HMS Falcon - Bibliography of Royal Navy River Gunboats in China

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS RELATING TO ROYAL NAVY RIVER GUNBOATS SERVING IN CHINA

If I could read only three books about Royal Navy river gunboats that undertook China service I would choose the first three excellent works immediately below (most of the books discussed here are out of print but can easily be found at www.abebooks.com.)

"Gunboats on the Great River", by Gregory Haines. This work was published in 1976 and is an excellent discussion of Royal Navy gunboats on the Yangtze River. It is also the only work specifically dedicated to this subject that I have encountered.

"Armed with Stings", by A. Cecil Hampshire. First published in 1958, this excellent work details the life and times of the Insect Class gunboats built between 1915 and 1916. About 50 pages are devoted to the Insect Class in China. This is a paperback with no pictures and, if you are researching the Insect Class, it's a must.

"The Royal Navy and the Sino-Japanese Incident", by Martin H. Brice. Originally published in 1973, this truly excellent work discusses the Royal Navy as the Japanese attempted the conquest of China. The time period discussed is from 1937 to 1941 and the book has numerous photo plates. There are an unbelievable number of references to the actions of Royal Navy river gunboats during this period, in addition to other Royal Navy vessels. This is a first class book if you are looking for information regarding Royal Navy river gunboats in China, but be warned that only the gunboats serving between 1937 and 1941 are discussed.

"Something about a Sailor", by Rear Admiral Sir Thomas J. Spence Lyne. Lyne commanded HMS Snipe on the Yangtze from 1905 through 1906. Several years later he commanded HMS Kinsha on the Yangtze (1908 - 1911). There are numerous chapters in this work devoted to Lyne's command of these two vessels but the majority of this work is devoted to Lyne's other commands. This was an extremely difficult book to find. Published in 1940 by Mayflower Press, Plymouth (William Brendon & Son Ltd.) I do not believe there have been any reprints. Should you attempt to locate this book, you may have to refer to a major library for a copy.

"A Naval Career", by H. C. Guernsey. Published in 1992, this excellent work recounts Guernsey's career in the Royal Navy. Two chapters of the book relate to Royal Navy gunboats, specifically HMS Cricket and HMS Teal. Guernsey was assigned to HMS Cricket while she was in England in 1920 and one chapter of the work describes the harrowing 15,000 mile journey made by Cricket to China (she was convoyed with HMS Cockchafer, HMS Moth, HMS Mantis and HMS Scarab during the trip). Once in China, Guernsey was transferred to HMS Teal on the Upper Yangtze and a second chapter is devoted to this service. The two relevant chapters are about 60 pages but the other material in the book is also quite fascinating (for example, Guernsey was on the scene during the sinking of Bismarck). An excellent read but not an easy book to find.

"Gunboat! Small Ships at War", by Bryan Perrett. Published in 2000 this excellent work reviews thirteen episodes in which Royal Navy and other nation's gunboats were used. About 30 percent of the work pertains to ships mentioned on this site as it begins in 1824 and ends in 1949, detailing incidents all over the world.

"From Archangel to New Zealand, the diaries of Robert Henry Harding", by Robert Henry Harding (edited by Gregory McShane) and published by Rimu Publishing Company Ltd., Hamilton, New Zealand in 1985. I searched for this book and only found two copies on www.abebooks.com. This book recounts the diary of Harding on the Insect Class vessel, HMS Cicala, during the Northern Russian Expedition of 1918 -1919. It is very short (about 100 pages) and details events on a somewhat daily level aboard the ship. It also has numerous references to the actions of HMS Cricket, HMS Cockchafer and HMS Glowworm which were with her on the Dvina River. It is quite interesting reading and has several newspaper quality photographs of vessels and damage.

"Gunboats of the Royal Navy", by Paul J. Kemp. Originally published as, "British River Gunboats", in 1989, this is an updated version published in 1997. This excellent work, approximately 65 pages long, consists of photographs of Royal Navy Gunboats, one per page. The only writing in the book is found in the picture captions which are quite informative. The vast majority of the pictures are of the Insect Class, but some nice shots of the earlier and later gunboats also appear. There are also several shots of the Fly Class. This was a very difficult work to find which is surprising given its recent publication.

"The Lonely Battle", by Desmond Wettern. Published in 1960, this work recounts the story of HMS Peterel survivor, Petty Officer James Cuming. The Peterel was sunk by the Japanese in Shanghai immediately following Pearl Harbor. The book describes the attack on the Peterel and then follows the story of Cuming as he attempts to evade Japanese capture in Shanghai for the next four years. Fascinating reading.

"Destroyer Man", by Rear-Admiral A. F. Pugsley. Published in 1957 this work describes Pugsley's career, mainly on destroyers. Early in his career Pugsley was diverted from destroyer duty to serve on HMS Widgeon as she patrolled the Upper Yangtze in 1925-26. Unfortunately, Pugsley's description of his service on Widgeon is very brief (about 15 pages) but does consist of a quite fascinating first-hand account of the Wanhsien Incident.

"Lieutenant Stephen Polkinghorn", by Peter Oldham. The actual date of publication of this work is unclear, but was probably 1984. This excellent work was published by the New Zealand Historical Society and briefly recounts the sinking of HMS Peterel and the subsequent internment of the Peterel's commanding officer, Lieutenant Stephen Polkinghorn. The work is very short (64 pages) and the author, Peter Oldham, was in contact with Polkinghorn while writing the book.

"Stuff a Crow - a Survivor's Tale", by Bernard Hepworth. Published in 1999, this excellent work describes Hepworth's service in the Royal Navy from 1925 to 1947. Hepworth was shipped out to China in 1932 to serve on HMS Ladybird as she patrolled the Yangtze River. About fifteen pages of the book are devoted to Hepworth's time on HMS Ladybird and the description of his service is frustratingly brief (at least for someone running a site on Royal Navy river gunboats). I would note that a large portion of the book involves Hepworth's service onboard the aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal. Hepworth was on HMS Ark Royal from the moment WWII broke out through her sinking in November of 1941, logging over 200,000 miles on the ship. The work includes Ark Royal's hunt for Graf Spee and the sinking of Bismarck (HMS Ark Royal launched the plane that disabled Bismarck's rudder). There is also quite a bit about a Royal Navy minesweeper, HMS Aries (out of the blue, the author was sent to Toronto, Canada to participate in her construction and then served on her clearing mines all over the Mediterranean). The author was a non-commissioned officer, serving mainly in engine rooms which was extremely dangerous even under the best of circumstances. It has been some time since I enjoyed a book as much as I did this work and it is a fascinating read. Unfortunately, it may be very difficult to find but may be available here.

"HMS Cricket - Lost and Found", by Geoff K. Brown. This excellent work describes the investigation regarding an unidentified wreck off of Cyprus. Brown spent two years diving the wreck and eventually proved her to be the Insect Class gunboat, HMS Cricket. By all accounts HMS Cricket had been scrapped in Alexandria in 1944 after receiving substantial damage during WWII. After numerous dives and painstaking research, the author submitted the above entitled report to the Imperial War Museum. This work presents the evidence proving that HMS Cricket had not been scrapped in Alexandria, but towed to Cyprus in 1944 and used as target practice by the RAF. Low in the water, she had sunk that same year one mile off of Ormidhia Bay. I have been in contact with the author, Geoff Brown, who has graciously permitted this site to host a copy of the report here.

"Excelsior - Being an Inadequate Description of the Upper Yangtze", by "Charon". This odd little book was published by the North-China Daily News and Herald Ltd. (aka North China Daily News & Herald Ltd.) in 1934 (there was at least one reprint in 1936). It is essentially a tiny, 50 page guidebook written by Yangtze gunboat crews for other Yangtze gunboat crews. Detailing what a gunboat will encounter on the trip through the gorges between Ichang and Chungking, it is an extremely brief travel guidebook of the sights and history. The author, described only as "Charon", was an officer on a gunboat and started writing brief descriptions for the crew of what would be seen in the next day's travel upriver. These writings became so popular with the gunboat crews that the work was eventually published as this book. It is an interesting work, but is much more of a travel guide than a discussion of what gunboats did on the river.

"The Diary of Captain Peter Behague Onboard HMS Cockchafer - 1930-32", edited by John Behague. This is not a book, but something I discovered on the internet. Unfortunately, the site on which the diary appears is in ill-repair as the links to a large portion of the diary do not appear properly. I have therefore taken all of the pages and placed them on this site for viewing. To view the diary of Captain Peter Behague please click here.

"River of Golden Sand", by Thomas Woodrooffe. This work was first published in 1936 and a second edition came out in 1957. I believe it was published in the U.S. as, "Yangtze Skipper", by Sheridan House in 1937. This is a fictional account of life on a Royal Navy gunboat on the Yangtze in the early 1920's. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I believe this work was based on the service of Woodrooffe as a lieutenant on HMS Scarab (in keeping with the "insect" names of his ship, his fictional account is on HMS Beetle).

OTHER USEFUL BOOKS ABOUT THE ROYAL NAVY IN GENERAL

"Ships of the Royal Navy - The Complete Records of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the Fifteenth Century to the Present", by J.J. Colledge. The original edition of this work was published in 1987 and a revised edition was published in 2003. This is an amazing work in that it lists every Royal Navy ship built from the fourteen hundreds to present. The information on each ship is very short, generally including the specs of the ship, the manufacturer, date of launch and ultimate fate. There are no pictures and this is purely a list of the ships, with a short introduction. If you have a lot of ships to look up or are having difficulty distinguishing which of the 23 HMS Falcons built by the Royal Navy is which, this is your book.

"The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860 - 1970", by E. H. H. Archibald. First published in 1971 this is an interesting work for larger ships, but not much use for river gunboats. The book has four minor drawings of the Insect, Locust, Teal and Ant Class ships and that's about it. No photographs exist in this work, only drawings, which are quite detailed. It is an excellent reference for the identification of Royal Navy vessels.

BOOKS RELATING TO US NAVY RIVER GUNBOATS SERVING IN CHINA
(WITH REFERENCES TO ROYAL NAVY VESSELS)

"The Yangtze Patrol - The U.S. Navy in China", by Kemp Tolley. Published in 1971, this work documents the actions of US gunboats in China and is probably the single most comprehensive book on the subject. Despite US gunboats being the main topic, the work has numerous references to the actions of Royal Navy gunboats. A most excellent and useful book.

"Gunboat on the Yangtze - The Diary of Captain Glenn F. Howell of the USS Palos, 1920-1921", by Glenn F. Howell (edited by Dennis L. Noble). I believe this work was published in 2002 and presents Howell's diary entries while commanding USS Palos, together with several chapters of background material regarding the US Navy in China. USS Palos was an early US river gunboat capable of traversing the entire length of the Yangtze. During Howell's year in command he took the Palos to Kiating (near Chengtu), the furthest point up the Yangtze reached by US gunboats (and rarely by any gunboat). The diary provides significant insight into the workings of the US Navy and the perils faced by a gunboat. This is a very enjoyable read but only occasionally refers to Royal Navy vessels on the Yangtze.

"The Panay Incident, Prelude to Pearl Harbor", by Hamilton Darby Perry. This excellent work was published in 1969 and nicely outlines the events of USS Panay's sinking. Very useful for US gunboats but rather limited in its use for Royal Navy gunboats.

"Officially Dead - The Story of Commander C.D. Smith", by Quentin Reynolds. Published in 1945, this fascinating work recounts the life of Commander Columbus Darwin Smith between 1941 to 1945. Commander Smith was the nominal Captain of USS Wake, an American gunboat seized by the Japanese in Shanghai on December 8, 1941. Most of the book describes Smith's imprisonment and his daring escape attempts from Japanese jails. Truly fascinating reading but not really designed to give information about US or Royal Navy gunboats. The only exception is that Smith personally witnessed the sinking of HMS Peterel and several pages are devoted to what he saw.

"Gunboats and Marines - The United States Navy in China 1925-1928", by Bernard D. Cole. Published in 1983 by Associated University Press, this excellent work describes the actions of the United States Navy during the political upheaval in China from 1925 to1928. During this period Chiang Kia-shek commenced a military campaign from southern China to unite the country. This ultimately lead to a series of confrontations between foreign powers and the Chinese civilian population, various warlords and Kuomintang forces. These confrontations illustrated that foreign powers, when opposed by united Chinese forces, could not effectively oppose such forces. Unlike most foreign powers conducting business in China, the United States never held concessions there and formulated a foreign policy to protect American lives and, theoretically, property, but not concessions. As American lives and property tended to be in foreign concessions the US diplomatic core on the ground in China continually requested that the US Navy protect those concessions. Ultimately, this placed the US Navy in a rather difficult position as it had to protect US lives and property in concessions, but also had to refuse when asked by foreign nations to assist in protecting the concessions themselves. This is a first class work, well researched and documented. It is somewhat myopic in its view of describing the situation in China from the US perspective, but that is what it was written to document. (As a footnote, this is a pricey work (I paid 90 US dollars on Ebay) and given the current prices a second print is long overdue.)

"The Sand Pebbles", by Richard McKenna. I thought Steve McQueen was great in the movie, but this is fiction folks.

OTHER INTERESTING (OR UNINTERESTING) READING RELATING TO CHINA

"An American in China: 1936-39", by G. H. Thomas (published by Greatrix Press - 2005). I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the period or traveling to China. The work essentially consists of the diary of Gould Hunter Thomas during a sightseeing trip he took to China in 1936. Due to a strike that occurred in the shipping line on which Thomas had tickets, he quickly found himself marooned in China and short on cash. Through a stroke of luck he landed a job with the Texaco company and spent the next several years traveling around China: from Peking, to Tsingtao, to Chungking and Canton. The book gives an excellent impression of what it must have been like to be in China during the Japanese invasion. The book is also very well illustrated, with a large number of photos showing the things seen by Thomas during his adventure. Although this book is not designed to recount gunboat service, it is useful in providing a picture of China during the times. As this is a recent publication it has a website which can be found www.willysthomas.net. (As a footnote, the work can be purchased from the site and the slide show illustrations of photographs from the work are really quite interesting).

"Through the Yang-tse Gorges or Trade and Travel in Western China", by Archibald John Little. This work was first published in 1888 by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rinington. Elibron Classics (www.elibron.com) more recently has been printing copies of the book which are quite inexpensive. This is the journal of Archibald Little as he traveled by junk through the upper Yangtze gorges in 1883. Little had traveled in China for a number of years and was unusual in that he spoke fluent Chinese. He was a true believer in the fact that the upper Yangtze region could be penetrated by steam powered vessels and periodically throughout the book he repeats an impassioned plea for western enterprise/governments to make such an attempt (although not covered in the book, some fifteen years later Little got tired of waiting and built the first steamship to manage this feat). Rather monotonous to start, this book soon becomes quite fascinating. No other book I have read provides such insight into the Chinese and this work is a must if you are interested in this area. (A short article by Little written just after the upper Yangtze had been conquered by steamships can be found here on the site.)

"The Siege of the Peking Legations, Chinese Anti-foreignism and the Boxer Uprising", by Lancelot Giles (introduction by L. R. Merchant - published 1970 ). This is a fascinating book in that it provides a 100 page introduction outlining relations between the Chinese and foreign powers, followed by the diary of Lancelot Giles during the siege of the Peking legations. Giles was in Peking and a member of the British Foreign Service during the Boxer uprising in 1900. Foreign governments had a legation enclave in a small area outside the Imperial Palace in Peking and the inhabitants found themselves, although highly outnumbered, faced with a pitched battle against most of the Chinese population They fortified their tiny position and managed to hold off constant attack for a period of two months. It is an example of one of the few times in history that a number of nations managed to pull together and act as a single unit. This is even more astounding given the fact that a large number of those involved were diplomats. Many of the Giles' family photographs relating to the events discussed in this book can be found in the collections of the Australian National University.

"Secret War in Shanghai", by Bernard Wasserstein (published in 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Company). Although well researched, this book monotonously recounts one short anecdotal tail after another, generally involving individuals in Shanghai. If you like the Daily Enquirer, this is your book. I struggled two-thirds of the way through this work before losing what little interest I had left.

BOOKS I NEED TO READ

"Not the Slightest Chance", by Tony Banham and published by the Hong Kong University press in 2003. This is an astonishing piece of reseacrh recounting the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, hour by hour, day by day, explaining what the defending forces encountered. This work is hard to describe and I have referred to it on numerous occasions for excellent information as it mainly appears to present the raw facts according to the time sequence in which they occurred.

"Roses in December", by David J. Stanford. This work is still being written and recounts the tale of of the author's family in Hong Kong as the Japanese invasion began. Although this work is not designed to cover RN gunboats, I have found that some of the most useful (and enjoyable) reading I have undertaken involves personal accounts of those in China during specific events. Amazingly, the author had two relatives on the Lisbon Maru when she sank, one of whom survived. The author is interested in any information others might have regarding the fall of Hong Kong and I would direct you to www.stanfordprojects.co.uk to learn more.

If you are looking for any of these books I would urge you to try www.abebooks.com. This is an unsolicited recommendation and I guarantee it's the best source for finding books, especially if they are out of print.