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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
901 M STREET SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Yangtze Service 1926-1927, 1930-1932
Shallow draft gunboats of the U.S. Navy sailed China's largest river
for over 50 years before being officially organized as the Yangtze Patrol
Force in August, 1921.
These ships protected U.S. citizens against the bandits and warlord
forces in a turbulent China. In the mid-1920's, the internal struggle for
power was accompanied by many acts of violence against foreigners. Units
of the Yangtze Patrol, reinforced by destroyers and light cruisers from
the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, steamed upriver to protect Americans and national
interests.
Numerous confrontations occurred. When the situation stabilized an uneasy
peace returned to the Yangtze valley, and the gunboats resumed anti-bandit
activities. In the early 1930s severe floods along the entire river valley
brought the gunboats and additional ships of the Asiatic Fleet into action
again, this time in the humanitarian cause of aiding the millions of Chinese
left homeless by the catastrophe.
15 July 1996