One of the first and one of the most audacious escapes following the surrender of the colony on Christmas Day 1941 was that undertaken by the Royal Navy's five surviving Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs). Three of the original eight boats that made up the Hong Kong based MTB flotilla were destroyed by enemy action during the battle. Two of the three destroyed boats had been put out of action whilst attacking Japanese landing craft in the harbour on 19 Dececember 1941. The other destroyed boat had caught fire and burnt out on the slipway during an air raid on the Aberdeen Naval Dockyard. After the difficult but inevitable decision to surrender had been made during the afternoon on Christmas Day, forty-eight year old Commodore Alfred Collinson, the most senior Royal Navy officer and a member of the Defence Council, sent the one word signal 'GO' to Lt-Cdr Gerard Horace Gandy, the MTB flotilla commander. This was the pre-arranged signal to make good their escape from Hong Kong.
Lt-Cdr Gandy, known by his middle name Horace, joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1909. During the First World War he had served on the sloop HMS Arabis which was sunk by a flotilla of Gernan MTBs in February 1916 while undertaking minesweeping operations in the North Sea. The German Navy rescued fourteen survivors, including Horace Gandy, who became prisoners of war. The rest of the crew numbering some seventy-six men perished. Gandy met his Dutch wife, Dorothea ('Dolly') Noordanns while interned at Den Haag. He retired from the Royal Navy in the 1920s and then settled in Hong Kong where he worked as a surveyor for the Public Works Department (PWD). Forty-year-old Dolly Gandy had chosen to remain in Hong Kong with her husband rather than joining the evacuation of British women and children that took place in June/July 1940. Gandy, aged forty-five at the time of the escape, had been recalled for naval service when war broke out in Europe in September 1939. After the British capitulation in Hong Kong and after her husband's escape, Dolly Gandy was interned at Stanley Camp where she remained until liberation in September 1945. After the war the couple returned to Hong Kong and Gandy resumed his pre-war career with PWD.
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MTB 26 & 27
Gandy had no desire to became a prisoner of war for the second time. He was keen to escape although anxious about leaving Dolly behind but he was a naval officer and he had a job to do. The signal to go had been given but he was still waiting to pick up Admiral Chan Chak, the Head of the Nationalist Chinese Military Mission to Hong Kong. The importance of getting the one-legged Chinese Admiral and his key staff out of Hong Kong and back to Free China before they could be captured had been strongly stressed to Gandy. Admiral Chan's staff included Lt-Cdr Henry Hsu, Aide-De-Camp , Colonel Yee Shiu-kee ('SK'), Chief of Staff, and Coxswain Yeung Chuen, the Admiral's trusted bodyguard. The Chinese Government in Chungking had made it clear to Sir Archibald Clark Kerr, the British Ambassador to China, the importance they placed on extricating the Admiral. Gandy wanted to wait until nightfall and then go under cover of darkness rather than making a perilous attempt to escape in broad daylight. The MTBs were equipped with radio sets and on Lt Alexander ('Alick') Kennedy's boat, MTB 09, they were confused by the one-word signal intercepted from the Commodore to Gandy. The significance soon became clear when looking towards Mount Davis they saw the white flag flying from the Royal Navy Port War Signal Station and from other positions on the hillside. Further confirmation that Hong Kong had surrendered came with a second signal from the Commodore with orders for the Royal Navy to cease fire forthwith and cease hostilities.
It is puzzling that the Commodore ordered the boats to leave in broad daylight. Perhaps he thought their speed would enable them to escape fire. They would most likely have come under fire from a combination of Japanese land based artillery, Japanese aircraft and from Japanese warships blockading Hong Kong. The Japanese Navy had orders to ensure that there would be no relief, nor reinforcement, nor extrication by sea. Whilst the MTBs had the advantage of speed it was important that the Japanese did not discover their landing place on the China coast and their escape route inland. The MTB's fuel tanks would barely allow them to reach the Philippines. If they tried to reach Singapore, double the distance, they would need to refuel at least once. Going to Manila or Singapore would mean passing through hostile waters at a time when the Philippines, Malaya and Singapore were all under attack. The best prospect was to make a landfall along the China coast to the northeast of Hong Kong. They would then attempt to obtain assistance from Chinese villagers and resistance fighters to make the journey inland through Japanese occupied territory to Waichow, now known as Huizhao, in Free China. To go in daylight would have been reckless and to go at night would still be a hazardous undertaking.
Gandy discussed the Commodore's one-word signal with Francis Woodley ('Mike') Kendall, the Canadian leader of a clandestine special forces unit known as 'Z-Force' and which was part of Special Operations Executive (SOE). Mike Kendall and two other SOE operatives were aboard the MTBs in order to undertake a special mission behind Japanese lines. Kendall and Gandy agreed it would be better to wait for the cover of nightfall which was only a few hours away. This would allow more time to link up with Admiral Chan Chak's party and eliminate the risk of being intercepted during a daylight dash along the coast. Kendall was particularly anxious not to leave without the Admiral who he realised would be needed to get the cooperation of Chinese villagers and guerilla fighters. Gandy, not wanting to disobey orders, sent a message to the Extended Defence Officer stating that he proposed to 'go' after dark and that he would pick up Admiral Chan Chak and his party at Aberdeen Dockyard. After receiving no reply he sent a repeat signal to the Commodore. The Commodore did not see the signal because he had left the RN Dockyard and had gone up to Goverment House. The Governor, Sir Mark Young, had invited the Commodore, and the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major-General Maltby, to join him at Government House to await the anticipated arrival of the Japanese following the decision to surrender. The Governor and the GOC had delegated, to Lt-Col Stewart, 1/Mx, the commander of troops on the Wan Chai front line, the task of communicating the surrender to the Japanese military command. The Japanese had insisted that the Governor and the GOC come in person to effect the surrender at the Japanese forward HQ at the Lee Theatre Building in Causeway Bay. There was not enough room to take the Commodore in the car conveying the surrender party to Causeway Bay. A more formal surrender took place later that evening at Lt-General Sakai's 23rd Army HQ at the Peninsular Hotel. The Commodore having been left behind at Government House returned to the RN Dockyard. It was about 1700 hours and after returning to the RN Dockyard the Commodore replied to Gandy's signal suggesting he leave after dark. The Commodore's signal curtly stated that Gandy's request was 'not approved' and that he should leave immediately with Kendall and the SOE operatives. The Commodore was surprised and no doubt annoyed that the MTBs were still waiting and had not made good their escape. He was concerned that they would lose the opportunity to extricate once the formal surrender had been signed. The surrender was to be unconditional and an escape by the MTBs after the surrender had been signed would be construed as a breach of the terms of the surrender. In case the radio signals were not properly received and mindful that the Japanese possessed radio direction finding equipment, the Commodore decided to send a runner to pass the message by word of mouth to Gandy. The runner was Lt-Cdr John Yorath, RN (Rtd), a senior staff officer. His orders were to go to the Aberdeen Dockyard and find the MTBs and deliver the Commodore's message to go immediately.
Admiral Chan Chak
Lt-Cdr Yorath acting as an emissary for the Commodore returned to his home, picked up his hired car and drove to the naval base at the former Aberdeen Industrial School (AIS). There was no sign of the MTBs at the dockside. Commander Hugh Montague, the Senior Naval Officer (SNO) at Aberdeen wrote in his war diary, dated 16 January 1942, that Yorath arrived at AIS at around 1800 hours. This was nearly two hours after the arrival of Admiral Chan's escape party which Montague recalled as being at or around 1615 hours. Montague told Yorath that if the MTBs had not already left then the nearest boats would be on the seaward side of Aberdeen Island. In that positionn, they were protected by the hilly terrain of the island and they were out of open-sight range of Japanese artillery. Yorath asked if there was any way he could cross the harbour to Aberdeen Island by taking a boat. Norman Halladay, a member of the Dockyard Defence Corps and a former Merchant Navy engineer, who was based at AIS volunteered to help. At the dockside, they founda rowing boat and the two men rowed out of Aberdeen Harbour in a westerly direction towards Magazine Island. This was safer than the eastward route taken by Chan Chak's party which was covered by Japanese troops on Brick Hill. Yorath and Halladay got safely out of the harbour despite sporadic shelling and rounded the western end of Aberdeen Island where they found three of the MTBs. Gandy wrote in the flotilla war diary that the two men came alongside his vessel, MTB 10,at or around 1830 hours. Yorath delivered his oral message from the Commodore to Gandy. At about the same time MTB 27 signalled that a man was swimming out to them from Aberdeen Island. He turned out to be part of Admiral Chan Chak's missing party. Yorath and Halladay were allowed to remain with the MTBs and participate in the planned and by then imminent escape.
Earlier that Christmas afternoon, MTB 08 (Lt Ron Ashby, HKRNVR) and MTB 09 (Lt Alick Kennedy, RNVR) lay abreast of each other in the shallow water beside a stone jetty at Telegraph Bay located between Aberdeen and Mount Davis. The boats were well concealed from Japanese aircraft by their recently painted disruptive pattern camouflage consisting of various colours including grey, brown, green and yellow. They also used foliage to help hide the boats from aerial observation. The other three boats MTB 10 (Lt-Cdr Horace Gandy, RN Rtd), MTB 11 (Lt John Collingwood, RN), and MTB 27 (Lt Thomas Parsons, HKRNVR) were anchored south of Aberdeen Island. The three SOE operatives aboard the boats were trained to operate behind enemy lines, conducing raids and carrying out acts of sabotage. Their leader, Mike Kendall, was a former mining engineer and he was well versed in the use of explosives. Kendall was charismatic and a natural leader. With Kendall was Colin McEwan, a Scot, who had been a Lsatin and PE teacher in civilian life, and Monia Talan, a Russian businessman who had moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai. The unit was nominally part of the HKVDC but as a special forces unit they reported to Colonel Newnham, the senior staff officer at the Battle Box. They had already been aboard the MTBs for a few days as part of a plan to support guerilla operations in the area around Sha Tau Kok. The resof their team were in the New Territories and already operating behind enemy lines.
Admiral Chan Chak, a former protégé of Dr Sun Yat-sen, had his leg amputated at St Teresa's Hospital in Kowloon following wounds incurred while in action against the Japanese at the Bocca Tigris forts in 1938. As the senior representative of the Chinese Government in Hong Kong he had access to Hong Kong Government offcials including the Governor and the Defence Secretary and likewise to senior military officers including the GOC. The Admiral's office was in Shell House, the headquarters of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, located at the junction of Pedder Street and Queen's Road. The Governor, Sir Mark Young, had assured the Admiral that the MTBs would take him out of Hong Kong in the event of a British capitulation. In the early afternoon on Christmas Day, Chan Chak was warned that the surrender of the colony was imminent. He was asked to wait with his party at the nearby Gloucester Building. The escape party was joined by several staff officers from the Battle Box, incluing Captain Freddie Guest, Captain Peter Macmillan, Squadron Leader Max Oxford and Indian Police Superintenent Bill Robinson. The staff officers had received permission from Major General Maltby to join the escape attempt. Maltby himself had declined to participate in the escape stating that he felt the duty of a commmander was to remain with his men.
Two government officials , David ('Mac') MacDougall and his Canadian assistant Ted Ross, both from the Hong Kong Branch of the British Ministry of Information joined the escape group. MacDougall and Ross had been planning a possible escape for some days. Ted Ross had a canvas canoe which he had used before the war and he kept it under the trees at the back of Repulse Bay Beach. This, they felt might be a possible means for getting off the island and into the hills of the New Territories. However, Repulse Bay was captured by the Japanese on 23 December having been under siege since 20 December. Another idea they had was to go to Deep Water Bay, swim to Middle Island and purloin a boat from one of the Yacht Club boat sheds, but by Christmas Day, Deep Water Bay was also in Japanese hands. The opportunity to escape presented itself when they were asked to help get Admiral Chan Chak's party to Aberdeen and the waiting MTBs. Two or three times a day MacDougall and Ross would visit the Battle Box to get an appreciation of the fighting situation and to agree the wording of the periodic government communiques. MacDougall and Ross would have known the staff officers in the Battle Box who participated in the escape. MacDougall had been in regular contact with Chan Chak. The men from the ministryseem to have been instrumental in coordinating the escape of Chan Chak's group. The men from the ministry had access to a large commandeered Buick. On Christmas Day they had the large vehicle waiting in an alleyway near King's Theatre ready to make the all important journey to Aberdeen Harbour.
At around 1530 hours, Fraklin Gimson, the new Colonial Secretary, arrived at MacDougall's office on the third floor of the Gloucester Building. Gimson had come down from Government House to pass the message that the surrender was now official and that they should proceed with the extrication plan. The escape group at this stage consisted of ten men; four staff officers from the Battle Box, the four Chinese including Chan Chak and the two government officials. They got into two cars, the Buick driven by Ted Ross and an Austin procurred and driven by Henry Hsu, the Admiral's aide-de-camp. They set off by way of Pok Fu Lam Road to the naval base at AIS. Although the white flag had been hoisted in Victoria, the news of the surrender had not reached all Japanese units and on-going aerial bombing, artillery and mortar fire made it a dangerous journey.
At AIS, they were joined by Major Arthur Goring, a cavalry officer with the British Indian Army who was serving as a senior staff officer at the Battle Box also referred to as HQ China Command. He had been brought out from India a few months earlier with Bill Robinson, an officer in the Indian Police Service, to deal with Sikh unrest in the army and police. During the afernoon, Goring had remained with his boss, Major-General Maltby, at the Battle Box, until Maltby had left to join the Governor and Commodore at Government House. Gorng then made his own way to the centre of town where he managed to flag down a passing vehicle in Ice House Street. The car was driven by a prvate from the Royal Scots. The driver was looking for ARP HQ. Goring asked the driver if he could take him to Aberdeen. The driver was happy to oblige and on reaching Aberdeen, Goring offered the driver the chance to escape with him if they were able to find a suitable boat. The driver declined saying that he could not swim and that he had better proceed to ARP HQ. Who the soldier was and whether or not he survived the last day of the battle or the incarceration that followed is still a mystery.
Commander Montague was surprised when at 1615 hours the escape party of ten men arrived at the naval base in two cars to rendezvous with the MTBs. Montague had assumed that the flotilla had left in accordance with the Commodore's orders earlier that afternoon. He told them that if the boats were still in Hong Kong they may be laying up along the coast at Sandy Bay or Telegraph Bay or if not there they may be anchored on the seaward sifr of Aberdeen Island. He pointed ou that the boats would not enter Aberdeen Harbour during daylight hours because of the danger of coming under artillery fire. Montague told the escape party that he was trying to raise a 150-ton diesel berthing tug referred to in most accounts as C-410 and named Polly. The tug had run aground the previous night in Aberdeen Channel. It had been utilised to ferry ammunition from Aberdeen to Stanley. Montague expected to re-float the vessel on the high tide later that evening and he suggested if they were willing to wait he could take them to Mirs Bay. However, the escape group were anxious to leave immediately and to try and find the MTBs. Montague accompanied them to the dockside:
I took the party to the Dockyard to see if a boat could be obtained. The only boat immediately available was a motorboat belonging to HMS Cornflower. She had sufficient range to make the passage to Mirs Bay but she could also take the party to the MTBs if they were nearby. 1
HMS Cornflower had been the base ship for the HKRNVR. The ship had been scuttled at Deep Water Bay on 19 December. With the intervention of Commander Montague, the Cornflower's 25-foot cabin launch was requisitioned together with its mixed crew of five HKRNVR and Merchant Navy volunteers. The volunteer crew included Alec Damsgaard, a Danish master mariner, Holger Christansen, a Danish cadet, Douglas Harley, a Second Engineer, Sub-Lt John Forster and Warrant Officer William Wright both serving with the HKRNVR. Damsgaard was the former captain of a Danish cable ship Store Nordiske. William Wright had been captured with some other naval personnel at the Repulse Bay Hotel garages by a forward Japanese platoon on 20 December. On that day the garrison at the hotel fired at the Japanese troops and the siege of Repulse Bay Hotel began. This ocurred just as East Infantry Brigade were counterattacking and trying to link up with West Infantry Brigade by repossessing WNC Gap and they joined the firefight at the hotel garrages and at the junction of Island Road and Repulse Bay Hotel. The Japanese troops were mostly killed but some managed to escape by lowering themselves out of the back windows and escaping along the beach. The prisoners, including Warrant Officer Wright, were recovered unharmed from the garage block after the firefight ended.
Montague told the escape party which by then included the crew of the Cornflower's launch that if they were unable to contact the MTBs they should wait for him near Magazine Island. He would pick them up on C-410 after night fall. The escape party which now numbered sixteen boarded the launch at 1645 hours. The vessel had been loaded with supplies in case they were unable to find the MTBs and had to make the journey to Mirs Bay by way of the launch. They chose to leave by the south-eastern channel. This was a mistake. They should have gone out the western side of the harbour towards Magazine Island. Had they taken the west route they may have been fired on by artillery but they would have avoided the concentrated machine fire from Japanese troops occupying the Brick Hill peninsula. Earlier that morning the Japanese had overran and captured the AA battery at Brick Hill and may have occupied the two vacated pillboxes, PB 12 and PB 13. These two pillboxes were situated along the western shore line of the Brick Hill promontory overlooking the Aberdeen Channel and facing Aberdeen Island. The AA battery and the two pillboxes would have had a clear line of sight on the Cornflower launch as it motored up the Aberdeen Channel in order to reach the seaward side of Aberdeen Island.
The helmsman, Alec Damsgaard, stayed close to the eastern side of the channel which was nearer the Japanese positions on Brick Hill. The launch was spotted by Japanese troops who opened fire with rifles and machine guns. On coming under fire, Damsgaard increased speed and headed directly towards the open sea and towards Ap Lei Pai the small island attached to Aberdeen Island by a narrow causeway. The launch was soon riddled with bullets and her engine was put out of action. Sub-Lt Forster, HKRNVR, was mortally wounded, Damsgaard was wounded in both legs and Douglas Harley was drowned, possibly after being shot. Chan Chak was hit by a bullet in his wrist. MacDougall was shot in the shoulder with another bullet passing through his steel helmet and another clipped the heel of his shoe. Captain Guest, 1/Mx, was slightly injured in the face by a ricochet. After the engine stopped, the order was given to abandon the boat. Some undressed, others went over the side in their uniform and some still wearing their sidearm. Admiral Chan Chak undressed and unshipped his artificial leg which he left on the boat. The Japanese continued to fire at the survivors swimming towards the south-eastern end of Aberdeen Island. The survivors gave differing estimates of the length of the swim. The distance between the headland at Brick Hill and Ap Lei Pai, the small island, was about 600 metres. Assuming they were more than half way between the two locations it is most likely a swimming distance of 200 to 300 metres. Major Goring, writing after the escape in a magazine article published in March 1949, wrote that it took him forty-five minutes to swim ashore by which time he was exhausted. He had swum in his uniform complete with hs heavy service revolver and ammunition. It was quite a feat for the Admiral who had to swim the long distance with one leg and only one good arm. It was also hard for MacDougall who was wounded in the shoulder and floated most of the way on his back. When they abandoned the launch the bullets were spitting on the surface of the water like rain drops. It is surprising given the extent of machine gun fire directed at the boat and the men in the water that there were not more casualties.
Colonel S.K. Yee was unable to swim and remained on the boat with Damsgaard and Forster who were both badly injured. Harley who drowned was the Second Engineer on the Jardines owned cargo ship SS Yat Shing. The cadet, Holger Christiansen, had also served on the Yat Shing. The wrecked motor launch drifted in the channel and eventually washed up on the shore of Aberdeen Island further to the north and near a small fishing village and church. Yee got help from the local fishermen who helped get the two wounded men to Queen Mary Hospital. Alec Damsgaard shot in both legs recovered but John (Jack) Forster, shot in the stomach, died in hospital two days later. Forster from Northern Ireland worked at the Tai Koo Dockyard a subsidiary of Butterfield & Swire. His wife Ray and their two daughters were interned at Stanley Camp together wth Ray's parents and her younger sister. Forster, an officer in the HKRNVR, was involved in the fighting around Shouson Hill and he had helped carry back Major Charles Boxer who had been wounded in that area. Colonel Yee escaped across the border and made his way to Free China where he joined Admiral Chan Chak at Kukong.
When the launch was put out of action and most of the men had gone over the side, Goring noticed how Bill Robinson, Indian Police Service, appeared to sink like a stone. He bobbed back to the surface having discarded his heavy Webley revolver, the fifty rounds of 0.455 ammunition, his steel helmet and boots. Goring swam to the island still wearing his uniform and his service revolver. The Japanese continued to fire at the swimmers after they had got ashore. The survivors took cover behind rocks as best they could and with the light fading they gained some protection from the firing. Aberdeen Island, referred to in Chinese as Ap Lei Chau which translates as Duck's Tongue Island, was linked by a narrow causeway to a smaller adjacent island known as Ap Lei Pai. The stoney causeway was about ten metres wide and some sixty metres long. It is likely that some of the survivors came ashore on the small island and others on the causeway. Goring described how he was carried by the waves and dumped on the shingle which suggests he came ashore on the pebbly causeway. He took cover behind a boulder where he found Squadron Leader Max Oxford, RAF. Oxford was an intelligence officer who had worked closely with Major Boxer in the Battle Box. The Admiral recalled landing on a small island beside Ap Lei Chau which can only be Ap Lei Pai. He landed near a cave, a fissure in the rock face which is identifiable today. He sheltered from the firing in the fissure. The tracer rounds set some of the low vegetation on the island alight. Some of the escape party having discarded their shoes in the water suffered injuries to their feet not just from the rocky shoreline but also from the scorched vegetation. The Admiral sent Henry Hsu, who had remained with him, to get help from the fishing village on Aberdeen Island. Hsu set off but ran into other members of the group and shortly after that the MTBs were spotted. Goring, the senior British officer, described how they gathered in a roofless ruined concrete hut to discuss their situation and decide the best course of action.
We had no boat, no food. I had a pistol and fifty rounds of ammunition. The situation was certainly not good. Just then Holger Christiansen, the cadet, announced that he could hear motor boats. I told him to run like a hare and see if he could recognise them as our craft. He dashed down to the water's edge while I went up the hill followed by the rest of the shoeless brigade, hobbling painfully along on their blistered toes over the sharp rocks. Presently I saw Holger shout, and saw him run down to the water, waving to three camouflaged boats lying in the bay below. Then I noticed that Holger was swimming towards them. As he swam he shouted 'Look out ! There are some chaps coming who have been machine gunned.' 2
The boat crew mistakenky heard 'Look out! There some Japs coming with machine guns.' When a small group, including Henry Hsu and Arthur Goring appeared on the hillside behind Christiansen, MTB 11 initially opened fire. After a few bursts the firing ceased as it became evident from the frantic waving and shouting that they were not Japanese. Fortunately nobody was injured. Christiansen swam to the nearest boat which happened to be MTB 27 and he was hoisted aboard. Goring and some of the non-wounded swam out to the MTBs. Some of the group went back to collect the Admiral. The Admiral had somehow managed to crawl up the steep hillside of the small island. MTB 10 used her dinghy to pick up the two wounded men, Chan Chak and MacDougall.
At this stage everything was falling into place. Admiral Chan's party had been found and soon darkness would provide the protection they needed to make their escape. Gandy ordered Lt Collingwood, his second-in-command, to proceed to Telegraph Bay on MTB 11. He was to pass orders for MTB 07 and 09 to rendezvous with the other three boats at Aberdeen Island. Two of the three emgines on MTB 11 failed to start. She was taken in tow abreast by MTB 10 in an effort to fire up the two malfunctioning engines. While proceeding abreast the two MTB's came under Japanese artillery fire as they passed the entrance to Aberdeen Harbour. Soon the Napier engines roared into life and MTB 10 rejoined MTB 27 in the bay behind Aberdeen Island. The two moored boats at Telegraph Bay joined MTB 11 and proceeded back to the cover of Aberdeen Island. Alick Kennedy recalls the rendezvous as the boats gor ready to make their escape along the China coast.
At last dusk fell and the order came from Gandy to rendezvous with MTB 10, 11 and 27 south of Aberdeen Island. When we arrived at the rendezvous the decks of the other two boats were crowded with British and Chinese dressed in a queer assortment of clothes - stokers' overalls, bellbottoms and oilskins. We took two or three on board each boat. The Admiral refused to stay below and despite his wound looked surprisingly cheerful sitting on the bridge of MTB 10 in his newLieutenant-Commander's uniform borrowed from Gandy. 3
Gandy, Kendall and the Admiral conferred regarding the destination. Kendall suggested landing near Sha Tau Kok and linking up with the Chinese guerillas which had been their original mission when the SOE men were taken aboard the MTBs. The Admiral suggested stopping at Tung Ping Chau Island adjacent to Nanao, a fishing village on the eastern side of Mirs Bay. The village was located on a headland known as Dapeng Peninsula which separates Mirs Bay from Bias Bay now known as Daya Bay. It was an area thought to be free of Japanese troops and in an area in which Chinese guerillas operated. From there the plan was for them to proceed in-land to the Nationalist Chinese enclave of Waichow. The Admiral's plan was agreed and the MTBs set off in line ahead. At one point they passed a Japanese warship with searchlights switched on. The Japanese crew may have heard the engines and may have thought they were aircraft. The flotilla arrived at Tung Ping Chau (also known as Ping Chau) in the early hours of Friday 26 December. Ping Chau was just within Hong Kong's eastern-most territorial waters. A party was sent ashore to establish whether there were Japanese in the vicinity and to make contact with the guerillas. The villagers fled when they heard the sound of engines thinking that it was a Japanese raiding party. They met with the village headman and a memmber of the guerillas. The guerillas were involved in anti-Japanese resistance and also smuggling goods from the coast to Waichow. In an area where most guerilla forces were linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) these resistance fighters were pro-Nationalist. The shore party returned to the waiting MTBs together with the Chinese from Ping Chau. The local Chinese helped the MTB's navigate across the sandy shallow bay avoiding rocks and shoals. Nanau on the Mainland was only a couple of miles from Ping Chau.
On the way to Nanao, they came across a tug which had grounded on the shallows. It was C 410 the naval berthing tug with Commander Montague and a six-man volunteer crew. After refloating the tug, they had left Aberdeen during the night and had also decided to make for Nanao. One of the crew, Lt Arthur Pettendrigh, RNR, had served in the China Maritime Customs (CMC). He had suggested making for the village because the charts showed the presence of a customs house. He felt the customs officers would be willing to help them. That night, Montague had taken the naval tug to Magazine Island, as he had promised to do, but seeing no sign of the Cornflower launch he proceeded towards Nanao. He had arrived ahead of the MTBs before running aground.
The shore party at Nanao included Kendall and Henry Hsu. They made contact with the guerilla leader, Leung Wing-yuen, who knew the Admiral and had served with him previously. On hearing that the Admiral was with the British naval party they were eager to help and willing to guide the large group through Japanese lines to Waichow on the East River. Waichow was in Chinese Army hands and it was some sixty to seventy miles from Nanao. The boats were moved away from the beach to deeper water and were unloaded onto junks and sampans. Once the MTBs and the tug had been stripped of anything useful they were scuttled. The guerillas were offered to take anything that was left behind by the naval party including the Lewis guns, radios and other stores.
The escape party began the journey inland from Nanao to Waichow, travelling at night to avoid detection and resting under cover during the daylight hours. The escape party numbered sixty-eight men, including Chan Chak's group, the two officials from the Ministry of Information, the three SOE operatives and the military and merchant Navy personnel. The overland journey to Waichow took four days and they arrived on 29 December 1941. Most of the Cornflower launch party had discarded their footwear when they had to abandon the launch and swim to the island. They had been given shoes and aticles of clothing by the MTB crews and many were wearing ill-fitting borrowed gym shoes. As they drew closer to Waichow they were given bumpy pillion rides on bicycles sent out from Waichow for those with injured feet. The Admiral was carried on a chair attached to two poles to form a makeshift sedan chair. Kennedy recalled that as they got closer to Waichow they started seeing increasing numbers of Chinese soldiers.
In the afternoon, we began to see Chinese regular troops in their green cotton uniforms and padded jackets and found them a reassuring sight. We spent the night at their local headquarters and by the following afternoon had reached the outskirts of Waichow. We formed up into a column four abreast, determined to show a sprightly step as we marched behind the Admiral. Chan Chak seemed to be enjoying the show immenseley and sat smiling in his chair. 4
In Waichow they were accommodated at the American Mission Hospital. Waichow changed hands a few times and the town had been subjected to a Japanese air raid on the day the escape party arrived. It was a common sight to see Japanese aircraft overhead. It is surprising that the Japanese did not garrison the town. It became the destination for many of the military and cvilian escapees from Hong Kong. It was the nearest part of Free China to Hong Kong and it became the location of a BAAG advanced HQ. The escape party stayed for two days in Waichow. The three SOE operatives, Mike Kendall, Colin McEwan and Monia Talan remained in Waichow rather than continuing to Kukong with the rest of the group. On 3 January 1942, McEwan and Talan returned to Nanao. They found the scuttled MTBs were not fully submerged. They had hoped to recover some of the abandoned weaponry but they had been secreted away and the guerillas were not keen on returning the weapons that they could use against the Japanese. The SOE agents had hoped to go to Sha Tau Kok to link up with the rest of their group who were operating behind Japanese lines. These included Eddie Teesdale, Ronnie Holmes and Robert Thompson. The Japanese were tipped off as to the presence of two armed foreigners in Nanao. Japanese naval vessels were sent and troops landed. McEwan and Talan returned to Waichow. When the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) was established in March 1942, the three SOE members who were looking for a role became some of the first members of the unit. Kendall was not trusted by the Nationalist authorities because he was seen to be too close to the Communist guerillas. Kendall also had a difficult relationship with Lt-Col Ride who established and commanded the BAAG. Kendall was forced to leave China and in July 1942 he and Talan were posted to India. Talan worked as a staff officer in Calcutta and Kendall became an instructor at Force 136 Eastern Warfare School in Poona. McEwan stayed with BAAG for the duration of the war.
On 31 December 1941, the escape party, less the three SOE men, left Waichow by boat. The next stage would take them 150 miles up the East (Dong) River. They were still accompanied by some of the Dapeng guerillas including Leung the guerilla leader. At a town called Longchuan on the East River, they met with Lt-Col Harry Owen-Hughes, HKVDC, who had been flown out of Hong Kong to Chungking on one of the last CNAC evacuation flights during the first two days of the battle. His role in Chungking, the capital of Free China, was to act as liaison officer with the Chinese Nationalist Government. It was hoped that he could persuade the Chinese Army to come to the aid of the beleagured British garrison at Hong Kong. Owen-Hughes had left his elderly parents behind at his home on the Peak in Hong Kong. In late January his parents were interned at Stanley Camp. His father, John Owen-Hughes never came out of camp, he died while interned in February 1945. Harry Owen-Hughes provided the escape party with warm Chinese Army jackets and helped organise and fund the onward journey. After leaving the East River they were taken by truck to Kukong, now known as Shaoguan. After the Japanese occupation of Canton, Kukong had become the temporary capital of Kwantung Province.
Like the other towns they had passed through, the escape party were greeted with a rapturous welcome when they entered Kukong. Their escape from Hong Kong led by the one-legged Chinese Admiral had been inspiring. They were met by the Governor, General Li, and by the Army Commander General Yu Han Mou. General Yu was the Chinese Army officer who had been thought to be leading a force coming to the aid of Hong Kong during the battle. Maltby wrote in his Report on Operations in Hong Kong that on 20 December 1941 Admiral Chan Chak had advised him that General Yu Han Mou had wirelessed his office to the effect that 60,000 Chinese troops were at Sham Chun on the frontier and were about to attack the rear of the Japanse 23rd Army that had invaded Hong Kong. 5 On the strength of this, Maltby issued a communique to be sent out to all British and Dominion troops in Hong Kong stating 'there are indications that Chinese forces are advancing towards the frontier to our aid. All ranks must,therefore, hold their positions at all costs and look forward to only a few more days of strain.' 6. As it happened there was no significant Chinese force at the border and the Japanese 66th Infantry Regiment had been held in reserve to protect the rear from just such an attack. In addtion the Japanese had two or three divisions in and around Canton. When the Chinese Army saw how quickly the Japanese established a bridgehead on Hong Kong Island and then captured Wong Nai Chung Gap they must have realised the battle had become a foregone conclusion. They shelved any idea of coming to the assistance of what increasingly appeared to be a defeated garrison.
At Kukong the escape party were able to communicate by telephone with the British Embassy in Chungking. It was a poor line but they were able to provide details of their escape and the names of those that made up the escape party. The embassy, in liaison with Owen-Hughes, arranged for seven of the party to be flown from Kukong to Chungking. This group of seven included Commander Montague, David MacDougall, Ted Ross and four of the five staff officers from the Battle Box. They flew at night on a 14-seater Dakota DC-2. Major Goring remained in Kukong having gone down with malaria. He was later sent by train to Kweilin and from there by plane to Chungking. By the time Goring arrived in Chungking, the other staff officers, Robinson, Guest, Oxford and Macmillan had already been flown to India. Goring was later flown to India where he rejoined his regiment. Max Oxford returned from India to Chungking where he was given the role of Assistant Air Attache at the British Embassy. David MacDougall was sent to Chengdu for medical treatment. The bullet proved difficult to extract and was left in his shoulder. He was given priority air passage to London where he briefed the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the situation in Hong Kong. He was later posted to the United States where he was reunited with his wife and children. After the Japanese surrender he returned to Hong Kong as a Brigadier and a member of the British Military Administration responsible for civilian matters. On the return to civilian government in Hong Kong - he became Colonial Secretary. Admiral Chan Chak remained in Kukong where he had an operationto remove the bullet still lodged in his wrist. The Admiral's bodyguard Yeung Chuen was sent back to occupied Hong Kong to assist the Admiral's wife to escape from Hong Kong. Leung Wing-yuen, the guerilla leader, returned to Dapeng having been promoted to the rank of Captain by General Yu. Leung's pro-Nationalist anti-Japanese guerillas were officially recognised as part of the Waichow Army Command. Lt Col Ride who escaped from Sham Shui Po prison camp on 9 January 1942, arrived in Kukong at the end of January and met up with Admiral Chan and Lt-Col Owen-Hughes. Ride was already formulating plans to establish the BAAG. Colonel Yee turned up in Kukong on 5 February 1942. The relationship between Adniral Chan and his ADC deteiorated because Chan suspected Yee of stealing the large amount of cash hidden in the admiral's artificial leg which had been left on the bullet riddled launch. When Chan Chak recovered from his operation he was flown by the British to Calcutta to be fitted with a new artificial leg. He was awarded an honoury knighthood and after the war he became Mayor of Canton. He died at the early age of fifty-six in 1949.
After a week in Kukong, the naval party set off by train to Henyang, Kweilin and Kweiyang from where they were sent by truck to Kumming. At Kumming they were taken by truck to Burma along the Burma Road which had been a lifeline for supplies to reach Free China. After the Japanese captured Burma this road route to China was closed off and everything had to come by aircraft flying over the Himalayas. The pilots referred to this as flying over the hump. It was hazardous because of the high altitude flown, the changing weather and the threat from Japanese military aircraft. In Burma the naval party were allocated to serve on minelayers, minesweepers and patrol boats operated by the Burma RNVR. After a few weeks and anticipating the imminent fall of Rangoon the nval party were ordered to return to UK. Most left on a commandeered Danish merchant ship, the Heinrich Jessen, which sailed on 8 March 1942. The merchant ship had escaped from Hong Kong and then from Singapore. Once again she escaped but this time from Rangoon and she was the last ship to leave before the Japanese occupied the city.
Lt-Cdr Gandy was Mentioned in Dispatches for daring and resourcefulness in Far Eastern waters and for escaping as ordered. Commander Montague was awarded the OBE and was Mentioned in Dispatches. It had been an incredible escape from the chaos of defeat in Hong Kong. The naval group had taken their boats along the China Coast. The boat crews had travelled 3,000 miles across China and Burma. In Burma they re-joined the war effort serving on a variety of naval vessels during the Japanese invasion of Burma. The escape from Hong Kong, the delayed departure, the discovery of the Admiral's party had relied on good fortune ..................but then fortune favours the brave.
..................
Acknlowlegments
Richard Hide
Notes
1. Commander Montague's Report dated 16 January 1942 (UK National Archives ADM 199/1286)
2. My Escape from Hong Kong by Aurthur Goring (The Wide World Magazine March 1949)
3. Hong Kong Full Circle 1939-45 by Alexander Kennedy
4. IBID
5. Report on Operations in Hong Kong by Major General Maltby published in the London Gazette dated 29 January 1948
6. IBID
Main Reference Sources
Escape from Hong Kong (2012) Tim Luard
Hong Kong Full Circle 1939-1945 (1969) Alexander Kennedy
My Escape from Hong Kong (1949) Lt-Col Arthur Goring (published in The Wide World Magazine)
Colin McEwan's Diary: The Battle for Hong Kong and Escape into China (2005) by Dan Waters/Alison McEwan publised in Vol 45 of Journal of RAS HK Branch
Official War Diaries
HMS Tamar & Aberdeen Industrial School by Commander H.C. Millett (Enclosure C to Commodore's Report UK National Archives ADM 199/1286
Operations of the 2nd MTB Flotilla in Hong Kong Waters by Lt Cdr Gandy
Report by Commander Montague (dated 16 January 1942 after the escape from Hong Kong)
Addendum
Extracts from Commander Millett's diary:
1630 hours 25 Dec 1941: "Meanwhile SNO [Montague - Senior Naval Officer] had visited Aberdeen Dockyard and informed them of the surrender and instructing all personnel to proceed to AIS. He called for volunteers to refloat the launch C-410 which was ashore on the eastern side of Aplei Chau [Aberdeen Island] and a party of officers at once went off and brought the craft back alongside Man Kwok (former ferry) under heavy shell fire and MG fire [despite the surrender] - [anything that moved around the harbour was a target]. The [MG fire] came from the eastern slopes of Brick Hill. It appeared that the enemy were now in possession of our AA position. At about this time HMS Robin was scuttled the crew proceeding to AIS. The launch Cornflower-2 had been got into running order and some Chinese officals and others proceeded out by the souther entrance. There seems little doubt this boat was sunk.
SNO (Aberdeen) [Commander Montague] paid a last very short visit to AIS returning immediately to Aberdeen Dockyard where her personally supervised the watering and storing of C410 - she was already complete with fuel. Neither his whereabout or plans were known to AIS and there was no news of him by 1900 hours and it was feared that he might have met with some mishap, his absence was reported to the Commodore.
Observations from Lt-Cdr Gandy's diary:
Gandy writes that he received the the single word "GO" from the XDO at 1515. In consultation with Kendall - he decided to remain because it would be dangerous to go in daylight and he had not got the Admiral on board.
Extracts and Observations from Montague's Diary
"At 1615 on 25 December, his Excellency Admiral Chan Chak, accompanied by members of his mission and by officers of Fortress HQ arrived at the Naval Base, Abedeen in order to proceed to Mirs Bay in the boats of the 2nd MTB Flotilla according to pre-arranged plans."
The volunteer crew of C-410 included Lt Pittendrigh, Lt Pethwick and mssrs E. Cox Walker, Marchant, C. Skinner and E. H. Brazelle.
"I consider it fortunate that Lt-Cdr Gandy showed such discretion in not precipitaly obeying the order to go at once. At nightfall (about 1900 hours) C-410 proceeded to the rendezvous at Magazine Island".
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