Members of 'C' Force from the East travelled across Canada by CNR troop train, picking up reinforcements enroute. Stops included Valcartier, Montreal, Ottawa, Armstrong ON, Capreol ON, Winnipeg, Melville SK, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, and Vancouver, arriving in Vancouver on Oct 27 at 0800 hrs.

The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the local soldiers that were with Brigade Headquarters from Winnipeg to BC travelled on a CPR train to Vancouver.

All members embarked from Vancouver on the ships AWATEA and PRINCE ROBERT. AWATEA was a New Zealand Liner and the PRINCE ROBERT was a converted cruiser. "C" Company of the Rifles was assigned to the PRINCE ROBERT, everyone else boarded the AWATEA. The ships sailed from Vancouver on Oct 27th and arrived in Hong Kong on November 16th, having made brief stops enroute at Honolulu and Manila.

Equipment earmarked for 'C' Force use was loaded on the ship DON JOSE, but would never reach Hong Kong as it was rerouted to Manila when hostilities commenced.

On arrival, all troops were quartered at Nanking Barracks, Sham Shui Po Camp, in Kowloon.

(Extract from an interview)

I was on the regimental ration truck from the 7 Dec until 19 Dec. The Japs landed; they made it across the half mile from the mainland to the island under a smoke screen. They'd set a bunch of oil tanks on the shore on fire and they were smoking and they got across that night.

Myself and Eddy Smelts from Elgin, we left Wan Chai gap with two truck­loads of men and we went in with a guide to Jardine's Lookout. Unknown to us we went through the Japanese front line - they let us through. There was no action, no firing, might have been rumbles in the distance but there was nothing close. We got into Jardine's Lookout, so we hung around there all night sleeping and half asleep in the cabs, and the men were dispersed. Lt Beirkett was in charge of that party.

At daybreak they opened up on us from both sides. I set fire to my truck, we couldn't get them out and we didn't want them to have it. I took my gas mask, and I stuck it down the gas tank and got the harness saturated, then I threw it in the cab and got the truck going good. I had a Thompson sub-machine gun, I forget how many rounds I had, but not that many. I took that with me but I can't remember what happened to Smelts' truck. We hung around trying to get out all day, everybody on their own, didn't know where we were going and we hadn't a clue where they were. They were sniping at us and they were coming damn close too.

I remember crawling over a ledge and looking down (the reason I mention this is it was the only chance I got to shoot any of them), a bunch of Japs were sitting around cooking some rice over a fire and there was about 20 of them. I didn't have that many rounds in this submachine gun anyway and I just spewed them. I don't know whether I got any or whether I didn't, but anyway I took off at the high port.

About 6 or 7 o'clock that afternoon we couldn't possibly get out. We came across this shack up in the hills. It was something to do with the army, but I can't remember now. We went into this place and there was quite a few more Canadians in there. We decided to stay there. It seemed to me we stayed there that night, but I can't remember exactly. There would be about 50 guys. Lt Mitchel was there and Smelts, the other driver. An hour or so after we got in there the Japs came through - they were just like ants. They surrounded the place and this officer came in and pulled us all out. Everybody out. They lined us up on the road, there was quite a grade on the road. They made us all kneel down then they started sticking guys with bayonets. I was in the front and there was Jacky Albert on one side of me and Deslauriers on the other. They stuck them with bayonets and everything. I looked down and the actual blood was running down the road between my knees. They never touched me; I don't know why. Jacky Albert, he's alive, he got stuck just above his kidney, I guess. And Delorme, they cut him down his head here, his scalp just fell over, of course they killed him.*** And there wasn't many of us got out of that. And then, the ones that were able to walk around after that they were going to shoot us - so they lined us up in front of a firing squad. We figured we'd had it, there was no way that we would get out of this, they'd killed so many now, they wouldn't save us. This Jap officer, I didn't know he was an officer at the time, I never saw a Jap soldier in my life, but anyway he had one of this samurai swords. He let a roar out of him and these guys dropped their rifles and that was it - they wired us up together. They took us back into the shack and stood guard on us all night.

***The name "Delorme" is probably not correct as both 'C' Force members with this name survived the battle. (ed)