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Not the Slightest Chance: The Defense of Hong Kong, 1941
More than 10% of Hong Kong's defenders were killed in battle; a further 20% died in captivity. Those who survived seldom spoke of their experiences. Many died young. The little primary material surviving--written in POW camps or years after the events--is contradictory and muddled. Yet with just 14,000 defending the colony, it was possible to write from the individual's point of view rather than that of the Big Battalions so favoured by God (according to Napoleon) and most historians. The book assembles a phase-by-phase, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and death-by-death account of the battle. It considers the individual actions that made up the fighting, as well as the strategies and plans and the many controversies that arose.
- GenresChinaHistoryNonfiction
Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 23, 2016
This is a factual and blood-curdling slideshow of the eighteen days of horrifying fighting against the Japanese in Hong Kong in the not-too-distant past.
I belong to the post-50s group who were lucky enough to be born just after the war. While I was growing up, my mother and relatives belonging to her generation seldom talked about their war-time experiences. It was only recently that I heard about some traumatic personal stories told by a primary school teacher of mine, which ignited my interest in reading books about war-time Hong Kong. Reading "Not the Slightest Chance" had a bone-chilling effect on me, and it makes me want to read more.
The valiant men and women who sacrificed their lives (some suffering unspeakable tortures in enemies' hands) either in action during the war or later in concentration camps in the defense of Hong Kong deserve our and our past generation's utmost and lasting respect and commemoration. The fact that the Hong Kong garrison (or at least the high-ranking officers) were well aware that Hong Kong was in an untenable position, but nonetheless resisted the Japanese invasion with dauntless courage, makes this part of Hong Kong's history especially poignant.
The book just makes me ponder as to why the Chinese Communists and Nationalists were conspicuous by their absence from the scene of the battle.
I belong to the post-50s group who were lucky enough to be born just after the war. While I was growing up, my mother and relatives belonging to her generation seldom talked about their war-time experiences. It was only recently that I heard about some traumatic personal stories told by a primary school teacher of mine, which ignited my interest in reading books about war-time Hong Kong. Reading "Not the Slightest Chance" had a bone-chilling effect on me, and it makes me want to read more.
The valiant men and women who sacrificed their lives (some suffering unspeakable tortures in enemies' hands) either in action during the war or later in concentration camps in the defense of Hong Kong deserve our and our past generation's utmost and lasting respect and commemoration. The fact that the Hong Kong garrison (or at least the high-ranking officers) were well aware that Hong Kong was in an untenable position, but nonetheless resisted the Japanese invasion with dauntless courage, makes this part of Hong Kong's history especially poignant.
The book just makes me ponder as to why the Chinese Communists and Nationalists were conspicuous by their absence from the scene of the battle.
November 7, 2022
This is a unique account of a military campaign, or at least I have never read one quite like it. Banham is a resident of Hong Kong, so he has the advantage of access to records and survivors that other authors would have difficulty getting to. The book is less a story than it is a timeline of the invasion, sparse on details regarding the individual military actions but rich in statistics. He follows the movements of the invading Japanese and the countermoves of the beleaguered defenders, and some of this can be a little dry for someone looking for a war story. If you want exciting tales of military derring-do, this is not your book.
What the book did for me was highlight the absolute hopelessness of the Allied situation in Hong Kong in December of 1941. They were on an island, under-manned, poorly armed, and in many cases untrained. No one was coming for reinforcement and they had orders to fight to the last cartridge. The resulting surrender was inevitable, but our green troops put up a creditable fight against Japanese troops that were already hardened by years of conflict.
Banham does a good job of showing the desperation on the front lines and the chaos in the city. He actually makes a stab at listing all casualties along with place and cause of death, an ambitious project that impressed me in no small way. It was an impossible task, getting all of them, but Banham takes a darn good run at it. I was actually able to makes use of Banham's diligence: a couple of days back, a friend posted on social media that his ancestor had been killed sometime during the siege. Using information found in the book, I was able to give my friend the date and manner of the soldier's passing, and also the unit he had been attached to when he was killed. What a great gift to the progeny of these soldiers is the ability to see their forebears name in print and possibly learn a bit about their role in this fight!
Some things will be disturbing to the sensitive reader. The Japanese were particularly brutish in their treatment of POWs and women, murdering surrendering troops and hospital patients in their hundreds. Women were gang-raped, in one harrowing instance while lying on the bodies of murdered co-workers. One witness is quoted on page 278:
"Anyone who witnessed the tidal wave of Japanese sex crimes in Hong Kong, or in any other city they captured, could be excused for thinking that the Japanese were by nature a race of sexual criminals."
The book is a great read for any military buff. The lists of the dead slow the narrative down a bit, but I made sure that I read every one of them. There are plenty of maps to show the course of the battle, and some photographs help to give you a visual grasp on the conditions on the ground. The extensive notes are almost as interesting as the narrative, and the superb annotated Bibliography is going to cost me some money, absolutely no doubt about it.
What the book did for me was highlight the absolute hopelessness of the Allied situation in Hong Kong in December of 1941. They were on an island, under-manned, poorly armed, and in many cases untrained. No one was coming for reinforcement and they had orders to fight to the last cartridge. The resulting surrender was inevitable, but our green troops put up a creditable fight against Japanese troops that were already hardened by years of conflict.
Banham does a good job of showing the desperation on the front lines and the chaos in the city. He actually makes a stab at listing all casualties along with place and cause of death, an ambitious project that impressed me in no small way. It was an impossible task, getting all of them, but Banham takes a darn good run at it. I was actually able to makes use of Banham's diligence: a couple of days back, a friend posted on social media that his ancestor had been killed sometime during the siege. Using information found in the book, I was able to give my friend the date and manner of the soldier's passing, and also the unit he had been attached to when he was killed. What a great gift to the progeny of these soldiers is the ability to see their forebears name in print and possibly learn a bit about their role in this fight!
Some things will be disturbing to the sensitive reader. The Japanese were particularly brutish in their treatment of POWs and women, murdering surrendering troops and hospital patients in their hundreds. Women were gang-raped, in one harrowing instance while lying on the bodies of murdered co-workers. One witness is quoted on page 278:
"Anyone who witnessed the tidal wave of Japanese sex crimes in Hong Kong, or in any other city they captured, could be excused for thinking that the Japanese were by nature a race of sexual criminals."
The book is a great read for any military buff. The lists of the dead slow the narrative down a bit, but I made sure that I read every one of them. There are plenty of maps to show the course of the battle, and some photographs help to give you a visual grasp on the conditions on the ground. The extensive notes are almost as interesting as the narrative, and the superb annotated Bibliography is going to cost me some money, absolutely no doubt about it.
November 1, 2019
This book was extremely detailed to the brim with the casualty reports of each day, all recorded things on what happened each day and it was very well displayed.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews