A diary kept by a Chinese naval officer who served aboard the battleship HMS Ramillies during the D-Day landings has resurfaced, offering a rare firsthand account of the invasion from a non-Western perspective. The meticulously written notebook was discovered by urban explorers in a Hong Kong tenement block scheduled for demolition, and has been verified as authentic by history enthusiasts.
Lam Ping-yu, then 32, was one of more than 20 Chinese officers sent to Britain for training by Chiang Kai-shek during the Second World War. His diary records the secrecy surrounding the mission. On June 2, 1944, he wrote that the ship's captain told officers to prepare for “an extremely important task”, with speculation rife about a second front or escorting the Soviets. On the evening of June 5, as the invasion fleet crossed the English Channel, Lam described seeing “the army's landing craft, as numerous as ants, scattered and wriggling all over the sea, moving southward.”
Historians Angus Hui and John Mak pieced together Lam's story, confirming his presence aboard HMS Ramillies through a 1944 ship's log that recorded “Junior Lieut Le Ping Yu Chinese Navy joined ship”. They also found Hong Kong land records linking the flat where the diary was found to one of Lam's brothers. Hui photographed the diary's pages before the book itself went missing again, possibly taken abroad by emigrants.
The diary has been brought to public attention through an exhibition curated by Hui and Mak, now on display in the Normandy town of Ouistreham. Lam's daughter, Sau Ying Lam, who lives in Pittsburgh, said she was “flabbergasted” to learn of her father's wartime experiences, which he never spoke about before his death in 2000.
Lam's account adds a distinctive voice to the historical record of D-Day, highlighting the contribution of Chinese personnel to the Allied war effort. The diary, written in delicate Chinese characters across 80 pages, provides a vivid and personal perspective on one of the most pivotal operations of the Second World War.
