The_Sinking_Of_The_USS_Panay

The Sinking Of The USS Panay The U.S.S. Panay is one of six small river gunboats that had been built in 1927 to protect American commerce and interest on the Yangtze River in China. The Panay, along sister ships Guam, Luzon, Mindanao, Oahu and Tutuila were part of the Yangtze River Patrol of the United States Navy’s Asiatic Fleet assigned to guard against pirates attacking commercial shipping along the river. As Japanese forces approached Nanking in late November 1937, the Chinese foreign Ministry notified American diplomats that they would need to evacuate. While the Ambassador and most of his staff left on November 22nd aboard the USS Luzon, several personnel had been assigned to stay as long as possible. After a week, the remaining staff had decided it was time to evacuate and boarded the USS Panay for the trip down river. On December 1st, the American Ambassador Grew notified the Japanese government that the gunboat would embark from Nanking on December 11th along with three Standard Oil barges. At approximately 11:00 am on December 12th, the Panay along with the three tankers she was escorting anchored near Hoshien. Because the United States was neutral uss, panay, japanese, river, united, three, states, american, along, vessels, ships, nanking, december, chinese, been, yangtze, while, two, staff, several, seamen, one, oil, november, notified, navy, naval, make, luzon, inquiry, immediately, government, flew, fighters, evacuate