A NAVAL EPIC

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1926, Page 2

A NAVAL EPIC

PARTICULARS OF WANHSJEN AFFAIR. A GORY BATTLE. [Australia & N.Z. Cable Association.] (Received this day at S a.m.) SHANGHAI. September 14, The Wanhsien affair is acclaimed as an epic in British naval history. Investigation reveals that the Commander of the expedition. Darley, fought in the Sydney-I'hnden encounter at Cocos Islands, in 1914. Owing to the difficulty of communications belated reports are only just arriving. Details gleaned from the wounded arrived at Hankow describe the affair as the bloodiest in Chinese waters, resembling old-time pirate atrocities of the eighteenth century. As previously reported, the armed merchantman Kiaow was fitted with boiler-plate protection and equipped with pom-poms fore and aft and several machine guns and Lewis guns. The expedition consisting of officers and 5G3 ratings went secretly up stream, camouflaging the craft en route, so that she was unrecognisable. The European officers of the commandeered steamers AVanhsien and AVanlung were being held as hostages, and as a result the expedition decided upon their rescue. The Kaiwo approaching the former, arranged to send four hoarding parties away simultaneously on a surprise attack. They discovered four hundred Chinese soldiers aboard had prepared a deadly trap, though a few loungers only were visible to the approaching parties. These disanpeared when the Kaiwo threw grappling irons on to the steamer and the men prepared to hoard her. The first one aboard was shot with a rifle and then a bugle startled the boarders, who leapt and met a devastating machine guns fire from all angles. Scores of riflemen were concealed in the cargo. At first the British suffered a majority of the casualties, until the appearance of swarms of soldiers on deck when the Kniwo’s pompoms, Lewis ■and machine guns made full play, heaping dead soldiers until they rolled into the river on the port side. The Kaiwo was splashed with blood and the AVanhsien’s deck was deep in brains, filth and muck. The imprisoned officers of 4\ anhsion wore discovered on the bridge. Aleanwhile Darley and others on the bridge of the Kaiwo were sniping, being fed with ammunition by li loyal Chinese pilot. Evidently Darley decided to capture the AVanhsien and with a revolver in each hand he exhorted his followers and leaped on to . the TVanlisien and fired twice before he dropped riddled by a machine gun, whereupon the Chinese rushed him and stabbed him everywhere. When three hundred of the [enemy were dead the others made a frenzied rush on to the Kaiwo. hut were beaten hack with difficulty and the • expenditure of the. last cartridge. It was therefore decided to cut adrift and retire. The French gunboat was a silent witness of everything. The Kaiwo was approaching AVantung to rescue the officers when the Chinese tried to murder the latter and one was shot. Aleantime the British gunboats Cockchafer and AVidgeon were busy silencing tlie shore guns with deadly aim, the AVidgeon concentrating on soldiery and the Cockchafer on the town which was destroyed by shells and finally burned completely. The headquarters of General Yangsen were demolished and the artillery ruined. The Kaiwo retired down stream lacking fuel and with a crow almost hysterical as a result of their ghastly experience. The latest estimate of the Chinese casualties at AVanhsien are five hundred. Hundreds were, killed and as many wounded. AVanhsien is situated twelve hundred miles from Shanghai and six hundred from Hankow, through deep gorges, impassable except to shallow draught vessels specially designed. It is a throe day journey from Hankow to AVanhsien.