Special issue to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of ...

Decoding the Enigma of the Fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt Using Line of Sight Analysis
by the materials in the memoir of Lt. General Kitajima
Kineo (1946), Commander of the First Artillery
Brigade of the Japanese force that invaded Hong Kong,
and those found in the most comprehensive work
published in Japanese, titled Honkon Chosa Sakusen
(1971), which stands for “Hong Kong-Cheung Sha
Battle”. 5 This work has detailed descriptions of battle
actions and sketch maps of battlefields, including one
for the Shing Mun Redoubt, which is represented by
a big X with pillboxes at the tips of each arm of the X
and sketches of the pillboxes. Banham’s work (2003)
consolidated information from nearly all English
materials, but did not consult any Japanese or Chinese
materials. The Chinese work by Li (2002), written
roughly at the same time, used English, Chinese, and
Japanese sources (including “Cheung Sha”) and is
arguably the best Chinese work on the Battle of Hong
Kong.
Table 1: Chronology of events leading to the fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt on 10 December 1941
Time (date) Events remarks
[Source]
(11 Nov) HQ A Coy 2 Royal Scots moved into the Artillery
Observation Post at Shing Mun Redoubt with
Captain C. R. Jones its commander [Cabinet
Office].
00:00 (8 Dec) Invasion began; defenders in positions without
surprise.
08:30 (9 Dec) Lt. Captain H. Newton, commanding D Coy 5/7
Rajputs, took up positions on Smugglers Ridge to
the east of the Shing Mun Redoubt [Cabinet
Office].
09:00 (9 Dec) Captain Jones contacted Captain Newton and they
agreed to:
(a) interlock their arcs of fire and
(b) have Captain Jones patrol the southern slopes
of Needle Hill (across Jubilee Dam of the Shing
Mun Reservoir, which lies right in front of the
Redoubt) [Cabinet Office].
13:00 (9 Dec) Captain Jones went to Battalion HQ (at Skeet The Cabinet Office remarked that a
Ground) to discuss matters with Lt. Colonel “misunderstanding” occurred then.
S. M. White regarding the patrolling of the
Redoubt. [Cabinet Office].
Skeet Ground was located near Castle Peak
Road, Tsuen Wan to the SE of the Redoubt.
15:00 (9 Dec) Colonel Doi Teishichi, commanding the 228 The Cabinet Office found that Colonel Doi
Infantry Rentai (Regiment), reached Needle Hill met the bulk of his troops two hours later at
and decided to attack eight hours later at 23:00 18:00: the time difference was not
[Banham, Lindsay].
considered material.
Colonel Doi met the 3rd Taitai (Battalion)
Commander, Major Nishiyama, and agreed
to attack at night [Cheung Sha; Fujita
Tachio].
17:30 (9 Dec) Colonel Doi’s assault troops were within 500
5
The Japanese lost the first three Battles of Cheung Sha during the Sino-Japanese War. All three defeats came at the hands of the Nationalist
Chinese Army. The Japanese treated the Battle of Hong Kong as part of the bigger picture of their first attempt to capture Cheung Sha.
SBE
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