Monday, December 30, 2013

�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17日 5:37
收件者: Yinpong@gmail.com
主旨: 72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

 

72 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

17 Dec 1941. R. E. Jones Wartime diary

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 07:33 PM PST

Book / Document: 

R. E. Jones Wartime diary

Date of events described: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

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.

17 Dec 1941, Barbara Anslow's diary

Posted: 01 Feb 2012 03:13 AM PST

Book / Document: 

Barbara Anslow's diary

Date of events described: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

Met Olive, she said Mr. Cole had been killed at Aberdeen.  ((Not Tony Cole of ARP staff, but George Cole, a Naval Dockyard colleague of my Dad's)).

On way back to Macdonnell Road, a great crater had been made directly across it.  The only damage to Peggy's flat was a window pane broken, and the bathroom door broken off, but that was the end of the electric light and the water and telephone.  Gas had been turned off previously when a fire threatened the gas mains.

At dusk Peg and I stood on verandah and watched the Japs shelling the Naval Dockyard - the flag was at half-mast for Mr Cole and others.

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

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 03:53 AM PDT

Date of events described: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

Edith Hamson and her family, with others at the Kowloon Hospital, are ordered to gather in the hallway. They are told they are to be sent to the YMCA. As they listen to the guard, an unknown man slips a note from her husband Arthur into her hand. Later in the day the prisoners gather in small groups waiting to be taken to their new internment facility; a young doctor passes Mrs. Hamson another note.

The Hamsons cram into the back of a lorry - there are about 30 people there in all. They drive through a Kowloon with rubble strewing the streets, buildings covered in grey dust and Japanese flags hanging from every pole. The streets are deserted apart from the corpses. They are taken to the YMCA, where they are shown to a filthy dormitory with few amenities- but at least they have a small bunk bed each.

 

On the Island the day begins with the heaviest raid on Victoria/Central so far. The planes concentrate on the crowded Chinese districts, and as they leave the artillery opens up.

During a lull in the bombing, the Japanese send another peace mission, They warn that if the terms are rejected the bombardment of Victoria will become more intensive and less discriminating. Sir Mark Young, acting on instructions from London which tell him that every day Hong Kong holds out will be of great value to the Allied war effort, declines to surrender and tells the Japanese 'he is not prepared to receive any further communication on the subject.'

Hong Kong's off the Daily Mirror's front page for today, but on page 2 the columnist William Connor ('Cassandra') finally comes up with a piece of uplift that's totally realistic and, as you would expect from his nom de plume, prophetic:

Big Things

BIG things have happened since the first of the month. Big husky events as bold and as tough as the fall of France.

But whether the news is labelled Tokio, Borneo, Singapore, Guam, Oahu, Manila or Hong Kong―it is all secondary to what has taken place in Russia.

There, the greatest war machine of all time has stopped.

And Hitler didn't put the brake on either.

Sources:

Hamsons: Allana Corbin, Prisoners of the East, 2002, 94-97

Bombing, shelling, peace mission: John Luff, The Hidden Years, 1967, 64-66

17 Dec 1941, Sheridan's diary of the hostilities

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:19 AM PDT

Date of events described: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

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. Depot.) and his family are gone, there is a big shell hole in the roof of his little house. There is no one in charge of the place now. The stores are wide open, one with hundreds of bottles or rum still there. I have no interest or time to take a bottle. The coolies are frightened and are liable to bolt at any moment. A few shells explode nearby, so I get them loading wood and coke as fast as possible. Then I drive like hell for Deepwater Bay. At Wong-Nei-Chong Gap I stop and speak to the Canadian troops. They want to know what is happening towards the City of Victoria. I tell them what I can about it. They are all fine looking young fellows and have no idea what it is going to be like if the Japs land on the Island. They tell me that they had been stationed in Bermuda before coming to Hong Kong.

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

Posted: 27 Nov 2012 11:40 PM PST

Date of events described: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

Chan Shui, Chinese, Male, age about 50 years, Carpenter, Taikoo Dockyard, ((was killed at the refugee camp above Quarry Bay by Japanese shelling.)) 

17 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: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

The next day (17th) I was informed I was to have a rest and would change places with Capt. Davis who was in charge of the vehicle park.  Capt. Davis seemed somewhat put out and as I knew the ropes and had been working with my little team throughout, I asked Major Dewer's permission to carry on to which he agreed.

I was still sleeping at Grimble's bungalow at Shouson Hill for although my column were sleeping by day at Happy Valley, I found it more convenient to return to the south side where I could discuss things with Major Dewer during the day and return to Happy Valley in the evening and pick up my column before proceeding to Lyemun.

I left for Happy Valley again that evening, this time leaving Mr Bones behind, picked up my crew at the Valley and set off for Lyemun again.

Nothing exciting happened;  there was a huge fire burning at the foot of Shaukiwan Hill which clearly lit up the Lyemun road.  Kings Road had been shelled again, and there were several fires in Shaukiwan village.

As I was leading the way up Shaukiwan Hill with a load of six inch shells for Mount Parker, I was run into by a lorry coming down the road.  It knocked my transmission shaft back and completely locked the car.  Fortunately I escaped with a bruised forehead and knees.  The driver of the lorry on ascertaining I was alright, backed up, turned round and went off in the opposite direction.  I finished the night on my leading lorry and turned in with the boys at dawn when we got back to Happy Valley.

17 Dec 1941, Harry Ching's wartime diary

Posted: 02 Jan 2013 06:21 AM PST

Book / Document: 

Harry Ching's wartime diary

Date of events described: 

Wed, 1941-12-17

A domestic problem presented itself. With my sister's family of six, our household already numbered fifteen. Now my wife's sister-in-law telephoned. Her district (Tai Hang) has been heavily shelled and she and her son wished to join us. We agreed; but a large party of her neighbours came too, and our flat is crowded, with a total of about thirty people. They sleep where they can, in the hall and on the stairs; but they have brought their own food and give no trouble.

The authorities had hoped to induce the homeless and the displaced to disperse into the Island's rural districts, where they would be safer. But people prefer to keep close to the nerve centre and to the Government. There, they assume, food supply and police protection will be better. The Central district would probably be the last place to be lost and looted. Anyway, there is no transport. Accordingly, in the Central district, people are now living in the arcades and corridors of the large office buildings. They seem to lack all sense of sanitation. The hotels are also crowded with displaced residents and with the nervous who have left their homes to be as close as possible to the conventionally safe centre of this unprecedented typhoon.

In the air raid shelters similar conditions obtain. From the beginning hundreds of Chinese, mostly poor, had taken up residence in the tunnels, preferring of course to squat near the entrances. There are no sanitary conveniences and the shelters have quickly become filthy; the authorities daily send squads of coolies to cleanse and disinfect them and the big office arcades.

Breakfast this morning was eaten to the thunder and rattle of a heavy bombardment, directed mostly at the Central district. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank was hit, also the Gloucester Hotel. 

The shelling paused again while the Japanese sent over their second peace mission. Announcement: "The Governor received to-day a letter from the Japanese military and naval authorities repeating the suggestion that he should enter into negotiations for surrender. The Governor informed the Japanese authorities in reply that he was not prepared to receive any further communications on the subject."

 

 

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