Description
Object description
A very informative edited wordprocessed personal narrative (36pp), compiled from his contemporary diaries, letters and reports, covering: his service as the Brigade Major RA at China Command HQ, Hong Kong in November – December 1941 and including details of the plans for the defence of Hong Kong, the technical difficulties encountered by the garrison's artillery units during the fighting in December, notably with communications and counter-battery work, as well as accounts and critical analyses of what he saw and heard of the fighting qualities displayed by the garrison at key moments during the battle for Hong Kong, and a description of events on the day of the colony's surrender on 25 December 1941; his time as a prisoner of war in Shamshuipo with references to the appalling state of the camp on their arrival and marked variations in morale among the prisoners; the planning and execution on the night of 1 February 1942 of his successful escape from Shamshuipo with two other officers and their often hazardous and frustrating two month journey on foot and by boat and train across the New Territories and mainland China to Chungking; and his service from August 1942 until January 1944 in Chungking on the staff of the British Military Mission in China with particular reference to two visits from Chiang Kai Shek in December 1942 and October 1943 and an earlier separate visit by his wife. Appended to the narrative are wordprocessed copies of three reports which he wrote in March 1942, the first (3pp) on a meeting on 7 January 1942 with Lieutenant General Kitajima, who had commanded the Japanese artillery attacking Hong Kong, when he had discussed the artillery aspects of the battle with Monro and Brigadier T MacLeod, who had been the CRA, China Command, the second (3pp) on conditions in the colony and notably in Shamshuipo camp during the six weeks after the surrender, and the third (5pp) on the employment of the garrison's artillery during the battle for Hong Kong and its shortcomings.
Content description
A very informative edited wordprocessed personal narrative (36pp), compiled from his contemporary diaries, letters and reports, covering: his service as the Brigade Major RA at China Command HQ, Hong Kong in November – December 1941 and including details of the plans for the defence of Hong Kong, the technical difficulties encountered by the garrison's artillery units during the fighting in December, notably with communications and counter-battery work, as well as accounts and critical analyses of what he saw and heard of the fighting qualities displayed by the garrison at key moments during the battle for Hong Kong, and a description of events on the day of the colony's surrender on 25 December 1941; his time as a prisoner of war in Shamshuipo with references to the appalling state of the camp on their arrival and marked variations in morale among the prisoners; the planning and execution on the night of 1 February 1942 of his successful escape from Shamshuipo with two other officers and their often hazardous and frustrating two month journey on foot and by boat and train across the New Territories and mainland China to Chungking; and his service from August 1942 until January 1944 in Chungking on the staff of the British Military Mission in China with particular reference to two visits from Chiang Kai Shek in December 1942 and October 1943 and an earlier separate visit by his wife. Appended to the narrative are wordprocessed copies of three reports which he wrote in March 1942, the first (3pp) on a meeting on 7 January 1942 with Lieutenant General Kitajima, who had commanded the Japanese artillery attacking Hong Kong, when he had discussed the artillery aspects of the battle with Monro and Brigadier T MacLeod, who had been the CRA, China Command, the second (3pp) on conditions in the colony and notably in Shamshuipo camp during the six weeks after the surrender, and the third (5pp) on the employment of the garrison's artillery during the battle for Hong Kong and its shortcomings.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS