Hong Kong is known as the "Pearl of the East" and has an extremely important strategic position. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was not only one of the important financial, economic and military bases controlled by Britain in the Far East, but also an important channel for China's external liaison and secret input of materials. It has long been adopted by the Japanese army as a key offensive target. In order to further realize the southward advance plan, completely undermine the aid route of China, and force China to surrender, on December 8, 1941, the Japanese army attacked the US military base Pearl Harbor and launched a massive invasion of Hong Kong. In the three years and eight months after the fall of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade, founded by the Communist Party of China, rose up and fought bloodyly and flexibly with the vicious Japanese invaders, writing a heroic chapter that is heroic and enchanting, and making important contributions to the victory of the South China War of Resistance and the World Anti-Fascist War.
The sharp knife inserted behind enemy lines in Hong Kong
In the early morning of December 8, 1941, the shrill air raid alarm cut through the tranquility of the night in Hong Kong, and the explosion of Japanese bombs instantly resounded throughout the island. More than 15,000 Japanese troops had already assembled, crossed the Shenzhen River and quickly invaded Kowloon ; on the 12th, Kowloon fell; on the 18th, the Japanese troops landed in Hong Kong. Although Churchill claimed on the 21st that the British troops stationed in Hong Kong had "no idea of surrendering no matter what", Hong Kong Governor Yang Muqi still descended on Christmas afternoon on the 25th, which was called "Black Christmas".
In fact, the Chinese Communists have long predicted the Japanese army's combat operations. In late November of the same year, when the Japanese army was about to attack Hong Kong, the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas (the predecessor of ) received instructions from Yin Linping, the political commissar of the team, who was in a meeting in Hong Kong: "Be prepared for response. Once the war occurs, immediately send troops into the Hong Kong and Kowloon region to launch guerrilla war behind enemy lines." According to this instruction, the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas sent a unit of troops into the Yuen Long area of New Territories on December 9; on the 11th, the Qiankeng and Ma'anling Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Forces advanced into Chijing, Qilingxia and Shenyong on the Saigong Peninsula, and 20 people were drawn from the 1st Squadron of the 3rd Battalion to form a team, and more than 10 people were drawn from the Huiyang Short Gun Team and other departments to form a short Gun Team, and at the same time entered Saigong . Subsequently, these three teams formed a short gun team of armed forces, and a temporary Communist Party branch was established within the team. At this point, nearly 100 people from the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas advanced into Kowloon and the New Territories, like a sharp knife, deeply penetrated into the heart of the Japanese army. In February 1942, in order to strengthen the development of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in Hong Kong and Kowloon, the above-mentioned troops were unified into the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade, with Cai Guoliang as the captain, Chen Daming as the political commissar, and Huang Gaoyang as the director of the political training room, under the jurisdiction of the short gun team, the long gun team and the maritime team. The vigorous urban guerrilla warfare
In order to consolidate Hong Kong's important "fortress" role, the Japanese army appointed Lieutenant General Isotani Risuke as the governor of Hong Kong, and used military and police special constitutions to form a strict colonial rule network, carrying out military suppression, economic plunder and cultural enslavement, bringing Hong Kong into a long "dark period". The Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade took advantage of the favorable opportunity of the Japanese army's shortage of troops and no time to take into account the rural areas in the early days of the occupation of Hong Kong. It sent a large number of civilian movement members to more than 650 villages in Kowloon and the New Territories to actively develop, organize and arm the masses, eliminate bandits, form anti-Japanese groups, collect weapons abandoned by the British army, and continuously expand the team. It also established a "white skin and red heart" regime in some villages, laying a solid mass foundation for the development of guerrilla warfare.
In view of the characteristics of the narrow territory of the Hong Kong and Kowloon region, the small room for maneuver, the Japanese and puppet military and police, and the dense towns, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade focused on leveraging the high maneuver advantage of the short gun team, and fought more small battles and clever battles, which disturbed the enemy's heads and turned around, and attacked the enemy's cage and nets, making the enemy panic all day long, which promoted the vigorous development of urban guerrilla warfare. Liu Jinjin, a legendary hero who is famous in Hong Kong and Kowloon, is an outstanding representative emerging in the short gun team. Liu Jinjin's original name is Liu Heizai , and is the deputy captain of the short gun team of Shatin , Sai Kung District. He and his captain Huang Guanfang led the short gun team to rely on the Guanyin Mountain and the Diancaoyan area, frequently attacked the Japanese army and made many military achievements. The team had wiped out a Japanese army in the encounter with the Japanese army at the foot of Lion Mountain; the Joint Anti-Japanese Self-Defense Forces of Wotang Village attacked the Japanese barracks at night, and wiped out a Japanese engineer team; disguised the Japanese army's Niuchiwan outpost, and wiped out 16 Japanese and puppet troops.Liu Jinjin was even more brave and fearless. He had disguised himself as a vegetable harness and entered Kowloon city three times, and killed four Japanese troops; set up an ambush to capture Masashi Tojo alive; he jumped over the enemy ship on the sea of Kowloon Taichung Dock, and captured two secret spies alive... Liu Jinjin's heroic deeds exaggerated our army's power and greatly applauded the people, making the enemy frightened and scared. After arduous struggle, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade established anti-Japanese guerrilla bases in Saigon, Saigon Kok, Yuen Long, Lantau Island , Sheung Shui and other places. The number of troops also increased to about 800 after the spring and summer of 1943, with 5 regional squadrons, 1 maritime squadron, 2 spear squadrons and 1 direct squadron. While flexibly guerrilla warfare annihilated the enemy, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade also carried out arduous anti-"mopping up" war since the spring of 1943". After entering 1944, such anti-"sweeping" operations were more frequent, almost every month, and as many as 8 times in May and 1 month. In February 1944, the Japanese army dispatched more than 1,000 people, and closely cooperated with the land, sea and air. They carried out a 17-day "mopping up" in Shatin and Sai Kung with tactics such as "far-distance attack", "district pulling nets", and "tug-of-saw clearance", in an attempt to annihilate the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade in one fell swoop. The Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade then actively carried out sparrow battles in the inside, and flexibly annihilated the enemy; the short gun team advanced into the outer Kowloon city, and the Japanese army was ambushed with a ghost. On the 13th, Liu Jinjin led three team members to disguise themselves to Kowloon Tang in the city and executed the traitor translator of the Japanese Kowloon Military Police Command, which shocked the Japanese army. Then he and Huang Guanfang led a team to sneak into Kaide Airport and blew up one Japanese oil depot and one aircraft. At the same time, the urban squadrons also attacked the entire line, launching a "paper bullet war" (distributing leaflets) "mine war", and successfully blasted the No. 4 Railway Bridge of Kowloonwo Da Lao Street. Several teams cooperated to fight, forcing the Japanese army to return to aid and hastily ended the "mopping up".
The "Turkish Navy" galloping on the coast of the South China Sea
Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade is both a land tiger and a sea dragon. This team, together with the brother escort brigade, is known as China's "Turkish Navy". After the Japanese army invaded Hong Kong, they opened a maritime transportation line from Guangzhou through Hong Kong and Shantou to Taiwan, transporting strategic materials plundered from South China to Japan, and then transporting weapons to Southeast Asia and the Chinese battlefields. In order to destroy the Japanese transportation line, the maritime team of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade was expanded into a maritime squadron, learning and practicing the skills of killing enemies at sea, turning from a "dry tiger" to a "deep water dragon", cruising in Dapeng Bay and the coast of Kowloon Saigon to near Dangan Island, winning unexpectedly, defeating the strong with the weak, creating a unique maritime guerrilla warfare, and creating a valuable experience of small boats fighting large ships and wooden ships annihilated motor ships.
In late November 1943, two armed ships of the maritime squadron patrol the offshore of Guozhou east of Saigon and found a Japanese naval sailing ship sailing from Shantou, towed an armed wooden sailing ship , sailing against the wind in Hong Kong. The maritime squadron immediately entered the battle. Ship 1 was inserted into the enemy ship diagonally under the wind, and Ship 2 circled to the left of the enemy ship and intercepted its rear path, and concentrated firepower to shoot the enemy ship fiercely. The Japanese sailboat was suddenly attacked and was in a hurry. While fighting back, it quickly cut off the cables of the towed wooden sailboat and fled to Hong Kong in panic. The maritime squadron successfully seized all the supplies from the armed wooden sailboat, and the dozens of tons of white paper on the ship just solved the urgent need of the official newspaper of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps.
The maritime squadron was like a dragon crossing the river, not only disrupting the Japanese army's maritime traffic line, but also directly hitting the Japanese army's nests, effectively cooperating with the ground forces to fight. On August 16, 1944, the maritime squadron sent two armed ships to attack the Huangzhujiao stronghold in Dapeng Bay, where three ships were moored at night. My ship No. 1 was directly inserted into the enemy ship on the right, and the light and heavy machine guns on both sides fired at the same time; the ship No. 2 took the opportunity to hide from the left and suddenly threw two fish cannons (explosive packs made of glycerine explosives) at the enemy when they were 30 meters away from the enemy ship, causing a fire from the enemy ship. At this time, Ship 1 took advantage of the momentum to approach the enemy ship on the right and threw fish cannons. The enemy ship made a loud noise and then the flames surged into the sky. The enemy ship saw that the situation was not good, immediately raised his sail and tried to escape. The soldiers on the bow of the ship No. 1 quickly hooked the enemy ship's sail rope with a long pole, and then jumped onto the enemy ship one after another. They successfully ended the battle before dawn, sunk 3 Japanese ships and killed and injured 38 enemies.
In more than three years of maritime guerrilla warfare, the maritime squadron of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade and the escort brigade, sunk 7 enemy ships, captured 43, killed 52 Japanese soldiers and 36 Japanese soldiers, drowned more than 40 Japanese soldiers, killed nearly 100 puppet troops and more than 50 prisoners, seized 5 light machine guns, 50 rifles, 1 mountain cannon and a large number of materials, making important contributions to destroying the Japanese maritime transportation, protecting the safety of our transportation team and business travel teams, and rescuing materials. As Zeng Sheng, commander of the Dongjiang Column and Yin Linping, political commissar, pointed out, China's "Tuan Navy" gallops on the coast of the South China Sea, "making Daya Bay and Dapeng Bay become the inland sea of our army, and should be highly praised."
Important transit stations and resettlement sites
Before the fall of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong and Kowloon region had become an important supply area for the materials, medicines, weapons and ammunition of Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas. After the fall of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade transported the British materials, weapons and ammunition collected, as well as most of the spoils seized after each battle, to the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas. At the same time, they also took advantage of the advantages of Hong Kong's material distribution center to help party organizations and guerrillas collect and transport materials. Many of the clothes, daily necessities and various medicines of the commanders and fighters of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrillas also come from the Hong Kong and Kowloon regions. After Japan surrendered, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade actively transferred weapons and ammunition, buried them on the spot or tried to transport them back to the mainland, and transferred the confiscated Japanese cars to local car dealers, accumulating funds for future troops activities.
Due to the weak rule of the Kuomintang in Hong Kong and Kowloon, it has also become an important place for the troops to rest or transfer wounded and sick people when the enemy situation is tense. In January 1943, the Huiyang Brigade of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps was injured in the battle of Wutong Mountain, and was transported to Maoliao near Sanya Village, Toutiao, Jiusha, Hong Kong for treatment. In the face of shortage of supplies, the medical staff of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade would rather go hungry than give the only vegetable porridge to the injured and sick. In 1944, Liu Pei, the captain of the escort brigade, was seriously injured during the battle and had to undergo surgery. He was also transferred by the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade with the help of local people to the Hong Kong hospital. After the operation, he was recuperated at the Sai Kung medical center for a period of time before returning to the army.
In addition, with the development of the guerrilla war between the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade, the official newspaper of the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps (expanded by the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps in 1942) once entered the Shatoujiao and the Dapu areas. A large number of newspapers were sent to the Japanese army stationed in Hong Kong, the puppet government and the general public through transportation stations, becoming a powerful tool for guerrillas to defeat the heart and boost morale.
The secret rescue of the tiger's mouth hijacked
With the sudden arrival of Japanese artillery fire, the "paradise" of Hong Kong during the war was instantly destroyed. After the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, they immediately blocked the maritime traffic from Hong Kong to Kowloon, and searched and lured patriots and anti-Japanese patriots. In this way, hundreds of well-known cultural figures and patriotic democrats who were evacuated to Hong Kong in the second anti-communist climax initiated by the Kuomintang diehards in their early years were trapped in an isolated island and in a very difficult situation.
On December 8, 1941, on the day the war broke out, Zhou Enlai received a call from the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, saying, "Hong Kong cultural figures and party staff should retreat to the Nanyang and Dongjiang." From the 8th to the 9th, Zhou Enlai called Liao Chengzhi, director of the Eighth Route Army Office in Hong Kong and others: At any cost, we should rescue the cultural elites, famous patriotic democrats and international friends trapped in Hong Kong and transfer them to a safe area in the rear.
This is a difficult and complicated task that races against time, and the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade played an extremely important role. Together with the underground organization of the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong, they used various relationships to connect with all stranded personnel one by one, helping them get rid of the surveillance, tracking and transfer addresses of Japanese spies, and secretly smuggled across the sea from Hong Kong Island in batches, escorted to secret receptions such as Jordan Road, Garden Street, Shanghai Street, , and then transferred to the Dongjiang Anti-Japanese Base Area. On New Year's Day in 1942, Liao Chengzhi, Lian Guanhua, Qiao Guanhua and others evacuated Hong Kong first under the cover of Li Jianxing, the head of the underground transportation station, and Huang Guanfang, the captain of the short gun team.On January 9, at the temporary concentration point on Rock Road, Hong Kong, Mao Dun, Ye Yiqun and others disguised themselves as refugee groups, led by traffic officers to cross the streets and alleys, and came to the Causeway Bay Typhoon at dusk and secretly boarded the boat through the cut wire gap. In the early morning of the next day, together with Zou Taofen, Hu Sheng and others who arrived in the early stage, they took three bamboo-top boats under the leadership of the traffic officer, and took advantage of the Japanese army's change of guard to cross the sea and arrive at the secret reception point in Kowloon city. On the 11th, the group once again pretended to be refugees and crossed mountains and rivers under the escort of the armed forces. After hardships, they finally arrived at the Yangtaishan Anti-Japanese Base. At the same time, some patriotic democratic figures who took a boat from Saigon, Kowloon also arrived at the Pingshan Anti-Japanese Base. Because He Xiangning, Liu Yazi and others were weak and difficult to climb mountains and wading, they could only sail to Shanwei . However, there was no wind at the sea and they were forced to wander for many days, with a shortage of food and water. Thanks to the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade, they were able to escape danger.
Two rescue routes are covered with Japanese military posts, and bandits are often harassing them, and there are many dangers. The officers and soldiers of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade risked their lives to run through the difficulties and obstacles. After more than six months of intense rescue work, more than 800 well-known cultural figures and patriotic democratic figures finally fled the Japanese army's "tiger mouth" and suddenly appeared in the rear of the mainland, greatly shocking the Japanese army. This feat is famous overseas and is called "the greatest rescue work since the War of Resistance Against Japan." Regarding this thrilling past, Xia Yan commented: "The rescue shows the care of the Party Central Committee and the Southern Bureau for intellectuals." "This is a true mutual conscience and sharing life and death."
The outpost of the international anti-fascist united front struggle
Establishing a world anti-fascist united front is the consistent proposition of the Communist Party of China. The Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade strictly followed the instructions of superiors, actively strengthened cooperation with the Allies, cooperated with the Allies in combat, and made important contributions to the victory of the world anti-fascist war.
After the fall of Hong Kong, Hong Kong government officials, British military officers and soldiers imprisoned in concentration camps, and overseas Chinese from Britain, India, Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Noble, and Philippines became the main targets of the rescue of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade. Starting from February 1942, it took only two months for the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade to rescue Hong Kong Superintendent Mr. Thomson and other British officers and soldiers. Later, Colonel Wright, who was rescued, suggested that the British army set up a British service team dedicated to rescue prisoners of war, and thus began a brief cooperation with the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps to rescue the Allies and communicate military intelligence.
Subsequently, the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps dispatched cadres who were familiar with English and had suitable social relations to establish an international working group in the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade, Huang Zuomei served as the group leader, and set up secret contact points in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Despite the interference of the Kuomintang, the British side cut off contact with us in August of the same year, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade, in the spirit of adhering to the international anti-fascist united front, still actively launched rescue activities at great risk: some directly entered the concentration camp through priests and priests; some disguised themselves as small vendors, taking advantage of the opportunity to work in the concentration camp to help them hide and wait for an opportunity to transfer; some drifted wooden boards in English to the concentration camp stationed by the sea, and secretly contacted them and helped the prisoners of war escape. These rescued personnel wrote letters to thank the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade many times. Wright, the head of the British service regiment, also expressed deep respect for the guerrillas' feat and once told the guerrilla leaders: "If we had not had your help, we would not have done anything." The Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade strives to rescue the Allied forces and international friends, winning praise from the allies and gaining reputation internationally. After the war, the British government "expressed admiration" for our precious aid in rescuing the British army, highly praised it, and awarded Huang Zuomei a reward medal. In addition, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade also rescued Lieutenant Kerr, a pilot of the 14th Air Force of the US Army, and was highly praised at home and abroad.
cooperates with the Allies to collect Japanese military intelligence, which is another important contribution of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade. In view of the increasingly important international status of the Dongjiang Column (adapted from the Guangdong People's Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Corps in December 1943), the 14th Air Force of the US Army took the initiative to contact the Dongjiang Column and proposed cooperation matters such as establishing radio stations and collecting Japanese military intelligence. After the Dongjiang Column asked Yan'an for instructions, it agreed to the US military's request and established a liaison office. The intelligence scope spreads across the enemy's rear of Dongjiang and the Xijiang and Beijiang .The Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade even established a three-level intelligence network of brigades, squadrons and mass, and sent people to infiltrate key Japanese administrative departments, covering all networks, lines and points, with eyes and ears covering Hong Kong and Kowloon. Female team member Wen Shuyun stood on the 4-story balcony of "Rulintai No. 8" in the middle of the mountain in Central every day, using a telescope to observe and record the entry and exit of Japanese ships in Victoria Harbor and anchorage. Li Cheng, an intelligence officer who can speak English and Japanese, managed to enter the Special High School Class of the Japanese Military Police Headquarters in Hong Kong, obtained a copy of the military map of the Japanese army stationed in Hong Kong, handed it to underground party member Huang Shimin, and sent it to Dongjiang Column Command through the underground transportation station of the Hong Kong-9th Brigade, and then transferred it to the US military. With this picture, the US military continuously bombed the Japanese military's Hong Kong military facilities from the end of 1944 to the beginning of 1945. The Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade provided countless information to the US military, such as the detailed coastal defense maps of the Japanese army in Hong Kong, detailed pictures of the Japanese army in Hong Kong, oil tanks, airports, docks, etc., the code of the Japanese South China fleet, details of the pseudo-Hong Kong government organization, document reports and military map album excerpts, the Japanese army's defense forces in Hong Kong, illustrations of Japanese military fortifications along the Guangjiu line, etc. It is precisely because of the outstanding performance of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade and its brothers that the US military praised its intelligence work for "decisive contribution to the success of the US strategic force's organization in China."
Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade went through countless hardships and persisted in the war of resistance in Hong Kong until Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945. On August 30, British troops arrived in Hong Kong. On September 28, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade issued a declaration, saying goodbye to compatriots in Kowloon and the New Territories and leaving Hong Kong within a week. On December 28, 1998, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government held a grand ceremony to place the roster of fallen soldiers of the former Dongjiang Column Hong Kong and Kowloon Independence Brigade." The then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa personally placed the roster of 115 martyrs who died in the Hong Kong Kowloon Brigade in the Great Hall of Hong Kong for citizens to pay tribute, and announced that the Hong Kong Kowloon Brigade "is a formal armed force during the fall of Hong Kong and made significant contributions in the battle to defend Hong Kong."
