''Ning Hai'' () was a

light cruiser A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to th ...

in the

Republic of China Navy The Republic of China Navy (ROCN; ), also called the ROC Navy and colloquially the Taiwan Navy, is the maritime branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces (ROCAF). The service was formerly commonly just called the Chinese Navy during World W ...

(ROCN) before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

of her class. She was sunk in the early days of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

by aircraft from the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

, and her wreck was raised and repaired by the Japanese, re-entering service with the Japanese Navy in the Pacific War as the escort vessel . She was sunk again in September 1944 by a

USN The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

submarine. page 113

Background

By the end of the 1920s, the ROCN had only four antiquated 19th century

protected cruiser Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...

s and two training cruisers received before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

government had an ambitious re-armament plan but lacked funds, and after extensive negotiations with shipbuilders in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, placed an order with the Japanese for one

to be built in Japan, with a second vessel to be built in China with Japanese assistance. Despite the very strained political relations between Japan and China and the strenuous objections of the Japanese military, Harima Shipyards completed the first cruiser in 1932.

Design

''Ning Hai'' was based on the experimental Japanese cruiser , which combined a small size with heavy weaponry, but in an even smaller displacement of only . As with ''Yūbari'', ''Ning Hai'' has a single trunked smokestack, and a tripod bridge arrangement. Her weaponry was comparable to ships with a larger displacement: six

14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval gun The 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval gun was a Japanese low-angle weapon introduced during World War I. History It served as the secondary armament in a number of Japanese dreadnoughts and as the main armament in light cruisers and some auxiliar ...

s mounted in three double gun turrets, six 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type naval guns, and dual 533-mm torpedo tubes. ''Ning Hai'' also had a small hangar for two seaplanes; two

Aichi AB-3 The Aichi AB-3 was a Japanese ship-board reconnaissance floatplane of the 1930s. The AB-3, a single-seat, single-engined biplane, was designed to equip a light cruiser ''Ning Hai'' being built in Japan for the Chinese navy, a single aircraft be ...

biplanes, one bought from Japan and one built locally using a spare engine and domestic materials, were assigned to it. There was no aircraft catapult, and the seaplanes were hoisted onto and deployed using a crane. However, the vessel was underpowered, with three antiquated vertical four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, two of which were coal-fired, yielding a top speed of only 22 knots. The excessive top-weight of the design also created stability problems. Due to these issues, ''Ning Hai'' was suitable only for coastal operations against gunboats or smaller vessels.

Operational history

''Ning Hai'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

at Harima Shipyards in Aioi, Hyogo, Japan on 20 February 1931, launched on 10 October 1931 and completed 30 July 1932. She was commissioned on 1 September 1932 as the flagship of the

(ROCN), serving in that capacity until the commissioning of ''Ping Hai'' in April 1937. She returned to Japan in May 1933 for repairs, and again in June 1934 for the funeral of Japanese Fleet Admiral

Tōgō Heihachirō Marshal-Admiral Marquis , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He claimed descent from Samurai Shijo Kingo, and he was an integral part of preserving ...

. She again underwent repairs before her return to China
CombinedFleet.com: ''Isojima'' Tabular Record of Movement; As one of the more powerful surface combatants within the small ROCN, following the start of the

, ''Ning Hai'' was a target of the

since the

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan The also ...

, but it was not until 23 September, during the Japanese assault on Kiangyin Fortress (which guarded a segment of

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

near

Nanking Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

), that ''Ning Hai'' came under severe attack by Japanese bombers, sustaining four bomb hits while ''Ping Hai'' was hit by eight bombs and sunk. ''Ning Hai'' escaped but on 25 September when

Yokosuka B3Y The Kugisho B3Y, or Navy Type 92 Carrier Attack Bomber, also popularly titled Yokosuka B3Y, was a Japanese aircraft carrier, carrier-based torpedo bomber of the 1930s. It was designed by the Naval Air Technical Arsenal at Yokosuka, and while unim ...

1 torpedo bombers scored two direct hits, sinking her in shallow water. These airstrikes were launched from both the aircraft carrier and airfields around Japanese-occupied Shanghai. The Imperial Japanese Navy captured the wreck on 5 December 1937. An attempt to re-float ''Ning Hai'' by the Japanese in April, 1938 was unsuccessful with two salvage divers killed. An attempt on 4 May 1938 was successful, and the hulk was towed to Shanghai for basic repairs. Originally the Japanese planned for the vessel to be the flagship of the collaborationist navy established by the Nanjing Nationalist Government, but instead opted to have her towed to Sasebo Naval District, where on 11 July the vessel was re-classified as the training vessel and coastal defense ship . However the ship was moored permanently at Sasebo as barracks hulk from July 1938 to December 1943. In December 1943, with Japanese maritime traffic under increasing pressure from Allied submarine warfare, ''Mikura'' was towed to the Harima Shipyards for reconstruction into a "

Kaibōkan or coastal defense ship was a type of naval ship used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II for escort duty and coastal defense. The term escort ship was used by the United States Navy to describe this category of Japanese ships. ...

" (escort ship). Reconstruction was completed on 1 June 1944 and she was recommissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy as on 10 June and assigned to the

Yokosuka Naval District was the first of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included Tokyo Bay and the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coasts of central and northern Honshū from the Kii Peninsula to Shimokita Peninsula. Its h ...

. After training in the Seto Inland Sea, she escorted a convoy of transports to Iwo Jima from 22–31 July, escaping a torpedo attack by an unknown submarine on 26 July. On 10 September, ''Ioshima'' departed Yokosuka on a second escort mission, but was hit by three torpedoes fired by the USN submarine on 19 September, south of Cape Omaezaki, about from Hachijojima. She sank at , and was removed from the

navy list A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...

on 10 November 1944 .

Notes

References

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External links

*http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/exchina-cl.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20100510015014/http://big5.chinabroadcast.cn/gate/big5/gb.cri.cn/3821/2004/08/26/151@280506.htm * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ning Hai Ning Hai-class cruisers Ships built by IHI Corporation 1931 ships Second Sino-Japanese War cruisers of China Cruisers sunk by aircraft Ships sunk by Japanese aircraft Escort ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy Ships sunk by American submarines World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Maritime incidents in September 1944 Naval ships of the Republic of China captured by Japan during World War II