Battle of Zhenhai

Cannons at the monument of Zhenhai

Date	1 March 1885
Location	Zhenhai, China
Result	result and significance disputed

Belligerents

France

China

Commanders and leaders

Amédée Courbet

Ouyang Lijian

Xue Fucheng

Liu Bingzhang

Wu Ankang

Strength

2 ironclads,
1 cruiser,
1 troopship

3 cruisers,
1 sloop,
1 transport,
2 gunboats
and shore batteries

Casualties and losses

Minimal

The Battle of Zhenhai (Chinese: 镇海之役) was a minor confrontation that took place on 1 March 1885 between Admiral Amédée Courbet's Far East Squadron (escadre de l’extrême-Orient) and Chinese warships and shore batteries near the coastal city of Zhenhai, 12 miles (19 km) downstream from Ningbo, China during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). French and Chinese sources disagree sharply as to what happened; French sources treat the encounter as a minor incident, while Chinese sources consider it a striking defensive victory. The Battle of Zhenhai is still commemorated in China as an important Chinese victory in the Sino-French War.

In early February 1885 part of Admiral Courbet's Far East Squadron left Keelung to head off a threatened attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) to break the French blockade of Formosa (Taiwan). On 11 February Courbet's task force met the cruisers Kaiji (開濟), Nanchen (南琛) and Nanrui (南瑞), three of the most modern ships in the Chinese fleet, near Shipu Bay, accompanied by the frigate Yuyuan (馭遠) and the composite sloop Chengqing (澄慶). The Chinese flotilla, under the command of Admiral Wu Ankang (吳安康), scattered as the French approached, and while the three cruisers successfully escaped, the French succeeded in trapping Yuyuan and Chengqing in Shipu Bay. On the night of 14 February, during the Battle of Shipu, a French torpedo attack crippled both ships: a French spar torpedo hit Yuyuan while shells from her guns struck Chengqing

On 25 February 1885 Admiral Courbet received instructions to implement a 'rice blockade' to prevent transport of the commodity from Shanghai to northern China. On 28 February he arrived off Zhenhai Bay, en route for Shanghai, with the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the cruiser Nielly and the troopship Saône. Suspecting that Kaiji, Nanchen and Nanrui had taken refuge in Zhenhai Bay, Courbet scouted the entrance to the bay at dawn on 1 March. Not only could he see the masts of the three Chinese cruisers, but was also able to identify four other Chinese warships: the composite sloop Chaowu (超武), the wooden transport Yuankai (元凱) as well as two 'alphabetical' gunboats. The entrance to the bay had been blocked by a barrage of junks sunk by the Chinese authorities while two recently built forts defended the approach.

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Wikipedia