72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries |
- 18 Mar 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary
- 18 Mar 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
- 18 Mar 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary
- 18 Mar 1942, Notes on Stanley Internment Camp, March 1942
- 18 Mar 1942, Smuggled in and out of Stanley
| 18 Mar 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary Posted: 10 Feb 2012 12:24 AM PST Book / Document: R. E. Jones Wartime diary Date of events described: Wed, 1942-03-18 Bowls finals. England beat Wales. Fine day. Weekly meeting, nothing worthy of note. |
| 18 Mar 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp Posted: 11 Feb 2012 11:48 PM PST Book / Document: Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp Date of events described: Wed, 1942-03-18 Today sees the first case of wet beri beri (caused by Vitamin B1 deficiency) in Camp. There are to be many cases over the next four months until a weekly dose of thiamin is added to the internees' soup.
The night is one of the most dramatic in the history of Stanley: seven people in two separate groups begin their successful escapes from a Camp in which security is still relatively lax. Gwen Priestwood, who drove a food supply lorry during the fighting, and the policeman W. P. Thompson wriggle through the barbed wire and strike north by land up the Tai Tam Gap Road. After many adventures, including almost being caught by a Japanese patrol while resting in an empty house, they fall in with communist guerrillas. Priestwood continues to Chungking (Chongqing), wartime capital of Free China, while Thompson decides to stay in the New Territories to help organise guerilla warfare. (Priestwood describes his arrival in Chungking just before she leaves, but this may be to deceive the Japanese). Priestwood carries with her a full list of the British internees (but not the Dutch or American). A few hours later an Anglo-American party of five cut their way through the barbed-wire. The leader is Israel Epstein, a Marxist journalist who's been living in Stanley under an alias because of his anti-Japanese writing, and is desperate to escape before he's uncovered. With him are the English radical Elsie Fairfax-Cholmondeley (later his wife), F. W. Wright (also English, a fluent Cantonese speaker with knowledge of the local waters), and the Americans Parker Van Ness (a seaman working as a mechanic at Kai Tak airport) and Ray O' Neil (who also had nautical experience). This party commandeer an upturned boat on the beach - Van Ness had previously judged it seaworthy and hidden supplies nearby - and paddle to Lantau Island, where they are forced to land as they see a Japanese boat pursuing another craft. Eventually they travel by junk to Macao, from where the underground take them to freedom. Priestwood and Elsie Fairfax-Cholmondeley had been part of a group which planned but failed to escape before actual internment took place. Sources: Beri Beri: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 150 (See also entry for May 5, 1942) Escape: Gwen Priestwood, Through Japanese Barbed Wire, 1944, 62 onwards Escape: Israel Epstein, My China Eye: Memoirs Of A Jew And Journalist, 2005, 139-141; 146-147 Note: I originally followed Priestwood's book in dating the escape to March 19, but Wright's 'Notes' (also available on Gwulo) and Epstein's book seem to show both parties went today, March 18.
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| 18 Mar 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary Posted: 08 Mar 2012 06:29 AM PST Book / Document: Barbara Anslow's diary Date of events described: Wed, 1942-03-18 Dorothy Deakin says meals at Bowen Road Hosp. are porridge, plenty of tea, meat and bread and jam. I had lovely meat roll today. Mum and I had a grand walk. Saw poor body on rocks. ((It had been there a long time - believed to be a soldier, no one could get to it because there was barbed wire round all the beaches)). Gave Miss Hill ((a young nursing sister)) her first shorthand lesson. |
| 18 Mar 1942, Notes on Stanley Internment Camp, March 1942 Posted: 13 Apr 2012 12:26 AM PDT Book / Document: Notes on Stanley Internment Camp, March 1942 Date of events described: Wed, 1942-03-18 On March 18, the Tweed Bay Hospital had on its rolls 90 staff members and 60 patients of whom 19 were due to discharge. 50 percent of the patients were dysentery cases. Fortunately, however, the dysentery prevalent in the camp is not of a severe type and the average time of such patients in hospital is a week. |
| 18 Mar 1942, Smuggled in and out of Stanley Posted: 20 Apr 2012 12:33 AM PDT Book / Document: Smuggled in and out of Stanley Date of events described: Wed, 1942-03-18 Then on the 18th afternoon Mr. Epstein informed me that he had heard on the quiet that there were two planning an escape that night which meant that we had to move and move first, so we decided to get away that night and be ready at around 9p.m. having got some of the gear over the hill and hidden the previous night. As I had made up my mind to go, I thought that I would let Mr. Pritchard know of my plans which I did. He was inclined not to be in favour of it as the wind was against us and it was too big a risk and I agreed with him. Then I saw Mr. Fuller and knowing him to be able to keep quiet, I mentioned it to him. He was very much against it and said the same as the Commissioner, viz., that it was too risky and that during the past week the Japs had been shooting up and ramming anything they saw afloat; all this was not all at all. After an hour's wait and the moon had gone in a bit, Mr. Van Ess crawled on all fours and proceeded to cut the wire. This having been done we carried and dragged the boat into the water. She had not been in for very long before it was found that she was leaking and certainly letting in more water than we had expected. We thought that as she had not been in the water for a long time that she might tighten up sooner or later. After having loaded up our little "Vanda" as she was named, we pushed off and took up our positions. Miss Cholmeley and Epstein were appointed balers, O'Neil having a wound in his back was passenger and sat forward, Van Ess oarsman (with the only oar we had) myself aft paddling and steering with same. As the "Vanda" was so small it was impossible to change positions as care had to be taken that she did not turn over. Unfortunately she did not tighten up so the balers were bailing out the whole 15 hours (as sick as they were at times). After getting out of the bay which I thought at the time was the most dangerous part of the trip, as whilst in it we were within range of fire from all angles we tried hard to make for the direction of Mirs Bay. After an hour's hard rowing and paddling, we found that we were not moving at all so we just had to go with the wind and the tide. As there was an island nearby we tried for it, but found that there were too many big rocks and that it was impossible for us to tie up for the night, seeing this we pushed off from these rocks and proceeded to round the point in the hope of finding a beach which we could land on and fix the "Vanda". No sooner had we got round the point that the wind got us again and blew us out to sea. It was in this area that we did meet a heavy sea and got tossed round all over the place, and she did everything but turn over, once or twice she took water over her sides, but we still kept afloat, the balers were still doing their stuff even though they did not care what was happening. It was very, very dark and only faint lights could be seen over the Repulse Bay area. |
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