11 Dec 1941, A. H. Potts' wartime diary

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.