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one of the best descriptions about the background to the Battle of Hong Kong.
The Battle Itself
In terms of the actual fighting, a host of publications specifically on the facts of the fall of Hong Kong and its aftermath, both English and Chinese, has been published, beginning in 1943 with Harrop's memoir, The Hong Kong Incident (Harrop 1943). This was followed after the war by the despatch by Major-General C.M. Maltby to the Secretary of State in the London Gazette, “Operations in Hong Kong from 8th to 25th December, 1941" of 1948 and a Hong Kong Government publication in the same year, Events in Hong Kong on 25th December 1941 (Hong Kong Government, 1948) and in 1953, A Record of the Actions of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps in the Battle of Hong Kong. Seven years later, Carew's book The Fall of Hong Kong was published (Carew, 1960). Endacott's History of Hong Kong, first published in 1958 (Endacott, 1958), and Fung's Chinese counterpart of 1967 (Fung, 1967) represented the earliest local works that put the Battle in the historical context of the Colony.
Another 17 years lapsed before another phase of active publication occurred, starting with Coates' A Mountain of Light (Coates, 1977). One year later, Hong Kong Eclipse commenced by Endacott and posthumously completed by Birch appeared (Endacott and Birch, 1978) with Lindsay's The Lasting Honour: the Fall of Hong Kong 1941 (Lindsay, 1978). Birch's own Radio Hong Kong broadcast on the Battle was published one year later in a book entitled Captive Christmas: the Battle of Hong Kong (Birch, 1979). In 1980, Ferguson's work, Desperate Siege: the Battle of Hong Kong, was published (Ferguson, 1980). In the following year, Vincent's (1981) work, No Reason Why: the Canadian Hong Kong Tragedy: An Examination, and Lindsay's second work, At the Going Down of the Sun: Hong Kong and South East Asia 1941-1945 (Lindsay, 1981). This active phase of publication ended with the first systematic Chinese account, A History of the Fall of Hong Kong, (Yip, 1982) and The Royal Hong Kong Police 1841-1945 written by Crisswell and Watson (Crisswell and Watson, 1982). Most English works in this period retained a condescending view about the reliability of Chinese soldiers who happened to be in the Colony and Chinese civilians who helped the defence of Hong Kong. The odd