Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst
Directed by	Michael Anderson
Produced by	Herbert Wilcox
Written by	Eric Ambler
Starring	Richard Todd William Hartnell Akim Tamiroff
Production company	Wilcox-Neagle
Distributed by	British Lion Films Distributors Corporation of America (US)
Release date	1 April 1957
Running time	113 min
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst (1957) is a British war film that tells the story of the British frigate HMS Amethyst caught up in the Chinese Civil War.

It was based upon the book written by Lawrence Earl. The film was known in the US by the alternative titles Battle Hell, Escape of the Amethyst, Their Greatest Glory and Yangtze Incident. Non-English language titles include the direct German translation of Yangtse-Zwischenfall, and Commando sur le Yang-Tse in France. In Belgium it was known as Feu sur le Yangtse (French) and Vuur op de Yangtse (Flemish/Dutch), both meaning "Fire on the Yangtse".

The film was entered into the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

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, including the ship's captain, who dies of his wounds. An attempt to evacuate the wounded is only partially successful - the officers of the Amethyst become aware that two Petty Officers were captured by the PLA and are being held at a nearby military hospital. After taking stock of their position, the Captain is replaced by Lieutenant Commander John Kerans (Richard Todd), who had been serving as a Naval attaché in nearby Nanking but rushes to the beleaguered ship to take command.

After an attempt by HMS Consort to tow Amethyst off the mud bank fails, Lieutenant Commander Kerans decides to risk steaming down the Yangtze at night without a pilot or suitable charts. Before they can leave, however, the local Communist official Colonel Peng (Akim Tamiroff) makes contact with the Amethyst and at a meeting between senior officers makes his position clear: either the British government releases an apology accepting all responsibility for the entire incident, or the Amethyst will remain his prisoner. Similarly, he will not allow the two wounded sailors to leave unless they give him statements declaring the British to have been the transgressors, which they refuse to do. Kerans dismisses his demands but is able to manipulate Peng into the release of the Petty Officers; meanwhile, as talks progress he has the ship patched up and its engines restored. After some subtle alterations to the ship's outline to try to disguise her, Amethyst slips her cable and heads downriver in the dark following a local merchant ship, which Amethyst uses to show the way through the shoals and distract the PLA. When the shore batteries finally notice the frigate escaping downriver, the merchantman receives the brunt of the PLA artillery and catches fire, while Amethyst presses on at top speed.