STARS AND STRIPES - 1945

Armed U.S. Junk Fought Navy's Final Battle
  SHANGHAI - Oct. 5 - (UP) - The United States Navy's last surface engagement of World War II was won off the China coast by a handful of Yanks aboard a pair of ancient junks.
  The battle occurred Aug. 20 - five days after Japanese surrender - when one Army captain, two Marine officers, one Navy lieutenant and four Navy enlisted men conquered a heavily armed Jap army junk, killed 43 Japanese and took 39 prisoners, all but four of whom were wounded.
  The Navy's first battle under sail since the Civil War days took place on the night of Aug. 19 when Lt. Livingston 'Swede' Swentzel, Jr., led a little two junk flotilla out of a coastal town near Hainan, Shanghai bound.
  Commanding the second junk was Marine Lt. Stewart L. Pittman. Aboard Swentzel's junk were Capt. Austin B. Cox, an army air-ground support officer whose necessity to reach Shanghai was one of the reasons for the voyage; Capt. Pat O'Neill, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and Seaman First Class James R. Reid.
  With Pittman were three enlisted men - Gunners Mate William K. Barrett, Gunners Mate Floyd Rose and Motor Machinist Mate David A. Baker.
  The morning of the 20th, while tacking north against a heavy wind, the tiny task force suddenly confronted a big menacing junk.
  The Americans spotted a gleaming .75 howitzer which immediately belched smoke and fire, making a direct hit about 10 feet above the deck. The blast killed a pair of Chinese tommy-gunners and knocked out a third and sprayed Captain Cox with fragments.