The Attack on Sham Shui Po Barracks

Heroes Remember

The Attack on Sham Shui Po Barracks

The day of the first attack, the night before the Grenadiers and Royal Rifles had gone over to the island because we were with headquarters and we were the only ones left at the camp and we set up a radio communications on the parade square right in front of our barracks and the first raid in the morning hit our barrack block and I was out. We had a small tent and I was out with the wireless equipment at the time. And I guess it was within an hour after that attack I was on a truck and was on my way to join the First Scottish Regiment. They were on the mainland, they fought on the mainland and we joined their signals. They were well trained men and they knew what they were doing and didn’t have much time to chat with them really but it was pretty tough over there, the Japs were just coming thick and fast. There was no way you could hold them back, and I was only there a couple days, I guess, I can’t even remember whether it was one day or three days and then they evacuated, they started to evacuate. I guess being a Canadian attached to them they sent me on one of the first vehicles. I drove the vehicle down and took over to evacuate to the island and even then traveling down you were being shot at from different buildings, I guess sympathizers with the Japs were shooting at you on the way. Everything was chaos, it looked chaos. It’s not really as bad as it looks but there is a certain amount of chaos of all those things and there was a lack of water transportation. To tell you the truth I don’t even know if they had any plans for evacuating the mainland or not, I never saw any. I managed to get on the ferry but they weren’t running very long after that and I know that others commandeered Chinese boats, sampans, anything they could get to get over so it was, it may have started orderly but I guess it ended up chaotic, you know.

Mr. Gerrard describes the first air raid at Sham Shui Po which destroys the barracks. He is moved up to join the 1st Scottish Regiment's signal corps. With the threat of being overrun by the Japanese, a chaotic evacuation sees him move to the island of Hong Kong.

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.