We conclude our feature on maritime heritage links with China. In 1942, as the fall of Singapore seemed imminent every ship that could float began to leave with refugees. 32 vessels of the Hong Kong-based China Navigation Company got away and were requisitioned by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy during World War Two.
SS Poyang in happier times
The British-owned Chinese coastal steamers Ping Wo and Whang Pu had been requisitioned earlier in the war and were in various stages of refit in Singapore as makeshift military vessels. On 2 February 1942 they joined a large number of Allied ships evacuating the port.
The destroyer HMAS Vendetta was undergoing a refit in Singapore and was out of action. The crippled Vendetta was towed by Ping Wo through a rapidly strengthening Japanese blockade, in an epic escape of 8000km that took 72 days to reach Albany WA.
These ships were built for coastal areas and rivers, and they rolled in ocean swells. In the rough waters of the Great Australian Bight it looked like Ping Wo might capsize, and the tow was handed over to SS Islander. “We last saw her running before the gale like a surf board”, but Ping Wo made it across the Bight, and commissioned as HMAS Ping Wo on 22 May 1942.
In 1943, HMAS Ping Wo was converted to a repair ship and re-deployed to New Guinea mainly at Milne Bay then Morotai in the Moluccas. In 1946, she repatriated Allied servicemen and former prisoners of war.
Meanwhile, SS Whang Pu, arrived safely in Fremantle. She was fitted out as a submarine depot ship and spent the next year and a half at Fremantle as an accommodation ship for Dutch submarine and minesweeper crews. In July 1944, Whang Pu assisted in the construction of the base at Madang, New Guinea by transporting equipment and stores as well as providing construction parties.
SS Poyang and SS Yunnan were already in Australian waters when the Pacific War started. Both were requisitioned and fitted out as Armoured Stores Issuing Ships. HMAS Poyang and HMAS Yunnan. They operated off the north coast of New Guinea primarily supplying ammunition to Allied ships. They were part of the Service Force Seventh Fleet at the Leyte Gulf landings.
Engine trouble and coal shortages in New Guinea made it difficult for them to operate. They also weren’t in good condition, nor were they a very glamourous posting. “I don’t think my enthusiasm for the Navy ever recovered from the trauma of coming face to face with this rusting old heap of crap”, said a seaman about Yunnan. Ping Wo had a gun mounted on the foredeck, but “we were advised not to use it as the shock might cause the ship to fall apart” said one rating.
But the Pacific War was carried out over a huge area, and required more supply and support vessels than combat vessels.
Although the ships were British-owned, the crews were largely Chinese. Initially the Navy tried to enlist Chinese crews as the Chinese Nationalist Government was an Allied nation in the war against Japan. Not all the Chinese were keen to go. An RAN seaman noted of the “Yunnan”, “Most of the crew were Chinese, and objected to taking the ship to Milne Bay. They were gaoled for the mutiny”. A few Chinese remained among the British merchant service crew and RAN gun crews.
HMAS Poyang was in Morotai at the end of hostilities on 15 August. She joined the naval force at Ambon when the AIF was landed to occupy the island.
All these ships were handed back to their owners in 1946. Poyang was broken up at Singapore in 1970. Whang Pu was worn out and scrapped in 1949. Ping Wo was captured by the Red Chinese Army and disappeared from records. Considering her poor condition it is unlikely that she lasted long. The “crap” old Yunnan somehow managed to carry on until scrapped in 1971.
A plaque commemorates those who served on the Allied Chinese Ships during World War Two at the National Corvette Memorial at Garden Island Naval base, NSW.
Primary Source Petar Djokovic