The
lowdown: 'Yangtse Incident: The Story of HMS Amethyst'
is a dramatisation of a real-life event from 1949, when
the Royal Navy frigate HMS
Amethyst came under attack from shore batteries operated by China's
People's Liberation
Army while sailing up the
Yangtse river to the Chinese capital, Nanking. The ship was on a lawful
mission to deliver
supplies to the British
embassy, and was not expecting the surprise attack by the Communists. Some
54 of the ship's
crew were killed or seriously
injured in the attack, and the Amethyst itself became grounded on
mudflats. A political
standoff ensued, with the
Amethyst
stuck in the Yangtse for four months while its surviving offers and the
British high
command attempted to negotiate
with the Communists for the vessel to be allowed to leave. The Communists
refused
to allow the Amethyst
to sail for home unless the crew accepted full responsibility for the incident
by making a false
confession that they had
fired first. Naturally, the British refused to concede to such political
blackmail, and with food
and other supplies running
low, the ship's commander eventually ordered the crew to sail downriver
under the cover of
darkness, where it rejoined
the fleet at the mouth of the Yangtse.
The film stars Richard Todd
as Lieutenant-Commander John Kerans, who assumes command of the Amethyst
after its
captain is killed in the
attack. William Hartnell is Leading Seaman Frank, the ship's acting coxswain,
who takes charge
in the wheelhouse after
the attack, as the other crewmembers on duty were killed in the attack.
With many of the ship's
officers dead, Kerans orders
Frank to put on an officer's uniform for the first meeting with the local
Communist leader,
Colonel Peng (played by
Akim Tamiroff, who was actually Georgian rather than Chinese). Doctor
Who fans should also
watch out for a brief appearance
by Bernard Cribbins in an uncredited role as the ship's sonar operator.
The
verdict: 'Yangtse Incident' is probably one of the lesser-known
British war films of its era, although because it was
made at around the same
time as war favourites such as The Dam Busters, it is probably understandable.
However, this
is an excellent film and
definitely recommended for fans of war films, especially ones that are
based on fact. The scenes
where the Amethyst comes
under attack from the Communists are very well done and convincing. The
film also does a
superb job of portraying
the hardships that must have been experienced by the real-life crew of
the Amethyst, being stuck
in a river in hostile territory
for months, with limited fresh food and water, and the constant threat
of mortar bombardment.
The real HMS Amethyst
was used in the film; by 1957 it had been decommissioned and was scheduled
to be scrapped.
However, the film was shot
in the River Orwell in Suffolk, rather than the real Yangtse.
Video clips:
HMS Amethyst is attacked
8.6mb
Kerans and Frank
6.3mb
Frank becomes an officer
9.9mb
Keeping up morale
5.9mb |
 |
