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�寄: 72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

 

 

寄件者: noreply+feedproxy@google.com [mailto:noreply+feedproxy@google.com] 代理 72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries
寄件日期: 2013年12月16日 5:29
收件者: Yinpong@gmail.com
主旨: 72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

 

72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

16 Dec 1941. R. E. Jones Wartime diary

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 07:32 PM PST

Book / Document: 

R. E. Jones Wartime diary

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

Raids began at 9.15AM & increased in number during the afternoon. Targets are still the north side of HK. A squadron of Spitfires would clear them out in half a minute.

Clouds of white & brown smoke over Repulse Bay way due to bombing. Big column of black smoke over Shau Kei Wan way.

Quiet night.

16 Dec 1941, Barbara Anslow's diary

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:11 AM PST

Book / Document: 

Barbara Anslow's diary

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

Mr Garton appeared in tunnel and said he'd got some one to see me, and there was Sid, in khaki shorts and tin helmet.  I went into corridor and we sat on chair frames ((still no seats on them)) with his mate Cooper.  He said he was feeling more confident now, and appeared completely recovered.  ((Then both went off to war again.))  I gave Sid a note for Arthur in case he saw him.

16 Dec 1941, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

Posted: 02 May 2012 06:25 AM PDT

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

In Kowloon some of the civilians are still in hiding, but most are prisoners.

Arthur Hamson writes to his wife Edith at 4.10 p.m.:

Beloved mine,

I understand young Barton will probably be shifted up to the hospital as he is unwell. I'm giving him this note to deliver it to you if possible. Where we are quartered is past the Police Training School at the junction of the Shalin ((sic - presumably Shatin)) and Castle Peak Rd.

I'm wondering if you have received my two letters I sent to you yesterday. One note was by Dr. Newton who is here with us, but who took young Osborne to the hospital last night....

We are having a little more food now. 2 cups of tea per day, some rice and cabbage and this morning we had a slice of bread butter and cheese. It all depends what the soldiers give us, but as there are 55 of us it needs a lot to feed us....

The imprisonment here is monotonous. All we do is to read, talk and play cards and hear guns.

 

On the Island the Central Police Station is hit by bombs for the second day in a row.

 

Jorgen Jorgensen, a Norwegian ship's captain, dies after being admitted to St. Paul's casualty clearing station with injuries sustained when his ship the Halldor is bombed. Second Engineer Gosta Nyborg died in the bombing, and the four surviving Norwegians will be taken prisoner. One, Olaf Daniel Pedersen Arendal, will die in Stanley on June 15, 1945.

 

The Daily Express carries a thoughtful page 1 article:

Hongkong, besieged and under shellfire/last night, sent this radio to London:

WE INTEND TO DO/OUR BEST

Express Military Reporter MORLEY RICHARDS

FROM besieged Hongkong, shelled all day from short range and bombed without respite, this message was flashed last night: " We all thank you most sincerely for your heartening message. We intend to do our best."

The message came from Hongkong's Governor, 54-year-old Sir Mark Young . In reply to Mr Churchill's message 'We are all with you'.

Tokyo radio yesterday predicted that the fate of Hongkong would be "decided in a matter of days"

The Express is realistic about the prospects of relief from the Chinese Army:

Marshal Chiang Kai-shek's offensive in the Canton area, though gaining ground, is still a long way from directly affecting Hongkong's besiegers. It is directed more to harassing the enemy's flanks.

The paper reports that the Japanese are occupying Kowloon and predicts (wrongly of course) that they'll try to take Hong Kong by siege and bombardment rather than direct assault:

The enemy can draw on heavy reserves free from interruption and may decide that his best plan is to blast the garrison into submission while attempting a strict blockade to produce eventual starvation. Frontal assault would inevitably mean staggering losses to the Japs, and not necessarily success.

There is an optimistic assessment of the Colony's water supply now that the reservoirs have been captured. It seems to me that the Express is doing well at trying to be both informative and upbeat. This is going to be an increasingly difficult task.

Sources:

Hamson: Allana Corbin, Prisoners of the East, 2002, 102

Central Police Station: Tony Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 2003, 85

Norwegians: Banham, op. cit. 89; and

http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/halldor.html

Note:

It has not yet been established which members of the Barton and Osborne families are referred to.

16 Dec 1941, Sheridan's diary of the hostilities

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:04 AM PDT

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

We hear that the Japs have started shelling the waterfront by Causeway Bay and North Point, also we know that the Royal Artillery gun positions at Lyeemun, Pakshawan and Collinson are being heavily shelled. The distance across the harbour varies between a mile and a half and three miles at its widest point so it is quite easy for the Japs to get the range, now that they are in full control of Kowloon and the Mainland. We have some more air raids. The Jap planes are after the small gun boats anchored in Deepwater Bay. They are only about 500 or 600 yds from our bakery and cause a lot of disruption of the work. I have a bad time trying to hold my bakers to their work. Hammond, (Sergeant James or John Hammond, also an RASC Master baker) Tuck, Bonner (Jan Tuck and Frederick Bonner, members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps assigned to the Bakery) and myself waste a lot of time rounding them up when they take shelter in the nearby bushes which incidentally would not be much protection in the event of a bomb landing. So far the nearest bomb landed on the beach about 400 yds away. There were no casualties.

The 9.2 guns at Stanley and Mount Davis have been firing salvoes all day and all through the night, the noise is deafening. It keeps me awake most of the night so I was up at 4.30a.m. and got quite a bit of paperwork completed working behind a blacked out screen.

16 Dec 1941, Charles Mycock's report of his wartime experiences

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 11:40 PM PST

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

Chan Pan Kwai, Chinese, Male, Age 26 years, fireman from SS. Ethel Moller, ((was killed at the refugee camp above Quarry Bay by Japanese shelling.))

16 Dec 1941, A. H. Potts' wartime diary

Posted: 06 Dec 2012 02:38 AM PST

Book / Document: 

A. H. Potts' wartime diary

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

The next morning I spoke to Major Dewer about the state of Kings Road and the Lyemun road and futility of trying to clear ten thousand shells with so few lorries, and asked his permission to visit GHQ and submit a scheme which if approved should enable me to clear a great many shells in one night.

My idea was that I should be given at least twenty lorries and allowed to make a dump of the shells on the south side of the island behind Mount Parker at the top of Shaukiwan Hill. 

He though it a good idea and I set off for GHQ with his blessing and advice to lay it on thick.  Major Dewer was an excellent fellow and I found it easy to work with him.

I reached Flagstaff House but found great difficulty in finding the entrance to the enormous dugout which had been constructed to house G.H.Q.

There were many MPs and sentries around but no one seemed very willing to disclose the entrance to the "Holy of Holies".

Eventually I found it situated at the back of a building built close to the hillside which had been cut away so that the back and one side of the building faced steep slopes.  In the corner formed by the slopes I found the entrance.  I then had to descend innumerable steps with many right-angled turns till I reached a steel door where I was made to produce my pass before it was opened, admitting me to a small compartment with another steel door on the opposite side.

This door was opened once the outer door was closed admitting me to the real thing.  There was a small power plant supplying light and air-conditioning and here the Staff lived, eat [change to ate?], and slept some hundred feet below the ground and quite oblivious to what went on in the outside world, except what was conveyed to them by telephone and other messages.

There was a passage off which many small rooms opened and to one of these I was conducted.

I had decided it was best to go to the fountain head so I had asked to see the C.R.A.

I knew Brig. McCloud slightly, having met him at various Volunteer dinners, at camp and numerous cocktail parties.  He offered me a cup of tea which I accepted and then went straight into it for I had decided to tell him exactly what I thought and felt about the ammunition situation.

I told him the various facts I knew regarding the shortage of shells at all batteries and the state of Kings Road and Lyemun and explained my scheme to him;  this he approved but told me I must liaise with the Adjutant of the HK & Singapore Brigade about it.  He took me to see the C.R.E. about the condition of the roads and we were informed that a message had just come in to say that two hundred yards of tramway cable had been cleared from Kings Road the previous night;  and they all thought it a very good joke when I said I knew that as I had done it, but I told them there was still plenty more which needed clearing and was assured this would be attended to and also the craters on the Lyemun Road.

I asked the CRA why a magazine had been built in such a vulnerable place as Lyemun and was told that when it was built, there was no thought of the Colony being attacked from the mainland, and that was why the magazines at Shouson Hill had been hastily constructed when the threat became imminent.  My comment was that it might have been advisable to move the shells to Shouson Hill on its completion some six months ago, to which he readily agreed.

After my interview with the CRA, I returned to Shouson Hill via Pokfulam where I called in at my house to collect some clean clothes and also decided to take my dog "Mr Bones" to Shouson Hill as Mount Davis was receiving a tremendous hammering both from bombs and shells, and I found him in a very nervous state.

I then called at the Queen Mary Hospital to see Susie and was startled by the news she gave me that Uncle Pat had been hurt by a bomb which had dropped a few yards in front of Landau's house, and had shattered the window near which he was sleeping.  I found him somewhat upset but apart from this right eye which had received a splinter of glass, his other injuries were only superficial and he was quite cheerful.

I had tiffin with Susie at her mother's house and then returned to Shouson Hill, where I reported my visit to the CRA to Major Dewer.  He advised me to visit the Adjutant of the HK Singapore Brigade and do my utmost to push my scheme through, so I set off to Wongneichong Gap where I found they had their headquarters.  Fox their adjutant told me GHQ had already been on to him about it and it was hoped to carry out my idea the following night.

I then took "Mr Bones" for a walk through the Tytam reservoir area � it was a perfect afternoon.

The weather had been bad for the first few days of the attack on Hongkong, which had been in favour of the Japanese as there was considerable fog in the hills which helped to cover their advances.  It had now turned fine but the nights were pitch black and very cold.

I returned to Shouson Hill and reported the result of my visit to Fox, and then set off for Happy Valley to join my column.  I decided to take 'Mr Bones' with me which was a mistake as he took great exception to all sentries at road blocks when we were going down Kings Road that night on our way to Lyemun.

We encountered tramway cable again, but were fortunate in avoiding it, but in any case would have been alright as we had a metal saw and large wire cutters.  The Lyemun Road had not been repaired, and it was a ticklish job negotiating the two large craters in pitch darkness.

The Ordnance men at Lyemun were pretty jittery and said they had been fairly heavily shelled all day, and expected the Japanese would be making another attempt to land before long.

Corpl. O'Connor who was in charge asked me to ring up GHQ and report that a great many sampans had crossed from Shaukiwan to Devils Peak and that they should be prevented from returning as it was more than likely they would have Japanese aboard disguised as fisherfolk.

I reported this, also that I thought it might be advisable to blow up the pier at the foot of the road, and was informed these matters were being attended to;  however, the sampans returned, and I have no doubt contained many Japanese and ammunition, and the pier was not destroyed.

Sergt. Barman was working with me with several other sergeants from the batteries, and we cleared a good few hundred shells that night.  There must have been a fifth columnist signalling from the hills above the magazines, for each time we reached the barracks, which by this time had been badly shelled, and started down the hill to the magazines we were shelled and again on the way out;  however, we all got through safely but had some unpleasantly near crumps which added greatly to Mr Bones discomfort.

At this time there were numberous patrols around, the gates were shut and guarded and it was necessary to produce your pass to enter the magazine area, there was a searchlight beam across the narrow Lyemun Pass and the pillbox near the pier was manned, so things seemed in reasonable order.

16 Dec 1941, Harry Ching's wartime diary

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 06:19 AM PST

Book / Document: 

Harry Ching's wartime diary

Date of events described: 

Tue, 1941-12-16

Heavy shelling again in the softening up of our waterfront. I am local stringer for The Times, London. We correspondents have religiously filed daily throughout the first week, but the pressure was heavy and few messages have reached our newspapers. A trying day, with a continuous showering of shells and bombs. Anxiety deepening by the hour; but morale still holding. Some of the cinema theatres are carrying on, with shows at noon and 2 p.m. subject to abandonment without notice. 

A Chinese newspaper, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, tendered to its readers some advice on "How to Comport Yourselves in the Street". According to the Wah Kiu, "Chinese wearing foreign clothes should not put both their hands into their trousers or coat pockets. Those wearing Chinese clothes should not put their hands into their sleeves or into the back of their gown when they walk. They should walk with their hands out hanging by their sides. The Police yesterday stopped many pedestrians and warned them of these factors."

A firewood racket was exposed and deplored. The poor are actually selling their free ration at a profit. Perhaps they know that soon there will be blackwood furniture to burn. Official notifications about food still envisage a long siege. In the defence preparations, siege rations had been got ready - for the last of our days, salt fish and hard biscuits made from powdered peanuts. The latter are now appearing. The Government urged people not to throw away the thin red skins of peanuts "which contain far more of the anti-beri beri and anti-pellagra vitamins than does Marmite or yeast". The population was chided, "It is unpatriotic and disloyal to eat more than your daily ration." We are urged to grow our own food as much as we can. This is old advice; many of us already have vegetable gardens on our flat roofs, Government having suggested it a few years before when the Japanese occupation of the Canton area caused supplies from there to dwindle.

 

 

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