War News:
26 February 1935:
- A small force of Chinese scout cruisers and destroyers reconnoiters the approaches to Weihaiwei and sink a pair of British destroyers.
10 March 1935:
- The battlecruiser
Lai Yuan, just returned from dockyard hands, is just south of Formosa and making for the straits when a British warship, apparently alone and soon identified as a
Queen Mary-class battlecruiser, is sighted to the south-southeast.
Lai Yuan's captain orders the ship to come about to engage the British battlecruiser, and soon the two ships are exchanging fire. After only a handful of salvoes, the British battlecruiser slows and begins to turn away, and
Lai Yuan starts to turn to pursue when, suddenly, the light cruiser
Yang Wu reports sighting two more British battlecruisers - a
Ramillies and a second
Queen Mary - to the north and the destroyer
Lei Bei reports sighting a British battleship coming up from the south, beyond the first British battlecruiser.
Lai Yuan's captain immediately abandons the pursuit of the first British battlecruiser and makes for the port of Takao on the southern tip of Formosa, fortuitously reaching the safety of the harbor before the British capital ships, all of which had entered range of
Lai Yuan, can seriously damage the Chinese battlecruiser, though the destroyer
Lei Bei is sunk and two other destroyers are seriously damaged while making a torpedo run on the southern battlecruiser and battleship to buy
Lai Yuan some time to open the range. Deprived of their prize, the British warships go on to bombard a lighthouse and sink some small patrol craft, but the Royal Navy is ridiculed (and
Lai Yuan's captain lionized due to a mistaken belief that he chose to stand and fight the British warships despite knowing his ship was overmatched) in certain British papers for its failure to sink a battlecruiser when it had been caught neatly in a trap by no fewer than four capital ships.
Lai Yuan, meanwhile, returns to the yards for another three months of repair work.
20 March 1935:
- The American battleship
Illinois disappears en route from Hawaii to the Philippines.
9 July 1935:
- The British government sends an emissary to discuss peace terms, but their proposed treaty is rejected and no satisfactory compromise is reached.
20 July 1935:
- Two British destroyers attempt to bombard coastal installations in southern Formosa, but encounter patrolling Chinese light cruisers. One destroyer is sunk, and the other escapes with heavy damage as night falls.
7 August 1935:
- The Royal Navy attempts another destroyer raid on southern Formosa, this time losing both destroyers to a Chinese cruiser patrol.
15 August 1935:
- The Army attempts to get the Grand Council to divert funding from the Navy to support a new offensive to retake Kwang-Chou-Wan, but is blocked by the Minister of the Navy, who argues that the fleet cannot both support an offensive in southern China and keep the sea lanes to Japan, Russia, and the USA open in its current reduced state and so requires the funds currently tied up in the shipbuilding programs.
25 September 1935:
- A British destroyer squadron attacks a Chinese convoy escorted by the destroyer leader
Lei Gen and the destroyers
Kuang I, Mao Bei, and
Kuang Li. A brief engagement ensues, ending after the British destroyers
Harpy and
Cossack are sunk; all surviving destroyers - British and Chinese - suffered heavy damage in the engagement, and the escort force commander aboard
Lei Gen elects not to pursue the withdrawing British ships.
3 October 1935:
- The Army High Command admits that its latest offensive has been a bloody failure, gaining only 200 yards on a small section of front despite the great forces committed to the attacks. Generals blame a shortage of 'landships' and suggest to the Grand Council that if they like ships so much then perhaps the Council should authorize more funding for the Army so that the Army can build some before their next offensive.
11 October 1935:
- The battlecruiser HMS
Invincible and the battleship USS
Alabama sink one another in an engagement off Nova Scotia.
27 October 1935:
- A Chinese convoy on approach to Kilung (in northern Formosa) is attacked by a British destroyer squadron. Escorting Chinese destroyers beat off the attack, sinking one of the three attacking destroyers and seriously damaging another at the cost of moderate damage to all of the Chinese destroyers.
7 November 1935:
- The Royal Navy decides to get serious about these convoy attacks and reinforces a destroyer squadron sent to attack a Chinese convoy bound for the Phillipines with a pair of battlecruisers. The convoy's escort force, a pair of light cruisers and three destroyers, sight the British warships, and bravely show the British ships their heels. All seven ships of the convoy are sunk.
11 November 1935:
- The British battlecruiser
New Zealand is torpedoed and sunk by an American light cruiser raiding merchant shipping in the Irish Sea.
December 1935:
- The
T-10 and
Lei Chien classes of destroyers begin to commission.
8 December 1935:
- The battleship
Chen Yuen, the second
Cheng Kung-class battleship, is laid down.
10 February 1936:
- The Chinese light cruiser
Chi An, raiding British shipping in the South China Sea, encounters the British light cruiser
Pandora, stalking Chinese shipping in the South China Sea.
Pandora is sunk in a brief gunnery duel, but damages
Chi An enough to force it to return to Kiangnan for repairs.
15 February 1936:
- The battleships
Tung Hai and
Ting Yuen and the battlecruiser
Hai An are taken in hand for regular maintenance.
16 February 1936:
- En route to Shanghai to enter the docks for its own overhaul,
Kai Chi is torpedoed by a British submarine but manages to make port safely. It is estimated that it will take four months to repair the damage, plus another four months to complete the planned overhaul.
21 February 1936:
- The battlecruiser
Chao Yung is taken in hand for a comprehensive upgrade of the main battery, replacing its antiquated British BL 15" Mk.I guns with the vastly superior Chinese 15" Model 1934 and significantly improving the turret protection. Two floatplane catapults and a heavy anti-aircraft battery are also added to the ship.
21 March 1936:
- The Chinese light cruiser
Heng Hai, sistership to
Chi An, escapes the British heavy cruiser
Sutlej after a chance encounter while
Heng Hai hunted British merchant shipping in the South China Sea.
25 March 1936:
- Four additional
Chen Wei-class scout cruisers -
Chien Sheng,
I Hsin,
Ching Yuan, and
Tsao Chiang - are laid down.
28 April 1936:
- A Chinese cruiser patrol attacks a British destroyer flotilla in the Straits of Formosa and sinks one destroyer; two other destroyers escape despite heavy damage.
28 May 1936:
- British battlecruisers attack a Chinese convoy bound for the Dutch East Indies; the Chinese cruisers and destroyers escorting the convoy abandon their chargers to the British battlecruisers, and seven Chinese merchantmen are sunk.
7 June 1936:
- The Navy contributes ¥5.6M to the purchase of a license and construction of a factory for the production of the American 16" Mark 5.
3 July 1936:
- The American light cruiser
Oakland sinks the British destroyer
Erne by gunfire, but is itself sunk after
Erne's last torpedo ran true.
4 July 1936:
- In solidarity with the US Navy, and celebrating the American Independence Day in spectacular fashion in partnership with the British Royal Navy, the Imperial Chinese Navy suffers itself to lose the light cruiser
Yang Wu to a turret flashfire and the light cruiser
Fu Ching to a magazine explosion in the span of a single minute. With the festivities over, the British heavy cruiser
Sutlej and its escorting destroyers turn their attention to the Chinese destroyer force and sink the destroyer leader
Lei Gen while three
Kuang Yuan-class destroyers flee for Foochow. Only minor damage is inflicted upon the British warships.
1 August 1936:
- Britain sends another peace offer, proposing an end to the war with borders as currently held. The Minister of the Navy is rumored to have said something undiplomatic when the Grand Council requested his thoughts, and negotiations broke down shortly thereafter.
11 September 1936:
- Intelligence personnel today delivered the critically important information that a new Russian minesweeper might carry 4" guns and that a Russian battleship is 39 months from completion. The Minister of the Navy thanks the Chief of Naval Intelligence and praises his resourcefulness in discovering such vital information despite very limited funding, noting especially its great importance to the ongoing war with
Great Britain. As the CNI departs, he mentions that the major British warships all seem to have been recalled to the North Atlantic for some reason.
12-20 September 1936:
- High-ranking Army and Navy officers meet behind closed doors, rumors of impending combined operations begin to circulate, and many Chinese warships - including all four active capital ships - begin to be transferred to the Guangdong and Fujian Fleets in the South China Sea.
21 October 1936:
- The light battlecruiser
Chih Yuan, having just finished working up, is returning to Dalny on the Liaotung Peninsula after a routine patrol near Weihaiwei with several destroyers and a scout cruiser when a British ship is sighted to the southeast. The patrol force commander aboard
Chih Yuan orders his ships to close cautiously to investigate, and is surprised when the lookouts report that the ship is an apparently unescorted British battleship of the
Illustrious class. This being too good an opportunity to pass up despite
Chih Yuan not being intended to engage other capital ships,
Chih Yuan commences a forty-minute gunnery duel with HMS
Illustrious - a gunnery duel which ends abruptly when HMS
Illustrious suffers a turret flashfire and explodes just as the Chinese destroyers were finally getting into a good position to launch a torpedo attack. British gunnery was surprisingly poor, with
Illustrious scoring only four direct hits on Chinese warships - all with secondary guns - leading many historians to speculate that
Illustrious may have lost its bridge and its directors early in the engagement.
6 November 1936:
- The Chief of Naval Intelligence, encouraged by the reception that the Minister of the Navy gave to the last batch of reports on Russia, provides the Minister with estimates of the performance of Russian 10" and 13" guns that suggest that the Russian 10" is worse and the Russian 13" is better than their Chinese equivalents. The Minister of the Navy once again thanks him profusely for this vital information, and privately notes that the CNI seems oblivious to sarcasm.
10 November 1936:
- The battlecruisers
Chao Yung and
Kai Chi, both newly returned from the dockyards, are transferred from the Nanyang Fleet (based in Shanghai) to the Fujian Fleet (based in Foochow).
December 1936:
- Strikes and anti-war demonstrations are rumored to be taking place in Great Britain.
1 January 1937:
- The
Chi An-class light cruiser
Heng Hai, short of fuel and far from friendly ports in southern China, the Philippines, and Guam, is scuttled near the Straits of Malacca, where it had been raiding British supply lines.
- The battleship
Tung Hai is torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine, thought to have been the coastal submarine
E-89.
3 January 1937:
- The Imperial Chinese Navy announces the blockade of Kwang-Chou-Wan as the Army opens a new offensive to retake the lost province with a massive artillery bombardment.
5 January 1937:
- The keel is laid for the battleship
Pan Chao, third ship of the
Cheng Kung class.
13 February 1937:
- The
Chen Wei-class scout cruiser
Fu Po is torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine while returning to port after participating in the destruction of a British destroyer squadron in the Straits of Formosa.
17 March 1937:
- A Chinese cruiser force enforcing the blockade of Kwang-Chou-Wan encounters a British AMC and several destroyers attempting to run supplies into Fort Bayard. Two British destroyers make it into port, but the AMC and two other destroyers are sunk by the guns of the Chinese scout cruisers.
1 April 1937:
- The British offer peace but decline to return Kwang-Chou-Wan or any of the concessions, and the proposed treaty is rejected at the urging of the Ministers of the Army and Navy.
28 May 1937:
- At the request of the Army, the Navy dispatches the
Chen Wei-class scout cruisers
Chen Wei and
Fu Sheng, escorted by the
Lei Chien-class destroyers
Kuang Cheng,
Kuang Chia, and
Kuang Hsing and the
Kuang Yuan-class destroyer
Kuang Li, to bombard a suspected ammunition dump south of Fort Bayard. Several British supply ships are encountered attempting to run the blockade and are sunk en route to the target, and a pair of British destroyers attempt to interfere with the bombardment but are soon sunk by the Chinese cruisers and destroyers. While the destroyers and
Chen Wei recover survivors,
Fu Sheng bombards the suspected ammunition dump until, fifteen minutes after commencing firing, a large explosion is seen in the target area.
Fu Sheng,
Chen Wei, and the escorting destroyers then proceed to Yeongkong to report the successful completion of their mission.
2 June 1937:
- The British garrison of Fort Bayard surrenders, and Kwang-Chou-Wan is restored to Chinese control.
6-10 June 1937:
- High-ranking Army and Navy officers are once again holding long meetings with one another behind closed doors.
14 June 1937:
- A large liner is sunk by a Chinese submarine. Fortunately, tensions with Russia have died down since 1935, so despite the neutrals being outraged none decide to join the British.
11 August 1937:
- The British heavy cruiser
Good Hope encounters a Chinese convoy bound for the Philippines, but withdraws without attacking the convoy after the battlecruiser
Hai An is sighted.
- The British battleship
Royal Sovereign is sunk in the Caribbean by American warships.
12 August 1937:
- The battlecruiser
Hai An, having hunted HMS
Good Hope through the night, sights the British heavy cruiser after daybreak and brings it to battle. After a short and uneven contest,
Good Hope is sunk.
15 August 1937:
- Major Chinese warships, operating in the South China Sea since the Kwang-Chou-Wan operation, begin receiving orders transferring them from the Guangdong and Fujian Fleets in the south to the Nanyang and Beiyang Fleets in the north.
22 August 1937:
- Domestic armaments manufacturers present the Army with a pair of 17" railway guns, said to have been designed and manufactured domestically. Representatives of the manufacturers inform the Navy that it would be 'entirely possible' to develop a naval mounting for these weapons, but as yet no orders are forthcoming.
5 November 1937:
- The Navy agrees to the transfer of some of its funding to the Army in support of the offensive to take Weihaiwei, with offensive operations planned to start later this month.
15 November 1937:
- The offensive against British positions around Weihaiwei commences.
25 November 1937:
- Warships of the Royal Navy demonstrate off Kwang-Chou-Wan.
6 December 1937:
- The
Chih Yuan-class light battlecruisers
Chih Yuan and
Ping Yuan encounter a British
Ramillies-class battlecruiser at night in foul weather and engage it for a short time before contact is lost. Shortly afterwards, a
Queen Mary-class battlecruiser is sighted, and is also engaged for a time, but the engagement ends apparently inconclusively, with both
Chih Yuan and
Ping Yuan losing both forward turrets and sustaining severe damage.
Intelligence work revealed that the
Queen Mary-class battlecruiser
Andromeda and the
Ramillies-class battlecruiser
Spartiate both sunk due to the damage inflicted by the 11" guns of
Chih Yuan and
Ping Yuan at short range, but
Spartiate made it into port before settling to the bottom and would be refloated and returned to service before the war ended. Both
Chih Yuan and
Ping Yuan would require several months of work to return them to service after this engagement.
8 December 1937:
-
Chih Yang, the third
Chih Yuan-class light battlecruiser, commissions.
8 January 1938:
- As the Army closes in on the British forces in Weihaiwei, the British heavy cruiser
Hogue of the eponymous class and the old
Itchen-class destroyer
Ouse attempt to run into the port to evacuate some of the remaining troops, but are intercepted by the Chinese battlecruisers
Hai An,
Kai Chi,
Chao Yung, and
Lai Yuan. 75 15" and 16" shells (and one submarine-launched torpedo) later,
Hogue is a sinking wreck, and
Ouse soon follows.
14 February 1938:
- The British heavy cruiser
Sutlej is torpedoed and sunk by the Chinese submarine S-97, a large liner is sunk by the Chinese submarine S-79, and the British battleship
Renown is sunk in a clash with American naval forces in the Caribbean. Fortunately, despite the sinking of the liner, no neutral powers are as yet interested in joining the war.
4 March 1938:
- The Army reports that its latest offensive to take Hong Kong has been stalemated for two months.
17 March 1938:
- The Chief of Naval Intelligence, hoping for more praise, informs the Minister of the Navy that Russian 13" and 14" guns are better than Chinese equivalents, but that Chinese 5" guns are better than Russian equivalents. The Minister of the Navy thanks him profusely for this invaluable information, and asks if the CNI has heard anything about goings-on in Britain, at which point the CNI mentions he's heard tell that there have been widespread protests and serious disturbances in Britain and mutinies within the fleet.
28 April 1938:
- British and Chinese destroyers clash in the Straits of Formosa. The engagement is - tactically - a draw, with one Chinese and one British destroyer sunk and the remaining ships roughly equally damaged, but the Chinese press, having become accustomed to victorious action, criticizes the Navy's performance harshly.
3 May 1938:
- The new British light cruiser
Phoenix is torpedoed and sunk by the Chinese submarine S-93 as it passed through the Straits of Malacca en route to Hong Kong.
19 May 1938:
- The battleship
Ting Yuen and the battlecruisers
Kai Chi,
Chao Yung, and
Hai An briefly engage the British battleships
Mars and
Hood of the
Royal Sovereign class (a class of three 4x3x15" AQY battleships commissioned in 1936) and
Prince of Wales of the eponymous class.
Kai Chi's A Turret is destroyed, the other battlecruisers suffer minor damage, and
Ting Yuen only just arrives before night falls and brings the engagement to a close. The battlecruisers
Lai Yuan and
Lan Yang, operating as a heavy scout force some distance to the north, join up with the older battlecruisers and
Ting Yuen around midnight and the full Chinese battle fleet awaits daybreak with hope of a renewed engagement, but the British capital ships are nowhere to be found come morning. The damage to
Kai Chi cannot be concealed from the press, and soon the papers are full of stories about the 'embarrassing' performance of the fleet.
15 June 1938:
- The British AMC
Pundit is sunk by the Chinese light cruiser
Chi An.
30 June 1938:
- The battleship
Cheng Kung, first of its class, is commissioned. On trials, it proves to have difficulty reaching its design speed of 27 knots and so will be limited to 26 knots in service.