Plot
On 19 April 1949, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst sails up the Yangtze River on her way to Nanking, the Chinese capital, to deliver supplies to the British Embassy. Suddenly, without warning, People's Liberation Army (PLA) shore batteries open fire and after a heavy engagement, Amethyst lies grounded in the mud and badly damaged. Fifty-four of her crew are dead, dying or seriously wounded while others deteriorate from the tropical heat and the lack of essential medicines. The local Communist official Colonel Peng (played by Akim Tamiroff) is adamant: either accept responsibility for the entire incident, or the Amethyst will remain his prisoner.
After an attempt by HMS Consort to tow Amethyst off the mud bank fails, Lieutenant Commander John Kerans (played by Richard Todd) decides to risk steaming down the Yangtze at night without a pilot or suitable charts. After some subtle alterations to the ship's outline to try to disguise her, Amethyst slips her cable and headed downriver in the dark following a local merchant ship, which Amethyst uses to show the way through the shoals and distract the PLA.
Having finally broken through the boom at the mouth of the river, she sends a signal to HMS Concord: "Have rejoined the fleet south of Woosung ... No damage... No casualties....God save the King."
Read more about this topic: Yangtse Incident (film)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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