Lt. Commander J.P. Midgley, R.N. (retd.), R.A.N. At the time a Chief Petty Officer Writer on the 'Lovely London', H.M.S LONDON:
"After we met CONSORT which had steamed down from Nanking and had been
heavily shelled and damaged en route, she lay alongside us overnight. I was informed that my Action Station was with the First Aid Party sited
in the Pay Office in the Sick Bay Flat. The Party consisted of myself and
two young writers (their first ship). Our only equipment was a first aid
bag with a modicum of equipment. On proceeding up the river next day, all scuffles had been closed and
dead lights fastened; lighting was poor both in the Pay Office and the
Sick Bay Flat - side lighting only; this situation lasted throughout.
My first intimation of action was the noise of intense gunfire which, from my experience of WW II made me think it was our own guns all opening up, with consequent vibration of the ship and falling fittings. I was not aware that we were being fired upon from the river bank, as there was no information of what was happening from the ships tannoy system or from the Pay Office telephone. After some considerable time I heard from a sailor that the bridge had been hit. I proceeded alone to the Upper Deck to the bridge but on the way met a number of hands trying to get someone down a ladder and I assisted them in this, eventually getting the man, who turned out to be the mortally wounded Navigating Officer, Lt. Cdr. Grice-Hutchinson, into the Petty Officers mess.
Other personnel were now appearing in various states of injury and we assisted these people into the Sick Bay, which was rapidly filling. I spent some time with a Chief Mechanic who was seriously wounded in his abdomen and had to wait for up to 1/2 an hour for skilled medical attention. He required my sole attention until he could be stitched up. Skilled medical attention seemed to be short but was probably at the Wardroom and Upper Deck First Aid Stations. The Sick Bay became congested and one section was curtained off to allow staff to operate. Eventually, the Sick Bay doors were locked owing to congestion.
My party then attempted to deal with injured and shocked men appearing at the Sick Bay until they could be admitted. We tried to make them as comfortable as possible and gave them re-assurance. Much later, I heard from a passing rating that there had been extensive damage on the 4" gun deck, so I proceeded there. I came across about 10 men lying on stretcher beds in various states of serious injury and shock. All were fully clothed. The Padre, Rev. Denlegh Maxwell and I were the only ones in attendance and we did what we could to re-assure them and put blankets over them and offered them iced water. When the action had ceased, the Sick Bay personnel took over from us.
The Yangtze Incident: filmed on the River Orwell, near H.M.S. Ganges and Holbrook Naval College, the actual H.M.S Amethyst was used in this filming.
I did at one stage proceed to the bridge to look for injured men but this must have been much later than the shell hit as the injured and dead had been removed; the only impression I got was of intense activity to get the ship off the mud and under way again. About half way through the action and after the bridge had been damaged, I saw a small body of men forcibly escorting a Chinese man in a soft hat along the Sick Bay Flat back to the bridge. I was told it was the surviving Chinese pilot who had panicked and absconded from the bridge to seek sanctuary in the Engine Room. He was probably in deep shock at the time as his associate pilot had been killed on the bridge alongside him.
I did not see much of the action drama and heard nothing from ships tannoy about developments until nearly the end of the incident. Between intense firing, a deadly calm seemed to descend and most of my time was spent assisting and calming the wounded. An interesting point was that when I eventually went to the C.P.O's Mess for lunch, I did not hear anyone discussing the incident and it was almost as if it had all been part of the ships routine.
Overall, I was very impressed by the bearing, fortitude and bravery of all the ships company with whom I came into contact. I never heard any complaint or signs of panic; just a great deal of stoicism based on Naval training, but many of the ships company seemed very tired after the action, including myself."
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The Marxist Chinese viewpoint:
On 25 April 1949, Vice Admiral A. Madden, second in command of the Far Eastern Station, flew his flag in HMS London and after learning of the frigate HMS Amethyst being trapped on the Yangtze river, decided to sail upriver to render assistance in company with the frigate HMS Black Swan. Madden hoped that the mere presence of the cruiser would be enough, but it was soon clear that the Chinese Communists were not to be overawed. Within ten minutes of beginning her upriver dash, London came under fire from 105 mm and 37mm guns. She replied with her main armament and secondary 4 inch guns. The Communists scored hits on London's bridge and she turned back. London had both her forward turrets put out of action, and one of her aft turrets damaged. She had expended 132 8 inch, 449 4 inch, and over 2,000 rounds from her light AA guns. Her casualties were 13 killed and 30 wounded.
Wikipedia:
On 26 April an attempt to free the Amethyst from the mud was successful, the ship then proceeded to move up river and anchored off Fu Te Wei. Later that day a signal was received: "HM ships London and Black Swan are moving up river to escort the Amethyst down stream. Be ready to move." The cruiser London and the frigate (ex-sloop and Amethyst's sister ship) Black Swan were heavily shelled as they attempted to help Amethyst and retreated with 3 killed and 14 wounded. In Chinese records this battle happened on 22 April.
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H.M.S. Cumberland:
Prior to the Yangtze incident, 'Pat' joined the naval convoys to Archangel in Russia, for which in the 1990's he received the Russian medal. These were dangerous waters patrolled by Nazi U-boats, a sinking meant certain death in the freezing waters. One night he was bunked down in the bridge with an Admiral Wemyss when he decided to go outside and take a walk on the frozen deck. Whilst leaning on the rail looking at a bright moon on the water he saw a German U-boat surface 300 yards away in the moonlit pathway. By the time he had returned to the bridge across the treacherous icy deck and warned the depth chargers, the black devil had slipped silently beneath the waves to continue hunting its quarry -ships laden with vital supplies to fight the war on the eastern front.
H.M.S. Amethyst under fire, you'll recognise lots of actors here
Note: At the time of the action the Yangtze River was a "no-man's land" between the Nationalist Chinese of Chiang Kai Chek, who still held the south bank and Shanghai and the Advancing Communist Army who held gun positions on the north bank under Mao Tse Tung's command. Shanghai was yet to fall to the Communists.