C. E. Lucas Phillips (1897–1984)

In April of 1949 H.M.S. frigate Amethyst proceeded peacefully up the Yangtze River in China. Her mission was to park at Nanking as serve as guard for the British Embassy. The country was in turmoil with the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-Shek fighting against the Communist Party led by Mao Tse-tung. By October of that year, the Communists would emerge victorious.

As they sailed upriver on April 20th the frigate suddenly came under devastating fire from a Communist shore battery. Over the next few days there was continuous attacks and 22 British were killed, including the Captain of the ship with another 45 wounded. Author C. E. Lucas Phillips offers his book, Escape of the Amethyst as a detailed explanation of how this incident came to be and how, as the Communists would never admit to making a mistake, three months later it was decided that the only way for the ship to gain freedom was to make a run for the ocean, 200 miles downriver.

Escape of the Amethyst fills in the political background and gives us a picture of how the frigate was set up and who was serving on her. Although this part of the book is rather dry, it is necessary to fully understand the implications of this incident. The books becomes exciting when he describes the original attacks and the dangerous escape. I suspect this is a book that would most appeal to fans of true war stories and naval buffs.… (meer)