Battle of Hong Kong

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Battle of Hong Kong began on the 8th of December 1941, at almost the exact moment Japan struck Pearl Harbor. Within seventeen days, a British Crown Colony that had stood for a century fell to the Empire of Japan. The garrison defending it numbered over fourteen thousand personnel drawn from Britain, India, Canada, and the colony itself. They faced a force that had been assembling north of the Sham Chun River since the start of December, waiting. What follows is the story of those seventeen days: why Hong Kong was considered nearly indefensible long before the first shot was fired, how a single redoubt fell in a single night and unraveled a defensive line meant to hold for weeks, what happened on the beaches and in the hospitals and field dressing stations as the Japanese pushed south, and why the day Governor Young surrendered is still remembered in Hong Kong as Black Christmas.

• 2. A Colony Already Doubted

  ›

  Britain first identified Japan as a potential threat with the ending of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1921. Through the 1930s, the escalation of the Second Sino-Japanese War and Japan's invasion of French Indochina sharpened that concern. On the 21st of October 1938, Japan occupied Canton, and Hong Kong found itself surrounded on the landward side. British defence studies concluded the colony would be extremely hard to defend in a Japanese attack, but construction on improvements including the Gin Drinkers' Line continued into the mid-1930s. By 1940, the British had decided to reduce the Hong Kong Garrison to a symbolic size.

  Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham argued that limited reinforcements could at least delay an attack and buy time elsewhere. Winston Churchill and the general staff overruled him, designating Hong Kong an outpost and declining to send more troops. Then, in September 1941, they reversed course. The new argument held that additional troops would deter Japan and reassure Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek that Britain intended to defend the colony seriously.

  US Consul Robert Ward, the highest-ranking American official in Hong Kong in the period before the battle, later offered a blunt assessment of why the defences collapsed so quickly. He pointed to the prejudiced attitudes of the colony's rulers, quoting some of them directly as saying they would rather hand the island to the Japanese than employ Chinese to defend it. His account captured an institutional failure that shaped the colony's readiness for what was coming.

  The history manual of the United States Military Academy put it plainly: Japanese control of Canton, Hainan Island, French Indo-China, and Formosa had, in its words, 'virtually sealed the fate of Hong Kong well before the firing of the first shot'. The British military in Hong Kong grossly underestimated Japanese capabilities, and assessments that raised the alarm were dismissed as unpatriotic and insubordinate.

• 3. The Garrison and C Force

  ›

  On the 8th of December 1941, the Hong Kong Garrison mobilised a total of just over fourteen thousand personnel. The breakdown was precise: 14,564 British, 2,428 Indian, 1,787 Canadian, 2,112 members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, 2,254 from the Auxiliary Defence Units, and 1,982 in nursing detachments.

  The Canadian contingent, known as C Force, had arrived on the 16th of November aboard a troopship and an armed merchant cruiser. It comprised the Royal Rifles of Canada, recruited in Quebec, and the Winnipeg Grenadiers from Manitoba, along with a brigade headquarters totaling 1,975 personnel. Ninety-six officers and 1,877 other ranks disembarked, along with medical officers, nurses, dental officers, chaplains, and a postal detachment.

  Neither battalion arrived combat-ready in any meaningful sense. The Royal Rifles had served only in Newfoundland and New Brunswick before posting to Hong Kong. The Winnipeg Grenadiers had been deployed to Jamaica. Few of the men had field experience. The battalions carried only two anti-tank rifles and had no ammunition for their 2-inch and 3-inch mortars or signal pistols, with resupply expected after their arrival. Their vehicles never came at all. The US merchant ship San Jose, carrying C Force's equipment, was diverted to Manila by the American government at the outbreak of the Pacific War.

  The Royal Air Force presence at Kai Tak Airport amounted to five aircraft: two Supermarine Walrus amphibious planes and three outdated Vickers Vildebeest torpedo-reconnaissance bombers, serviced by seven officers and 108 airmen. An earlier request for a fighter squadron had been rejected. The nearest operational RAF base with fighters was in Kota Bharu, Malaya, nearly 2,250 kilometres away. The Royal Navy's contribution was described in official accounts as little more than a token display, consisting of three World War I vintage destroyers, four river gunboats, and a small motor torpedo boat flotilla.

  At the RAF station at Kai Tak, by 08:00 on the 8th of December, twelve Japanese bombers had destroyed two of the three Vildebeests and both Walruses. From that point on, the RAF and air unit personnel fought as ground troops.

• 4. The Mainland Falls

  ›

  At 04:45 on the 8th of December, Radio Tokyo announced that war was imminent. General Maltby and Governor Young were informed. Fifteen minutes later, British engineers detonated charges destroying bridges on the likely invasion routes. At 06:00, Japanese forces crossed the Sham Chun River: the 230th, 229th, and 228th Regiments advanced from west to east, pushing toward Yuen Long, Chek Nai Ping, and the Lam Tsuen valley.

  The Gin Drinkers' Line was supposed to hold for at least three weeks. It lasted less than one night. On the 9th of December, Colonel Doi of the IJA 228th Regiment was reconnoitring the Shing Mun Redoubt when he found it unprepared for assault. Although the redoubt lay outside his regimental boundary, he developed an attack plan. The entire position was defended by three officers and 39 soldiers. A 150-man attacking force had crossed the Jubilee Dam and was in position just below one of the pillboxes without being detected. At 23:00, the defenders spotted movement and opened fire, but the Japanese overran the complex of trenches and tunnels progressively through the night. Pillbox 402 was destroyed by Japanese sappers at 02:30. Artillery at Stonecutter's Island and Mount Davis pounded the redoubt until 05:00, but by morning it was gone. Japanese casualties in the assault: two soldiers killed.

  On the 11th of December, General Maltby concluded that Kowloon and the New Territories could not be held. He ordered a full evacuation. Demolition teams went to work, and units began their withdrawals south. The 5/7th Rajputs fell back to Ma Yau Tong to protect the Lye Moon Passage. The 2/14th Punjab became split during their night march, with one group fighting their way down to Tsim Sha Tsui and evacuating by Star Ferry. HMS Tamar was scuttled in the harbour. By the morning of the 13th of December, the last defenders had boarded boats to Hong Kong Island. The defenders had abandoned two of the colony's three territories inside a week.

• 5. The Island Under Fire

  ›

  Maltby split the island's defence between an East Brigade and a West Brigade. Brigadier John K. Lawson commanded the West Brigade from a headquarters at the top of Wong Nai Chung Gap. Brigadier Cedric Wallis led the East Brigade from Tai Tam Gap. The Middlesex Regiment was distributed across 72 pillboxes along the island shoreline. The Royal Rifles of Canada were responsible for the northeast of the island all the way around to Stanley.

  On the 13th of December, a Japanese delegation crossed the harbour to offer surrender terms. The offer was rejected. Japanese artillery immediately began targeting Hong Kong Island, disabling one of the 9.2-inch guns on Mount Davis that same morning and knocking out a 3-inch gun on the 14th. On the 17th, the Japanese offered surrender again. Again the defenders refused.

  On the 18th of December, the assault on the island began in earnest. At 20:00, the first wave of Japanese troops, drawn from the 2/228th and 3/230th Regiments, began paddling across the harbour toward the Taikoo Dockyard and the sugar refinery. Searchlights illuminated them and the 5/7th Rajputs opened fire. The boats scattered and both battalion commanders were wounded. Colonel Doi, crossing with the second wave, assumed command. By 21:45, three Japanese units had landed at North Point and Sai Wan. By 21:38 the 2/229th had come ashore at Sai Wan and the 3/229th at Aldrich Bay. By midnight all six Japanese battalions were ashore.

  Brigadier Lawson's headquarters at Wong Nai Chung Gap was encircled by 07:00 on the 19th. At 10:00 he radioed that his position was surrounded and that he was 'going outside to shoot it out'. He and his entire command group were struck by Japanese machine gun fire from across the gap. Lawson died of blood loss on the hill behind his bunker.

• 6. War Crimes and the Hospitals

  ›

  The night of the 18th and the 19th of December brought some of the battle's most systematic atrocities. Japanese soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 229th Infantry Regiment murdered surrendered gunners of the 5th Battery, Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps at Sai Wan. Twenty prisoners were bayoneted; two survived. A company from the same battalion then entered the Salesian Mission in Shau Kei Wan, which was operating as a dressing station, and killed those inside. Four men survived. Captain Stanley Martin Banfill of the Royal Rifles, who witnessed the execution of his men, reported that the leading Japanese officer stated: 'Order is all captives must die'.

  On the 22nd of December, Japanese soldiers at Deepwater Bay beheaded prisoners taken from Pillbox 14. Around thirty civilians of various backgrounds were massacred on Blue Pool Road when soldiers of the 230th Infantry Regiment entered from the south. Among the dead were local businessman Lam Ming-fan and three of his relatives, as well as officials of the Nationalist Chinese government who had sheltered in the houses along the road. Prominent businessman and philanthropist Tang Shiu-kin, who was at the same location, survived.

  On the night of the 24th of December, soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 229th Regiment stormed the field hospital at St. Stephen's College. They murdered the medical personnel and wounded soldiers inside. Nurses were raped and then murdered. This was described as the largest-scale war crime committed against the garrison during the battle. Twelve nurses were raped at the emergency hospital at Happy Valley racecourse on Christmas Day itself.

  Estimated civilian deaths under the three years and eight months of subsequent Japanese occupation reached approximately 10,000 executions, alongside widespread torture, rape, and mutilation. General Takashi Sakai, who led the invasion and later served as governor, was tried as a war criminal and executed by firing squad in 1946.

• 7. Surrender and Its Costs

  ›

  On Christmas morning 1941, Governor Young informed Rear Admiral Andrew Chan of his intent to surrender. Chan chose instead to break out. He was given command of the five remaining motor torpedo boats and, along with 68 men including Lieutenant Commander Henry Hsu and David Mercer MacDougall, was successfully evacuated to Mirs Bay. There, the group contacted Nationalist guerrillas and was escorted to Huizhou. For this, Chan was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

  At 15:30 on the 25th of December 1941, Governor Young and General Maltby surrendered in person to General Sakai at the Japanese headquarters on the third floor of the Peninsula Hotel. At Stanley, Brigadier Wallis refused to surrender without a written order, which reached him at 02:30 on the 26th. Isolated pockets held out even longer. The Central Ordnance Munitions Depot, known as 'Little Hong Kong', surrendered on the 27th of December. The garrison had held for 17 days. It was the first time a British Crown Colony had surrendered to an invading force.

  Allied casualties from the battle were 1,111 killed, 1,167 missing, and 1,362 wounded, though sources vary on the precise figures. Of the Indian personnel, 1,164 out of 3,893 garrisoned were battle casualties. The 5/7th Rajput Regiment bore the heaviest regimental losses: 156 killed or died of wounds, 113 missing, and 193 wounded. C Force suffered 23 officers and 267 other ranks killed or dead of wounds; 28 officers and 465 other ranks were wounded. Of the Canadians captured, 267 subsequently died in Japanese prisoner of war camps, mainly due to neglect and abuse.

  By the end of February 1942, the Japanese government reported a total of 10,947 prisoners of war in Hong Kong: 5,072 British, 3,829 Indian, 1,689 Canadian, and 357 others. They were distributed across camps at Sham Shui Po, Argyle Street, North Point, and Ma Tau Chung, as well as facilities in Yokohama, Fukuoka, and Osaka. In December 2011, Japan's parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs, Toshiyuki Kato, apologised for the mistreatment of Canadian veterans of the battle.

• 8. Gallantry and Its Record

  ›

  Among the decorations awarded in the battle's wake, one went to a Newfoundland dog named Gander. Serving with the Royal Rifles of Canada, Gander picked up a thrown Japanese grenade and ran with it toward the enemy, dying in the explosion but saving the lives of several wounded Canadian soldiers. He was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal, described as the animals' Victoria Cross, in 2000 - the first such award in over fifty years.

  Sergeant-Major John Robert Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers smothered a Japanese grenade with his body during fighting at Mount Butler on the 20th of December, sacrificing himself to protect the men around him. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

  Colonel Lance Newnham, Captain Douglas Ford, and Flight Lieutenant Hector Bertram Gray each received the George Cross for resisting Japanese torture after capture. The three had been planning a mass escape by British forces when the plan was discovered. They refused to disclose information under interrogation and were shot by firing squad. Captain Mateen Ansari of the 5/7th Rajputs also received the George Cross. The Japanese spent more than five months trying to get Ansari to renounce his allegiance and spread subversion among Indian prisoners. He refused under torture and starvation. He was executed by beheading on the 20th of October 1943.

  Britain's defeat in Hong Kong, alongside the fall of Singapore in 1942, irreparably damaged its standing in Asia as a military power. The colonial shield granted to Hong Kong in 1959 incorporated a battlement design specifically to commemorate the defence of the colony during the Second World War, and that coat of arms remained in place until 1997.