World War 2 In Review

by Robert S. Parkin The USS Peary (DD-226) honors Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary (1856-1920). Well known for his outstanding achievements in Polar expeditions, the pinnacle of Admiral Peary’s career was attained on 6 April 1909 with his discovery of the North Pole. Earlier in his naval career, he had served in Nicaragua as a surveyor for the proposed Nicaragua Canal and invented a rolling lock gate, intended for the canal. He authored several books which depicted his experiences and findings during his Arctic explorations and was the recipient of numerous awards from scientific societies both in Europe and the United States. He was promoted to rear admiral and given thanks by Congress by a special act on 30 March 1911. Rear Admiral Peary died at Washington, D.C., on 20 February 1920. The USS Peary (DD-226) was in the Wickes/Clemson class. Built by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the keel was laid on 9 September 1919. The ship was launched on 6 April 1920, under ...

by Trevor K. Plante Published in Prologue, Summer 2001, Vol. 33, No. 2 Four years before Pearl Harbor, the United States and Japan were involved in an incident that could have led to war between the two nations. On December 12, 1937, the American navy gunboat Panay was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft. A flat-bottomed craft built in Shanghai specifically for river duty, USS Panay served as part of the U.S. Navy's Yangtze Patrol in the Asiatic Fleet, which was responsible for patrolling the Yangtze River to protect American lives and property. After invading China in the summer of 1937, Japanese forces moved on the city of Nanking in December. Panay evacuated the remaining Americans from the city on December 11, bringing the number of people on board to five officers, fifty-four enlisted men, four U.S. embassy staff, and ten civilians. The following day, while upstream from Nanking, Panay and three Standard Oil tankers, Mei Ping, Mei An, and Mei Hsia, came under attack f...