Frode Olsen - Fighting for Two Kings: Danish Volunteers in the Defence of Hong Kong 1941

Fighting for Two Kings

by Frode Z. Olsen

First published 2010 in Danish as Ikke en jordisk chance, Danske frivillige i forsvar af Hong Kong 1941 by Turbine Forlaget, Denmark. Translated from Danish by Karen Bek-Pedersen

ISBN: 978-988-8552-57-3

2019 Earnshaw Books

HISTORY / Asia / China

EB125

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in material form, by any means, whether graphic, electronic, mechanical or other, including photocopying or information storage, in whole or in part. May not be used to prepare other publications without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information contact info@earnshawbooks.com

Published by Earnshaw Books Ltd. (Hong Kong)

Generous support from S. C. Van Fonden has made it possible to translate and publish this work in English, for which the author and the publisher are deeply grateful.

Went the day well?

We died and never knew.

But, well or ill,

Freedom, we died for you.

John Maxwell Edmonds

Historical dates

Note on names

Past and current names of countries, areas and cities

British Malaya Malaysia and Singapore

Dutch East Indies Indonesia

French Indo-China Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar

Formosa Taiwan

Peking Beijing

Nanking Nanjing

Chungking Chongqing

Tientsin Tianjin

Tsingtao Qingdao

Waichow Huizhou

Rangoon Yangon

Danish names and letters

In addition to the 26 letters of the English alphabet, the Danish alphabet contains three other letters:

, transcribed as ae or a, pronounced similar to e in ever

, transcribed as oe or o, pronounced similar to i in bird or e in nerd

, transcribed as aa or a, pronounced similar to a in also or o in oak.

The original Danish spelling of names has been maintained for the sake of authencitiy.

Preface

The letters of the alphabet are as patient as angels. They wait day after day, year after year, just to be seen, read and understood.

Three lines, eight words and a few numbers sparked this account. Sharply and elegantly engraved, they decorate a marble plaque, which sits above the basin of a drinking fountain in a Copenhagen schoolyard. Spring, summer, autumn and winter, thousands of children have looked at them on their way to class or as they tilted their heads and let their eyes wander while water ran in through a corner of their mouths. One day when they have learned to read, they will understand that these lines convey information about former students who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom during World War Two. Some of the children will notice that these students all died young, on the threshold of realising their dreams and hopes in life.

As a child, I looked at the names countless times, imagined a few vague scenes and then ran off back into my own life again.

One spring day in 2012, many years later, I returned to my old school and stopped by the plaque. It looked the same, but then again perhaps not. I had never before finished reading every last name on the plaque, and for the first time, I noticed the name of a young man who had died close to Christmas in 1941 as a member of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps.

Who was he? What had taken him so far away from home and into a foreign volunteer defence corps? Hong Kong in December 1941 what happened out there that a Danish person should die for?