Yangtze Showdown Page 30
Three bags of mail reach Amethyst from Shanghai.
28 June
Kerans ill.
30 June
Clearance for fuel from Nanking. Difficulties over wording of notes acceptable to the Communists.
1 July
Interpreter Khoong from the assistant naval attaché’s office in Shanghai reaches ship with emergency medical supplies and charts but latter are confiscated. Amethyst nearly hit by two large merchant ships in darkness (no lights on Amethyst as power is off).
5 July
Meeting at village opposite ship with Colonel Kang. Attempt made to get diplomat Youde as an additional interpreter. Some hopes of early safe conduct.
8 July
Lieutenant Weston ordered back to Shanghai by PLA at Chingkiang after attempting to rejoin Amethyst. Hitch arises in Nanking over exit permit for Youde after verbal clearance at Chingkiang.
9 July
Usable fuel remaining 65 tons. Fuel from Nanking arrives PM (54 tons). Last valve on transmitter for Type 60 W/T gone.
11 July
Final draft exchange note presented to Communists at Chingkiang meeting but refused after very lengthy and difficult talks. Youde’s entry refused. Replenishment refused. Kerans receives personal abuse for attempted entry of Lieutenant Weston. Situation grim. Kerans unable to see General Yuan. Amethyst receives virtual ultimatum.
13 July
Lengthy memorandum received for General Yuan from Admiral Brind.
17 July
Part of emergency naval stores from Shanghai reach Amethyst.
22 July
Metting at Chingkiang headquarters. General Yuan refuses entry of the naval attaché, Captain Donaldson, and will only accept Admiral Brind’s signature on Kerans’s authorisation to negotiate. Deadlock.
25 July
Typhoon passes over Yangtze centre within about 50 miles of Amethyst. No damage.
30 July
0800 Total fuel remaining 55 tons.
Notes and Sources
Chapter 1
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Lieutenant Commander John Kerans, 30 November 1949, and Imperial War Museum interview with Townsend, 6 March 2000.
2. Imperial War Museum interview, 23 May 1990.
3. Imperial War Museum interview, 9 March 2000.
4. Imperial War Museum interview, 25 October 1990.
5. Imperial War Museum interview, 3 January 2001.
6. Imperial War Museum interview, 29 May 1996.
7. Report by Lieutenant Geoffrey Weston, 8 October 1949.
8. Report by Lieutenant Peter Berger, undated.
9. Imperial War Museum interview, 8 August 2000.
10. Christopher Lew, The Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War, 1945–49, Chapter 1, and Stuart’s memoirs, Fifty Years in China, Chapter 11.
11. Information removed from HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Kerans, 30 November 1949, and originally not due to be made public until 2025 (ADM 116/5740B, The National Archives, Kew, London).
12. South China Morning Post, 21 April 1949.
Chapter 2
1. Telegram, 4 December 1948.
2. Telegram to the Foreign Office, London, 18 December 1948.
3. Cablegram from Australia’s Department of External Affairs to its legation in Nanking, 3 June 1947.
4. Messages from the Commander-in-Chief, British Pacific Fleet to the Admiralty, 30 August 1945 and 16 September 1945.
5. Report by the Director of Plans, 15 September 1945. The Director of Plans at that time was Captain E Langley Cook, but the report may have been compiled by his predecessor, Captain (later Admiral Sir) Guy Grantham, who left the post in July 1945.
6. Ibid.
7. Report by the Admiralty’s M Branch, 14 September 1945.
8. Memorandum for the Board of Admiralty – ‘Composition of the Post War Navy’, 12 September 1945.
9. Obituary of Stevenson, The Daily Telegraph, 24 June 1977.
10. Report by Madden to the Admiralty, 3 May 1949. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
11. Reports in the South China Morning Post, 23 January 1949 and The Age (Melbourne) 31 January 1949.
12. Despatch from Officer to the Minister of State for External Affairs, 15 February 1949.
13. Report by Madden to the Admiralty, 3 May 1949.
14. Comments to naval researcher Captain Hugh Stevenson and the author, 27 March 2012.
15. Report on the ‘Yangtze River Incident’ by Tapp for Australia’s Department of the Navy, 1 May 1949.
16. Stuart’s memoirs, Fifty Years in China, Chapter 11.
17. Imperial War Museum interview, 9 March 2000.
18. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
19. James Tuck-Hong Tang, Britain’s Encounter with Revolutionary China, 1949–54, Chapter 2, and report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
20. Message from Hall to Attlee, 21 April 1949.
21. Foreign Office telegram No 394, 20 April 1949.
22. Telegram No 454 from Stevenson to the Foreign Office, 21 April 1949.
23. Report of operations in the Yangtze River – 20 April to 23 April 1949 by Madden for the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station.
Chapter 3
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949, report by Lieutenant Weston, 8 October 1949, and report by Lieutenant Berger, undated.
2. Imperial War Museum interview, 6 June 1990.
3. Report by Lieutenant Berger, undated.
4. Imperial War Museum interview, 9 March 2000.
5. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949, and report by Lieutenant Weston, 8 October 1949.
6. Imperial War Museum interview, 6 March 2000.
7. Papers of Captain Richard Hare, Liddell Hart archives, King’s College London.
Chapter 4
1. Report on Consort’s actions by Commander Ian Robertson, 26 April 1949.
2. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
3. Report on Consort’s actions by Commander Robertson, 26 April 1949, initial report on Consort’s actions, unattributed and undated, and written comments of Sub Lieutenant William Robson, 1991.
4. Imperial War Museum interview, 10 April 1997.
5. Report on Consort’s actions by Commander Robertson, 26 April 1949, initial report on Consort’s actions, unattributed and undated.
6. Written comments of Sub-Lieutenant William Robson, 1991.
7. Report on Consort’s actions by Commander Robertson, 26 April 1949.
8. Imperial War Museum interview, 10 April 1997.
9. HMS Consort Association, Loyal and Steadfast, The Story of HMS Consort, Chapter 4.
10. Booklet ‘Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Yangtze Incident’, privately published by former crew of HMS Consort and HMS Black Swan.
11. Private papers.
Chapter 5
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949, and report by Lieutenant Berger, undated.
2. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
3. Booklet ‘Commemorating The 60th Anniversary Of The Yangtze Incident’, privately published by former crew of HMS Consort and HMS Black Swan.
4. London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb. Sudbury was awarded the MBE (civil) for his actions in HMS London, and his medal with documentation was sold at auction in September 2006.
5. Report of HMS London’s actions, written by Commander John Hodges in the first person on behalf of the wounded Captain Peter Cazalet, 28 April 1949, and report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
6. Parker-Jervis quoted in Iain Ballantyne, HMS London, Chapter 16.
7. Papers of Captain Richard Hare, Liddell Hart archives,
King’s College London.
8. Parker quoted in Iain Ballantyne, HMS London, Chapter 16.
9. Account by Harwood published in Warship World, January 2003.
10. Catlow quoted in Iain Ballantyne, HMS London, Chapter 16.
11. Account by Harwood published in Warship World, January 2003.
12. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
13. Foreign Office memo from Burgess, 22 April 1949, on press statements released by the British embassy, Nanking.
Chapter 6
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
2. Report by Lieutenant Weston, 8 October 1949.
3. Imperial War Museum interview, 8 May 1996.
4. Report of Sunderland’s missions, Group Captain John Jefferson, 29 April 1949.
5. Papers of Wing Commander Peter Howard-Williams, 1991.
6. Imperial War Museum interview, 8 May 1996.
7. Papers of Gerard Devany, 1994.
8. Lawrence Earl, Yangtse Incident, Chapter 15, and report by Lieutenant Weston, 8 October 1949.
9. Imperial War Museum interview, 8 May 1996.
10. Report of Sunderland’s missions, Group Captain John Jefferson, 29 April 1949.
11. Papers of Gerard Devany, 1994.
12. Report of Sunderland’s missions, Group Captain John Jefferson, 29 April 1949, and written memoirs of Gerard Devany, 1994.
Chapter 7
1. Papers of Rear Admiral Sir David Scott, The Amethyst Incident, and Malcolm Murfett, Hostage on the Yangtze, Chapter 6, reference note on Kerans.
2. Nigel Farndale, Last Action Hero of the British Empire, Royal Navy Officers 1939–1945 website, and Worcestershire Regiment website.
3. Alan Tyler, Cheerful and Contented, Chapter 7.
4. Nigel Farndale, Last Action Hero of the British Empire, and Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Mason, ‘Service Histories of Royal Navy Warships in World War 2’, http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-aContents.htm.
5. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949, report by Lieutenant Colonel Dewar-Durie, 30 April 1949, ‘The Army and the Amethyst’, unpublished article by Dewar-Durie, 1959, obituary of Dewar-Durie, The Independent, 21 April 1999, and article by Jan Herman, historian of the US Navy Medical Department, undated.
6. Information removed from HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Kerans, 30 November 1949, and originally not due to be made public until 2025 (ADM 116/5740B, The National Archives, Kew, London).
7. ‘The Army and the Amethyst’, unpublished article by Lieutenant Colonel Dewar-Durie, 1959.
8. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949, and report by Lieutenant Weston, 8 October 1949.
9. Report by Lieutenant Colonel Dewar-Durie, 30 April 1949, and ‘The Army and the Amethyst’, unpublished article by Dewar-Durie, 1959.
10. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 1, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
Chapter 8
1. Telegram from Stevenson to the Foreign Office, 20 April 1949, and telegram from Stevenson to the consul in Peking, 21 April 1949.
2. Telegram from the consul in Peking to Stevenson, 22 April 1949.
3. Telegram from Stevenson to the Foreign Office, 22 April 1949.
4. Report by Youde on his ‘attempt to secure a safe-conduct pass for HMS Amethyst after she had been crippled by Communist gunfire’, undated.
5. Report by Youde, undated, and telegram from Stevenson to the Foreign Office, 24 April 1949.
6. Report by Youde, undated.
7. Telegram from Stevenson to the Foreign Office, 24 April 1949.
Chapter 9
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 2, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
2. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
3. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 2, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
4. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
5. Imperial War Museum interview, 8 August 2000.
6. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 2, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
7. Diary of Leslie Frank and Imperial War Museum interview with Gordon Wright, 6 June 1990.
8. Imperial War Museum interview, 25 October 1990.
Chapter 10
1. Official note of First Sea Lord’s press conference at Exercise Trident, 20 April 1949.
2. Letter to Lady Brind, written at the United Services Club, London, 21 April 1949.
3. The Times, 23 April 1949.
4. The Daily Telegraph, 23 April 1949.
5. Daily Express, 22 April 1949.
6. Foreign Office briefing paper, author unknown, 21 April 1949.
7. Telegrams from the British embassy, Washington, to the Foreign Office on US press reports, 26 and 29 April 1949.
8. Translation of New China News Agency report sent from the British embassy, Nanking, to the Foreign Office, 24 April 1949.
9. Daily Express and The Daily Telegraph, 23 April 1949.
10. Daily Express, 25 April 1949.
11. Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 1949.
12. The Age, 23 April 1949.
Chapter 11
1. Daily Express and The Times, 27 April 1949.
2. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
Chapter 12
1. Notes by the First Sea Lord on specific points arising from questions in Parliament after the prime minister’s statement on 26 April.
2. Telegrams from Stevenson to the Foreign Office, 23 and 25 April 1949, and Chester Ronning, A Memoir of China in Revolution.
3. Stuart’s memoirs, Fifty Years in China, Chapter 12.
4. Odd Arne Westad, Decisive Encounters, The Chinese Civil War 1946–1950, Chapter 7.
5. Report on the ‘Yangtze River Incident’ by Tapp for Australia’s Department of the Navy, 1 May 1949.
6. Shoalhaven’s monthly report, April 1949, Tapp.
7. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Defence Awards (Australia 1994) headed by General Peter Gration. The report said: ‘The committee … does not believe that either HMAS Warramunga or HMAS Shoalhaven were involved in action of sufficient moment or involved such hazards that made it clearly more demanding than normal peacetime service. The committee does not recommend any awards.’
8. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
9. Question asked by Archie Cameron in the House of Representatives, 1 June 1949.
10. Report by Madden to the Commander-in-Chief, Far East Station, 7 July 1949.
11. Daily Express, 2 May 1949.
12. Message to the Admiralty, 2 May 1949.
13. The Economist, Notes of the Week, 30 April 1949.
14. Letter dated 18 May 1949.
15. Far Eastern Department minute, 10 June 1949.
16. Christopher Lew, The Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War, 1945–49, Chapter 5, quoting Deng Xiaoping, Selected Works.
Chapter 13
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
2. Ibid and information removed from HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident and originally not due to be made public until 2025 (ADM 116/5740B, The National Archives, Kew, London).
3. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
4. Telegram to Stevenson with copy to the Admiralty, 20 May 1949.
5. Personal message to Brind from Fraser, 20 May 1949.
6. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
7. Letter written on board London, 29 May 1949.
8. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Keran
s, 30 November 1949.
9. Imperial War Museum interview, 21 July 1996.
10. George Hickinbottom, The Seven Glorious Amethysts and Patrick Roberts, Famous Felines. http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/famous/.
11. Imperial War Museum interview, 23 May 1990.
12. Patrick Roberts, Famous Felines.
Chapter 14
1. Odd Arne Westad, Decisive Encounters, The Chinese Civil War 1946–1950, Chapter 7.
2. Ibid.
3. Minutes of the Cabinet’s China and Southeast Asia Committee, 10 Downing Street, 13 May 1949.
4. Comments to a meeting of the British Residents’ Association, date unknown.
5. Private papers of Howard-Williams, 1991.
6. Australian Associated Press/Reuters report 14 July 1949 based on Peking radio broadcast, and Stuart’s memoirs, Fifty Years in China, Chapter 12.
7. Telegram to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Arthur Creech Jones, 30 April 1949.
8. Briefing document ‘Appreciation of the situation in China’, marked top secret, 28 April 1949, but unattributed.
9. Minutes of meeting of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, 25 April 1949.
10. Report by the Joint Planning Staff, Ministry of Defence, 29 April 1949.
11. Message from the Secretary of State for the Colonies Arthur Creech Jones to Hong Kong Governor Sir Alexander Grantham, 28 May 1949.
12. Report of the Defence Co-ordination Committee, Far East and the Joint Intelligence Committee, Far East, 2 June 1949.
Chapter 15
1. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
2. Letter to Haley, 9 June 1949.
3. Letter to Fraser, 15 June 1949.
4. Message to the Admiralty, 9 June 1949.
5. Message to Stevenson from Urquhart, 11 June 1949, and message to Stevenson from Brind, 12 June 1949.
6. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
7. Message to Stevenson, 17 June 1949.
8. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
9. Cabinet briefing paper, 22 June 1949.
10. HMS Amethyst’s final report of the Yangtze Incident, Phase 3, Kerans, 30 November 1949.
11. Message to the Admiralty, 23 June 1949.
12. Cabinet document, 23 June 1949.
13. Message to Amethyst, 25 June 1949, and message to Donaldson, 2 July 1949.