...first to open fire on Japanese

[Peter H]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... -died.html

First British serviceman to open fire on Japanese during WW2 has died

Jim Mariner, the first British serviceman to fire on Japanese forces during the Second World War, has died aged 90.

The able seaman was just 21 when he opened fire on the enemy from gunboat HMS Peterel shortly after 4am on December 7, 1941.

The vessel was in China's Shanghai Harbour and the crew had been issued with cutlasses and told they should be prepared to die defending the ship.

It was the last commissioned Royal Navy craft on the Yangtze River and had been stripped of most of her weapons.

She had a skeleton crew and was acting as a communication vessel and was clearly in no position to fight the extensive enemy forces.

In an attempt to delay the inevitable and give the crew time to scuttle her, the commanding officer invited Japanese officers onboard.

When the officers refused to discuss the matter below decks, Lieutenant Stephen Polkington ordered them to: "Get off my bloody ship."

Once the Japanese officers had returned to their own vessel, HMS Peterel was fired on at point blank range.

Mr Mariner was first to fire back with a Lewis machine gun and a number of Japanese were killed in the ensuing firefight.

The 350 tonne HMS Peterel sank and the Japanese crew gunned down several of the men as they swan for safety.

Those who survived were taken prisoner and Mr Mariner, from Bournemouth, Dorset, spent the rest of the war working in a Japanese mine.

He later recalled the action just hours after the Japanese attack at Pear Harbour: "We refused to surrender and were determined to fight to the finish.

"We stacked the boat with high explosive charges which we planned to set off if we were boarded and armed ourselves with pistols and cutlasses, ready to resist boarders.

"I walked along and up the ladder on to the gun deck, which was now all action stations. Then red lights went into the sky and all hell broke loose. We thought it was going to be a mass invasion but it wasn't.

"They wanted to blow us to pieces. I just opened fire with my gun."

After swimming to a Panamanian ship which he thought was safe, he was taken prisoner by Japanese troops that boarded her. The Japanese declared war on Britain the next day.

Mr Mariner, a great grandfather, later left the navy and spent 28 years with the police as a motorcycle officer and he played football and cricket for the force.

He was married to his beloved Muriel for 63 years. His funeral took place on Monday at Bournemouth crematorium after his death on October 3 at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

This is something new to me. Thanks for sharing! His last name was very appropriate indeed. A mariner named Jim Mariner!

Edward L. Hsiao

[OpanaPointer]

But that would have been Dec. 8th for him.