30. WWII Hero Bill Chong Spent Years Behind Japanese Lines
World War II hero William “Bill” Gun Chong, BEM, (1911 – 2006) lived dangerously during that conflict. A Chinese-Canadian born in Vancouver, he was visiting relatives in Hong Kong in 1941, when all hell broke loose and the Japanese invaded and swiftly conquered the British enclave. After scary run-ins with the occupiers, Chong managed to escape. He then volunteered to serve with the British Army Aid Group, a paramilitary organization that operated in southern China as a unit of British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section MI9.
Chong was given the code name “Agent 50” (“five-oh”), and inserted into Japanese occupied China to gather intelligence, shepherd POW escapees to freedom, and deliver desperately needed medical supplies. He spent the years from 1942 to 1945 traveling behind enemy lines, doing his best to avoid the unwelcome attentions of both Japanese patrols and Chinese outlaws. He was captured on three occasions, but proved a slippery customer, and managed to escape and resume his clandestine work each time.