The Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada were assigned to defend a Hong Kong outpost along with British, Indian and Chinese defenders in 1941. 10,00 defenders against 60,000 hardened Japanese soldiers who attacked the outpost 0n December 8, 1941. After seventeen days of fighting, the Governor surrendered the colony to the Japanese on Christmas Day. The Canadians lost over 300 hundred men and the rest were taken prisoner for 1,331 days. Leo Paul Berard was one of those prisoners.