24 Dec 1941. R. E. Jones Wartime diary

Frying bacon on a Chinese chatty in the middle of a dance floor has its humourous side. Grabbed some salvage, tinned peas, cocoa, milk & packet of Woodbines & a Mills bomb.

Shelling commence 11.30AM & ended 1PM leaving us with a 5.9 dud at our door. Shop next door damaged so we collected more salvage, mineral waters mostly.

Planes bombed Fort & snipers active locally.

All set for night watches but at 7.30PM Major Forsyth took over & our section changed position to SE corner of wooden hut E of Police Station. Lousy position too with a frontage that shut off the view at 20* due to rise in ground. Left flank was the road, right flank McTavish & one section, rear Vickers guns in strengthened position on the fork in the road. Canadians marched out.

8.50PM heard the rattle of tanks on Island Rd as they approached the village (Jap). 2 knocked out by anti-tank gun & hell broke loose. Everything opened up on them & the Jap troops with them who were urged on by peculiar cries from their Commander.

The Japs spread out each side of the Rd. & bombed our lads out. We got on to the Rd. hoping to get a better advantage point but we could only see as far as the police station. Shot at by our own men. (Grants section, I think) bullets tore up the rd. 3 ft. from me. Got on to Fort Rd to cover Middlx. position. Ran out of ammunition so retired 100 yds to Garage. Middlx. grenaded out and we made our way to the Fort at about 2.30AM