HMS Ladybird goes down fighting

12th May 1941: Once again the Luftwaffe demonstrates the new vulnerability of naval forces within its range

HMS Ladybird on the China station in the 1930s. Her six-inch guns are hidden beneath the sun awning. The Insect class had a shallow draught for operations in rivers. Ladybird was in the Danube in the First War. While protecting merchant ships in the Yangtze River in 1937, she suffered damage, and one man was killed when she was shelled by the Japanese. …