In Australia it is a little remembered fact that seventy years ago, in April of 1949, the Admiralty came close to sending the RAN frigate HMAS Shoalhaven, then serving with the RN Far East Fleet, into an unwinnable fight with Chinese communist gunners. It was a only a wise appraisal, and timely decision, made first in Canberra by the Menzies Government and then by the Flag Officer Far East Fleet that prevented the ship’s company of Shoalhaven from being put in mortal danger on the Yangtze River and being needlessly killed and wounded.
