Of all the Chinese warlord air force units to join the centralized Nationalist Chinese Air Force command, the Guangxi Clique was the last to unite, in November 1937; under the continued leadership of generals Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, now serving in the KMT, they and their airmen would earn honorable recognition at the Battle of Taierzhuang.[1]
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which is often regarded as the beginning of World War II,[2] the ROCAF participated in attacks on Japanese warships on the eastern front and along the Yangtze river and interdiction and close-air support during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. Chinese sources estimated the Japanese could field approximately 600 aircraft (from a total of 1,530) against China's 230 combat-ready aircraft. As the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service conducted mass-terror bombings against both civilian and military targets, the Chinese Air Force also planned raiding Japanese home island with the Martin B-10 bomber that was suited for the trans-oceanic raid.[3]
The initial lineup of Chinese frontline fighter aircraft included but not limited to the Curtiss Hawk II, Hawk III, Boeing P-26C/Model 281, Fiat CR.32 among others. These engaged Japanese fighters, attack/bombers and reconnaissance aircraft in many major air battles beginning from 14 August 1937, when Imperial Japanese Navy's Kisarazu Air Group raided Jianqiao Airbase[4] with the schnellbomber strategy, but suffering heavy losses; "814" has thus become known as "Air Force Day". Chinese Boeing P-26/281 fighters engaged Japanese Mitsubishi A5M fighters in the world's first dogfight between all-metal monoplane fighters. A long-distance "bombing raid" over Japan on 19 May 1938 saw two Chinese Martin B-10 bombers led by Captain Xu Huansheng fly into Japan, albeit dropping only anti-war leaflets over the Japanese cities of Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka, among others cities.[5][6]
It was a war of attrition for the Chinese pilots, as many of their most experienced ace fighter pilots, such as Lieutenant Liu Tsui-kang[zh], Colonel Kao Chih-hang, Yue Yiqin, among others, were lost; six months into the war, the Chinese Air Force inventory of frontline American Hawk IIs and IIIs and P-26Cs, and various others, were mostly superseded by faster and better armed Polikarpov I-15s and I-16s provided under the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1937, including Soviet volunteer combat aviators. However, with the Fall of Nanking, the Fall of Wuhan, and the losses at the Battle of South Guangxi, the primary supply-line of China's "war of resistance" against the Imperial Japanese aggressions was dealt a further blow, not least of which the high-octane aviation fuel that was blocked-off from Chinese access, but still accessible to Imperial Japan.[7]
Xu Jixiang of the 17th PS, 5th PG, fought against all odds in the debut dogfight against the A6M Zero-fighter, shown here with an I-15bis,
After suffering heavy losses in the Battle of Wuhan in October 1938, most active air force units were withdrawn hinterland for the defense of Sichuan against the most brutal terror-bombing raids ever inflicted upon civilian populations up to that time; the massive Japanese carpet-bombing campaigns, against targets in Sichuan, under the codenames Operation 100 and 101, were also fiercely contested solely by the Chinese Air Force units and anti-aircraft artillery units, sometimes with significant Japanese losses. But as China was not an aviation-industrial power at the time, losses continued to mount, while the Japanese forces enjoyed a highly developed aviation industry that saw constantly improving cutting-edge technological advancements giving Japanese aircraft distinct performance advantages in speed, agility, altitude/climbing rate and firepower that greatly placed the increasingly underpowered and underarmed Chinese fighter aircraft hampered with low-grade fuel at tremendous disadvantage. With the introduction of Mitsubishi A6M "Zero", the most advanced fighter aircraft of the time, the Imperial Japanese gained practically complete air-supremacy by 1941,[10][11] giving the Japanese military high-command full confidence in proceeding with the implementation of Operation Z (the planning and rehearsals for the attack on Pearl Harbor).[12][13]
American P-40E Warhawk decorated with the famous sharkmouth nose art that had identified the AVG
Through attrition and loss of their most experienced fighter pilots in the first half of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Republic of China Air Force suffered much irreversible losses in combat against the Japanese, and by the beginning of 1942 the ROCAF was practically annihilated by Japanese aircraft, particularly due to the introduction of the A6M Zero-fighter. The ROCAF was eventually supplemented with the establishment of the American Volunteer Group (known as the "Flying Tigers") with fast and heavily armed and armored Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, employing dissimilar hit and run tactics in defense of the primary wartime Allied supply-line into China known as "The Hump", between Kunming in Yunnan province and British bases in India, while the remains of the Chinese Air Force modernized and rebuilt its strength each year following Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, with new commitment and support from the UnitedStates.
In 1944, the USAAFFourteenth Air Force commenced joint operations in the China theatre.[citation needed] By this time the Chinese Air Force was mostly equipped with current operational aircraft types and was superior in all respects to the opposing Japanese air forces which remained.
Chen Ruitian a.k.a. Arthur Chin (陳瑞鈿): 7 victories (American-born Chinese air force volunteer)
Zhu Jiaxun (朱嘉勋 - Chu Chia-hsun) 5+ victories (former Guangxi-Bai Chongxi/Li Zongren warlord air force pilot)
Cen Zeliu (岑泽鎏 - Shim Tsak-lai, Sh'en Tse-liu)†: 5+ victories[24] (former Guangdong-Chen Jitang warlord air force pilot)[25]
Louie Yim-Qun (雷炎均): 3-5 victories (American-born Chinese air force volunteer)
Teng Li-Chun 2.5 victories, He flew 60 combat missions during WWII as a member of the Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional) in the 1st Wing of the 14th Air Force. He flew another 220 combat missions against the communist Chinese. He retired as a Colonel in the Republic of China Air Force with 18 Chinese military decorations and the Air Medal from the United States.
From 1937 to the beginning of 1941, the Soviet Union served as the primary supplier to the ROCAF, and from October 1937 to January 1941, a total of 848 aircraft in 13 batches were ordered by the Chinese government and were supplied on credit, worth roughly 200 million dollars. In addition, there were 37 aircraft transferred to Chinese when Soviet force withdrew from China after the signing of Soviet–German Non-Aggression Pact. These aircraft included 563 fighters, including 252 I-152, 75 I-153, 132 I-16 Type 5, 75 I-16 Type 10, 10 I-16 Type 17 and rest being I-15 bis, which was not part of the purchase in the 13 batches. Also included were 322 bombers, including 179 SB-2M-100A, 100 SB-2M-103 24 DB-3, 6 TB-3 and 13 SB that were not part of the purchase in the 13 batches). Also included in the 13-batch purchase were 5 UT-1 trainers. However, of the 250–300 combat aircraft supplied annually, only a few dozen would survive through the end of the year.
United States
While the USSR provided most of the military aircraft to Chiang Kai-shek in the late 1930s, many early Chinese aircraft were supplied by the American Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. In 1937 the Hawk II and Hawk III biplanes comprised the backbone of Chinese fighter aviation. These were soon followed by the Hawk 75 monoplane. The demonstration model Hawk 75N, with non-retractable landing gear was purchased in 1938 and became the personal aircraft of the American advisor to the Aviation Committee, Claire Chennault who oversaw training and lobbied for the procurement of American aircraft.
The entry of the United States into the war with Japan at the end of 1941 led to the receipt of Lend-Lease equipment from the United States, including aircraft. American Lend-Lease aviation equipment had already begun to arrive in China as early as the middle of 1941, though that includes the first shipments before January 1942 which arrived under the guise of purchases. Including previously purchased American aircraft, US soon replaced USSR as the largest supplier for the Chinese Nationalist air force during the war (Including the Second Sino-Japanese War that actually broke out in 1931 when Japan invaded Manchuria).
Retraining on American aircraft occurred for the most part in India. (Karachi and other cities), where Chinese pilots were sent both as groups and as entire units. As early as the end of 1941 Chinese pilots, mainly recently graduated from flight schools, began to be sent to the US for longer training and mastery of American aircraft.
The first American P-43A fighters were received by the 4th Air Group (21st – 24th Squadrons) in March 1942. They retrained in Kunming, but for the new aircraft the pilots sequentially flew in small groups to India. On 24 April the deputy commander of the 24th Squadron, Wu Zhenhua, crashed on the flight to Kunming. On 12 May, Chen Lokun, the flight commander of the 24th Squadron was killed during a training flight, crashing into a tree during landing. In July for unclear reasons the P-43 of the 4th Air Group commander, Zheng Shaoyu, caught fire in the air and the pilot was killed. On 3 August 1942 during a training flight the deputy group commander Chen Sheng crashed. A similar series of crashes accompanied the mastery by the Chinese of almost every new machine. (It is notable that in Chinese sources the family names are given only of the perished commanders of various ranks, while the losses amongst the line pilots are hardly even noted.) Concluding their conversion to the P-43A in early August 1942, the group returned to Chengdu.
In February 1943, preparing for transition to the new American air equipment, the Chinese transferred to India the primary training groups from their flight schools. Only training for reconnaissance and photography continued to be carried out in China. In March 1945 the cadets completing primary training in India were sent to America to train further. By that time the number of cadets dispatched had reached 1224, of whom 384 managed to return to China and participate in combat. In all, from 1942 to 1945 420 training aircraft were sent from the US to China through India, including 20 AT-6, 8 AT-7, 15 AT-17, 150 PT-17, 127 PT-19, 70 PT-22, and 30 BT-13, and also 10 Beechcraft D-17 medical aircraft.
Domestic assembly of aircraft
While the modified Hawk 75M with retractable landing gear was created specially for China, it was not widely used in the war against the Japanese. Thirty aircraft, and 82 kits for assembly were delivered in the summer and autumn of 1938. It was planned to assemble the Hawk in a factory operated by the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company, which had been evacuated from Hankou to Loiwing. The latter location, not far from the Burmese border on the eastern bank of the Ruiluqiang River in Yunnan Province, at that time seemed protected from Japanese attacks, but technical difficulties plagued the actual assembly of the Hawk 75 in that location. Although the Japanese had not bombed the factory, only eight machines were assembled by October 1940. The fate of the remaining kits is unknown.
Following the failure of Hawk 75 production, the CAMCO factory planned to organize assembly of the export version of the Curtiss-Wright CW-21 "Demon" interceptor. Three aircraft and 32 sets of components were ordered from the US. The factory at Loiwing worked until April 1942 when, due to Japanese attacks, it had to be evacuated to Kunming and its American personnel set up shop in India.
Japanese advances in Burma in late-1942 forced the 1st Air Force Aircraft Manufacturing Factory (1st AFAMF) to move hinterland to Guiyang, Guizhou province, where the Chinese government was attempting an innovative and ambitious indigenously designed swept-forward gull-winged fighter plane called the XP-1, in hopes to reduce reliance on foreign sources.[30] From 1943 to 1946 the CAMCO factory, which was dispersed in the ravines neighboring Kunming, assembled an experimental series of nine fighter monoplanes, probably from Hawk 75M, 75A-5, and CW-21 components. To a degree they were similar to the American prototypes and their further fate is unknown. In western sources the first example figures under the designation Chu XP-0.
↑ O'Connell, John F. (2016). "Dealing with the Japanese Zero". Air Power History. 63 (3): 25–30. ISSN1044-016X. JSTOR26276773. American Navy, Marine and Army fighter pilots will often see the large sign in their fighter huts warning them: "DON'T DOGFIGHT"
↑ Cheung, 2015, p. 69. While historians official credit Cen Zeliu with 5(+) victories, yet having been awarded with only a Two Star Medal, it's explained by fellow fighter pilots that "Cen didn't have a shred of selfishness in him".
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1937:
The Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also known as the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, is an American-designed and built fighter aircraft of the 1930s and 40s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, it was one of the first of a new generation of combat aircraft—a sleek monoplane design with a retractable undercarriage making extensive use of metal in its construction.
The Polikarpov I-15 was a Soviet biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s. Nicknamed Chaika because of its gulled upper wings, it was operated in large numbers by the Soviet Air Force, and together with the Polikarpov I-16 monoplane, was one of the standard fighters of the Spanish Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, where it was called Chato (snub-nose).
The Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) also known as the ROC Air Force, but retroactively known by its historical name the Chinese Air Force and colloquially referred to as the Taiwanese Air Force, is the military aviation branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces, currently based in Taiwan. The ROCAF was founded in 1920 by the Kuomintang. While its historical name is sometimes used especially in domestic circles, it is not used as often internationally due to the current ambiguous political status of Taiwan and to avoid confusion with the People's Liberation Army Air Force of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company, also known as the Loiwing Factory (雷允飛機製造廠) after they moved to Yunnan, was a Chinese aircraft manufacturer established by American entrepreneur William D. Pawley in the 1930s.
Arthur Tien Chin was a pilot from the United States who participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Chin was compelled to defend his father's homeland when Japan invaded China. He was part of the first group of U.S. volunteer combat aviators. Chin is recognized as the United States' first flying ace in World War II.
The bombing of Chongqing, from 18 February 1938 to 23 August 1943, were massive terror bombing operations authorized by the Empire of Japan's Imperial General Headquarters and conducted by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAF) and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAF). Resistance was put up by the Chinese Air Force and the National Revolutionary Army's anti-aircraft artillery units in defense of the provisional wartime capital of Chongqing and other targets in Sichuan.
The Curtiss F11C Goshawk is an American naval biplane fighter aircraft that saw limited success. It was part of a long line of Curtiss Hawk airplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the American military.
The Second Sino-Japanese War began on 7 July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in the Republic of China and is often regarded as the start of World War II as full-scale warfare erupted with the Battle of Shanghai, and ending when the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allies in August 1945. The Chinese Air Force faced the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Air Forces and engaged them in many aerial interceptions, including the interception of massed terror-bombing strikes on civilian targets, attacking on each other's ground forces and military assets in all manners of air-interdiction and close-air support; these battles in the Chinese skies were the largest air battles fought since World War I, and featured the first-ever extensive and prolonged deployment of aircraft carrier fleets launching preemptive strikes in support of expeditionary and occupational forces, and demonstrated the technological shift from the latest biplane fighter designs to the modern monoplane fighter designs on both sides of the conflict.
The Canton Operation was part of a campaign by Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade China to prevent it from communicating with the outside world and importing needed arms and materials. Control of Guangzhou (Canton) and the Pearl River Delta would provide a base to make the blockade of Guangdong province more effective by seizing southern China's major port and isolate the British port of British Hong Kong.
The order of battle for the Battle of South Guangxi by country is as follows:
"Clifford" Louie Yim-qun, also known as Louie Yen-chung, was a Chinese-American pilot and military officer in the Republic of China. Louie's father was from Taishan county, Guangdong, China, but Louie was born in Seattle, Washington. He obtained a private pilot's license at the Portland Flying School, Oregon, and went to China in 1933. One of the other pilots in Portland was Hazel Ying Lee, who later became his wife. She was the first Chinese American to volunteer for the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Louie died in 1999 in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Soviet Volunteer Group was the volunteer part of the Soviet Air Forces sent to support the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1941. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was signed leading to considerable Soviet military assistance to China, including the volunteer squadrons. China paid for the support with raw materials.
The Curtiss BF2C Goshawk was a United States 1930s naval biplane aircraft that saw limited success and was part of a long line of Hawk Series airplanes made by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for the American military, and for export as the Model 68 Hawk III.
The Chinese-American Composite Wing (Provisional) was a combined United States Army Air Forces and Republic of China Air Force unit. It was administratively assigned under Fourteenth Air Force in China throughout its service from 1 October 1943 – 1 August 1945. CACW succeeded the First American Volunteer Group (AVG) after AVG was disbanded in July 1942. The AVG's famed nickname Flying Tigers was also adopted by CACW. CACW leadership was led by previous AVG commander Clare Lee Chennault, who was promoted to the rank of Major-General.
Heroes of the Eastern Skies, is a Chinese war drama filmed in Taiwan, R.O.C. and based on the true story of a small group of Chinese flying aces in 1937 at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, specifically depicting events in the Battle of Shanghai, Battle of Nanking and the Battle of Taierzhuang; the movie was released on 7 July 1977 in commemoration of the 7/7 Incident which sparked the start World War II in Asia.
Nanchang Qingyunpu Airport, also known as Sanjiadian Airport, is an airport in Qingyunpu District of Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. Originally constructed for use by the Republic of China Air Force, it was the largest airport in China when opened in 1935. The airport was destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War and rebuilt afterwards. After 1949, it was mainly used for test flights by the aircraft manufacturer Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, until its replacement by Nanchang Yaohu Airport in 2018.
Zheng Shaoyu, also spelled Cheng Hsiao-yu (Wades-Gile), was a Chinese fighter pilot in the Second Sino-Japanese War of World War 2. He was born in Qu County of Sichuan province. In 1933–1934, he passed initial qualifications for admission into the China Central Aviation School at Jianqiao Airbase. He graduated top-3 in the class in 1935. When the War of Resistance/World War II broke out between China and the Empire of Japan following the 7/7 Incident, then-Lieutenant Zheng Shaoyu was attached to the 22nd PS, 4th PG at Zhoujiakou Airbase of the centralized Chinese Nationalist Air Force in anticipation of operations in the northern front. On 13 August 1937, his fighter squadron would immediately be redirected from Zhoujiakou to Hangzhou Airbase, 175 kilometres (109 mi) southwest of Shanghai to engage the Imperial Japanese at what would be the first major battle of World War II in Asia; the Battle of Shanghai.
Cen Zeliu, also Shum Tsak-lau(Cantonese): was born in Enping, Guangdong, China. He trained in the Guangdong provincial aviation academy as a fighter pilot, graduating in 1934, and attached to the provincial warlord air force of General Chen Jitang. With the imminence of war between China and the Empire of Japan brewing ever since the Manchurian Incident of 1931, Cen Zeliu and his compatriots were indignant on taking the fight back to the Imperial Japanese invasion and occupation.
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