Wings for the Dragon

Air Classics, Sep 1999 by Barton, Charles

For some days, Panay had acted as the communications center for the skeleton embassy staff left in Nanking. At 5 pm, because of artillery shells falling near the ship, commanding officer Lt. Cmdr. James Hughes ordered the anchor raised and headed up river. Three Standard Oil tankers whose skippers had been anxious to leave but hadn't dared do so without an escort, accompanied Panay.

Shortly before dusk, the ships anchored about twelve miles upstream. Because of crowded conditions, Patterson slept on deck. Ashore, the Japanese ran amok in the infamous "Rape of Nanking."

The next morning, because random firing by Japanese artillery began again, the ships moved further upstream and dropped anchor about 15 miles above the anchorage of the previous night.

Shortly after midday, Patterson stood at the fantail of the Pansy talking with a friend who had just come across from an adjacent Standard Oil tanker. Suddenly, Patterson heard the sound dive bombers make when starting a run. He glanced up, saw planes diving toward them, pushed his friend over the side, kicked his suitcase and bedroll in their waterproof wrappings overboard, and jumped.

As he surfaced in the turgid brown water, the first bombs hit. Patterson felt the concussion.

Towing his baggage, Patterson swam with his friend to the tethered sampan and struggled into the wooden craft. Dripping, gasping for breath, they signaled the boatman to head for the far shore. Overhead, Japanese planes continued bombing and strafing the American ships.

The 14 December 1937 San Francisco Examiner carried a two-- inch banner headline: "96 Lost in Panay Bombing.' Subheads read: "Roosevelt protest sent direct to Emperor. Britain consulted."

Actually, casualties were much lighter than reported. Panay had two killed and about 30 wounded. Listed as missing was A.L. Patterson of Washington, DC.

But Patterson survived, and after a saga of escape and evasion arrived in China's wartime capital, Chungking, to again represent his company, now called Consolidated Trading Company Limited.

Negotiations for the sale of the Seversky P-35s had bogged down. In Hong Kong, Leslie Lewis received a confidential letter from H.H. Priestly, Foreign Exchange Manager of the Shanghai Banking Corporation, saying that Pawley had visited the bank's manager. Secrecy had been short-lived.

"Mr. Pawley was well equipped with details of the pending contract," Priestly wrote, adding that Pawley had used "very convincing arguments" in an effort to persuade the bank to turn over the credit proposition arranged by Lewis and Patterson to his own company, Intercontinent. Secondly, Pawley had said he could obtain better credit terms from the Chinese if the bank would cancel negotiations with Patterson and Lewis.

The bank manager turned down both of Pawley's proposals. While Patterson and Pawley continued their all-out struggle, there was no Chinese decision during the first months of 1939.

Finally Kung broke the deadlock. With uncharacteristic directness he summoned the Chief Engineering Officer for the Chinese Air Force, Colonel Chien, and several of his staff to a meeting in Chungking with Chennault, Patterson and Lewis, and gave them 24 hours to tell him why he should not buy the P-35. As Kung suspected, Chien and his staff were already in Pawley's pocket. They raised objection after objection to the model and proposed extensive, unfeasible modifications.