USS ''Wake'' (PR-3) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

river gunboat A river gunboat is a type of gunboat adapted for river operations. River gunboats required shallow draft for river navigation. They would be armed with relatively small caliber cannons, or a mix of cannons and machine guns. If they carried mor ...

operating on the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

. Originally commissioned as the gunboat ''Guam'' (PG-43), she was redesignated river patrol vessel PR-3 in 1928, and renamed ''Wake'' 23 January 1941. She was captured by Japan on 8 December 1941 and renamed ''Tatara''. After her recapture in 1945, she was transferred to Chinese nationalists, who renamed her ''Tai Yuan''. Communist forces captured her in 1949. On 1 May, 1949 Tai Yuan was sunk by Nationalist aircraft in the Caishiji River.

Service history

U.S. Navy

She was launched on 28 May 1927 as ''Guam'' by the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China, and commissioned on 28 December 1927. Her primary mission was to ensure the safety of American

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

and other foreigners. Later, the ship also functioned as a "radio spy ship," keeping track of Japanese movements.Groom, W. ''1942''. pp. 111–113 However, by 1939, she was "escorted" by a Japanese warship wherever she went, as China fell more and more under Imperial Japanese control. On 23 January 1941, she was renamed ''Wake'', as ''Guam'' was to be the new name of a

large cruiser The ''Alaska'' class were six very large cruisers ordered before World War II for the United States Navy, of which only two were completed and saw service late in the war. The US Navy designation for the ships of this class was 'large cruiser ...

being built in the U.S. On 25 November 1941,

LCDR LCDR may refer to: * The London, Chatham and Dover Railway * The rank of lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. ...

Andrew Earl Harris, the brother of

Field Harris Field Harris CBE (September 18, 1895 – December 21, 1967) was a highly decorated lieutenant general in the United States Marine Corps, who commanded the Marine Aviation Units during World War II and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing during the Korean ...

, was ordered to close the Navy installation at

Hankow Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers whe ...

, and sail to Shanghai. On 28 November 1941, LCDR Harris and most of the crew were transferred to gunboats and ordered to sail to the Philippines. Columbus Darwin Smith—an old China hand who had been piloting river boats on the

—was asked to accept a commission in the U.S. Navy and was appointed captain of ''Wake'' with the rank of Lt. Commander. When

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

was attacked on 7 December 1941, Shanghai had been under Japanese occupation since the 1937

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of th ...

. Smith was in command on 8 December 1941 (7 December in Hawaii), with a crew of 14, when the Japanese captured the ship, which was tied up at a pier in Shanghai. Smith had received a telephone call the night before from a Japanese officer he knew. The officer asked where Smith would be the next morning as he wanted to deliver some turkeys for Smith and his crew. The Japanese did the same to other American officers and officials so as to determine where they would be on 8 December. However, Commander Smith received word from his quartermaster about the Pearl Harbor attack and rushed to the ship only to find it under guard by the Japanese. Surrounded by an overwhelming Japanese force, the crew attempted unsuccessfully to scuttle the craft. ''Wake'' surrendered, the only U.S. ship to do so in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Commander Smith and his crew were confined to a prison camp near Shanghai, where the U.S. Marines and sailors captured on Wake Island were also later imprisoned.

Japanese service

The Japanese gave ''Wake'' to their puppet

Wang Jingwei regime The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...

in Nanjing, where she was renamed . The following activities are known to have occurred during the war.

Post-war

In 1945, at the end of the war, she was recaptured by the U.S. The U.S. gave the ship to the Chinese nationalists, who renamed her ''Tai Yuan'' (太原). Finally, the ship was captured by Communist Chinese forces in 1949. On 1 May, 1949 Tai Yuan was sunk by Nationalist aircraft in the Caishiji River. As of 2019, no other ship of the U.S. Navy has been named ''Wake'', though a launched in 1943 was named .

Awards

Yangtze Service Medal The Yangtze Service Medal is a decoration of the United States military which was created in 1930 for presentation to members of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps (and to a lesser extent, members of the United States Army). Th ...

China Service Medal The China Service Medal was a service medal awarded to U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel. The medal was instituted by Navy Department General Order No. 176 on 1 July 1942. The medal recognized service in and around China before a ...

American Defense Service Medal The American Defense Service Medal was a military award of the United States Armed Forces, established by , by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on June 28, 1941. The medal was intended to recognize those military service members who had served ...

with "FLEET" clasp *

Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal The Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal is a United States military award of the Second World War, which was awarded to any member of the United States Armed Forces who served in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater from 1941 to 1945. The medal was created ...

with one

battle star A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

World War II Victory Medal The World War II Victory Medal is a service medal of the United States military which was established by an Act of Congress on 6 July 1945 (Public Law 135, 79th Congress) and promulgated by Section V, War Department Bulletin 12, 1945. The Wor ...

Footnotes

References

* * Groom, Winston. 2005. ''1942: The Year that Tried Men's Souls''. Atlanta Monthly Press, New York.

External links

navsource.org: USS ''Wake'' (PR-3)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wake (PR-3) Gunboats of the United States Navy Ships built in China 1927 ships Second Sino-Japanese War naval ships World War II patrol vessels of the United States Naval ships of the United States captured by Japan during World War II Ships of the Reorganized National Government of China Navy World War II patrol vessels of Japan Patrol vessels of the Republic of China Navy Patrol vessels of the People's Liberation Army Navy Riverine warfare Gunboats of the Imperial Japanese Navy