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

((Monro was writing on the 26th, referring to the events of the 25th:))

Yesterday from about 8.00am till 12 noon there was a truce.  So far as I could see this meant that we did nothing while the Japs Artillery continued to shell us.  They certainly did not observe it.  There was nothing for me to do at Battle H.Q. so the C.R.A. allowed me to go up the Peak and look round our few remaining positions.  I went up the path which leads from Garden Road to the Upper Peak Tram Station.  Near the top it had been shot away by shells aimed at the station.  After considerable search I found West Group H.Q. in a culvert under Lugard Road.  Crowe had been shelled out of 3 houses where he had established his H.Q. he hoped this hideout would last longer.  Fortunately the weather was dry.  Then I went to Austin. Kishen Singh was in charge.  One of the guns was at full recoil and wouldn’t run up.  I suspect that they haven’t been keeping it topped up with oil and air.  The fitters managed to right it later in the day. 

From there I went to the Peak School to the garden of which the 4.5 Hows from Kellet Road had been moved.  John Vinter was in charge.  He seemed rather torpid but it was hardly surprising as he had been up the whole night moving the guns.  I tried to find the O.P. which was somewhere in the direction of the Tod’s old house, but I was shelled as I went along the path which came into view of the enemy, and had to make a bolt for it.  At the Peak Club in Landales garage I found a noisy party of the food control department.  They were celebrating Christmas and were a little tipsy.  They asked me to come and join them.  I refused and went on to Gough.  Hoyland was in charge.  He doesn’t know much about field gunnery but he has run his show well.  He is slow and imperturbable, just the person for the Indians.  His were the steadiest and most cheerful that I saw. 

Sanatorium had only one gun in action.  They had a scare the night before and abandoned the position.  One bright spark threw the L.B.M. down a borehole latrine.  They have been trying to dig it out all day.  On the way back I called in at the War Memorial to see if I could find out anything about Geoffrey Proes and to see Dinie.  Geoffrey Proes was not there.  Dinie looked fit but tired.  She was in the operating room and described herself as up to the elbows in blood.  She must be one of the few women in Hong Kong who look as well without their make up as they do with it.  I tried to reassure her but I think she knows that this end is inevitable.  She was not complaining.  She had stayed behind of her own free will and she did not regret it.

The white flag was hoisted above the Battle Box. About 3.00pm we had the order to surrender. Immediately there was an orgy of destruction in H.Q., rifles, revolvers, Tommy guns, compasses, field glasses and the few remaining secret documents were all destroyed.  Someone suggested that our revolver ammunition had expanding bullets.  If the Japs found them we would all be shot, so they were hidden away in all sorts of queer places.  The air ducts in Battle H.Q. must hold hundreds of rounds.  Then the C.S.O. Colonel Levett came down in a great state of mind swearing that some of our guns were still firing.  He for one had no wish to be murdered after the surrender because we wouldn’t order our guns to cease fire.  He and the C.R.A  became very heated.  He was so insistent that finally Paddy and I went out to see if one really was still in action.  The cause of the trouble was a burning carrier on the Murray parade ground.  It was like a firework.  Hand grenades and small arms ammunition were exploding with the heat giving a fair imitation of a furious street fight.  Rather naturally the Japs were plastering the area with a gun the other side of the harbour, its echo from the Peak sounded exactly as if there were a gun somewhere near the botanical gardens.

Battle H.Q. was filled with strangers, mostly Canadians.  Much beer flowed.  The Military Police mess was being looted.  It looked for a time if the men might get thoroughly out of hand.  Paddy and I were ordered to smash all the drink in our mess.  We smashed up a crate of beer and were getting busy on a crate of champagne when Andrews, Levinge and Hopkins ordered us to stop.  We went to Peffers who immediately sent for them, gave them the hell of a raspberry and ordered us to continue.  We smashed two cases of champagne and 8 or 9 cases of beer.  It went against the grain particularly breaking up the champagne.  Even so the troops were getting hold of quite a number of bottles.  Paddy and I “disarmed” several very tipsy Canadians with bottles hidden in the front of their battle dress.

Last night an officer’s guard was placed at each entrance of H.Q.