Battle of Zhenhai

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict= Battle of Zhenhai

Cannons_at_the_monument_of_Zhenhai.
partof= the Sino-French War
date= Early March, 1885
place= Zhenhai, China
result= Chinese victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1= Amédée Courbet
commander2= Ouyang Lijian
strength1= unknown
strength2= unknown
casualties1= unknown
casualties2= unknown

The so-called Battle of Zhenhai (Chinese: 镇海之役) was a minor confrontation 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 during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). The 'battle' is of some interest because both the French and the Chinese claimed it as a victory.

Background

On 25 February 1885 Admiral Courbet was instructed to implement a ‘rice blockade’, to prevent ships carrying rice from leaving Shanghai for 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". Two weeks earlier Courbet’s squadron had run in with part of China’s Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) near Shipu Bay, and the French had narrowly failed to capture the modern Chinese cruisers "Kaiji" (開濟), "Nanchen" (南琛) and "Nanrui" (南瑞). Suspecting that the three Chinese cruisers 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 he was also able to identify four other Chinese warships: the composite sloop "Chaowu" (超武), the wooden transport "Yuankai" (元凱) and two ‘alphabetical’ gunboats. The entrance to the bay had been blocked by a barrage of sunken junks by the Chinese authorities, and was also defended by two recently-built forts.

The 'battle of Zhenhai'

Early in the afternoon of 1 March Courbet reconnoitred closer on board "Nielly". The Chinese shore batteries and Chinese warships opened a vigorous fire. They were firing at extreme long range, but some of their shots landed within a hundred metres of the French cruiser. Unharmed, "Nielly" returned fire and slowly rejoined the squadron. The duel lasted a little over half an hour, and it is doubtful whether "Nielly"’s fire was much more effective than that of the Chinese, though the French claimed to have killed a number of soldiers ashore and inflicted slight damage on one of the shore batteries.

On the evening of 1 March Courbet gave orders for an attack the next day, but on the morning of 2 March the risks of the operation became evident. Silencing the Chinese batteries would be a long and slow business, and while the French ironclads were duelling with the forts they would be exposed to the fire of the three Chinese cruisers. Even if the French warships succeeded in suppressing the Chinese defences and forcing the barrage, the Chinese cruisers might still have eluded them by heading upriver towards Ningbo. Courbet decided not to incur unnecessary casualties, and instead issued orders for a blockade of Zhenhai Bay. The French left two of their ships to guard its entrance, bottling up the seven Chinese warships in the Ningbo River for the rest of the war. [Huard, "La guerre du Tonkin", 591–4; Loir, "L’escadre de l’amiral Courbet", 271–84]

Ironically, had they but known it the French could have captured all seven Chinese ships without loss. The French admiral Adrien-Barthélémy-Louis Rieunier was told shortly after the end of the war by the British consul at Ningbo that Courbet’s arrival had created such a panic that the Chinese ship captains were ready to surrender on 2 March as soon as the French opened fire. As the British were keen to preserve their neutrality, the consul had punctiliously refrained from conveying this valuable information to the French.

The Chinese version

Courbet’s decision not to force the defences of Zhenhai Bay allowed the Chinese to claim the brief engagement on 1 March as a striking defensive victory. The half-hour exchange of shots between "Nielly" and the Chinese shore batteries became a six-hour battle in which Courbet’s ships were roughly handled and the French commander was seriously wounded. [Lung Chang, "Le Vietnam et la guerre franco–chinoise", 338–9]

The Chinese myth crystallised shortly after the war, with the erection of a commemorative tablet near the site of the engagement in 1889 by the Chinese general Ouyang Lijian (歐陽利見), who had been charged with the defence of Ningbo and Zhenhai. According to Ouyang's account the fighting at Zhenhai Bay lasted for three days, from 1 to 3 March. The defence of the town was in the hands of the Chinese military mandarins Xue Fucheng (薛福成), Liu Bingzhang (劉秉璋) and himself. The hero of the battle was the artillery officer Wu Jie (吳杰), who directed the fire of a battery of cannon. Wu Jie defied direct orders not to fire on the French, and precipitated the battle by ordering his men to open fire. The Chinese cannon inflicted terrible damage on the French ships, hitting both "Bayard" and "Nielly", and a shot aimed in person by Wu Jie severely wounded the ‘terrible Guba’ (as the Chinese called Courbet). After the battle was over, Wu Jie expected to be commended for his prowess. Instead, he was punished for disobedience.

The battle is still remembered with pride in China. Chinese fortifications and cannon used during the battle have been preserved at Zhenhai, and a monument has been erected that bears the inscription 中法战争镇海之役胜利纪念碑, 'Monument to the victory in the Zhenhai battle in the Sino-French War'.

Commemoration of the battle

Notes

References

*Arlington, L. C., "Through the Dragon's Eyes" (London, 1931)
*Loir, Maurice, "L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet" (Paris, 1886)
*Lung Chang [龍章] , "Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng" [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993)