On the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, forces of the Japanese
Empire attacked the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong without warning.
Philip Cracknell provides a research-driven narrative about the battle
for Hong Kong in 1941, which commenced on 8 December and lasted for
three weeks until the surrender on Christmas Day 1941. Hong Kong had
become a strategic liability; an isolated outpost. It would be
sacrificed ‒ but not without a fight. The main priorities for the
British in Asia were Malaya and Singapore. The Crown Colony was
gallantly defended but it was a battle against overwhelming odds.
Crucially, as a resident of Hong Kong for thirty years, the author knows
every inch of the ground. He challenges some assumptions, for example
the whereabouts of 'A' Coy, Winnipeg Grenadiers, on 19 December, when
the company was destroyed during a fighting retreat. What exactly
happened during the battle, and where were the actions fought? One can
still see so much evidence, in the form of pillboxes, gun batteries and
weapons pits. The defending troops were mainly British, Canadian, Indian
and Hong Kong Chinese. The Japanese had superiority in numbers of men,
guns, and equipment, and complete air supremacy. The defenders suffered
a casualty rate of over 30 per cent and many more died during the brutal
incarceration that followed the surrender ‒ a grim pointer to the hell
of the Asia-Pacific War that followed. Churchill always knew that Hong
Kong would fall, but wanted to cause the invaders maximum delay and
maximum cost. As he acknowledged after the war, the defenders had won
'lasting honour'. The battle for Hong Kong is a story that deserves to
be better known.
