The Escape of the 2nd MTB Flotilla

1916-1985

As civilians in Hong Kong before the war  – Colin a PT instructor, and Monia Talan working in the travel business both became members of the Hong Kong Volunteers and were picked by SOE for a special  group called Z Force (led by Mike Kendall, a Canadian mining engineer ). The group’s role was to carry out intelligence work and sabotage  behind enemy lines. But in the event the Japanese advance was so swift that, while the rest of the group were out near the border blowing up trucks etc,  these three ended up helping with the last-ditch defence of  HK Island.   They were closely involved in rounding up spies and fifth columnists in coordination with Admiral Chan Chak, Colonel Yee and the other Chinese KMT people in HK.  On the 19th Dec,   Monia and Colin took a small boat out into the harbour and Colin blew up a Japanese ship by  swimming underneath it and attaching  limpet mines.  They both moved with Kendall onto the MTBs at Aberdeen a few days before the Surrender. At first the plan was to  try and make contact with the Chinese forces supposedly on their way to relieve the siege, but when it became clear it was all over they were put in charge of ensuring Chan Chak and his colleagues got out.   Later in the war Colin and Monia were reunited in India when they took part in another SOE daring underwater explosives operation in Goa --  this became the subject of a film,  The Sea Wolves,  starring David Niven.

Within weeks of the fall of Hong Kong Professor Linday Ride escaped from Sham Shui Po P.O.W. barracks on 9th January 1942. Ride went on to form The British Army Aid Group [BAAG] in July 1942 with Ronald Holmes, Colin McEwan, & another P.O.W. escapee E M [Maxi] Holroyd. . Colin spent the rest of the war as a station officer for the group in Guangdong Province, relaying intelligence to and from POW camps in Hong Kong and helping to organise more escapes.

The (Military) MBE was  awarded to Major Colin Mitchell McEwan (238278). 15th Nov 1945   “In recognition of gallant and distinguished service in the field”. He later became Head of Physical Education in Hong Kong, before retiring to Scotland. Colin McEwan's war diary was published last year (by the Royal Asiatic Society, HK Branch – a copy is in the Imperial War Museum). 

Major Colin Mitchell McEwan, MBE, ED, MA,  was born in 1916, the son of a village school headmaster at Maybole, Scotland.  He  had a Presbyterian upbringing and read Classics  at Edinburgh University where he was also a Rugby blue. He went on to gain a BA at the Scottish School of Physical Education.  He joined the Colonial Service and arrived in Hong Kong in April 1939.  He joined the Physical Education Department the same year.  As the invasion loomed, he began training with the Volunteers, becoming  a major of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force.

London Gazette entries:

(1) 15th November 1945

(2)12th March 1946

The S.O.E. Team

Mike Kendall

Colin McEwan

Monia Talan

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