Outbreak of war At the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, many ships and personnel from the Royal Navy's China Squadron were recalled to home waters, or sent to the Mediterranean. A number of river gunboats were considered of limited value and these were laid up locally. One river gunboat, HMS
Peterel, was retained in Shanghai to provide a token British military presence that it was hoped would dissuade the Japanese (who had already occupied most of the city) from moving against the
International Settlement there. Her crew was reduced to 21 and 19 locally recruited Chinese; she was moored in the pool of Shanghai (off the
French Concession). With her reduced complement, she was capable of steaming for only a limited period of time and her main armament had been disabled to lessen her value to the Japanese in the event of capture. Her captain, 62-year-old Temporary Lieutenant Stephen Polkinghorn from New Zealand, was under orders to scuttle the vessel should the Japanese attack.
Sinking By December 1941 Shanghai (aside from the
International Settlement and
French Concession), had been occupied by Japan's land forces and there was a large buildup of Japanese naval forces in the area. At around 4:20am local time on 8 December 1941 news of the attack on
Pearl Harbor, a few hours earlier, began filtering through to Shanghai. HMS
Peterel was notified of the attack by Commander Kennedy from the British Consulate and the ship was called to battle stations. Soon after the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor reached Shanghai, Japanese marines boarded the US Navy river gunboat, . She was captured without a shot being fired (Wake was the only U.S. Navy vessel to have been captured by the enemy intact.during World War II). The Japanese later commissioned her into their navy as the
Tatara and subsequently gave her to its puppet
Reorganized National Government of China based in
Nanjing. Although Japan had not declared war on Great Britain, Japanese marines also boarded the
Peterel to demand her surrender. Polkinghorn attempted to stall for time, in order for the demolition fuses to be lit and the code books to be passed down a special chute to be burned in the boiler room. When his attempts failed, Polkinghorn told them to "Get off my bloody ship!" The Japanese disembarked and almost immediately the Japanese cruiser , the accompanying gunboat
Toba and Japanese shore batteries in the French Concession opened fire at almost point-blank range. Despite being outnumbered and hopelessly outgunned, the Royal Navy crew of HMS
Peterel returned fire, using small arms and the deck-mounted
Lewis machine guns (the
breechblocks from her 3-inch guns having been removed and taken to the Royal Navy dockyard in Hong Kong). The Royal Navy crew inflicted several casualties on the Japanese before the
Peterel capsized and drifted from its mooring under heavy fire. The Japanese machine gunned both the surviving Royal Navy and locally recruited Chinese crewmen in the water. Of the British crew of 22, 18 were on board the
Peterel at the time of the attack. Six of them were killed by the Japanese; they have no known graves and it is unclear whether their bodies were recovered from the water. 12 Royal Navy crew survived: some sought refuge on a neutral
Panamanian-registered merchant vessel, the SS
Marizion. In violation of international law, the Japanese boarded the ship and took the survivors prisoner. The number of casualties suffered by the locally recruited non-combatant Chinese crew and the fate of any survivors at the hands of the Japanese is unknown (under a directive ratified on 5 August 1937 by
Emperor Hirohito, the Japanese removed the constraints of international law on the treatment of Chinese prisoners by its military). The Royal Navy survivors from HMS
Peterel (including Polkinghorn) were moved amongst the Hongchew, Kiang Wang and Woosung internment camps in China. Ongoing supplies received from the British Residents Association (Shanghai) and the
International Red Cross were critical to the survival of those interned. On 9 May 1945 the inmates at Kiang Wang were moved to camps in Japan itself. Three of the crew of HMS
Peterel were onshore during the Japanese attack; two were captured but the third, PO Telegraphist James Cuming, remained at large in Shanghai for the duration of the war, working for a Sino-American spy ring.
The Lonely Battle, an account of Cuming's tale, was written by Desmond Wettern in 1960. ==Aftermath==