HMS ''Falcon'' was a

river gunboat 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 mor ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

built by

Yarrow Shipbuilders Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also op ...

in 1931 for the

Yangtze Patrol The Yangtze Patrol, also known as the Yangtze River Patrol Force, Yangtze River Patrol, YangPat and ComYangPat, was a prolonged naval operation from 1854–1949 to protect American interests in the Yangtze River's treaty ports. The Yangtze P ...

. The main armament of the gunboat was a 3.7-inch howitzer, and the secondary armament was a

QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt The QF 6 pounder Nordenfelt was a light 57 mm naval gun and coast defence gun of the late 19th century used by many countries. Note that this gun should not be confused with the short-barreled 57 mm Cockerill-Nordenfelt "Canon de capon ...

. For air defense, the gunboat is armed with ten

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...

s that could also be used against surface targets. During

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 ...

, HMS ''Falcon'' had to withdraw to the Chinese war time capital Chongqing, along with the retreating Chinese force to avoid being captured by the advancing Japanese invaders. In March 1941, the gunboat was

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...

and her crew travelled overland to

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

via the

Burma Road The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino ...

and her guns were sent by elephants. The British decided to give the boat to Chinese as a gift, and Chinese in turn, began to train its own crew in preparation of the handover. ''Falcon'' was officially handed over to Chinese in February 1942, and in the following month, ''Falcon'' officially joined 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) and renamed as ''Yīng dé'' ( zh, 英德). The gunboat served with ROCN until 30 November 1949, when the ROCN Riverine Flotilla commander defected to advancing communist force that blocked the

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 ...

, taking seven boats to the communist side, including ''Yīng dé''. After joining the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the gunboat was once again renamed, this time changed to ''Nan Chiang'', and served until 1974 to its final retirement.

References

Publications

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Falcon (1931), HMS Gunboats of the Royal Navy World War II patrol boats of the United Kingdom Ships of the Republic of China Navy Ships of the People's Liberation Army Navy 1931 ships