Underground In Shanghai

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29222, 4 June 1960, Page 3

Underground In Shanghai

The Lonely Battle. By Desmond 'Wettern. W. H. Allen. 223 pp.

In a foreword to this book, Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton has commended the author for put-, ting on record the exploits of the crew of the British ship, H.M.S. Petrel, during its action against the Japanese on December 7, 1941, in the harbour at Shanghai, when against a surprise attack it went down fighting. One member of the crew, Petty Officer James Cuming, was on shore leave at the time, and decided to go underground, though his existence was known to the enemy and his surrender demanded not only by the Japanese but by certain civilian British residents in the interests of what they conceived to be the general safety. The survivors from the Petrel under its commander, Lieutenant Polkinghorne, were made prisoners and henceforth endured all the humiliations and hardships from their captors for which the Japanese were notorious.

It is doubtful, however, whether their lot was less enviable than that of their shipmate who for four long years was at large in the city, often sick, always hungry, and perpetually on a rack of suspense lest he be captured, and tortured before he was killed. Luckily for James Cuming he was to meet in the very early days of his adventures a gallant white Russian girl called Ludmila with whom he went through a form of marriage which both agreed should be dissolved at the end of the war if either so desired. In the dangerous years that followed Ludmila’s courage and devotion, as well as her invaluable knowledge of Japanese, which saved them many times from discovery, bound them together in bonds that have remained indissoluble to this day.

By making sundry contacts, Cuming soon became involved in local espionage activities, and intensified his own peril by operating a radio from which was transmitted much valuable information to the allies. He also helped to smuggle newspapers into the Bridgehouse prison where some of the Petrel’s crew were incarcerated. These exploits involved him in numerous hairbreadth escapes from detection, and it would be pleasant to record that at the end of the war his services were suitably recognised, but this was not so. He had great difficulty in establishing his identity, and as he and Ludmila had reached the extremes of starvation this official callousness was all the harder to bear. Only when a British naval force under Admiral Servaes arrived at Shanghai was his story accepted as the truth, and he was rehabilitated, though still officially reported as dead. The author gives an account of the other' survivors of the Petrel, and it ,is satisfactory to note that Lieutenant Polkinghorne was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, but Lieu-| tenant Wettern has performed an even more important service to a gallant company by bringing to light the record of one who might otherwise have been among the unsung heroes of the war.