Development of Chinese Nationalist air force (1937–1945)

The

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]

Operations

During the

After suffering heavy losses in the Battle of Wuhan in October 1938, most active air force units were withdrawn hinterland for the defense of Sichuan against the most brutal terror-bombing raids ever inflicted upon civilian populations up to that time; the massive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]

With the

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

Tupolev ANT 40 SB III, VI, North American B-25 Mitchell, Northrop Gamma 2E, Northrop A-17

• 2nd Group, (bombers)

Tupolev ANT 40 SB III, Northrop Gamma 2E, Northrop A-17, 19 Lockheed A-29, 8 Avro 627 China built domestically as scout-bombers at Guangxi

• • 30th Squadron: 20
    Fiat BR.3
• 6th Group, (light bombers/scout-bombers)

21 Vought O3U/V-92C, Douglas O-2MC

• 7th Group, (light bombers/scout-bombers)

42

O2U Corsair, Douglas O-2

MC

2 Northrop Alpha 4 (converted locally to scout-bombers), 30 Ilyushin DB-3 (later into the Composite Group), North American B-25 Mitchell

• • 10th Squadron

10 Savoia-Marchetti S.72, 6 Caproni Ca.111

• • 19th Squadron

6 Heinkel He 111, 6 Tupolev TB-3

• • 30th Squadron

6 Martin B-10

• 12th Group, (bombers)
• 10th Squadron, (bombers)

4

Vultee A-19

• 3rd Group, (fighters)

P-66 Vanguard

• • 8th Squadron (fighters

9 Fiat CR.32

• • 17th Squadron (fighters)

11 Boeing Type 281

• • 28th Squadron (fighters)

Gloster Gladiator Mk-1

• • 29th Squadron (fighters)

Gloster Gladiator Mk-1

• • 32nd Squadron (fighters)

Gloster Gladiator Mk-1

• 4th Group, (fighters)

Curtiss (

P-43 Lancer

• • 22nd Squadron (fighters)

9 Curtiss 68C Hawk III (F11C-3)

• 5th Group, (fighters)

P-66 Vanguard

• • 17th Squadron (fighters)

12

Dewoitine D.510

• • 28th Squadron (fighters)

49 Curtiss Hawk-II (F11C-2)

• 9th Group, (fighters)

120 Curtiss 68C Hawk III (

A-12 Shrike

• • 26th Squadron

Curtiss A-12 Shrike

• • 27th Squadron

A-12 Shrike

• 11th Group, (fighters)

Curtiss P-40

N

• Russian Volunteer Group, (pursuit)

Polikarpov E.15bis, E.15ter (E.15III, E.153) and E.16

• Russian Volunteer Group, (bombers)

Ilyushin DB-3, Polikarpov R-5 Scout-bombers

• American Volunteer Group 'Flying Tigers', (fighters)

P-40B, P-40E

• Composite Group
• Temporary Organised Group-Air Cadet Flying School.(Fighter)

Curtiss 68C Hawk III (F11C-3)

• 12th Squadron (Reconnaissance)

9

P-38/F-5

• 13th Squadron (bombers & transports)

3

Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, 1 Spartan Executive

Model 7W (lost on Dec 12, 1937).

• 14th International Volunteer Squadron (bombers): 20+
  Vultee A-19, Northrop Gamma 2E, Northrop A-17, 3 Martin B-10
• 15th Squadron (dive bombers)

10 Henschel Hs 123

• 18th Squadron (Scout-bombers)

Curtiss Hawk 75M

.

• 27th Squadron (light bombers)

9 Bellanca 28-90B

• 29th Squadron (fighters)

6 Breda Ba.27

• 32nd Squadron (fighters)

Nakajima Type 91

fighter

• 34th Squadron (fighters and bombers)

14 Armstrong Whitworth Atlas, 6 Westland Wapiti, Mitsubishi Type 92.

• 41st French Volunteer Squadron (fighters)

6

Dewoitine D.510

• 20
  Focke-Wulf Fw 44
  of various units
• 30+
  de Havilland Gipsy Moth
  of various units, including 13 seaplane versions of Chinese navy. (All lost by the end of 1937).
• Central Aviation School (trainers)

16 Armstrong Whitworth A.W.16, also used as fighters in the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

• Luoyang Aviation School (trainers)

Breda Ba.25, Ba.28

• Liuzhou Aviation School (trainers)

Around 20

Avro Cadet, 5 Avro Tutor, 7 Nakajima Ko-4 (Japanese license produced Nieuport-Delage NiD 29

C.1)

5 Loening C-2-H (seaplane version of Loening OA-1)

• Aerial Survey Squadron

1

Messerschmitt BFW M18d, Junkers W 33, Junkers W 34

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2011)

Chinese-American volunteer and/or former provincial/warlord air force pilots

• John Wong Pan-Yang (黄泮扬): 13 victories (American-born Chinese air force volunteer)
• John "Buffalo" Wong (黃新瑞) †: 8.5 victories^[22] (Chinese-born American volunteer in the CAF)^[23]
• 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.

R.O.C. commissioned pilots

• Liu Zhesheng (柳哲生 -Liu Chi-Sheng) [zh]: 11-1/3 (9 confirmed according to Republic of China records)
• Wang Kuang-Fu (王光復): 8
• Gao Youxin: 8
• Yuan Baokang (袁葆康): 8 victories
• Liu Tsui-Gang (Liu Cuigang) (劉粹剛) [zh] †: 7+^[26]
• Tsang Shi-Lan (臧錫蘭): 7
• Tan Kun (譚鯤): 5 or 6
• Yue Yiqin (樂以琴) †: 5^[27]
• Zhou Zhikai (周志開) [zh]  †: 5^[28]
• Zhang Guangming (張光明) [zh]: 5
• Lo Ying-Te (羅英德): 5
• Leng Pei-Su (冷培澍): 5
• Chow Ting-Fong (周廷芳): 6
• Lu Ji-Chun(呂基純) †: 5^[29]
• Mao Yingchu (毛瀛初) [zh]: 5

Foreign aid

Soviet Union

From 1937 to the beginning of 1941, the

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

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

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

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.

Ranks

Officers

	General officers			Senior commissioned officers			Junior commissioned officers			Warrant officers
Insignia [31][32]
Title	Colonel general 一級上將 General 二級上將	Lieutenant general 中將	Major general 少將	Colonel 上校	Lieutenant colonel 中校	Major 少校	Captain 上尉	Lieutenant 中尉	Second lieutenant 少尉	Warrant Officer 准尉

Other ranks

	Non-commissioned officers			Soldiers
Insignia [32]
Title	Sergeant major 上士	Sergeant 中士	Corporal 下士	Senior private 上等兵	Private first class 一等兵	Private second class 二等兵

See also

• Air Warfare of WWII from the Sino-Japanese War perspective
• Aerial engagements of the Second Sino-Japanese War
• Soong Mei-ling
• Xu Huansheng

Notes

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

References

• Cheung, Raymond. Aces of the Republic of China Air Force. OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 126 Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015.
  ISBN 978 14728 05614
  .
• Howarth, Stephen. THE FIGHTING SHIPS OF THE RISING SUN: The Drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1895–1945. Fairfield, Pennsylvania: Fairfield Graphics, 1983.
  ISBN 0-689-11402-8
  .
• Caidin, Martin. Zero Fighter: Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II Weapons Book No. 9. New York, NY: Ballantine Books Inc, 1969.
  ISBN 978 03560 30739
  .
• 徐 (Xú), 露梅 (Lùméi). 隕落 (Fallen): 682位空军英烈的生死档案 - 抗战空军英烈档案大解密 (A Decryption of 682 Air Force Heroes of The War of Resistance-WWII and Their Martyrdom). 东城区, 北京， 中国: 团结出版社, 2016.
  ISBN 978-7-5126-4433-5
  .
• ISBN 1-85605-603-1
  .
• Rossi, J.R. "AVG American Volunteer Group - Flying Tigers".

Further reading

• Andersson, Lennart. "Chinese 'Junks': Junkers Aircraft Exports to China 1925-1940". Air Enthusiast, No. 55, Autumn 1994, pp. 2–7.
  ISSN 0143-5450
• Byrd, Martha: Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger, University of Alabama Press, 1987.
• Ford, Daniel: Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
• Gordon, David M.: "The China-Japan War, 1931–1945", Journal of Military History, Vol. 70 (2006), No. 1, pp. 137–182.
• Leyvastre, Pierre. "The Day of the Dewoitine". Air Enthusiast Quarterly, No. 1, n.d., pp. 17–19, 84–96.
  ISSN 0143-5450
• Liu, F. F. A Military History of Modern China, 1924–1949, Princeton University Press, 1956.
• Rasor, Eugene L.: The China-Burma-India Campaign, 1931–1945: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography, 1998. Available here..
• Sacca, John Wands: "Like Strangers in a Foreign Land: Chinese Officers Prepared at American Military Colleges, 1904–37." Journal of Military History, Vol. 70 (2006), No. 3, pp. 703–742.
• Schaller, Michael: "American Air Strategy in China, 1939–1941: The Origins of Clandestine Air Warfare," American Quarterly, Vol. 28 (1976), No. 1, pp. 3–19. JSTOR link.
• Smith, Felix: China Pilot: Flying for Chiang and Chennault, Smithsonian, 1995.
• Xu, Guangqiu: "The Chinese Air Force with American Wings." War & Society, Vol. 16 (1998), No. 1, pp. 61–81.
• Xu, Guangqiu: War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949, Grove/Atlantic, 2001.

External links

• Chinese aces of WW2
• Information on Chinese airforce and Chinese aces
• Chinese aces
• Porritt, Mamie. letters from Loiwing
• Annals of the Chinese Air Force
• [1]