The Voyage to Hong Kong

Heroes Remember

The Voyage to Hong Kong

I mean the ship was crowded and the food was terrible to start with, of course, I can’t blame the crew, they were loaded with mutton and they figured they could give us the mutton and save our rations. I think the final straw came when they gave us mutton stew for breakfast and then they went down below, found the Canadian rations and then put out a menu that we had to have our own food. So the big thing they used to get us on that ship was when you went below decks you just smelled this mutton everywhere in the ship you went you could smell this mutton. The thing is not long after that I could’ve used a plate of mutton I'll tell ya, but anyway. We did the signals from the ship to the escort vessel on the way over. When we were arriving in Manila, it was at night and a British cruiser picked us up and they led the way through the islands and I was on duty that night and the captain came up to me and he says, “I’ve lost sight of the ship, see if you can pick it up with your signal light,” which I did just a small blue signal light managed to pick ‘em up. I often wondered just where we were in amongst all these islands, you couldn’t see a thing.

Mr. Gerrard discusses the diet of mutton aboard ship and how pervasive its odor was. He describes his role as a signalman during the voyage overseas and on the difficult approach to Manila in pitch black conditions.

Horace Gerrard

Although born in England on January 19, 1922, Mr. Gerrard's family emigrated to Red Deer, Alberta where his father died when he was six years old. Once he was old enough, he hunted game to help feed his family as well as cutting wood for heat. Mr. Gerrard left school after grade nine, working at odd jobs. He joined the 78th Field Battery as a reserve when he was sixteen. He later joined the permanent force in 1939 with the 5th Heavy Battery. Eventually Mr. Gerrard joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, with whom he served in Hong Kong. He worked with both British and Canadian battalions during the Battle of Hong Kong, before being taken prisoner by the Japanese.