12 Dec 1941, Sheridan's diary of the hostilities

Today I make a trip into the Queens Road Depot with a lorry and some coolies to collect some more coke and wood for the Field ovens. I also pay a visit to my room in the Sgts. Mess to collect some underclothing. I have to leave my nice camphorwood box, filled with all sorts of items, i.e. two tennis rackets, two cameras, two albums, one grey suit white drill shirts, slacks and shorts, etc, Soon it will be looted no doubt.

The Chinese citizens seem bewildered. No trams are running, and the only transport moving belongs to the Military. The only person left in the Supply Depot is old Ip Fak and his family, he worked for the Barrack stores.

We load up with as much coke and wood as possible and set off for Deepwater Bay. Through Wanchai, the native district shows signs of shelling, but nothing very serious as yet. The normal teeming population of this area has disappeared off the streets. I expect a lot of them will be living in the air raid shelters. At Wong-Nei-Chong gap on the Repulse Bay road there are a series of concrete Pill boxes, these are manned by some Canadian troops. I stop and have a few minutes chat with them. They do not seem to know what’s happening and have not been here long enough to know the layout of the Island of Hong Kong.