The Sun Also Rises
1. Operation Bauhinia: The Invasion of Hong Kong
11 - 14 July 1942
Japanese soldiers marching into Hong Kong from Kowloon.
The Japanese declaration of war against the British, delivered by the ambassador to the Court of Saint James on 11 July 1942, was the culmination of the breath that had strained against being held for so long since the Japanese had become signatories to the Anti-Comintern Pact only days less than a calendar year previous. The attack on Hong Kong--and the British Empire in general--was clearly a violation of international law: notification to the British that a state of war existed between the two empires was received in London only after engagements had begun. Both sides in the conflict recognized the importance of the territory, but the preparations for the coming war were decisively different.
Canadian troops marching in formation, 1941. These
troops were unprepared for the violent and overwhelming
attacks of the Japanese forces.
Controversy over Britain’s actual dedication to fighting the Japanese is centered on testimony from the American consulate delegation, who would later write that the British were more interested in keeping the Chinese in line than the Japanese out. Other charges leveled at the British indicate that they failed to adequately prepare both the civilian population and their forces to resist; these are balanced by the heroism and tenacity of the Commonwealth troops who made the best of a bad situation. The efforts were complicated, however, by a concentration of the fortifications being directed towards the sea, rather than towards the mainland. The British had assumed that any attack by the Japanese would come from the sea, but the strategic situation had changed with the truce which placed the Second Sino-Japanese War on ice until 1944. Despite this, there had been nearly four years in which the British High Command could have prepared their forces better for the assault which was seen by all to be inevitable, but with funding being what it was, no monies were devoted for the development of said fortifications, or a unified command structure to man them.
A shore battery gun operated by Indian troops. Much of
the defense had been focused on the perceived likely
invasion from the sea, rather than from the shores of
Kowloon.
The decisions regarding the status and defense plans for Hong Kong were altered repeatedly in the interbellum period. Originally planned to left as an open city given the forces arrayed against it at the end of a very long and expensive tether to London, pressure on the British from Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek to ‘prove’ London’s support of the Chinese efforts led to the creation of the two brigade-strong Hong Kong Command, a motley force of British, locals, Indians, and even Canadians to resist against the expected Japanese attack. The losses in the North Sea and the strategic plan of “Each In Their Turn” meant the major surface vessels of the China Station had long since been recalled, leaving a mere two flotillas of
Triton-class submarines and a handful of gun- and motor-torpedo boats. No appreciable air units were available from the Royal Air Force.
A comparison between the forces arrayed to fight for
Hong Kong. The outsized force of the Japanese proved
more than a match for the few British defenders.
On the other side of the coin, the Japanese ground forces arrayed against the island were the two divisions of XVIII Corps. These formations were composed of the two divisions of Imperial Guard troops, supported by a brigade of artillery and a brigade of engineers. In the air, three groups of Ki-63 multi-role fighters--the same aircraft developed by the Japanese from their purchases of Bf109Fs--were launching from Guangzhou. Of these, two groups were dedicated to conducting port strikes in an attempt to destroy the Royal Navy’s submarines (that is, the only major threat to the Imperial Japanese Navy in the area), while one group was devoted to providing close air support to the ground units. At sea, a small force of two ancient “heavy” cruisers and four groups of similarly old destroyers provided a small boost of naval surface gunfire support to the troops.
Japanese artillery firing on positions during the invasion of
Hong Kong.
The engagement began at dawn on 11 July 1942 with a combination of air attacks and the guns of the
Asama and
Izumo. Within twenty-four hours, most of the garrison was out of organization and clinging desperately to small pockets of resistance. Constant air attacks combined with the rapid silencing of the coastal artillery allowed the ships to close in and press home their advantage. What few aircraft remained transported wounded and important people out of the colony, including Mme Sun Yat-Sen, the widow of the late Sun Yat-Sen. Effective resistance ceased approximately two days into the assault, but pockets of sporadic resistance kept the island from being truly pacified for nearly a week. In all, the Japanese Army reported that for the loss of only 86 soldiers and a handful of aircraft (mostly to accidents, though there were reports that a few fell to ground fire), they inflicted 586 casualties on the British and Commonwealth defenders, and took over five thousand prisoners.
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Author's Note: Not a top of page, but definitely worth it because I felt like things were dying down which would prevent me from getting there, and this is done so why not?! We move now to the Pacific, for the inevitable ROFLSTOMP for the Commonwealth. In other news, in a month, I'll be going to Midnight shift, which will mean that I become a monk, and probably have a few hours a night to devote to working with some of this stuff! Maybe.