|
European Tensions |
War |
Mobilization | Poland -
France | Battle of
Britain | Dieppe |
North Atlantic |
Training the Empire |
The Pacific |
Quebec Conference |
Hong
Kong | Home Front
| Sicily |
Italy | Conscription
| Normandy |
France |
Netherlands |
Germany
By 1941 with the war going badly in
Europe, the British Empire was also faced with rising
tensions in the Pacific. Japan had been on he March
since the early 1930's. The crown colony of Hong Kong
was considered a vulnerable position and Britain and
Canada decided that re-enforcements were needed to shore
up its defences. Canada ordered the Royal Rifles of
Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers to Hong Kong and on
October 27th, 1941 they sailed from Vancouver on the
Awatea escorted by the HMCS Prince Rupert. These
units comprised over 1877 men and 96 officers. These two
groups became known as C Force. The heavy equipment and
transport which was shipped just a few days later was
never to reach Hong Kong because of the attack on Pearl
Harbour and the outbreak of war with Japan.
These units arrived in Hong Kong on
November 16th and took up their garrison duty, expecting
to have time to train most of the troops which were
relatively green. The Japanese attacked the U.S. forces
in the Philippines, Pearl Harbour, Guam and Wake Islands
and Hong Kong.
The Canadian's were deployed along a defensive position
known as Gin Drinkers Line. On December 10th, 1941 these
defensive positions were breached. By December 13, all
of the commonwealth troops had retreated from the
mainland to Honk Kong Island. The Japanese demanded
surrender that day and again on December 17th. The
allies turned them down and on the night of the 18
Japanese troops massacred 20 commonwealth troops. On the
night of the 19th another massacre of commonwealth
troops toke place and continued to December 15th when
the hospital at St Stephen's College was captured and
over 60 injured soldiers were tortured and killed. That
afternoon brought the realization to the Governor of
Hong Kong that things must be stopped and that a
surrender to the Japanese would have to take place. He
did so and the commonwealth troops were marched off into
captivity.
The reaction in Canada
and Britain was one of confused surprise. The upstart
Japanese were sweeping through Southeast Asia and the
British Empire was crumbling. The only bright spot in
the December of setbacks was that the U.S. was now in
the war and an ally of Britain and Canada.
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