Kai Tak Airport

Heroes Remember

Kai Tak Airport

But we did quite a bit of, how should I say, sabotage because when the Japs weren’t watching we’d put four or five buckets of sand into one bucket of cement so it wasn’t very sturdy and I can still remember the first plane that came down after it was supposed to be all finished, the plane came down and the runway just crumbled so they took us off of that and took us back to camp and put the Chinese on it.

Mr. Harrison describes sabotaging the concrete mixture used on the runway extension.

George Harrison

George Harrison was born on April 4, 1920 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and was youngest of three children. His father died shortly after his birth, forcing his mother to place him and his siblings in an orphanage, where he was at times badly beaten. Learning this, his mother took her children back home. After completing grade 9, Mr. Harrison went to work to help support his family. Eventually, he gained employment with CPR Telegraph. On September 13, 1939, Mr. Harrison enlisted with Winnipeg Grenadiers, becoming a specialist on the Vickers machine gun. During the battle of Hong Kong, Mr. Harrison was made a sergeant, and was involved in deadly fighting. Along with the general misery and persecution suffered by all of the POWs, Mr. Harrison faced down both blindness and potential amputation of his toes.