Combat Motivation and Swift Trust in Canada's Battle of Hong Kong, 1941

Abstract: In December 1941, the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong was the site of a doomed last stand, when the Imperial Japanese Army assaulted the British enclave near-simultaneously with the strike on Pearl Harbor. Among Hong Kong’s multinational defenders were two battalions of Canadian infantry, designated “C Force.” They held out for a significant period and inflicted heavy casualties upon the Japanese, despite the fact that the Canadians were under-trained, under-equipped and fighting a battle that could not be won. This article is the first major study of combat motivation in the Battle of Hong Kong, taking the Canadian C Force as a case study. It explores the training, morale, cohesion and behaviour of the Canadians who fought this hopeless battle. This article argues that the concept of “swift trust” cohesion can explain how the Canadians fought so well against impossible odds at Hong Kong, even when primary group cohesion became impossible to sustain during battle.