Battle of Hong Kong
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 Great Britain. The Hong Kong garrison consisted of British, Indian and Canadian units, also the Auxiliary Defence Units and Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps (HKVDC).
| Battle of Hong Kong | |||||||||
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| 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 | |||||||||
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| Strength | |||||||||
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10,976–14,564 troops 5 planes 1 destroyer 4 gunboats 1 minelayer 8 MTBs |
26,928 troops 47 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 10,000 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 | |||||||||
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.