MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a secret department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. During World War II it had two principal tasks: assisting in the escape of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) held by the Axis countries, especially Nazi Germany; and helping Allied military personnel, especially downed airmen, evade capture after they were shot down or trapped behind enemy lines in Axis-occupied countries. During World War II, about 35,000 Allied military personnel, many helped by MI9, escaped POW camps or evaded capture and made their way to Allied or neutral countries after being trapped behind enemy lines.
The Battle of Hong Kong, also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the British Crown colony of Hong Kong around the same time that Japan declared war on Great Britain. The Hong Kong garrison consisted of British, Indian and Canadian units, also the Auxiliary Defence Units and Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC).
The Hong Kong Military Service Corps (HKMSC) was a British army unit and part of the British garrison in Hong Kong. Throughout the history of Hong Kong, it has been the only regular British army unit raised in the territory made up almost entirely of Locally Enlisted Personnel (LEP).
The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) (RHKR(V)) (Chinese: 皇家香港軍團(義勇軍)), formed in May 1854, was a local auxiliary militia force funded and administered by the colonial Government of Hong Kong. Its powers and duties were mandated by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment Ordinance.
The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. His surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce fighting against the Japanese forces that invaded the territory. The occupation lasted for three years and eight months until Japan surrendered at the end of the Second World War. The length of the period later became a metonym of the occupation.
Sir Franklin Charles Gimson was a British colonial administrator who served as Governor of Singapore from 1946 to 1952.
Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Oriental Mission in April 1942. The man in overall charge for the duration of its existence was Colin Mackenzie.
Stanley Military Cemetery is a cemetery located near St. Stephen's Beach in Stanley, Hong Kong. Along with the larger Hong Kong Cemetery, it is one of two military cemeteries of the early colonial era, used for the burials of the members of the garrison and their families between 1841 and 1866. There were no further burials here until World War II (1939–1945).
Sir Percy Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, KBE, CMG, MC, MD, FRCP, DPH, DTM&H, CStJ Barrister at Law, was the Director of Medical Services, Hong Kong, from 1937 to 1943 and Governor of the Seychelles from 1947 to 1951.
Batu Lintang camp at Kuching, Sarawak on the island of Borneo was a Japanese-run internment camp during the Second World War. It was unusual in that it housed both Allied prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees. The camp, which operated from March 1942 until the liberation of the camp in September 1945, was housed in buildings that were originally British Indian Army barracks. The original area was extended by the Japanese, until it covered about 50 acres. The camp population fluctuated, due to movement of prisoners between camps in Borneo, and as a result of the deaths of the prisoners. It had a maximum population of some 3,000 prisoners.
Stanley Internment Camp was a civilian internment camp in Hong Kong during the Second World War. Located in Stanley, on the southern end of Hong Kong Island, it was used by the Japanese imperial forces to hold non-Chinese enemy nationals after their victory in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. About 2,800 men, women, and children were held at the non-segregated camp for 44 months from early January 1942 to August 1945 when Japanese forces surrendered. The camp area consisted of St Stephen's College and the grounds of Stanley Prison, excluding the prison itself.
Brigadier Sir Lindsay Tasman Ride, CBE, JP, ED, MD, MRCS, LRCP, Hon LLD was an Australian physiologist, soldier, and vice chancellor of the University of Hong Kong.
Captain Mateen Ahmed Ansari GC of the 5th Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment, in the Indian Army during World War II, and member of the British Army Aid Group. He was awarded the George Cross posthumously. The decoration, the highest British award for bravery out of combat, was announced in a supplement to the London Gazette of 16 April 1946 as being awarded for the 'most conspicuous gallantry.'
Sir David Ronald Holmes was a British colonial government official who served in Hong Kong from 1938.
The Weixian Internment Camp, better known historically as the Weihsien Internment Camp, was a Japanese-run internment camp called a ”Civilian Assembly Center” in the former Wei County, located near the city of Weifang, Shandong, China. The compound was used by the Japanese during World War II to intern civilians of Allied countries living in North China. The camp operated from March 1943 until October 1945 and more than 2,200 civilians were interned for all or part of the time the camp was open.
Sir Vandeleur Molyneux Grayburn was the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation from 1930 to 1943. He was the most powerful financier in the Far East in the 1930s, and took an important role in establishing Hong Kong dollar as the official currency of the colony. During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II, Grayburn was arrested for providing monetary and logistics aid to military prisoners and bank employees held hostage, imprisoned, and later died at Stanley Prison.
William Gun Chong BEM (鄭根) (1911–2006) was a Canadian who served in the British Military Intelligence unit MI9 during World War II. He is the only Chinese Canadian to be awarded the British Empire Medal, the highest honor that Britain awards to non-British citizens.
Zeng Sheng, born Zeng Zhensheng (曾振声), was a Chinese military officer and politician. His name is also spelt as Tsang Sang, Tsang Shang, Jung Sung and Chung Sung in various sources. Tsang is best known for commanding a guerilla force operating in Hong Kong and Guangdong during World War II.
SS Fatshan was a passenger ferry steamer which sank in stormy seas off Lantau Island during Typhoon Rose resulting in the loss of 88 lives.
The British colony of Hong Kong saw no military action during World War I (1914–1918). The biggest external threat to the colony was perceived to be the German East Asia Squadron, but the squadron was eliminated in December 1914. Nonetheless, the colony served as an important port in East Asia, including as the headquarters of the British China Station, and saw significant socioeconomical changes during the war.
