Name Hira Struck 10 May 1945 Type Seta-class gunboat Launched 14 March 1923 | Laid down 15 August 1921 Fate Scrapped 1945 Construction started 15 August 1921 Builder Kobe | |
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Completed 24 August 1923, disassembled and shipped to Yangtze Engineering, Hankow, China. Reassembly finished 1 December 1923 | ||
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.
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.
References
Japanese gunboat Hira Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA