The Battle for Hong Kong

History as a British Colony

The British took control of Hong Kong as a result of the First and Second Opium Wars, culminating in the Treaty of Nanking 1842 and the Treaty of Tianjin 1860, which ceded Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula to the British respectively. The New Territories were leased from China in 1898 for a period of 99 years.

Prelude To War

An attack on Hong Kong was not so much of an if, but more of a when. As long ago as 1921 when the Anglo-Japanese Alliance ended, there were thoughts of a future invasion. The threat increased throughout the 1930s and then when Japan occupied Canton on the 21st Oct 1938, Hong Kong was theoretically surrounded.

British defence studies showed that Hong Kong would always be extremely hard to defend, however during the mid-1930s improvements to its various defences were undertaken.

By 1940, back in Britain there was a determination to reduce the Hong Kong garrison to a symbolic size. Winston Churchill and the general staff named Hong Kong as an outpost and decided not to send more troops. At this time there were between ten and eleven thousand troops occupying Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. These consisted of a mixture of British and Indian troops, including the Navy and the RAF, local colonial forces and auxiliary defence units.

By 1941, Britain had decided to withdraw its garrison from Hong Kong, however this was never implemented. Canada keen to help, offered to send troops to reinforce the garrison and Hong Kong's military strength was bolstered by a further two battalions. Hong Kong now had over fourteen and a half thousand defenders. By September the decision to withdraw had been rescinded, the argument being that the additional reinforcements would provide a sound military deterrent against Japan and reassure the Chinese leader, Chiang Kai-shek, that the British were indeed serious about defending the colony of Hong Kong.

The plan for the defence of Hong Kong was that the fighting in Kowloon and the New Territories was to be a delaying action, which would give the engineers enough time to destroy all of the vital infrastructure, which had been built up over the years. The Gin Drinkers Line (GDL), which was part of the improvements built in the 1930s, was expected to hold out for three weeks. This would also give all of the defenders time to withdraw to Hong Kong Island, which they could defend and prevent access to the harbour, until reinforcements arrived from Singapore, or the Philippines.

The British military in Hong Kong grossly underestimated the capabilities of the Japanese forces and downplayed assessments that the Japanese posed a serious threat as "unpatriotic and insubordinate". With a defending force of just over 14,000 and an attacking force of nearly 27,000, superior numbers of ships and planes, the fate of the colony was sealed.

War Begins

With the German army running riot in Europe and North Africa, aided by the Italians, and America firmly focused on producing munitions for Britain and its allies, Japan having signed up to the Tripartite Pact of 1940, decided the time was right for them to go to war.

Approximately two and half hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour, on the 8th December 1941, radio Tokyo announced "war was imminent". British engineers began blowing up bridges, which were likely invasion routes into Kowloon and the New Territories at 0500hrs on the same day. At 0600hrs, three of the Japanese regiments, which had been assembling since the beginning of December, crossed the Sham Chun River and began their invasion. At 0800hrs, the Japanese Airforce bombed Kai Tak Airport, although the airfield was still serviceable, four of the five outdated RAF aircraft were destroyed along with several civilian aircraft. The RAF personnel now reverted to ground troops. At 1500hrs, the first significant exchanges of fire began with the Japanese forces advancing from various points. As the day was in its last throws, the order was given for all allied units to withdraw to the Gin Drinkers Line.

The morning of the 9th December 1941 was taken up with manoeuvring troops on both sides, but by chance a Japanese Colonel out reconnoitring noticed that the GDL was totally unprepared for an attack and immediately began to muster his troops into an attack position. At 2300hrs the defending force detected movement as the attack on the GDL began and by 0500hrs on the 10th December 1941, apart from one position, the GDL was lost. The GDL had delayed the attack by approximately six hours!

The rest of that day was spent by the Japanese moving troops, whilst the Allied forces made good their limited defence positions.

Dawn on the 11th December 1941, saw the Japanese begin attacking the defenders' positions again, but by midday it was decided that Kowloon and the New Territories were untenable and the defence of Hong Kong Island was the priority. The evacuation of all the defending forces was ordered. Demolition works, including the coastal guns on Stonecutters Island, were carried out, whilst withdrawals were undertaken. The evacuation was made from various points and by early morning on the 13th December 1941, the evacuation was complete.

The Fall Of Hong Kong Island

Having organised the defences of the island as much as they could, the Allied forces now had to wait. On the morning of the 13th December 1941, a small Japanese delegation arrived and offered terms for surrender by the Allies. This was immediately refused and the Japanese began bombarding the island with artillery fire. The plan by the Japanese was to destroy the defences bit by bit, starting by destroying shore defences and gun batteries, which the Japanese continued to do through the 14th and 15th December 1941. On the afternoon of 15th December 1941, the Japanese began air bombardments, concentrating on defences on the west of the island.

On the morning of the 17th December 1941, the Japanese again offered terms for surrender and again these were rejected.

On the 18th December 1941, the bombardments of the shoreline increased destroying the oil storage tanks. At 1800hrs, the attack order was issued and by 2000hrs boats were in the water. Apart from initially being discovered and fired upon by the defenders, the attack went well and by midnight, six Japanese battalions had landed on the island. By now the artillery had moved their bombardment further inland. Initially, the Japanese were held up on the beaches, but eventually they overran the defenders and generally moved towards the high ground.

On the morning of the 19th December 1941, the Japanese began to attack strongpoints across the island and the brutal truth of what the future held began to materialise. Eighteen prisoners taken by the Japanese at Sai Wan Battery were bayoneted to death, plus there were many reports over the next few days of atrocities carried out against both military and civilians alike. One allied officer later reported that a leading Japanese officer had stated that "the order is all captives must die".

Although the defending forces continued to do all they could, they were taking heavy losses and being overrun in many places. The fighting was constant, with positions being overrun, recaptured and overrun again. By the 23rd December 1941, the water reservoirs were in control of the Japanese and with the pumping pipeworks damaged or destroyed, water was now running out for the defenders. During the 24th December 1941, St. Stephen's College was captured and the Japanese killed a large number of injured soldiers, along with the medical staff.

On the morning of the 25th of December 1941, it was clear that any further resistance was futile and the decision to surrender was taken with the island being formally surrendered to the Japanese at 1530hrs. Some pockets of resistance, which could not be contacted, continued to fight on with the last of the fighting actually ending on the 27th December 1941.

The Royal Navy and the Hong Kong Royal Naval Reserve (HKRNR) also played their part in the battle as offshore artillery or mobile attacking platforms. They suffered the same as the rest of the defending forces with a small outdated fleet, which was further reduced when two of the three WW1 era destroyers were ordered to head to Singapore on the 9th December 1941. Their actions were many and as the fleet was gradually reduced, the sailors became foot soldiers. By the 25th December 1941, most of the fleet had been scuttled or destroyed. The only ones to escape were five Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) and a naval launch, which were ordered away, taking with them 68 servicemen and the Chinese Admiral Chan Chak.

In Summary

This is only a brief overview and we have tried not to include the names of any units or which arm of the services they were in unless necessary.

What is important for us to convey is that all the defending forces gave their all and still fought on despite facing overwhelming odds with outdated and insufficient equipment, the knowledge that help would be unlikely and the end inevitable.

There were many acts of selfless bravery. Some are recorded and some not.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to the men and women in that far off corner of the world and we must not forget what they gave.