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and this was on a good weather day. An alternative was to utilize the sole railroad in the territory - the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR). However, the KCR was primarily a passenger railway, so rolling stock for transporting freight was in short supply,12
A third option was to transport the supplies by water via the Pearl River and its tributaries, which lead up to Canton and points beyond. This method, if fully operational, would greatly increase the amount of supplies headed inland. It too was dependent on various factors, like Allied control of both banks of the Pearl, the availability of suitable river craft (Canton could still handle large vessels, but as the river branches out and tapers off, smaller vessels would be needed), and the weather.13 Without modifications, the mediocre communications inland from Hong Kong would not do justice to its generous port capacity.
As for ground operations, the Allies enjoyed a crushing supremacy over the Japanese in the quantity and quality of their armour, but Hong Kong's mountainous terrain would have ensured that armour could see only limited duty there.
On a bad day, mechanised transport would become bogged down on Hong Kong's muddy roads. The Allies would have felt Hong Kong eerily similar to Italy, a place that was also mountainous and experienced high rainfall. There, the Allies had armour superiority, but it was of limited value, and their advance was slow. Their advances along the coast were a bit faster because it was relatively flat, just like Hong Kong's. However, during bad weather days, a lack of natural ground in many of the coastal areas (due to urbanisation) to absorb rainfall could cause flooding. In addition, there was human-induced flooding. Southern China was still mainly an agrarian region, where farmers would deliberately flood their fields in April of each year to fertilize their crops.14 That added at least a month to the flood season.
Infantry would also find the combination of rainfall and challenging terrain as harsh for them as they would be for their vehicles, if not more. Without substantial support from mechanised forces, infantry would be deprived of a vital factor to combat the Japanese.
Air support, a key ingredient in offensive operations worldwide, and one in which the Allies enjoyed superiority and obviously hated to