Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong, 1941

9 - Conclusion

Post-war, the Battle of Hong Kong was largely forgotten about. In British eyes, the fall of Hong Kong had been overshadowed by many greater tragedies closer to home. Hong Kong people themselves either wanted to put the whole experience behind them, or simply had little time for history in the struggle to survive as China went through its upheavals of civil war and communism. For the Indians, the pain of partition in the wake of British withdrawal dominated the immediate post-war period. In the mid-1950s, the first general account of the fighting was written by Stewart of 3 Company, HKVDC (3). This had a cathartic effect on many survivors, who needed some sort of recognition of what had happened. Within the next decade, popular works by Luff (91) and Carew (94) appeared, and at last the battle was on the historical radar. The books that appeared later fell into two main groups: biographies or general histories. Neither ever produced truly comprehensive accounts. The former, by definition, were accounts from a single viewpoint, and the latter were generally based on the same timelines (either that of Maltby’s despatch or Stewart’s work) fleshed out with interviews. If the book was written in the UK, the interviews were naturally generally with British survivors; if written in Canada, they were generally Canadian. Again, neither was likely to give a comprehensive view. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the vast majority of new books to Conclusion 9 未命名59A 290 NOT THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE: THE DEFENCE OF HONG KONG have been written on the subject were Canadian. The majority of these works make almost no mention of any units other than the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles. The task of this book, therefore, was primarily to pull together the information in all previous works, reconcile them, and fill in the gaps. With a garrison of only 14,000 defenders, it has been possible to do this — at least in part — at the level of the individual. Completed early in 2002, this is surely one of the last books to be written about the battle with the help of those who were there. In summary of that battle, General Maltby had been given an impossible task. He was charged with defending a small isolated island, without armour or sea and air cover, against a numerically superior and battle-hardened enemy. That they held out at all, let alone for eighteen days, is remarkable. Churchill’s wish to make invasion as hard as possible for the Japanese — which in the greater scheme of things was an integral part of his eventually successful strategy — was granted. And yet the cost was horrendous. When I first started this work, in 1990, I came across the documents mentioned in the introduction: ‘List of Patients Unlikely to Recover Before 12 Months’, and ‘List of Patients Unlikely to Become Fit Enough for Further Military Service’ (145). At that time the Hong Kong PRO was in Central — in a building now entirely occupied by the Independent Commission against Corruption — and the documents were the crumbling originals. The sense of immediacy I felt as I held them is hard to describe. In April 2000, I came across those documents again, but this time in the PRO’s new purpose-built Kwun Tong offices. They had all been photocopied and bound together in a single 200-page document. Immediacy had given way to convenience, but the content was unchanged. Here are one or two examples from each major unit involved: Warrant Officer Easterbrook, RN Peripheral neuritis Able Seaman Smith, RN Low wound with faecal fistula Corporal Green, W. Grenadiers Shell wound — perineum & rectum Private Anderson, W. Grenadiers Great emaciation: fractured tibia Rifleman Sweetman, Royal Rifles Depressed fracture of skull 未命名59A CONCLUSION 291 Rifleman Steeves, Royal Rifles Fractured radius with great loss of tissue and fractured tibia and fibula Company Sergeant Major Tarrant, RASC Paralysis — arms and legs Private Marshall, HKVDC Haemothorax: general debility Lance Corporal Long, HKVDC Amputation of leg Private Canivet, RCOC Ununited fracture of humerus; fracture of mandible and general debility Sapper Moore, RE Shell wound — left arm: spinal nerve injury Sapper Stevens, RE Gun shot wounds — spine Private Bickley, RAMC Blinded: both eyes removed Private Barrett, Middlesex Loss of patella: stiff knee Private Wiggins, Middlesex Amputation of leg Lance Bombardier Palmer, RA Multiple wounds — amputation of leg Gunner Woodfin, RA Fractured left arm; nerve injury...