River monitor

The name originated from the US Navy's USS Monitor, which made her first appearance in the American Civil War, and being distinguished by the use of revolving gun turrets, which were particularly useful in rivers, whose narrow channels could severely limit the directions vessels could face.

Exceptional examples, however, most notably the Royal Navy's Lord Clive-class monitors, which could operate in coastal or certain riparian/estuarine situations, bore extra-thick armor plating and heavy shore-bombardment guns, up to a massive 18 inches (457 mm) in size.

[4] All of the monitors were converted from World War II 56-foot (17 m) long Landing Craft Mechanized (LCMs) Mk 6s.

[9] The most powerful and largest riverine vessels were three Khasan-class monitors from 1940s, with 2,400 ton full displacement and limited seagoing capabilities.

The Austro-Hungarian river monitor Bodrog fired the first shots of World War I, against the city of Belgrade, and later also fought in the Romanian Campaign, notably during the Flămânda Offensive in October 1916, when she was damaged.

Another river monitor, Körös, was also heavily damaged by Romanian artillery, taking 12 hits and ran aground after her steam lines were severed.

They were built in sections at Triest in Austria-Hungary, transported to Romania by rail and assembled by the Romanians at the Galați shipyard in 1907–1908.

She supported German troops during Operation Spring Awakening and later fought in Austria, sinking two Soviet gunboats.

After the fall of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Morava (renamed Bosna) and Sava were commissioned by the newly created Independent State of Croatia.

The Brazilian river monitor Parnaíba was built for the navy in Rio de Janeiro and commissioned on 9 March 1938.