YANGTZE PATROL

The U.S. Navy in China

Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, USN (Ret)

NEW copy, hardcover with dust jacket. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1971). 4th Printing, 1987. Forward by LtGen Victor Krulak, USMC (Ret). Maps, charts, photographs throughout, notes, appendices, bibliography, index, 343 pages.

The U.S. Navy's patrol of the Yangtze River began in 1854 when the USS Susquehanna was sent to China to safeguard increasing American commerce in the region. As Kemp Tolley explains in this entertaining history of the patrol in which he was to later serve, the presence of gunboats along the river greatly benefited the integrity of the shoreline factories. Tolley was a young naval officer in the 1930s when assigned gunboat duty, first in the Mindanao, then in the Tutuila, and finally the Wake in August 1941. His colorful description of life as a "river rat" is filled with anecdotes about the resourceful and high-spirited sailors who manned the old riverboats in that distant land.

In the process of telling their story he covers a century of Chinese history, replete with warlords and mandarins, bandits and kidnappers, missionaries and mercenaries, riots and revolution. He presents a knowledgeable summary of the political situation in China up to World War II, including the bombing of the Panay, the siege of Shanghai, and the Nanking incident. Far more than a routine account of naval operations on the great Yangtze, this book is an unforgettable reading experience that has attracted readers since it was first published in 1971.

Some thirty references to Marines: on board gunboats, at Hankow in 1911, in pub brawls, foiling of Japanese plot, disposition of 4th & 6th Marines, etc., plus a two-page description of the 4th Marines in Shanghai.

See also Gunboat on the Yangtze: The Diary of Captain Glenn F. Howell of the USS Palos, 1920-1921, and Bernard Cole's Gunboats and Marines: The United States Navy in China, 1925-1928.

$55.00