No guts, no glory

 “Know both yourself and enemy, in 100 battles you will never be in peril.”  Sun Tzu, the Chinese military theorist, wrote this in "The Art of War” more than 2500 years ago.  Followed the same battlefield dictum in the modern-day conflict across the Taiwan Straight, the CAF used its tactical air reconnaissance over China as the first line of defense, to offset the overwhelming weight of the PLAAF.

When the military tensions had ratcheted up in Quemoy in 1958, the 6th Recon Group was again assumed full responsibility for aerial photography along the mainland coast. By mid-Sep the violent barrage on Quemoy had already been under way for four weeks. It was all too likely that exchanging shells was probing attacks - guarantee the Communist's territorial integrity extended to Taiwan. On Sep 24, the entire strength of the 12th RS/6th RG’s RF-84Fs, escorted by the Sabres, launched an intensive campaign for accurate assessments of the enemy's battle ability for an all-out amphibian assault.

From 0900 on that day, 18 Thunderflashes broke up into 6 elements (6 back up) scrambled from Taoyuan AFB. At the northern part of the base, their Sabre escorts from the 5th FG took off simultaneously. Working their way across the Taiwan Straight at 30,000 ft, element by element, the Sabres followed the Thunderflashes onto specific targets scattered from Wenzhou Bay in Zhejian, to Shantou Bay in Guangdong.

As one formation approached Shantou, where the Communist South Sea Fleet stationed, antiaircraft fire began to blossom, and a large group of MiGs appeared overhead at 40,000 ft. When the RF-84Fs turned to the assigned targets, the F-86Fs started engaging the MiG-17s from the PLAAF 2nd Air Division. As a result, the CAF beat back the Reds with a hard-won kill-loss ratio of 10:0 in the 9/24 air combat. If the CAF and PLAAF pilots switched their fighters, the result might have been the same, since the latter sent against a far more experienced and better trained enemy.

My following recon tour represents several stages of the 6th RG, their RF-86F, RF-84F, RF-100A, RF-101A provide some classic looking eye candy by way of recon jets.

Cold War

In 1961 C-46 squadrons of the CAF 6th Transport Wing were assigned to retreat thousands of anti-communist guerilla (two remained regiments of the ex-8th and 26th Armies) fighting within China-Burma borders to Taiwan. Defeated humiliate in eliminating guerilla sanctuaries, Burma threw the issue into the United Nations in Mar 1953. Under the international pressure after the Four-Power Conference, full accord on an evacuation plan was reached. The procedure called for the Nationalist guerrillas to cross over into Thailand for removal to Taiwan. The action was known as operation Guo-Ray (國雷演習), named after Chiang Chin-Guo and Ray Cline, the intelligence chiefs of Taiwan and the United States, respectively.

The mission was very formidable for the World War II vintage C-46. Two thirds of the 1,500 mile air route from Pingdong to Chiang Mai, Thailand, was over open sea, then over primeval virgin jungle. While the new Flyingboxcars had not accomplished FOC status, the obsolete Commandos were the leading work horse at the time. The C-46’s automatic direction finder worked only within 200 miles from a radio station, maritime navigation would be critical from 200 miles away Pingdong to 200 miles off the Thailand coast. Furthermore, the nearby Communist fighter bases and primitive jungle strips all caused problems. However, from Mar 17 to Apr 13 the proficient CAF pilots overcame all difficulties and did a great job. After 2,130 flight hours of C-46 (321 sorties) and C-119 (35 sorties), 4,296 tough jungle fighters and their families returned to Taiwan, many sorties in this airlift took off overloaded.

From the 1950s the durable C-46s also deep-penetrated behind enemy lines and electronic surveillance over the Taiwan Straight. Meanwhile, counted on various support from the CAF, a full CIA-backing Civilian Air Transport’s C-46s flew anti-Sukano guerilla transport duties in Indonesia. The Filipino island of Sanga Sanga, South-West of Zamboanga, was used as a discreet refueling stop for CAT C-46s and was scheduled to be the secret forward operating base for CIA operations.

With the start of the Korean War, the attention of Red China was turned away from Taiwan, and for the next four years there were no additional clashes, while the Free China was able to consolidate the island defense via martial and para-military operations. Aircraft types used foremost then were Curtiss C-46A/D Commando and Consolidated PBY-5A/OA-10A Catalina.

A lesser-known, more-mortal holocaust

In 1945 Japan lost the Sino-Japanese War, while the nominal victory of China gone in a flash. In 1950 war drums were beating again in Beijing for pushing to intervene Korea over the US invasion, that turned out to be non-existent. Furthermore, unable to pay the huge Russian loan of wild spending in the Korean War, China had been sold off by its Red leaders. With endless trains of Chinese crop ferried to Russia, in return for imposing harsh austerity starvation wherein over 60 million Chinese perished; let along the unspeakable "political movements" on the horizon. Since the sole enemy was an internal opponent of the Reds, the only possible use for the Russian arms was in a fratricidal war.

Off the coastal province Zhejiang, the rocky islet Dongyin had been the HQ of the tight secret Anti-Communist Salvation Army since 1949. The little-known army was the Nationalist’s political instrument for Taiwan’s strategic importance in the Cold War, as well the tryout for the return to mainland. In 1950-53 nearly 100 raids were launched by ACSA from Dachen, Ijiangshan, and other isles still in Nationalist hands offshore Zhejiang. The guerrillas were trained and equipped by the Western Enterprises Inc, a CIA front company.

Though the People’s Liberation Army achieved everything they wanted in the mainland, they failed repeatedly in their attempts to “liberate” Taiwan. In the midst of the interlopers used a guerrilla corridor, the Reds decided to cut off this intentional way for a potential invading the mainland. With its air strength buildup of the Tupolev Tu-2, Ilyushin Il-10, Lavochkin La-11, the PLA launched a series of attacks along the southeastern China coast. In Nov 1-4, 1954, totally 112 Tu-2 sorties first proceeded to drop 1,154 bombs on Dachen and Ijiangshan, followed by 70 La-11 sorties covered 28 Tu-2 sorties and 46 Il-10 sorties launched five raids on the same landing beaches during Dec 21, 1954 and Jan 10, 1955.

Dachen Isles were beyond the range of the newly-received CAF F-84G Thunderjets, while the vintage F-47N Thunderbolts were always interdicted by the MiG formation. Though the 7,000 assault troops wiped out the Ijiangshan garrison in a 52 hr 44 min battle (一江山島戰役), but the PLA paid a fearsome price of over 4,000 killed. In the aftermath, its strategy to conquer Taiwan was altered, and Taiwan relieved at a dangerous crossroad. Meanwhile the Communists know about the terrific amount of seapower surrounding Taiwan- the Task Force 72 of USN Pacific Fleet- that’s what keeps them from starting anything. In Feb 1955, along with the ROC's LSTs the TF 72 used 132 ships and 400 airplanes evacuated 14,500 civilians, 10,000 soldiers, 4,000 guerrilla fighters, and 40,000 tons of military material from Dachen, thus calling for an end to the First Taiwan Crisis. Three days later, the PLA occupied all the isles along the southeastern China coast, except Quemoy and Matsu.

Divided We Stall

As a plot, the Chinese Communists were the real beneficiaries of the Sino-Japanese War. Whilst power-hungry Mao Zedong was steamrolling China into an unrecognizable Bolshevik state, he repeatedly showed barefaced gratitude to the Japanese visitors, namely ex-IJA General Endou Saburou in 1956, Socialist Sasaki Kouzou in 1964, and the PM Tanaka Kakuei in 1972, etc. for the Japanese aggression. For generations this ordeal continues to weigh heavily on China, and every family still has a war history under the incumbent corrupt and morally bankrupt government. Today, what troubles Chinese most is "the state of the souls".

Retrospectively, the depleted Nationalist centre began to falter after the VJ Day, as the Reds started flexing their muscle against it. During the dissolution in 1946-49, it kicked off a regional war that soon swallowed China. After their evasive strategy during the Japanese invasion, the Red paramilitaries and field armies launched a nation-wide barrage that inspired bloodshed on massive scale. From Sep 1948 to Jan 1949, the Reds won all the three decisive battles (遼沈, 淮海, 平津三大戰役) and destroyed 173 centre divisions. With such a massive loss of manpower-1,540,000 men- and equipments, the Nationalist regime could do nothing else but retreating to Taiwan.

After humiliating negotiations in Moscow, on 14 February 1950 Mao and Stalin signed the inequitable Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance for an upcoming unnecessary war. One of the ironies of this treaty was, it substantially terminated the Great Helmsman’s attempt of "Bloodletting of Taiwan". Though it did not prevent extreme breaking-up between the two tyrannies in 1956, the timing did seem reflective of a broader drift in Reds’ ideology away from the traditional Chinese value. Since 1949 the Maoist regime completely changes the culture and geography of the Chinese people. For those fought and struggled on a change then, now it seems in China like a false hope and historical wrong turn.

Related Chinese Civil War hardware M3A3/M5A1 General Stuart light tank, the work horse P-40 Kittyhawk, the L-bird Stinson L-5 Sentinel are presented here, and are accompanied by their equally unique stories.