The damned : the Canadians at the battle of Hong Kong and the POW experience, 1941-45

2011 Governor Generals Literary Awards Finalist - Non-Fiction The Damned tells the largely unknown saga of Canadas first land battle of the Second World War -- fought in the hills and valleys of Hong Kong in December 1941 -- and the terrible years the survivors of the battle spent as slave labourers for the Empire of Japan. Their story begins in the fall of 1941, when almost 2,000 members of the Royal Rifles and Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to bolster the British garrison at Hong Kong. In the seventeen day battle for the colony following the attack on December 8, the Canadians suffered grievous losses: 927 men were either killed or wounded and, by the end of the battle, 1,185 soldiers and two nursing sisters had been captured -- a casualty rate of 100 percent, the very definition of a military catastrophe. The second part of their story -- of how the Canadians survived the horrid conditions of Japanese POW camps -- lasts three and a half years. Many prisoners died, some from malnutrition or disease, some as a result of torture, and others from the effects of brutal slave labour in factories, shipyards and coal mines. But despite the circumstances, the young Canadian soldiers remained unbowed and unbroken. Theirs is a story of determination and valour, of resilience and faith. Book 1: The battle for Hong Kong. "The season for yellowtail hunting" ; "That was the first man I ever saw killed" ; "The broken rusted wire was valueless" ; "Go back and destroy some more" ; "Japs thousands of Japs" ; "They had already infiltrated up to and past our destination" ; "Dig, you sons of bitches" ; "The importance of fighting it out" ; "This heap of rubble was their cairn" ; "Another bullet hit him in almost the same place" ; "My sergeant was wounded and bleeding" ; "They walked among them and bayoneted a few" ; "Each reluctant to relinquish the sword" ; "Anyone who can get out the door will be spared". Book 2: The POW years. "The stench of ordure ran among the cobbles" ; "All Canadians will be slaves as you are now!" ; "We stood on loose, shaky, unfastened planks" ; "We just breathed coal dust and ash" ; "They'd never let the fires go out unless..." ; "What the hell took you so long to get here?". "The Damned tells the largely unknown saga of Canada's first land battle of the Second World War - fought in the hills and valleys of Hong Kong in December 1941--and the terrible years the survivors of the battle spent as slave labourers for the Empire of Japan. Their story begins in the fall of 1941, when almost 2,000 members of the Royal Rifles and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to bolster the British garrison at Hong Kong. In the seventeen-day battle for the colony following the Japanese attack on December 8, the Canadians suffered grievous losses. The second part of their story - how the Canadians survived the horrid conditions of the Japanese POW camps - lasts three and a half years. Despite the circumstances, the surviving Canadians remained unbowed and unbroken. Theirs is a story of determination and valour, of resilience and faith."--pub. desc.

The Damned tells the largely unknown saga of Canada’s first land battle of the Second World War-fought in the hills and valleys of Hong Kong in December 1941-and the terrible years the survivors of the battle spent as slave labourers for the Empire of Japan. Their story begins in the fall of 1941, when almost 2,000 members of the Royal Rifles and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were sent to bolster the British garrison at Hong Kong. In the seventeen-day battle for the colony following the Japanese attack on December 8, the Canadians suffered grievous losses. The second part of their story-how the Canadians survived the horrid conditions of the Japanese POW camps-lasts three and a half years. Despite the circumstances, the surviving Canadians remained unbowed and unbroken. Theirs is a story of determination and valour, of resilience and faith.