A First Hand Account of the Japanese Invasion of Hong Kong (Dec 1941)

 

I am not sure of the date of this picture. It says that it is Christmas and they are all around the Christmas Tree. It might be in Hong Kong. Also, my father took many pictures before he was caught so maybe he took it.  All I know is the Japanese officer with the sash across his chest is named Hayashi.

 

 Richard Mellor 3-08-24

 

My father, Herbert Joseph Mellor was a sharp guy. His dad, Richard Joseph Mellor,  was at one point a laborer at a Dunlop factory in Manchester. He won a lot of money on the winner of the 1924 Derby, I think it was.  He became a bookie and also ran dogs at White City.  He had my dad running numbers in the streets of Salford as a kid. Hi was also an alcoholic and abusive as far as I can gather. But my dad was very good with numbers due to this experience.

 

I forgot I had these notes. When my dad died or before, I can’t remember when. I found these pages of a book he wanted to write or was writing. It’s mostly all in his handwriting and starts with his home in Pownall Street in Manchester, I think in Hulme. He ran away from home after his mother died and joined the army, he said to be with horses. He did exercise one of his commanding officer’s horses in Hong Kong from what I remember him saying. But he ended up spending the entire war as a prisoner of the Japanese, first in Hong Kong in a place called Changi Jail if my memory serves me right then in Tokyo working for Mitsubishi on the docks. He also spoke a little Russian as the British Army saw it necessary to learn the language given the influence of the Soviet Union at the time I suppose. I started to piece together the writings and copying the stuff in to word. Then I thought I lost them in the house fire and forgot about them. But I didn’t lose them and they turned up. Here is one piece of history describing his experience as the Japanese confronted them. He uses the term Japs, as most people did at the time, but to his credit, my father never taught me to hate them and always pointed out that it was the grunts, the average guy that gets dragged in to these terrible conflicts.

 

 

The Japanese invade Hong Kong

My name is Bert Mellor. I am a member of the Middlesex regiment that took part in the defence of Hong Kong starting December 7^th 1941. This is the story of the small part I played during the invasion of Japanese troops.  Facing the onslaught on the mainland were the 1^st Battalion Royal Scots, two Battalions of Canadian Royal Rifles and Winnipeg Grenadiers and two Indian regiments as far as I can remember. 

The Middlesex Regiment’s part in the battle was to defend the island of Hong Kong.  We occupied various pillboxes and at the Stanley Fort was the Royal Artillery.  As I think back on it, those forces defending the mainland had no chance whatsoever. The Japs were firmly entrenched being able to bring up troops whenever they needed them from the direction of Canton.  The Japanese troops were able to rest and replenish their numbers, for our boys it was a hopeless task and it was no surprise that the mainland forces had to retreat to the Island.

 

It became obvious to me that it was only a matter of time before the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong began.  When the invasion came, the outlook for us was very grim. I was very surprised because at this particular stage our guns were facing seaward.  “What good is that to us?” was the question I asked myself.  The Japs were already on the island.  So I suggested to Sgt. Tatham that I command a roadblock and get half the men to volunteer to come with me. The Sgt. Wasn’t too happy about this so I asked him for permission to go and see our platoon commander Lieutenant Cheeseright who was about two or three hundred yards away at Repulse Bay.

 

From our pillbox, the Lieutenant granted me permission and told me to go ahead.  I went back and got five volunteers to come and command the roadblock with me. The first order gave was to private Morally.  I told him to go to the Repulse Bay Hotel and commandeer one of the many cars that had been discarded.  The private did this and brought the car to the spot where we were going to mount the gun. I mounted the gun about 30 yards past the crossroads leading to Repulse Bay facing the car in that direction and on the right hand side.

It’s a great pity really that you don’t know more about your enemy’s methods than your own.  The communication between HQ and our own C Company was non-existent.  I don’t think I spoke to my CC (CO?) from the first day we occupied the pillbox till the day that they left it.  I am writing this down 60 years later after the event so I might not have every detail down right so I do hope you forgive me.

 

Anyone that served in Hong Kong during the war or even in the 1950’s will understand the position I was in at the particular time.  Before the war, my commanding officer, Colonel Stewart was keen on giving his troops, one company at a time, a lecture on current affairs.  He was a well-read man and had travelled widely. I always remember him talking to us about Russia and telling us that when facing the enemy we should always think clearly about the situation we were in and what the enemy was likely to do, and especially what we should do to counteract his actions.

With this story of mine I will include a very rough sketch of the position my men were in so that you can appreciate what we were faced with.  To the right of the road was the open country of Wong Nai Chung Gap that led down to Repulse Bay and to a part of the countryside that was called Middle Spur; this area the Japanese controlled. So though my mounted gun covered the approach to Hong Kong and the approach to Aberdeen, I had Lieutenant Cheeseright behind me, so I didn’t give much thought to trouble coming up from my rear.  But that is exactly what did happen so we were caught with our pants down as the expression goes.

 

Our pillbox was very well camouflaged among rocks and was down by the sea front and obviously the Japs had not even observed it and at first, I couldn’t figure out why Sgt. Tatham and the men, or even one man, hadn’t come up to see what was happening because they could have.  Surely they could have walked up the sea front and come up behind this Jap recon and maybe done some good.  But in retrospect it became obvious to me. I realized there was nothing that could stop the Jap patrol penetrating down from Wong Nai Chung Gap towards Middle Spur and dropping on the road between myself and Lieutenant Cheeseright. 

I was sitting in the front seat of the car with another bloke as dawn was approaching when I heard this guttural sound sort of like someone clearing their throat, I turned my head and there was this Japanese soldier with a rifle and bayonet and the bayonet was about 2 inches from my throat.

So that was my part in the battle of Hong Kong.  We were completely outnumbered and overwhelmed.  It was lucky for me in a way as while this was going on, a lot of civilians in cars were evacuating Hong Kong and had just reached the crossroads. At the time the Japs captured us, they caught these civilians as well.  They tied our hands behind our backs and pushed us against the wall.  I thought this was the end but it was not to be. They dragged us towards the Wong Nai Chung Gap where we saw quite a lot of the Indian troops dead by the side of the road. We ended up in a prison camp in Argyle Street because the war was still going on at this time.  From there we were off to spend four years of hell in Japan.  I never saw or spoke to my comrades in that pillbox again.  What happened to them I don’t know though I heard that they made their way along the seashore to Fort Stanley. It was December 20th, 1941, a day I’ll never forget.

In my opinion I didn’t think Hong Kong should have been defended.  I thought it should have been declared an open city and we should have just walked away from it. But that’s why I never became a general I suppose. Many of my comrades and officers of the battalion and those of the Royal Scots lost their lives for what I believed was a lost cause.  Why fight a lost cause? The most tragic really was the two Canadian battalions, the Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers. They only arrived a few weeks before December 7^th and they didn’t know one end of a rifle from the other; it was tragic.

Who knows why the Canadian government made that decision? I’d like to believe Winston Churchill didn’t think that was a wise thing to do but I suppose, like all politicians in these circumstances, he would have taken the advice of the Generals and others that commanded Hong Kong prior to the outbreak of war.  Those that decided we should defend Hong Kong, Churchill, the Cabinet or the Chiefs of Staff, guessed it would buy some time perhaps, or more likely they thought it was a matter of honor and all that bullshit.  They had to know full well that the Japs were too powerful and far outnumbered us. They must have known that they could pour in troops from wherever they were so they had fresh troops all the time.  One way or another, the efficiency of the ordinary Jap soldier and officer was completely underestimated.  I don’t know if it was General Grassick or whoever that assumed two battalions of Canadian infantry would have made the difference between victory or defeat against the Japanese.  Regardless, after all this we all begin 4 years as uninvited guests of the Japs.