by River Gunboats- An Illustrated Encyclopaedia (retail) (epub)
HMS Kathleen, one of the leading gunboats of the Irrawaddy Flotilla steamers which took Mandalay in November 1886. She is armed with two Armstrong guns. (IWM Photo Ref: Q 71260)
HMS Palow, towing HMS Bulldog attached to her port side, and an accommodation flat boat attached to her starboard side. (IWM Photo Ref: Q 71264)
Paddle steamer HMS Yunan of the Irrawaddy Flotilla leaving Thayetmyo (Fort Cornwallis) towing gun flat Wild Swan. (IWM Photo Ref: Q71298)
The principal warships present were:
• Irrawaddy of the Royal Indian Marine, a paddle steamer mounting two 20-pounder breech-loaders and two 9-pounder muzzle-loaders
• steam screw launches HMS Settang and HMS Kathleen. Kathleen would later be wrecked on the Kings Bank in Hlaing River in the early 1900s.
Improvised gunboats were:
• steel paddle steamer Palow, of 154 tons, armed with Nordenfelt machine guns
• two gun barges to be moved lashed alongside the Palow, HMS Bulldog armed with a 64-pounder muzzle-loader from HMS Turquoise, and an accommodation flat boat armed with a field gun. Bulldog had a gun shield formed from bullet-resistant steel plates, and additional protection was arranged in the form of cotton bales, an idea first used by the Confederate Navy twenty years earlier. Each gun could train through 45 degrees at the bow of the barge, 200 rounds were carried for each, and when fully loaded the barges drew 8ft 9in (2.67m).
• side paddle steamer HMS Yunan, 396 tons
• gun flat HMS Wild Swan, lashed alongside HMS Yunan, and armed with six 9in howitzers, manned by the Royal Artillery and with protection using boiler plate. Wild Swan was formerly the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company’s oil flat (barge) Ap Min, built in 1883 and sunk in 1911.
Military Operations in Central Burma 1889
HMS Bhamo
The successful, but short-lived, combined naval and land campaign of the Third Anglo-Burmese War solved the immediate political quandary, but exposed British possessions in lower Burma to ceaseless attacks by the dacoits (bandits), mostly former soldiers of the deposed King Theebaw.
The RIM paddle steamer HMS Bhamo penetrated deep into Burma, in support of British troops, reaching the Arakan region. In September 1889 she took part in the military operations against the Chin and Lushai Tribes, and she transported a battalion of troops via the Chindwin River from Pakoko to Kendat during the subsequent Manipur Expedition. Her commander and crew were decorated for their effective support.
RIM Bhamo. (Photo from Website www.graptolite.net)
Launched:
1896 by Kidderpore DY.
Dimensions:
Displ: 255 tons; L: 49.7m/163ft; B: 9.14m/30ft.
Power/Speed:
Stern paddle wheel; steam engine.
Guns/Armour:
2 × Maxim MG.
Fate:
Sold circa 1922.
Riverine Operations in Burma (1944 – 1945)
Sutlej Class Sloops in the Arakan
During the offensive to recapture Rangoon, the sloops HMIS Narbada and Jumna penetrated quite long distances upriver, supported by MLs and HDMLs of the Royal Indian Navy. On one occasion the Narbada manoeuvred with just 4in of water beneath her keel! Both were of the Modified Bittern (later Black Swan) types, known in the Royal Indian Navy as the Sutlej class.
Launched:
Jumna 16 November 1940 by Denny, Dumbarton; Narbada 21 November 1942 by Thornycroft, Woolston.
Dimensions:
Displ: 1,250 tons; L: 91.29m/299ft 6in; B: 11.43m/37ft 6in; D: 3.4m/11ft.
Crew:
180.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; geared steam turbines, 3,600shp/19 knots.
Guns/Armour:
3 × twin 4in QF Mk XVI DP; 4 × 2-pounder Pom-Pom; 4 × 0.5in MG; 20mm Oerlikons; 40 × DCs.
Fate:
Jumna to India 1948, scrapped 1980; Narbada to Pakistan 1948 as Jhelum, sold 1959.
A poor quality but nevertheless historically significant photo showing Narbada moored up-river, carrying out a bombardment with her twin 4in guns. (Photo from Website https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/India/RIN/RIN-13.html)
An unidentified ML approaching Rangoon on 2 May 1945, passing the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company’s Depot. (Photo courtesy of Ken Joyce, Burma Star Association, via Frontier Myanmar)
‘Fairmile B’ MLs
In preparations for the re-conquest of Burma, in late 1944 a flotilla of ‘Fairmile B’ Motor Launches, which had served in the 14th ML Flotilla as navigation leaders for Utah Beach during the Normandy Landings, were sent on their own hulls to the Far East theatre. All MLs were constructed with special steel strips bolted to their decks, with pre-tapped bolt holes allowing for rapid changes of armament to meet changing operational requirements. The Irrawaddy Flotilla were re-armed to be able to operate as river gunboats, with a 6-pounder QF Hotchkiss replacing their 3-pounder bow gun, a 2-pounder Pom-Pom on the rear deck in place of the multiple depth charge load, and their single 20mm Oerlikon moved from the stern to the mid-ships cabin roof. Official sources state that all their depth charges were removed, but it is probable that at least two would be retained for tasks such as demolishing river bridges (as was planned for the Sittang Bridge mission). Because of two previous friendly-fire incidents involving Allied aircraft and MLs in the Arakan, the Irrawaddy boats were marked with a broad white stripe from waterline to waterline in front of the bridge.
The flotilla had an eventful time even as hostilities wound down. On 9 May 1945 four MLs were sent to the mouth of the Sittang River, with orders to proceed upstream and destroy with depth charges a bridge being used by Japanese troops retreating from the Fourteenth Army’s advance. In the evening they ran aground in an area marked on the map as ‘Dangerous to Navigation’, and anchored to await the turn of the tide. When this did arrive it came in the form of three large tidal bores, each one larger than the previous wave. The third wave, some 10ft (3.05m) high, rolled two of the MLs completely over several times, throwing the crews into the water, sweeping bare the upperworks, and creating large holes in the wooden hulls. The seventy officers and crew, with their Burmese interpreter and an Army demolitions expert, were lucky to survive, and took many days to find their way back to British lines on foot and in native bullock carts.
On the night of 15/16 May four MLs attacked and destroyed eight heavily-armed Japanese supply barges, killing eighty of the enemy at a cost of one man killed and one of the MLs damaged by gunfire and ramming.
On 20 May, in what is believed to have been the last action fought by Coastal Forces during the Second World War, four MLs were in action with a Japanese warship, probably an armed barge, hidden under camouflage at the river bank. In a sharp exchange of fire, one of the MLs was hit by a mortar shell, with one crewman wounded, but the Japanese vessel was abandoned by its crew.
Launched:
Mid-Second World War by various builders; converted for Far East service late 1944.
Dimensions:
Displ: Displ: 85 tons; L: 34.1m/112ft; B: 5.56m/18ft 3in; D: 1.47m/4ft 10in forward, 1.53m/5ft 0½in aft.
Crew:
16–34.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × Hall Scott Defender petrol engines, total 1,200bhp/20 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 6-pounder Hotchkiss QF; 1 × 2-pounder Pom-Pom; 1 × 20mm Oerlikon; 2 × twin .303in Vickers K MG.
HDMLs on the Bassein River
On 6 June 1945 four Harbour Defence Motor Launches set out on an armed patrol in the region of Bassein. When they returned to Rangoon ten days later they were carrying on board a Japanese officer and his twenty men, believed to be the first surrender of a complete armed Japanese unit in the Burma Theatre.
Launched:
Launched during the Second World War by various builders.
Dimensions:
Displ: 50 tons (54 tons full load); L: 21.95m/72ft; B: 4.9m/16ft; D: 1.5m/5ft.
Crew:
2 officers + 10 crewmen.
&
nbsp; Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × Gardner 8L3 Marine diesel engines, total 304bhp/12.5 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 20mm Oerlikon cannon; 2 × twin .303in Vickers K MG.
HDML
‘Girl’ Class
In order to provide gunfire support to troops of XXXIII Corps of the Fourteenth Army on the Chindwin River, which joins the Irrawaddy to the south-west of Mandalay, it was decided to build a flotilla of river gunboats at Kalewa. Teak was to be used in the boats’ construction, the work to be carried out by an Army unit composed of mainly Indian soldiers, with machinery and other parts flown in by RAF Sunderlands alighting on the river at Shwegyin. Because of the height of the hills the flying boats had to cross coming from India, to save weight the parts were all too often carried uncrated, which resulted in a deal of damage, for example to the long propeller shafts called for by the design. The planned petrol tanks never materialised, and had to be replaced by three 40-gallon petrol drums. They were heavily armed for their size, and the Bofors were provided with AP shot as well as HE shell, for dealing with any Japanese tanks encountered.
HMS Pamela on patrol. Note the standard Bofors gun shield and late-war sighting bar, neither shown on the drawings below. (Photo WGS Penman)
Profile of the ‘Girl’ class, showing their simple lines.
Construction details and half deck plan. (Drawing from www.worldnavalships.com)
The first four gunboats of a planned flotilla of sixteen were laid down on 15 February 1945, with the teak hauled from the forests by elephant, then transported to a local lumber company for sawing. Unfortunately the use of some insufficiently seasoned wood, added to the inaccurate sawing of the logs, posed many problems for the inexperienced builders. However, given the urgent need for river support, they persevered, and on 9 April the first two gunboats were launched by General Slim, and named HMS Una and HMS Pamela after the daughters of the General and of the C-in-C Lord Mountbatten respectively.
The next morning it was discovered they were both half-sunk at their moorings, due to unplugged nail holes. Even after baling out and repairs, the teak hulls continually leaked and needed constant pumping. Flat bottomed, and built with a simple curved bluff bow to make for easier construction and troop disembarkation, the two gunboats put in short-lived but effective service. It does not appear they were painted with the broad white air identification stripe of the MLs on the Irrawaddy, but they had prominent white stars painted on the bridge sides.
They were put to use immediately, fighting their way down the Chindwin and the Irrawaddy to Rangoon by VE Day. Una had been narrowly missed by a Japanese 75mm shell, and Pamela had been hit several times by Japanese MG fire, but luckily without casualties. With the end of the war they were soon stricken.
Launched:
9 April 1945 at Kalewa.
Dimensions:
Displ: 25 tons; L: 15.8m/52ft; B: 3.96m/13ft; D: 0.69m/2ft 3in.
Crew:
1 officer and 12 crewmen including 2 Army gunners for the Bofors.
Power/Speed:
Triple screws; 3 × Ford V8 petrol engines, total 252bhp/10 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 40mm Bofors, with HE and AP shot; 1 × 20mm Oerlikon; 2 × twin .303in Vickers K MG/Bulletproof armour plating around the bridge; Double spaced armour Bofors gun shield; standard Oerlikon shield.
Fate:
Stricken at the end of the war.
CANADIAN LAKES GUNBOAT
HMS Mohawk 1843
A very early example of a sectional iron vessel assembled on site, she was built in the UK and sent to Canada in sections. Reassembly took three months, and for her launch at the Navy Yard, Point Frederick, Kingston, in February 1843 a gap had to be specially cut in the winter ice covering Lake Ontario to allow her to take to the water.
In May 1846 she was hauled out of the water on the rail track in the yard of Fowler & Hood, to be lengthened by 26ft (7.9m) and have larger diameter wheels of the Baird sweeping paddle type fitted.
A newspaper report of her calling at Detroit for coal on 22 May 1850 noted that she was by then the only armed British man-of-war on the Lower Lakes. Two years later the political tensions between the United States and Canada had eased off sufficiently for the little gunboat to be offered for sale. Snapped up by Messrs. Park & Co. of Amherstburgh, she was to be converted to a twin screw schooner. Used for many years as a passenger ferry on the Lakes, Mohawk was last noted in use in May 1865 on Lake Michigan.
Launched:
21 February 1843 by Navy Yard, Kingston, Ontario.
Dimensions:
(1843) L: 29.9m/98ft 3in. (1846) Displ: 194 tons/250 full load; L: 37.9m/124ft 3in; B: 5.9m/19ft 6in: D: 1.37m/4ft 6in.
Crew:
25.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels; steam engines, 60 nominal hp/11 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1843 2 × 18-pounders. 1850 2 × 68-pounders.
Fate:
Sold into commercial service 21 June 1852.
CHINA GUNBOATS
HEIC Nemesis 1839
The Honourable East India Company was quick to order its first iron ship in early 1839, following Sir George Airey’s work on adjusting ships’ compasses to compensate for the effect of the iron hull. Nemesis was not the first iron vessel, but she would be the first iron warship to be launched, and the success of her construction would encourage the British Admiralty to order large numbers of iron vessels in the following years. Her iron hull allowed for the fitting of the first watertight bulkheads in a warship, and her hull compartments were fitted with pumping arrangements. Nemesis was also fitted with two retractable drop keels, contained in two trunks each 7ft long. When deployed by a windlass and endless chain, the drop keels extended 5ft below the flat bottom, and were a success in steadying her. When they were deployed, a 5ft extension was also lowered beneath the rudder. Her full load draught was 6ft, but this could be reduced to just 5ft for riverine work, giving her a great advantage over wooden-hulled gunboats which usually drew as much as 13ft.
HEIC Nemesis, the ‘Devil Ship’.
A model of Nemesis in the Hong Kong Coast Defence Museum, showing her 32-pounders at bow and stern, and the smaller 6-pounders two on each beam. Not shown are the fifth 6-pounder and the rocket tube mounted on the bridge. (Photo ShanghaiNing.com)
When one examines the actions of Nemesis and her crew during the First Opium War, it is easy to see why the long-suffering Chinese labelled her the ‘Devil Ship’. On 7 January 1841, aided by her shallow draught and her powerful engines, Nemesis was positioned so close to the Chuenpee Fort that her gunners were pouring grape shot into the Chinese embrasures. Crossing the shallows into Anson’s Bay, she attacked a flotilla of eleven war junks at anchor. Her first Congreve rocket struck one of the largest junks and set her on fire. Soon she blew up with a terrific explosion which shocked the Chinese admiral and everyone else present. Nemesis continued with the attack, and accounted for no less than nine of the eleven junks.
When hostilities recommenced after a Chinese request for parley was seen as a subterfuge to bring up fresh troops and gun batteries, on 23 February Nemesis towed boats from the rest of the squadron and broke up a Chinese force, spiking some eighty guns. Again a break for parley, and again a resumption of fighting.
The fighting on 21 March found Nemesis in some difficulty in front of the large Chinese gun battery at Shaming, her bow gun being temporarily disabled, her rudder jammed and a Congreve rocket hanging up in its launch tube and exploding prematurely. No matter: in a short time Nemesis was once more under control, had silenced the battery, and towing the squadron’s boats once more, proceeded to destroy a flotilla of thirty-nine war junks and boats!
The best was yet to come. On 20 April, Lieutenant Hall pushed Nemesis 60 miles further up the river, and captured a fleet of junks loaded with silver from the Shanghai treasury.
Launched:
November 1839, by John Laird for the Secret Co
mmittee of the Honourable East India Company.
Dimensions:
Displ: 660 tons; L: 56m/184ft; B: 8.8m/29ft; D: 1.8m/6ft max; 1.5m/5ft min.
Crew:
90.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels 17ft 6in diameter; 2-cyl steam engine, 120 nominal hp/7–8 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 32-pounder SB; 4 (later 5) × 6-pounders; Rocket launcher, probably firing 32-pounder Congreve rockets for ship-to-shore bombardment.
Fate:
Last recorded in the early 1850s in Burmese waters.
Heron Class
The Heron class were intended for the Upper Nile but were built too late to participate in Kitchener’s campaign. Class leader Heron was sent to patrol the Niger in January 1900 (see above), and her sisters Robin, Snipe, Nightingale and Sandpiper were sent to China.
A model of Sandpiper in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, shows the family resemblance the class bore to the first of Kitchener’s modern Nile gunboats Melik, Sultan and Sheik, especially the armament layout on the battery deck, but with several major differences. She is much smaller (85 tons as against 134 tons; less than 110ft long against Melik’s 145ft), and therefore she lacks the armoured bridge and wheelhouse of the latter vessels, and her main armament is the smaller 6-pounder QF instead of the 12-pounder. But she does have a fighting top on her mainmast – a feature which would reappear on the small ‘Fly’ class in Mesopotamia.
HMS Nightingale on the Yangtze. (Author’s collection)
Nightingale shows here the changes to the original basic design of the class: she now has the traditional ‘heads’ over the stern, the forward and aft parts of the superstructure on her main deck have been extended, and there is extra accommodation built onto her battery deck, but she still lacks an armoured bridge/wheelhouse as pioneered on the Nile gunboats, her bridge team having to squeeze inside the cylindrical conning tower, and the mainmast and fighting top have disappeared. No doubt the gunwales fitted to her bows would have been greatly appreciated in the fast currents of the Yangtze.