A short novelised true story about the river steamer Li Wo and its brave, futile battle against the invading Japanese in world war 2. It is perhaps enough to say that her skipper received a posthumous Victoria Cross.
The story focuses on Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Ronald Stanton RNR — in part at least because he was one of the few survivors.
This is told in a straightforward, commercial-fiction kind of way. Sellwood wrote a handful of popular histories of the war, and was of the same generation as the people he wrote about. The book has a very close focus on the sailors. I cannot find out, but it is quite possible, likely even, that Sellwood interviewed survivors, presumably Stanton at least, because he used this way of working on other books. This closeness to the ordinary men of the crew results in a book that tries to speak in their words and express their thoughts and points of view. So we see unchallenged ‘colonial’ thinking and casual racism. We don’t see large-scale strategy. We are down in the dirty work, and the book is the better for it. Should they fight? Should they purely aim to survive? What can they meaningfully do? What else is going on? They have to make the best of it. We see them use their tiny, slow little vessel to dodge bombs, fight enemy ships, and try to find a safe harbour — of which there is none. We’re down in the water with them, surrounded by wreckage, as the Japanese turn their machine guns on the injured sailors. The book does not dwell on the brutality –it is pretty matter-of-fact, yet still quite evocative.
This is a good solid read about a time that drove men to their limits. Recommended if you like novelisations of real naval action.
DSPACE 