HQLF Hong Kong 1950s | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

HQLF Hong Kong 1950s

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Submitted by pauline on Tue, 2011-02-15 00:20
I am trying to discover more about why my husband, who served in the army in Hong Kong as a national serviceman in the 1950s,  had had to sign the Official Secrets Act, and what it was that went on in HQLF at that time.  I believe that the work was connected with coded messages sent across the border from,  what was then known as 'red', China,  my husband never told me exactly what it was that they did but I believe that he was posted there because of his skill at mathematics and logic and problem solving so that would make sense.  I know that national servicemen in the Air Force were taught Chinese and used to monitor broadcasts but does anyone know if the army used national servicemen in a similar way in intelligence operations?  My husband did not speak Chinese but seeing patterns in numbers and so on was child's play to him so perhaps this skill was useful,  I would love to know.  He certainly worked in HQLF as his address at the time,  1954/55,  was  "G"  INT,  HQLF   BAPO 1  Hong Kong, and he told me,  before our marriage,  that he could be recalled at any time at a moments notice but,  because of the Official Secrets Act,  he could not tell me why.  Thankfully that never happened but I am now very curious, and any help in solving the mystery would be much appreciated.
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Submitted by David on Tue, 2011-02-15 13:37.

Dear Pauline,

Sorry I don't know anything about "G" INT, but HQLF was the "Headquarters, Land Forces". It was a building in the Victoria Barracks area on Hong Kong Island, and I think it was built in the late 1930s.

If you look at this map and zoom in, you should see map square G6 at the bottom. In there you can see the word 'Barracks'. That's the Victoria Barracks area. Below that word there's a building marked in black, curving around from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock. That was the HQLF building.

If you are comfortable with it, you may also want to post your husband's name and the part of the army he served in. There's a chance that someone serving in the same section will be searching the web for old friends, and find this page.

Regards, David

Submitted by pauline on Thu, 2011-02-17 20:40.

     Thank you for the map David,  interesting as i know my husband lived in the Victoria Barracks,  he obviously didn't have far to go to work and no excuse for being late!  I wonder where the steps down to the Battle Box were located and if that was where he went.

Submitted by David on Sat, 2011-02-19 15:06.

The steps to the Battle Box are described here.

Regards, David

Submitted by pauline on Mon, 2011-02-21 00:04.

   Thanks again David,  I have, thanks to 'British Barracks Photo Collection' by 80s kid on the site, now found a link to two photos of the battle box in Hong Kong,  one shows the obviously derelict interior and the other shows the steps.  It all looks pretty bleak so probably taken a long time after my husband was there in HQLF but interesting nevertheless as I have never seen any photos of this complex before.

 

Submitted by pauline on Mon, 2011-02-21 00:04.

   Thanks again David,  I have, thanks to 'British Barracks Photo Collection' by 80s kid on the site, now found a link to two photos of the battle box in Hong Kong,  one shows the obviously derelict interior and the other shows the steps.  It all looks pretty bleak so probably taken a long time after my husband was there in HQLF but interesting nevertheless as I have never seen any photos of this complex before.

 

Submitted by pauline on Mon, 2011-02-21 02:14.

   Hi again David,

    You knew more than you thought you did!  I have just looked at 'Layout of the Battle Box 1954'  which you submitted in 2009 and,  guess what,  there was a room in the Battle Box clearly labelled G (INT) ARMY,  so there you have it,  that is where my husband was in 1954.  I cannot thank you enough but now that I have more idea of what the combined operations were doing in there I know why my husband did not talk about it even to me.

 

 

Submitted by pauline on Wed, 2011-03-09 07:36.

Hi again David.  I seem to be answering my own questions here but I now know that 'G' Branch,  of which my husband was a member, were responsible for operations and intelligence.  they would have been under the command of a Lieut. Colonel and the intelligence section was responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence information about the enemy and the office also controlled maps and geographical information systems and data. So my guess would be that this is what was going on in the Battle Box in 1954/55.

Best Regards.  Pauline.

Submitted by pauline on Mon, 2011-03-14 03:13.

Hi David,

I think I ought to begin by thanking everyone who has helped me to put together this summary of what I have discovered so far about HQLF  Hong Kong in the 1950s and the part that my husband played in the work that went on there.  I still have no idea why a national serviceman was selected for the work that he did but I now have more understanding of why he could not talk about it.

My husband sailed for Hong Kong in March 1954 probably on the troopship Devonshire stopping at Aden 2/4/54, Colombo 9/4/54 and Singapore 15/4/54.  On the way the ship passed the Empire Windrush which was to sink only a few days later.  On arrival in Hong Kong he became part of "G" Branch at HQLF in Victoria Barracks working in "G" INT.

"G" Branch in the British Army is derived from the Prussian Grosse generalstab (Great General Staff) and now denotes the branch responsible for operations and intelligence "G" OPS being operations and "G" INT intelligence. The intelligence section is responsible for collecting and analysing intelligence information about an enemy and the office may also control maps and geographical information systems and data. They would be under the command of the General GS (a Lieutenant Colonel) and he would be GS01,  GS02 would be a Major and GS03 a Captain.

How many were in "G" Branch in Hong Kong I don't know but one of my husband's photos of a "G" Branch outing to Lamma Island includes a Colonel, a Major and a Captain plus six others including himself. None of them are in uniform. Other photos, taken at a party in HQLF, do include several army Officers in uniform and these include Brigadier Hugh Bellamy, who was Deputy General Officer Commanding Hong Kong 1954 - 1956 and, also Lt. Col. Jeffords and Lt. Col. Le Feuvre. One Major is also named, Major L. Bussell, and six Captains.  Nothing is known about any of these except a Capt. Galula and, he may be the clue as to what sort of work was going on at that time.

 David Galula grew up in Tunisia and Morocco, he was educated in St Cyr, and fought with the Free French from North Africa to Toulon. He was then taken under the wing of a noted Sinologist in the French Army and learnt Chinese in Bejing before becoming involved in the Chinese Civil War and being captured by Mao's troops. He later spent a decade in China and Hong Kong before moving to the USA. He was an expert in counterinsurgency Warfare and,  from 1952 to February 1956 he served as a military attache at the French Consulate in Hong Kong. He died in France in 1967 aged 48. He has been considered an important theorist by contemporary defence experts.

Knowing all of this it now sems probable that he was involved with the work of "G" Branch and "G" INT and "G" OPS in 1954 and 1955 when my husband was there.

Where my husband worked now seems fairly clear too as,located underneath Victoria Barracks and accessed by 109 steps, was a complex known as the Battle Box. A plan of this Battle Box dated 1954 (thank you David) shows, very clearly, rooms marked "G" INT Army and "G" OPS Army. The Battle Box was a combined forces headquarters and Naval and Air Force personnel also worked in there too. It was manned in 24/7 shifts and, during the 1950s, it was an emergency shelter and comms(standby) in case of nuclear war so, presumably, this explains why my husband told me that he could be recalled at any time at a moments notice but that he could not tell anyone, not even me, why. I do not believe that he told his parents even this much. From the designations of the rooms in the complex, in the 1954 plan, it seems obvious that this was the hub of intelligence operations and that those who worked in there played a vital role in the Cold War, but that its presence was largely unknown to those in Hong Kong at the time.

Pauline.

Submitted by David on Mon, 2011-03-14 15:34.

Pauline,

Well done for piecing this together, and thank you for sharing what you've learned.

You finish by saying that the presence of the Battle Box was "largely unknown to those in Hong Kong at the time." It stayed that way for a long time, as you can see from this introduction to a 1983 report (Agreement no. CE 11/77):

During the setting out for the proposed access road to the Queensway New Supreme Court in Victoria Barracks a number of ventilation sshafts were discovered on the road's alignment. It was known that the disused Combined Services Underground Operating Headquarters lay beneath the Barracks in the area, but no detail of the exact position or extent of the Headquarters could be found.

regards, David

Submitted by David on Wed, 2011-04-27 18:38.

His time in Hong Kong is described in the book "David Galula: His Life and Intellectual Context" (free download), listed on the SSI website.

Regards, David

Submitted by pauline on Thu, 2011-04-28 06:11.

Thank you David for the link.  I have had a look and it's fascinating reading,  I still find it hard to believe that I have photos of this man in my husband's photo album,  but there is obviously a connection between him and the combined forces operations in the Battle Box so that must be how their paths crossed.

Regards Pauline.