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236: "Get Off My Bloody Ship!" The Defiant British Last Stand, Shanghai 1941
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HMS Peterel: The Royal Navy's Defiant Last Stand at Shanghai, 1941
Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.
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Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a small Royal Navy gunboat faced impossible odds in Shanghai.
When Japanese officers boarded HMS Peterel demanding surrender, her captain - 62-year-old Lieutenant Stephen Polkinghorn - gave them a defiant reply: "Get off my bloody ship!"
What followed was a one-sided battle against the armoured cruiser Izumo and shore batteries…
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