Escape from Hong Kong - The Final Hours

1907 - 1976

Colin McEwan recorded "Mike was engaged through General S. K. Yee and Admiral Chan Chak. They were the Nationalist government's representatives in HK trying to establish contact with the guerrillas in the HK border area, whom we would supply with arms in turn for their interfering in the Japanese lines of communication."^[11]

F W Kendall was a Canadian from Vancouver who had lived in Hong Kong since childhood, and spoke several local dialects fluently.  He abandoned his mining business in China when the Japanese invaded and moved back to Hong Kong. There he worked for the Government organizing refugee relief, building and running the large camp at Kam Tin.  Early in 1940 Kendall was approached by MI9, and asked to set up a small unit of civilians and volunteers.   Being non military personnel, they could undertake “ungentlemanly warfare”, which the official armed services could not legitimately carry out.  The unit was given a cover name of “Z Force”, within Force 136 the Far East branch of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) training and operating in absolute secrecy.

 

Kendall and his friend Eddie Teesdale were trained at the SOE base in Singapore. On his return he organized a group of handpicked volunteers, who included a Russian born businessman named Monia Talan, and a P. E. instructor Colin McEwan.

They met secretly at a camp near Kam Tin, each weekend, usually trained by Teesdale, as Kendall was often in China.  They received training in cipher and intelligence work, weapons, wireless and explosives.   They also spent much time literally walking through the scrub land, often in the dark, getting to know the trails and terrain at first hand, in preparation for the day they would have to work behind Japanese lines.   Weapons were stored in Kendall’s bungalow near Shing Mun, where Holmes and Teesdale lived for extended periods.   They also set up hidden stores for supply in the event of a prolonged campaign behind Japanese lines.  The Japanese found the main store, in a cave on Tai Mo Shan about 1800 feet up on the south east slope.  Another was in an old lead mine at Lim Ma hang, near the border at Sha Tau kok.  It was later raided by villagers, who would have seen troops of Indian soldiers carrying supplies there on mules.  On the outbreak of battle, Col Newnham ordered Kendall and Talan out of the New Territories and into Lyemun Pass, to fix limpet mines to scuttle a ship being used by the Japanese as an observation post.   The remaining SOE men in the New Territories, led by Holmes and Teesdale, spent a month behind Japanese lines, crossing back and forth across the border, collecting information, setting up contacts and reconnoitring.

 

Mike and Betty Kendall

 

Kendall also travelled through China, setting up contacts and listening posts, including those installed by Chauvin and Chinese intelligence. Because SOE tapped into an existing Chinese network, the intelligence it was able to access was far more sophisticated and accurate.

Kendall went through an ancient blood brother ritual in Waichow with the guerrilla leader Liung Wingyuan before they departed. After the escape Kendall and his team continued their work in Southern China operating from Kukong. "Doc Ride was not the only British "military presence" in Kukong at the time. Up north, a mile away near Ng Li Ting, ( ), tied by the East Bank of the Western River, was a pair of house-boats. Here over half a dozen of British service personnel were "camping". They had earlier on escaped from Hong Kong. They were headed by Mike Kendall, a Canadian, who the commanding officer of a unit known as S.O.E. Apparently, the unit was a Special Duty Unit of the Hong Kong Defence Force. One of its tasks was to harass the enemy from behind the lines by a system, of sabotage, espionage and intelligence; they were to blow up bridges or other forms of communications behind the enemy line, when Hong Kong was attacked. In the group were some outstanding young individuals; including (a) R.G.K. (Bobby) Thompson, (later Sir Robert) who eventually became a World Authority on Communist and Communist Tactics, (b) Colin McEwan, to whom I was introduced by Hector MacKenzie, at the University of Hong Kong, Maxwell Holroyd, formerly of the Chinese Maritime Customs and a few others. Their aims were similar to those of Doc Ride, but their methods were apparently different. The S.O.E.'s method was apparently that of the commando, by blowing up any obstacles with light machine guns or explosives as may be necessary, to achieve an objective. The method itself is dependent upon the availability of the necessary logistics. The political climate at the time, for the intended areas of operation, simply made the S.O.E. method a non starter. Amongst others who were also members of the S.O.E., was one Mr. E.B.Teesdale, of the Colonial Administrative Service, who eventually rose to become the Colonial Secretary of Hongkong".³⁵

Unlike his two colleagues FWK never received any official recognition/award for organising the Christmas Day Hong Kong escape.⁷¹

In 1944 the Canadians set up a training camp in the Okanagan Valley approximately ten miles north of Penticton, British Columbia [Commando Bay]. Kendall was appointed Commanding Officer to train Chinese Canadians for covert action in South East Asia.

 

 

 

"Z Force" was a band of local volunteers which had been trained beforehand for work behind the Japanese lines and was led by Mr Kendall. Dumps of arms, supplies, medical stores, etc had been made beforehand at three points in the New Territories.⁵²

The S.O.E. escape team

Mike Kendall

Colin McEwan

[John] Monia Talan

Extracts from THE MYTH OF UNPREPAREDNESS: THE ORIGINS OF ANTI JAPANESE RESISTANCE IN PREWAR Hong Kong by Anne Ozorio