Major John Monro RA MC, 1942
I began my exploration of my long deceased father’s story when I realised that I am not an individual but a community of my forebears. Their DNA lives on in me, but it remains dormant if it is unrecognised. Most of what I then learned came from reaching out to others, whether they were fellow descendents, researchers, archivists or people I met when I retraced my father’s escape route across China. Without this generous and supportive community I could not have made sense of my father’s wartime experiences and their context within the Far East war.
I had a good start on this journey when my mother gave me a large manila envelope full of Dad’s letters, reports and photos. After transcribing them I visited archives (e.g. TNA, IWM, FD Roosevelt presidential library), connecting with researchers in UK and US to help me. I used Ancestry to track down descendants of men who fought with Dad or who escaped from Hong Kong PoW camps.
The Battle of Hong Kong started on 8 December 1941, six hours after the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor and alongside attacks on the Philippines, Malaya and Thailand. Allied forces were unprepared for a land attack on Hong Kong and Japanese forces quickly took the mainland. A fierce and sustained battle followed to hold Hong Kong island, but surrender was declared on Christmas Day 1941.
About 6000 troops were interned at Sham Shui Po camp on the mainland. From my father’s point of view this meant that one obstacle to escape was behind him – the crossing from the island. Conditions at the camp were shambolic and it was clear from the start that the prisoners were in for a poor time. Anything of use or value had been looted and the Japanese quickly stopped food, medicines and messages from coming into the camp by shooting Chinese traders. My father was keen to escape but was advised against it by senior officers. After all, the risks were significant:
- Recapture likely with Japanese troops swarming the mainland
- Execution would follow if recaptured
- Chinese 5th Columnists might hand you to the Japanese
- Reprisals against fellow PoWs were threatened by the camp commandant
- Unknown territory once the border with China was crossed
- Even if you spoke some Cantonese, you would soon be out of Canton
- Disguise impossible for tall, white men
- Japanese movements in China unknown as they advanced south-westwards
But:
- Easy to get out of camp in the early days with poor fencing and disorganized roll calls
- Unknown duration of internment
- Poor conditions would likely worsen for PoWs
- Disease outbreaks, such as dysentery and diptheria, increasingly likely with weak and undernourished men
- Morale boost for PoWs if anyone successfully escaped
- News of camp conditions could be reported to authorities
On the night of 1st February 1942, my father and two colleagues made their escape. They were supported by fellow PoWs who shared with them food for the journey, a compass, some medicines and enough wood and rope to make a raft. They waded along a breakwater and then swam, dragging and pushing the raft carrying their belongings until at last they landed, cold, wet and exhausted but free. They crossed the New Territories by night to evade recapture and were helped across the border by Chinese Communist guerrillas. From Dad’s letter home to his parents, I was able to trace their route on a map. It’s a crazy zig-zag across China, dictated by topography, transport links and the presence of Japanese troops.
I was becoming frustrated by the written word and decided that I would retrace Dad’s escape route. First I spent some time learning Mandarin and sought out a Chinese tour operator who could meet my unusual demands. I contacted Tony Banham, the leading expert on Hong Kong’s wartime history. When at last I landed there I felt an immediate connection with my father and his world. I walked the battle trail and a Black Kite glided lazily over my head as I studied the view. Dad’s favourite bird. Hello Dad.
Retracing his journey, at the same time of year, gave me a much deeper sense of this stranger called Dad. In Shaoguan I visited the river confluence where he’d stayed on a houseboat for ten days. In Guilin I walked through Seven Star Cave that had been used as an air raid shelter in the war. In Chongqing I visited General Joe Stilwell’s offices. Dad was made Assistant Military Attaché after his escape, liaising between the political and military leaderships of the American, Chinese and British Governments. He would have been to Stilwell’s offices for meetings.
His main role there concerned supporting the Hong Kong PoWs, working with Col Lindsay Ride and the British Army Aid Group (BAAG). Dad had what he called his ‘Great Thought’, a plan to liberate the PoWs with the aid of the US Air Force. By this time the PoWs were unfit to escape or to rejoin the fighting, so their liberation was not a priority. However, if their freedom was a co-benefit of a strategic plan to retake Hong Kong and other Japanese held ports and to disrupt Japanese supply lines, that might win support. Dad, Col Ride, Col Merian Cooper and General Claire Chennault developed the idea and the plan was presented at the Trident Conference in May 1943. It was approved by Roosevelt and Churchill. It failed because of infighting and personality clashes – General Joe Stilwell used his friendships with the US Chiefs of Staff to support his plan for a land war in Burma, starving the approved plan of the resources needed for success. The PoWs in Hong Kong suffered to the end of the war.
In the autumn of 1944 Dad was sent to the blood and sweat stained hell of Burma to repel the Japanese after Allied successes at Imphal and Kohima. I only know what he did every day thanks to meeting the current Commanding Officer of Dad’s regiment. He had the wartime Battery Diary in his office and invited me to read it.
I owe my close relationship with my father to everyone who helped me. I’m not only a community of my forebears but part of a wider community of supportive connections.
Signed paperback copies of Stranger In My Heart by Mary Monro (Unbound 2018) can be obtained from https://strangerinmyheart.co.uk/
RFHG 