One 1948 photo about a Mosquito wreck at a Chinese airfield circulated within aviation circles for years, it’s how this Mossie ended after the RCAF instructor John H. Turnbull blew a tire on T.O. at Hankou. Many ex-RCAF Wooden Wonders went to China for the Nationalist’s war with the Commies, for political sensitivity the Canadian government was closemouthed about the deal. All but a few available De Havilland DH.98s were sold to China, this order worth between $10-12 million.
Training of CAF 1st, 3rd, and 4th Sqn personnel commenced at Hankou on Apr 12, 1948, by a small RCAF pilots and DHC technical support team. It was hastily made up and dispatched in this short-lived, extreme operation. In the fall most FB.26 fighter-bombers, T.27/29 trainers were assembled at a plant near Shanghai. Before it was forced to close on Nov 18, 144 had been test-flown by 4 Dec. With the advancing Reds prevailed, the Canadian support team scurried for home on 17 Dec. As a bit of mercenaries, some people made a fortune from the escapade, leaving the Chinese struggled to survive off the alien Mossie on their own.
Still, as the major foreign recipient of the legendary Wooden Wonder, in Oct 1949 the CAF 1st BG made good use of it in the first defensive victory at Quemoy (古寧頭戰役), an outpost islet of Taiwan. Unlike the war worn China then, Canada has already reached the promised land of near-zero war, a longed-for place where satisfaction of developments can be achieved. Soon the DHC's superior technology with molded wood structure expanded to the DH.98’s successor, DH.103 Sea Hornet, and Canada's first operational jet, DH.100 Vampire.
