The Purple Plain the three men struggle to survive in the hostile environment, the self-destructive Bill finally realises that he can depend on support from others and that he may have someone to live for. Blore, however, abandons them to attempt to return to the crash site and commits suicide. "The Purple Plain" is regarded generally as historically accurate with good production values and attention to detail, and depicts the native Burmese in a respectful manner. The film is based on the 1947 novel "The Purple Plain" by H. E. Bates, one of three novels he wrote after his travels to Burma and
USS William H. Bates (SSN-680) Coast and entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, for an extensive refueling overhaul and retrofit. In 1991, after completion of the refueling overhaul, "William H. Bates" home port was changed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from which she completed several Western Pacific deployments and operations during the 1990s. "William H. Bates" was decommissioned and simultaneously stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 February 2000. She returned to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, where her scrapping via the Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program began on 1 October 2002 and was completed on 30 October 2002. USS William H. Bates