There were many local Chinese and East Indians and Companies of these were formed and attached to the Hong Kong Volunteers. Those of us who saw the Volunteers in action, or heard accounts of their gallant stand, will always give credit to these civilians who fought alongside the regular soldiers to the last. Many preferred death to surrender and refused to lay down their arms. Perhaps their refusal to surrender was based on their knowledge of the East and of the Jap himself. They knew what to expect. Most of these Volunteers were clerks, merchants, Government officials, etc. Given arms, ammunition, parts of a uniform and little or no training, they were posted as guards in the different warehouses and buildings. Looting by the hungry populace was a constant occurrence. When the Japs swept through the business section of Hong Kong many of these guards were isolated at their posts. Most fought valiantly to the end. Those that fell into the hands of the enemy before the official surrender were murdered.
To return to my own platoon, at the roadblocks, halfway up the Peak, we had orders to prevent anyone entering the area we were patrolling, and if they refused to stop or tried to sneak through, to shot them. Many tried to pass and were turned back. A few, refusing to take our denial as final, by subterfuge and stealth, tried to penetrate our lines. They were shot. I remember seeing the body of one old Chinaman our boys had killed, my first introduction to the red fruit of war … dead men and women.
“Poor devil!” I thought, “and what has he to do with all this?”
Yet again he might have been a very cunning spy, out to get information for the enemy. We let him and others lie where they had fallen, as we had no time for burial. I asked the Chinese interpreter attached to our Headquarters, as he stood by me viewing the body, “How can we tell a Chinaman from a Jap?”
His face inscrutable he replied, “Japanese little man. Always bowing. No good.”
This did not help us very much as I was sure that no Jap would bow when getting over our wire.
In the morning we were relived by a special detail of Battalion Headquarters men consisting of cooks, clerks and bandsmen. They had been rounded up to relieve our platoon, which was a highly trained machine gun and carrier unit, for more active combat duty. Our little party, under Lieut. Birkett, marched up to the Peak and near the summit we were housed in an imposing bungalow type residence. This was a distinct improvement over the tents we had occupied down the road. The house was comfortably furnished and occupied by the owner. There were also some women staying there, among them a very pretty and charming American girl. I remember how the boys joked with her and how we talked of the nearness of Christmas. We even arranged to have a Christmas feast, each to bring what he could lay his hands on. Already I had a tin of Christmas pudding earmarked for the happy occasion and she had a bottle of wine. I wonder now, as I wondered when I saw the dead and mutilated female corpses along a seven mile road, what ever happened to her? If she reads these lines I shall be glad to know. If she cannot, God rest her soul.
We stayed in this place about a week until the 18th of December. Meanwhile the Japs had occupied Kowloon and were preparing to assault the Island. During this time we maintained guards and roadblocks. One evening our patrol met a party of the Royal Scots, dirty, dishevelled, wild-eyed and exhausted. They had just returned from the mainland where they had been heavily engaged with the enemy. They had seen horrors that they would not easily forget. With some bitterness they looked at our spic and span patrol and answered their own question, “ Where are the Canadians?”
