Aberdeen harbour and channel was full of Chinese junks and scuttled wrecks, with HMS Robin the MTB flotilla's mother ship being the last of the river gun boats scuttled in the channel near Staunton Creek that very afternoon. Engineering officer Sub-Lt Forster being the senior naval officer was 
technically in command but Major Goring insisted that as senior military officer he was in overall command. Due to the harbour channel being targeted by eighteen pounder shells they proceded down the South Channel. The launch had very little freeboard due to having sixteen people, arms, and provisions onboard and progress was slow navigating the junks and scuttled ships. Captain Erik Damgaard, a Danish/Norwegian from the Store Nordiske Company took them out into Aberdeen Channel. He decided to have a look at the yellow funnelled dockyard launch C.410 which had run aground by Staunton Creek earlier suggesting it would be a much more sea worthy vessel. Maj Goring recorded "As commander of the party I told the coxswain to keep to the right of the channel, as close as he could to Aberdeen Island, which I believed to be clear of Japanese. I thought it probable that the left bank of the channel, on the Brickhill promontory, was in enemy hands. The coxswain, however, insisted on going to the left, because there was said to be another boat down there, the C.410, lying somewhere on the rocks, which he said would be a better craft for our purpose if we could get it off." After going past Bennetts Hill[15] they were spotted just 200 yards from the Hong Kong shore as they rounded the north point of Aberdeen Island when a shot rang out quickly followed by another. "Sighting shots" yelled Guest. Then came the rattle of machine-gun fire hitting the boat. Henry Hsu later recorded "We had not even gone out of the harbour at that time and we got attacked by the Japs." David MacDougall recorded in a letter to his wife shortly after "It was then 4:45 and in a few seconds it seemed every rifle and machine gun in the Japanese army had opened fire on us". The Japanese now occupying Pill Box 12 [30] at the South West point of Brick Hill [Nan Long Shan] opened fire with everything they had, about forty or fifty rifles & then a couple of light machine-guns.[50] In his official report Gandy wrote "Admiral Chan Chak's party whose motor boat had been machine-gunned while mistakenly passing Bennets Hill on their way to join MTB's."
Another few minutes and the launch would have been beyond the range of the guns trained on them from ground level. As it was they were near the end of Aberdeen Channel, and drifting out into open water rapidly.
The boat was riddled, with Damgaard shot through both legs, Sub-Lt Forster who had served on HMS Cornflower took a bullet in the stomach, Harley was shot aftergoing overboard and drowned.
MacDougall recorded "A little behind me a man drowned noisily. He took a long time to go down and I could do nothing about it." Guest recorded they had passed Brick Hill Point and as the boat drifted beyond he could see the Island of Luk Chau away to the West in the East Lamma Channel. With that they started to abandon ship. Yeung-Chuen the Admiral's coxswain could not swim so Chan gave him a life ring and as he waved
Yeung-Chuen over the side he took a bullet in his wrist. Ted Ross recorded a few days later "Well, we hadn't gone much more than five or six hundred yards when we were spotted from the shore and the Japs let fly at us with everything they had, rifles, machine guns and small shells. The bullets simply whizzed through the side of the boat as if there had been no side there at all. Several of our chaps were hit, and soon a shot put the engine out of commission, that capped it. There we were, just sitting like ducks on a pond. The machine gun bullets kept tearing in. Mac got one right in his tin hat, another cut through the sole of his shoe, and just as he was saying how close they were coming he got one right in the back."[29 While some like Chan, MacDougall, and Ross swam to the nearest Islet, others went further to the right towards Aberdeen Island. Henry Hsu helped Chan undress and remove his artificial leg, in which he had hidden
$HK40,000 [6] then stripped down to his shorts, and jumped overboard with the Admiral 
and Coxswain abandoning their possessions including Chan's hidden money. Hiding on the lee side of the boat while the gunners concentrated on the swimmers striking out for the Islet, Chan asked "What should we do!!" Henry
replied "Pray, Pray to God" (Henry is Christian). Chan, who was Buddhist said "If we
make it out of here, I'll convert to be a Christian!"[56] Henry prayed and finally the shooting eased off as they were now out of range even with the barrels elevated, until the battery further up on Brick Hill took over. Luckily because of the extreme range accuracy was pot luck due to the high angle of trajectory required from the light Japanese machine-guns. With the crippled Admiral on his back Henry finally struck out but before long Chan told Henry who was the current Hong Kong freestyle swimming champion to go on ahead leaving Chan to slowly make his own way across the 500-600 meters of water to the Islet .[7] & [27] Henry Hsu recorded "We just swam towards the tip of Apliechau." Ted also decided to
strip off before diving in and abandoned his clothes, gun, and money,
$HK2000.] "Taking my clothes off made a whale of a difference! I was one of the last off the boat, but the first to reach the island. The water was just dancing with bullets. As the machine gun came round you could see all the bullets hitting the water, I could see these guys getting hit in the water. I dived and swam as far as I could under water, and finally got to the partial shelter of a rock on the shore."[29] Maj Goring later wrote " When I got to the shore I was so exhausted that I could not crawl up onto the rocks. Bullets
spattered all around, flinging up the stones and splintering the rocks." After finally making it ashore he wrote "I felt desperately tired and actually fell asleep. When I awoke, half an hour later, things were quieter, and I walked forward, trying to locate the rest of my party. I came across Max again, shivering behind his rock, clad only in his shorts, and observed several of the others crossing the thin tongue of land that joins Ap Lei Pai to Aberdeen Island. Henry Hsu came past, in the most diaphanous pair of silk shorts I have ever seen and went on up the hill." Henry who was fiercly loyal to his Admiral, as well as a close family friend was concerned for his whereabouts. Scanning the sea from higher ground he spotted the Admiral's unique one armed and one legged swimming style slowly progressing towards Ap Lei Pai. Ted clung to the rocks frozen stiff in just his underwear. Others swam in and later MacDougall came floating in on his back fully clothed, and with a pistol strapped to his waist even though he was a poor swimmer. He had somehow managed to kick his shoes off after going under twice. Mac stated later "All the time I could see the familiar sites, the Peak houses, the Aberdeen Rd, the famous fish restaurant on the corner where I had eaten so many lunches; and all the time the Japanese machine gunners on the hillsides 600 yards away went for us hammer and tongs."[27] Mac had landed on the rocky shore of the Islet by Ross.[13] Henry Hsu made his way down and met up with the others just round the tip of Aberdeen Island.[7] He then made his way across the causeway and scrambled over the rocky shore to where Chan eventually came in after swimming with only one leg and one arm. Ross later recorded in his Canadian drawl "It was getting pretty dark by this stage, I could hear this flop, flop like someone putting an oar in, rowing a boat, it was the Admiral coming in with one leg and one arm, he was a tough old character"[29] Ross was preparing to go out to help the Admiral in when Henry suddenly appeared and assisted the Admiral up onto the rocks. Now the Japanese opened up with incendiary mortar fire setting the Islet on fire. Goring recorded "The grass on Ap Lei Pai was on fire from the incendiary and tracer bullets, and some of them had their bare feet badly scorched."[17]
The Japanese kept firing after they landed, spraying rock splinters all over
the place, and even firing incendiary shells over setting the dry shrubbery of the Islet on fire. Ted Ross still had his wrist watch on and after swimming and trying to scramble over the rocks in the water it finally stopped at 5.30. The sun was dipping behind the hills of Lamma Island, [70] this being the tropics darkness comes on very fast after sunset and as it darkened those who could climbed the short rocky hill in bare feet to get to the protected
side in the hope that 
the MTB's were still there waiting. Henry and the Coxswain Yeung Chuen tried to carry the wounded Admiral up the slope and then to the causeway joining Aberdeen Island where they could have got him to the protected Lamma side of the Islet but found it impossible. They found a cleft in the hillside and put him there with Chan insisting on having a gun in the event the Japanese find him in which case he would take his own life. Chan Chak recorded in his diary "I took off my ring, and said I might not be able to get away from these situations and I will try my best to fight with the enemy till I die.
If I am to die, please take this ring to my wife as a memento.
Henry's face went blank. I said “Be a man, we only said one sentence so I hope you can follow the order”, and then Henry left a little upset." Max Oxford fetched up alone on Aberdeen Island with shots still splintering the rocks around him. Goring had also landed alone a little further along, and making his way along the rocky coastline came across Max. Seeing others further round they made a dash to join them on the causeway where they were sheltered from the gun-fire and warmed by the setting sun. Max Oxford, Freddie Guest, and Bill Wright then made their way round the Island, all they found was a Carley float with four paddles in a small bay that had come adrift from one of the numerous scuttled wrecks, but found it too heavy to manoeuvre. Oxford then got separated and carried on walking round the rocky coast with blistered and bleeding feet. [31] Guest recorded "It appeared to be quite deserted but on our way over the top of the hill to the other side we spotted in the darkness what appeared to be a naval craft of some description lying off the far end of the Island. It was under cover of some rocks and apparently waiting for orders." In his official report Montague wrote "After landing the party proceeded along the South West Coast of Aberdeen Island and sighted three boats of the 2nd MTB Flotilla."
Realising it would have been suicidal to make a break before darkness, and having a family descendent of Admiral Lord Nelson's 2nd in command at the battle of Trafalgar as his 2nd in command, Gandy, like the young Commander Horatio Nelson at the battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 chose to ignore orders to save the day. Choosing instead to maintain a watch on the exit from Aberdeen harbour as he was convinced that Chan Chak's escape party would attempt to get away at all costs. Had the action failed, he would have been court-martialled for disobeying orders in the face of the enemy with subsequent loss of command and disgrace.
In the meantime, back in Aberdeen Warrant Officer Benny Proulx HKRNVR, a long time fishing and sailing companion of Ashby's was desperately scanning the harbour for any sign of the MTBs. Benny who like Guest had no stomach for life in a Japanese prisoner of war camp was hoping Ashby might be able to secure him a place on the escape. As it turned out he was one of the first to succesfully escape as a POW, and from Ottawa he wrote to Ashby stating "I was prowling the along waterfront then looking for you in the hopes of getting away with you. I was at Aberdeen then. I did not like the food or service, without my boy in goal so decided to push off. I got away from North Point prison in January and brought two Dutch submarine officers with me, no one else would come because they thought I was nuts, which was probably right anyway. I went thru the towns you passed thru and a Chinese General showed me a photo of you and the groups of 60 or 80 naval chaps who went thru with the Admiral (Chan Chak). I knew then you were okay. When I think of those warm sunny Sunday mornings up at your bungalow at Stanley, the fishing and your yacht and all that, it makes me wish for the good old days of peace." Benny escaped on the night of 28th January 1942 along with Hordyke and Idema from North Point POW camp.
Christiansen had gone up the hill first and spotted the MTB's further round Aberdeen Island and ran back down to the causeway shouting. While Goring and party started off up the steep hill Christiansen went round the Lamma coast alternately swimming and scrambling over the rocks shouting to the MTBs, while Guest and co went round the Aberdeen coast. The MTBs were anchored 200 meters out from a bay further round and the crews thought he said "There are ten Japs following with machine
guns" as he scrambled over the rocks and swimming out to them. Just then a skiff with two men came out of the gloom. Gandy recorded "At about 1830 Lieutenant Commander Yorath of the XDO's staff with a Mr Halladay, Merchant Service Engineer, appeared in a rowing boat from Aberdeen Harbour, with verbal instructions to me from XDO to go but at this time MTB 27 signalled to me that a man was swimming out to us from Aberdeen Island and he proved to be the advance party of Admiral Chan Chak's party whose motor boat had been machine-gunned." Lt Parsons edged closer to the shore as Christiansen swam out and was hauled aboard MTB 27, what he actually said was "There are
ten chaps following being machine-gunned" just as the moon in its first quarter was peaking its transit. [70] Fearing damage by rocks Parsons then reversed 27 smartly out as silhouette's were spotted coming over the hill and Sub-Lt Legge on 11 who was on aircraft watch gave them a warm reception by opening up with a stripped down Lewis gun[18][36] They turned out to be Goring and his party, luckily McEwan of the SOE did not have a magazine attached to his Bren gun.[11] Goring and his party ducked down in the rocks as bullets sprayed all around them, luckily nobody was hit. They then made their way down the steep hill to the cove where the boats were.[19] Parsons then again edged in slowly as close as he dared as the survivors with Goring swam out. Bill Wright was hauled aboard by the CO, Scottish born Tommy Parsons himself.[75] When Ted Ross reached the top of the small hill back on the Islet he saw three MTB's by the cove further round Aberdeen Island, then two of them moved out, so he then decided to go back for the wounded MacDougall and they made a slow trip over the small hill being targeted by a sniper from behind. Then a burst of heavy machine-gun fire startled them and they ducked down behind rocks fearing the party ahead had been killed. In a letter home MacDougall wrote "As we neared the cove where the torpedo boat had been seen we had a faint revival of hope but this was quickly dashed when the echoes of a burst of machine gun fire reached our ears from the vicinity of the cove."[27] Gandy had ordered 11 to go and find 07 & 09 in Telegraph Bay and await orders to rendezvous South of Ap Lei Chau. But two of 11s engine starters had packed up so Gandy had to lash alongside and tow her in.
After letting go of 11 Gandy came alongside the pier in Waterfall Bay where he put his 1st officer Lt Kilbee ashore. Lt Kilbee late of MTB 08 & ML French recorded "Very difficult to know what is happening on shore, but obviously the situation is desperate. Enemy aircraft still active as boats bombed while at anchor on the South side of Apleichou Island. Surrender came late afternoon. Everyone was on edge waiting for orders. At dusk MTB 10 moved to pier to await VIP's, who were to try to escape under night cover up the coast to Mirs Bay area. I discussed staying in MTB 10 for the escape with my C.O. Cmdr Gandy who insisted I remain back with some of my crew. Finally scrambled ashore to eventually spend nearly four years in various Japanese Prisoner of War Camps."[16]
Beyond caring any more MacDougall then stood up shouting, when they were almost down to
the causeway a voice in beautiful English shouted, "Its
okay, come on down". "I don't believe I've ever heard anything so beautiful and
gratifying as that voice" Ted recorded.[29] Mac had lost a lot of blood and was just so relieved as he was in no fit state to attempt the 700 feet (196m) climb up Mount Johnston on Aberdeen Island where Goring's party had gone. They scrambled down under the moonlight and were picked up
in a small skiff crewed by ratings. In the meantime Cmdr Gandy signalled for MTB's 07, 09, & 11 to rendezvous with him south of Aberdeen Island. The time was just past 19.00.
Gandy ordered A/B Downey to take Henry Hsu and Yeung Chuen round the Islet into the line of enemy fire to pick up the wounded Admiral. Not finding him where Henry had left him they returned to get more men. Cdr Yorath and Bill Robinson then joined them and they made the trip again, this time locating the Admiral by whistling. He had somehow climbed up the slope after hearing the sniper taking pot shots at MacDougall and Ross earlier. Chan heard the whistling and finally threw a stone down and they made contact. Cmdr Yorath later wrote "The Admiral was practically at the top of the hill, although it was a difficult climb. I think he must have gone up there to die - Chinese like having their graves on hillsides. We lugged him down and got him in the boat. He must have suffered agonies. As we rowed back, he sat facing me in the stern and crossed himself which rather surprised me."[43] The Admiral was piped aboard as the crew lifted him up onto MTB 10 at 21.15.
Colonel Yee Shiu Kee could not swim and was presumed dead. In fact he survived along with Damsgaard and Forster eventually making it ashore on Aberdeen Island during the night. After staying in a church for a few days SK bribed a junk man to take Damsgaard and Forster over to Hong Kong Island and get them to hospital. While Damsgaard survived his ordeal Forster succumbed to his wounds and passed away. SK 
made his way to Chungking via Kukong independently. Of the sixteen who set out on "HMS Cornflower's" launch, twelve made it to the MTB's. They were all provided with dry clothes and enjoyed hot coco and rum. There was much discussion on where to make course for with the army favouring Bias Bay[7] & [30], some suggested Macau, even Singapore. The boats which were highly tuned thoroughbreds were fairly beaten up after the ordeal of battle and lacking in maintenance. They were in no fit state for a long sea passage and finally they agreed on Chan Chak's insistence to head for Mirs Bay, where the Admiral had guerrilla contacts in the area.7
In the meantime Lt Pittendrigh had successfully refloated C-410 at high tide, and Commander Montague stated that he intended to escape. The crew agreed to put C-410 at his disposal so long as they were to crew her. Monty left Aberdeen harbour at 19.00 under cover of darkness and proceeded south to Lamma Island thence North-East Head before shaping course for NanAo in Mirs Bay where he knew that Admiral Chan Chak's party were to land.[49]
The contents of this website led to a considerable number of escapee families contacting me and now each other, and remains the principle source of contact and private information for the spinoff projects that have followed. The personal accounts enabled me to record the complete and true account of this remarkable episode of Sino-British war time co-operation. The information compiled here has directly resulted in a museum exhibition in Hong Kong, a re-enactment of the escape in Hong Kong and China, a book just published, and a movie drama and also a documentary in the making.
Some accounts published quote statemants made years, sometimes tens of years after the events, where the facts have been blurred in the mists of time.
Thank you all for your contributions, may our forefathers be remembered.
Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence
