Ti Lung-class destroyer

## Ti Lung (T.306.5)

In ROCN seagoing camoflage during WWII

8 21" torpedo tubesAA suite varied between ships, and some vessels had one 4.7" gun removed during refits.

The *Ti Lung*-class destroyers (地龍級驅逐艦 - *Dìlóng Jí Qūzhújiàn*) were a class of 6 destroyers built by Vickers that served the Republic of China Navy during the interwar period, Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII. Several ships were lost in action or to accidents with the remainder decommissioned during the 1950s.

## Background

In 1922, Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang (Mandarin: *國民黨*, *Guómíndǎng*; Lit: "Nationalist Party") joined with the Communist Party (Mandarin: *共产党*, *Gòngchǎndǎng*) and other regional factions to establish the United Front - an alliance formed with the aim of bringing the Warlord Era to a close and unifying China under a single national government. Starting in July 1926, the armies of the United Front launched what would later be referred to as the Northern Expedition, a two-year offensive directed against the northern warlords of the Fengtian and Zhili cliques and the ineffectual Beiyang government (Mandarin: *北洋政府*, Běiyáng *zhèngfǔ*). The campaign was seriously threatened when National Revolutionary Army commander Chiang Kai-shek began preparations to purge 'left wing agitators' from his forces, but Wang Jingwei's Kuomintang government in Wuhan successfully intervened at the last minute; eventually an agreement was reached whereby Chiang's Nationalists would share power with Wang's Reorganizationists. By March 1928 the expedition had reached Beijing, and after several days of discussion dissolved the Beiyang government, and nominally united China under a single flag.

The following "Golden Decade" (Mandarin: *黃金十年*, *Huángjīn shí nián*) was a period of stability, economic growth and prosperity unprecedented in recent Chinese history. Increased funding and improved conditions allowed the undertaking of sweeping military expansion programs, including an ambitious project advocated by Naval Minsters Sa Zhenbing and Chen Shaokuan to purchase new warships abroad. The first major modern warships would be a class of 6 destroyers, ordered in mid-1929. The naming scheme of the class was initially based around one similar to that of Imperial Chinese torpedo boats as funding was partially provided from ex-Imperial reserves. Later Chinese destroyer types followed different naming schemes.

## Design

The *Ti Lung*-class started as a series of proposals offered to the government of the Republic of China by the UK during late 1928, with the design designated T.306.5 eventually selected. This ship type was comparable to the Spanish *Churruca*-class. Compared to this counterpart *Ti Lung* was slightly shorter overall and slower, but was beamier, rode deeper in the water and had a slightly higher freeboard forward. For a destroyer of the period the *Ti Lungs* were seen as fairly stable weapon platforms.

A locally modified variant of QF 12cm/45 guns on these destroyers was put into service as the dual-purpose 12cm/45 Type 3 (1932N) QF gun, and lessons from the operation of these ships influenced the designs of several local classes of destroyers.

## References

T.306 is a real project known to players of World of Warships as the (somewhat mediocre) "*Jianwei*"- *Dilong* is a fictional variant of this design in the main RFP AU.

Wade-Giles romanizations are used in the main articles.

Names of ships in class TBC.