My Introduction to War

Heroes Remember

My Introduction to War

Transcript

The British at the time didn’t think that the Japanese were going to really attack Hong Kong. They didn’t, that was a general feeling. They really, although there was a division of Japanese troops just on the border down below the New Territories, down below where, the island, you know. The island was the island and then what we call the New Territories, a certain area down there, I don’t know how big it is. The officers had an area, a place in the what they call a Jubilee building in behind the camp. It was about four stories right on the sea front, four stories high, a block, a stone block. So I got up the next morning and went over. It must about 8:00, maybe 7:30 - 8 o’clock I went over to where there was a little hut for the officers to have the mess, officer’s mess, and had breakfast, started to have breakfast anyway with Major Baird. He was there. Well, all of a sudden, there was a hell of a noise and an explosion and some yelling and screaming. I picked up my napkin and dashed out to the parade ground in the beginning of the parade ground, a great long parade ground, and here are the men all of the huts on both sides, Royal Rifles on one, Winnipeg Grenadiers on the, what there were, there was only a company of each, running out and “oooooooooooo!!”, you know. There was two or three bloody Japanese planes coming right down the aisle. One dropped a bomb over there, and one dropped a bomb in the Jubilee building and machine guns were going brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So I screamed at the men, “Get down, get down!” you know. So then I didn’t go back for breakfast, I guess, I went to the orderly office, our orderly office of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, and there had been a blast from one of the explosions and blew a lot of the ceiling in and that. I don’t mind telling you we had the wind up, well I did that’s for sure. I didn’t know what the hell was going on. That was my introduction to war. Those damn Japanese planes coming at us. They attacked the camp, you know, and they were, I suppose they thought the whole bloody battalion was there. Of course it wasn’t, it was up on the Island.

Description

Mr. White discusses Britain’s naive skepticism about Japan attacking Hong Kong. He describes confusion among the Canadian soldiers experiencing their first Japanese air raid.

Harry Leslie White

Harry Leslie White was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, on May 24, 1907. His family emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, in 1911. His father, a First World War Veteran, became a policeman. After finishing grade 6, Mr. White had numerous jobs to help support his family. He did some reserve training and was also taught to box by his father. After being turned down by the air force, Mr. White joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers for basic training in Kingston, Jamaica. Here he also helped guard a POW camp holding German and Italian naval personnel. Once in Hong Kong, he joined E Company. Mr. White was captured, but unlike so many others, spent his entire time as a POW in Hong Kong, working on the Kai Tek airport. After the war, Mr. White established an orchard, and later returned to Eatons, where he had worked prior to the war.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:43
Person Interviewed:: Harry Leslie White
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Hong Kong
Battle/Campaign:: Hong Kong
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Winnipeg Grenadiers
Rank:: Lieutenant

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My Introduction to War

Heroes Remember