British manpower crisis.

Quite so! Read the excellent and very spirited defence of Hong Kong - it did the defenders (who had no hope) no good at all, The Japanese took out their anger of their losses in truly barbaric style.

The man to blame is Churchill

 

For Hong Kong? I seem to remember reading somewhere him being against sending the Canadians to Hong Kong.

 

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's opinion on this issue completely reversed. At the beginning of 1941, he was adamantly opposed to sending more troops to reinforce the garrison at Hong Kong. He argued that to do so was complete folly, and that if Japan went to war with Britain, there “[would] not [be] the slightest chance of holding Hong Kong or relieving it.” However, the British War Office and the COS convinced Churchill to alter his thinking. Further, arguing that British troops were too precious to spare, on September 19 Britain formally requested that Canada send “one or two” battalions to Hong Kong to support the British battalions garrisoned there.

That is not what I read but I'm sure it is backed up in Brookes diaries...I'll have to look.