’arrive pas. Vers 11h du matin, une énorme fumée noire a commencé de s’élever par delà le Peak. A 6h du soir, cela continuait encore et tout le ciel en était assombri. Toute la soirée, canonnade intense. |
The heaviest shelling and bombing so far. The Island's waterfront was declared out of bounds to all unauthorised persons. It has been just a week since Kowloon was abandoned; and the final crisis is at hand. In the eleven days there have been 53 air raid alarms. This day a stick of bombs fell across Queen's Road Central, and one of them went through the roof of the South China Morning Post Building, exploding in the lift machinery.
Had breakfast at the school - a very poor one (why this reluctance to use of food stores when there is so much of the stuff - God only knows). Embarked Cdr. Peers and Salvage party and went out to “Thracian”
Remained there for over 3 hours - while party stripped guns, torpedo tubes etc. Ready for “Barlight” to take off at night. Expected to be bombed at any moment. Subsequently heavily bombed about 2 in the afternoon - just 1.5 hours after we had left. Returned to base at 1230 hours.
We have been very heavily shelled by the enemy for the past two days. As the newspaper says “An artillery duel has been raging”. The Jap heavy mortar is a damned good weapon. It appears to be about 6” in calibre, throws a large sized brick and has a range of about 4000 yards. It is particularly annoying to us with its very high trajectory, even higher than a How’s and a small propellant charge which gives little flash; it can be used from positions in the streets and behind the houses of Kowloon and is quite impossible to locate.
There were only a few casualties on this day , but air raids and shelling became so heavy that ward work was greatly interfered with .
The beds were kept close up against the walls between the double windows of the wards . These windows were kept full open , but their ' typhoon shutters ' were kept closed . This made the wards very dark but gave a modicum of protection against bomb and shell splinters .
The Jap bombers have been over on three occasions today, and really caused havoc with our bread production. Although there was no damage to persons or property. We now hear some very disgusting rumours that Jap assault troops have landed on the Island. According to GHQ the situation is well in hand. We take this with a pinch of salt, because of similar assurances before the mainland was evacuated.