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

The night passed without incident and on getting up the next morning (20th) I found it was drizzling.  There was no sound of firing from Wongneichong Gap and it appeared that the Japanese now held the Police Station, Tinson’s house and the Pillbox as we could see them wandering around quite casually.  We manned the parapet of the driveway in front of the houses with rifles and a few Lewis guns and were firing with some success at the various targets in the gap when we began to get a few casualties ourselves from some snipers up on the catchwater.  This forced us to retire into the houses as we were completely enfiladed and it was impossible to get at the snipers by sending a party after them as the catchwater was one hundred feet up a sheer hillside.

I was in the big semidetached house and after barricading the top windows with bales of uniform I placed Bren and Lewis guns at them and again engaged the targets in Wongneichong Gap.  I also similarly barricaded the windows on the opposite side of the house which commanded a view of the catchwater as it approached from Repulse Bay and from these windows one could also look down on the Repulse Bay Road and Deepwater Bay.

I had only been firing for a short while when I was called to the telephone and informed from the HQ that I was to cease firing and wait for further orders.  So we sat and waited, growing more and more restless as the day wore on.  During the afternoon we observed Japanese calmly walking along the catchwater from the Repulse Bay direction.  I again opened fire from the back window and again was telephoned and told to hold my fire.

That night I slept in this house.  I was very tired, very dirty, very hungry and very thirsty.

The Japanese had cut off the water on capturing Wongneichong Gap and we were reduced to drinking water from firebuckets and what rain water we had been able to collect.  The stench in the house was awful, it permeated everywhere, from the lavatories which could not be flushed and which our foolish troops had continued to use instead of going outside.

We had been without proper rations since the evening of 18th, catching the odd meal when possible and were now down to a few tins of “bully” and Army biscuits which also had to be carefully conserved.  If we were to remain in this place doing nothing but hide with not enough to eat or drink it was not my idea of a joke.