The New China Gunboat Log

This log is provided to manage recorded history and news for the surviving members of the United States River Fleet known as the China Gun Boatmen. Walter Ashe, who lives in Asheville, NC and who was a member of the crew of the USS Asheville PG-21, is the primary designated poster. Features from email and from the association newsletter will find a home here. Look for posts to develop over time. Walter left the USS Asheville only a short time before it was lost in battle with the Japanese Imperial Fleet soon after the Pacific War began. Walter carries the torch for the USS Asheville to this day. Within 3 months of the infamous date of December 7, 1941, the entire US Asiatic Fleet and a combined fleet of Allies were on the bottom of the ocean. More than 20 of these warships were American and at least that many more were Allied warships. The combined allied fleets were pawns, used to delay the progress of the Japanese war machine until adequate forces could be brought to bear on the Japanese. The USS Houston (CA-30) was the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. Walter says, "My "Fleet that did not Exist" should get more publicity because it states in a nut shell the whole story of the Asiatic Fleet during the period 7 December 1941 to 3 March 1942. Other periods have been fully covered in my many issues of the ChinaGunBoatMan."