Hong Kong: 2010 and 1941

When I recently spent some time with HK RCCS veteran Gerry Gerrard, we talked about his trip to Hong Kong last December with a group from the Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association. (A report can be seen on the Association website: www.hkvca.ca/2010trip/ )  He commented on how much Hong Kong has changed from when he and the other members of “C” Force arrived there in November, 1941.  High rise towers and other developments are prominent, but there are areas where the fighting took place during the battle where some of the features from 1941 are still visible (including the HQ bunker that Gerry remembers well).  Efforts are being made to preserve and interpret these locations for interested visitors.

Another important location for us Canadians is the Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery.  The graves of 283 Canadian soldiers, including Wes White and four other RCCS members, are found here.  On one of her trips to Hong Kong, my sister-in-law took some photos of the cemetery – three of which I’ve included here.

Gerry and I also talked about the “culture shock” that occurred for most of the Canadian soldiers when they arrived on November 16, 1941.  Everything seemed “cheap” in terms of Canadian dollars – food, liquor, and services (including women).  A number of the fellows wrote about their impressions, including my uncle, Don Penny.  He sent a letter home to Vancouver, relating his unfavourable reactions to his new location (which he was not allowed to identify).

Signalman Rolly D’Amours recorded many of his thoughts and observations in his diary.  Three pages dealing with a particularly memorable evening are shown below.  Thanks to Pierre D’Amours, Rolly’s son, for allowing me to include them in this post.

On the morning of December 8^th (December 7^th in North America), after barely three weeks of gradually getting acclimatized to the realities of Hong Kong life, the soldiers had to quickly accept another reality:  they were now at war with Japan.

If you have other recollections or documents about our Canadian soldiers' early days in Hong Kong that you would like to share, you can post them as a comment, or email them to me and I will include them in another post to the blog.

Service Records

Service records are a great source of information about soldiers who were part of C Force.  Often the military files include other documents as well, such as the Attestation Paper signed when the soldier joined the armed services.

Information about how to request these files can be found at the following website:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-909.007-e.html

Because some of the abbreviations in the documents can be hard to decipher, be sure to request a list of abbreviations that might occur on the records.  Some of the common ones I’ve come across include:

TOS – Taken on Strength

SOS – Struck off Strength

R & A – Rations and Allowance

R & Q – Rations and Quarters

CMHQ – Canadian Military Headquarters

Here are a couple of examples of Service Record entries:

I encourage all HK veteran families to request copies of these files.  They're an important record of the military lives of our C Force heroes.

Book Launch and HK Memorial Unveiling, August 2009

Two photos from August 2009, taken in Ottawa.

Names of RCCS men on the memorial wall.

Burke Penny and Hong Kong Veterans Association President, Phil Doddridge.