Hongkong Escape by R B Goodwin.

Hongkong Escape by R B Goodwin.

Publisher: London, Arthur Baker Ltd., 1953. First Edition, first printing. Very good hardback with jacket, a little creasing to red cloth, bookseller's blind stamp to ffep, name to verso ffep. Slight foxing to endpapers and page edges. Jacket is not price-clipped. It is rubbed, marked and chipped. 221 pages, illustrated.

An Aucklander, the author was a sub- lieutenant of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and sailed from Auckland to Singapore at the start of the war. He later went to Hongkong to join the 2nd Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla. He was imprisoned at the fall of Hongkong, then escaped in 1944 after nearly 3 years in captivity. He made his way across China to Kunming. Trapped in the depths of Japanese-held territory, it was rare for Allied prisoners of war to attempt escape. There was little chance of making contact with anti-guerrilla or underground organizations and no possibility of Europeans blending in with the local Asian populations. Failure, and recapture, meant execution. This was what Lieutenant Commander R.B. Goodwin faced when he decided to escape from the Shamsuipo PoW Camp in Kowloon, Hong Kong in July 1944 after three years of internment. With no maps and no knowledge of the country or the language, Lieutenant Commander Goodwin set out across enemy territory and war-torn China. Because of the color of his skin he had to travel during the hours of darkness for much of what was an 870-mile journey to reach British India. Few of his fellow prisoners gave him any chance of succeeding, yet, little more than three months later, he was being transported to the safety of Calcutta. For his daring and determination Lieutenant Commander Goodwin was awarded the Order of the British Empire.