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The following story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Ronald Parker and Father
Major Maurice Albert Parker:

By nightfall of December 13th the evacuation of the mainland was successfully completed. Despite continuous attack it was orderly and there were surprisingly few casualties. Unfortunately much of Wallis' heavy equipment had to be left behind.
The Japanese took command of Kowloon, a terrified city in total chaos, marched triumphantly through the city with prisoners being prodded along at bayonet point. The Japanese officers declared Kowloon an 'open city' and branding all Chinese women as prostitutes they left the people to the tender mercies of their soldiers. History records that what followed was an unbridled orgy of raping, looting, torture and murder.
From Major Parker's Memories
The following was written by Major M.A. Parker, CO "D" Coy, Royal Rifles of Canada in 1982. He used notes which he had written in a diary while in captivity and kept for more than 37 years. They are his observations made about the fighting on the mainland, and about the senior leadership. He had not changed his mind in 1982, so was not looking back with 20/20 hindsight. If anything, his opinion was even firmer, and was shared by other officers of the Royal Rifles.
"The Mainland Brigade was commanded by Brigadier Cedric Wallis who had previously commanded the 5/7 Rajputs. Wallis was a dedicated and energetic officer whose personal courage was beyond question, but some of the Canadians, particularly the Royal Rifles, were subsequently to question his military judgement.
鈥淭he Gin Drinkers Line had collapsed, Brigadier Lawson, in a telephone conference with Brigadier Wallis, could get little information from him, or his staff, and we were under the impression that a large battle was being fought on the mainland. It turned out that fighting on the mainland was minimal, and that total casualties were very few. We were astonished to see the mainland turned over to the enemy in only 5 days, and judging from the casualties, without much of an attempt to stop them. Was Wallis a little bit rattled?
鈥淲e were assured that the demolitions on the mainland had been so extensive that it would take many weeks before the Japanese could bring up their artillery. The next day the first heavy shells began exploding on Hong Kong Island.鈥�
There was a certain amount of tension between the British and the Canadians at the Field Officer level. The British thought the Canadians were a rag-tag bunch of rowdy, cowardly colonists, not good for very much. Much to the consternation of the Canadians some British historians have written as much. The Canadians thought of the British as arrogant, condescending prigs. They also thought they were wrong to hold fast to the idea that attack would come from the sea..
It was at this point, as the mainland troops were returning to Hong Kong on December 13th, that General Maltby took stock of the situation and decided to re-deploy his troops into two Brigades, the East Brigade, under Wallis, and the West Brigade under Brigadier Lawson. Major Parker says. "A major disadvantage of this new arrangement was that the Canadian Battalions were separated and only one remained under Canadian Brigadier Lawson's command. The Canadians were not very happy with this arrangement ... but little could be done about it. This seemed unfortunate at the time and was to prove increasingly so during the battle and in post-battle repercussions".
The Hong Kong defenders were still dueling with the Japanese artillery units across the mile-wide strait separating the island from the mainland and had dispersed several Japanese troop concentrations, silencing two of their artillery sections.

Japanese planes were also bombing positions on the island and the situation was getting grimer by the hour. Governor, Sir Mark Young, had refused a Japanese summons to surrender. "Military men in London agreed that the island could not hold out indefinitely because of the problem of supplies. There were 1,500,000 Chinese civilians to feed, besides the defense forces. There were in fact enough supplies laid up in Hong Kong to last, as mentioned, 120 days. The problem was there were not enough men to last that long.

Continued...
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