It’s early morning of February 13th, 1942.
Off the coast of a besieged Singapore.
Three British Patrol boats wait at anchor, bouncing up and down in the gentle waves.
The HMS Li Wo is a passenger boat that’s been commandeered and armed with meager defenses
by the British as well as the Fuh Wo, and a boat whose name has been lost to time.
Aboard Li Wo Captain Thomas Wilkinson is fast asleep, resting before the journey ahead.
Singapore is about to fall into Japanese hands and they need to make a run for safety first thing in the morning.
The rumble of aircraft engines reaches his ears, growing ever louder.
Realization hits him like a brick. He snaps awake and runs out onto the deck where he witnesses
a swarm of Japanese bombers filling the skies, and a couple ominously turning straight towards him.
Wilkinson runs as the bombers open fire with their machine guns,
their shots pierce through the ship’s unarmored upper deck and detonate inside the second floor quarters.
Wilkinson makes it to the bridge unharmed along with several of his crew.
Amidst the chaos he spots a coastal anti-air battery, and thinking fast
he points at it and orders his men to get as close to the weapon as fast as they can.
Meanwhile, an RAF Sergeant and a Navy sailor burst open the door to the ship’s upper deck rushing for a pair of stationary Lewis machine guns.
They swing the weapons at the multitude of aircraft making passes on the ship
and open fire in a desperate resistance, unflinching in the face of overwhelming incoming fire.
The ships rumble to life and power closer to the anti-air batteries compelling the planes to pick all the targets.
The crew wait anxiously, watching the swarm of warplanes dropping bombs inland for several agonizing minutes
until the enemy runs out of ammunition and flies off.
Captain Wilkinson gathers his breath and turns to his shaken crew “radio the other ships, we’re getting out of here.”
A few men gather on the railings as the ships make their way out to sea, watching the burning city of Singapore recede into the distance.
A day goes by. They successfully traverse an allied minefield and the unnamed boat goes its separate way.
By this stage the RAF Sergeant and the Navy sailor have become the de facto machine gunners,
the Sergeant coordinates a rotation with his fellow to keep a constant eye on the sky.
That afternoon, what the crew has been dreading the whole day becomes reality.
“Planes!”
Li Wo’s speed and maneuverability, and Wilkinson’s well-timed orders prove to be too much tor the Japanese aviators marksmanship,
but the story is very different for her companion.
The bigger Fuh Wo is slower and less maneuverable than the Li Wo, her Captain tries everything but eventually a Japanese pilot finds his mark.
A bomb pierces through the deck and explodes deep within the ship, cracking the hull and starting a fire.
The raid comes to an end shortly after and the men of Fuh Wo extinguish the inferno, but the hull damage is too extensive.
A few hours after the attack the Fuh Wo is purposefully beached at Banka island and would be blown up
by her own crew later that night with the men hiding away in occupied territory.
Li Wo is left alone.
They continue their journey through the Banka strait.
Beyond it they’ll be faced with 200 more miles of open sea, before finally reaching the safety of Batavia, modern day Jakarta.
But their hopes are dashed with a simple sentence.
“Smoke off the port bow, 10 miles ahead, sir!”
Captain Wilkinson’s heart drops, and the bridge falls into a silence.
They can all feel it; it’s a Japanese fleet.
The Li Wo continues on its path with lookouts keeping watch on the horizon.
One by one the distinctive silhouette of 11 enemy ships comes into view,
8 troop transports carrying men to the Japanese invasion of Sumatra and 3 warships.
It’s the worst case scenario.
They don’t have the supplies to take another route, the only path was forward and now it’s blocked.
They consider beaching the ship but Wilkinson doesn’t want to give up like that, not after Singapore,
but attacking such a fleet would be nothing short of suicide.
At an impasse he leaves the bridge and gathers his men.
He explains the situation and requests their input.
The response is completely one sided.
“We’ll fight”
Captain Wilkinson returns to the bridge full of determination, he steps up to the front of the bridge,
looking on to the incoming battle and declares.
“We shall take as many of them with us as we can.”
The men get in their positions, and the Gunlayer brings their stored shells to the ship’s singular 4-inch gun.
There are just 13 of them.
They approach the enemy fleet for 30 excruciating minutes, watching their vessels grow bigger and bigger.
The Li Wo wanders right into the enemy gun range, but the Japanese don’t seem to notice.
The crew waits nervously.
They don’t have a rangefinder and have very little shells,
they need to get as close as possible to make the most of them, even if they could be found out at any moment.
The Li Wo gets just 2,000 yards away from the enemy ships, the gun aiming for a Japanese crew transport.
Finally, Captain Wilkinson makes the order.
“Fire!”
A bang washes over the sea and the Li Wo’s 4-inch shell is propelled across the air, zipping right above the enemy’s head.
The Japanese hear it, but they don’t realize they’re under attack.
Meanwhile the gunners reload a second round into the chamber, adjust, and fire.
It, too, misses.
The Japanese know something is up now and a lookout spots the Li Wo coming towards them.
Alarms blare across the Japanese transport column, their sailors scramble to man their posts and officers frantically radio their warships for help.
Back at the British vessel the gunners load a third round into the chamber, and fire.
Third time is the charm, the 4-inch armor-piercing shell slams into the side of the troop transport right underneath the bridge.
The explosion kills several officers and starts a fire.
8 nautical miles away, the Japanese warships turn their lumbering guns towards the battle, but the Li Wo is right between the transports
and the warships, their distant silhouettes blend with one another and the Japanese gunners can’t fire out of fear of striking their own.
The British fire over and over as fast as they can, targeting this one transport determined to take it down.
Low caliber bullets are cracking overhead as soldiers aboard the enemy vessels take shots at Li Wo
with their rifles and the British machine gunners respond in kind.
The Li Wo runs out of armor piercing shells and they load high explosives.
They fire at their target from nearly point-blank, the explosions burst through the thin superstructure sending shrapnel flying across the inside.
The soldiers inside panic and abandon ship in a chaotic retreat.
Onboard the Li Wo the gunners fire their last shot, a shrapnel shell akin to a massive shotgun.
The pellets strike the side doing little damage and the enemy transport remains afloat.
But Captain Wilkinson is not having it, they’re determined to bring this thing down.
He turns to his helmsman and orders “Ram it!”
Aboard the enemy vessel 4 Japanese fight through the masses of fleeing soldiers.
They get hold of an anti-air weapon on deck and open fire at the rapidly approaching Li Wo.
In a blur a barrage of shells tear across the lower deck of the British ship, taking out a swath of sailors .
On the top deck the RAF sergeant responds quickly and fires a volley from his Lewis gun
at the enemy gunners taking them out just moments before...
the British ship impacts the side of the Japanese vessel with furious force.
The Li Wo’s hull buckles under the strain and its bow pierces the side of the enemy ship .
A second transport sails by just 200 meters away, their soldiers take pot shots at the Li Wo.
The Sergeant recovers from the impact and turns his machine gun’s anger to this new enemy, taking out a multitude of soldiers on deck.
Then Li Wo breaks away from the enemy ship, dead in the water.
The rest of the Japanese transports escape the scene, opening up a line of sight for their warships.
A massive shells strike the Li Wo’s tiny form causing devastating damage.
For Captain Wilkinson this is the cue, they are done.
“Abandon ship.” , he commands.
This little ship is shot at mercilessly as her crew jump overboard, explosions turning it into scrap in minutes.
Li Wo capsizes quickly under the punishment and sinks into the depths.
Of the Li Wo’s 86-man crew only 7 would get to return home.
The identity of the RAF Sergeant who manned the Lewis gun would be lost to history.
The target of their final act would burn uncontrollably until it sank several hours later.
Captain Thomas Wilkinson would be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions.
He still remains at his post.