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Under Attack

Heroes Remember

Under Attack

Transcript
Interviewer: Mr. Forsyth, could we just begin at the part of the battle of Hong Kong, after the Japanese crossed over Lye Mun Passage and were now on the island of Hong Kong. What do you remember about where you were and what the situation was? Well, I remember Lieutenant Brickette saying, "I'm taking this platoon to Jardines Lookout," and, and we had to cross, we had to cross this huge reservoir and on this partition we walked on was no more then a, then a, then a foot wide, and we'd been ordered to put, to the heavy, the big pack, on our backs, and you, in full marching order, and we had to cross this reservoir. This was before the Japs bombed the reservoir and, and were out of water for four days. We took up a position on a pill box on Jardines Lookout and, and our orders were to hold that at all costs. Well, "Don't move." Well, we were there for two or three days and nothing happened and we were out of food and water, no, no, we weren't, weren't out of water, there was the reservoir there, the Japs hadn't started to bomb the reservoirs yet, we were out of food. But "A" Company were being decimated and one of our corporals spoke to Brickette, he said, "Shouldn't we go down and help "A" Company?" And Brickette said, "We were ordered to stay here and hold this pill box." Well, when "A" Company had been decimated completely, then the Japs started using mortars, and their, their planes were circling over us and we know darn well the planes were giving away our position and sending messages to those, the outfit that, that had the mortar, because the mortar shells were dropping right on top of this pill box. And after half this platoon had been, well, let's face it, I, there must have been six or seven killed and, and a lot wounded, and Brickette said, "I'm staying here." Brickette said, "I'm staying here," and he said, "You fellas, better fall back and, and find some cover because they've got us dead to rights right here,their, their, their uncanny accuracy." So, we had no intrenchment tools, we had no, we couldn't dig in because we had nothing to dig with and this hill was, was mostly rocks, it was mostly rocks. Even if we'd had shovels it would have been impossible to, to, to dig trenches up there. So, we were supposed to, to drop back to where we should meet up with our own forces, and it must have been about that time that the, that the Japs started bombing these reservoirs and, and the water was running down the hill in a regular torrent from the, from these big reservoirs. Interviewer: Where did you men pull back to? That is, right now, that is a, a pretty hazy recollection. Interviewer: Were you still under fire when you were crossing that area? Well, mostly from, just from what these planes were, were, were dropping the bombs. There was explosions, so many explosions, so many explosions. Interviewer: What happened to the officer, Captain Brickette? He said, "I'm staying here," and all we can, all we can say is that, that he was determined that, that, that he would stay, that he would stay. Interviewer: Did you ever see him again? Never, never, never. No, no, no. No, I never saw him again.
Description

Mr. Forsyth remembers the time from which the Japanese overran the mainland colony and reached the island, until shortly before surrendering to the Japanese.

Thomas Smith Forsyth

Mr. Forsyth was born on a farm just outside of Pipestone, Manitoba, on April 26, 1910. He worked on the farm and attended school until grade 11, joining the army the following year when war was declared. After being accepted into the Winnipeg Grenadiers, Mr. Forsyth was briefly stationed in Jamaica guarding German POWs before being posted to Hong Kong. Captured in the Battle of Hong Kong, Mr. Forsyth was interned as a POW in North Point and Sham Shui Po prison camps, before being sent to Niigata Camp 5B in Japan as a slave labourer. After years of heavy labour, physical abuse, and terrible living conditions, Mr. Forsyth was liberated from 5B when Japan surrendered. He returned to his family in Manitoba soon thereafter.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
06:51
Person Interviewed:
Thomas Smith Forsyth
War, Conflict or Mission:
Second World War
Location/Theatre:
Hong Kong
Battle/Campaign:
Hong Kong
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
Winnipeg Grenadiers
Occupation:
Garrison Military Police

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

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