Yangtze Showdown Read online

  Leonard Williams, the cool head in Amethyst’s engine room, had the most challenging of naval careers. He was in the Yangtze gunboat HMS Dragonfly when she left Singapore on 14 February 1942, the day before the island fell to the Japanese. Dragonfly and her sister ship HMS Grasshopper, both packed with civilians, were attacked by around twenty-five fighter-bombers south of Singapore. Dragonfly took two direct hits and sank within 10 minutes. After several hours in the water Williams and a few others reached Singkep Island, where Grasshopper had managed to beach. After a long journey by boat, road and rail most of the survivors – and a dog called Judy – reached Padang on the opposite side of Sumatra, only to be taken prisoner on 17 March. As Williams put it, ‘thus began years of the most horrific labour, torture, starvation and every degradation the Japanese could inflict on us’. He was taken to a camp at Medan, northern Sumatra, along with Judy, who had become a mascot. In June 1944 he was among 800 prisoners being sent to Japan in the cargo ship Harukiki Maru. Judy had been smuggled aboard in a sack. In the Strait of Malacca two torpedoes from the submarine HMS Truculent sank the ship, and about 180 prisoners lost their lives. Williams escaped, as did Judy, who was credited with saving lives by pushing debris towards men struggling in the water. The dog was later awarded the animal VC, the Dickin Medal. Williams ended up back in Sumatra, working on the Pekan Baru to Muara death railway, which went through 140 miles of mostly jungles and swamps. More than 100,000 Indonesian slave labourers and around 6,000 prisoners of war were forced to build the line, which was completed on 15 August 1945, the day that Japan surrendered. Countless thousands had died. ‘Every sleeper laid cost lives,’ said Williams. ‘Surviving prisoners were in a terrible state of health, emaciated and needing medical help for tropical diseases.’

  Amethyst must have been the least of his ordeals. With Simon the cat receiving the Dickin Medal, Williams had the distinction of serving with two animal VCs. After the Yangtze Incident he enjoyed more peaceful times. He was in the cruisers HMS Cumberland and HMS Devonshire in the Mediterranean and the West Indies. In 1953 he was among those chosen to join the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was nearing completion at the John Brown shipyard, Clydebank. Williams was the first to start the ship’s engines, and then followed 12 ‘wonderful’ years, with three round-the-world trips. He left the navy in 1964 and taught in the engineering and naval architecture department at Portsmouth Polytechnic for 20 years. Williams died in December 2006, aged 87.8

  The Yangtze Incident did not harm Admiral Sir Patrick Brind’s career. In 1951 he was appointed the first Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces, Northern Europe, as part of the newly formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That year also saw him created GBE (Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). He died in October 1963, aged 71. Brind’s Nato deputy, General Sir Robert Mansergh, paid this tribute: ‘With characteristic thoroughness and unfailing courtesy he created, in a remarkably short time, an efficient command, training and operational organisation which worked smoothly mostly and happily always. An international, closely integrated force is never easy to control, but Pat Brind achieved this and laid the basic foundation of what today is one of the major defences of the west.’ Mansergh also saluted the admiral’s ‘adherence to Christian principles, his delightful manner and impressive presence’.9

  Madden’s career also prospered. He returned home early from the Far East to become Second Sea Lord in 1950, later receiving a knighthood and becoming a full admiral. Admiral Sir Alexander Madden’s last appointment before retiring in 1955 was Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. He died in September 1964, less than a year after Brind’s death.10

  David Scott, Brind’s flag lieutenant during the Amethyst crisis, had been involved in the famous ‘man who never was’ deception during the Second World War. Scott was first lieutenant of the submarine HMS Seraph when she carried out Operation Mincemeat in April 1943, depositing a corpse wearing the uniform of a Royal Marines officer off the coast of Spain. Attached to the body, which had been kept in a metal container packed with ice, was a briefcase with fake secret documents. The body was found, and the Spanish, who assumed they had an air crash victim, duly passed on the documents to the Germans. The ruse worked. The Germans diverted forces from the defence of Sicily. The Royal Marines officer was actually a Welsh vagrant who had been found dead in London. In October 1942 Seraph had rescued the French general Henri Giraud from a beach near Toulon. Giraud had refused to be saved by the Royal Navy because of the British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. When he boarded Seraph she was flying the Stars and Stripes, had a temporary US Navy captain and Scott and the rest of the crew were speaking with dubious American accents they had picked up from watching films. Giraud, apparently none the wiser, was taken to Gibraltar to meet General Eisenhower, who wanted him to help with the invasion of French North Africa. Scott was also involved in the Corfu Channel disaster of 1946 when the destroyers Saumarez and Volage were badly damaged by Albanian mines, with heavy casualties. He was second in command of Volage, which went to Saumarez’s aid only to suffer a similar fate. But Volage towed the other destroyer to safety, and Scott was commended for his superb seamanship and courage. In 1953 Scott achieved the first submerged transatlantic crossing by a diesel submarine using a snorkel. Twenty years later he became deputy controller of the Polaris programme. He was later knighted and left the navy in 1980 in the rank of rear admiral. Scott died in January 2006, aged 84.11

  The Soviet spy Guy Burgess, who monitored Amethyst and the events on the Yangtze so closely, also tried to influence policy on China during his time in the Foreign Office’s Far Eastern Department. He argued for early recognition of the Communist regime, and persuaded his superiors to put pressure on the Americans and the French to do the same. The Labour politician Tom Driberg noted: ‘Because of his knowledge of Communism he became, in effect, the department’s political analyst of the Chinese revolution. His colleagues knew China – he knew Marxism. It was a happy partnership.’ Cambridge-educated Burgess opposed the move to increase military forces in Hong Kong. He acknowledged that the Chinese Communists could overrun the colony but insisted they would not. Because of his stand the department found itself in a major dispute with the War Office and the Colonial Office. Soon after the start of the Korean War in June 1950 Burgess was sent to the British embassy in Washington to liaise with the US State Department on Far East policy. According to Driberg, he experienced an ‘agonising’ time. Burgess found his new colleagues ignorant and incompetent, and he fell out with a senior diplomat, Sir Hubert Graves, who removed him from his specialist role. Burgess’s state of mind was not helped by concussion he suffered after a colleague pushed him down a stone staircase during an argument. Heavy drinking and fast driving – he was stopped for speeding three times in one day – did not endear him to the American authorities. Burgess was recalled to London.12 In May 1951 he fled to the Soviet Union with Donald Maclean. They belonged to the Cambridge Five spy ring, whose other members were Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and someone who has never been positively identified. The son of a naval officer, Burgess had been born in Amethyst’s home, Devonport. He went to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, but he never took up a career in the navy after an eyesight problem was uncovered. Burgess, who disliked life in the Soviet Union, died in 1963, aged 52.

  Clement Attlee, who lost the 1951 general election and saw his Yangtze critic Winston Churchill return as prime minister, made a remarkable journey in August 1954. He went to Peking and shook hands with Mao. It was the first time that the Communist leader had met a Western statesman since coming to power. President Richard Nixon would make a similar trip nearly 20 years later and claim a diplomatic triumph. Attlee was still leader of the Labour Party and took along some of the faithful, including Aneurin Bevan, for the eighteen-day visit to China. He had three hours of talks with Mao, which he described as ‘vigorous but quite friendly’. Mao branded the United States as China’s ‘chief enemy’ and railed against the emergi
ng South East Asia Treaty Organization. At a dinner days earlier Attlee told his audience: ‘We know how much China has suffered in war’, adding that Britain had lost ‘the flower of our youth’ in two world wars.13 In his talks with Mao it does not appear that the former prime minister mentioned the attacks on Amethyst, Consort, London and Black Swan and the high number of casualties. Nor, apparently, did he mention the 1,078 British service personnel who were killed in action during the Korean War, which began during his premiership and ended in stalemate the previous year. Mao and Stalin were the driving forces behind the war.

  And Amethyst? When filming of Yangtze Incident finished in 1956, the frigate was towed back to Devonport. In January 1957 she went to a local breaker’s yard. The film was released shortly afterwards. As cinema audiences watched the Yangtze drama unfold, Amethyst was being ripped apart.

  Appendices

  Appendix 1: Ships in Action

  HMS Amethyst

  Class: modified Black Swan destroyer

  Pennant number: U16, later changed to F116

  Builder: Alexander Stephen, Govan

  Laid down: 25 March 1942

  Launched: 7 May 1943

  Commissioned: 2 November 1943

  Displacement: 1,350 tons

  Length: 283ft

  Beam: 38.5ft

  Draught: 11ft

  Speed: 20 knots

  Complement: 192

  Propulsion: Parson geared turbines driving two shafts

  Armament: 6 x 4in guns, 4 x 40mm Bofors guns, 2 x 20mm Oerlikons

  Scrapped: 1957

  The frigate was the seventh Royal Navy vessel to bear the name Amethyst. Battle honours: Cerbere 1800, Thetis 1808, Niemen 1809, China 1856–60, Ashantee 1873–4, Heligoland 1914, Dardanelles 1915, Atlantic 1945 and Korea 1951–2.

  HMS Consort

  Class: ‘C’ class destroyer

  Pennant number: R76

  Builder: Alexander Stephen, Govan

  Laid down: 26 May 1943

  Launched: 19 October 1944

  Commissioned: 19 March 1946

  Displacement: 1,885 tons, 2,545 tons full

  Length: 362.75ft

  Beam: 35.75ft

  Draught: 11.75ft

  Speed: 32 knots

  Complement: 186

  Propulsion: geared turbines driving two shafts

  Armament: 4 x 4.5in guns, 4 x 40mm Bofors guns, 4 x anti-aircraft mountings, 8 (2 x 4) tubes for 21in torpedoes

  Scrapped: 1961

  HMS London

  Class: ‘County’ class heavy cruiser

  Pennant number: C69

  Builder: Portsmouth dockyard

  Laid down: 23 February 1926

  Launched: 14 September 1927

  Commissioned: 31 January 1929

  Displacement: 9,750 tons, 13,315 tons full

  Length: 633ft

  Beam: 66ft

  Draught: 21ft

  Speed: 32 knots

  Complement: 784

  Propulsion: geared turbines driving four shafts

  Armament: 8 x 8in guns, 8 x 4in guns, 8 x 21in torpedo tubes

  Scrapped: 1950

  HMS Black Swan

  Class: Black Swan destroyer

  Pennant number: L57, later U57 and F57

  Builder: Yarrow Shipbuilders

  Laid down: 20 June 1938

  Launched: 7 July 1939

  Commissioned: 27 January 1940

  Displacement: 1,250 tons

  Length: 299.5ft

  Beam: 37.5ft

  Draught: 11ft

  Speed: 19 knots

  Complement: 180

  Propulsion: geared turbines driving two shafts

  Armament: 6 x 4in guns, 8 x 2pdr pompoms

  Scrapped: 1956

  HMS Concord

  Class: C class destroyer

  Pennant number: R63, later D03

  Builder: John Thornycroft, Southampton

  Laid down: 18 November 1943

  Launched: 14 May 1945

  Commissioned: 20 December 1946

  Displacement: 1,885 tons, 2,545 tons full

  Length: 362.75ft

  Beam: 35.75ft

  Draught: 11.75ft

  Speed: 32 knots

  Complement: 186

  Propulsion: geared turbines driving two shafts

  Armament: 4 x 4.5in guns, 4 x 40mm Bofors guns, 4 x anti-aircraft mountings, 8 (2 x 4) tubes for 21in torpedoes

  Scrapped: 1962

  Appendix 2: Amethyst’s Ship’s Company

  Killed or died of wounds:

  Alderton, John, Surgeon Lieutenant

  Aubrey, Owen, Chief Petty Officer Stoker Mechanic

  Baker, Thomas, Sick Berth Attendant

  Barnbrook, Maurice, Boy 1st Class

  Barrow, William, Stoker Mechanic

  Battams, Charles, Ordinary Seaman

  Crann, Leslie, Stoker Mechanic

  Driscoll, Albert, Ordinary Seaman

  Griffiths, Dennis, Ordinary Seaman

  Hicks, Sydney, Electrician’s Mate 1st Class

  Maskell, Victor, Stoker Mechanic

  Morgan, Dennis, Stoker Mechanic

  Muldoon, Patrick, Stoker Mechanic

  Sinnott, Patrick, Ordinary Seaman

  Skinner, Bernard, Lieutenant Commander

  Tattersall, Edmund, Probationary Writer

  Thomas, David, Ordinary Seaman

  Vincent, Albert, Able Seaman

  Winter, George, Ordinary Seaman

  Wright, Reginald, Ordinary Seaman

  Three Chinese, including a Yangtze pilot, also died

  Wounded:

  Anderson, Thomas, Stoker Mechanic

  Bannister, Samuel, Stoker Mechanic (returned to ship)

  Berger, Peter, Lieutenant

  Canning, Leonard, Stoker Mechanic

  Crighton, Arthur, Leading Seaman

  Davies, Amos, Able Seaman

  Davis, Dennis, Cook (S)

  Fletcher, Ronald, Stoker Mechanic

  Howell, Brynley, Stores Assistant (remained on board)

  Loving, Bryan, Stoker Mechanic

  Maddocks, George, Stoker Mechanic (remained on board)

  Marsh, Samuel, Boy 1st Class

  Martin, Keith, Boy 1st Class (returned to ship)

  Mirehouse, Henry, Lieutenant

  Morrey, Frederick, Stoker Mechanic

  Nicholls, Rosslyn, Petty Officer

  Potter, Ronald, Able Seaman

  Redman, Donald, Able Seaman

  Richards, Ronald, Able Seaman

  Rimmington, Albert, Ordinary Seaman

  Roberts, Brian, Boy 1st Class

  Roberts, Dennis, Signalman

  Roblin, Stanley, Chief Engine Room Artificer

  Silvey, Anthony, Stores Assistant

  Stevens, Gwilyn Leading Seaman

  Tetler, Maurice, Ordinary Seaman

  Weston, Geoffrey, Lieutenant

  Wharton, Douglas, Signalman

  Wilkinson, Ernest, Lieutenant (E)

  Williams, Cyril, Leading Seaman

  Williams, Edward, Ordinary Seaman

  Williscroft, Kenneth, Ordinary Seaman

  Non-wounded who took part in the evacuation of 20 April 1949:

  Aldridge, Thomas, Able Seaman

  Ashford, John, Able Seaman

  Bailey, Ronald, Ordinary Seaman

  Bowles, George, Petty Officer

  Calcott, Raymond, Able Seaman

  Clarkson, Lawrence, Yeoman of Signals

  Cook, Derek, Telegraphist

  Crocker, William, Leading Telegraphist

  Davies, Ronald, Able Seaman

  Dawson, Kenneth, Able Seaman

  Donaldson, William, Able Seaman

  Eddleston, Ronald, Able Seaman

  Ferrett, Joseph, Leading Signalman

  Ferrier, David, Able Seaman

  Gibson, Robert, Stoker Mechanic

  Gill, Donald, Able Seaman

  Graham, Gerald, Engine Room Artificer 3rd Class

  Hackman, Clive, Boy 1st Class
/>   Harratt, Norman, Able Seaman

  Haveron, Hugh, Able Seaman

  Heath, David, Petty Officer

  Heighway, Percy, Joiner 3rd Class

  Higgins, Stewart, Stoker Mechanic

  Hiles, Norman, Ordinary Seaman

  Johnston, James, Able Seaman

  Lees, Leslie, Ordinary Seaman

  Mewse, Leonard, Chief Petty Officer Telegraphist

  Monaghan, Eric, Gunner (left in Sunderland flying boat on 21 April)

  Morrison, George, Ordinary Seaman

  Mortimer, Ernest, Electrician’s Mate 1st Class

  Morton, John, Boy 1st Class

  Mulley, Kenneth, Able Seaman

  Mullins, Thomas, Leading Seaman

  Mustoe, Eric, Able Seaman

  Osbourne, Alfred, Able Seaman

  Pitman, Horace, Able Seaman

  Porter, Donald, Able Seaman

  Quinn, John, Ordinary Seaman

  Sampson, Arnold, Able Seaman

  Stapleton, Albert, Stoker Mechanic

  Stone, Robert, Telegraphist

  Thomas, James, Signalman

  Todd, Matthew, Able Seaman

  Traylor, Bruce, Able Seaman

  Turner, Robert, Able Seaman

  Wakeham, Brian, Able Seaman

  Warwick, Walter, Ordnance Artificer 2nd Class