08 Dec 1941, Major John Monro MC RA diary of the Battle of Hong Kong

About 6:00am on Monday 8th I was woken up, called to the telephone and told that war was imminent with Japan.  By the time I got to H.Q. we were at war.  About 8:00am the first Japanese bombers came over.  They did a lot of damage at the Aerodrome, destroying 7 C.N.A.C. planes, The Clipper, most of the RAF planes and the two Walruses.  They were unopposed.  The volunteer A.A. platoon had drawn no ammunition, I suppose because the day before was a Sunday.  The gunboat supposed to be in the seaplane anchorage was being used for something else.  The Japs made rapid progress down the Taipo Road, and by the evening we were back in Shatin.  H.Q. were gravely disappointed with the Stanley guns.  They have shot too big a line, boasted that they could get almost to Taipo, in actual fact they can only reach about 1500 yards beyond Shatin Station.  We were unable to answer several calls for fire as the targets have been out of range.

All the demolitions were successful though we were asked to shoot at the Brothers Point “blow” as the slide had been checked by a retaining wall.  Mt. Davis fired five rounds but with what effect we could not tell.