United We Stand

Before the full-scale Japanese invasion, the Guangdong Provincial Air Arm (廣東空軍) was amalgamated into the central government air strength in 1936, thus increasing the size of the CAF (Chinese Nationalist Air Force, or Republic of China Air Force) to a large extent. Trapped in the provincial warlord-Generalissimo struggling, the GPAA crewmen chose “Together, stronger” to fight the imminent Great Resistance War. Under partisanship, fliping side gained no benefit from their considerable skills, and these idealists didn't know how it's going to turn out.

However, June 30 first 4 O-2MC light bombers (5th sqn) and 3 Boeing 281 pursuers (2nd sqn) defected to Nanchang airfield to join the CAF. On July 18, 74 in IOC status among some 150 GPAA aircraft collectively swooped off the airstrip and headed for Nanchang via Qujiang and Shaoguan airfields. Eventually the 1st to 9th squadrons (6 from Guangdong and 3 from Guangxi) were reformed as the CAF 16th, 17th, 18th , 19th , 20th , 28th , 29th , 30th , and 31st Squadrons, respectively. In aeronautical equipment the CAF reflected foreign influences of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States, and later the USSR.

Outfitted with mixed roster of international aircraft, "Prepared for all things" was the CAF force-fed mandate. With this extraordinary survivability, by the time all its groups were completely re-equipped with the U.S. front-line models, the conversion trainings for both operational and maintenance veterans were efficiently achieved.

Hope my image-enhanced drawings bring to life some less well-known CAF antique pursuit planes, including Boeing Model-281 (export version of P-26A), Nakajima Type 91, Fiat C.R.32, Gloster Gladiator Mk.1, and Vultee P-66 Vanguard - that no camera could have captured, very few living people could have witnessed.