Sai Wan Bay War Cemetery, Hong Kong, where 283 soldiers of the Canadian Army are buried, including 107 who are unidentified. Finally, on Christmas Day 1941, the Allied forces in Hong Kong surrendered. The Canadian commander, Brigadier John Lawson, was killed fighting in front of his command post. Nevertheless, the Canadians fought courageously, and one of them, Company Sergeant-Major John Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross after he deliberately fell on a grenade just before it exploded, thereby saving the lives of several comrades.
When the Japanese army attacked in overwhelming numbers, the beleaguered garrison fought without any realistic hope of success. They were members of two infantry battalions - the Royal Rifles of Canada from Québec and the Winnipeg Grenadiers - and they had arrived in Hong Kong only three weeks before as part of an attempt to strengthen the island colony's defences. In Hong Kong, the small British garrison included 1,975 Canadians. The fighting in the Pacific did not begin only with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Decemat the same time other Japanese forces attacked the British colonies of Hong Kong and Malaya (now Malaysia) as well as several other American bases in the Pacific. The First Canadian contingent lands at Hong Kong.Ĭanadian forces were involved in the war in Asia from its outset.
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