The Middlesex are living up to their regimental nickname - the Die-hards - stubbornly holding up the Japanese advance to Victoria.
Down on the Stanley Peninsula the Canadians and members of the HKVDC spend the evening in a bitter firefight with the invading troops. Today and tomorrow parts of what will soon become the Stanley Internment Camp are engulfed in violence, something the internees will never quite forget.
Our vocabulary is now increasing and we have learned to use the expressions “Pongo” “Matloe” and “Pani” with accuracy. This was X’mas Eve and here we were again alongside our old friend the ferry, improving our speed in getting down especially when one shell hit the bow of the ferry, doing no damage.
On the morning of the 24th December the Japanese took a roll call on the lawn in front of the Hotel of all occupants of the Hotel including third nationals.
On completion of the roll call we were ordered to our rooms to await examination of belongings etc. We were told at the roll call that we should be vacating the Hotel. We were not told our destination, but we were instructed that we should be allowed only one suit case each as we would have to walk to our destination wherever it was.
| ((Original text)) | ((Jill Fell's translation)) |
| La maison est progressivement envahie. Un « medical officer » est venu demander un local pour donner les premiers traitements à des blessés et coucher les infirmiers. | The house is gradually invaded. A "medical officer" came to request a place to give initial treatments to the wounded and for the medical orderlies to sleep. |
Again out of bread, and no hawker around. We noted without enthusiasm that some of our neighbours are leaving the Valley to take up residence in a Central office building.
On Christmas Eve we brought in a potted tree and trimmed it. The children had memorized a few hymns with Reverend Buuck’s help. They had also learned some recitations, so on Christmas Eve we had a short children’s service. The children had decorated a house plant with tinsel and called it our Christmas tree. This “tree” was in the hall or entry. Mother had a candy bar for each of us and the Buuck’s also had a small gift to be placed under the tree. Rev. Buuck was delegated to place the gifts in their proper places mainly because his cot was nearest the door.
Don't know what is going on - we are completely cut off from the land fighting - and our only means of communication is by W/T. Enemy aircraft active - particularly over Mt. Davis and Pokfulum.
We can only conjecture, the general feeling is that the situation looks ominous - we are busy preparing for a flip when the time comes. I hope my crew are keeping in touch. It's very difficult to get into communication with them.
Since the 19th the fighting has been very confused. It was on the 20th I think that we tried to make a counter attack in Wong Nei Chong from two directions simultaneously. One attack was to be made by the Canadians from Repulse Bay the other by a scratch collection of troops from the direction of little Hong Kong. The first attack never started because the Canadians and their Commander were drunk. The General sent Temple out from Stanley to take charge of the situation. I think that because the Canadians could not attack the othe
Shelling continued and the hospital received a great deal of further damage . For example :
( 1 ) A shell burst just outside the west end of No. 5 Ward . A fragment of shrapnel pierced the ' typhoon shutter ' , and wounded one of the bed casualties .
As soon as it got dark last night my job was to collect the European bakers and bring them to the Exchange Building. The Chinese bakers made their own way to wherever they lived or were going to stay the might. Some remained at the bakeries and we supplied them with rice and vegetables. My No. 1 Baker, Leung Choy had located us yesterday and brought a few more bakers with him. We can make use of them.
Little One Darling,
Frying bacon on a Chinese chatty in the middle of a dance floor has its humourous side. Grabbed some salvage, tinned peas, cocoa, milk & packet of Woodbines & a Mills bomb.
Shelling commence 11.30AM & ended 1PM leaving us with a 5.9 dud at our door. Shop next door damaged so we collected more salvage, mineral waters mostly.
Planes bombed Fort & snipers active locally.
((Stuart Braga shared this account of Christmas Day, 1941:))
This description of Christmas Day 1941 was written some months later by my uncle, Paul Braga in a letter to his brother, the Rev. James Braga, in Chicago.
“These days of defeat and fear left Father [J.P. Braga] a broken man both physically and mentally ... We all admired him for his wonderful patience and the way he 'took it' without any complaints. He often and often spoke of his devotion to each of us and repented at his aloofness in past years.”
On Christmas Day the enemy bombardment and aerial attacks continued, but the Stanley Guns were able to answer them back. We felt the situation to be difficult but not hopeless, with 2500 men and enough ammunition, food and water. There were many gallant actions at Stanley by Volunteers - to name only two, the Scottish Platoon at Chung Am Kok, and the men of the first Battery between Prison Road and Fort Road.
On the 25th December, after fierce fighting, the Japanese took possession of St. Stephen's College - they swept through the wards, massacring the wounded. The doctors and medical staff were killed, and sisters and nurses were raped before being killed. The enemy were blood crazy.
I reported about the medical supplies at Woodside and on the 25th. December, under escort, we visited there but nothing had escaped looting. The houses were occupied by Nipponese troops. The wounded who had, under compulsion, been left behind were all gone with the exception of Father Perkunas and two Chinese watchmen. We carried Perkunas down and left the others behind. Bell had been buried in the garden.
The hostilities come to a bloody and rather chaotic end. The surrender's at about 3.30 p.m. but The Japanese insist the Governor Mark Young make his way to the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon to sign the Instrument personally. Not everyone learns of the capitulation immediately - and Brigadier Wallis, commanding East Brigade which is preparing to make a last stand on the Stanley Peninsula, refuses to stop fighting until he gets a signed order.
Christmas day saw another perfect HK winter day with warm sunshine and, sheltered as were by Ap Li Chau, there was no wind. We were indeed so sheltered that, in the afternoon, we managed to have a swim – albeit in somewhat oily water. Still, as the C.P.O. remarked, it would keep the mosquitoes away. Early in the afternoon rumours of a truce flag at Aberdeen started but stopped as quickly. It was for us the most boring day of the war. There was bombing and shelling going on over the hill but as far as we were concerned we might as well have been out of the war completely.
We had some close misses as far as shells and bombs are concerned, but the only casualties were a couple of scratches I received, when I was out picking up shrapnel in an areaway with the road up above. But not knowing there were any planes overhead I quite surprised to hear a plane diving quite close. So I dashed for a hallway because I was nearer to it than was to the door.
