HMS Li Wo was an auxiliary patrol vessel of the British Royal Navy, which was sunk on 14 February 1942 by Japanese warships as she single-handedly attacked an enemy convoy during the Malayan Campaign.

Jun 19, 2019 · On Valentine’s Day in 1942, HMS Li Wo, a patrol vessel of the British Royal Navy was commissioned to go to Singapore to protect the safety of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. There were only 84 crews on the boat including Lieutenant Captain, Thomas Wilkinson.

The Li Wo was built for the Indo-China Navigation Company in 1938 by the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company, being specially designed and engined for service as a steamer on the Upper Yangtse. She was a small ship, only 170 feet long with a beam of 30 feet and a draught of 7 feet when loaded.

Mar 15, 2017 · HMS Li-Wo, its battle ensign flying and its single puny deck gun blazing, made straight for the nearest transport. The Japanese didn’t return fire immediately, and Li-Wo’s gun crew, survivors of the capital ships Prince of Wales and Repulse, sunk two months earlier, made every shot count.

HMS Li Wo was an auxiliary patrol vessel of the British Royal Navy, which was sunk on 14 February 1942 by Japanese warships as she single-handedly attacked an enemy convoy during the Malayan Campaign.

Li Wo was one of about a dozen ships that sailed on ‘Black Friday’ 13 February, two days before the colony fell. She spent the first night among the outlying islands, as most of the channel buoys were missing.

Li Wo altered course towards the leading transport ship of the convoy at full speed, unfurling her battle ensign, and opening fire with her four-inch gun (for which she had only 13 shells, plus three practice rounds [2]). She scored a number of direct hits on the transport, starting fires aboard, and causing the troops aboard to abandon ship.

Feb 21, 2022 · The enraged Japanese machine-gunned Li-Wo’s survivors in the water, and one ship reportedly ran through the wreckage at high speed. Only seven men survived to be taken prisoner. And few of them lived through the next three years in Japanese prison camps.

Jan 11, 2024 · On 12 February, 1942, he was drafted to the auxiliary patrol vessel, HMS Li Wo. HMS Li Wo had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy in June, 1940, and transferred to Singapore, employed as an inspection and anti-submarine vessel, under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Thomas Wilkinson, RNR.