GALLANT ACTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 24, 27 December 1945, Page 5

GALLANT ACTION

GLORIOUS SELF-SACRIFICE. LONDON, Dec. 12

The story has now been told of how a Chinese river passenger steamer attacked a Japanese convoy which was escorted by one cruiser and three destroyers. The steamer Li Wo was requisitioned at the outbreak of war in Singapore for naval service as a patrol vessel. She was commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Wilkinson, R.N.V.R. Her wartime crew consisted of rating survivors of the Prince of Wales, with Malayan civilian firemen. When Lieutenant * Wilkinson sighted the large Japanese convoy with its escort he called his officers and crew together and told them he did not intend to run away but would attack. There were only 13 practice shells on board, but the Li Wo closed with the convoy at her maximum speed of 15 knots. Fire was opened on two ships of the convoy, one of which wab set ablaze.

After firing all his ammunition, Wilkinson ordered "full steam ahead" towards the burning ship and rammed her. With her thinly-armoured bows crumpled, the Li Wo was swept by fire from the Japanese cruiser and destroyers, which poured their shells into her until she sank. Lieutenant Wilkinson was last seen on the bridge as his ship went down. Of the scratch European crew of 55 men, only eight survivors reached land. Lieutenant Wilkinson has been posthumously mentioned in dispatches.