Aces of the Republic of China Air Force by Raymond Cheung

Author:Raymond Cheung
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Aces of The Republic of China Air Force
ISBN: 9781472805638
Publisher: Osprey Publishing Ltd

‘Art’ Chin at Lanchow in 1939, when he served as an instructor for the Combined Pursuit Group. While at Lanchow, Chin had the bizarre experience of having to fight off local bandits of the ‘Wu Chi’ Cult who mounted a mass attack on the CAF training compound at Hsi Kucheng airfield during the night of 30 March 1939. Only the instructors like Chin had been issued with sidearms, and the cadets barricaded themselves in their barracks. Chin fired his pistol in action for the first and only time during the war, not against the Japanese, but defending himself against Chinese bandits! The latter fired back with a shotgun and Chin decided to join the cadets in their barricaded room. A number of CAF personnel, members of the security detail and the political officer were killed in the attack. Fortunately, none of the pilots were killed, although one cadet was captured and later escaped. He had to swim a river to return to base, almost dying of hypothermia. This experience showed the challenges faced by the Chinese Central Government during the Sino-Japanese War. Not only did they have to contend with the Japanese, in some of the remote provinces like Kansu there were also very active local warlords and bandit groups (‘Art Chin’ via John Gong)

On 3 August the IJNAF mounted a large raid on Hankow with 18 G3Ms, escorted by 29 A5Ms. The Chinese put up no fewer than 52 fighters in four groups to defend the city. A Soviet ‘volunteer’ commander was in overall command, and he had all the aeroplanes in tightly packed formations at similar altitudes, which negated their numerical advantage. Unlike the Japanese A5Ms, not all the Chinese aircraft were equipped with oxygen systems, and some of those that had the equipment had only a limited supply. Pilots tended to put off using oxygen until they had climbed to altitude and combat was imminent.

Chin was in the third formation leading seven 28th PS Gladiators, along with four Gloster fighters from the 32nd PS/3rd PG. He recalled being dizzy from hypoxia after climbing to 12,000 ft, at which point a large formation of A5Ms was spotted to the left at an even higher altitude. Climbing to 21,000 ft, Chin saw that the A5Ms were still about 2000 ft above the Chinese biplanes.

As the Gladiator pilots formed up with three I-16s from the 26th PS in preparation to engage the large formation of A5Ms, three unobserved Mitsubishi fighters attacked them from above and behind. Two went after the I-16s while one latched onto the tail of the Gladiator flown by Lt Clifford Louie from Portland, Oregon, who was deputy commander of the 28th PS. Chin, in Gladiator No 2809, led his flight to Louie’s aid, driving off the A5M. One of Chin’s wingmen, Lt Fan, Hsin-min, in Gladiator No 2805, then saw an I-16 below them that was being closely pursued by an A5M. Fan rocked his wings and dived after the IJNAF fighter just as another A5M dived after Fan’s Gladiator from above.

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