page_title: Steamboats on the Yangtze River
section_title: Japanese takeover
hierarchical_section_title: Steamboats on the Yangtze River / Japanese takeover
caption_attribution_description: English: Japanese Gunboat "Suma" at HongKong.(ex.HMS-Moth) 日本語: 日本海軍砲艦「須磨」（元イギリス海軍モス）
context_page_description: After thousands of years of junk and sampan traffic on the Yangtze River, river steamers were introduced by Europeans during the mid- to late-nineteenth century. The age of the steamer
  lasted nearly 150 years—from 1835 to 1980—and had lasting impacts on China, where river trade was
  essential to the economy due to the poor road network and few railways.
context_section_description: On January 28, 1932, the Japanese attacked the Chinese nationalists around Shanghai. Around midnight, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed the city in the first major aircraft carrier action in the Far East. Three thousand Japanese troops proceeded to attack various targets, such as train stations, around the city. From 1931 to 1933, the cruiser Tenryū was assigned to patrol the Yangtze River and was thus in combat during the January 28 Incident at Shanghai in 1932. The Battle of Shanghai of 1937 was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army, Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war. On August 13, 1937, the Japanese and Chinese exchanged fire in Shanghai in the ongoing war. The Chinese 88th Division retaliated with mortar attacks. Sporadic shooting continued through the day until 4pm, when the Japanese headquarters ordered the naval ships of the Third Fleet, stationed in the Yangtze and the Huangpu River to open fire on Chinese positions in the city. In the late night of August 13, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang Zhizhong to begin the Chinese offensive the next day. On August 22, the Japanese 3rd, 8th, and 11th Divisions made an amphibious assault under cover from naval bombardments and proceeded to land in Chuanshakou (川沙口), Shizilin (獅子林), and Baoshan (寶山), towns on the northeast coast some fifty kilometers away from downtown Shanghai. Japanese landings in northeast Shanghai suburban areas meant that many Chinese troops, who were deployed in Shanghai's urban center, had to be redeployed to coastal regions to counter the landings.
  The Japanese navy shelled Shanghai from its warships.  It used ships to support the Army in Shanghai and Nanking.  A task force of over 100 ships was used to move forces upriver and take Hankow (now Wuhan) in the summer of 1938.  Japanese aircraft sank two Chinese naval cruisers guarding the river during these actions.
  With the Japanese advance into the east coast of China in 1937, enterprises and numerous people withdrew from Wuhan to the west and Sichuan. The Kuomintang navy undertook the responsibility of defending the Yangtze River and covering the withdrawal. On 24 October, while patrolling the waters of the Yangtze River near the town of Jinkou, in Wuchang (Jiangxia, Wuhan), the Zhongshan was bombed by six Japanese aircraft . The aircraft dived, strafed and bombed the Zhongshan. Despite shooting down two of the aircraft, the Zhongshan eventually sank due to the serious damage she had sustained. Twenty-five Chinese officers and soldiers were killed in the battle.
caption: HMS Moth as captured IJN Suma in 1942
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