- Yes
- No
History
ROCS Jiang Xi in 1947
Jiang Xi (江犀) was the former Japanese gunboat Sumida first laid down in 1939 and served with the Japanese navy patrolling Chinese rivers until 1945. She was part of the Fushimi class of River gunboats however her sister Fushimi was scrapped when she was received by the Chinese navy. In mid 1945 some of her and other river gunboats armaments were taken off and installed in coastal defense areas. In case of Sumida her 5th year 8cm gun was taken off. When she was received by the Chinese navy she was rearmed with a 3rd year 76mm gun. Gun shields for the twin 25mm gun seemed to have been taken off and the rest of her guns were unshielded in 1947. They may have received shielding since then or when she was in communist service based on later images. Her other 25mm’s are a mystery since in the 1947 photo it looks like a turret was placed in front but in communist service they were on the sides of the wheelhouse and the front turret is gone.
After reception she was assigned to the Yangtze River patrol with the other Japanese River gunboats received. Compared to the others she was one of the more heavily armed as she still had a 8cm/76mm gun while the others had theirs taken off. She was also the fastest with a top speed of 17 knots.
In 1949 as the nationalists wanted to fortify the Yangtze River they sent the 2nd coastal defense fleet to help with defending the river from communist attacks. Jiangxi was transferred to the 2nd coastal defense fleet with Taiyuan (ex-USS wake). The gunboats were sent to protect Hukou and Chongqing.
However the communists eventually captured most of the Yangtze and Jiangyin fortress. The nationalists ordered the boats of the second fleet to break out from the river past Jiangyin fortress and sail to Shanghai. The commander of the 2nd coastal fleet however was unwilling to go as it was fairly dangerous with the heavily armed Jiangyin fortress captured furthermore he was a member of the Fujian navy clique which was actively being suppressed by the new navy commander Gui Yongqing. The commanders of Jiangxi and Taiyuan also decided to revolt and defected to the communists. They probably also knew their flat bottomed river gunboats probably wouldn’t have made it far in rougher seas before capsizing, even if they somehow managed to get past Jiangyin fortress in one piece. The rest of the gunboats of the fleet decided to follow orders and attempted to break out from the river.
Once they defected Jiangxi and Taiyuan were ordered to remove all their light weaponry and leave only 1/3 of the crew on the boats and go to positions to hide from nationalist bombers. However in May Taiyuan was found by the nationalists B-25’s and was destroyed. Jiangxi was also found by a B-25 in September however not really on purpose as the bombers were searching for another defected warship Changzhi and was damaged as a result.
She served with the PLAN until being scrapped in 1960 or 1964.
She’s the second River gunboat named Jiang Xi (江犀) in ROCN service with the first being a German made one ordered by the Qing dynasty in 1909.
1947 record of movement:
In early to mid 1947 she regularly patrolled the rivers along the Nanjing, Guazhou, Shengzhou, and Zhenjiang areas.
In July to august 1947 she mainly patrolled San Jiang ying (三江营) in near Zhenjiang.
In September she left Zhenjiang to patrol Anqing. There she patrolled with patrol boat 18.
On September 27 they left Anqing to patrol Wang Jia dun (王家墩, a village/town? a little southwest of Anqing. Near where Zhanghuzhen is today) they later returned to Anqing shortly after.
In October she left Anqing to patrol Jiujiang and Yong’an took her place to patrol Anqing with Patrol 18. While in Jiujiang she would mainly patrol the area around Hukou with other river gunboats.
On November 1 she would team up with patrol 57 to patrol Hukou together for a short time.
On November 3rd she would head towards Pengze (彭泽) to patrol. On November 14th she would head a little further east towards Fuxing and later on November 21st she went back to Jiujiang.
She would later return to Fuxing town on the 22nd then back to Hukou on the 29th. On December 2nd she would return to Fuxing.
In mid December she would be stationed near Hankou. She would move further west towards Shashi and then Yichang.
Near the end of December she would be back in Hankou.
Jiang Xi in PLAN service in a movie
Specifications:
Displacement 304 long tons (309 t) (design)
350 long tons (356 t) (actual)
Length 50.3 metres (165 ft)
Beam 9.8 metres (32 ft)
Draught 1.2 metres (3.9 ft).
Propulsion 2-shaft Kampon turbine engines; 2 boilers; 2,200 hp (1,600 kW)
Speed 17 knots (20 mph; 31 km/h)
Range 1400 nautical miles @ 14 knots
Complement 64 (ROCN service)
Armament
1 x 3rd year 76mm gun
4 x type 96 25mm gun
1 x type 93 13mm gun (top of wheelhouse)
2 x 7.7mm Lewis guns
Other:
Spoiler
I also have been learning blender making a low poly 3D model of her in my free time. I’ve realized just how much research and time it takes to make a model.
Jiang Xi reception with other gunboats in 1947
Sources: