The Valour and the Horror

The Battle at Wong Ne Chong Gap

The Japanese forces swept across the channel from the mainland and rolled the defenders back up the mountains in the centre of the island. A key battle took place at the central mountain pass called The Wong Ne Chong Gap. Today, it's still the only way through the centre of the island.

Wong Ne Chong Gap Today

Sergeant Bob Manchester's fight was here, with the Winnipeg Grenadiers. "There must have been at least a dozen officers, NCOs, and other ranks which operated this command post.the West Brigade command post."

The Canadian commander was killed at his headquarters here early in the battle. Handfuls of Grenadiers struggled to keep the high ground and surprise the Japanese below them. The battle is bloody and desperate. A hundred Grenadiers are holding off two Japanese regiments. The guys who've never thrown a grenade are acquiring some experience.

Manchester "The Japanese machine gun that was over on top of the hill... he opened up again and just at that time I got smacked in the arm, and the marks on my forearm are still here. There are four holes that went through at that point.

Japanese Machine Gunners

Armand Bourbonnaire "I... I got hit... I'm burnin'.... I'm numb... Jap sniper got me... I'll just lie quiet here for a while... Jap sniper come out to see if you die or if you got gold in your mouth... I'm waiting for him... I got a new magazine in my Sten... So I let him come... Let him come real close... (Screams and fires machine gun) I emptied it in his body... I got him right here... I made a hole right here... But I wasn't satisfied, so I tromped his head in... Ah... You wouldn't believe the grudge you get after a while... "

Manchester: "We were outnumbered by 50 to 1 at least. We had hung on in this particular position for about four and a half days, and we were now running out of ammunition and food

Japanese troops celebrating their conquest of Honk Kong

The Japanese soldiers were ordered to make a series of suicide attacks against the Canadian positions.

They suffered 800 casualties to win the battle at Wong Ne Chong Gap. When the Japanese discovered how few defenders had caused this decimation, the field commander was forced to apologize to his superiors. The Grenadiers, and others rounded up as prisoners, were now in danger. Some Japanese soldiers wanted revenge.

Manchester "The Japanese came in, moved us out of the compound, they told us that the war was over as far as we were concerned. We asked about the wounded and could we take them with us. And they said no, definitely not, leave them here, we'll take good care of them. So they did -- real good care of them. They went in and put bayonets in them, shot them, and then they burned the whole works of them that were left."

After the war, war crimes investigators went looking for evidence of that execution. Here, near this stream in the Wong Ne Chong Gap, they found the bones of the murdered Canadian and British soldiers. John Osborne won the Victoria Cross, the Empire's highest award for bravery, for his part in the defence of the Wong Ne Chong Gap. He was a Winnipeg Grenadier, killed two days before Christmas in 1941.