Hale, Harry Sidney George (Oral history)

British NCO served with 1st Bn, Royal Scots in GB 1934 and with 2nd Bn in India and Hong Kong 1935-1941. Captured in Hong Kong 12/1941, POW of Japanese in Hong Kong and China and Japan 12/1941-8/1945. Rescued from sinking of Lisbon Maru in Pacific 10/1942

REEL 1 Business family background on Isle of Wight; reasons for joining Royal Scots band 4/1934. First impressions of army life with 1st Battalion in Dover. Journey aboard HMT Lancashire to join 2nd Battalion in India 12/1934-1/1935; seasickness. Lahore 1935-1937: playing dance music for extra money; venues; promotion prospects in band; sports; troop deaths after march in heat. REEL 2 Hong Kong posting 1937: Hong Kong's humidity; train and troopship journey. Hong Kong 1937-1941: attractions of Chinese girls; marriages; precautions against VD, punishments and harsh treatment; bandsman's life; quality of Royal Scots band; quality of lifestyle; playing and singing with Hong Kong cathedral choir; voice training with Italian professor; professor's fascist literature and internment on outbreak of war; selection of men and officers for GB forces; variety of band engagements. REEL 3 Hong Kong 1937-1941: Murray Barracks accommodation; playing at Chinese weddings and British functions; bandsmen's privileges; playing piano for ballet master; payment of band; Hong Kong radio broadcasts; effect of news of war; flying pickets; rivalry between garrison troops and visiting US sailors; Brooke-Popham's dismissive attitude towards Japanese; redeployment of Royal Scots to mainland 1941; corruption involved in construction of air raid shelters 1939. REEL 4 Hong Kong 1939-1941: mainland training; malaria; morale; Hale's reasons for remaining in Hong Kong; civilian evacuation. Fall of Hong Kong 12/1941: unawareness of imminence of siege; arrival of unprepared Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles of Canada; defensive measures; Japanese fifth column in Hong Kong and Wang Ching-wei; opinion of Middlesex Regiment; Hale's duties at battalion HQ Shingmun Redoubt; activities on Sunday before Japanese attack; lack of resistance to aerial attack; Hale's section detailed to establish enemy front line and accidental encounter with Japanese. REEL 5 Fall of Hong Kong 12/1941: continues story of encounter with Japanese; engaging Japanese in fire; Hale's injury and escape; reporting to unit; surgery for bullet wound at Bowen Road military hospital; nurse fiancee; bombing of hospital; meal at Cheerio Club; return to unit at Wanchai Gap; leading section of untrained Canadians; Hale losing fingers in mortar hit; surgery at Bowen Road hospital; convalescence in Hong Kong hotel; surrender 25/12/1941; arrival of Japanese at hospital 26/12/1941; knowledge of atrocities at Stanley hospital; Japanese and British attitudes towards taking prisoners; events in Hong Kong. REEL 6 Fall of Hong Kong 12/1941: Chinese selling water; captivity of British women and children; Japanese treatment of nurses; innoculations. Imprisonment in Shamshuipo barracks 2/1942: effects of rice diet on health; salt issue; sanitation; POW diseases; cigarettes as currency; religious services; yeast issue; camp discipline; punishment for attempted escape; impossibility of escape; Hale's dysentery; effect of POW deaths on morale; separation of officers; eating dog meat. REEL 7 Shamshuipo POW camp 1942-1943: POW illnesses and deaths; friend's death from diptheria; selection for transfer to Japan; primitive dysentery test. Journey aboard Lisbon Maru 10/1943: conditions; food; latrines; torpedo attack on ship; Japanese boarding POWs into holds; POW breakout and Japanese firing on them; Hale's time in sea; rescue by Japanese sailor; reembarking at Whangpoo, Shanghai on Chinese junk. Shanghai 1943: Hale's diptheria; Japanese sailor knifing POW; Japanese treatment for diptheria; Hale's recovery from diptheria and dysentery. POW deaths at Woosung Flats. Move to Woosung POW camp, China. REEL 8 Woosung POW camp 1944: welcome from American POWs; camp composition; polishing shells; heavy work building rifle ranges; work at Shanghai racecourse; POWs sabotaging Japanese alcohol; Hale's punishment for sabotage; dismantling Chinese graveyard and use of coffin wood and valuables; working hours; food and supplementing diet; Red Cross parcel; Japanese punishing POWs for successful US air fight over camp; US pilots' ignorance of location of POW camps. Move to Japan 1944: train journey to Nanking. REEL 9 Woosung POW camp 1944: British Red Cross supplies and US resentment; medical equipment; coping with cold; improvising footwear; sleeping arrangements; night time fire picket. POW confidence in ultimate Allied victory; importance of news from secret radios. Route to Japan 1944: unease at boat journey from Korea to Japan; train journey through Japan with lowered blinds and punishment for looking out; air raids and civilian hostility in Tokyo; Japanese food. Arrival at Hakodate POW camp, Hokkaido: camp composition; insanitary hut conditions; coal mining work. REEL 10 Hakodate POW camp 1944-1945: hazards of mining work; allocation of work; working methods; washing provisions; refusal of officers to work in mines; attitude towards ranker officers; Japanese withdrawing rations from sick; payment in cigarettes; Japanese witholding Red Cross medical supplies; Japanese preparations for invasion; Japanese punishment for whistling; hearing news of end of war; POWs refusing roll call; camp commandant's announcement; POWs' emotional reaction; arrival of parachutists; POWs and civilians killed by supply drops. REEL 11 Liberation 8/1945: taking supplies to Chinese POWs; US POW's reprisal on Japanese interpreter; Hale's diary; story of disposal of Dutch repatriates from US aircraft; flight to Tokyo 9/1945; delousing; hazardous journey to Manila; treatment for jaundice in US hospital; encounter with Dutch patients; embarkation on HMS Glory; POW reprisals in Manila; reception of Glory in Victoria, Canada. REEL 12 Journey to GB: kindness and hospitality of Canadians; ex POWs marrying Canadians; journey aboard Queen Elizabeth; arrival in Southampton 2/12/1945; strangeness of freedom.