AHC: Chinese, Canadians and Brits save Hong Kong in 1941

raharris1973

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Pretty straightforward challenge - Have Hong Kong hold out with help from any possible quarter.
 
It was already game over by 1938, with the fall of Guangdong to the Japanese. If the Chinese could still hold out Guangzhou with Allied help and supplies, Hong Kong might still have a chance, but by 1941, it was a lonely, isolated port surrounded by Japanese forces just waiting to move in. To try to save Hong Kong would be to devote disproportionate resources that could otherwise be spent protecting even Malaya (which is actually a lot more defensible, despite the fuckups by the British).
 

raharris1973

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Remitonov I think you're probably right

It was already game over by 1938, with the fall of Guangdong to the Japanese.

Ah, well it was Guangzhou the city that fell, not the whole Guangdong province.

If the Chinese could still hold out Guangzhou with Allied help and supplies, Hong Kong might still have a chance,

ah, well yes

but by 1941, it was a lonely, isolated port surrounded by Japanese forces just waiting to move in.

Yes completely surrounded on land by Japanese occupied territory

To try to save Hong Kong would be to devote disproportionate resources that could otherwise be spent protecting even Malaya (which is actually a lot more defensible, despite the fuckups by the British).

This statement though again focuses exclusively again on the British factor, not the Chinese factor. Singapore was easier for Britain to enforce and had an initially friendly hinterland. However, Chinese forces were active in the Guangdong hinterland no more than 100 km away from Hong Kong.

I'd like to make a plug for this book.https://tinyurl.com/Clash-South-China. Interestingly, it asserts that long after Japan seized Guangzhou City and Guangzhou Bay, surrounding Hong Kong by land, the city and its ports still continued to be used for large-scale transshipment operations to other, smaller ports that were still Chinese controlled in Guangdong province, and that this continued until the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong itself.

Also, it introduces a geopolitical rationale (besides it being a water travel version of the Burma Road) for British and even Canadian reinforcement of the territory at the last minute. It was seen as an important outpost to reinforce to signal a determination to keep *both* China and the USSR in the fight, and to prevent Japan from intervening against the USSR.
 
Remitonov I think you're probably right



Ah, well it was Guangzhou the city that fell, not the whole Guangdong province.



ah, well yes



Yes completely surrounded on land by Japanese occupied territory



This statement though again focuses exclusively again on the British factor, not the Chinese factor. Singapore was easier for Britain to enforce and had an initially friendly hinterland. However, Chinese forces were active in the Guangdong hinterland no more than 100 km away from Hong Kong.

I'd like to make a plug for this book.https://tinyurl.com/Clash-South-China. Interestingly, it asserts that long after Japan seized Guangzhou City and Guangzhou Bay, surrounding Hong Kong by land, the city and its ports still continued to be used for large-scale transshipment operations to other, smaller ports that were still Chinese controlled in Guangdong province, and that this continued until the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong itself.

Also, it introduces a geopolitical rationale (besides it being a water travel version of the Burma Road) for British and even Canadian reinforcement of the territory at the last minute. It was seen as an important outpost to reinforce to signal a determination to keep *both* China and the USSR in the fight, and to prevent Japan from intervening against the USSR.

Well, it's not as if they've already thrown enough men to make that statement (which is too much for what was essentially a nigh-impossible defence), and they still failed in both regards (Mighty Whitey myth dead and HK conquered). It's just not worth the cost for the Commonwealth, and resupply something this far out is insane. You might as well have sent them to other fronts where they'll make more of a difference Also, Chinese assistance in the vicinity is definitely key, but the British might be worried the Chinese won't leave once the war is over, or giving the colony any ideas of returning to the motherland.

Besides which, the Chinese weren't doing too well anyway, not after their best troops were wiped out in Shanghai. If the Western governments reacted more strongly in support as Chiang had hoped, Hong Kong wouldn't even be at risk of invasion, let alone defended from one. But this was pre-war, and they're not into another war at that very moment. That is going to be hard to change, and mind you, the Chinese still got help from the Germans, then Soviets at the time. They definitely need more boots.
 
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