Word: mainlands
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...thousand men-English, Scottish, Canadian, Chinese, and Indian troops, civilian volunteers-faced two full Japanese divisions (30,000 or more). The first Japanese attack pierced the mainland line within 24 hours. Within five days the Japanese penned the outnumbered British on the island, demanded surrender, were refused...
Japanese artillery lined the mainland shore, pumped streams of shell into island positions. One by one British batteries went silent, British searchlights winked out. In the first eight days 45 air raids pocked British positions with terrifying accuracy. On Dec. 18 the Japanese burst across to the island itself. The British fought on. As food, water and ammunition ran short, they charged Japanese positions to certain death from machine guns. The Japanese established themselves in the eastern corner of the island, pressed on. Soon they held three of Hong Kong's reservoirs. Under their bombardments the island...
...there was only one day's supply of water left. On Christmas military authorities told the Government that no further effective resistance could be offered with the 6,000 exhausted troops still fighting. In the afternoon Sir Mark crossed the blue strait to the mainland, met the Japanese in the swank Peninsula Hotel, where he surrendered and remained prisoner under guard...
...Japanese had captured Kowloon, Hong Kong's mainland center, after fierce air and land assaults. Japanese troops swarmed onto the island of Hong Kong itself. The defenders simply kept fighting, in spite of the odds. Chinese troops sniped at the Japanese rear on the mainland, near Pingshan and Shum-chun, but hardly hoped to halt the attack...
Militarily the loss of Hong Kong means little. Its strategic value dwindled three years ago, when Japan blockaded the mainland side of the settlement. British strategists last week concentrated on Singapore, 1,454 miles to the south, kissed off Hong Kong with fervent compliments to the heroic defenders. Continued defense of the island had one great boon: a diversion of Japanese strength, however small...