Shelling at Wan Chai Gap

Heroes Remember

Shelling at Wan Chai Gap

And then we were moved up to Wan Chai Gap. I don’t know really where I was heading or what the purpose was but we arrived in Wan Chai Gap and this was walking, there was no other transportation and we were told to take a rest and I went in and I was talking to the signals, the man on the signals, Tony Grimstone it was, and then we started being shelled and somebody said, “Well, come down to the other end of the building.” So I went down to the other end, well they were shelling from that end as well, we were getting it from both sides. So I went back to talk to my friend and I guess I walked in to the wrong room because that wasn’t the room he was in and I just walked into the room and I was waiting for my eyes to get used to the light and the shell came through the wall. The only thing that saved me was that it blew me through the doorway into the next room. There was brick and shrapnel just circling around the room, all over in the room and I got hit in the back of the head and I thought I’d had it. I remember I felt the back of my neck and I looked at my hand to see if there was blood and there was no blood then. I forgot about it after that, my helmet was gone but I found another one and then I realized after that that the room was full of fellas that had been resting in there and, of course, some of them were killed, some were wounded. I took one guy out and patched him up and we passed him through a window on the back of the building and I went back and I heard my name called and here was a friend of mine. So I packed him out and bandaged him up and sent him on his way. Unfortunately, this fella had been hurt in the first bombing and now he was hit again, unfortunately he died a few days later. We lost, I’m not sure possibly but I think we had about eight of our fellas killed there and there was about another eight or so wounded, I’m not positive on the numbers. So then, I remember we went down below the hill. We were taken down to British troops down below and we were taken down there for the night. I remember when I got down there and I looked at my hands and they’re covered in blood and I thought, “My God, this is human blood I got all over me!” You know, it sort of hits you as a shock.

Mr. Gerrard describes seeking refuge in a building in the Gap during a Japanese shelling. While inside, a shell bursts, blowing him backwards from the doorway of a room he was about to enter. He soon finds the room is full of dead and wounded men. A wounded soldier whom he helps evacuate later dies.

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.