10 Dec 1941, Colin McEwan Diary

Following Mike’s departure we moved back up to the knoll looking over our former position and took cover among bushes as best we could, It was miserably cold. Tea had not been served out although it was available and for the first time among the troops I noticed decided “lack of morale”. Although only slightly noticeable at the time the next and subsequent happenings were soon to provide a reason for this. Already a Bren had been simply laid aside and with this as my weapon I became a Royal Scot. Cold it was – nothing was happening – a steady drizzle had begun and when we were withdrawn about 3-4 in the morning I for one went gladly. On reporting back, Fenwick assured me there would be no sport till morning, I contacted the C.Q.M.S – found it was Hendy – and proceeded to grab a bed.

On rising I found Fenwick had gone off up to his former position near the bungalow and luckily, finding a runner going the same way, I set off to salvage, if possible, any of our clothes only to meet Fenwick, thoroughly browned off, returning again on orders with no apparent reason and feeling pretty bloody minded about the whole show. By this time the indecision of the upper ranks was beginning to show in the troops and the spark of life had for the greater part left them. No one seemed to know what the position was and with trench mortar fire beginning from above the catchment, general depression was evident. 

There was still no telephone message or sign of Mike and in the late afternoon I set off to do a short reconnaissance up to the Shing Mun road to find out my best path for the evening. Approach to our farthest forward pill box was easy at first but, after a burst of Tommy gun fire from a Royal Scots sentry who fired without warning from about 20 yds. While I was hurling my 190 lbs. of weight into a ditch of stinking filth, I decided to become a Boy Scout and run and crawl. It was in the pill box, a fairly elaborate affair, that I first realised what really was wrong with the men – a feeling that they were shut in – even if in concrete and personally I did not feel too comfortable even as a visitor and if night had to be spent  there with the example of Shing Mun fresh in their minds little wonder signs of nerves were appearing. Quite a few too of the men were militia – not toughened for this type of war and most of the regulars seemed quite apathetic and looking all the time for guidance  and leadership which was forthcoming in only a few cases.

From this reconnaissance I arrived back at B Coy. H.Q. to find orders for withdrawal to the inner line. Just why they should withdraw then was vague as there had been no great pressure and the trench mortars, while constant, had done no great damage. However, going we were, and all attempts by phone failing to contact Mike, I reported back to Battalion H.Q. to find a phone to G.H.Q. The withdrawal itself seemed orderly enough but H.Q. was in a flap with people rushing about ineffectually apart from a few worthies who were going out to the Golden Hill area.

Luckily the Adjutant (Ely Guthbertson) told me that Mike was coming back later and in fact some “toys” were there. Those I duly took over and sat down to wait – passing my time by listening to the pipers recount what had happened and, for the umpteenth time, hear how the Japs. had climbed on top of the redoubt and dropped grenades down the air shafts.

Mike, as usual, arrived with a job – to mine the trails on Golden Hill, which job however, on the suggestion of Major Burn, was transferred to the left flank which was already unprotected. Off we set in brilliant moonlight with most of Kowloon lit up by a huge blaze on the waterfront in company with three Engineers who had volunteered for that special job. The location was a ridge from road to sea above Gindrinker’s Bay but, on arrival, we found the officer in charge had been fortifying himself too liberally against cold, the junior officers too were obeying orders which they felt were wrong and to crown it all, as the platoon to guard this stretch had been collected by the pipers, stretcher bearers, odds and sods under command of a L/Cpl. – all untrained men who walked to the top of the hill and lay on the skyline, visible in the moonlight for miles. Instead too of the tracks which we had been assured existed there was bare hillside; impossible country for our particular “toys”.

On arrival back at the road, we did another reconnaissance beyond the last road mine with the intention, if the Japs.. appeared to be there, of laying traps. There seemed no sign of them and the only other piece of excitement occurred when some Chinese came strolling up the road with the sentries allowing them to come close and only firing when Mike and I screamed about the mine. The speed with which ideas change – only two days and here, on the first realisation that saving a life might endanger my own, I was grabbing for my Tommy with only one idea in my mind, and swearing greatly the while. And so rather disappointedly to bed at 4.30.