"Sea Tiger Vessel" in cruising
formation
The commemoration meeting of the 40th anniversary of
the nomination of the Sea tiger Vessel by the National Defense Ministry held in
a unit of the East China Sea Fleet
Soldiers of the Sea Tiger Vessel in training
On September 1, 1958, a 100-odd-ton small gunboat with hull number of 588
sank a large enemy submarine chaser Tuojiang with its 37 mm guns,
creating a brilliant battle example of sinking large warship with small gunboat
in the history of sea battles. In November 1965, in a "Naval Battle to the East
of Chongwu", this gunboat sank another large enemy gunboat Yongchang of
nearly 1000 tons and severely damaged a large enemy submarine chaser
Yongtai . On February 3, 1966, the Ministry of National Defense
conferred the honorary title "Sea Tiger Vessel" to this gunboat.
Years rolled by and palls of smoke have already faded away. At a modern
military port, we met with Qin Weibang, the then political instructor of No. 558
Gunboat.
In the "Naval Battle to the East of Chongwu" our side launched three waves
of attack. In the first two waves of attack, we made a hit on enemy ship
Yongchang , but our command ship was also damaged by enemy fire. Veteran
Qin Weibang recalled. Being bereft of command, our ships still managed to
maintain inter-communications and followed up one after another to launch attack
against enemy ships. Ge Yi, deputy squad leader on No.588 Gunboat used his
"secret weapon" ---a 75 mm recoilless gun-- to fire two shells at a range of
100m. When Ge prepared to fire for the third time, the enemy warship began to
capsize and soon disappeared from sea surface.
The news of victory soon reached Beijing. On November 17, entrusted by
Premier Zhou, Vice Premier Chen Yi made a special trip to Fujian Province to
participate in a victory celebration rally; he boarded No.588 Gunboat to convey
best regards to the officers and men. 10 days later, Premier Zhou met officers
and men participated in the battle at Jinjiang Hotel in Shanghai. "You have
shown dauntless courage and given a good account of yourselves in battle,
congratulations on your victory!" Recalling the inspiring words of Premier Zhou,
this veteran soldier, who was approaching 70, was as excited as a child.
Boarding this refitted "Sea Tiger Vessel" we found that this small gunboat
has been added with "wings of informationization". After being refitted for
several times, the officers and men of this gunboat have innovated more than 10
new fighting methods such as anti-submarine rapid search operation, approaching
and attack the enemy in concealment, and this gunboat has become a "point boat"
in informationzed anti-submarine warfare.
"We'll never dispense with the vigorous, daring and powerful "Sea Tiger"
spirit no matter how sophisticated our equipment will be" said Huang Haibo, the
16th political instructor of the Sea Tiger Vessel, "training hard to
become an elite force at sea and vying with one another to be the successors of
the " Sea Tiger" has become conscious pursuit of a new generation of the
officers and men of the " Sea Tiger Vessel"."
By Qian Xiaohu and Lin Xiaoying
(July 19, PLA Daily)