[ { "id": 212456, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1991", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "Mr. David Sheil Mr. Michael Kirkbride Mr. Yip Cho-hong\n\nMr. Philip Bruce (twice)\n\nand Mr. David Mahoney\n\nDr. James Hayes Mr. K. Leung\n\nMr. Tao Ho\n\nMr. Charles Walker\n\nTibetan Rugs\n\nHong Kong: a Landscape History Preparing for the Future: Our First\n\n15 years in the Antiquities Office Second to None: The Hong Kong Volunteers and the Battle of Hong Kong\n\nTsuen Wan: 1887 to 1987\n\nCivilians Under Japanese\n\nOccupation\n\nWestern Market\n\nEric Lidell\n\nThere have also been the following trips/tours over the last year since I last reported. Dr. Patrick Hase and Dr. Graeme Lang organised a trip to Wong Tai Sin, and three visits have been organised by Mr. Philip Bruce namely the Bogue Forts in the Pearl river Delta, the Colonial Cemetery and Chek Lap Kok in conjunction with Mr. Bill Meacham (again and probably the last), Mr. John Wilson organised a trip to the Shing Mun Redoubt in keeping again with the Society's sights on the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Hong Kong. Dr Patrick Hase and Mr. Philip Bruce did not also forget to look after our gastronomical and liquid desires since the former organised our annual Chinese dinner at the City Hall, and the latter our resuscitated Christmas cocktail party at the Volunteer Officer's mess at Beaconsfield house. Since the new year we have also been well taken care of by a visit to the South Side of Hong Kong Island organised jointly by Mrs. Rosemary Lee who took us to the war cemetery at Stanley, Mr. Michael Kirkbride who expanded on Keteleeria Trees, and Colonel Douglas Fox who showed us how the South side of the island and Stanley Fort in particular was fortified in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Colonel Douglas Fox also led a very successful trip to Stonecutters Island. This was followed in quick succession by a tour to more of the remote parts of Lamma Island led by our honourary secretary Mr. David St. Maur Sheil. And more recently we had a very successful if rather wet trip to Xiamen, organised by Mrs. Anita Wilson and Mrs. Rosemary Lee, and a very comprehensive tour of Tsuen Wan led by Dr. James Hayes. To all these organisers may I extend our thanks and sincere appreciation.\n\nOur local tours are very popular as many members, who were not able to get on some, found: the Council is very conscious of this problem,\n\nIX", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213188, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1994", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "Visits:\n\nYin Tin Tsa, Sai Kung for annual Roman Catholic Church festival\n\n1994\n\n16 April\n\nPo For Island\n\n1 May\n\n16 July\n\n20 September\n\n21 September\n\n5 November\n\n26 November\n\n3 December\n\n10 December\n\nMa Po Marshes with shump supper (repeated in September)\n\nTai Hang Fire Dragon Dance\n\nMonkey God Festival at Sau Mau Ping\n\nSwire Institute of Marine Science, Cape D'Aguilar Tung Lung Island\n\nHK Zoological and Botanical Gardens\n\nExhibition of Contemporary Chinese Oil Paintings - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University\n\n17 December\n\nShing Mun Redoubt\n\n1995\n\n18 February\n\nSai Ying Pun Guided Walk\n\n4 March\n\nLei Yue Mun Headland\n\nVisits outside Hong Kong:\n\n1994\n\nOctober\n\n1995\n\nNorth Vietnam\n\nMarch\n\nTemples of South Taiwan\n\nOf course we must also thank all those who took time to lecture to us and let me read out a list of those\n\nLectures:\n\n1994\n\n15 April\n\nGreat Monuments of India. Dr. Shobita Punja\n\n13 May\n\n20 May\n\n17 June\n\nTurbans and Traders HK's Indian Communities Ms Barbara-Sue White\n\nTo the Farthest Port of the Rich East Salem's China Trade and the East India Marine Society Mr William Sargent\n\nPregnancy and Childbirth in Hong Kong Ms Diana Martin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214064, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1997", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "99\n\n1941 there were thirteen operational batteries (complete with underground ammunition magazines, living quarters and access roads) on the Island, the earliest emplacements for these being built around 1895, an underground battle headquarters off Queen's Road near the naval dockyard (completed in 1940) and scores of reinforced-concrete structures comprising pill-boxes, observation posts, searchlight positions, anti-aircraft sites, bunkers, shelters, ammunition and stores dumps, tunnels and water tanks. On Stonecutters' Island the Royal Navy built between the World Wars a huge ammunition depot which included eleven large underground magazines; earlier the first land-based explosives' depot was completed here in 1876 from where it was transferred to Green Island in 1906. Of the original six battery emplacements designed and constructed on Stonecutters' Island during the period 1880-1905, only one remained commissioned at the outbreak of hostilities.\n\nThe two battery positions on Devil's Peak in Kowloon overlooking Lai Yue Mun gap were constructed soon after the New Territories' lease was signed in 1898 and a redoubt on top of the hill was completed by the Royal Engineers in 1914. The guns however were removed in 1936 and transferred to the Island. Subsequently the 18km-long Gin Drinkers' defence line was constructed during the mid-1930s across the hills to the north of the Kowloon peninsula and comprised a series of pill-boxes, trenches, bunkers and tunnels, the key feature being the underground Shing Mun Redoubt covering some five hectares on the northern flank of Smugglers' Ridge.\n\nThe decision to construct air raid shelters so that the whole urban population could be protected was not taken until 1940. In the space of about a year some 22 kilometres of 2.5m-size tunnels (of which about 80% still exist) were constructed on the Island and in Kowloon, including one adjacent to the Secretariat in Lower Albert Road which extended to Government House causing structural damage. In view of the urgent need for these tunnels, the project was arranged on a cost-plus basis and gave rise to rampant corruption, one architect involved even committing suicide to avoid giving evidence. The sub-standard pre-cast concrete breeze blocks made by the Director of Air Raid Precaution's girlfriend's firm are still (or at least until recently) known in the trade as Mimi blocks. Unfortunately the report on the Commission of Enquiry was never made public; it was taken into the Stanley internment", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214737, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "116\n\nmirrored by the meticulous interest of model enthusiasts. There has been less interest in events in Asian theatres of war, particularly those before the change of the tide of war after the Battle of Midway. Save for a few battles, little has been written in English about the major battles in the Pacific War. One exception is the Battle of Hong Kong fought against the Japanese forces in December 1941. In this Battle, two brigades of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps without air support fought three full-strength Japanese divisions supported by an air fleet.\n\nThe Battle broke out at 08:00 hour on 8 December, when the air raid on Kai Tak Airfield began, and lasted to 15:25 hour on Christmas Day, when the Governor Sir Mark Young made the decision to surrender. This led to the official ending of the almost 18-day fighting, which was intended to cease at 18:00 hours, when for the first time in history, a British Crown Colony was surrendered to enemy forces with her governor taken as a prisoner. This surrender occurred one hundred years after the creation of the colony. A miserable three years and eight months period followed for the captive defenders and civilians until the British administration returned on 30 August 1945.\n\nBriefly, the Battle was conducted in two distinct phases2. From 8 to 13 December, it was fought in the New Territories and Kowloon. This phase ended with the fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt of the Gin Drinkers Line on 11 December and the final evacuation of defence forces to the Island of Hong Kong two days later. The second phase commenced in the early morning of 18 December when the Japanese made their first attempted landings on the Island near Lei Yue Mun Strait, the eastern approach to Victoria Harbour, and ended with the surrender one week later. Before the final capitulation, the Governor had rejected the Japanese request for surrender twice, on 13 and 17 December.\n\nWe shall consider a brief textual review of the English and Chinese publications and materials on the Battle of Hong Kong available in the University of Hong Kong Library, which provides points of reference for our re-assessment of the performance of the defenders of Hong Kong.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214747, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "126\n\nindicated in Table 1, the Japanese outnumbered the Hong Kong garrison by 3.09 (X). However, they could only inflict a casualty rate of 2.11 (Y). The Singapore garrison, by comparison, fared better than its counterpart in Crete.\n\nSome Speculative Thoughts Regarding the Merits of the Defence\n\nConstrained by the statistics available to the author, the above analysis is crude indeed. However, it raises the point that the Hong Kong garrison, however unprepared and poorly equipped, had fought quite well. There are indeed sources that suggest a much higher casualty rate for the Japanese. Why was this the case?\n\nAny answer to this question surely requires a much more rigorous study. A number of speculative points and observations worthy of attention are raised below. Firstly, the geography of Hong Kong rendered defence more effective than that of Singapore. It is a cliché that the Japanese forces were well trained and prepared. Yet, they did suffer great losses. Most such losses were incurred when they made attempts to cross the harbour and in fighting for control of the hills and gaps on Hong Kong Island. In both the Battle of Singapore and the Battle of Hong Kong, the Japanese forces aimed at capturing reservoirs as their tactical targets, as they had anticipated long resistance and the loss of water supply would erode the morale of the defending forces and their ability to continue fighting. Unlike the Island of Singapore, Hong Kong Island is much larger in size, and is highly rugged in relief with several reservoirs in different parts of the upland areas.\n\nSecondly, the size of the garrison was also a factor. Comparing again Hong Kong and Singapore, a smaller garrison operating in a more defensible topography proved to be more battle worthy than a large number of troops congested in a much smaller flat island devoid of air cover and was running out of fresh water.\n\nThirdly, notwithstanding criticism of the design weakness of the Gin Drinkers Line, the Hong Kong garrison fought in an orderly manner according to a pre-conceived plan with defence structures well in place. As soon as the under-powered Shing Mun Redoubt was lost, the garrison evacuated the New Territories and Kowloon to prepare for", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214770, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1999", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "149\n\nwho bring them food. Japs get very strict about buying food at the wire and many Chinese get beaten up, women being stripped naked in full view of everyone. Indians are getting unruly. Several deaths from dysentry.\n\nEighth. Florrie and her amah arrive with more food. She tries to cross the road but I signal her back. No parcels get through as a General is expected to visit us. My boy also arrives. What a disappointment.\n\nNinth. Jap General arrives with an escort of twelve cars and troops manning machine guns in lorries. He drives to the gods hut, steps out, has his photograph taken, and drives off without a word. What a farce. Many wild rumours but as usual no truth in them.\n\nTenth. Bed collapses again during night. Our roof leaks from the effects of a bomb but so far the weather has been perfect. The flies swarm everywhere due to the filthy condition of the camp. All buying at the fence stopped, the Japs torturing any Chinese who come near the fence.\n\nEleventh. Florrie arrives again and I receive a parcel of bread, butter, milk, and tomatoes. What a treat and the six of us make short work of it. Rumours even wilder: Tokyo reported bombed, Japs suffer severe naval defeat. Hitler committed suicide, and Japs evacuate Malaya. Have grand supper of coffee, bread, butter, and jam.\n\nTwelfth. All buying definitely stopped, many Chinese beaten up.\n\nThirteenth. Many sick with tummy trouble. One feels fairly fit but completely lacking in energy. Twenty Scots arrive from Fan Ling, amongst them being Potato Jones, who commanded the company at the Shing Mun Redoubt, and Lieut Thompson, who was hit by a grenade and is practically blind. Japs refuse to take him to hospital which will probably cost him his sight. Florrie brings another parcel. I throw a message to her across the road screwed up in a cigarette holder.\n\nFourteenth. Everyone's stock of food running low. Rumours still wild but always good news and we think are going well.\n\nFifteenth. Florrie comes again but Japs won't allow parcels", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215872, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 171, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "104\n\nPottinger Battery were relocated to Bokhara Battery, Cape D'Aguilar in 1939 or 1940 (Rollo: 201). The batteries' arc of fire at Devil's Peak in 1938 reached the southwestern tip of Lamma Island and the south of the Po Toi Group of islands, whereas those at Stanley reached beyond the southwestern part of the Lema Islands (Dangan Liedao).\n\nThus, before the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong on 8th December 1941, there were no guns at either the Gough or Pottinger Battery. However, the sites at Devil's Peak had become part of the Gin Drinker's Line in the 1930s. This Line runs from Gin Drinker's Bay (Kwai Chung) in the west to Port Shelter in the east. The Devil's Peak was a crucial component of the Kowloon segment of the Line. The Japanese had good maps about the location of the defences of Hong Kong. Some remarks on the defence works at Devil's Peak are registered in a map produced in 1939/1940 (Empson 1992). Defensive positions in the military sites on Devil's Peak were taken up by the 5/7 Rajputs of the Hong Kong Garrison on 12 December, after the fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt in the western part of the Line three days before.\n\nThe sites at Devil's Peak witnessed heavy defensive fighting by the 5/7 Rajputs and the First Mountain Battery of the Hong Kong and Singapore Artillery. The latter expended 400 rounds with their four 3.7 inch field guns before the evacuation of the defenders to Hong Kong Island on the morning of 13th December. The defenders destroyed all equipment before they crossed the Harbour during the night. Thereafter, the Japanese used the sites to bombard the Island and the defenders' gun returned fire.\n\nAfter the defeat of Japan, the Devil's Peak sites were abandoned by the British, although the batteries on the Island side of Lei Yue Mun Pass were reoccupied and put into active military use until the mid-1980s. Before 1997, there had been little news connected with British military activities at Devil's Peak, save for an air accident in the 1950s. In March 1956, two Royal Navy Sea Hawks struck fog-shrouded Devil's Peak, killing the pilots and an elderly lady (Eather 1996).\n\nA surviving example of the 9.2-inch guns that were deployed on the batteries at Devil's Peak can be seen at the Buyu Battery (Siu 1997: Plate 6 at p.76) that guards Humen (The Bogue). This battery was modernised in 1883 with the assistance of British and German military experts.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215901, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 200, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "Peak headland.\n\n11 November 1945 RAF aerial photograph Aerial Photograph no. 0286 (F63/58A/RAF/775) showing Devil's Peak taken.\n\nSometime before Systematic destruction of disused military structures in Hong Kong by government. 1949\n\nMarch 1956\n\n1959\n\n25 January 1963\n\nTwo Royal Navy Sea hawks struck Devil's Peak in fog, killing the pilots and an old lady.\n\nLocal writer Hsu Hong Shing wrote the essay \"The fogs at Lei Yue Mun.\" RAF aerial photograph No. 4037 showing Devil's Peak taken.\n\nAerial photograph No. 5244 (2700 feet) taken on 25 January 1963 by Hunting Surveys Ltd.\n\nAerial Photograph No. 0286\n\nBather, 1996, p.115\n\nAerial Photograph No. 5244\n\n1:600 Survey Plan No. C-198-NW-15\n\n1973\n\nFormation of a cut platform above Pottinger Battery commenced.\n\nPublication of 1:1000 Survey Plan Survey Plan 11-SE-4D,\n\nJune 1975\n\nJuly 1975\n\nPublication of 1:1000 Survey Plan Survey Plan 11-SE-9B.\n\nMarch 1976\n\n1976\n\n13 July 1977\n\nPublication of a revised edition of 1:1000 Survey Plan Survey Plan 11-SE-9B.\n\n\"Plan of the Proposed Site for Public Park, Devil's Peak, Sai Kung District,\" Drawing No. SKG1405, File no. LNT52/SGS/59, Survey Sheet No. 11-SE-B1,2,3,4 showed the Redoubt as a \"water works reserve;\" the borrow area above Pottinger Battery.\n\nDr. S.M. Bard inspected the fortifications on Devil's Peak.\n\nThe record in the A&M file dated 13.7.1977 states:\n\nDevil's Peak, Kowloon\n\nArea A:\"lower fort,\" this is within the area proposed for a public park. Fortifications in reinforced concrete, underground shelters, and cement/concrete gun-platforms (2 large ones).\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-9B\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-4D\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-9B\n\nAM77-0101\n\nRollo's work has revealed the complete history\n\nof the Redoubt, Gough and\n\n133", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]