River monitor
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River monitors were the strongest class of riverine warships. The name originally came from the USS Monitor.
River monitors were used on inland waterways - rivers and lakes. Usually they had a shallow draft which was necessary for them to be able to operate, but their displacement, size and draft varied depended on where they were used. Most river monitors were lightly armoured though this varied and some carried more armour. They carried a mix of gun sizes from 3 inch (75 mm) – 6 inch (152 mm) and machine guns. The type of vessel also overlaps with the River gunboat.
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Asia
On Asian rivers, first of all Amur, USSR and Japan used large river monitors, up to 1,000 tons displacement, armed with 130 mm guns. During the Vietnam war, the USA used smaller gunboats called monitors on the Mekong River.
Europe
On the Danube, river monitors were employed by Austria, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. Smaller monitors (70-100 ton displacement) were used by Poland in 1939 and by the USSR in 1941 on the Pripyat River.
US
River monitors were used mainly during the American Civil War, World War I and World War II. During the American Civil War, river monitors played an important role in the Mississippi River Campaign. They also played a role in the Battle of Mobile Bay. The American Civil War river monitors where very large up to 1,300 tons.