Chapter 4- Bex Hill

Jim was staying in the hotel with his parents and he was dressed for school and staring out of the window at the Shanghai waterfront. He saw the paper flowers that were placed upon the dead people who were thrown into the water lying in the river. Jim moved to the ledge of the window and drummed his palms on the window. Two japanese picket boats approached the HMS Petrel. Then the japanese boat started firing at the Petrel. He felt it was his fault for starting it because he had done a semaphore in front of the window. His mother told him that he must lay on the floor and that that day would be a school holiday. She also said that she would go to see if Yang could take them home. Grey smoke lay across the water and the Petrel was sinking. Jim, his father and his mother left the hotel and got into their car. They set off along the bund and got stuck in traffic, behind them there was a Japanese tank. His father got out and told Jim to look after his mother. Japanese marines had captured the USS wake and were firing at the british soldiers swimming ashore from the Petrel. His father was helping the wounded soliders. The packard (the car) 'was thrown forward and shaken violently from side to side'. His mother hit her head and jim lay on the floor, they both got out of the car . The tank was ramming another car into their car. The tank was followed by another tank and a line of camoflauged trucks packed with Japanese soldiers. The final rifle shot rang out and the last of the wounded British soldiers were pulled on to the mud-flat below the bund. The japanese soldiers were forcing the chinese and europeans away from the quay and Jim's mother had dissappeared. Jim went down to where his father was covered in oil, holding the skin of from one of the petty officer's hand that had been boiled off. The Petrel exploded and Jim lay down beside his father as the debris reached them. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers were above them on the bund.