147
and one cruiser anchor off the dockyard followed by a victory parade including a fly past of sixty bombers and fighters. All very galling.
Monday twenty ninth. News is that we are to be moved to the mainland at dawn tomorrow and that we will be given no transport and can only take kit that we can carry. The GOC and Commodore are treated the same as everyone else. Obviously we are going to be humiliated. For dinner we open all the tins in store and eat royally, washed down with beer and champagne. Pack what little kit I have, also any tinned food left over.
Tuesday. At dawn we prepare to move off. Frank and I sling our kitbags on a pole coolie style. We sling blankets round our neck. We are determined to bear our humiliation without a murmur, our day will surely come. We form into units and after two hours waiting move off, over six thousand strong. Arrive at the ferry and, after another long wait, are ferried across to Kowloon where we form into units again. Off again but where, no one knows. After a mile or so we come back into Nathan Road. By this time we begin to feel the strain and have to rest frequently. Each unit has its own guard. Thousands of Chinese line the streets, a few jeering, but mostly quiet, and some are in tears. It would appear that we are going to Sham Shui Po, several miles away. Our guard is a decent fellow and, seeing we are having a tough time, allows coolies to carry our kit. Eventually reach SSP barracks eight hours after leaving China Command. A battle for billets commences. The whole camp has been stripped of every useful article by looters and had also been bombed. All doors, windows, furniture, and fittings had been taken leaving just hulks of buildings. Even in peace time it was an awful dump, but now it looked as if a typhoon had hit it. We found a small hut and then a tremendous hunt started for anything resembling a bed. Found some horse hair and wrapped it into one of my blankets. Several men had been here for days, being captured earlier on. Two WO's had been tied up with wire, stripped of everything, and left for three days without food or water after having seen several of their comrades bayonetted. We get rice twice a day which tastes foul and does not alleviate our hunger.
Wednesday thirty first. Moved to a slightly bigger hut, the Wing moving in with us, the men are in another hut close by. There are over six thousand men in the camp with no sanitation and rotten food. We