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and the civilians were advised to leave their ships and get into the British gunboats, because if the battery opened fire the gunboats had instructions to steam out of range and leave the merchant vessels to their fate. The attraction of this invitation was not evident to the Britons concerned and they preferred to stand by their ships and the Chinese crews and employees, for whom they felt responsible. Fortunately the guns did not follow the example set in Wuhu, where they had opened up at point-blank range on H.M.S. "Bee" carrying the Rear Admiral Commanding Yangtze Flotilla. Japanese planes flew over on a number of occasions, and even swooped in playful dives over the ships, but no bombs were dropped and it gradually became evident that the urgent protests addressed by the neutral powers to the Japanese government were taking effect.
The whole of that day and the next were spent between the ships and the reeds. Each time a Japanese plane appeared, the few people still remaining in the ships would emerge, cock an eye at the approaching aircraft, and make for the reeds at a speed regulated to the rate of approach. Stretches of reed had been cut by the local farmers and the stooks were still lying about. They provided a convenient cover into which to dive, and as the noise of the aircraft receded you could see an array of dishevelled heads pop out, to be followed in due course by the bodies to which they were attached.
When it was quite evident the immediate danger was passed, sufficient hands were collected, with some difficulty, to raise steam, and the ships again anchored in mid-stream. Here we were joined by other British ships from Wuhu where they had had troubles of their own. The U.S.S. "Oahu" also steamed by, bearing the bodies of those who had been killed in the "Panay" bombing. Some days later, with Japanese permission, we moved down to Nanking, now in Japanese hands. From the deck of the ship the smoke of burning buildings could be seen rising beyond the city wall, but we had no information at the time of the extensive raping and mass murder, whose memory will make the Japanese army for ever infamous.
I had hoped our ship would be allowed to remain anchored off Nanking until it was again safe to go ashore, when we could reoccupy the various properties we had vacated. The Rear Admiral, in H.M.S. "Bee", had preceded us and it was his idea that the British ships still off Nanking should remain there until other ships could come