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.

The morning after, the years ahead

In 1952 the CAF began to receive its first Privateers which were initially seen abandoned at the US Shangri La Navy Station, south of Manila. In March, 12 air crews from the 8th Heavy bombardment Group were ferried by two C-46s to Luzon. They were led to the bone yard of the base, a dozen PB4Y-2S long-range patrol bombers under the "as it is" condition were waiting for them. As an effort to bring the 8th BG back to FOC status, these Convair Privateers would replace its Consolidated Liberator relics on a squadron-to-squadron basis.

As an entire replacement of the 8th's B-24Ms was not immediately available, the PB4Y-2s had to be repaired as fast as possible and ferried back to Taiwan. But, getting them back in the air had not been easy, for it took combined efforts of many specially-trained technicians and lots of contributions to keep these vintage bombers airworthy. After one week of superhuman efforts, by applying the similar experience on the B-24Ms, all 12 Privateers emerged as a painstaking restored tribute to all the PB4Ys that had seen combat in World War II. Without proper tools and spare parts, these monsters were temporally repaired to the flyable level. After a three hours flight, the Chinese Privateers landed safely at the Jiayi AFB, while the 8th's home base Xinzhu had it's strips rebuilt then.

In 1954-56 besides the foregoing impressive heavies supplied under the Military Aid Program terms, further 26 units were transferred to the 8th, which comprised of the 33rd, 34th, and 35th BSs based at Xinzhu AFB. Struggled to maintain its Liberator remnants and a Liberator Express C-87 duo, fortunately the 8th began beefing up its strength to defend the Free China in Taiwan. Discharged in 1961, the PB4Y was the last four engine bomber operated by the CAF.

Soviet Volunteer Group in China

One of the significant Soviet-made battle aircraft during the Sino-Japanese War was the Ilyushin DB-3 long range bomber. The partially developed DB-3 had no occasion for combat in Spain, so Stalin decided to give the new weapon a test in China. Acquired through the Chinese-Soviet trade agreements of 1937, 12 DB-3s were delivered to the CAF 8th Heavy Bombardment Group from Oct 1937 to Dec 1938. These twin-engined bombers were received in the desert city Lanzhou, wherein the 8th finished its conversion training, then ferried the new flotilla to Chengdu in mid-Oct 1939. Meanwhile the Soviet Volunteer 2nd Bombardment Group’s 24 DB-3s stationed in Lanzhou and Chengdu.

The 1939 period of Chinese aerial combat was characterized by the change from defensive operations to active tactics, with the DB-3s attacked Japanese air bases and transport proceeding on the Yangtze River. It gave great support to the Chinese army and carried out its blows against the superior Japanese forces under arduous conditions. 0900, Oct 3, 9 DB-3s of the 2nd BG each loaded ten 300 lb high explosion bombs took off from Taipingsi airfield in Chengdu, heading for Japanese occupied Wangjiadun airfield in Hankou. On this visit 40 of 100 Japanese aircraft grounded were destroyed, and the raiders inflicted no damage.

20 DB-3s went off for the 2nd‘s second strike over Hankou on Oct 14. Each bomber carrying high explosive, 14 kg shrapnel, and 50 kg incendiary bombs took off at 0830. The first 11 ships formation led by Cpt. G. A. Kulishenko (CO of the 2nd) and second 9 ships formations led by N. A. Kozlov (the 2nd‘s second-in-command) reached the target at 1155 and 1230, respectively. Their bombardier got a good sight and put their ordnance in the middle of the rows of some 30 twin-engined bombers. Over 50 of the 70 plus aircraft were engulfed in a sea of flames. During the subsequent 20 minutes violent chase, 3 of the 9 interceptors were destroyed, while 1 DB was brought down. Still under their parachutes, 2 of the 3 crewmen were riddled by the Japanese strafing in midair, only the pilot Navlienk survived. Afterward the crippled CO ship ditched on the Yangtze in Sichuan, with badly wounded Kulishenko killed onboard.

In total 322 Russian bombers were sent to China in 1937-41, including Ilyushin DB-3, Tupolev TB-3, and Tupolev SB-2 Katyushka, which were replaced by the Lockheed A-29A Hudson maritime patrol bomber in 1942.

Operation Humane Expedition 人道遠征

In 1938 the Japanese bombers maintained their absolute supremacy over the CAF, which operated only 3 depleted twin-engined bombardment squadrons among its inventory. For obvious reasons, the CAF had to carry out its defensive strategy wisely. Its most historical and daring action taken was the Operation Humane Expedition to call up the self consciousness of Japanese civilians. Three years before Doolitle's air raid over Tokyo, 2 Martin 139WC bombers of the 14th BS/2nd BG performed a successful leaflet drop on southern Japan.

On the night of May 19/20 under the Sqn CO Maj. Xu Huan-Sheng (徐煥昇), s/n 1403 and 1404 were spread out in a network of home base Hankou, forward base Ningpuo, and 7 navigation outposts. They reached the enemy coast line in the dusk and released leaflets over Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kurume, and Saga, also reconnoitered air bases and harbors below. For the poorly-equipped CAF at the time, it was a complicated risk. The importance of this "psy-ops" was the boost which the humanitarian mission gave to the Chinese; surely the “consciousness” of the trigger-happy warmonger was untouched.

Endured years of hardship and penny-pinching expenditures, the CAF BSs fought in a limited way by adapting to e.g. Martin 139WC (export version of B-10B, "C" was for China), Heinkel He-111, Henschel Hs-123, Curtiss Shrike (export version of A-12), and Vultee V-11G bombers to meet the needs of the next emergency.

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.

The Dawn of Indigenous Aircraft Production

150 Northrop Gamma-2E single-engine light bombers were ordered by China in 1934, the first batch of them arrived in Shanghai in February of this year, including the various versions of 2 2Es, 7 3ECs, and 15 2EDs. In 1935 25 more kits were received by the Chinese Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (中央飛機製造廠). Initially laid out at Jianqao, the China-US joint-adventure CAMCO was founded by an agent of Curtiss-Wright in China, William D. Pauley. After 5 years operation with the loan paid off, China would be the full-owner of CAMCO per contract. Most Gamma-2ECs in service with the 1st and 2nd Bombardment Groups were assembled here.

For graduating training the Chinese workers, these 25 kits were evenly divided into 5 batches. The final assembly training was done on the first 5 aircraft, which were directly built from fuselage, empennage, wings, and landing gears sub-assemblies. On the next 5 machines the workers learned from components to sub-assemblies fabrication. The 3rd batch was a shop practice for manufacturing process for basic components and parts, including welding and riveting, followed by the 4th batch which familiarizing parts machining and heat treatment. On the last 5 units, the workers performed the overall procedure from parts acquisition to final assembly.

Outside of the primary endeavor CAMCO, there was a secondary effort on indigenous aviation growth. Around 1932 an Italian contingent, under Gen. Roberto Lordi arrived in China to assist aircrew training and aircraft production. In 1935-37, the CAF Nanchang Aviation School in Jiangxi Province was run under the sponsorship of Italian. Beside the assistance in training, a Fiat-subsidized aircraft assembly plant began production at Nanchang in 1936. Instead of the original planed 6 Savoia-Marchetti S.M.81B bombers, only half were completed due to Benito Mussolini cut the official ties with China.

Military historians and enthusiasts will find the informative captions in my drawings useful for reference purposes: Chinese copies of Douglas O-2MC, Northrop Gamma-2EC, Polikarpove I-16-UTI(忠-28甲), I-15bis(忠-28乙), and Boeing/Stearman PT-17.

Curtiss Hawks in the Chinese Great Resistance War

Japanese had held the Chinese in low esteem ever since the 1st Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. Among the few Chinese respected by the Japanese, military theorist Jang Bai-Li (蔣百里 1882-1938) was one of them. It was General Jang originated the strategic directorial, which eventually defeated the overpowering enemy in the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. In October 1936, this strategy was formalized in the Luoyang Conference in two folds, 1) Switching the expected Japanese invading spearhead from southbound to westbound, at Shanghai, 2) Protracting the war to deplete Japan, at all cost.

As the Chinese strategists had foreseen, their tactics of delay ensnared the invaders in a prolonged and costly battle of attrition on Shanghai. Ever since the Japanese front was diverted into inland, facing huge obstacles and a nearly insuperable supply shortage. Under this steep strategy, even the capital was replaceable if necessary, but the Chinese would not give up Nanking without a good fight.

Though the Chinese efforts to defense Nanking were fragmented and under-resourced, but both their army and air force inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese infantry and unescorted bombers. Before the improved Japanese fighters swept Chinese mixed air flotilla from the skies, the CAF committed the bulk of its Curtiss Hawk II and Hawk III squadrons into stiff resistance: