A lost D-Day diary reveals Chinese role in the Allied liberation of France

OUISTREHAM, France (AP) — The captain of the Royal Navy’s giant warship gathered his officers together and told them that they were fighting for World War II. He gave the first glimpses of one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II: Prepare yourself for “an extremely important mission,” he said.

“Speculations abound,” one officer wrote in his diary on June 2, 1944. “Some say a second front, some say we will escort the Soviets or do something else around Iceland. No one is allowed to land.”

The secret was D-Day. occupation of 6 June 1944 Nazi-occupied France, with the world’s largest ever naval, land and air navy. It penetrated Adolf Hitler’s fearsome “Atlantic Wall” defenses and hastened the dictator’s fall 11 months later.

The author of the diary was Lam Ping-yu; A Chinese officer who traveled the world with two dozen comrades-in-arms from China to train and serve with Allied forces in Europe.

For Lam, 32, watching the landings in Normandy, France, from the battleship HMS Ramillies proved to be a highlight.

His meticulously detailed but long-forgotten diary has been rescued by urban explorers from a block of flats about to be demolished in Hong Kong. It brings his story to life and sheds light on the involvement of Chinese officers in the multinational occupation.

As survivors Battle of Normandy When he disappears, Lam’s compelling first-hand account adds another living voice to the vast library of memories left behind by the World War II generation, ensuring that his sacrifices for freedom and the international cooperation that defeated Nazism are not forgotten.

On the evening of June 5, as the invasion fleet crossed the English Channel, Lam wrote, “I saw the army’s landing craft, as numerous as ants, scattered all over the sea and winding their way south.”

“Everyone is at action stations. We should reach our designated location around 4-5 o’clock tomorrow morning and start bombarding the French coast,” he wrote.

breakthroughs

Sleuthing in Hong Kong by history buffs Angus Hui and John Mak pieced together the story of how Lam found himself aboard HMS Ramillies and proved vital in verifying the authenticity of his 80-page diary, written in 13,000 gossamer-like Chinese characters.

Hui and Mak have curated and are touring an exhibition about Lam, his diary, and other Chinese officers; It is currently on display in the Normandy town of Ouistreham.

One of the key discoveries was the discovery that the abandoned flat on the 9th floor where the diary was found belonged to one of Lam’s brothers, which was confirmed in Hong Kong land records.

Another was that Hui unearthed a 1944 logbook of HMS Ramillies from the British archives. In a recording dated May 29, it was recorded that two Chinese officers came aboard the ship. When I misspell Lam’s surname, it says: “Chinese Navy Petty Officer Le Ping Yu has joined the ship.”

I was lost, found and lost again

Lam’s leather-bound black notebook also had a dramatic life.

Lost and then found, now lost again. Hui and Mak say it was squirreled away somewhere (possibly taken to the US or UK by people emigrating from Hong Kong) after explorers rummaged through the apartment before the building was demolished and recovered the diary, other papers, a suitcase and other antiques.

But Hui, who lived nearby, managed to protect Lam’s account and photograph the pages of the diary before it disappeared.

“I knew, ‘Okay, this is a fascinating story that we need to know more about,'” he says.

“Such an extraordinary piece of history…could have remained buried forever,” says Mak.

They shared Lam’s account with her daughter, Sau Ying Lam, who lives in Pittsburgh. He previously knew little about his father’s wartime experiences. He died in 2000.

“I was surprised,” he says. “It’s a gift that I learned who he was when I was young and now understand him better, because I didn’t have that opportunity when he was still alive.”

A lucky escape

Lam was part of a group of more than 20 Chinese naval officers sent to Britain for training during World War II. Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang led a Nationalist government in China from 1928 to 1949, fighting against an invasion by Japan and then Mao Zedong’s communists, then fleeing to Taiwan with the remnants of his forces when Mao’s rebels came to power.

On their long journey from China, the officers passed through Egypt (one photograph shows them posing in front of the pyramids in their white uniforms) before joining the British forces.

Lam wrote in his diary that there was a narrow fight to the death aboard HMS Ramillies on D-Day, when the battleship’s powerful guns hammered German fortifications with massive 880-kilogram (1,938-pound) shells before Allied troops pounded the five invasion beaches.

“Three torpedoes were fired at us,” Lam wrote. “We managed to escape from them”

Her daughter marvels at this lucky escape.

“If that torpedo had hit the ship, I wouldn’t be alive,” he says.

Hui and Mak say they confirm from ship logs that at least 14 Chinese officers participated in Operation Neptune, the naval component of the invasion codenamed Operation Overlord. Approximately 7,000 ships participated. The Chinese were deployed in pairs on seven ships, Hui and Mak said.

Operation Dragon

Some officers, including Lam, also saw action in the Allied invasion of southern France in August 1944.

“Action stations at 4 a.m., trails of the moon still visible, although the horizon was unusually dark,” Lam wrote on August 15. “The bombardment of the French coast began at 6 o’clock, Ramillies did not open fire until 7 o’clock.

“The Germans showed such weak resistance that we can call it non-existent.”

In 2006, France awarded its highest honor, the Légion d’honneur, to the last survivor of the Chinese contingent. Huang Tingxin, then 88 years old, dedicated the award to all those who traveled with him from China to Europe, saying, “It was a great honor to join the anti-Nazi war,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported at the time.

Lam’s daughter says their story remains inspiring.

“It talks about unity, it talks about working hard, it talks about doing good,” he says. “World War II, I think, shows us that we can work together for the common good.”

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Leung reported from Hong Kong.