CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
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never known a speech to have a more direct and immediate effect and the atmosphere on the troop decks changed vastly for the better.
CASUALTIES AND EVACUATION OF WOUNDED DURING HOSTILITIES
I shall now add a few sections on aspects of the period of captivity that are not conveniently included in the many records, under several heads.
I have already said a little about the very difficult hilly and broken ground over which fighting took place in Hong Kong and about the roads suitable for wheeled transport which were under direct observation in many places by an enemy who not only knew every one of them but also knew the hill tracks as well. Movement by road was usually possible only at night and roads themselves were often cut by Japanese infiltrating troops. The conditions under which our troops had to carry out a continuous withdrawal, pressed closely by a very mobile enemy were extremely arduous. The supporting services, including the medical services likewise found their tasks extremely difficult and a short assessment of casualty evacuation may be of interest. The statistics are taken from Volume 11 of The Official Medical History of Campaigns in the Second World War.
The strength of our garrison when hostilities began was 10,976 officers and men of the British and Indian armies and when the locally raised units were added the total rose to about 14,500 of whom about eleven thousand were combatants. Many members of locally raised units probably melted into the civil population when the end of hostilities was seen to be approaching. A figure of 11,000 officers and men at risk is therefore assumed. The Official History records that 2,113 men were killed, died of wounds or were missing, and give a total of 1,332 as having been wounded seriously. Earlier in this account I reported that Indian army troops had their own hospital and that in Bowen Road we admitted Indian troops when they were wounded nearby, when they were transferred to us for special investigation and treatment by the Indian hospital and when they were transferred to us from other hospitals which were closing down after our surrender. The casualties for which we were responsible in Bowen Road therefore seem to be the total of 856 non-Indians recorded in the Official History.