Japanese gunboat Hira

(Redirected from Japanese Gunboat Hira)

Hira (比良) was a river gunboat of the Imperial Japanese Navy, part of the 11th Gunboat Sentai, that operated on the Yangtze River in China during the 1930s, and during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Hira 1923
History
Japanese Navy EnsignEmpire of Japan
NameHira
BuilderMitsubishi Zosensho, Kobe, Japan
Laid down15 August 1921
Launched14 March 1923
Completed24 August 1923, disassembled and shipped to Yangtze Engineering, Hankow, China. Reassembly finished 1 December 1923
Stricken10 May 1945
FateScrapped 1945[1]
General characteristics
TypeSeta-class gunboat
Armament

On 13 December 1937, Hira and other IJN ships engaged Chinese positions at Xiaguan, China and attacked Chinese boats and rafts on the Yangtze River. On 17 August 1944 Hira was damaged by US 14th Air Force aircraft at Kiukiang, China. On 26 November 1944 Hira and the gunboat Hozu ran aground near Anking, China. Chinese aircraft subsequently bombed and sunk Hozu and severely damaged Hira. Hira was scrapped in July 1945.[1]

Sources

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Combinedfleet Hira". Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 5 December 2012.