World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseGunboat Minquan was designed to counter the Japanese Seta-class gunboat as its hypothetical opponent. Although her primary function was a river vessel, she was designed so that she could operate in shallow coastal waters. The designers also gave her a command room meant for Army-Navy coordination, thus making her a joint command ship should such a need ever arise. She was commissioned into service in Apr 1930. When WW2 began in 1937, she came under Japanese aerial attack several times, but to the credit of commanding officer Liu Huanqian she was able to skillfully evade all bombs targeting her. After the fall of the Chinese capital of Nanjing, Minquan was moved upstream toward Chongqing. At Dongting Lake, she claimed one Japanese aircraft shot down. After arriving at Chongqing, she initially served as an anti-aircraft vessel, and later her weapons were removed and transferred to the Army while she served as a training vessel for the nearly non-existent Chinese Navy, it having been decimated in the very first phase of the war. At the war's end, Minquan represented the second largest vessel of the Navy. After the war, she was the flagship of the Yangtze River Defensive Fleet headquartered in Hankou, Hubei Province, China. During the resumed Chinese Civil War, she successively fled west as the communists advanced, finally becoming captured by communist forces in Chongqing in Dec 1949.

ww2dbaseUnder communist control, Minquan was renamed Changjiang (ie. "Yangtze") and was assigned to the 7th Fleet of the Eastern Military Region. Shortly after, she was reassigned to the Wusong Independent Marine Police District. In Oct 1961, she received the hull number 227. Between Apr and Sep 1966, she was modernized. All existing weapons were removed, replaced by two dual 37-millimeter guns and four dual 25-millimeter guns. At the same time, her powerplant was also upgraded to diesel engines. In Feb 1968, she received the new hull number of 53-219. Later in the same year, she was decommissioned from service. The communist government established a museum dedicated to Changjiang at the naval base in Shanghai, and in 1978 the gunboat was placed there, becoming Communist China's first naval museum ship. In Jul 1981, Changjiang was scrapped at the museum site.

Minquan Interactive Map

Minquan Operational Timeline

Photographs