‘Lasting honour’: Battle for Hong Kong ended on Christmas Day 1941 and Capt. John Reid was among the Canadians there

By December 22, Mount Cameron, several miles north of Reid’s Regimental Aid Post, had become the linchpin of West Brigade’s defensive line as the Japanese forced their way from the east. The position was held by only 100 Winnipeg Grenadiers, reinforced by a platoon of British Royal Engineers — all that could be spared. After raining Mount Cameron’s defenders with artillery and mortar fire, the Japanese attacked during the evening with 1,000 troops. The Grenadiers and Royal Engineers fought back ferociously, but a Japanese breakthrough on their right flank threatened to encircle their position and forced their withdrawal northward to Wan Chai Gap. In his postwar debriefing in October 1945, Reid recalls the confusion of this night…