GRUESOME EXPERIENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1937, Page 9

GRUESOME EXPERIENCE.

ATTACK ON VESSELS

STORY BY EYE-WITNESSES

Received December 16, 10.35 a.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 15. Tho Shanghai correspondent of the United Press says that the Americans, Messrs John L. Hodge and Jim Marshall, a writer for Collier’s Magazine, who -witnessed the bombing of the Panay and the tankers, have arrived from ' Wuliu in a Japanese rescue said: “I left the Panay at 1 p.m on Sunday to go to the oil tanker Meiping. I was sitting in tho foc’sle when 1 heard ’planes. .-I went on to the bridge with Captain Jorgenson to get glasses and see what was happening. The next thing I knew hell was let loose. Three planes swooped past turned, and headed lor the Panay. They hit it, then hit the Meiping’s bridge from which four of us crashed. When I arose I my head gashed. The direct hit had set fire to the ship. The crew got out hoses and the captain handed me the wheel and told me to beach the ship. I tried to go to the north side bank, but somebody turned a ma-chine-gun on us.” Mr Marshall said: “The boys on the Panay trained macliine-guns on the Japanese ’planes and continued shootin<r until the ship sank. The Japanese ’planes bombed the Panay twelve times. I was assisting Chinese into a sampan -when the final moment came. I then jumped into the water and reached the shore. I, Mr Hodge and another American, Mr C. C Vines, an employee of the Rritish-Amencan Tobacco Company, w .Iked to Taiping and found an abandoned mission. A Japanese officer arrived and gave us food but I was too sick to eat. A Japanese army truck took us to Wuhu. “The Panay’s officers and men showed plenty of courage, and fought practically until the last builet. There •were flags painted and- flying everywhere on the American ships, lie three ’planes dived within 300 ft of the river and dropped bombs, but dul not use machine-guns. The sound ot ’planes diving is something I never want to hear again.”