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

The following morning (Dec 13th) I was ordered to take some lorries to Aberdeen and await the arrival of HMS Thracian, which was bringing the rearguard over from Kowloon.  The main body had been brought over in the afternoon and night of the 12th.

When the “Thracian” arrived I had the opportunity of talking to Brig. Wallace who expressed the greatest admiration for the Japanese soldiers.  He told me they were extremely well armed and thoroughly competent.  He estimated they were in very large numbers and that had been the deciding factor in eliminating our small force, for although their casualties had been very heavy there was always a fresh man to fill the gap, whereas our force was too small to start with and was utterly exhausted by three to four days continual fighting.  Also the complete lack of aircraft added greatly to our difficulties.

On the night of the 13th we again went to Stanley, this time we worked all night.  The one big gun out of the three at Stanley which was able to fire landwards was firing three shells every half hour.  These guns were supposed to be extremely accurate and the gunners were confident they were inflicting considerable damage, but of course they had no air reports to help them.