Japanese gunboat Hira

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. Hira & other IJN ships on 13 December, 1937 engage Chinese positions at Xiaguan, China and attack Chinese boats and rafts on the Yangtze River. On 17 August 1944 Hira damaged by US 14th Air Force planes at Kiukiang, China. On 26 November 1944 Hira and Gunboat Hozu ran aground near Anking, China. Chinese aircraft bomb and sink Hozu and severely damage Hira. Scrapped July 1945.