70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Shows diary entries from seventy-one years ago, using today's date in Hong Kong as the starting point. To see pages from earlier dates (they go back to 1 Dec 1941), choose the date below and click the 'Apply' button.

  • 12 Nov 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary

    Submitted by Barbara Anslow on Mon, 2012-03-05 18:23
    Book / Document: 
    Barbara Anslow's diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 12 Nov 1942

    Today's rumours: Italy is asking for peace at any price; we have declared war on Spain and landed there; Germany has asked Russia and England for a truce but Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill all say they will fight to the bitter end.  The only part people believe is that maybe Italy has capitulated, but we've heard that before.

    Another rumour = Tokyo has cabled Japanese to treat internees (British) with every consideration.

    Men have been clapped back into gaol again tonight.

    Mabel heard air raids in night, so did other people (not me). Major Manners says Taikoo and Kai Tak hit.

    News that Shanghai people ((in Stanley)) are going in December.

    This evening we opened one tin of Creamed Rice, it was delicious - rice pudding never tasted like that.  We sampled peanut butter this afternoon which someone gave Mabel. ((Peanuts were sometimes for sale in canteen.   We ground them in the rice grinder into peanut butter.))

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  • 12 Nov 1942, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2012-10-31 22:22
    Book / Document: 
    R. E. Jones Wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 12 Nov 1942

    Very tired today.

    Men to gaol re-started.

    More block meetings re bulk I.R.C.

    Didn’t walk with Steve this evening, too busy.

    ((G.))

  • 12 Nov 1942, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Submitted by Old Man on Wed, 2014-10-29 21:22
    Book / Document: 
    Eric MacNider's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 12 Nov 1942

    Block mtgs abt. Parcels

    Out of gaol cell, back in cell at night

  • 12 Nov 1942, WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China

    Submitted by ssuni86 on Wed, 2017-07-12 23:38
    Book / Document: 
    WW2 Air Raids over Hong Kong & South China
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 12 Nov 1942

    OBJECTIVE: Reconnaissance flight over San Chau and Hong Kong

    TIME OVER TARGET: ~7:15 a.m.

    AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT: Two P-40E1s from 16th Fighter Squadron (23rd Fighter Group, China Air Task Force, 10th Air Force)

    AMERICAN PILOTS AND AIRCREW: Captain Edmund H. Goss; 1st Lt. Robert H. Mooney

    ORDNANCE EXPENDED: None

    RESULTS: Pilots observe construction activity at San Chau airfield, but the only aircraft on the ground is a single transport plane.  At Hong Kong, the pilots use high-powered binoculars to observe ships in Victoria Harbor, including four to five large merchant vessels and two smaller vessels.

    JAPANESE UNITS, AIRCRAFT, AND PILOTS: None

    AIRCRAFT LOSSES: None

    SOURCES: Original mission report in the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama

    Information compiled by Steven K. Bailey, author of Bold Venture: The American Bombing of Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942-1945 (Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2019).

     

    Tags: 
    Air Raid
    air raids

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