MANY SHIPS SUNK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 302, 22 December 1941, Page 5

MANY SHIPS SUNK

JAPANESE CLAIM

Vessels Reported Trapped At

Hongkong

U.P.A. and BrKlsii Wireless

Rec. 2 p.m

LONDON, Dec. 21

The Tokyo radio announced that over 100 ships, including three destroyers, were trapped in Hongkong and about half were sunk.

In addition to tne King's message to Hongkong, the Secretary for War and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Alan Brooke, also sent congratulations to Major-General Maltby and his troops in Hongkong. The message points out that the Japanese forces are being contained and denied the use of the valuable port of Hongkong by the stouthearted, tenacious defence of the Imperial garrison, .whose conduct is in keeping with the great military tradition of the Empire.

Lord Moyne, Colonial Secretary, has sent his good wishes to the Governor and officials of the Colonial Administration and has endorsed the tribute to the army contained in the message from the Secretary for War and the Chief of Staff.

The Japanese Domei Agency has paid a tribute to the stubborn resistance of the British garrison, which had staved off the expected fall of the island.

The garrison, it is stated in London, is resisting the enemy in the fortifications in the granite, wooded hills which form the backbone of the island. It is learned that the garrison consists of equal numbers of British, Canadian and Indian infantry.

The Tokyo radio announced that Japanese artillery was pounding Hongkong Island from positions in Kowloon across the one-mile neck of Hongkong Bay. The British were shelling Kowloon in reply. The Japanese claimed that British troops had retired from points around Victoria Peak, but at Victoria itself and also at Stanley Point they were fighting bitterly.

The Tokyo radio officially claims that a Japanese aeroplane sank a British warship, believed to be a cruiser, which was at anchor at Hongkong.

Chinese army * headquarters in Chungking announced that Chinese forces were pressing along the Canton-Kowloon railway in Hn effort to relieve Hongkong, and had forced their way into Shumchun. The assault had the immediate effect of forcing the, Japanese to rush reinforcements from Hongkong to the mainland.

Chinese forces attacking the Japanese rear along the railway have reached a point only 17 miles from Kowloon. They destroyed Japanese defence positions, set a railway station on fire, and destroyed an enemy dump. They then moved ten miles in a north-easterly direction, drawing off Japanese troops on their way to Kowloon and Hongkong.