70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Germany and Italy declare war on America and Congress and the President respond in kind. Now the war in the Pacific and the war in Europe are one, the two sides are lined up, and the stakes could not be higher.

At midday Major-General Maltby takes the decision to abandon the Mainland. The evacuation begins in the afternoon amid scenes of chaos and terror.

Ellen Field's trying to sleep when her No. 1 Houseboy comes in and tells her the Japanese are at the end of Prince Edward Road, about three miles away. Then a friend, Leslie Coxhill, a Volunteer in the Signals section, arrives:

'My God!' he shouted at me. 'Are you still here?'

By the time she's packed it's 7 p.m.  After an agonising walk in high heels with her three children and their amahs, she arrives at the waterfront to find scenes of chaos. Helped by two Canadian soldiers, she manages to get herself, her children and two amahs on to an already over-loaded motor launch:

Blacked-out Hong Kong came into harsh relief as a succession of Japanese flares, hanging in the sky like garish lanterns, lit up the whole harbour with an eerie brilliance. Every gun on Hong Kong seemed to open up simultaneously. Great spouts of water sprang up around us as bombs started to fall.

The soldiers help her and her party to safety. Later she's to remember them and decide to extend her relief to the Prisoners of War in Shamshuipo beyond her family members.

Doris Woods crosses the harbour and puts in a day's work at the bank. Leaving earlier than usual, she proceeds to the Star Ferry terminal (Victoria/Central), where she's told (wrongly) by some Canadian soldiers that the Japanese are fighting in Nathan Rd. near the Alhambra theatre and advised not to cross. Doris insists that she's going to get her sister, and crosses in an empty ferry. On arrival, she runs through the deserted streets of Tsimshatshui and calmly tells Aileen that the Japanese are close. They find a Chinese worker, one of the few around, to help them with their luggage, but when they arrive at the terminal there's no ferry. They walk along the quay to a crowded police launch, which takes them and their luggage across. Their married sister, Mrs. Winfield, is waiting for them in Victoria, and at the bank is a car which will take them to their billet on the Peak.

Their servant Ah Moi brings the Hamson family the news that many British civilians are leaving Kowloon for Hong Kong Island, while Chinese are coming from the New Territories to loot homes and businesses. They decide to leave Lion Rock and return to their home at dusk, and spend the night preparing to try to cross the harbour the next day.

Kowloon missionary John Hammond reports:

Heavy artillery fire increased late Thursday afternoon. We could see the flashes four miles away at the top of the hill leading away from Lai Chi Kok to Castle Peak.

Hammond says that all electricity is shut off by now, and the looters have already taken over the trucks, taxicabs, cars and all other forms of transport.

A Chinese friend persuades the Hammonds to leave their mission station and take shelter in the nearby home of the Reitons - Mrs. Hammond is their daughter:

So quickly carrying the few things that we had with us we made our exit through the rear door, crossed the small alleyway and went upstairs to our future hideout. Our Chinese helped us and we were transferred in about ten minutes. Closing all of the outside storm shutters, that worked like venetian blinds, we lived in darkness until we were taken to the Japanese concentration camp.

The looters duly arrive:

We heard them coming down the road crying out, shouting, robbing and shooting. We had been through enough already to drive us insane, but to be suddenly thrown into this state of affairs was nearly beyond human endurance.

Nevertheless, somewhat to Robert Hammond's surprise, the women in the two families don't become 'hysterical' and never complain 'during all those long, long months of horror and trouble'.

Robin Boris Levkovich, a naturalised Briton of Russian origin, is a policeman assigned to Food Control. Senior Jardine Mattheson manager D. L. Newbigging sends him on a highly dangerous mission to try to retrieve 4,000 pounds of flour from a store in Kowloon. He manages to get across the harbour by 6 p.m., travelling in a naval launch which returns without waiting for him. While looking for Food Control, he meets Doctors Selwyn-Clarke and Fehilly who ask him to deliver supplies to Kowloon hospitals which haven't had any since the start of the fighting. Levkovich sees Selwyn-Clarke depart on 'the last ferry leaving Kowloon' while Fehilly stays on.

Levkovich finds a lorry with the ignition key still in it, and manages to locate and load stores at the Tait Wing Company opposite Whitfied Barracks. He drives past dead bodies and through bands of looters armed with revolvers and axes, reaches the Central British School, and delivers the food to the emergency hospital there. His mother and sister are nursing at this hospital, and his mother tells him that the staff have been told they must stay at their posts while they still have patients, but they've been promised evacuation with the rear guard. He has his doubts, but says nothing.

He's out of petrol, so he walks to the nearby Kowloon Hospital and, after talking to Drs. Newton and Fehilly, he's driven back to the food store in an ambulance with two members of staff to help him load. He's forced to scare off looters with a revolver he'd previously acquired from a policeman. The trip back is a 'nightmare', in the dark, through speading fires and the sound of guns.

There's great news for the breakfast tables back in Britain:

Jap attack on Hong Kong fails

Sadly there's more:

The Japanese attacking Hong Kong have suffered a reverse and a Japanese patrol has been wiped out.

“Our land forces have halted a Japanese attack, although fighting is continuing,” stated a communiqué in Hong Kong yesterday.

Chinese forces in Kwangtung Province are attacking Canton from east and west, thus relieving the Japanese pressure on Hong Kong, according to a dispatch to a Chinese language newspaper.

Sources:

Maltby: Tony Banham, Not The Slightest Chance, 2003, 52

Field: Ellen Field, Twilight in Hong Kong, 1960, 22-31

Woods: John Luff, The Hidden Years, 1967, 48

Hamsons: Allana Corbin, Prisoners of the East, 2002, 74-75

Hammonds and Reitons: John B. Hammond, Bondservants of the Japanese, 1957 ed., 21-23

Levkovich: Statement, pages 1-3, (in the Ride Papers, held at the Hong Kong Heritage Project and kindly sent to me Elizabeth Ride)

Jap Attack: Daily Mirror, page 1

Note: Levkovich dates his mission as beginning on December 12. However, Dr. Newton's diary and the general course of events in Kowloon make me confident that this should be December 11.

((Date is a guess - no starting date given in text))

Frequent journeys to town were made by car for essential supplies and equipment for the hospital, kitchens etc. but the dangers of this narrow road often deterred truck drivers from ever making a second journey. As the Parker and Kings roads came under enemy fire conditions became worse. Telephone communications were destroyed and the water supply affected. T. Tollan, Revenue Officer was the third driver I had and his skill and coolness under fire when our car was hit on the 17th. and 18th. December were beyond praise. Pawley, an American in charge of a lorry, also deserves mention as we loaded his lorry with rice at North Point Camp when it was the actual target.

On 11th the Japanese reached Kowloon;  by this time 5th Columnists were very busy sniping, and looting had already started.  The looters formed themselves into bands and actually put notices on houses they had entered so that others of their gang would know it had already been sacked.

The next morning ((ie the 11th)) we took the stores out to Stanley, and on returning to Happy Valley I was informed that each HKVDC officer was appointed to some special duty such as assistant adjutant, Vehicle Park control etc etc, and my special job was OC of the ammunition column – this pleased me greatly as I knew I should be seeing a lot of what was going on as the work we were to do meant visiting the various batteries and magazines.

We got our first job that afternoon (11th) which was to go to Lyemun and draw 500 six inch shells, and put them on a lighter which was to take them across to Devils Peak where a battery had just been placed.

My column consisted of only eight lorries and I was told to only employ four and leave the others in reserve in case of an emergency job.

I selected Sergt. Gow HKVDC as my sergeant and he turned out an absolute ace. My drivers were at first Chinese but I discovered after the first night that they could not be relied on to drive in pitch darkness, and I was permitted to select drivers from the BOR.  After a process of elimination I had Sgt. Gow and Ptes Longeraine (?) and Coxhill all members of HKVDC, and one Canadian RASC man.  They were all excellent drivers and we used to bowl along after a few nights in pitch darkness without any trouble, but I had many mishaps and minor accidents trying various drivers of the RASC till I selected those four.

We were a happy little team, working on our own like moles and got to know each other extremely well, and I am happy to think we all survived.

To reach Lyemun it was necessary to drive along Kings Road which runs along the water front for some mile or more, then through Taikoo Dockyard and Shaukiwan village, up the Shaukiwan Hill till the military road leading up to Lyemun barracks was reached.  This is a narrow concrete road cut in the side of the hill and has no parapet.  At the top was a gate where passes had to be produced before admittance could be obtained, then on through the various barrack buildings and down a hill to sea level where the magazines are situated on either side of the roadway.  There was another gate at which passes also had to be produced just before entering the magazine area.  At the end of the road which ran right down to the sea and is at right angle to the Kowloon foreshore was a pier and a pillbox with the lighter lying alongside.

After clearing the five hundred six inch shells and loading them on the lighter we got back to Happy Valley.  We were undisturbed, and the roads were untouched, but this was not to be our good fortune the next time we went to Lyemun.

On returning to Happy Valley we found a request from both Stanley and Mount Davis forts for 9.2 inch shells, with instructions that these were to be drawn from Shouson Hill magazine.  Shouson Hill as I have already mentioned is on the south side of the island, so it would have appeared more practical if we had been instructed to draw the shells from Lyemun which if the Kowloon line gave, would be in full view of the Japanese.

I think this is the place to mention a few facts about the 9.2 ammunition, first there are two types, land and sea directional, the sea type being of no use against land targets as it requires a hard blow on the nose of the shell, such as the armour of a ship, to explode it;  second each shell weighs 380 pounds, so takes considerable handling and the average lorry was only capable of carrying twelve shells.

I was told by the NCO in charge of Shouson Hill magazine that on the outbreak of war there were only fifteen land directional shells per gun at Stanley and Mount Davis each of which had three guns;  they had a great many sea directional, he told me, something over two hundred, so there was evidently ample storage space and it would seem to be more reasonable if they had had half of each type.

Anyway it is a fact they were desperately in need of shells at both forts and the profuse thanks which I received from the officers at Stanley and Mount Davis on my arrival with the badly wanted shells was almost embarrassing.

We worked all night on this job, giving both forts four lorry loads or in other words forty eight shells, but it seemed a pity that my other four lorries had to lie idle at Happy Valley when they could have been so usefully employed.

Shouson Hill magazines are situated in more or less the heart of the island and roughly equidistant from Stanley and Mount Davis, a distance of some eight miles.

There were many road blocks made with concertina wire all of which were guarded.  Later the sentries came to recognize me as I imagine I was doing more night driving than anyone else, and allowed me to pass without producing my pass, for which I frequently reprimanded them.  All sentries were very alert for the first few days, but after that there was a very marked slackness.

I became proficient in negotiating the various road blocks, which were all laid out in different ways, without the sentries having to guide me through.  Some had the gap on the right of the road, others on the left or in the middle and the more important ones were in the form of a zigzagging.

There was no moon till 21st and in addition to the pitch darkness we had rain on several nights;  it was most trying and at time I drove by guesswork.  I drove at the head of my small convoy, and had had the bumpers and wings of my car and the lorries painted white which gave a very faint indication of our position, but in spite of this we had many minor collisions.

The day dawned in an atmosphere of foreboding. 

The European police on the Island have been withdrawn from duty and sent over to Kowloon as militia. A volunteer police reserve is assisting in keeping order; but the Government's Chinese advisers reported an alarming fifth column plot to seize the Colony, and further precautions were taken. Admiral Chan Chak is the official representative in Hongkong of the Chinese Government. At the Hongkong Government's request he has organised a corps of street guards composed in part of Chinese refugee soldiery.

The position on the mainland has become hopeless, and Kowloon has had to be abandoned. The withdrawal commenced tonight, with an impressive artillery chorus providing background music. The telephone connection between Island and mainland remains unbroken. Our friends phoned us urgently and in whispers. Kowloon has become a no man's land. Bands of men, some in cars with flags flying, are appearing everywhere and boldly entering and ransacking the homes. In the foreign residential districts a few brave spirits armed with shotguns have tried to organise a resistance and to drive the marauders off, with mixed results.

((The following text is undated:))

With my friend Carmen Hailstone, I was at my First Aid Post at the Kowloon Cricket Club attending to the wounded.  Eventually, the Japanese advanced to the next street to us, a terrifying thought.  Suddenly Cliff Large, 19 years old, came dashing to rescue his mother who was with us, telling us that we must get away at once to Hong Kong island.  I had our car parked outside, so we all jumped in and Cliff drove us down to the ferry wharf, crashing the car as badly as he could (so it would be useless to the Japanese), before crossing over the harbour which was being bombed and strafed all the time.  We reached the other side safely, where we were given refuge in Sir Lawrence Kadoorie's Office, and had refreshments.  In the meantime, Sir Lawrence was arranging a post that we could go to.  Finally, we were posted to St. Joseph's College where we stayed until the end of the war in Hong Kong, on 25th December.  Throughout that time we were constantly bombed and shelled, and in fact received the last stick of bombs before the colony capitulated.

Very hospitable treatment was handed out  by the Royal Scots including a bath, shave and breakfast (tea only). Early everyone seemed fairly confident about holding the inner line and according to early reports there had been no heavy attacks during the evening. Later however about 9 o’clock a general air of uneasiness began to pervade the area and confused reports as regards Jap. attacks down the main roads kept filtering in. Shortly after, the armoured cars and some of the Canadian  troops came past and one could hear the sighs of relief  at the thought of reinforcements for troops who were already tired and hungry. When Mike turned up about 10, things were somewhat steadied and, as we came back to the Peninsula Hotel, no one seemed unduly worried.

The interior of the hotel presented a different scene. There was the beginning of a first class flap and the scene was similar to that when the evacuation of women was carried out in 1940. Everyone was talking and rumours were being bandied about and gaining in strength as they passed. There was something very akin to panic in the air and the staff which was controlling the issue of permits to HK was quite inadequate.

Mike, having to cross to contact Talan, I remained in the hotel changing into civilian clothes to avoid undue attention. The atmosphere in the main lounge was both depressing and exasperating. The Japanese were at Jordan Road – Chinese were looting – fifth columnists with Tommy guns were out in force – houses of people were being robbed – no more people were to be allowed over to the island – all these rumours were flying around and the two cheering incidents were the cheerful bearing with fools of the receptionist – a large plump girl – who stood behind the desk and dealt with all requests for information in the same placid manner although most of the male staff seemed to have urgent business calls across the harbour and the Portuguese matron who had evidently been coerced into coming to the hotel and who now, disgusted with the fuss, waddled out of the hotel declaring that she would rather meet the Japs. in her own house. About 3 in the afternoon my plump friend behind the desk called me aside with the information that orders had been received to evacuate to the island. This put a new face on things since if Kowloon fell it was obviously going to be more difficult to regain contact with our group and, failing to contact Mike by phone, I went along to the police barrier at the ferry to await him there.

Crowds were thronging the gates – quite a few without the necessary pass and, to add to the confusion, walking wounded were crossing and those mainly men of the Indian Battalion who had been on the Taipo Road. Cars too were piling up on the road 5 - 6 deep with the police doing what they could to immobilise them but with neither the time or men to carry this out.

By 6 I had not yet made contact so, crossing over to the island, I tried again but still could not find anyone. Getting back to Kowloon was even more difficult than getting out but by attaching myself to a party of Royal Scots who were going over to collect motor cycles etc, I managed across. The party was led by the padre, Bennett, truly the church militant, whose large and rather noisy presence was exactly what his man needed – most of them H.Q. staff and a few newly out of hospital.

It was evident now that there was looting in Kowloon, large fires could be seen burning and, as the lurid glare spread over the water front to the accompaniment of hoarse howling, it sounded truly like a witches’ dance. On reaching the Peninsula I found it was barred but by shouting the door opened and I was confronted by two of the boys armed with batons ready to do battle for their lives. Inside things had been organised – guards patrolling – food being regulated, sleeping quarters allocated – all with a business like efficiency which put to shame the panicky mob of a few hours before. It was a fine effort by those people – all civilians – this attempt to safeguard their families against the looting which undoubtedly was rife.

My search for Mike still being of no avail, off I went back to HK. Still in vain, however, and I decided that V.H.Q. should at least supply a bed. On reporting I got much more than a bed – news having got around that the Rec. Unit had been totally wiped out and after a feed, of biscuits washed well down with some beer, I found a bed with Mike Carruther’s armoured cars which had just returned from Kowloon more or less covered with glory, having covered the retreat, acted as buffer in the day’s retreat, held positions in the Tsun Wan Road, and with one of their cars blown off the road by our own troops. No.1 Coy. too were back from Kai Tak with news of the military evacuation of Kowloon, which however did not finish till the following evening when the Indians came off Devil’s Peak.

Sleeping was an amusing affair – starting in the open beside the C.S.O. and finishing in the Air Raid Tunnel opposite.

So we were evacuating – although I had been somewhat prepared after last night’s show still, like most people, I had not been prepared for all the New Territories going in four days and the realisation of what this meant – complete siege, troops and civilians packed in a small area – ability of the enemy to bring up guns and shell Victoria – and the distance of water between Kowloon and Victoria – came home to one very rapidly.