Battle of Hong Kong
| Battle of Hong Kong | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Pacific Theatre of World War II | |||||||||
Japanese troops take Tsim Sha Tsui | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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British Empire Canada China Free France | Japan | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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10,976–14,564 troops 5 planes 1 destroyer 4 gunboats 1 minelayer 8 MTBs |
26,928 troops 51 planes 1 cruiser 3 destroyers 4 torpedo boats 3 gunboats | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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1,560–2,278 killed or missing 2,300 wounded 10,947 captured 1 destroyer captured 4 gunboats sunk 1 minelayer sunk 3 MTBs sunk 5 planes lost |
675 killed 2,079 wounded 2 planes damaged | ||||||||
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Civilian casualties: 4,000 killed 3,000 severely wounded | |||||||||
The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the British Crown colony of Hong Kong around the same time that Japan declared war on Britain. The Hong Kong garrison consisted of British, Indian and Canadian units, the Auxiliary Defence Units, and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC).
Of the three territories of Hong Kong, the defenders abandoned the two mainland territories of Kowloon and New Territories within a week. Less than two weeks later, with their last territory Hong Kong Island untenable, the colony surrendered. The fall of the city is regarded as Black Christmas as it marked the beginning of a brutal occupation by Japan that would last until its liberation in the summer of 1945. Britain's defeat in Hong Kong alongside the Fall of Singapore in 1942 would irreparably damage its reputation in Asia as a major military power.