Amethyst incident

"Yangtse Incident" redirects here. For the film, see Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst.
See also: Yangtze River Crossing campaign
Amethyst incident
Part of the Chinese Civil War
and the Yangtze River Crossing campaign

HMS Amethyst, photographed during the Second World War
Date20 April – 30 July 1949 (1949-04-20 – 1949-07-30)
Location
Jiangyin, China
32°18′20″N 119°43′11″E / 32.3056°N 119.7196°E / 32.3056; 119.7196
Result British forces withdrawn from Yangtze River
Belligerents

 United Kingdom
Supported by:
 Republic of China[1][2][3]

Chinese Communists

Strength
HMS Amethyst
HMS Consort
HMS London
HMS Black Swan
HMS Concord[4]		 Small arms, field guns, artillery battery
Casualties and losses
1 frigate heavily damaged
1 heavy cruiser, 1 destroyer and 1 frigate slightly damaged
Amethyst: 22 killed, 31 wounded, 1 cat wounded[5][6]
Consort: 10 killed, 23 wounded[7][8]
London: 15 killed, 13 wounded
HMS Black Swan: 7 wounded[6]		 252[9][10]
Amethyst incident
Traditional Chinese紫石英號事件
Simplified Chinese紫石英号事件
Literal meaningAmethyst ship Incident
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinzǐ shíyīng shìjiàn
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutpingzi2 sek6 jing1 hou6 si6 gin2

The Amethyst incident, also known as the Yangtze incident, was a historic event that occurred on the Yangtze River for three months in the summer of 1949, during the late phase of the Chinese Civil War. The incident involved the Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA), who were in the middle of a river-crossing offensive to overthrow the Nationalist Government, and four British Royal Navy ships HMS Amethyst, HMS Black Swan, HMS Consort and HMS London. The British warships, whose claimed right of passage, per Treaty of Tientsin, along the Yangtze had been unchallenged previously since the late Qing dynasty, came under bombardment by PLA artillery and were forced to withdraw permanently from Chinese territorial waters.

The incident was celebrated in the British press as a dramatic escape while it has been widely celebrated in the communist People's Republic of China as a milestone incident that marked the end of Western gunboat diplomacy in China and as one of the last nails in the coffin for the Century of Humiliation.[11]

  1. ^ "HMS AMETHYST INCIDENT, YANGTSE RIVER, April to May 1949". Naval History. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  2. ^ Felton, Mark (July 2015). "THE YANGTZE INCIDENT 1949 – BRITAIN'S LAST WAR IN CHINA". Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  3. ^ Murfett, Malcolm (1991). Hostage on the Yangtze: Britain, China, and the Amethyst Crisis of 1949. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612513218. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  4. ^ "What was the Yangtse Incident?". Archived from the original on 7 October 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  5. ^ "The untold rescue of the HMS Amethyst during the Yangtse Incident". Daily Record (Scotland). 3 March 2010.
  6. ^ a b "HMS Amethyst Incident, Yangtze River". Naval History. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  7. ^ "The Yangtze Incident 1949 – Britain's Last War in China – Mark Felton". July 2015.
  8. ^ "THE YANGTSE INCIDENT (Hansard, 26 April 1949)". api.parliament.uk.
  9. ^ "Post World War 2 – Contemporary AccountsHMS AMETHYST INCIDENT, YANGTSE RIVER, April to May 1949". Navalhistory.net.
  10. ^ Murfett, Malcolm (15 July 2014). Hostage on the Yangtze: Britain, China, and the Amethyst Crisis of 1949. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612513218.
  11. ^ Murfett, Malcolm H. (May 1991). "A Pyrrhic Victory: HMS Amethyst and the Damage to Anglo-Chinese Relations in 1949". War & Society. 9 (1): 121–140. doi:10.1179/072924791791202396. ISSN 0729-2473.