World War 2 In Review

Summary of Events at Nanking Between November 21 and December 10, 1937 Nanking, December 10, 1937 On November 21, 1937, the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs at Nanking asked the American Ambassador to inform the latter’s colleagues of the Minister’s imminent departure from Nanking and of his desire that the foreign Chiefs of Mission leave Nanking as soon as possible. The American Ambassador communicated this information to his colleagues and it was agreed by the Chiefs of Mission that they would leave as nearly together as possible for Hankow at which place the Chinese Foreign Office would be established. On November 22, the various foreign Ambassadors and Ministers, together with some of their nationals, boarded vessels to depart for Hankow, the American Ambassador with part of his staff boarding the U.S.S. Luzon, flagship of the Yangtze Patrol of the United States Asiatic Fleet. Part of the staff of the American Embassy was left in Nanking to keep the Embassy functionin...

USS Panay (PG 45), standardization trial, 17.73 knots, off Woosung, China, August 30, 1928. (Bureau of Ships photograph in the U.S. National Archives 19-LC-14-41)   The second USS Panay (PR–5) of the United States Navy was a Panay-class river gunboat that served on the Yangtze Patrol in China until being sunk by Japanese aircraft on 12 December 1937 on the Yangtze River. The vessel was built by Jiangnan Dockyard and Engineering Works, Shanghai, China, and launched on 10 November 1927. She was sponsored by Mrs. Ellis S. Stone and commissioned on 10 September 1928. History Built for duty in the Asiatic Fleet on the Yangtze River, Panay had as her primary mission the protection of American lives and property frequently threatened in the disturbances that the 1920s and 1930s brought to a China struggling to modernize, create a strong central government, and later counter Japanese aggression. Throughout Panay’s service, navigation on the Yangtze was constantly menaced by bandits...