World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbasePrior to the Sino-Japanese tension of 1931, the Chinese Secretary of the Navy Chen Shaokuan issued an order to the Kure Naval District in Japan for a light cruiser to be named Ninghai. Li Shijia was appointed to supervise the construction. The agreed-upon price for the ship was 4,320,000 French Francs. The contract was given to Harima Shipbuilders, which laid the keel in Feb 1931 and launched the ship in Oct 1931. Ninghai was delivered to China in Aug 1932, and she was commissioned into service on 1 Sep 1932. In Jun 1934, she served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Wang Shouting, bringing him to Yokohama, Japan to attend the funeral of Japanese Admiral Heihachiro Togo. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, at the Battle of Jiangyin in Jiangsu Province, China, she was sunk in shallow water by Japanese aircraft while guarding the mouth of the Yangtze River. The Japanese Navy ordered her to be raised in the following year. In 1943, as necessitated by war demands, she was towed to Japan for modernization and was recommissioned as light cruiser Ioshima in Jun 1944. She was sunk by American submarine USS Shad off the main island of Honshu, Japan in Sep 1944.

Light Cruiser Ninghai Interactive Map

Photographs

Ninghai Operational Timeline