On 12 December 1937, Ladybird, along with Bee became involved in the Panay incident and came under fire from a Japanese artillery unit near Wuhu on the Yangtze River. Ladybird was hit by six shells and Bee dodged one as she came upon the scene. Ladybird was not badly damaged and with Bee picked up survivors from the sunk USSPanay.
Ladybird was allocated to Singapore in 1940 and then, along with five others of the class, stripped down and towed to the Mediterranean Sea. During the journey she sustained damage which meant she was limited to a speed of 7 knots (13km/h; 8.1mph) due to a misaligned hull. She was initially used to guard Port Said.
Off Bardia on 31 December 1940
Ladybird's gunners in action during the bombardment of Bardia, 31 December 1940
On 25 February 1941 she landed a Royal Marines unit during Operation Abstention, an ill-fated attempt to seize the Italian island of Kastelorizo, where she was hit by an aerial bomb. Later, acting in support of the Tobruk garrison, she shelled the Gazala airfield and ferried in supplies. During this duty, on 12 May 1941, she was severely damaged by dive bombers and set on fire, settling on an even keel in 10 feet (3.0m) of water. Still above water, her 3-inch (76mm) gun was used as an anti-aircraft gun; HMSGnat replaced Ladybird in supporting Tobruk.
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.
The USS Panay incident on December 12, 1937, was a Japanese bombing attack on the U.S. Navy river gunboat Panay and three Standard Oil Company tankers on the Yangtze River. They strafed survivors in the water. The boats were rescuing U.S. and Chinese civilians fleeing from Japanese invaders attacking Nanking, China. Japan and the United States were not at war at the time. Public outrage was loud in the U.S., but both sides were conciliatory and quickly settled the dispute. The Japanese claimed that they did not see the U.S. flags painted on the deck of the gunboat. Tokyo officially apologized, and paid a cash indemnity. The settlement mollified some of the U.S. anger, and newspapers called the matter closed.
A river gunboat is a type of gunboat adapted for river operations. River gunboats required shallow draft for river navigation. They would be armed with relatively small caliber cannons, or a mix of cannons and machine guns. If they carried more than one cannon, one might be a howitzer, for shore bombardment. They were usually not armoured. The fictional USS San Pablo described in Richard McKenna's The Sand Pebbles is an example of this class of vessel, serving on the US Navy's Yangtze Patrol. Stronger river warships with larger guns were river monitors.
HMS Sikh was a Tribal-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy. The ship entered service in 1938 and served during the Second World War, participating in the sinking of Bismarck and the Battle of Cape Bon. In 1942, while participating in a commando raid, Sikh was sunk by a combination of shore artillery, antiaircraft guns and aerial bombs.
USS Stewart (DD-224) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the second ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart. Scuttled in port at Surabaya, Java, she was later raised by the Japanese and commissioned as Patrol Boat No. 102. She came back under American control in 1945 after the occupation of Japan.
HMS Bee was an Insect-class gunboat of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 December 1915. This class are also known as "Large China Gunboats".
HMS Terror was an Erebus-class monitor built for the Royal Navy during the First World War in Belfast. Completed in 1916, she was assigned to the Dover Patrol where her primary duties involved bombarding German targets on the coast of occupied Belgium, particularly at the ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend. In October 1917 Terror was hit by three torpedoes, taking severe damage to the bow and had to be towed into Portsmouth for repair. In April 1918 she participated in the Zeebrugge raid and provided gunnery support for the Fifth Battle of Ypres in September of the same year.
USS Tutuila (PR-4) was a gunboat in the service of the United States Navy from 1928, until her transfer to China, under lend-lease in 1942.
HMAS Waterhen (D22/I22) was a W-class destroyer that served in the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Built during World War I, the destroyer was completed in mid 1918, and commissioned into the Royal Navy. In 1933, Waterhen and four other British ships were transferred to the RAN. The ship's early RAN career was uneventful, with periods spent decommissioned in reserve, but she was reactivated in September 1939, and deployed to the Mediterranean as part of the Australian destroyer force: the Scrap Iron Flotilla. During her time in the Mediterranean, Waterhen was involved in escort and patrol duties, performed shore bombardments, and participated in Allied evacuations from Greece and Crete. On 29 June 1941, while operating with the Tobruk Ferry Service, Waterhen was heavily damaged by Axis aircraft. Attempts to tow the ship to port were unsuccessful, and she sank on 30 June 1941, the first RAN ship lost to combat in World War II.
The Insect-class gunboats were a class of small, but well-armed Royal Navy ships designed for use in shallow rivers or inshore. They were intended for use on the Danube against Austria-Hungary. The first four ships—Gnat, Mantis, Moth and Tarantula—were first employed during the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
HMS Aphis was a Royal Navy Insect-class gunboat. She was built by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, launched on 15 September 1915 and completed in November 1915. She was based in Port Said at the beginning of World War I, served in Romania and then the China Station until 1940. All of her fighting service was in the Mediterranean, taking part in the invasion of Pantelleria and landings in the south of France, returning briefly to the Pacific in 1945. She was scrapped at Singapore in 1947. Her class was intended for shallow, fast flowing rivers and they also proved suitable for inshore operations when her relatively heavy weaponry could be used to support Army operations.
The 4.5 inch Mark 8 is a British naval gun system which currently equips the Royal Navy's destroyers and frigates, and some British destroyers and frigates sold to other countries.
HMS Decoy was a D-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. Ordered in 1931, the ship was constructed by John I. Thornycroft & Company, and entered naval service in 1933. Decoy was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early 1935. She was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea during late 1935 during the Abyssinia Crisis, before returning to her duty station where she remained until mid-1939. Decoy was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet just before the Second World War began in September 1939. She briefly was assigned to West Africa for convoy escort duties in 1940 before returning to the Mediterranean. The ship participated in the Battles of Calabria without significant damage and escorted ships of the Mediterranean Fleet for most of the rest of the year.
The Commander-in-Chief, China was the admiral in command of what was usually known as the China Station, at once both a British Royal Navy naval formation and its admiral in command. It was created in 1865 and deactivated in 1941.
HMS Dainty was a D-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. The ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she was transferred to the China Station in early 1935. She was temporarily deployed in the Red Sea during late 1935 during the Abyssinia Crisis, before returning to her assigned station where she remained until mid-1939. Dainty was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet just before World War II began in September 1939. She briefly was assigned to West Africa for convoy escort duties in 1940 before returning to the Mediterranean. The ship participated in the Battle of Calabria in July 1940 and was assigned to convoy escort and patrol duties until she was sunk by German bombers off Tobruk on 24 February 1941.
After thousands of years of junk and sampan traffic on the Yangtze River (Jiang), river steamers were introduced by Europeans during the mid- to late-nineteenth century. The age of the steamer lasted nearly 150 years—from 1835 to 1980—and had lasting impacts on China, where river trade was essential to the economy due to the poor road network and few railways.
Fushimi (伏見) was a river gunboat of the Imperial Japanese Navy, that operated on the Yangtze River in China during the 1940s, and during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
By taking on ships being built for foreign navies in British shipyards, a number of British-built 6-inch 50-calibre naval guns found their way into British service in World War I. Their specifications and performance differed from standard Royal Navy 6-inch guns but in British service they fired standard service 100-pound projectiles.
The Asheville-class gunboat was a class of two gunboats, USS Tulsa and USS Asheville, which was based on Sacramento, an earlier gunboat. Laid down between 1917 and 1919, construction was completed in the early 1920s after which both ships were employed to project US naval power across several different theaters, including Central America and the Pacific, during the interwar years. Tulsa principally served in Asia, assigned variously with the South China Patrol, Yangtze Patrol, and the Inshore Patrol; Asheville mostly stayed in Central America, but did spend a few years on the South China Patrol alongside Tulsa. When war broke out with Japan in the Pacific, both ships were used to escort convoys. Asheville was lost during the war, but Tulsa survived to be broken up in the late 1940s. The class was awarded a total of three battle stars, one for Asheville and two for Tulsa.
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