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 Japanese Troops in Causeway Bay 24th
December 1941
While the Japanese attack on the American Naval Base
at Pearl Harbour on 8th December 1941 is widely know about, and
has been the subject of a recent multi million dollar movie, few
appreciate the drama that began on exactly the same day in Hong Kong many
miles to the west.
Hong Kong Island had passed into British hands as a
result of the Treaty of Nanking of 1842 and it quickly became a busy
commercial hub and a valuable trading gateway for Britain in the Far East,
much of the business being initiated by Scots. In 1860 the Kowloon
Peninsular, part of the Chinese mainland lying adjacent to and north of
Hong Kong Island, was given to the United Kingdom and in 1898 Britain
leased for 99 years the area called the New Territories, again part of the
Chinese mainland and lying to the north of Kowloon.
With Britain already fighting a desperate land, sea
and air battle in Europe, the Atlantic and North Africa, the Japanese
threat in the Far East in 1941 was acknowledged but there were few
resources available to counteract that threat. The Japanese, fighting a
bitter war in China, now occupied the Hong Kong border area and it was
agreed therefore that should Hong Kong be invaded by the Japanese the only
course of action was to hold out for as long as possible, deny the harbour
to the enemy, defend Hong Kong Island and, in the extreme, hope that an
orderly evacuation would be possible.
The Garrison of Hong Kong in December 1941 comprised:
Headquarters China Command; Royal Artillery and Royal Engineer units; Hong
Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery; 2nd Battalion Royal Scots;
1st Battalion Middlesex (Machine Gun Battalion); Hong Kong
Chinese Regiment; representatives of support Corps (Signals, Ordnance
etc); the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC) made up of a number of
Companies including Number 2 (Scottish) Company; two recently arrived
Canadian Regiments, The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada
; two Indian regiments 5th/7th Rajput Regiment and
2/14 Punjab Regiment; a number of Royal Navy ships, Auxiliary Patrol
Vessels and Merchant Navy Vessels; two Supermarine Walrus aircraft of the
Fleet Air Arm; three Vickers Vildebeeste aircraft of the Royal Air Force
and Police, Fire Brigade, Air Raid Precautions, Auxiliary Service, St
John’s Ambulance and NAAFI Units.
Equipment, transport, drivers and ammunition were in
short supply. The Canadians had arrived three weeks previously and had no
battle experience, the Indian regiments were made up primarily of
Reservists and HKVDC was drawn from the bankers, merchants and businessmen
of the Territory few of whom were fully trained or prepared for the battle
ahead. The most effective and battle worthy battalion was the 1st
Middlesex. Civilians of many nations, women and children, were all
ultimately caught up in what happened.
As for the 2nd Royal Scots, they had
certainly been abroad too long and were not as efficient as they should
have been. Many of their best NCOs had been sent home at the beginning of
the war in 1939 and in 1941 the strength of the Battalion had been
seriously depleted by malaria and venereal disease. There had also been an
unusual number of courts martial in the Battalion, some of them on
Officers. While individuals fought with immense bravery and determination,
the battle was to expose serious weaknesses in the leadership of the
Battalion, which were to have terrible consequences on the outcome.
Ranged against these few defenders were 60,000 battle
hardened Japanese troops fully equipped and supported with aircraft and
naval units. Japanese intelligence, largely gathered by Japanese barbers,
barmen, waiters, taxi drivers and masseurs in the Territory, was
excellent. It was an unequal struggle from the start.
The terrain comprised steep hills, deep-water bays, a
busy city and scattered islands. The defence plan was to fight delaying
actions on the mainland, in the New Territories and Kowloon, and then to
withdraw to defend the Island of Hong Kong. Key to the mainland actions
was “The Gin Drinker’s Line” so called because the western end of this
defensive line began at Gindrinker’s Bay. Along this line were a number of
strong points the pivotal one being the Shing Mun Redoubt held by the
elements of 2nd Royal Scots.
The Japanese crossed the border into the New
Territories on 8th December 1941 at the same time launching
devastating air attacks. Two days later the undermanned and professionally
poorly defended Shin Mun Redoubt fell. The Royal Scots withdrew to Golden
Hill and on the 11th December, after a major battle in which 29
Royal Scots were killed, and amidst numerous individual acts of
considerable bravery, the Battalion were forced off Golden Hill, initially
in some disarray. Withdrawal from the mainland was inevitable. Many of the
defenders, especially the men of the Middlesex Regiment, who fought with
enormous tenacity, attributed the withdrawal to the poor performance of
the Royal Scots. Meanwhile, heavy air raids, acts of sabotage, rioting and
looting continued.
On the 18th of December the Japanese
invaded Hong Kong Island forcing their way through the Wong Nai Chung Gap
taking Repulse Bay and splitting the Island in two. Stanley was encircled
and the Garrison finally surrendered on Christmas Day 1941.
What marked out the Battle of Hong Kong was the
ferocity and ruthlessness of the Japanese both in and out of battle. 1589
of the defenders were killed. Of these at least 325 soldiers, civilians,
doctors, nurses, women and children, some wounded and prisoners, were
shot, raped or bayoneted in massacres and atrocities at Sai Wan Hill, the
Salesian Mission, St Stephen’s College and elsewhere. It is estimated that
about 2000 Japanese died in the battle.
After the surrender the Japanese interned the
defenders, along with women and children, in prisoner of war camps at
Stanley and Sham Shui Po where numerous further atrocities were committed.
Indian soldiers were separated from their officers and subjected to
intense propaganda. Thousands of Hong Kong Chinese were forced north into
China where many died of starvation and exposure.
A British Naval Force finally reoccupied Hong Kong on
30th August 1945.
Tim Carew, The Fall of Hong Kong, Pan Books,
London, 1976
Tony Banham, Not the Slightest Chance-The Defence
of Hong Kong 1941, Hong Kong University Press, 2003
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