ZBW Radio broadcasting under fire - December 1941

ZBW Radio broadcasting under fire in the Battle for Hong Kong

In 1941, the radio set, or wireless,  occupied a central position in every home. It was still a  relatively new phenomenon. Radio broadcasting in Hong Kong started in 1928. The local radio station was known as ZBW. The name changed to Radio Hong Kong in 1948. ZBW would re-broadcast programmes from the BBC Empire Service. The BBC news would start with the announcement 'Daventry Calling'. The transmitters were located on Borough Hill near the Northamptonshire village of Daventry. The radio made Daventry famous. The radio programme was published in the daily newspapers. The ZBW service started broadcasting at 12:15 p.m. with a 'short service of intercession' which infers some sort of morning prayers. The programme would include sessions for Chinese, Portuguese and Indians. Dance music was always popular and of course the news bulletins. There would be a break in the afternoon, and when programming closed in the evening the national anthem would be played. 

Source:  © Eric Shackle Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation

My thanks to Eric Shackle and Radio Heritage Foundation for allowing me to use the above ZBW photographs which date back to 1934. The first photograph going from left to right shows the grand piano in the ZBW Broadcasting Studio in the Gloucester Hotel Building.  The centre photograph shows one of the transmitter stations and tower which I think must be at Cape D'Aguilar.  The third photograph, on the right, shows the Marconi transmitter equipment used by ZBW.

In 1941, civilian wireless services were the responsibility of the Post Office Engineering Branch which was under the supervision of Richard Morris, a Canadian national. He was interned at Stanley Camp and repatriated with other Canadian internees in September 1943. On reaching Ottawa, he submitted a report on the wireless services in Hong Kong during the period of hostilities from 8 to 25 December. Wireless services were provided for:

Broadcasting (ZBW Radio)

Aeronautical  (Kai Tal Airport)

Marine

Meteorological (Observatory)

Water Police (Police launches)

Harbour 

Hospitals (X-Rays and radiotherapy)

Commercial usage (Cable & Wireless) 

Remote-controlled radio transmitters were located at Cape D'Aguilar on HK Island  (7 transmitters), and at Hung Hom in Kowloon (13 transmitters). At Hung Hom three of the transmitters were used for radio broadcasting. The broadcasting transmitters could be controlled from the ZBW broadcasting studio in the Gloucester Building. All transmitters could be controlled if necessary from the GPO Building in the central district. One of the broadcasting transmitters at Hung Hom was taken across by lighter and installed at Causeway Bay just before the evacuation of Kowloon. The Hung Hom Station was then evacuated on Friday 12 December 1941 on the orders of the Postmaster-General, Edward Wynne-Jones. The main receiving station was at the Peak. Received programmes, like the news from London or dance music, which were to be re-broadcast on ZBW were relayed to the Gloucester Building studios. 

The newly installed transmitter at Causeway Bay (from Hung Hom) started transmitting programmes for ZBW on December 15 1941. However, this immediately attracted Japanese artillery fire who had access to radio direction finding equipment. Chinese programmes were being transmitted from the Kennedy Road station and European programmes from the Causeway Bay station.

John Stericker, an employee of British American Tobacco had been a part-time announcer/presenter for ZBW before the war began. During the battle, he focused on his broadcasting role as this was considered important for the morale of the besieged colony. He was based at the ZBW studio on the 7th floor of the Gloucester Building which also housed the Gloucester Hotel. The iconic Hong Kong Hotel, known as the Grips, was linked to the Gloucester Hotel by way of a covered shopping arcade.

The Gloucester Hotel Building

Following the evacuation of the mainland which was completed on Saturday 13 December 1941, John Stericker introduced Sir Mark Young, the Governor, to the ZBW microphone. He made a brief radio address confirming that the mainland had been evacuated and that British forces had retired to the island fortress. The Island then came under a massive bombardment from Japanese artillery and aerial bombing. 

On 16 December, shelling around the Causeway Bay transmitting station severed the control lines from the studio and programmes could not be broadcast that evening. The Public Works Department (PWD) was inundated and were not able to restore the control lines. On 17 December, with the lines still down, John Stericker and some technical staff moved to the Causeway Bay transmitting station - an area that was under heavy fire. 

A technician and myself were sent out in a highly conspicuous  post office van, painted bright red, during a lull in the bombardment. ... The streets were a mass of shell holes while overhead, the smoke pall from burning petrol tanks hung over the town. ... When we arrived at our objective, we found a small concrete building in one half of which was a generator and in the other a microphone and control board. We managed to start up the generator and get trhe transmitter going. ... Somebody had forgotten to provide black-out curtains. Fortunately we had dimmed electric torches and struggled along with these, playing a portable gramaphone into the speech-microphone.(1)

As dusk descended Japanese shelling commenced around the station. This is how Morris described it.

PWD unable to promise the early restoration of damaged cables. Steps, therefore, were taken to establish local control at the station itself. A dance-band microphone and amplifier were requisitioned from a cafe and installed together with a gramophone turntable ... An announcer [John Stericker] was brought by car with a supply of records, and the programme was radiated on time. As I was anxious not to miss the usual broadcast of Daventry news, which was considered very desirable for local morale, I installed a short-wave receiver taken from my own residence.(2)

Stericker remembers Morris turning up with the domestic radio receiver set which he placed near the microphone. As the time for the news from Daventry approached, Stericker announced that ZBW was now taking its listeners over to London for the news.

'Over to London' consisted of seizing the radio set and pushing it in front of the microphone. ... It was with some relief that we heard the BBC announcer come to the end of what seemed the longest news bulletin in history. ... I mention this small incident because it was an actual broadcast under fire, with audible shell-bursts.(1) 

The next day the Japanese landed on Hong Kong Island and the Causeway Bay station had to be abandoned. After this, the only remaining transmitter was the station in Kennedy Road. This station also came under shell fire and received several direct hits but apart from the aerial being shot away the transmitting equipment was undamaged. Every time the transmitter was switched on, it attracted Japanese fire. 

When the shelling was particularly severe, a technician would start up the apparatus and depart quickly, returning to shut it down at the end of the programme.(2)

The Kennedy Road station had no generator and when the electricity supply ceased so did transmissions from that station. However, up until the capitulation ZBK continued to broadcast, as described below by Richard Morris.

From the cessation of broadcasting, at Kennedy Road to the day of occupation, a programme of music and the Daventry news programmes were transmitted by local power from the studios to Government house by line. Mr Arthur Lay played the piano for some of these final transmissions.(2)  

Daventry calling - Daventry calling. This is the news.

*************

The mystery surrounding Frank Kekewick Garton 

Cape D'Aguilar is a remote place situated at the south-eastern extremity of Hong Kong Island. The Post Office Engineering Branch looked after the seven transmitters at the D'Aguilar Radio Transmitting Station. Near them were two coastal defence batteries, Fort Bokhara with two 9.2-inch guns, and Fort D'Aguilar with two 4-inch guns. There were some beach defence pillboxes nearby, and a Canadian infantry company was based at Windy Gap. On December 13 the Royal Navy took over three of the seven transmitters at D'Aguilar after their own Transmitting and Receiving Station on Stonecutters Island was destroyed by enemy action. 

RN Radio Station on Stonecutters (Source UKNA Files)  

On 19 December, GPO Engineer, Frank Garton, advised Richard Morris that the military were evacuating the Cape D'Aguilar coastal defence batteries. All military forces in the eastern sector of the Island had been ordered to withdraw to Stanley, but the civilians at the radio transmitting station had been forgotten about. According to the report by  Morris, Head of GPO Engineering Branch, Garton was in charge of the radio transmitting station at D'Aguilar. However, he is also listed as a Seaman Gunner in the HKRNVR and he was incarcerated in SSP Camp and later shipped to Japan on the ill-fated Lisbon Maru. He survived the sinking of the Lisbon Maru and the subsequent incarceration in Japan. What is unclear is why he was not incarcerated at Stanley Civilian Internment Camp with the rest of the GPO engineers given he was not in uniform and given he was working in a civilian capacity. 

He was instructed to evacuate the station, destroy the equipment and make his way to town. He was able to get hold of a car and he left the station with his European assistant Allan Harbottle who was later interned at Stanley Camp. Garton was accompanied by his wife and a Chinese amah. The Chinese staff at the station were told to disperse. The Japanese had landed on the island the previous night and troops in the eastern sector were in danger of being cut off. Garton was not told which areas were in Japanese control. He must have driven through Repulse Bay and then up Repulse Bay Road (the quickest way to town). However, by this stage, the Japanse had seized Wong Nai Chung (WNC) Gap. As Garton approached the gap they were ambushed by Japanese entrenched on the hillside around the police station on a knoll at the centre of the gap. Their car was machine-gunned and  Garton's wife was killed and the Chinese amah seriously wounded.  Morris' report says nothing more about it other than she was killed. The big question for readers: is what happened to Garton and Harbottle. Why did Harbottle end up in Stanley and Garton in SSP Camp? 

Commonwealth War Graves Commission data gives an incorrect date of death (28/12). We know she died on 19/12. The governor reported the death in a telegram to London dated 23/12.

When I first read S/Sgt Patrick Sheridan's diary for 19 December; I wondered who was the dead European women that he came across together with a badly injured Chinese lady in what he called the white house. The white house was, in fact, a villa called Holmesdale now simply known as No. 4 Repulse Bay Road.  The house still exists today. It is the white house shown in the photograph below Postbridge, the higher of the two houses. The backdrop is WNC Gap.

Sheridan went into the villa and found some fifteen wounded, mostly naval personnel, who had been ambushed as their trucks drove up the road earlier that morning. The same fate must have visited the Gartons.  Suddenly it clicked. The ladies described by Sheridan in the white house at WNC Gap were Mrs Garton and the Chinese amah. The Chinese amah had been shot through the chest. She either died of her wounds or was killed when the Japanese broke in and bayoneted all the wounded.  But what of Garton and Harbottle. Perhaps they were wounded and were evacuated by naval ambulance to Aberdeen and why is it that one was put in a military POW camp and the other in Stanley Civilian Camp and what actually happened to them after the ambush? 

******************

Addendum:

Following the publication of this post, I received an email from Richard Phillips who knew Allan Harbottle. It turned out they were neighbours in Cardiff and good family friends. This was in the 1960s. After the war ended he returned to the UK on recuperation leave. He arrived on the Empress of Australia which docked at Liverpool on 27 October 1945.  He married Gladys Mabel Trott, his childhood sweetheart, in December 1945. Gladys passed away in 196o at the age of 56. Richard kindly included the photograph below which shows him and his staff at the radio station.  We are not sure of the date - and whether it is a pre-war or post-war shot. He returned to his wireless duties in Hong Kong after the war and brought Gladys with him. In retirement in the 1960s/1970s, he was a ham radio enthusiast. Allan passed away in 1976.

 

Sources:

1. A tear for the dragon (1958) John Stericker (p.128)

2. Report on activities of Post Office: Engineering Branch during the Battle of Hong Kong. UKNA  (CO 129/59

Acknowledgements:

Richard Phillips

Mutiny on the Leviathan

HMS Leviathan, a Drake class armoured cruiser was launched in July 1901. She carried thick armour plating, but notwithstanding the weight of armoured decks and bulkheads, she was able to produce  23 knots from her twin shafts. The photograph shows little in the way of superstructure. The upper deck mainly comprising four smokestacks, a rather flimsy bridge, and in a nod to the sailing navy  two large masts fore and aft. In terms of firepower, her main armament consisted  of two 9.2-inch guns, housed in single gun turrets situated fore and aft. The 9.2-inch guns fired a 380 pound shell with a range of up to 14,000 metres. Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen 6-inch guns, with six on each broadside situated in casements on the hull below the main deck. Four of the guns were on the main deck. In addition she carried twelve quick firing (QF) 12-pounders. She also carried three 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns for use against close targets like MTBs. The ship was also fitted with two 18-inch submerged torpedo tubes. In the best of Edwardian naval tradition -  she was bristling with armoured firepower.

HMS Leviathan (Source: Wikipedia)

After completion of sea trials in 1903 Leviathan was despatched to the China Station with its bases  at Singapore, Hong Kong and Wei Hai Wei. In 1905, she served with the Mediterranean Fleet and in 1908 after only five years of service she was placed in reserve. She was recommissioned a year later, but then again placed in reserve in 1913. She was recommissioned to serve in WW1 in 1914. After the war, she was once again placed in reserve in 1919, and then finally sold for scrap in 1920. There is little reference to the mutiny that took place in the closing stages of WW1. No doubt at the time it was hushed up. Mutiny was a bad word in the Royal Navy. I found a file at the National Archives in Kew that detailed the investigation, the witness statements and the findings of a court of enquiry. Whilst looking for information on the mutiny on the Leviathan, I noticed a newspaper heading describing another mutiny on the Leviathan that took place a few years earlier in 1909.  She was an unlucky ship with two separate mutinies, having been placed in reserve three times, and scrapped only seventeen years after launch. 

Leviathan at full steam (Source: Article in "The News" by Bob Hind April 2016)

A sound tape held at the Imperial War Museum in London contains an interview with George Terry, who in 1909 was serving as a recruit/trainee on board Leviathan which at that time was being used as a training ship. He recalls the ship's commanding officer being unhappy with the work done during coaling of the ship whilst at Gibraltar. He ordered that it be done again, which created resentment on the lower deck, and during a subsequent parade the ship's permanent seamen (not the trainees), numbering around one hundred men, did not assemble for the parade. Only the Petty Officers, the Leading Seamen and the trainees turned out on the upper deck.  The four men who were considered to be the ringleaders, were arrested and put on trial, and received custodial sentences.

The first mutiny (Sydney Morning Herald - 14/12/1909)

The next, and more serious mutiny aboard the Leviathan occurred during war time in October 1918. The ship was then under the command of Captain Bertram Sutton Evans. A career officer, who had joined the Navy in 1884, but who had a somewhat checkered record. In 1912 whilst commanding the cruiser HMS Pandora, in the rank of Commander, he was reprimanded, when following a gun-layers test, his ship had been found "in want of supervision of training and organisation for war." However, he was nonetheless promoted to Captain in 1913 and given command of HMS Europa. In October 1913 he was reprimanded again for the unsatisfactory way in which he conducted his executive duties whilst in command of Europa. He was placed on half pay for a period of one year. However, again he was given command of a warship when he was posted to serve as Captain of HMS Implacable in 1917. In April 1918, he assumed command of HMS Leviathan.

The mutiny occurred on Sunday 6th October 1918, whilst the ship was stationed at Birkenhead. Captain Evans had addressed the ship's company that morning,  assembled on the quarterdeck, and notified them that all leave was being cancelled that day, because twenty-nine men were still absent following  leave. He said he could not trust the ship's company to return on time.  

File pertaining to Court of Enquiry (National Archives ADM 156/89)

The cancellation of leave and the way Captain Evans addressed the ship's company created a great deal of resentment on the lower deck particularly amongst the engine room stokers. As a result about one hundred ratings went ashore assembled on the jetty and generated a great deal of rowdiness. The Captain then ordered a bugle to be sounded calling for the men to assemble for divisions (parade). A few men obeyed the order by returning back onboard, but most, then proceeded to the dockyard gate, refusing orders given by a Petty Officer, stationed at the gate, to stop and return to the ship.  They proceeded into town, and in their eyes were simply  taking unauthorised leave, which in their opinion they were due. In fact it was mutiny. However, a large number of the men came back to the ship during the afternoon. They had their tea, changed their clothes, and then went ashore again. This time a party of one corporal and six Royal Marines armed with rifles (but without ammunition) and, as ordered, without bayonets fixed, had taken a position at the dockyard gate. However they were easily swept aside by the mutineers, the Marines being   under orders not to use violence for fear of making things worse. 

The mutineers came back aboard the ship on Sunday night, but instead of returning to their duties, they left the ship again on Monday, since no restriction had been put in place to prevent their leaving. It was almost as if the Captain was "giving them enough rope," rather than bringing the breach in discipline to an immediate halt. I think he unintentionally allowed circumstances to get out of control. Most of the mutineers returned by Tuesday morning at which time a strong force of Marines had been mustered from various warships to reimpose discipline, but the men returned of their own volition. The ship left the dockside and moved into midstream where re-coaling was undertaken on Wednesday. The Senior Naval Officer (SNO) Liverpool mustered and addressed the ship's company and then spoke individually to each of the men involved in the disobediance. He was trying to understand the reasons that led to this, and what were were their grievances. However,  few if any of the men listed any grievances or made complaints about the Captain, the officers and senior ratings. Certainly they had been upset by the cancellation of leave,  and by the Captain's use of the words "lack of trust" for the ship's company.

By Tuesday, the ship's company were working normally. The enquiry found that the actions taken by the dissenters were spontaneous, they were not premeditated and they were not organised. There had been no damage to the ship or other property, other than to a piano that had been carried onto the dockside. The mutineers were coming back and forth from the ship. The enquiry found that the actions taken by the Captain and his officers to arrest the development early, and to get in amongst the men and bring the disobediance to a halt were inadequate. Most of the mutineers were young, Hostilities Only (H.O.) ratings, and were not aware of the gravity of their actions. It was found that in general the discipline on the ship was  lose. There was over-crowding on the ship and a lack of sleeping space with some of the crew sleeping on the upper deck or in the gun turrets. When in harbour much time was taken up in coaling. This was long, tedious and dirty job. A fine layer of coal dust covered everything. It got in the eyes and in the throat. When not in harbour the ship was on war partrols and convoy duties. I suspect it may not have been an efficient ship, and in the Navy they always say an efficient ship is a happy ship. 

The SNO's report came up with the following main conclusions:

(1) The general tone of discipline throughout the ship was slipshod and slack.

(2) The Captain had made use of a most tactless expression when he said he could not trust his ship's company.

(3) That Commander Sherrin, the Executive Officer, showed lamentable lack of executive initiative, and by his failure restrain the men in the earlier stages caused the trouble to assume larger proportions than it should have done.

(4) That the Master-at-Arms had failed to support the executive authority, or to take his rightful place as the Senior Chief Petty Officer on the ship.

(5) That the Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers failed to use their influence for the good of H.M. Service and allowed a lot of youngsters and raw hands to take charge of the situation.

The ship had been ordered to re-coal at daylight and proceed to sea at 2200 hours on Monday 7th October. It was felt that the Captain should have mentioned this as the reason for there being no leave allowed on the Sunday, albeit he had every right to admonish the crew for their lack of discipline with regard to returning on time from leave. This was especially important because they were in a state of war. Discipline would normally be ensured by the Executive Officer and the senior ratings, in particular the Master-at-Arms.

Captain Bertram ("Bertie") Evans was forty-six years old at the time. He had been a very accomplished cricketer and had played for Hampshire in 1900 and again in 1909. He was married to Eliza Janet Muir and they had a daughter, Patricia Jeannette. Although his handling of the mutiny was considered tactless, he was given another command, and in 1919 he was posted to command HMS Europa, for the second time. The ship was lying in Moudros, Greece. It seems  that this order was cancelled, but after he had already left, overland, to join his ship. He died in March 1919, in a Paris hospital following a bout of influenza, presumably the Spanish flu that killed so many that year. Was he a victim of circumstances ? I think he may have been. Did he have the right backing from his officers and men? I think probably not. Was he a poor leader, was he tactless, did he run a disciplined, happy and efficient ship ? I think probably not, but not necessarily from neglect, perhaps more from unsuitability.

.................................

Romney Marsh, the English Arcadia and Napoleonic War defenses

It is somewhere between late spring and early summer and I am staying at an old coaching inn whose history dates back to the 14th century. It is situated just outside the ancient city walls of Canterbury whose magnificent medieval cathedral still dominates the summer skyline. The city walls or ramparts are still intact in many places around the city and my inn happens to be just outside the city walls and near the West Gate of the medieval city. The inn originally known as the White Hart is now known as the Falstaff Hotel named after the Shakespearian character. There is meant to be three ghosts but happily, as yet,  I have not seen them.

The Falstaff Inn

The West Gate and Tower

Before we start our journey to Romney Marsh and look at beach defences of the early 19th century - a word more about our starting point. The West Gate was built by Archbishop Simon Sudbury in 1380 and replaced an earlier structure that had been built as long ago as 1023.  It was at this earlier gate that William the Conqueror stopped on his way from London to Normandy in 1067 to re-confer the ancients rights and privileges afforded to Men of Kent. "Men of Kent" being those who lived South and East of the River Medway. Those who lived in the west of the county were deemed to be "Kentish Men".  There is a suggestion that this ancient divide owes its origins to the fact,  that in the east the settlers were mainly Jutes and to the west mainly Saxons - these Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes had settled in England or should we say Engel-Land the land of the Engels or Angles as written today. It was said that the Men of Kent resisted the Conqueror more strongly than did the Kentish men, but that may not be very fair on the Angles and Saxons.

The White Hart Hotel as it was then known was just outside the city walls. At night the gates to the medieval city were closed and pilgrims unable to reach the city before dark would stay at inns such as the White Hart. It was renamed the Falstaff in Elizabethan times. Sir John Falstaff appears as a corpulent knight in Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts 1 and 2.

Queen Elizabeth was so taken by this character that Shakespear included him as a central character in The Merry Wives of Windsor. To an Elizabethan audience, Falstaff would be instantly recognizable -  not so today.

Nonetheless, the name has become an adjective. In dictionary.com it is described as one "having the qualities of Falstaff, especially his robust, bawdy humour, good-natured rascality, and brazen braggadocio".

"An affable Irregular,

A heavily-built Falstaffian man,

Comes cracking jokes of civil war

As though to die by gunshot were

The finest play under the sun".    

(first stanza from "The Road at My Door" by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

As I start my journey to Romney Marsh through the English arcadia - I notice the buttercups seem more abundant than ever. 

Is there anything more cheerful than a buttercup.

Is there anything more cheerful than a buttercup

 Perhaps only a field full of buttercups!

Perhaps only a field of buttercups

 The prickly Hawthorn bush is alive with blossom like snow in summer.

The Hawthorn in full bloom 

Blossom like snow in summer

Romney Marsh is that low lying area of rich green grass and dykes and ditches that lies between the sea on the right,  and the Saxon shoreline marked by the low line of hills that stretch from Hythe to the ragstone cliffs at Fairlight near Hastings. There's something magical and mysterious about the Marsh  - sometimes described as the fifth quarter of the globe. Richard Barham in "The Ingoldsby Legends" wrote, "the world, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa and Romney Marsh". Nonsense of course, but there is something different about the Marsh. When you are on it you see more sky because of its low lying nature and when you look inland you can see the ancient coastline of Roman Britain. Towns like Rye and Winchelsea were once islands. Inland towns like New Romney were once ports. The days of buccaneers and smugglers have gone but left their mark. The sea has retreated and today Norman churches stand on what were once little islets amongst the salt marshes. There is on the marsh an uneasy alliance between land, sea and sky.

We catch our first glimpse of Romney Marsh at Lympne - here,  I am standing on the sea-cliffs of Roman Britain. Nearby there is a medieval castle and an ancient church. The castle is privately owned and said to be haunted. On a spring day, it seemed more enchanted than haunted. In Roman times, ships sailed over the shallow waters of what is now Romney Marsh to the Roman port of Portus Lemanis from which the name Lympne is derived. The Roman port was lower down the hill near and situated close to where the remains of Stutfall castle lie today. These old stone walls were part of a Roman and later Saxon fort built on the shoreline.

Lympne Castle and the remains (lower down the hill)  of Stutfall Castle  marking the Roman port of  Portus Lemanis

I wander into the churchyard that lies adjacent to Lympne Castle.  Was there ever a more beautiful view of Romney Marsh than from this quiet spot - the church is built on the crest of the hill and in one coup d'oeil you can see the Romney Marshes stretching out to Dungeness in the glimmering haze that marks  the horizon.

Churchyard with a view

As I look at these ancient graves I am minded of Gray's Elegy written in a country churchyard:

"Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-trees shade,

         Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

         The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,

         The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,

         No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,

         Or busy housewife ply her evening care:

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

         Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,

         Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;

How jocund did they drive their team afield!

         How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,

         Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;

Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

         The short and simple annals of the poor.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

         The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

         And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

         Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

(Thomas Gray  - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard)

General Woolf who took Quebec by an extraordinary feat of arms was reputed to have said of this poem (shown in part above) :

"Gentlemen, I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec tomorrow". 

But lets us move on to military defences before digressing into poetry and the English pastoral arcadia.

I walked past Lympne Castle through wooded glades:

Catching glimpses of the land below:

At the bottom of the scarp, I come across the Royal Military Canal - it stretches along the foot of the low line of hills that mark the old coastline of Roman Britain.  It was built in 1804 as part of the defences against the feared invasion of Britain by the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte who had assembled an army on the Channel Coast as long ago as 1798.  In 1803 L'Armee d'Angleterre was assembled at Boulogne and a flotilla of invasion barges was prepared. Napoleon was master of Europe, if only he could cross this narrow strip of water he could conquer and subdue the old enemy.  Unfortunately for Napoleon, the Royal Navy impeded this by their blockade of French ports and their mastery of the seas. However, back at this time, there was a serious concern about the threat of invasion. In preparation for which not only was the Royal Military Canal built but a 100 forts known as Martello Towers were built along the coast

The construction of the Royal Military Canal was commenced in 1804 with the approval of then Prime Minister - William Pitt the Younger. It ran for 28 Miles from Hythe to Rye.  The northern or inland bank of the canal was built up to form a parapet from the excavated soil and a military road was constructed beside it. Gun batteries were built at intervals and positioned to provide enfilading fire. It was finally finished in 1809  by which time the Battle of Trafalgar had been won and the French fleet defeated and the threat of invasion had been lifted. Admiral John Jervis was reported to have said of the French invasion army: 

" I do not say they cannot come - I only say they cannot come by sea".

 The Royal Military Canal today is a peaceful and pretty waterway that runs along the edge of Romney Marsh.

At the time of its construction, it was regarded as a "white elephant" created at enormous expense and critics like William Corbett argued, how we could have expected "those armies who had so often crossed the Rhine and the Danube to be kept back by a canal 30 ft wide at most"!

Other than the Royal Military Canal and Redoubts built at intervals along the coast a hundred Martello Towers were built along the coast of Southeast England. These were round towers that housed an officer and detachment of soldiers who manned a cannon that could traverse 360 degrees.  Many of these forts still remain today like the one in the car park at Dymchurch shown below.

But my favourite  Martello Tower on Romney Marsh has to be the one in ruins at Rye Harbour also known as Frenchman's Creek.

The British Navy had come across such towers at Mortella in Corsica and one such tower had held of two British warships in 1794. They were formidable defences. They stood 40 feet high with walls that were 8 feet thick. Narrow slit windows provided loopholes for musket fire. Most towers had one cannon that could traverse 360 degrees. Typically manned by one officer and 24 men. 

Now its time to begin my journey back and leave the marsh and from my car you can see the old coastline of Roman and Saxon Britain and some of the flat land that makes up the Romney Marsh with its ditches and dykes  - you can see a lot of sky as always on the Marsh - and finally, the canal lies glittering in the late afternoon sun and the Martello Towers tell their story of long ago.

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No. 1 Battery, HKVDC

The Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC) was mobilised following the declaration of a State of Emergency on Sunday 7 December 1941.  No. 1 Battery, HKVDC, was responsible for a battery of two 4-inch naval guns located on a hillside at Cape D’Aguilar on the south-eastern extremity of Hong Kong Island. The battery, known as D'Aguilar Battery, consisted of some 69 men and three officers. The senior ranks were as follows:

Captain George F. Rees, Commander Officer

Lt H.S. Jones, 2 i/c 

2/Lt Hugh G. Muir

Battery Sgt-Major John L. G. Oswald

Battery Quartermaster Sgt Michel J. Harkins

It was a coastal defence battery designed to engage enemy vessels rather than landward firing. The battery formed part of Eastern Fire Command along with other coastal defence batteries in the eastern sector of the Island, including Collinson (2 x 6-inch), Fort Bokhara (2 x 9.2-inch), Stanley (3 x 9.2-inch) and Chung Hom Kok (2 x 6-inch). Fort Bokhara was situated below and within a kilometre of D’Aguilar Battery. The large calibre 9.2-inch guns at Stanley and Bokhara were capable of traversing and firing inland. However, the bulk of the ammunition for the coastal defence batteries was armour piercing which was more suitable for the coastal defence role of firing at seaborne targets. There was insufficient anti-personnel (shrapnel) and high explosive (H.E.) ammunition for landward firing. 

   On Sunday 7 December, the battery personnel were ordered to report to HKVDC HQ at Garden Road. They were issued with rifles, ammunition and grenades. At 1700 hours they set off for their battery position in trucks.  It took an hour along the narrow roads to reach the battery at D’Aguilar. Equipment had to be man-handled to the battery position above Cape D'Aguilar Road. The next morning Monday 8 December, the war started. The battery personnel were mustered at 0800 hours and informed that war had started.

Battery Observation Post at Bokhara 9.2-inch Battery

The period from 8 December until 19 December was relatively uneventful for No. 1 Battery. Some Japanese vessels were spotted but they were well out of range. The nearby Bokhara Battery fired some rounds at Japanese vessels at extreme range. The guns at Bokhara were also used extensively for landward firing at Japanse troops on the Mainland. Generally, the Japanese Navy stayed well back because of the array of coastal defence batteries, contact and remote-controlled mines and the presence of British MTBs. 

   The D’Aguilar Battery manned by No. 1 Battery, HKVDC, also included a Fire Command Post and a Fortress Observation Post, manned by the regular Army, in addition to the two 4-inch gun emplacements and BOP manned by the Volunteers.

Battery Buildings at D'Aguilar 4-inch Battery

Possibly the Fortress Observation Post (FOP) at D'Aguilar Bty

During the night of Thursday 18 December, the Japanese landed, an estimated, 8,000 infantry and artillery on the northeast shore of the Island. The Japanese troops moved quickly inland, and by the mid-morning on Friday 19 December, there was a concern that troops and gun positions in the eastern sector of the Island may be cut off. Accordingly, a decision was made to withdraw all troops in the eastern sector to Stanley, and form a defensive perimeter in the hills around Stanley. Sgt Leslie Millington recalls that at 1000 hours they were ordered to put the guns out of action and withdraw.

At about 10 a.m., the Master-Gunner from the Fire Control Post below us came running up and gave orders to blow up our guns and retreat to Stanley Fort. … We marched most of the way and the chaps who had cars ran a shuttle service to and fro. When we arrived at Stanley Fort we were put to work digging trenches around the peninsula.

The trenches were on the south side of Stanley Fort and facing out to sea. The battery personnel manned these trenches at night and rested during daylight hours in Stanley Fort. The fort was subjected to aerial bombing and then artillery fire as the Japanese drew closer. The Japanese advanced on Stanley and the final, fierce battle for Stanley took place on 24/25 December. 

   On Wednesday 24 December, the battery personnel were moved from Stanley Fort to St Stephen's College, Stanley. They were to fight as infantry and man a support line.  Earlier that day Captain Rees took an advance party, consisting of a sergeant and four gunners down to the 1/Mx HQ at St Stephen’s Prep School. A regular officer showed them the positions that they were to occupy later that evening after nightfall. Their positions formed a second line of defence, or support line, between Stanley Village and the fort. The first line of defence ran across the peninsula from east to west with the police station at Stanley village being the centre of the line. The support line extended east-west across the grounds of St Stephens College.

Prison Officers Club - used as East Brigade HQ 

Stanley

Sgt Harry Millington’s MG detachment was positioned on the right flank near the entrance to St Stephen's College on the Prison Road (Tung Tao Wan Road). His brother, Sgt Leslie Millington was positioned with his MG detachment some 100 metres to the left, closer to the college main building and the tennis courts. The remaining two detachments were spread out across the line of staff bungalows and Fort Road (Wong Ma Kok Road). Captain Rees established his HQ at one of the staff bungalows, possibly Bungalow ‘A’ since it was positioned at the centre of the line and had been vacated by Royal Rifles of Canada. They had used it briefly as Battalion HQ. 2/Lt Muir garrisoned Bungalow ‘C’ on the extreme left flank of the line.  The battle for Stanley Village began that night. The defenders on the support line could hear the cacophony of battle, artillery fire, machine-gun fire, grenade and mortar explosions as the Japanese using tanks and waves of infantry attacked the front line in Stanley Village. The front line was defended by No. 2 Coy, HKVDC, the Stanley Platoon, HKVDC, made up of prison officers many of whom were veterans of WW1. The Royal Artillery manned anti-tank guns and members of the Middlesex Regiment armed with Vickers machine guns manned a bungalow at the junction of the Prison Road and Fort Road. The senior officer in command was Major Forsyth commanding officer of No. 2 Coy, HKVDC. He was armed with a Tommy gun and positioned himself in the centre of the village. He was fatally wounded and carried into the police station. After fierce and close-quarter fighting the Japanese were able to break through on the flanks. The line broke and the survivors withdrew to the support line.  Sgt Leslie Millington and his brother Sgt Harry Millington heard the sound of running men coming along the Prison Road from the village.  These were followed by Japanese troops and Sgt Harry Millington opened fire at the Japanese on the road. Sgt Leslie Millington was soon in action as Japanese troops were seen advancing near the college tennis courts on which his detachment had a line of fire. The Japanese responded with machine-gun fire and mortar fire during which Gunner Eugene Yourieff was wounded by shrapnel from a mortar bomb. 

   The exchange of fire continued until around 0500 hours on Christmas Day. Japanese troops had infiltrated closer to Sgt Leslie Millington’s positions and were able to utilise an incendiary device (flame-thrower) which set fire to the machine gun and the nearby magazine area. With the Lewis gun now out of action, Millington gave orders to his men to withdraw to the right towards Sgt Harry Millington’s position on the Prison Road. When they regrouped after the withdrawal they found Gunner George Sloss was missing. It was later found that he had been captured.

   At dawn, a regular officer, from HQ at the Prison Officers Club, ordered Sgt Leslie Millington to go back to his previous position. By this time, they could hear Japanese at or near the main college building. The main building was being used as a Relief Military Hospital. The Japanese went in at dawn and in an unfettered rage, they killed a large number of patients and medical orderlies. Many of the patients were bayoneted as they lay in their beds. Two doctors were killed and European and Chinese nurses were raped and three of them were mutilated and killed. It was difficult for Millington to reoccupy his position. His detachment consisted of eight men armed only with rifles, and only one grenade between them. Their position was untenable on a level with the main college building. In the impending daylight, they would be easily seen by Japanese troops located in and around the main school building. Millington recalled their effort to reoccupy the position that they had manned the previous night.

I had to go, so with my chaps, I crept quietly up to the bank. … We peeped over the top onto the flat space, nobody was more surprised than we were to see about fifty Japanese sitting around having their chow. The grenade was thrown and, as I didn’t feel like leading a bayonet charge, we opened up a rapid rifle fire. The Japanese beat a hasty retreat to the other side of the flat area and began to lob grenades at us. They seemed to have an endless supply. We stayed like this, exchanging fire for about five minutes, and as I thought it was pretty hopeless I again ordered the lads to re-join Harry, which we did with the loss of another chap, Skinner.

In fact, Gunner Skinner was wounded but not killed. He was hospitalised but it is not clear where. He may have made his way back to the prison road and sought medical assistance at the Prison Hospital. St Stephens College Hospital was nearer but was occupied by Japanese troops. Sgt Leslie Millington re-joined his brother Sgt Harry Millington on the prison road. However, they were coming under sniper fire from the Annex one of the college buildings which overlooked the road.  They took shelter behind a bank on the road and returned fire. They lost two men from Sgt Harry Millington’s detachment, Gunner Sam Gerzo and Gunner Graham Lawson, during this exchange of fire.

Modified sketch map from Millington's Diary (IWM)

They decided to move back towards the prison. Sgt Harry Millington died whilst providing covering fire. Leslie Millington recalls bullets hitting the road behind him as he rushed towards the Prison Officer’s Club. The colony surrendered that afternoon. Those at the Prison Officer’s Club Building were notified of the surrender by either a dispatch rider or runner from Stanley Prison at around 1700 hours on 25 December.  They were ordered to leave their weapons and ammunition and walk down to Stanley Prison about 200 metres away. The volunteer and regular soldiers at the prison remained there until Saturday 27 December when they were taken to Stanley Fort to join the other surrendered military personnel from the Stanley area. On Monday 29 December they were marched from Stanley Fort through Tai Tam Gap to North Point where they started the three-and-half-year period of brutal incarceration. 

   In the course of the fighting at Stanley, the battery suffered 35 fatalities. A death rate of over 50% incurred within a 24-hour period.

   

Members of the Battery

Last Name	First Name	Rank	Date of Death
Alexander	William L	Gnr	24-Dec-41
Allen	Douglas  Geoffrey	Gunner
Benuch	Leonard  John	Gunner
Bliss	Arthur Sydney (Sonny)	GNR	25-Dec-41
Buckingham	Harry	L-Bdr	25-Dec-41
Bullock	Harry	Gunner
Butlin	Strathmore  Tatham	Gnr	25-Dec-41
Collins-Taylor	Douglas Harley	L-Bdr	25-Dec-41
Dodds	George	Sgt
Duffy	Jocelyn Tierney	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Engelbrecht	Raymond J	Gunner
Gerzo	Samuel  Daniel	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Griffiths	Ronald  Hannam	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Harkins	Mitchell Joseph	BQMS
Henningsen	Frederick Forbes	Gunner
Ho	Lok Kee	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Johnson	Lloyd  George	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Johnson	George Edward	Sgt
Jolendovsky	Tadeusz	Gunner
Jones	HS	Lt	25-Dec-41
Jonge	De Gillaes	Gunner
Kossakowski	Z.A.	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Landau	Emil
Landau	Leo	L-Bdr
Lander	John Gerard Heath	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Lawson	W  Graham	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Lipknowsky	Boris	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Lodge	Cyril John	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Lyon	David	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Mackenzie	Norman  H	Gunner
Marshall	Adam	Gunner
McCabe	Lawrence  Hugh	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Millington	Leslie Charles	Sgt
Millington	Henry  (Harry) James	Sgt	25-Dec-41
Muir	Hugh Gordon	2nd Lt	25-Dec-41
Nash	Robert  Charles	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Orr	Douglas	Bdr	25-Dec-41
Oswald	John Lee Guinness	BSM
Pedersen	Kay  W	Gunner
Pomeroy	John  Bernard	Gunner
Rees	George Frederick	Capt	Wounded in action
Roostein	Anatole	Gunner
Rudrof	Wladyslaw Pawel	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Samuel	Herbert	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Sayers	Max W	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Skinner	Osmond	Gunner
Sloss	Geoff  Duncan	Gunner
Smith	Charles  A	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Smith	John Reginald Martin	Gunner	24-Dec-41
Stafford	AB	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Stone	Geoffrey  Paul	L-Bdr	25-Dec-41
Swan	Malcolm McDonald	Gunner
Thomerson	Godfrey	L-Bdr	25-Dec-41
Tsenin	Eugene Alexes	Gunner
Tucker	Norman Foster	Gunner
Voronoff	Constantine	Gunner
Walree	Erik  Van	Gunner
Watson	Russell  A E	Gunner
Weller	Frederick Anthony ("Tony")	Gunner
Wilkens	Kurt	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Wyllie	Roy Leslie	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Yourieff	Eugene  G	Gunner
Yung	Yue Wang	Gunner	25-Dec-41
Zaitzeff	Anatole	L-Bdr

Sources:

Millington's Diary held at IWM