At 0:00 p.m. on August 23, 1956, the bright moon hung high, the clouds were thin, and the moonlight on the surface of the East China Sea was sparkling, a quiet and peaceful scene. But behind this calm, a thrilling aerial chase is underway.
A wounded U.S. aircraft desperately fled, while the Chinese Air Force plane that damaged it was in hot pursuit.
James Dean, the pilot of the U.S. plane, had only been married for three months. Before the mission, he never imagined that he would encounter such a dilemma.
An electronic technician named Martin was even more confused, and he could have rested today, but he boarded the unfortunate plane because he was on duty in place of his comrades.
The dozen or so other Americans on board were thinking the same thing at this moment. If they knew that things would turn out like this, they would not have carried out this mission at all, because the electronic reconnaissance aircraft, which had little combat capability, was like a chicken under the claws of an eagle in front of the fighter.
But the Americans, who had not completely given up hope, prayed for God's blessing and desperately fled, thinking that the other side saw that they were ready to slip away and should not be killed again.
However, the Americans were wrong, and the Chinese planes not only stuck to themselves, but also kept firing!
So what will happen to this American plane and the American pilot?
U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft
On August 22, summer has come to an end, the night is slightly cool, and people have gone to sleep peacefully.
However, at the radar station of our army's air force, the PLA soldiers did not dare to relax for a moment, because an enemy plane appeared on the radar again.
Since the founding of New China, aerial reconnaissance and even armed attacks on the mainland by the United States and relevant forces have been rampant. Between 1951 and 1953 alone, this invasion occurred at least 30,000 times!
In particular, the pilots of our army who can fight at night are extremely rare, and at that time, the aircraft equipped by our army were relatively backward, the night combat capability was poor, and the pilots could only search for each other's targets with the naked eye, so the United States often used its own advantages to send aircraft to carry out reconnaissance tasks at night.
What appeared on our military's radar screen this time was an American P4M-1Q electronic reconnaissance plane.
Old-fashioned radar schematic
After nightfall, the US military reconnaissance plane took off from a certain Japanese base and flew toward the vicinity of Shandong and Jiangsu in China to begin a reconnaissance mission.
At 23:17, the early warning radar of our air defense unit in East China spotted the US reconnaissance plane for the first time.
At that time, the US military aircraft had already invaded China's airspace (Note: the airspace above the territorial waters is also part of the airspace), and the flight altitude was only more than 1,000 meters, which showed that its attitude was arrogant and did not take China's air defense forces seriously at all.
During this period, cunning Americans often flew along "S-shaped" routes, and after the first intrusive into our airspace for a period of time, the aircraft would temporarily revert back to the high seas and then wait for an opportunity to carry out a second invasion.
Sure enough, after flying in China's territorial airspace for 9 minutes, the US reconnaissance plane hid on the high seas in a vain attempt to create the illusion that it had left, but this trick had already been thoroughly explored by our side, so our radar continued to closely monitor its movements, and the pilot on duty also entered a first-level combat state, ready to take off at any time to meet the enemy.
Zhang Wenyi
At 23:41, the US reconnaissance plane unexpectedly greatly adjusted its flight direction and flew toward the Zhoushan Islands of our country; 13 minutes later, the US military plane once again invaded China's territorial airspace, and there were signs of continued deepening!
The 2nd Division of the Aviation Department of our Air Force stationed in Shanghai immediately made a judgment that the enemy planes might sneak up on Shanghai, Ningbo, and other places. Chu Futian, the deputy division commander who was on duty, immediately gave the order that the plane take off to meet the enemy!
Zhang Wenyi, a 27-year-old air force pilot who was the pilot of the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Air Division at the time, immediately flew a MiG-17 fighter from Hongqiao Airport and rushed to the predetermined location to intercept.
The plane piloted by Zhang Wenyi did not carry a reliable radar, but relied on the ground radar for guidance and command, and the radar passed the direction to him, and then he himself observed and judged the location of the target.
Although the moonlight was good that night, it was still a huge challenge for pilots to find targets with the naked eye alone in the darkness.
MiG-17
After 00:00 on August 23, according to the ground command, Zhang Wenyi's plane slowed down three times, and constantly adjusted its position, gradually approaching the US reconnaissance plane, and the ground radar reported that the distance between the enemy and us was 15 kilometers.
Zhang Wenyi lowered his flight altitude and searched for a target in the air by moonlight, with a distance of 5 kilometers between the two sides.
At this time, the ground was still constantly informing the location of the US aircraft, but the observations on the radar and the naked eye of the pilots were obviously two different things.
Zhang Wenyi still did not find the target, and the distance between the two sides was only 1 kilometer.
The quiet sea reflected the moonlight, and Zhang Wenyi in the cockpit opened his eyes and carefully observed everything in the air.
He knew that if he could no longer find the other party, he would most likely miss the best opportunity to intercept, and once the enemy was alert, subsequent interceptions were basically unlikely to succeed.
Suddenly, about 800 meters above his left front, he saw a large plane!
This is exactly the US military reconnaissance plane that Zhang Wenyi has been looking for! He immediately reported the news to the ground.
At this time, the US reconnaissance plane had entered China's airspace for 23 minutes, flew to the west of the Shengsi Archipelago, and was still flying toward Ningbo and other places, posing a serious threat to China's national security.
The ground command did not hesitate, and immediately issued the attack order, and Zhang Wenyi, who received the order, immediately drove the plane to cut through the enemy's rear and below, which was about 0:17:30 on August 23.
More than 700 meters away from the US aircraft, Zhang Wenyi fired the first round of cannons, but did not hit.
He quickly adjusted his direction and made a second attack at 400 meters, which successfully hit the left wing of the enemy aircraft.
The US reconnaissance plane tried to turn around and flee after detecting the attack, but the large aircraft was not so maneuverable and flexible, and it was very difficult for the Americans to get rid of Zhang Wenyi, and several machine guns on the reconnaissance plane were not opponents of the fighter.
At about 0:19, Zhang Wenyi launched a third attack at a distance of 300 meters from the enemy aircraft, and all the shells were exhausted, and all the shells hit the target.
At this time, the US reconnaissance plane was scarred, the fuselage ignited a fire, and most of the 16 US soldiers on board were either dead or wounded.
The wounded U.S. reconnaissance plane, carrying the wounded in the cabin, continued to flee in a southeasterly direction, but the altitude of the plane was rapidly decreasing. In the end, it turned its nose downward and fell into the territorial sea of about 15 kilometers east of Qushan Island in Zhejiang Province, China.
James Dean, the driver we mentioned at the beginning who was married for three months, and Martin, who was on duty in place of his teammates, and the 14 other American soldiers on board were not spared.
Zhang Wenyi (right) discusses tactics with his comrades-in-arms
Because of their arrogance, these Americans did not perceive the Chinese Air Force planes that came to intercept them, let alone that the Chinese pilots could successfully catch themselves in the night, and finally they could only sink into the sea of China with remorse, self-blame and resentment.
Zhang Wenyi, who shot down the enemy plane and defended the safety of the motherland, returned to the base safely at 0:46 and was warmly welcomed by his comrades-in-arms.
Just four months ago, a US reconnaissance plane invaded China's airspace from the Bohai Sea.
At that time, our air force unit stationed in the Liaodong Peninsula took off 10 batches of 10 sorties of aircraft successively to successfully intercept the invaders, but that time it only injured the enemy, so after Zhang Wenyi took off this time, other follow-up pilots were also ready.
It is commendable that Zhang Wenyi successfully shot down the enemy plane in the first batch of attacks, and successfully and brilliantly completed the task!
James dean
After learning that their reconnaissance plane had been shot down by China and the whereabouts of 16 US soldiers were unknown, the US government and the opposition were shaken, and many hardliners even clamored for retaliation against China.
On August 25, the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet assembled three aircraft carriers, 49 cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and more than 200 aircraft to demonstrate force in the East China Sea.
The Americans sent planes to continue their provocations against China while searching for the wreckage of the crashed plane and the whereabouts of the pilot. After all, if these things are discovered by Chinese first, it is equivalent to falling into a big handle.
While waiting in a tight line, China's young army, navy, and air force also dispatched a large number of manpower to search and salvage the sea area where the US plane crashed.
After unremitting efforts, the bodies of 2 US pilots were salvaged ashore by our side, because of the hot weather, coupled with the fact that the bodies had been soaked in the sea for a long time, we had to take the necessary measures to clean up and preserve the bodies, and then returned the bodies to the Americans through the British agencies in China at that time.
The United States did not take the lead in this incident, and China successfully obtained the evidence, coupled with the scene of the Korean War, the United States itself fished up 2 corpses, and then had to go home in sorrow.
Together with the remains returned by our country, only 4 of the 16 members of the DOWNed US reconnaissance plane have been found, and the other 12 have been unaccounted for, and the newly married James Dean is also missing.
Dean with his wife Schiavo, 1956
Soon, Dean's wife, Shawo, received a death notice from the U.S. military, but she was reluctant to admit that her husband had died, believing that Dean was still secretly alive in China.
For this reason, after the normalization of Sino-US relations, Schiavo came to China twice to look for traces of her husband, although there was no result, but she did not know where to hear gossip, claiming that there were US pilots who survived, so she became more and more determined that her husband was still alive.
Rumsfeld
It wasn't just Shawo who thought of Dean, but also Rumsfeld, who was Dean's best friend.
After Rumsfeld became U.S. Secretary of Defense in 2001, he specifically asked us about the whereabouts of his friends.
Our country handed him a copy of the military archives of that year, proving that the DOWNed US reconnaissance plane did not survive, and Rumsfeld let go of his obsession for many years.
Zhang Wenyi, the pilot of our army who shot down the US plane, was sent to the Embassy in the United States in 1980 to serve as an air force attaché for four years.
The Americans, of course, knew that he was the one who shot down his plane, but he didn't say much about it, after all, when a country gradually became stronger, even its opponents would be in awe of three points.
Content Source:
Lu Wen to Lu Lingyun, "Documentary of the First Night Shooting Down of an Invading US Aircraft by a Chinese Fighter", Weapons Knowledge, No. 4, 2016
Li Xiaochun, "The Archives of the Chinese Air Force and Rumsfeld's Missing Close Friend", Archives Spring and Autumn, No. 2, 2007
Sina Military reprinted Xinhuanet and so on