The most furious all-in engagement since hostilities began raged around the Shanghai waterfront and the city's northern boundary soon after sundown. Chaotjc fighting began shortly before six o'clock when Chinese artillery attacked Hongkew and its naval guardians from the surprise quarter of Chapei and the momentarily mystified Third Fleet unit gunness blazed into Pootung. When the quarter of the hot attack was discovered, the guns of the Idzumo returned the fire heavily. More Chinese.|batteries opposite Yangtszepoo opened up. When snipers on Póotung and a squadron of Chinese planes joined the fray, the Japanese were beset on practically all sides and their tracer shells and bullets boxed the compass endeavouring to answer all their foes. The roar of this battle royal was almost deafening.
The smoke from the naval guns and the dust from buildings on Pootung Point, smashed by high explosive at point blank range to rid the gun crews from sniper worry, shrouded The Bund in a dense white screen.
Violent explosions and light flashes in Yangtszepoo showed the Japanese landing field to be the objective of the Chinese planes' bomb cargoes. The crash of anti-aircraft defence died away and rising lights denoted at least four Japanese planes taking to the air to offer combat. They flew over Chapei and a little later an isolated and very short-lived burst of A. A. quick firing led to the supposition that one Japanese battery had mistaken friend for foe.
The rattle of small arms fire sounded continuously in the- Hongkew-Chapei area and bursts of light north of the city showed that the big guns in Hongkew Park were far from being passive bystanders of the battle.
The grim duelling lasted for an hour and ceased as suddenly as it had begun. There was perfect peace for a time and then every hour or so the silence was disrupted by returns of the Chinese fighters and the massed, fiery answers of the naval and shore batteries,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.