The Battle of Shek Pik

But some cases were reassuringly traditional in nature. In the summer of 1949 one of the more notorious pirates of the Pearl River delta decided to careen his junk near a small temple at the mouth of a stream which curled round a hill into the sea at the foot of Shek Pik Valley on the south coast of Lantau Island.

He might have got away with this insolent incursion had he not decided to extract a little `tribute' from the nearby villages at the same time, for as he prowled the upper end of the valley with some of his henchmen he bumped into a police patrol from Tai O. Shots were exchanged and the pirates withdrew to the temple, for their junk could not be refloated until the tide rose. Meanwhile the police patrol radioed back to Tai O for assistance. First on the scene was Launch No. 3 commanded by Inspector Schirjetski, joined shortly afterwards by Launch No. 4 under Inspector Blackhurst. The pirates were now trapped, but were still a long way from surrendering.

A force of some twenty men was hastily assembled from personnel available at Marine Police Headquarters and rushed to the scene aboard the former Air-Sea Rescue launches 21 and 22. Among them was the young Marine Police Constable 3479 Cheung Sik-hung. This was his first major action, and he was never to forget it:

"Each of us was armed with a .303 rifle, a fifty-round ammunition bandolier, and a revolver. We landed at Shui Hau (over the hill from Shek Pik) and then advanced on the temple to meet up with some of the crew of launches 3 and 4, who had brought their launch Bren Guns ashore. The pirates had moved onto the hill behind the temple by this time. We surrounded the hill and there was a long fire-fight, but after their leader was killed the rest surrendered."