Yangtze Showdown Read online

  Shaw, Yu-ming, An American Missionary in China (Harvard University, 1992).

  Stuart, John, Fifty Years in China (Random House, 1954).

  Swanson, Bruce, Eighth Voyage of the Dragon, A History of China’s Quest for Sea Power (Naval Institute Press, 1982).

  The Navy League, The Glorious Story of HMS Amethyst (sponsored by The Daily Telegraph, undated).

  Tolley, Kemp, Yangtze Patrol, The US Navy in China (Naval Institute Press, 1971).

  Tuck-Hong Tang, James, Britain’s Encounter with Revolutionary China, 1949–54 (The Macmillan Press, 1992).

  Tyler, Alan, Cheerful and Contented (The Book Guild, 2000).

  Welsh, Frank, A History of Hong Kong (Harper Collins, 1997).

  Westad, Odd Arne, Decisive Encounters, The Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950 (Stanford University Press, 2003).

  Westad, Odd Arne (ed), Brothers in Arms, The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance 1945–1963 (The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998).

  Winchester, Simon, The River at the Centre of the World (Viking, 1997).

  Wright, Patrick, Passport to Peking, A Very British Mission to Mao’s China (Oxford University Press, 2010).

  Zhai, Qiang, The Dragon, The Lion and the Eagle, Chinese-British-American Relations, 1949–1958 (The Kent State University Press, 1994).

  Acknowledgements

  I am most grateful for interviews given by members of the ship’s company who were on board HMS Amethyst when she was attacked on 20 April 1949: Raymond Calcott, Jack French, Charles Hawkins, Lieutenant Commander Stewart Hett, Eric Monaghan, Ernest Munson, Donald Redman, Ronald Richards, William Smith, Robert Stone, Thomas Townsend and Gordon Wright.

  The reports of Lieutenant Commander John Kerans were, of course, invaluable – as were those of Lieutenant Peter Berger, Captain Peter Cazalet (HMS London), Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Dewar-Durie, Commander Ian Robertson (HMS Consort), Lieutenant Geoffrey Weston and Edward Youde.

  My thanks also for material and guidance from the Australian War Memorial, Ian Bailey, curator, Adjutant General’s Corps Museum, Professor Robert Bickers of the University of Bristol, the British Library Newspapers, London, the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, Gerard Devany (Royal Air Force), Thomas Flanagan (Consort), the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Information Management Group), the Foyle Special Collections Library at King’s College London, Frank Goldsworthy (Daily Express), Captain Richard Hare, Fred Harwood (London), George Hickinbottom (Amethyst), Derek Hodgson (Concord), Wing Commander Peter Howard-Williams, Peter Lee-Hale, chairman of the HMS Concord Association, the Imperial War Museum picture archive, London, the Imperial War Museum research centre, London, William Leitch (Consort), Gordon Leith, curator, Department of Research, Royal Air Force Museum, London, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College London, Dr Chi-kwan Mark of the Royal Holloway, University of London, the Ministry of Defence Medal Office, The National Archives, London, the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, Michael Pocock of MaritimeQuest, William Robson (Consort), Major General Anthony Rogers, chairman of the Army Legal Services Association, John Smith, senior researcher of the Naval Historical Society of Australia, and Captain Hugh Stevenson, Royal Australian Navy.

  Guidance given by Duncan McAra and Seaforth’s Robert Gardiner, Julian Mannering and Stephen Chumbley has been much appreciated.

  Brian Izzard

  2014