On the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack, forces of the Japanese Empire attacked the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong without warning. Philip Cracknell provides a research-driven narrative about the battle for Hong Kong in 1941, which commenced on 8 December and lasted for three weeks until the surrender on Christmas Day 1941. Hong Kong had become a strategic liability; an isolated outpost. It would be sacrificed ? but not without a fight. The main priorities for the British in Asia were Malaya and Singapore. The Crown Colony was gallantly defended but it was a battle against overwhelming odds.Crucially, as a resident of Hong Kong for thirty years, the author knows every inch of the ground. He challenges some assumptions, for example the whereabouts of -A- Coy, Winnipeg Grenadiers, on 19 December, when the company was destroyed during a fighting retreat.What exactly happened during the battle, and where were the actions fought? One can still see so much evidence, in the form of pill
