On the morning of September 20, 1965, a shocking explosion suddenly resounded over Wenchang City, Hainan Province. The local residents looked up one after another following the origin of the sound, only to see a person in the air slowly floating down with a parachute. After landing on the ground, facing the gathered militia, he raised his hands high and posed in a surrender posture.
Subsequently, the foreigner with a high nose and blue eyes was taken to the barracks of one of our navy radar stations for interrogation. There, he looked a little absent-minded, his eyes looking out the window in confusion, and his mouth kept muttering: "It's terrible, such a close distance to fire, it's terrible!" ”
smith
That man, named Philip Smith, was the first American pilot to be shot down and captured alive in Chinese airspace. The person who shot down his fighter was Gao Xiang, a first-class combat hero known as the "Eagle of the Sea and Air".
What kind of legendary experience did he have? Let's do it one by one.
Gao Xiang, born in 1932 in a poor family in Gai County, Liaoning Province, due to the turbulent situation and poor family conditions, he only read books for four years and eight months and went to the society.
In 1947, at the age of 15, Gao Xiang joined the Northeast People's Self-Defense Army, and when he joined the army, the recruiters saw that he had a high education, so he was assigned to the Liaonan Military and Political Cadre School as a hygienist. Later, he went south to Guangzhou with the troops and worked as a medicine clerk in the administrative office of the Guangzhou Provincial People's Government for two years.
But this stable job did not satisfy Gao Xiang, who had longed for military life since he was a child and wanted to return to the army with emotions.
One day in 1951, the opportunity came, and Gao Xiang heard a colleague say in a small talk that the Air Force was selecting pilots. He happily signed up and got a chance to take the exam.
The Air Force has always had strict physical requirements for the members of the unit, and of the more than 100 people who participated in the physical examination on the same day, he was the only one who passed all the tests and successfully enlisted in the army. So, just like the name "Gao Xiang", from then on, he formed an indissoluble relationship with the sky.
After three years of hard study at the aviation school, Gao Xiang soon grew into an excellent fighter pilot and was promoted to the commander of the second brigade of the 10th Regiment of the 4th Naval Aviation Division in June 1954.
On August 5, 1964, the "Beibu Gulf Incident" broke out, and the United States brazenly dispatched fighter jets to bomb North Vietnam under the pretext that the naval ship was attacked by Vietnam.
Because China supported North Vietnam at that time, the United States mobilized aircraft carrier formations to dock near the Yingge Sea in Hainan to threaten our side with force.
In the face of this provocation, Chairman Mao issued an order on January 27, 1965:
"The 10th Regiment of the 4th HNA Division moved into Hainan Island to resist the provocation of invading the US army."
As a result, a certain unit of Gao Xiang's unit was stationed on Hainan Island to carry out a mission. In the months that followed, they shot down three U.S. unmanned high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, but never confronted an American fighter.
It wasn't until September 20 of that year that this opportunity came. On that day, our army's vigilance radar found several abnormal targets that were invading the airspace over China's territorial waters, and Gao Xiang and others immediately received battle orders.
At that time, Gao Xiang's flight training time was only a short period of more than six hundred hours, but with a passion and an urgent desire to defend his family and country, he rushed to the front line with several other wingman pilots without hesitation.
Unexpectedly, there was a problem just after the sky - one of the engine temperature meters of the Gao Xiang landline was red. This shows that one of the two engines of the aircraft had a misfire and did not start, but he judged from the sound of flight that the aircraft was operating normally, so he did not report to the ground.
After flying for a while, the plane lost contact with the command post of China Southern Airlines, and the J-6 fighter suddenly had no radar command. In this case, Gao Xiang made a calm judgment: the connection with the ground tower at the time of take-off is normal, it should not be a problem with the aircraft, there are other reasons. These "small accidents" were not taken seriously, and they continued to fly step by step into the combat airspace, but fortunately, after rising to a certain altitude, the aircraft's thermometer and radio contact returned to normal.
At this time, Gao Xiang and others found the target, which was an F-104C fighter, which was suddenly moving in and out of the air above China's territorial waters, playing the tactic of "wiping the edge ball."
The F-104C is a new type of supersonic fighter developed by the United States at that time, with a light and simple shape, the maximum speed can reach twice the speed of sound, the flight altitude can reach 27,000 meters, and the world record of climb rate and maximum rise limit has been maintained for a long time.
Compared with our J-6, the F-104C has a maximum speed of 1.8 times per hour, a maximum flight altitude of 1.6 times that of the J-6, and carries four Sidewinder missiles on its fuselage. It can be said that in terms of performance, the F-104C is fully crushed by the J-6.
F-104C
But Gao Xiang did not have the slightest fear, and he forced himself to endure anger and chased after him. The American plane in front of it was obviously a "veteran" who often broke into here, and with the performance of its own landline, it had been flying unhurriedly, without any vigilance, so that it was not found that Gao Xiang and others were approaching.
After chasing to about 1000 meters, the enemy aircraft was already within range of our side, but Gao Xiang did not launch an attack, and he believed that the battle was not very certain at this time. Years later, when people interviewed Gao Xiang about why he made such a decision, he also admitted frankly: "1000 meters is just an effective range, fire a cannon? Can that be opened? If you want to fight, just kill it, come on a fierce, far from reliable! ”
In this way, he chased until 291 meters before firing, at this time the US fighter wanted to escape is too late, let Gao Xiang from 291 meters to 39 meters, which created a miracle in the history of aviation combat "short contact".
Finally, the F-104C was hit on the left flank and exploded, and pilot Smith parachuted, which is the scene at the beginning of this article.
The elderly Gao Xiang was interviewed
At this time, Gao Xiang shouted: If he hits, he will urgently pull up the joystick, avoid the direction of the enemy plane's fall, and fly away with the nose of the opponent.
Subsequently, the J-6 fighter landed safely on the flat ground, and the people of the ground troops came up to check and found that at this time, the high-flying aircraft had collapsed into 51 holes by the fragments of the enemy aircraft explosion, and if it landed a little later, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The great victory in this air battle made the momentum of our navy so great that even then US President Johnson could not help but boast when he heard about it: Chinese pilots are powerful, and Chinese powerful.
After the battle, Gao Xiang also won the first class merit and was specially invited to participate in the National Day ceremony in Beijing that year.
On October 3, 1965, Premier Zhou received Gao Xiang and others at the Great Hall of the People, and the premier cordially shook hands with them and said: "You have fought very well, and I hope you will fight more victorious battles in the future!" ”
Received by Premier Zhou
On October 10, together with other heroic models, they were received by Chairman Mao, who happily asked, "Who laid down Smith?" ”
Gao Xiang responded: "Chairman, we have laid it down collectively! ”
The chairman smiled happily, shook Gao Xiang's hand and praised: "Well, quite modest, you are all the generation of natural pride of new China." ”
A few years later, Nixon visited China, and Sino-US relations were eased. Taking advantage of this opportunity, under the instructions of Premier Zhou, Smith, who had been imprisoned for 7 years, also regained his freedom and returned to the United States.
But he always had an unsolved question in his heart--why did Gao Xiang dare to attack him at such a close distance? In terms of air force operational norms, this is simply incredible.
So, in October 1989, he set foot on Chinese territory again as a friendly emissary and found his "old friend" at that time, Gao Xiang, who was 58 years old.
Gao Xiang shook hands with Smith
Flowers, wine, banquets, I did not expect that the two people who were hostile to each other at the beginning turned out to be close friends with each other, which may be "no fight, no acquaintance". After a brief greeting, Smith raised his question to Gao Xiang.
Gao Xiang smiled brightly and said proudly, "We Chinese soldiers are willing to defend our family with our lives, and this is the fundamental reason why I defeated you!" ”
Subsequently, Gao Xiang gave Smith a model of the J-8II fighter to keep as a souvenir.
Time is like water, life is like a song, and in the blink of an eye, the elderly have been retired for many years, but he can often receive invitations from colleges and universities and organs and troops to do patriotic ideological education for the people there. Near the end of each speech, he always had to say: "I am proud, I was once a member of the Sea and Air Eagle Regiment!" ”
References: Documentary "Sea and Air Eagles FlyIng High" and so on