Customer Reviews

Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China (Bluejacket Paperback Series)

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This book, by the late Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, is a very interesting and at times humorous account of the life of U.S. Navy gunboat sailors on China's Yangtze River from the time of the American Civil War through the mid-20th Century. During that period, China went through a tremendous amount of upheaval that included revolution, civil wars, major wars with Japan, and smaller wars with western countries. In the midst of China's upheaval, small American gunboats and those of other foreign nations tried to protect the lives and commercial interests of their citizens living in China.

Kemp Tolley, who passed away in 2000 at age 92, was himself a young Naval Officer in the 1930s when he was assigned to the Yangtze River Patrol. From that vantage point his tales of U.S. Navy life on the Yangtze--both on duty and off duty--in the 1930s make for some interesting anecdotes, whether they deal with U.S. sailors battling the river and Chinese bandits, romancing White Russian and Chinese women, or brawling with British and Italian gunboat crews in the bars of Yangtze River towns.

"Yangtze Patrol" is a great true adventure story and captures some of the same spirit as the novel, "The Sand Pebbles," which dealt with one U.S. gunboat crew during the Chinese Nationalist Revolution in the mid-1920s. However, any American reader of "Yangtze Patrol" needs to keep in mind how most Chinese viewed the Patrol. That view is well summed up in "The Sand Pebbles" where an American missionary asks Jake Holman, a gunboat sailor, how he'd feel if, instead of American gunboats on the Yangtze, there were Chinese gunboats sailing up and down the Mississippi River.

A fogotten chapter of Naval history is brought to life in this fabulous volume. Kemp Tolley, once a sailor in the Yangtze river patrol, outlines the Navy's service in China from its humblest beginnings prior to the cival war through the loss of the last gunboat in 1941. For those of us interested in Navy history, This book brings a lively and action packed legacy from our "China Sailors"

I read this book on my way to Shanghai on business, and it was a fascinating book. It's written by a retired naval officer, and it is a first hand narrative about what went on in China along the Yangtze River in the early part of teh Chinese century from a US Naval Officer's point of view. He talks about the river boats that carried trade up and down to the coast, the naval ships of different countries that provided security along the river, and the historical events that overtook the country between WWI and WWII.

During this period the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, various warlords rose up in the power vacuum, and ultimately a civil war developed between the Kuomintang (Nationalists) and the Communists. Adding to the mix was the outbreak of WWII, and the Japanese occupation. The book takes us up to Pearl Harbor, and carries its narrative well through many different events that were going on at the same time without confusing you (a difficult task given the complexity of the times).

The author covers the political and historical events well, and also covers such day to day things, such as how the river boats navigated the rapids with the help of the coolie labor pulling them upstream by ropes. He goes into Chinese culture, relationships between Europeans, Americans, Japanese, and Chinese people. He also explains the trading concessions, and even goes over the layout of Shanghai. An amazing amount of subject matter that was somehow put down in a way I could follow it all. If you are going to do business in China, this is a good book for background on how the country was first opening up to the West. You can see the problems they had, and it helps give you a perspective on how they look at the West today.

I found the book interesting in two areas - as a business man doing work in China, I enjoyed the easy to read historical account, and the first hand narrative of Shanghai (I made it a point to visit the places he talked about). Also, as a retired military officer, I found his discussion of military affairs in an environment we called "Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW)" fascinating. That, and his account of life as a naval officer, and how the military personnel in China lived on a day to day basis.

Like any good book, it is excellent in many ways, and I can't recommend it enough.

The story of the Yangtze Patrol is a fascinating true tale and an important one in American military and diplomatic history. The book is not especially well written, but the subject matter and the author's knowledge and passion about the topic makes up for it; and the era comes alive. A must read for any student of naval, military, colonial and/or diplomatic history. There are many lessons to be learned from this book. The Yangtze Patrol was America's longest continuous military commitment 1854 - 1941, 1945. Get it, read it and remember the brave Americans of the Asiatic Squadron. A special salute goes out the author Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley who died at age 92 in 2000. He was a true American hero.