* A.F. Anders; His Gunboat Fought Japanese in 1937

Arthur F. Anders, 96, a U.S. naval officer who took command of the gunboat Panay after Japanese warplanes attacked it while it was cruising the Yangtze River in China. Japan had invaded China in July 1937, but the neutral United States still was operating boats on the Yangtze. The Panay was on patrol about 27 miles north of Nanjing, then occupied by Japanese troops, when Japanese warplanes strafed and bombed the Panay, seriously wounding the vessel’s captain. Anders, himself badly hurt in the attack, ordered the Panay’s machine gunners to fire on the Japanese planes. He later ordered the heavily damaged vessel abandoned. The Japanese government apologized for the December 1937 attack and offered reparations, saying that poor visibility had caused the incident. However, Anders always maintained that the attack was a planned assault, noting that Japanese planes had been hitting Chinese targets ashore for several days without touching U.S. ships. Anders, who was born in Texas and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, died Sunday at his home in Rancho Bernardo, Calif.