Victor Thomson, 2/RS

I was contacted by Allan Thomson whose grandfather Victor Thomson fought with 'D' Coy 2/RS in the Battle for Hong Kong.  'D' Coy was commanded by Captain David Pinkerton who was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry but many thought should have been awarded the Victoria Cross for his consistent gallantry and leadership throughout the battle. Captain Pinkerton continued his army career after the war and was killed in Egypt by a sniper's bullet in 1956 during the Suez incident. 'D' Coy fought with absolute distinction and were always in the thick of the action. Allan writes that his grandfather fought at Golden Hill, Wong Nai Chung Gap, Mount Nicholson and Mount Cameron. He  survived the brutal incarceration in POW Camps and he survived the tragedy of the sinking of the Lisbon Maru. Allan sent these photos of his grandfather.  I publish these photographs as a tribute to a brave soldier.  The Royal Scots bore the brunt of the action on the Mainland and their attacks against much stronger enemy forces on the Island were nothing but gallant.

Victor Thomson joined a territorial battalion of Argyll Sutherland Highlanders before joining the Royal Scots.

In fighting order

Post war - serving with the Royal Engineers

...........

Vandalism at Brigadier Lawson's Bunkers (2017)

After the evacuation of troops from the Mainland, Brigadier Lawson assumed command of West Infantry Brigade and Brigadier Wallis took command of East Infantry Brigade. The Japanese landed on the Island on the night of 18 December 1941. The next morning Brigadier Lawson found that his Brigade HQ bunkers had become part of the front line and his HQ was surrounded by Japanese troops who had seized Wong Nai Chung Gap (WNC Gap) earlier that morning. The bomb-proof shelters that were used as his HQ still remain beside a petrol station on WNC Gap Road. I often go there because it is part of the WNC Gap "Battle Trail" and I periodically conduct guided battlefield tours along this trail.  The shelters are sometimes referred to as Lawson's Bunker. In the spring of 2017,  the site was vandalised.  I had noticed that for a long time these bunkers had been strewn with rubbish, empty beer cans, cigarette-ends and all kinds of other junk. It had been used by children from the nearby French International School to smoke, drink, eat and congregate but they had shown no respect for this historic site. A place where so many had faced death including Brigadier Lawson.  The Antiquities & Monuments Office (AMO)  finally got round to tidying up the site and they deserved praise for doing a very good clear-up of this important site. It is a site which has special significance to Canadians. Lawson was the most senior Canadian officer to be killed in action in WW2. 

Soon after this, I felt quite outraged to find that the site had been vandalised by teenagers from the French International School. This time they had spray-painted the structures. The graffiti was in French and some of it obscene. One morning I managed to photograph one of the students smoking in the spray-painted shelter shown in the photograph below. This was the shelter closest to the road. Here the wounded had been moved in the hope of getting an ambulance to pick them up and here they had died. 

A bombproof structure that I think may have been a garage. 

One of the spray-painted bunkers protected by a blast wall. 

Spray-painted graffiti which is difficult to remove

The next set of photographs (courtesy of history enthusiast Alexander Macdonald) show the messy state of the site before the Antiquities and Monuments Office  (AMO) clear-up.

The garage full of junk

Litter and junk filling up the passageway

What a mess and this is a historic site.

What a difference was made after the tidy up by AMO - see the photographs below marred only by the mindless graffiti and fresh litter which appeared later.

After the clear-up by AMO

After the AMO clear-up but sadly after the vandalisation

I posted several of these photographs on my Facebook (FB) page and on the Battle of Hong Kong FB page. The Hong Kong Free Press wrote a story about it. There was widespread outrage and protest that these historic buildings should be treated like this. These structures are like war shrine because so many died at this spot. Brigadier lawson was buried at this site (later exhumed and reburied at Sai Wan military cemetery). Lawson, and those who fought here, and those who died here, deserved better than this. I wrote to the Headmaster of the French International School (FIS) and to the Executive Secretary of the AMO. The French International School and the French Consulate were also appalled and were very responsive. It was done by a small number of students. The AMO also responded positively.  They removed the graffiti and cleaned the place up. They have security guards located at the site and since this occurred in 2017 there has been no further reoccurrence of this.

At the time I met the Headmaster of FIS and a number of teachers in the history faculty both for French stream and English stream. I met some of the FIS students who that morning had been across to the site and tidied up the discarded litter. They did this of their own volition. They too were upset by what had happened and also by the negative publicity for their school caused by the thoughtless actions of a small handful of students. The school were anxious to work with AMO to restitute the damage. The restitution had to be effected by conservators because of the fragility for example of the steel doors. The school looked at one stage considered adopting the site, which is just across the road from their WNC Gap Road entrance, and keeping it clean and tidy and reporting any damage. This would have given the students a sense of ownership of the site. This I don't think ever happened. I did take one group of 6th formers around the war sites near their school to explain what happened and why these structures are important. I think the publicity by Hong Kong Free Press and other news outlets did some good because it highlights the need to protect and preserve these war ruins that still remain in many places around Hong Kong. The reaction showed that people care about these structures.  Another positive is that the students at FIS will have a much better understanding of what these buildings are and what happened in the Battle for Hong Kong in the area around their school and hopefully, these war ruins will be spared further damage and littering. 

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

Captain Ian Blair 2/14 Punjab Sgt.

I was in contact with Mark Burch whose grandfather Captain Ian James Blair served with 2nd Battalion 14th Punjab Regiment in the Battle for Hong Kong. The photograph below shows Captain Blair after liberation with a captured Japanese military sword.

Captain Ian Blair (Courtesy Mark Burch)

Ian Blair was born in Gisborne, New Zealand on 5 May 1915. As a young man he made his way to British East India, where, in 1937, he was employed by one of the sugar plantation companies operating near Chakia, in Bihar State. He joined the local Planters Light Horse militia and was later called up to serve in the British Indian Army.

In March 1938, at the age of twenty-three, he was commissioned into the Central India Horse (21st King George V's Own Horse), a regular British Indian Army cavalry regiment. He later transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the 14th Punjab Regiment. In October 1940, his battalion, which in 1941 was commanded by Lt-Col Gerald Kidd, was sent to Hong Kong.

When the Pacific war started in December 1941, Ian Blair was serving as a Captain in 'C' Coy which was commanded by Major George Gray. 'C' Coy was designated as Forward Troops and was based at Fan Ling to watch over the frontier also referred to as the "outer line." Their role when the war started was to guard the Royal Engineers demolitions teams who were carrying out demolitions at the frontier and on roads, railways, cuttings and bridges leading from the frontier towards Kowloon and the "inner line" of defence known as the Gin Drinkers Line. These demolitions were intended to slow the Japanese advance and buy time on the mainland to facilitate the destruction of infrastructure, oil facilities, ports and factories in Kowloon. In addition to guarding the demolition teams, 'C' Coy was to harass, disrupt and slow the enemy. Captain Blair's company of Punjabis were the first British troops to go into action against Japanese ground forces. One battalion of Colonel Tanaka's 229th Infantry Regiment advanced from the frontier, at Sha Tao Kok, towards Fan Ling but decided to take a short cut to Tai Po by way of hill tracks through the Sha Lo Tung Hills.

"Gray alerted his rearguard commander, Captain Ian Blair. Quickly Blair sited every available machine gun to bear upon the thin, rocky trail. Still oblivious, the Japanese marched boldly into the range of Blair's guns. Nearer and nearer they approached, while Blair waited. The target area filled with men and animals [mules]. Finally, he gave the order: Fire! For two minutes every rifle and Bren gun in 'C' Company poured fire into the trapped Japanese column Then slowly the dust and din of fire abated. The air filled with the cheers of the Punjabis. They had drawn first blood."  (Season of Storms Robert L Gandt (1982) p.52).

The Forward Troops achieved their objective of guarding and facilitating the demolitions and engaging the advancing Japanese troops. At Tai Po, it was one company facing a battalion. Major-General Maltby wrote in his Report on Operations that they had "fulfilled their role admirably, and had inflicted some one hundred casualties to the Japanese at no real cost to themselves."

After the surrender Captain Blair was incarcerated at Sham Shui Po (SSP) Camp from 29th December to 20th April 1942, and at Argyle Street Officers Camp from April 1942 to May 1944 and then back to SSP Camp from 1944 until liberation in August 1945. He was repatriated to New Zealand in a very weak condition, but he had survived the fighting and the brutal incarceration and he made it home.

He had joined the Army aged twenty-three, fought in the Battle for Hong Kong aged twenty-six, and after nearly fours years incarceration was released aged thirty, having given most of his twenties to the service of his country. He died aged eighty-three in 1998. The captured sword, which he holds in the photograph,  is now in the proud possession of his grandson. 

Marie Gwendoline Paterson - Rape of ANS Nurses at Jockey Club Hospital

In December 1941, the Hong Kong Jockey Club grandstand at Happy Valley Racecourse was being used as a Temporary Civilian Hospital. A number of European and Chinese volunteer ANS nurses worked there during the Battle of Hong Kong. As the fighting drew closer, the hospital found itself on the frontline and on Christmas morning when Japanese soldiers entered the hospital a number of the terrified nurses were abused and raped. One of the nurses working there was Marie Peterson. She was forty-five-years-old and worked as a teacher at Queen's College. She managed to escape from the hospital, whilst the abuse of the nurses was going on. She darkened her face, by smearing herself with dirt, and used an Amah's robe and hair covering to disguise herself. Although the colony had surrendered on Christmas Day, the rape and abuse at the Jockey Club hospital carried ion that day and night. In the middle of the night, Marie got out of the building, avoiding the Japanese sentries, and crossed the road into the Colonial Cemetery opposite the Jockey Club stands. She crawled through the cemetery avoiding Japanese patrols and made her way up the steep hillside and eventually reached Bowen Road and the British Military Hospital where she reported to British Authorities what had happened at the hospital. Gwen Dew in Prisoner of the Japs (1942) described her admiration for this brave nurse.

To this woman who risked death to bring help rather than submit to degradation, I offer my highest homage - Marie Paterson, I commend you to the list of heroines of the war.

Marie is also mentioned by Mabel W. Redwood in her autobiography It was like this (2001). Mabel Redwood was an ANS nurse at the Jockey Club Hospital. She recalls the Japanese entering the hospital on Christmas morning with a hostage who they recognised as a well known Anglo-Indian doctor. 

The Jockey Club Grandstand and the cemetery (Source: Racing Memories HK)

Jockey Club Stands and Cemetery (Source: Pinterest)

Marie Da Roza, a young Portuguese nurse recounted the arrival of the Japanese in a deposition she made after the war.

I was standing at the Jockey Club entrance when Dr Arculli was brought in at the point of a revolver, the Japanese soldier had tied a rope round his waist and was using him as a shield. We were taken into the tote and guarded at both ends. Japanese soldiers came pounding in, all day they were taking Chinese nurses upstairs on the first and second floors and when the girls came down alone, one by one, they were crying their eyes out, they had been raped. The nursing sisters did all they could to help them but it was impossible to do anything to prevent them being taken up again and again.

Marie Da Roza testified how the European nurses rolled bandages, whilst some carried on nursing, but all were terrified by what was happening in the hospital and dreading that they would be next. She described how one nurse carried a dead baby for hours in the hope that the Japanese would leave her alone. That night being Christmas night several of the European nurses were dragged away and raped. Marie Da Rosa managed to hide under a camp bed and from her hiding position she could see the Japanese shining torches and dragging girls from under the tables. The ordeal lasted all day and all night. As a result of Marie Paterson's escape, the Director of Medical Services, Dr Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, organised by liaison with the Japanese medical authorities for ambulances to evacuate the hospital including the nurses on 26 December. The nurses were taken to Queen Mary Hospital.  

So who was Marie Paterson and what became of her? I was not able to find out very much, but I discovered she was born in Grenada in the British West Indies. Her parents lived there and I believe her father worked there a medical doctor. She became a school teacher, teaching in Singapore and Hong Kong before the war. She was interned at Stanley Camp until liberation in 1945. In August 1946 she is recorded on passenger lists as travelling from Mombassa to Liverpool. She then appears to have resided in Middlesex from 1946 through to 1953 and appears on electoral rolls during that period. On 31 December 1953, there is a report of her marriage at the Scottish Church in Grenada to war hero, Air Commodore Frederick Laurence Pearce, RAF (Rtd), CBE, DSO, DFC, MiD. He retired from the Air Force in March 1952. She was fifty-seven years old at the time. I believe they settled in Grenada. Frederick Pearce died in December 1975.

Addendum:

I was very happy to receive an email from Katrina Van Pelt, the grandaughter of Air Commodore Frederick (Freddie) Pearce.  She wrote that Marie was a nutmeg heiress. Nutmegs are still an important crop in Grenada and the national flag incorporates a nutmeg. Katrina recalls they lived in Grenada after they were married. They later moved to Spain and after Freddie became ill they moved back to the UK. 

Stanley Camp and Stanley Photographs

Prison officers Club (1945)

Stanley Village from the hill leading to the fort - a sketch map from 1/Mx war diary (UKNA)

Stanley Prison

Repulse Bay - on the way to Stanley

Stanley Military Cemetery

Maryknoll House 

Boa Vista

The Japanese landed on Hong Kong Island during the night of 18/19 December 1941. A Canadian platoon (No. 5 Platoon HQ Coy Royal Rifles of Canada) commanded by Lt Gerard Williams was deployed on Boa Vista. I assume this was their pre-arranged war-station. Boa Vista is a hill 846 feet above sea-level and commanding the strategic Tai Tam Gap with its military HQ. The military complex at Tai Tam Gap included East Infantry Brigade and East Group Royal Artillery HQ. The Royal Rifles of Canada had their  Battalion HQ at the same location. A path from Boa Vista led to Sanatorium Gap (aka Quarry Gap). This is the gap between Mount Parker and Mount Butler. On the night of the landings, the Japanese battalion that landed at Aldrich Bay proceeded up the north face of Mount Parker, and  then moved in a northwesterly direction, counter clockwise, around the upper levels of Mount Parker to arrive at Mount Parker Road close to PB 45. After overrunning the section at PB 45 they proceeded up to Sanatorium Gap. After a fierce fight, they captured the gap which had been defended by No. 1 Platoon of No. 1 Coy HKVDC.  They then continued uphill to occupy Mount Parker, which was their principal objective. Lt William's Platoon  was ordered up to Mount Parker  from their position on Boa Vista. They followed the path to Sanatorium Gap where they met up with guides sent from the HKVDC positions at Sanatorium Gap. However, when they arrived at the gap there was no sign of the HKVDC, who by that time had been overrun. The Canadian platoon proceeded up Mount Parker only to find the Japanese had occupied the summit and were in much greater strength. The Canadian platoon was destroyed. A second platoon (No. 9 Platoon) from 'A' Coy Royal Rifles of Canada under the command of Lt Collison Blaver was ordered up to Boa Vista to replace Lt William's platoon. Blaver's platoon was later ordered up Mt Parker, where they ran into entrenched Japanese positions and withdrew after suffering a number of casualties.

Map extract showing Boa Vista, Mt Parker and Tai Tam Gap

Boa Vista was a strategic position, and I had always assumed that there would be some evidence of splinter proof military accommodation shelters for a platoon size force of 25 to 30 men. However I had never found any sign of military structures. I then had a call from my friend Sergio Marcal who had found a military splinter-proof shelter at Boa Vista. He had also found a Royal Rifles of Canada cap badge near the wartime military structure.

Cap badge of the Royal Rifles of Canada 

Stuart Woods and I arranged to meet with Sergio Marcal on top of Boa Vista. We climbed up from Tai Tam Gap and Sergio showed us the military structure that must have been used by Lt Williams and later Lt Blaver.

My friend Sergio at the military structure.

The splinter proof shelter on Boa Vista

A structure like this could usually sleep a section of nine men  (three retractable bunks on three walls). The building is hidden in the undergrowth and not visible from the nearby trail. It seemed to be facing the direction of Mount Parker (northwest). Within 20 metres or so there was another structure which was brick-built and did not look like a typical WW2 military structure, this remains a mystery.

The brick-built structure

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

'D' Coy Royal Rifles of Canada Coy HQ shelters at Obelisk Hill and Brigade HQ at Tai Tam Gap

Obelisk Hill - Coy HQ
I met up with Martin Heyes to visit 'D' Coy Royal Rifles of Canada war shelters at Obelisk Hill. The site consists of a string of accommodation shelters, a kitchen shelter and two military-grade toilet blocks. 'D' Coy RRC was commanded by Major Maurice Parker. These shelters accommodated his Coy HQ and Platoon 16 and 17. His No. 18 Platoon was at Tai Tam Tuk nearby and No 18 (R) Platoon was attached to 'C' Coy in the  Lye Mum Gap area. 'D' Coy 1/Mx also utilised these shelters as Coy HQ and reported to Major Parker. The 1/Mx Coy personnel were based in pillboxes around the coast from San Wan Bay (near Pak Sha Wan Battery) and around the D'Aguilar promontory to Tai Tam Tuk /Tai Tam Bay Area opposite Red Hill.

A string of accommodation shelters at Obelisk Hill

A seldom-used trail led downhill from the bunkers towards Tai Tam Tuk - which would have been the route taken by No. 18 platoon back and forth from Coy HQ.

Kitchen shelter (Obelisk Hill)

Military-grade toilet blockat Obelisk Hill

Tai Tam Gap Military HQ
We also explored the war shelters at Tai Tam Gap. These had accommodated Royal Rifles of Canada Battalion HQ, East Infantry Brigade HQ and East Group Royal Artillery HQ. Particularly striking was the underground bunker which contained the (disused) Fortress Plotting Room which was used by East Brigade as Brigade HQ. Here is the entrance to the underground bunker.

Entrance to underground bunker containing FPR

We followed a series of corridors until we reached the Fortress Plotting Room (FPR) which was used as Brigade HQ. When we reached the Fortress Plotting Room - it was wet with what I assumed to be bat droppings and there were a lot of bats hanging from the roof. Neither of us being particularly partial to bats, we did not stay to properly explore this room or the tunnel leading off it (visible in the photo below) or the side rooms to the left of the tunnel. The tunnel seems to have been an emergency exit and possibly a ventilation feature. The concrete pillars were supports for the large steel plotting table. It was pitch dark and the light in the photo is from our torches and the flash of the camera.

The Fortress Plotting Room (with bats roosting on the ceiling)

Looking towards the emergency exit and ventilation tunnel and the room to the left.

This is what Captain Peter Belton (Staff Captain) had to say about Brigade HQ in the FPR at Tai Tam Gap, which commenced operations on Sunday 14 December following the Brigadier's withdrawal from the Mainland on Saturday 13 December.

The Brigade Office was located in the Plotting Room at Tai Tam in a shell and bomb-proof accommodation. It consisted of one large room and some twenty yards of tunnel. The latter I decided to use as sleeping accommodation for troops and arranged for bunks to be fitted. The officers were to be in outside shelters. The staff, both officers and men, were messed by the  Royal Rifles of Canada. (Captain Belton - Brigade Staff)

Here is Brigadier Wallis commenting on the underground Operations Room at Tai Tam. (Appendix D East Brigade War Diary and courtesy of Rob Weir).

This room was largely occupied by a huge steel table which was useful to work on with maps , but hampered movement. In this room were located:

Brigade Commander
Brigade Major
Staff Captain
2 Operators - Brigade Signals Exchange
Brigade Intel Officer
Three Brigade Clerks. 

In a tiny side-room was the large telephone exchange. In another small room was the emergency lighting plant. The room was reached by a long winding narrow passage into which the Sappers were busy fitting sleeping bunks for staff and Signals personnel. This passage was very dark and crowded at night and it took me some six minutes to leave my maps and numerous telephones and reach East Group RA and 'D' Bn HQ in the shelters up above mine, after threading my way through a maze of camouflage nets and nervous RRC sentries. The atmosphere (in the Brigade office) was heavy and even with the emergency plant working and the air vent open (emergency exit) the air was unhealthy and oppressive and made clear thinking difficult. One became flushed and had bad head aches."

Above the underground bunker that contains the FPR are two or three tiers of splinter proof bunkers used by RRC as Bn HQ and by East Group Royal Artillery.

Kitchen shelter

2nd tier of shelters

3rd (upper) tier of shelters

Overgrown lower-tier shelters

Lower-tier shelters - neglected and overgrown

There are two line-of-gaps pillboxes at Tat Tam HQ and some seventeen splinter-proof shelters. Between Tai Tam Gap military HQ structures and 'D' Coy positions at Obelisk Hill was a group of two shelters one of which is shown in the photo below, which I think may have been the ADS (Advanced Dressing Station).

What may have been the ADS

...........