Allan SPELEERS 1917-1941

Lance Corporal Allan Speleers, 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was killed in action 24 December 1941 aged 24.  He is commemorated at column 14, the Sai Wan Memorial, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, the Butterknowle War Memorial, the Roll of Honour in St. John the Evangelist church, Lynesack.  [1]

Family Details

Allan Speleers was born c.1917, [2] the son of Emmanuel Carolus Franciscus Speleers and Margaret[3] [nee Allan].  There were at least 3 sons:[4]

• Eric born c.1911
• Jack bc.1912
• Allan bc.1917

The family lived at Peel Street, Thornaby-on-Tees.  In 1910, Emmanuel Speleers married Margaret Allen.[5]  In 1911, Margaret Speleers lived at 34 Bell Street, Thornaby-on-Tees with her father and 2 brothers.  Emmanuel is not recorded.[6]

Emmanuel C.F. Speleers was a Belgian national [7]and seems to have enjoyed an adventurous life working in West Africa.  In May 1913, he travelled aboard, “Professor Woermann” embarking at Dover and bound for Duala, then a German colony Togoland & Kamerun.[8]  He was registered as a Traders Manager, 32 years old, permanently residing in England and heading for the French Ivory Coast via Port Bassam.[9] A later schedule August 1921, records Emmanuel C.F. Speleers, a Belgian subject, of 34 Peel Street, Thornaby-on-Tees, working as a logger arriving at Liverpool from West Africa.[10] Emmanuel C.F. Speleers died 3 May 1923 at Azim, Gold Coast, West Africa[11] and his effects [£668 13s 5d] were determined at probate 9 October 1923 to William Allan plater and Albert Edward Allan, hotel proprietor.[12]  Albert E. Allan was Margaret’s younger brother.[13]

In 1928, Margaret married Robert Weston [14] and in 1939, they lived at Moor View, Copley near Butterknowle, Bishop Auckland.  Robert worked as a stone mason.[15]  Margaret Weston died [possibly] in 1955.[16]

 Service Details

The service record of Lance Corporal A. Speleers has not been researched.  The 1st Battalion, the Middlesex Regiment was a regular Army unit and part of the Allied Force posted to Hong Kong.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and later in the day they attacked Hong Kong.  In a little over 2 weeks, on Christmas Day 1941, 14,000 men from British and Canadian Forces together with the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps were forced to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army. The force held out against overwhelming odds for 17 days.[17]

The compliment of the 1st Battalion, the Middlesex Regiment was 36 Officers and 728 men.  Lance Corporal A. Speleers served with the unallocated “D” Company.[18]  The Battalion War Diary has not been researched.

8 – 25 December 1941:  The Battle of Hong Kong [19]

British military leaders understood that Hong Kong was not strategically important, thus on the eve of the Japanese invasion, the territory was only lightly defended with British, Indian, and Chinese troops. The garrison had 29 coastal guns, all deployed on Hong Kong Island, and was supported by a small naval contingent consisting of one destroyer, eight torpedo boats, and four gunboats. In November 1941, two Canadian infantry division arrived to reinforce the garrison, bolstering the strength to 15,000 men.

Just before the start of the Pacific War, 52,000-strong Japanese 38th Division under the command of Takashi Sakai gathered just north of the border. Inaccurate British intelligence reported that only 20,000 men were present, thus providing the garrison a false sense of security.

The Invasion

At 0800 on 8 December 1941, eight hours after the Pearl Harbour attack, the Japanese troops poured across the border, engaging the British and Commonwealth troops dug in along the Gin Drinker’s Line immediately behind the border. British Major General Christopher Michael Maltby lost the few aircraft he had under his command, therefore had a difficult campaign early on as he had no control of the air while his troops were out-numbered. During the night of 9 Dec, Japanese troops mounted a massed attack on the western portion of the defensive line, and the Gin Drinkers’ Line collapsed by 10 Dec. On 11 Dec, as Japanese troops advanced southward along the Kowloon Peninsula, Maltby ordered the evacuation of all troops to Hong Kong Island. On 13 Dec the Rajputs of the British Indian Army, the last of the British troops on the mainland, fell back onto Hong Kong Island.

After a failed call for surrender on 13 Dec, the Japanese again demanded surrender on 15 Dec. After receiving the rejection, Japanese artillery and aircraft conducted an intense bombardment on Hong Kong Island on 15 Dec. On 17 Dec, yet another demand for surrender was issued, but was again rejected. A light Japanese force crossed the Lye Mun Pass and landed on Hong Kong in the evening of 18 Dec, and a stronger beachhead was established by the next morning. On 19 Dec, the Japanese troops overran the key Wong Nai Chong Gap in the center of the island, thus dividing the British defence in half. By 20 Dec, the Japanese held control of the western half of the island. It was then that the worst of the atrocities began. At the Salesian Mission on the Chai Wan Road, the Japanese massacred nuns and members of the medical staff there after they had surrendered. As the Japanese captured the reservoir, the British garrison’s water supply situation grew desperate quickly. On 24 Dec, Japanese soldiers entered the British field hospital at St. Stephen’s College and tortured and killed over 60 injured soldiers, nurses, and doctors.

Lance Corporal Allan Speleers, 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was killed in action 24 December.[20]

In the afternoon of 25 Dec 1941, later named “Black Christmas”, Governor General of Hong Kong Sir Mark Aitchison Young surrendered at the third floor of the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel. In the 18-day battle, Japan suffered 2,754 casualties and the British 11,848. Isogai Rensuke was named the Japanese military governor of Hong Kong. Japanese atrocities remain rampant despite the end of fighting. Many women, including nuns, were reported raped and some killed. Some British officials were forced to dig their own graves before being executed. Ramon Muniz Lavelle, Argentinian commercial attaché to Tokyo, was in Hong Kong shortly after the initial battle; he documented incidences where British soldiers were bayoneted while they laid helplessly in their beds at the Stanley Hospital. He also reported witnessing British women, with their hands tied behind their backs, repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers.

Timeline

3 Sep 1941	Canadian Lieutenant-General Arthur Grasett MC, DSO (1888-1971), the former General Officer Commanding in Hong Kong, suggested to the Chiefs of Staff in London, England, United Kingdom that with the addition of two or more battalions, the colony’s garrison would be strong enough to resist, for an extensive period, any Japanese seige. He further affirmed that Canada might be prepared to provide the battalions.
25 Oct 1941	A Canadian brigade under the command of Brigadier John Lawson MC sailed from Vancouver, Canada to reinforce the garrison on Hong Kong.
8 Dec 1941	Japanese forces invaded the British colony of Hong Kong. British and Canadian garrison at Hong Kong was hopelessly outnumbered and beyond reach of any Allied help. Within less than two days the defenders would be forced to retreat to Hong Kong island itself.
9 Dec 1941	Japanese troops breached a western segment of the British Gin Drinker’s Line, which stretched from the Gin Drinker’s Bay (Zuijiu Wan) in the west to the White Sands Bay (Baisha Wan) in the east, at 225 High Ground north of Hong Kong Island. 27 prisoners were taken.
10 Dec 1941	British troops withdrew onto Hong Kong island after the defensive Gin Drinker’s Line collapsed.
11 Dec 1941	Japanese troops advanced southward along the Kowloon Peninsula north of Hong Kong, capturing Stonecutter’s Island.
13 Dec 1941	Chinese troops mounted an offensive against Japanese troops in the Hong Kong area; earlier on the same day, the last British troops in Kowloon on the mainland were evacuated onto Hong Kong island.
14 Dec 1941	The British authorities at Hong Kong refused the Japanese demand for surrender.
15 Dec 1941	A group of 300 Japanese troops crossed the Lye Mun Channel onto Hong Kong island at 0300 hours, but the Allied defenders on the beach drove off this amphibious attack. Starting on this date, the Japanese artillery and aerial bombardment on the northern coast of Hong Kong island began.
16 Dec 1941	Japanese continued to bombard the northern shore of Hong Kong island by artillery and aircraft.
17 Dec 1941	The Japanese artillery and aerial bombardment on the northern coast of Hong Kong island, which began on 15 Dec 1941, ceased at 1130 hours as the Japanese observed the raising of a white flag from the defensive positions on the beaches. At 1430 hours, Governor of Hong Kong Sir Mark Young again rejected the Japanese demand for surrender. The bombardment would resume shortly after.
18 Dec 1941	As oil refineries on the northern coast of Hong Kong island burned with thick black smoke, 3,500 Japanese troops crossed the Lye Mun Channel and established a beachhead at 2200 hours. Two hours later, another force of 4,000 would follow. Japanese troops executed 20 colonial Chinese prisoners of war at Sai Wan Hill, while 26 male medical personnel and 2 wounded soldiers were executed by beheading at the Salesian Mission Advanced Dressing Station; the female medical personnel at the latter location were set free after being forced to witness the beheading.
19 Dec 1941	Japanese troops reached the Wong Nai Chung Gap in central Hong Kong island where they were held by Canadian and colonial Chinese troops. Seven ships of the British Royal Navy (river gunboat HMS Tern, minelayer HMS Redstart, boom vessel HMS Watergate, boom vessel HMS Barlight, boom vessel HMS Aldgate, tug HMS Poet Chaucer, and tug HMS Alliance), along with several merchant vessels, were scuttled in the Hong Kong harbor to prevent Japanese capture.
20 Dec 1941	After holding off the Japanese troops at Wong Nai Chung Gap in central Hong Kong island for a day, Canadian and colonial Chinese troops begin falling back suffering heavy casualties. Out to sea, British motor torpedo boats MTB 12 and MTB 26 were sunk and MTB 7, MTB 11, and MTB 18 were damaged during an attempt to disrupt Japanese landing operations.
21 Dec 1941	While Canadian and colonial Chinese troops completed the withdraw from Wong Nai Chung Gap in central Hong Kong island, order began to crumble as panic built up rapidly. On the same day, Japanese aircraft sank British river gunboat HMS Cicala, killing 1 and wounding 1.
23 Dec 1941	Allied troops in Hong Kong withdrew to the final line, “The Ridge”, at the Stanley Peninsula. A military hospital was established at St Stephen’s College on the peninsula to treat wounded soldiers.
24 Dec 1941	Japanese troops penetrated the final Allied defensive line, “The Ridge”, at the Stanley Peninsula on Hong Kong island. At St Stephen’s College, where an emergency military hospital had been established, 56 wounded soldiers, doctors, and nurses were bayoneted while a number of female civilians were raped. Near the coast, British destroyer HMS Thracian was damaged by Japanese aircraft and was forced to run aground to prevent sinking.
25 Dec 1941	British Governor of Hong Kong Sir Mark Young and Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong General Maltby ordered the surrender of the colony at 1515 hours, which was signed shortly after at the Japanese field headquarters at the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel by Young. At around the same time, British river gunboat HMS Robin was scuttled to prevent capture.
25 Dec 1941	Chinese Rear Admiral Chan Chak led a group consisted mostly of British military servicemen out of Hong Kong using five Royal Navy motor torpedo boats. They made landfall on the Guangdong Province, China coast, where Chan would lead them toward the city of Huizhou on foot.
26 Dec 1941	General Takashi Sakai, commander of Hong Kong Operation, paraded through Victoria, Hong Kong with the troops of the Japanese 38th Infantry Division.
26 Dec 1941	Japanese troops burned over 100 bodies of soldiers killed in combat, soldiers murdered, and medical personnel murdered over the past several days in and around St Stephen’s College in southern Hong Kong; the college had served as a military hospital and one of the final British strongholds.
29 Dec 1941	Chinese Rear Admiral Chan Chak arrived in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China with a group of British officers and men who had escaped from Hong Kong four days prior.
5 Mar 1942	The British government announced that, according to information shared with the United Kingdom by the Japanese government, there were 5,072 British, 1,689 Canadian, 3,829 Indian, and 357 men of other nationalities currently under captivity in Hong Kong as prisoners of war.

Epilogue

The local Chinese waged a guerrilla war against Japanese occupation under the banner of two groups, Gangjiu and Dongjiang. Resistance continued until the day British rule was re-established in Hong Kong on 15 August 1945.

Commemoration

Lance Corporal Allan Speleers, 1st Battalion, Middlesex Regiment is commemorated at column 14, the Sai Wan Memorial, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, the Butterknowle War Memorial, the Roll of Honour in St. John the Evangelist church, Lynesack.  Most of those buried or commemorated on the island were killed at the time or died later as internees or prisoners of war during the Japanese occupation.  The Sai Wan Memorial forms he entrance to the Sai Wan War Cemetery and bears the names of more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in the Battle of Hong Kong or in captivity who have no known grave. [21]

REFERENCES

[1] Commonwealth War Grave Commission

[2] England & Wales Birth Index 1917-2007 Vol.9d p.972 Middlesbrough 1917 Q1

[3] Margaret Allen was born 13 February 1885 source 1939 England & Wales Register but the England & Wales Birth Register 1837-1915 Vol.9d p.645 Middlesbrough records 1884 Q1

[4] Ancestry family tree https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/89312154/person/120011660678/facts

[5] England & Wales Marriage Index Vol.9d p.1025 Middlesbrough 1910 Q2

[6] 1911 census

[7] Possibly his sister or sister-in-law Marguerite Spellers travelled on the Canadian Pacific Line, “Empress of Canada” between Quebec and Liverpool 8 – 15 July 1949

[8] Germany lost the colony to France after the 1914-1918 War and it was renamed Cameroon.

[9] Return of Passengers leaving the UK dated 26 May 1913. The French Ivory Coast is now called Cote d’Ivoire. The name is recorded as E.L.C. Speleers.

[10] Names and Descriptions of Alien Passengers dated 11 August 1921

[11] The Gold Coast was a British Colony now known as Ghana

[12] England & Wales National Probate Calendar [Index of Wills and Administrations] 1858-1966

[13] 1901 census

[14] England & Wales Marriage Index 1916-2005 Vol.10a p.276a Auckland 1928 Q1

[15] 1939 England & Wales Register

[16] England & Wales Death Index 1916-2007 Vol.1a p.725 Durham Western 1955 Q2

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_Regiment

[18] http://www.hongkongwardiary.com/searchgarrison/britishinfantry.html#_Toc113344282

[19] https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=61

[20] CWGC

[21] CWGC