Hong Kong

U.S. Army

Hong Kong (114.186E 22.279N) was the seat of British imperial power in China. Victoria Island had been ceded by the Chinese in 1842, after the First Opium War, and the New Territories on the mainland were administered by the British under a lease extending until 1997. However, by 1941, the position of the colony could only be described as exposed and vulnerable. Located on a particularly rugged section of coast, only 13% of the land was arable, and food constituted a quarter of all imports. Water was supplied to Victoria Island via an elaborate system of catchment basins and reservoirs. The population was swelled by refugees.

Hong Kong has a pronounced monsoon climate, with the rainy season peaking in August. Surprisingly, the temperature has been known to drop nearly to freezing in particularly cold winters.

Battle of Hong Kong

Churchill was inclined to write Hong Kong off as war loomed in the Pacific, but the British ultimately decided to reinforce the colony. Two battalions each of regular British, Indian, and Canadian troops were sent to join to the garrison (which originally consisted of a brigade of militia). The Indian battalions were well-trained, but the Canadian battalions had previously been assigned as guards at prisoner-of-war camps and to other garrison duty and were neither well-trained nor well-equipped. It did not help that the battalions were fleshed out with raw recruits just before embarking for Hong Kong. The troops had 58 guns organized into five batteries in support, but there were only three obsolete Vildebeestes, two equally obsolete Walruses, and thirteen civilian airliners at Kai Tak airport, and local naval forces were built around Thanet, Scout, and Stronghold, all obsolete Saber-class destroyers.

The Japanese detailed the 38^th Division from the 23^rd Army to the reduction of Hong Kong. This veteran division, 20,000 strong and supplied generously (by Japanese standards) with motor transport, could call for support from nearly 100 aircraft based at Tien Flo airbase outside Canton. A flotilla from China Area Fleet was assigned to enforce a sea blockade.

Japanese troops crossed the border four hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, advancing four miles before meeting elements of a covering force of engineers and infantry whose orders were to demolish bridges and otherwise delay the Japanese as long as possible. Maltby knew the frontier was indefensible with just three battalions, and planned to make the Gin Drinker's Line (named for Gin Drinker's Bay, which anchored one end) his main line of resistance on the mainland.

38 Division was well-equipped with bridging equipment, and it took the Japanese just two days to reach the Gin Drinker's Line in spite of the demolitions. Here the British hoped to hold for some time, but the Third Battalion, 228 Regiment drove the Royal Scots out of the Shing Mun redoubt in an unauthorized night attack. In an illustration of Japanese tactical inflexibility of the kind that would prove fatal later in the war, Sakai chastised the commander of the battalion for acting without orders, and ordered the Third Battalion to retreat from Shing Mun! The order was disobeyed, and Sakai reluctantly accepted the fait accompli. However, Sakai's order did prevent Third Battalion from immediately exploiting its success, and the Royal Scots were able to reform their line along Golden Hill.

Rumors spread among the Indian troops, who themselves fought very well throughout the battle, that the Scots had broken and fled in panic from the Shing Mung redoubt. This so stung the Scots that they fought ferociously when the Japanese tried to force Golden Hill, and they counterattacked against seemingly impossible odds after being forced to retreat from the position. The counterattack was momentarily successful, but fresh Japanese troops soon took the position from the exhausted Scots for good.

The loss of Golden Hill cut the supply route for the Punjabis and Rajputs and unhinged the Gin Drinker's Line, and by 13 December the British were forced to evacuate their remaining forces to Victoria Island. The evacuation was carried out in good order with assistance from Royal Navy destroyers, and demolition of facilities in Kowloon was systematic and thorough. The same day, the Japanese made their first surrender demand, which was rejected. The Japanese would have to storm the island. They began bringing up heavy artillery, and Hong Kong was soon under heavy bombardment by artillery and aircraft.

An initial Japanese landing attempt on 15 December was beaten off. However, this attempt was little more than a reconnaissance-in-force conducted by second-rate troops. It was followed by a second surrender demand on the 17th, which was again rejected. The Japanese made their main landings on the night of 18 December, crossing at Lei U Mun Passage and points west and rapidly securing a beachhead. Though the defenders put up a spirited defense, the Japanese were able cut through the center of the island, bottling up the remaining British troops in the west and south ends of the island. With the water supply cut, and fearing massive civilian casualties, Maltby surrendered on 25 December 1941 against the advice of his senior officers and the colony's governor, Mark Young.

Half of the 10,000 defenders were killed in the battle or in the subsequent atrocities, and the remainder endured years of dreadful treatment as prisoners of war. The Japanese lost about 3,000 troops.

The battle was notable for a high level of fifth column activities and for the atrocities that took place during and after the battle. There was heavy sniper activity on Hong Kong Island almost from the moment war broke out, and at least one Japanese officer was recognized by British prisoners of war as a barber who had worked in the British barracks. Fifth columnists overran an important position on the Hong Kong shore of Lie Mun on the night of the main landings and helped guide the assault troops across the passage. A 9" artillery piece was smuggled into Kowloon before war broke out, and surreptitiously assembled in a tin shed near the Kowloon golf course, where it had a clear field of fire.

Atrocities committed by Japanese troops included the bayoneting of wounded men in captured British hospitals and the murder of many of their doctors and nurses. Prisoners were treated poorly, often being killed out of hand. Nurses and other women were raped and murdered. Japanese commanders encouraged their troops to regard all local women as prostitutes and treat them accordingly. The rampage continued for two weeks after the capitulation, at which point discipline was suddenly and swiftly restored. There is ample reason to believe that the two weeks of terror was a deliberate policy meant to humiliate Westerners in the eyes of subject Asians, though, as in the Philippines, Japanese behavior varied greatly from unit to unit, and some prisoners and interned civilians were treated fairly well.

Hong Kong remained under Japanese control throughout the remainder of the war.

Japanese order of battle:

British of battle:

Climate Information:

Elevation 109'

Temperatures: Jan 64/56, Apr 75/67, Jul 87/78, Oct 81/73, record 97/32

Rainfall: Jan 4/1.3, Apr 8/5.4, Jul 17/15.0, Oct 6/4.5 == 85.1" per annum

References

Ferguson (1980)

Pearce and Smith (1990)

Willmott (1982)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia (c) 2007 by Kent G. Budge. Index