25 Oct 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
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The first American air raid on Hong Kong and parts of it are seen by the internees.
Details of the raid:
CHINA AIR TASK FORCE (CATF): 12 B-25s and 7 P-40s, led by Colonel Merian Cooper, hit Kowloon Docks at Hong Kong; 21 aircraft intercept; 1 B-25 and 1P-40 are shot down; this marks the first loss of a CATF B-25 in combat; the Japanese interceptors are virtually annihilated; during the night of 25/26Oct 6 B-25s, on the first CATF night strike, continue pounding Hong Kong, bombing the North Point power plant which provides electricity for the shipyards; 3 other B-25s bomb the secondary target, the Canton warehouse area, causing several large explosions and fires.
M. L. Bevan reports 'great jubilation'.
Edith Hamson:
I was working in the garden...when a slick-looking American aeroplane with a deep-droning engine swooped low overhead. As I watched it pass, I jumped up and raised my arms high in the sky and cheered. Everyone around me was doing the same, the reaction spreading through the camp. Arthur appeared from nowhere, his excitement overflowing as he screamed out with delight.
The raid prompts Edith and Arthur Hamson to make plans for Christmas in liberated Hong Kong.
The raid highlights the difficult position of Dr. Selwyn-Clarke: a report from a local agent sent to the BAAG hints that he might have warned the Japanese that the planes were coming, while the Japanese themselves seem to hold him personally responsible for the attack and keep him prisoner in his office for a time. In fact, he's furious at the attempt to bomb the power station because of the effect this would have had on Stanley if it had succeeded.
Internee George W. Buchanan dies. He was held at the Mee Chow Hotel before being sent to Stanley. He'd been a consulting engineeer and marine surveyor before the war. His son, Robert, was killed in action on the first day of the hostilities. His daughter, Ina, returned to Hong Kong after the war and became private secretary to Governor Sir Alexander Grantham.
Dr. J. P. Fehilly, formerly Senior Health Officer Hong Kong, and his wife, also a doctor, leave Hong Kong for Free China via Macao and Kwang Chow Wan. Fehilly was not interned as he was Irish, and Selwyn-Clarke told him to work with the Japanese, which he refused to do. He was warned by a Japanese friend that he was 'in their bad books' so planned to get away, first trying to leave as Medical Officer to the American repatriates and then through Russia. Their third attempt is successful and they arrive at Kweilin (Guilin) on November 24.
Sources:
Details of raid: http://www.pacificwrecks.com/60th/1942/10-42.html
Diary of M. L. Bevan: IWM, 523.1 (Bevan)
Edith Hamson: Allana Corbin, Prisoners Of The East, 2002, 187-188
Selwyn-Clarke prisoner: Emily Hahn, China To Me, 1986 ed., 382
Buchanan: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271; Comendador Arthur E. Gomes, Newsletter, December 11, 2001
Fehilly: BAAG document, December 18, 1942
Note:
Brief footage of the preparations and the raid itself can be seen at
And this clearer footage shown on British Pathe, January 14, 1943 is presumbaly the same raid:
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/u-s-activities-on-many-fronts-hong-kong/query/raids
