I used to watch this a lot as a kid, along with another movie called Mr Roberts, I take that back there were three: Von Ryan's Express(I made a mistake and confused it with Kelly's Heroes which has too much of a 70's peace flair for me to like as much as these three), The Sand Pebbles and Mr Roberts.
Last night I was working as I work from home, and I decided to watch the Sand Pebbles for the first time in about 25 years. What an amazing movie!! Just cannot make a film like that anymore.