The U.S.S. Wake (PR-3) was part of the famous Yangtze River Patrol that protected American lives and property during a very turbulent period in Chinese history. The Wake began service as the Guam, one of six new gunboats that were built in the late 1920s for China service. In 1941 the Guam—now renamed the Wake-- stayed behind in Shanghai when the Yangtze Patrol officially withdrew to the Philippines. On December 8, 1941, it was captured by the Japanese. After the war, it was turned over to the Nationalists. Its subsequent fate is unknown.
The U.S.S. Guam on the Yangtze River
The gunboat saw action early in its career. On Independence Day, July 4, 1930, Guam departed Changsha to investigate the reports that American citizens were in danger from Communist forces. In those days, warlord soldiers, communist forces, or bands of thieves were all lumped under the generic term “bandits.”
As the Guam neared Yochow, she came under fire from the riverbank. After going into general quarters, the gunboat’s 30 caliber machine guns and two 3-inch guns went to work. The “bandit” sniping was silenced, but one sailor aboard Guam had been killed.
The Sino-Japanese War of 1937
From 1937 to 1941 Guam’s mission became more difficult by the day. The Japanese had invaded China, and slowly took over control of the Yangtze after a series of bloody clashes. The United States was still neutral, but it was had to remain so after repeated Japanese slights and provocations. In December, 1937, the gunboat Panay was sunk by Japanese planes. The Japanese apologized and offered reparations, but the United States was sympathetic to China’s plight. In January, 1941 the Guam was renamed the Wake, because a new cruiser back in the States was going to have the name.
The Withdrawal of the Yangtze River Patrol in 1941
By late November, 1941 it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before war would break out between the United States and Japan. It was decided that the Yangtze River Patrol would withdraw to the Philippines, but that the Wake would stay behind as a communications-station ship for the U.S. Consul General in Shanghai.
The Wake was stripped of its guns and all but small arms ammunition. Most of its crew of about 50 men were transferred, and replaced by 14 reservists. Eight of the skeleton crew were radio operators. Wake’s new skipper was Lieutenant Commander Columbus Darwin Smith, USNR. He was an old China hand, and Yangtze River pilot. When Admiral William Glassford, Commander of the Yangtze River Patrol, offered him the Wake assignment he accepted. This was a courageous decision, since the possibility of death or capture was one hundred per cent.
The Capture of the Wake, First U.S. Warship to be Captured Intact in WWII
Smith was ashore the early morning hours of December 8, 1941, when he received a phone call about 4:30 AM. The message was grim—Pearl harbor had been attacked. We were at war with the Japanese. Commander Smith threw on his uniform and took a taxi to the Shanghai Bund waterfront. The streets were swarming with Japanese soldiers, but somehow he managed to reach the waterfront.
Smith could speak fluent mandarin Chinese, and a little Japanese. Hthe HIJMS Tatarae met about twenty armed Japanese soldiers, but they made no move to arrest him and take him prisoner. The commander tried to get past them, saying he wanted to board his ship anchored midstream. They refused, but again made no attempt to detain him. Frustrated, Smith took the cab back to the American Consulate on Foochow Road. It must have been one of the strangest sights of the war—a fully uniformed American naval officer arguing with Japanese soldiers, who watch placidly while he drives away in a taxi!
The Wake had been captured by a detachment of the Japanese Special Naval Force, roughly like marines. The ship had been mined-that is, fixed with explosives to prevent capture—but the seizure had been too swift. A Japanese officer easily jumped aboard—there was only two feet of freeboard—and stuck a pistol in the ribs of the crewmember who had been on watch. The ship was quickly taken.
Later, Smith and some crew who had been on shore were taken as POWS. Commander Smith later made a daring and successful escape from a Japanese prison in 1944. The Wake was renamed the HIJMS Tatara and made part of the Japanese navy. In 1946, after Japan’s defeat, she was turned over to the Chinese government and called the Tai Yuan. After the Communists took over China in 1949 presumably she went into their service, but the details are unknown
Sources:
Quentin Reynolds, Officially Dead Randon House, 1945
Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley (ret) Yangtze Patrol: The US Navy in China Naval Institute Press, 1971
 |
