Just before we were due to leave our orders were changed. The attack on the radio station was off. It was too late! The Japs already had full command of the channel and were bringing up heavy artillery and field pieces to attack the Island. We would stay where we were for the night and report at Brigade Headquarters in the morning. We had no sooner settled in for the night when we got orders to report immediately. Two trucks were sent to enable our speedy delivery. Hurriedly we put on our equipment, loaded ourselves with hand grenades and ammunition, filled our water bottles, and with our machine guns, were ready. In our hurry to depart the two men on guard were left behind. Lieut. Birkett inquired their whereabouts. I told him they were still at their post, no orders having been given to withdraw them. He decided to leave them there as we could not carry all our stores and hoped to return to the same billets, which we never did.
The two trucks hurtled down the winding road in pitch darkness. There were now twenty-nine of us. Lieut. Birkett rode in the front seat of the forward truck. I rode on the front seat of the one following. This was going to war with a vengeance. Ahead of us we could see the red sky and the fires in the City. We careened and bumped over and around obstacles in the road, crashed through roadblocks before being challenged. I quite expected to see the truck in front blown to pieces by the road mines that we had so assiduously planted. It was a miracle of instinctive actions on the part of our own driver that we did not crash headlong into the truck ahead of us. Before leaving we had been told that the Japs were already on the Island. We soon knew this to be true as we approached our objective.
The air was bright with sparks and acrid with the smell of smoke. Guns thundered. Shells shrieked and exploded. The deadly rattle of machine guns and the whine of sniper’s bullet added to the bedlam. Steel helmeted figures crouched behind barricades but we saw few civilians. That dense mass of humanity that was Hong Kong lay hidden in their cellars. Many were killed by bomb or bullet and others were burned alive.
The Japs were following a carefully laid plan. Spies and saboteurs had prepared landing places by the seizure of strategic positions and aided by Japanese troops garbed as civilians, who fired from the buildings. The main body of the enemy crossed the channel in barges and boats. Many of them swam across.
We arrived at Brigade Headquarters at Wong Nei Chong without casualties. This Headquarters was situated in a small fort on a hillside outside the City. Here, a day or two later, Brigadier J.K. Lawson and some of his staff were killed. Sergeant Bob Manchester told me that from his position at the Gap he had seen Brigade Headquarters surrounded and that Brigadier Lawson and his staff had decided to try to breakout. He saw a few red tabbed figures run out of the fort towards our own lines. They came under direct machine gun fire and he saw some of them fall.
At Wong Nei Chong we left the trucks, which were shortly afterwards destroyed by mortar fire, and awaited further orders. They soon came. Lieut. Birkett returned to the platoon with a member of the Hong Kong Volunteers who was to act as our guide. We were ordered to occupy a small fort or pillbox called “Jardine’s Lookout” about a mile away. With Lieut. Birkett, who had a map, and the Volunteers in the lead, the men picked up their loads and followed. We were strung out over some distance and had difficulty keeping in touch, as it was very dark. I brought up the rear to encourage the stragglers. The men cursed and sweated under their heavy loads as we left the main road and took a side path that wound over and along the foothills. Although we were unaware of it we were walking right into the Japs. They had already infiltrated up to and past our destination. Rifle and gunfire was all around and we could hear the peculiar cries of the enemy as they sought to make their positions known to each other. We could not see them however, and fortunately they could not see us. Our leaders must have avoided the enemy patrols. We came to a pillbox occupied by a detail of the Hong Kong Volunteers. They were very glad to see us but were disappointed when Lieut. Birkett said that he had his orders to go to Jardine’s Lookout and to Jardine’s Lookout he would go. He did not say so but he had a date with destiny, and he was going to keep it.
Again we loaded up and started down a small valley and up the hill on the other side. Now we were going into the thick of it. We were being fired upon. Evidently the Japs had located us and were shooting from the darkness. Our pace quickened until finally the leaders broke into a run. It was Follow-My-Leader with a vengeance. Men called to each other, a machine gun was coughing death, and several were hit. The ground was very uneven and many stumbled and fell.
