Description
Object description
British gunner served with 24th Coastal Bty, Royal Artillery, Fortress Command in Hong Kong, 1938-1941
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of enlistment and service as gunner with Royal Artillery in GB and Gibraltar, 1934-1938: enlistment in Royal Artillery, 1934; pattern of service in Gibraltar. Recollections of period as gunner with 24th Coastal Bty, Royal Artillery, Fortress Command on Mount Davis, Hong Kong, 1938-1941: attitude towards Hong Kong posting; role of battery; use of 'war shelters; anti-malaria precautions; eradication of bugs; opinion of Hong Kong rations; peculiarities of uniform worn in Hong Kong including 'typhoon dress'; pay and deductions; identification parades; instances of rape; issue of passes; precautions against venereal disease.
REEL 2 Continues: classification of brothels; treatment for venereal disease; rewards for units with no venereal disease cases; keeping of Chinese mistresses by troops; aid given to troops by Chinese women during Battle of Hong Kong, 12/1941; close relationship between Chinese prostitutes and British troops; story of how he kept Chinese girl's queue; conflict between units in Hong Kong; dance hall brawl; Mah Jong gambling; magistrate's attitude towards control of prostitution.
REEL 3 Continues: trips provided on Royal Navy ships; use of foreign flags by submarines; institutions catering for troops; bars frequented by troops; relations between troops and European civilians; contact with volunteer corps; enlistment of Chinese; degree of corruption in Hong Kong; description of term 'tea money'; effect of corruption on pill-box construction; story of excessive use of coolies to move ammunition; use of payment of barrack servants.
REEL 4 Continues: work of barrack room servants; memories of 'Old Jimmy'; army slang used in Hong Kong and elsewhere; typhoon precautions and damage; absence of annual leave for other ranks; 'best dress' inspections; incidence of venereal disease in Hong Kong; barrack rooms and their furnishings.
REEL 5 Continues: barrack construction and furniture; Gunner Read's lucrative post as groom; reduced rates for troops in cinemas and on public transport; relationship between troops and vendors; cheapness of living in Hong Kong including tobacco and alcohol; canteen provision; artillery armament in Hong Kong; operations of guns.
REEL 6 Continues: operation of artillery pieces; contingency plans for firing at land targets in Hong Kong; myth that guns faced wrong way; description of method of moving artillery pieces; the Empire Test for small arms; forms of artillery training; types of targets used.
REEL 7 Continues: monitoring of shoots; night shoots; annual artillery manoeuvres with Royal Navy; question of indefensibility of Hong Kong against Japanese attack; degree of adequacy of pre-war training in Hong Kong. Recollections of operations as gunner with 24th Coastal Bty, Royal Artillery, Fortress Command during Battle of Hong Kong, 12/1941: effects of 'soft living' on troops stationed in Hong Kong; route marches; superiority of Imperial Japanese Army boots; opinion of Japanese soldiers' scruffiness; performance of British Indian Army troops during battle; equipment of 1st Hong Kong Regt, Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery.
REEL 8 Continues: prior recollection of Sikh refusal to clear away cigarette ends; nature of Sikh 'helmet' mutiny; Japanese bombing of Kowloon; providing covering fire for 2nd Bn Royal Scots (The Royal Regt); Japanese use of leaflets; Imperial Japanese Army use of Woolwich Arsenal made shells; personal morale under fire; problems of counteracting Japanese forces' landing on Hong Kong Island; British opinion of Imperial Japanese Army troops; Japanese atrocities; problems with water and ration supplies.
REEL 9 Continues: Christmas dinner, 25/12/1941; reaction of British Army troops to capitulation; British Army troops' destruction of equipment; march into captivity; plight of Chinese widow of 2nd Bn Royal Scots (The Royal Regt) casualty; apprehension of drunken Imperial Japanese Army troops. Aspects of period as gunner with 24th Coast Bty, Royal Artillery on Mount Davis, Hong Kong, 1938-1941: code and attitudes of pre-war British soldier; identification parades; venereal disease; corruption.
REEL 10 Continues: opinion of degree of readiness of troops for war against Japanese.