<P> In late 1941, the British government accepted an offer by the Canadian Government to send a battalion of the Royal Rifles of Canada (from Quebec) and one of the Winnipeg Grenadiers (from Manitoba) and a brigade headquarters (1,975 personnel) to reinforce the Hong Kong garrison. "C Force", as it was known, arrived on 16 November on board the troopship Awatea and the armed merchant cruiser HMCS Prince David . A total of 96 officers, two Auxiliary Services supervisors and 1,877 other ranks disembarked . Included were two medical officers and two nurses (supernumerary to the regimental medical officers), two Canadian Dental Corps officers with assistants, three chaplains and a detachment of the Canadian Postal Corps . A soldier of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (RCAMC), had stowed away and was sent back to Canada . </P> <P> C Force never received its vehicles as the US merchant ship San Jose carrying them was, at the outbreak of the Pacific War, diverted to Manila, in the Philippine Islands, at the request of the US Government . The Royal Rifles had served only in the Dominion of Newfoundland and Saint John, New Brunswick, prior to posting to Hong Kong and the Winnipeg Grenadiers had been deployed to Jamaica . Few Canadian soldiers had field experience, but were near fully equipped, except for having only two anti-tank rifles and no ammunition for 2 - inch and 3 - inch mortars or for signal pistols, deficiencies which the British undertook to remedy in Hong Kong, although not at once . </P> <P> The Japanese attack began shortly after 08: 00 on 8 December 1941 (Hong Kong Time), four hours after the Attack on Pearl Harbor (difference in time and date is due to the day shift that occurs because of the International date line). Commanded by Major - General Christopher Maltby, British, Canadian, Indian, as well as the local Hong Kong Chinese Regiment, and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, resisted the Japanese attack by the Japanese 21st, 23rd and the 38th Regiments (Lieutenant General Takashi Sakai) but were outnumbered nearly four to one (Japanese, 52,000; Allied, 14,000) and lacked their opponents' recent combat experience . The colony had no significant air defence . The RAF station at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport (RAF Kai Tak) had only five aeroplanes: two Supermarine Walrus amphibious aircraft and three Vickers Vildebeest torpedo - reconnaissance bombers, flown and serviced by seven officers and 108 airmen . An earlier request for a fighter squadron had been rejected and the nearest fully operational RAF base was in Kota Bharu, Malaya, nearly 2,250 km (1,400 mi) away . Hong Kong also lacked adequate naval defences . Three destroyers were to withdraw to Singapore Naval Base . </P> <P> The Japanese bombed Kai Tak Airport on 8 December . Two of the three Wildebeest and the two Walruses were destroyed by 12 Japanese bombers . The attack also destroyed several civil aircraft including all but two of the aircraft used by the air unit of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corp . The RAF and air unit personnel from then on fought as ground troops . Two of the Royal Navy's three remaining destroyers were ordered to leave Hong Kong for Singapore . Only one destroyer, HMS Thracian, several gunboats and a flotilla of motor torpedo boats remained . On 8, 9, and 10 December, eight American pilots of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) and their crews flew 16 sorties between Kai Tak Airport and landing fields in Namyung and Chongqing (Chungking), the wartime capital of the Republic of China . The crews evacuated 275 persons including Mme Sun Yat - Sen, the widow of Sun Yat - sen and the Chinese Finance Minister Kung Hsiang - hsi . </P>

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