It’s Dad’s 110th birthday today. I have been watching the D-Day commemoration and a dramatisation of tape recorded interviews with men who were there (BBC: D-Day the Unheard Tapes). The eye witness testimony was shocking and chilling. I hope, but doubt, that the men being interviewed were given psychological support as they were clearly being re-traumatised by telling their stories. It did remind me of the saying “there’s three sides to every story – yours, mine and the cold hard truth.” These young men, British, American and German, experienced something that no news report on either side ever told.

I was recently sent a newspaper cutting (possibly The Times or The Telegraph) regarding the situation in Hong Kong at 17 December 1941. The article includes the following statements:

“Conditions of full siege exist. The colony is in good heart, with plenty of food, arms and ammunition, and the garrison is confident of the outcome.”

“The Governor, Sir Mark Young, is stated to have declared that British subjects and those who have sought the protection of the of the Empire can rest assured that there will never be any surrender to the Japanese.“

“The Tokyo Radio states: Hong Kong is doomed to destruction within three months according to Japanese experts. The announcer claimed that the troops defending the colony were completely cut off, and that the island was faced with starvation, even without any further attacks.“

Meanwhile Dad’s eye witness account states, on 16 December 1941:

“For the past three days the Japs have been shelling us very heavily indeed.  Mt. Davis have had the worst of it.  One of the A.A guns has been knocked out.  About 11 men were killed when the enemy scored a direct hit on one of the shelters.  A dud shell hit the muzzle of the upper 9.2” gun and it appears to be slightly bent.  The plug gauge bore will no longer pass through it.  A shell (9”) came in through the old canteen along the passage into the plotting room and came to rest under the command exchange.“

On 18 December 1941 he says (‘RA East’ refers to the Royal Artillery’s division of Hong Kong Island into 2 parts – East and West. A ‘3.7 How’ is a 3.7″ Howitzer gun, designed for use in mountainous terrain, that could be dismantled for transport. First introduced in WW1) :

“Ted Hunt has been doing very well at R.A. East.  He has got a 3.7 How up on Sai Wan Redoubt to try and deal with the enemy guns and troops on Devil’s Peak.  Sai Wan has had the hell of a pasting today.  The A.P.C. oil tanks at North Point have been hit and are now in flames.  An enormous cloud of black smoke darkens the whole atmosphere (people go about with a worried, scared look on their faces).  It reminds me of pictures I have seen of the last day at the end of the world.“

It was only a week later that the colony surrendered to the Japanese.

Many thanks to Nick Trevor (mum’s godson) for sending me the cutting.