70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Today the weather has broken again; it is windy, with low clouds and poor visibility. We wondered if the US planes would visit HK again or whether, because of the bad flying conditions, would give it a miss. We felt that, if they did come in this bad weather they might be working at some schedule for an invasion here or nearby and not just taking advantage of the fine weather to damage Japanese installations and military objectives.

Well, they did come again; at about one o’clock this time, and again they dropped a lot of heavy stuff. There was a short raid too at about 5 a.m. this morning, before daylight. I wonder what it all means. The paper quoted an article in an American paper which said that it is unlikely that the British Fleet will engage the Japanese Fleet, but no doubt it will be used in the recapture of Singapore and HK. This, the Japanese claim, is because of disagreement between the US and British naval authorities, stating that the Americans allege the British warships are out of date and of no use for long range activities. The Americans have obviously been equipping their ships for very long range action in the Pacific, but I hardly think the British Fleet can be too slow and out of date to be of any use. However, perhaps I am predjudiced! Anyway, if the British Fleet were to retake HK I should not grumble!