Ulster military men who were swept up in Chinese civil war are honoured in Newtownabbey
Sailors from Northern Ireland have been recognised for their part in a historic naval escapade.
A memorial plaque and storyboard explaining the eight men’s roles in the Yangtze Incident are being unveiled today in Hazelbank Park, Newtownabbey.
The plaque and storyboard will be unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey, Leah Kirkpatrick, and is the result of eight years of campaigning by the two Northern Irish sailors’ sons: Andy Bannster and Raymond McCullough Jnr, whose fathers Sammy Bannister (from south Belfast) and Raymond McCullough (also from the city) were onboard.
Ahead of today’s event, Andy, 59 and from Antrim town, said: “Raymond and I have taken our story to local groups up and down the country.
“We wanted to keep people informed and to someday influence the right person to help us achieve our goal of a permanent memorial and storyboard.”
He said some of the eight sailors had connections to the borough, and DUP councillor Alison Bennington had brought the motion for the storyboard forward adding he is “extremely grateful” to the council for making it happen.
“It is a landmark moment that means so much to all the families and is something we as local citizens can all be proud of,” he said.
His own father was aged just 21 at the time of the incident, and was severely wounded with shrapnel in his lungs.
He went on to fight in the Korean War. He died in 1996.
“We have so many heroes from this country and some of the things they were involved in are unknown and unrecognised,” Andy told the News Letter.
“They should be celebrated.”
The sailors were part of the crew of HMS Amethyst when it was captured by Chinese communists in 1949.
It had been sailing up China’s longest river, the Yangtze, from Shanghai to Nanjing to guard a UK diplomatic station there whilst the Chinese civil war raged between the communists and the kuomintang.
Communist forces occupied one side of the river, and kuomintang forces another, with HMS Amethyst sailing between them.
On April 20, 1949, a communist artillery battery – for reasons that are still unclear – opened fire on the ship, causing it to run aground on the river bank.
Sailors tried to swim to the bank, but came under fire.
Over 20 men were killed, with more wounded – and more casualties followed onboard three ships which were sent in vain to try and rescue Amethyst.
The ship and the survivors were then effectively held hostage by the communists for the next 10 weeks.
On July 30, a decision was to try and break out.
The ship slipped its moorings and sailed down the Yangtze back towards Shanghai in the dark, hoping to go unnoticed – but it was spotted and once again came under fire.
This time, it managed to evade the attackers, and made it out to sea.
The storyboard stands at Macedon Point in Hazelbank.