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Next Stop Hong Kong
1938
In 1938 the battalion set sail for Hong Kong on board the troop ship "Dunera", or was it the "Dilwara", I forget. It was so many years ago.
Hong Kong was such a contrast to Lahore, with its arid plains, the hot climate the mosquitoes, the barracks, the food, everything. Hong Kong had it all -people, beerbars, clubs, good sports acilities, cinemas, beaches, swimming, a comparative "utopia". To quote Mr. Macmillan: - "We never had it so good" and we made the most of it. I had not seen not seen much of Micky, but I heard a lot about him. He had become a household word; I do know that he married a Chinese girl, who turned up trumps when we surrendered to the Japs. The war in Europe started in September 1939. Great Britain declared war on Germany on the third of that month. America was not so far involved in the actual hostilities, but our Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had made a treaty with the U.S.A. to effect that if one of the three countries Germany, Italy or Japan, who had allied together, attacked either Britain or the U.S.A. then the other country would declare war on the aggressor (seems complicated) It was between the first world and the second that the U.S.A. had turned isolationist and did not wish to be involved in war outside their own continent. At this time Britain had its back to the wall fighting its for its existence. The U.S.A. had to get involved or be surrounded by potential enemies. the pact between Britain was a ploy, I think, to get the U.S.A. into the war. the ruse succeeded. The Japanese, who had been at war with, and virtually overran china, scented further victories and spoils of war in the shape of colonies of U.S. and Britain, and dominance of the Far and (possibly) the Near East; the Japanese, opportunistically taking advantage of the war in Europe, on the 8th of December attacked the U.S.A. naval base at Pearl Harbour, so Britain declared war on Japan, which automatically brought the U.S. into the European conflict, which both Britain and the U.S.A. had fiddled, (it is complicated, innit)?
After all that, back to Hong Kong, where the troops of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Scots were having a whale of a time - playing cricket, swimming and participating in many other sports, and in their spare time, the occasional drink, copulating and training for war, which, was always imminent. But all this time the Battle of Britain was raging. the civilian population was enduring the nazi bombing from the air; food and clothing rationing, the cruel killing of a loved one, or loved ones, the moral uplifting rallying, and inspiring, speeches of Winston S. Churchill, and the heroism of "The Few” who despite being outnumbered in the air by the Luftwaffe, fought heroically, and beat the nazi threat to our island. At first discreet aid from the U.S.A. came slowly, then with ever increasing speed, surely turning the war in favour of the democracies. Britain, with so much to do in Europe, could not do a lot in the Far East, so they decided to concentrate on the war in Europe. At first Japan had it all their own way.
Now let’s get back to the lads in Hong Kong, who, you remember, was having a whale of a time. The first intimation we had that war was pending for us, was the fact that we started to dig trenches on the leased territories from China on the mainland, and the manning of the pillboxes on Hong Kong island.
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