Nov, 1923 – Cohen, M.A. memoir: “A little two-seater plane we christened ‘Rosamonde’ after Mme Sun was a good little ship and, in the November 1923 campaign against Chen Chiung-ming, it did some useful reconnaissance work for our troops”
Nov 2, 1923, Hong Kong. Dr Sun has left Canton with some of his staff to proceed to Sheklung to direct the fighting there.
Nov 12, 1923, Hong Kong. Gen. Chen Captures Sheklung. Dr Sun, as part of the retreating force, travels to Canton on the footplate of a locomotive.
Nov 14, 1923 – Telegram from Minister in China, Schurman, to the Secretary of State, Washington: “Chen Chiung-ming captured Sheklung on the 12th. Sun’s forces are retreating into Canton. Indications that battle may be fought in the vicinity of the eastern suburbs of Canton”
Nov 15, 1923, Vancouver. North China Forces Rout Southern Army. Sun Yat Sen To Make Stand. The troops of General Chen Chiung-ming have routed the forces of Sun Yat Sen and are within 18 miles of Canton. Many civic officials are fleeing, but Sun Yat Sen says he will make a stand outside Canton.
Nov 16, 1923 – Telegram from Minister in China, Schurman, to the Secretary of State, Washington: “Retreating soldiers continue to pour into Canton. Sun has established line just outside city to make last stand, and serious fighting expected within 24 hours. Sun’s troops are entrenching”
Nov 17, 1923 – Isreal Epstein memoir: “Two Gun Cohen told of witnessing the cool courage in actual war of the same Sun who so loathed military pomp. In one of the fights with turncoat southern warlords, Canton itself was in sudden peril. Taking quick leave of Madame Sun, with whom he was sitting relaxed at dinner, Sun rushed by car to where the battle was waging. On the way, he met fleeing officers and, by persuasion and example, steadied and turned them back. At the front, his calmness within enemy machine-gun range stiffened the crumbling defense. Men died all around him; several of his entourage fell wounded. But Sun stubbornly refused to take cover till the situation had stabilized”
Nov 17, 1923 – Cohen, M.A. memoir: “Chen Chiung-ming had been building up his strength for a long time; now he staged another offensive and put in everything he had. He took Sheklung, he took Suntang and came right up to Canton’s city walls. Things could hardly have looked blacker. At dawn Chen’s troops attacked the Five Storied Pagoda, which stood on a bastion where the city walls ran up to the brow of a hill. If they could break through there, Canton was in their hands. At Headquarters, the Doctor climbed into his waiting car, sat back and turned to me: ‘Morris, tell the driver to take us to Five Storied Pagoda.’ We were met there by the Yunnanese general ally who was just as calm as the Doctor. He said he was expecting another attack any minute, but he thought he could hold them and – what’s more – he had one fresh battalion in hand for a counter-attack. The attack began and they came on in earnest. Their covering fire was knocking chips off the Pagoda. I begged the Doctor to take cover but he wouldn’t budge. I grabbed a tommy gun from one of our bodyguard detachment and pumped away myself. They came right up the slope of the hill and it looked as if nothing could stop them. Then came our counter-attack, the whole battalion at once through a breach in the city walls just beneath the Pagoda. The enemy had had enough. They weren’t expecting a counter-attack, especially when it had looked like being a walk-over, and back down the hill they ran with our lads after them. That one charge changed the whole course of the campaign. Chen Chiung-ming had shot his bolt and he started to withdraw the way he had come”
Nov 17, 1923 – Commander Charles Drage recalls: “General Chen advanced up to the very walls of Canton, which he assaulted at Five Story Pagoda. But he was repulsed by a counter-attack of the last reserves of troops, heartened by the personal appearance on the ramparts of Dr Sun himself”
Nov 17, 1923 – Michael Alderton notes that members of Dr Sun’s bodyguard-cum-special forces detachment were armed with the newly invented, fearsome Thompson sub-machine gun. The sudden, totally unexpected, appearance of even small numbers of this revolutionary and deadly weapon could, in itself, have turned the tide of battle against General Chen at Five Storied Pagoda. In trained hands, the well-directed burst of fire from a ‘Tommy Gun’ was capable of cutting an adversary in half, which would doubtless have been a truly frightening and disheartening spectacle to all those facing its rapid, repeating fire for the very first time.
All of the above comprise selective extracts that have been taken from:
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Zhenhai Tower
This is the Zhenhai Tower, now part of Yuexiu Park, Canton/Guangzhou.
Two-Gun Cohen with Dr Sun Yat-sen at Five Storied Pagoda
Michael Alderton (essarem) notes:
Nov, 1923 – Cohen, M.A. memoir: “A little two-seater plane we christened ‘Rosamonde’ after Mme Sun was a good little ship and, in the November 1923 campaign against Chen Chiung-ming, it did some useful reconnaissance work for our troops”
Nov 2, 1923, Hong Kong. Dr Sun has left Canton with some of his staff to proceed to Sheklung to direct the fighting there.
Nov 12, 1923, Hong Kong. Gen. Chen Captures Sheklung. Dr Sun, as part of the retreating force, travels to Canton on the footplate of a locomotive.
Nov 14, 1923 – Telegram from Minister in China, Schurman, to the Secretary of State, Washington: “Chen Chiung-ming captured Sheklung on the 12th. Sun’s forces are retreating into Canton. Indications that battle may be fought in the vicinity of the eastern suburbs of Canton”
Nov 15, 1923, Vancouver. North China Forces Rout Southern Army. Sun Yat Sen To Make Stand. The troops of General Chen Chiung-ming have routed the forces of Sun Yat Sen and are within 18 miles of Canton. Many civic officials are fleeing, but Sun Yat Sen says he will make a stand outside Canton.
Nov 16, 1923 – Telegram from Minister in China, Schurman, to the Secretary of State, Washington: “Retreating soldiers continue to pour into Canton. Sun has established line just outside city to make last stand, and serious fighting expected within 24 hours. Sun’s troops are entrenching”
Nov 17, 1923 – Isreal Epstein memoir: “Two Gun Cohen told of witnessing the cool courage in actual war of the same Sun who so loathed military pomp. In one of the fights with turncoat southern warlords, Canton itself was in sudden peril. Taking quick leave of Madame Sun, with whom he was sitting relaxed at dinner, Sun rushed by car to where the battle was waging. On the way, he met fleeing officers and, by persuasion and example, steadied and turned them back. At the front, his calmness within enemy machine-gun range stiffened the crumbling defense. Men died all around him; several of his entourage fell wounded. But Sun stubbornly refused to take cover till the situation had stabilized”
Nov 17, 1923 – Cohen, M.A. memoir: “Chen Chiung-ming had been building up his strength for a long time; now he staged another offensive and put in everything he had. He took Sheklung, he took Suntang and came right up to Canton’s city walls. Things could hardly have looked blacker. At dawn Chen’s troops attacked the Five Storied Pagoda, which stood on a bastion where the city walls ran up to the brow of a hill. If they could break through there, Canton was in their hands. At Headquarters, the Doctor climbed into his waiting car, sat back and turned to me: ‘Morris, tell the driver to take us to Five Storied Pagoda.’ We were met there by the Yunnanese general ally who was just as calm as the Doctor. He said he was expecting another attack any minute, but he thought he could hold them and – what’s more – he had one fresh battalion in hand for a counter-attack. The attack began and they came on in earnest. Their covering fire was knocking chips off the Pagoda. I begged the Doctor to take cover but he wouldn’t budge. I grabbed a tommy gun from one of our bodyguard detachment and pumped away myself. They came right up the slope of the hill and it looked as if nothing could stop them. Then came our counter-attack, the whole battalion at once through a breach in the city walls just beneath the Pagoda. The enemy had had enough. They weren’t expecting a counter-attack, especially when it had looked like being a walk-over, and back down the hill they ran with our lads after them. That one charge changed the whole course of the campaign. Chen Chiung-ming had shot his bolt and he started to withdraw the way he had come”
Nov 17, 1923 – Commander Charles Drage recalls: “General Chen advanced up to the very walls of Canton, which he assaulted at Five Story Pagoda. But he was repulsed by a counter-attack of the last reserves of troops, heartened by the personal appearance on the ramparts of Dr Sun himself”
Nov 17, 1923 – Michael Alderton notes that members of Dr Sun’s bodyguard-cum-special forces detachment were armed with the newly invented, fearsome Thompson sub-machine gun. The sudden, totally unexpected, appearance of even small numbers of this revolutionary and deadly weapon could, in itself, have turned the tide of battle against General Chen at Five Storied Pagoda. In trained hands, the well-directed burst of fire from a ‘Tommy Gun’ was capable of cutting an adversary in half, which would doubtless have been a truly frightening and disheartening spectacle to all those facing its rapid, repeating fire for the very first time.
All of the above comprise selective extracts that have been taken from:
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