1 The National Archives (hereafter TNA), WO 172/1692, 5/7 Rajputs (Hong Kong) War Diary 8th–25th December 1941, 3
2 C.M. Maltby, “Operations in Hong Kong from 8th to 25th December, 1941,” Supplement to The London Gazette, 27 January 1948, 701.
3 Library and Archives Canada (hereafter LAC), Department of National Defence fonds, RG24, volume 12752, file “The Hong Kong Operation”, Supplement to The London Gazette Operations in Hong Kong, 8th to 25th December 1941 by Major-General C.M. Maltby 24 July 1946, page 3.
4 Ibid., page 5.
5 Carl Vincent, No Reason Why: The Canadian Hong Kong Tragedy, An Examination (Stittsville, Ontario: Canada’s Wings, 1981), 203–204.
6 C.P. Stacey, Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1955), 447, 457.
7 Ibid., 490.
8 Elizabeth Greenhalgh, “Australians Broke the Hindenburg Line,” in Zombie Myths of Australian Military History, ed. Craig Stockings (Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales, 2010), 91
9 China Mail, 16 November 1941 Extra, 1.
10 Kenneth Cambon, Guest of Hirohito (Vancouver: PW Press, 1990), 5.
11 China Mail, 16 November, 1.
12 TNA, ADM 339/1/28936, John Osborn Service Record. Wilmot was discharged in the Great War as medically unfit for service due to flat feet. LAC, Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces of Canada fonds, RG 150, Accession 1992–93/166, Box 10429–38, Item 316183, Percy Wilmot Service Record.
13 H.P. McNaughton, Shadow Lights of Sham Shui Po: A Rhyming Picture of the Yesteryears, (Hong Kong: POW Camp Shamshuipo, 1944), 53.
14 Brereton Greenhous, “C” Force to Hong Kong: A Canadian Catastrophe, 1941–1945 (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1997), 33.
15 National Army Museum, 1999–07–92, The Letters from Harold Robert Newton (1917–1941) to his Parents, 69.
16 Imperial War Museum (hereafter IWM), Private Papers of Major General C.M. Maltby, Catalogue number 22835, Scrapbook, 17 November 1941.
17 TNA, WO 172/1692, Rajputs War Diary, 3.
18 LAC, J.L. Ralston fonds, MG 27 III BII, volume 69, file “Hong Kong Enquiry – memoranda of 3 discussions in Minister’s Office, 1 January 1941”, page 17. Stacey, Six Years of War, 449.
19 TNA, WO 106/2412, Telegram from G.O.C. Hong Kong to War Office, 3 December 1941.
20 Cambon, Guest of Hirohito, 5–6.
21 Andy Flanagan, The Endless Battle: The Fall of Hong Kong and Canadian POWs in Imperial Japan, (Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Editions, 2017), 45.
22 Cambon, Guest of Hirohito, 6.
23 William Allister, Where Life and Death Hold Hands (Toronto: Stoddart, 1989), 17.
24 LAC, Royal Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Organization, Authorization and Dispatch of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to the Crown Colony of Hong Kong fonds, RG 33 120, volume 2, file “Exhibit #45– 70; #71–84”, exhibit 56 telegram from Canadian Forces, Hong Kong to NDHQ Ottawa, 30 November 1941.
25 Maltby, “Operations in Hong Kong,” 699.
26 Stacey, Six Years of War, 459–460.
27 “La Situation S’Aggrave en Extrême-Orient,” Le Droit, 17 November 1941, 1.
28 “DES CANADIENS A HONG KONG,” La Devoir, 17 November 1941, 1.
29 “Wartime Frontier Expands,” The Globe and Mail, 17 November 1941, 6.
30 “Empire Stand Solid,” The Calgary Herald, 17 November 1941, 4.
31 “Canadian Troops at Hong Kong,” The Montreal Gazette, November 17 1941, 8.
32 Kirstin J. H. Brathwaite, “Effective in Battle: Conceptualizing Soldiers’ Combat Effectiveness,” Defence Studies
18, no. 1 (2018): 2.
33 Ibid., 3–4.
34 Kwong Chi Man and Tsoi Yiu Lun, Eastern Fortress: A Military History of Hong Kong, 1840–1970 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015), 165–166.
35 Directorate of History and Heritage (hereafter DHH), file 593 (D1), Hong Kong War Diary 16 Oct/25 Dec 41 as a Rept Force “C” HQ & Details by Capt HA Bush, S/Capt “C” Force 10 Oct 45 incl Org Est & Parade State, 6.
36 Tony Banham, Not the Slightest Chance: The Defence of Hong Kong, 1941 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003), 29.
37 Sergeant Ronald Routledge and Signalman John Fairley were wounded in the Jubilee Buildings. Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 340.
38 Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 36.
39 Stacey, Six Years of War, 467–469. Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 91.
40 Stacey, Six Years of War, 481.
41 Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 262.
42 Stacey, Six Years of War, 488–489.
43 Canadian War Museum (hereafter CWM), 20110043–001, James MacMillan, Diary, 40.
44 Georges Verreault, Diary of a Prisoner of War in Japan, 1941–1945 (Rimouski, Québec: Vero, 1996), 36.
45 Stacey, Six Years of War, 467.
46 D. Burke Penny, Beyond the Call: Royal Canadian Corps of Signals Brigade Headquarters, “C” Force Hong Kong 1941–1945 (Nepean, Ontario: Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association, 2009), 68.
DHH, file 593 (D26), Interview with Capt G.M. Billings, R.C. Sigs., 27 March 1946.
47 Penny, Beyond the Call, 72.
48 DHH, file 593 (D26), Interview with Billings.
49 DHH, file 593 (D3), War Diary of Royal Rifles of Cda December 1941, 21.
50 CWM, 20080086–001, Raymond W. Elliott, Diary, entries 10, 13, 14, 15, 17 December.
51 CWM, Elliot, Diary, 8 December.
52 CWM, MacMillan, Diary, 41–42.
53 Verreault, Diary of a Prisoner, 38–40.
54 Ibid., 20.
55 Cambon, Guest of Hirohito, 16.
56 This episode is further explored in Brad St. Croix, “The Omnipresent Threat: Fifth Columnists’ Impact on the Battle of Hong Kong, December 1941,” Close Encounters in War 1 (2018): 12.
57 DHH, file 593 (D3), Royal Rifles War Diary, 33.
58 Maltby, “Operations in Hong Kong,” 714.
59 Hisashi Takahashi, “The Canadian Expeditionary Force and the Fall of Hong Kong,” in Canada
and Japan in the Twentieth Century, eds. John Schultz and Kimitada Miwa, (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1991), 109.
60 Supplement to The London Gazette, 29 March 1946, 1617.
61 Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 147, 145.
62 Ibid., 182, 197–198.
63 TNA, CAB 106/30, Despatch on operations in Hong Kong 1941 Dec. 8–25; copy of original, by Major-General C.
M. Maltby, General Officer Commanding British Troops in China, 45, 47.
64 Greenhous, “C” Force to Hong Kong, 100, 102.
65 Tim Carew, The Fall of Hong Kong (London: Pan Books, 1963), 131–132.
66 IWM, Private Papers of Lieutenant-Colonel J.H. Monro, Catalogue Number 17941, A Gunner’s War in China, 1, 11.
67 Banham, Not the Slightest Chance, 27. IWM, Monro, A Gunner’s War in China, 11, 13.
68 IWM, Private Papers of Squadron Leader D.S. Hill, Catalogue Number 13558, Diary, 2–3.
69 Ibid., 5.
70 Ibid.
71 DHH, file 593 (D33), Winnipeg Grenadiers War Diary, 17.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid., 1.
74 Bernie Jesse and Norm Park, Seared in My Memory: One Hong Kong POW Tells His Story (Saskatchewan: n.p., 1996), 26.
75 DHH, file 593 (D1), Hong Kong War Diary, 6. Stacey, Six Years of War, 481–482. DHH: 593 (D9), Report of Hon. Capt. U. Laite, 3.
76 DHH, file 593 (D26), Winnipeg Grenadiers, Attack on “D” Coy., 19–22 December, 1.
77 DHH, file 593 (D9), Report of Laite, 3.
78 Stacey, Six Years of War, 482.
79 DHH, file 593 (D9), Report of Laite, 3. Bush was the Staff Captain at the West Brigade Headquarters.
80 Oliver Lindsay, The Battle for Hong Kong 1941–1945: Hostage to Fortune (Staplehurst, United Kingdom: Spellmount, 2005), 250. DHH, file 593 (D9), Report of Laite, 3.
81 DHH, file 593 (D26), Winnipeg Grenadiers Attack on “D” Coy., 2.
82 DHH, file 593 (D1) Hong Kong War Diary, 14.
83 DHH, file 593 (D33) Report on the Part Played by Winnipeg Grenadiers in the Defence of Hong Kong, War Diary, 11.
84 DHH, file 593 (D5) “C” Personal Experience – Lieut. L. Corrigan, Winnipeg Grenadiers Hong Kong, Dec. 1941, 2.
85 Leonard Corrigan, Diary Winnipeg Grenadiers, C Force: Prisoner-of-War, 1941–1945 (self-pub., 2008), 9–11.
86 DHH, file 593 (D3), Royal Rifles War Diary, 38.
87 CWM, Elliott, Diary, 20 December.
88 CWM, Elliott, Diary, 21 December.
89 TNA, CO 129/592/4, Hong Kong Police War Diary, 57.
90 Leo Paul Berard, 17 Days Until Christmas (Barrie, Ontario: Barrie Press, 1997), 80.
91 Allister, Where Life and Death Hold Hands, 29.
92 The Valour and the Horror, episode 6, “Savage Christmas,” directed by Brian McKenna, written by Terence McKenna and Brian McKenna, aired 12 January 1992, on CBC,
https://www.nfb.ca/film/savage_christmas_hong_kong_1941/.
93 Carew, The Fall of Hong Kong, 164.
94 Cambon, Guest of Hirohito, 120.
95 Maltby, “Operations in Hong Kong,” 701.
96 George S. MacDonell, One Soldier’s Story 1939–1945: From the Fall of Hong Kong to the Defeat of Japan, (Toronto: Dundurn Group, 2002), 74–75.
97 Corrigan, Diary Winnipeg Grenadiers, 3.
98 DHH, file 593 (D3), Royal Rifles War Diary, 32.
99 CWM, 20050094–002, Arthur Ray Squires, Diary, 3.
100 CWM, MacMillan, Diary, 56.
101 Cambon, Guest of Hirohito, 23.
102 Evan Stewart, Record of the Actions of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps in the Battle for Hong Kong December, 1941 (Hong Kong: Ye Olde Printerie, 1956), 31.
103 TNA, WO 172/1686, East Infantry Brigade Hong Kong War Diary December 1941, 76–77.
104 Stewart, Record of the Actions of the HKVDC, 47.
105 TNA, WO 172/1686, East Brigade War Diary, 90.
106 Stacey, Six Years of War, 479.
107 Ibid., 91.
108 TNA, WO 172/1686, East Brigade War Diary, Summary of Recommendations for Awards.
109 Lindsay, Hostage to Fortune, 138.
110 TNA, WO 172/1686, East Brigade War Diary, 92.
111 Ibid., 116.
112 TNA, WO 106/2412, Telegram from Defensor Ottawa to CanMilitary, 10 October 1941. TNA, WO 106/2412, Hong Kong – Establishment of Infantry Battalions, 8 October 1941.
113 LAC, DND fonds, RG24, volume 12752, file “The Hong Kong Operation”, Supplement to The London Gazette
Operations in Hong Kong, 8th to 25th December 1941 by Major-General C.M. Maltby 24 July 1946”, page 22.
114 Ibid., page 25.
115 G.W.L. Nicholson and John H. Price, “The Controversy over Maltby’s Hong Kong Dispatch,” Canadian Military History 2, no. 2 (1993): 115–116.
116 Maltby, “Operations in Hong Kong,” 721–722.
117 Nicholson and Price, “The Controversy over Maltby’s Hong Kong Dispatch,”
118 DHH, file 593 (D3), Royal Rifles War Diary, 54–55.
119 Nicholson and Price, “The Controversy over Maltby’s Hong Kong Dispatch,” 116.
120 Flanagan, The Endless Battle, 56–57.
121 TNA, WO 172/1689, 1st Bn Middlesex Regiment (Hong Kong) War Diary 8–25 December 1941 Appendix 2D D Company, 3.
122 Ibid.
123 Vincent, No Reason Why, 1.
124 Stacey, Six Years of War, 479.
125 Grant S. Garneau, The Royal Rifles of Canada in Hong Kong, 1941–1945 (Carp, Ontario: Baird O’Keefe Publishing Inc., 2001), 84
126 MacDonell, One Soldier’s Story, 82.
127 Maltby, “Operations in Hong Kong,” 723.
128 DHH, file 593 (D26), Interview with Price, 1.
129 “Memories Uninvited - The Battle,” Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association, accessed 8 October 2020,
https://www.hkvca.ca/memoriesuninvited/Chapter%206.php.
130 CWM, Elliott, Diary, 25 December. MacDonell, One Soldier’s Story, 84.
131 DHH, file 593 (D26), Interview with Price, 1. DHH, file 593 (D3), Royal Rifles War Diary, 57.
132 See Appendix.
133 CWM, Elliott, Diary, 25 December.
134 Ibid.
135 “Individual Report: E29977 Frank Ebdon,” Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association, accessed 8 October 2020,
https://www.hkvca.ca/cforcedata/indivreport/indivdetailed.php?regtno=E29977.
136 MacDonell, One Soldier’s Story, 82–84. “Memories Uninvited - The Battle.”
137 “Memories Uninvited - The Battle.” DHH, file 593 (D3), Royal Rifles War Diary, 57.
138 Flanagan, Endless Battle, 58.
139 CWM, Elliot, Diary, 25 December.
140 Franco David Macri, “Canadians under Fire: C Force and the Battle of Hong Kong, December 1941,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch 51 (2011): 249.
141 LAC, DND fonds, RG24, volume 12752, file “The Hong Kong Operation”, Supplement to The London Gazette
Operations in Hong Kong, 8th to 25th December 1941 by Major-General C.M. Maltby 24 July 1946, page 22.
142 McNaughton, Shadow Lights of Sham Shui Po, 42.