"China is no longer the China of the past." These were the last words of a report sent by Japan from the Chinese battlefield to China in 1937. On the battlefield that had just ended an air battle, all the Japanese soldiers present took off their hats and saluted a simple tombstone, but surprisingly, under this tombstone, buried a Chinese, a 21-year-old Chinese Air Force soldier.
"Tomb of the Warriors of the Shina Air Force", just a few words, but rare, expressed the respect of the Japanese soldiers present for this young Chinese soldier. A nation who came with the determination to "destroy China" mourned on the battlefield for the Chinese they had always regarded as "ants", and it was hard to imagine what kind of heroic sacrifice the people under this tombstone had made.
This young man, mourned by the Japanese, is the twelfth batch of cadets of the Kakehashi Central Aviation School. Not only him, but on this battlefield, China's first batch of air force pilots were all martyred. A total of sixteen cadets, the heroic spirit of 1,700 air force soldiers, deserves the respect of all of us.
Learning with the aim of "dying"
"The wind and clouds will fly strongly, and swear to die and serve the country without survival." This is a couplet printed on both sides of the graduation photos of the pilots who graduated at that time. At present, living in peacetime, it is difficult for us to imagine that there will be a university that takes "death" as its own motto and trains its students to regard life as the last weapon. But in that war-torn era, this school, it did, sending all its students to war.
In 1931, Japan launched the "September 18 Incident" in China, and the whole process shocked the world. The streets that used to be full of life were left with only wailing and crying overnight. Even though other countries in China and even the world have issued protests and condemnation statements to Japan, Japan has quickly occupied the three northeastern provinces of China under the pretext of high-sounding pretexts, and even supported a "puppet government" in an attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs, and a full-scale war is on the verge of breaking out.
Although with boundless resentment against Japan, we have to admit that China at that time was far behind Japan, which had carefully developed its armed forces for ten years, both in terms of overall strength and military equipment. However, it is impossible for us to surrender our land to each other. In order to give China the strength to fight a war in the coming all-out war, four months after the outbreak of the incident, the Nationalist government established the first air force school, the Central Aviation School, in Jianqiao, Hangzhou.
Surprisingly, almost all of the students who enter this school are "young masters" born with golden spoons, and their status is either rich or noble. Among them, we are more familiar with Lin Heng, the younger brother of the famous writer and architect Lin Huiyin; Zhang Xihu, the youngest son of Zhang Boling, president of Nankai University, and countless fighters we don't know and don't even leave their names... With the strength of their family situation, they can completely stand by and take refuge abroad, but the bloody nature in their bones makes them choose to fight for their country.
"Our bodies, planes and bombs should die together with the enemy's warship positions!" Just looking at these words, the tragic scene of that era seems to have surfaced in front of you. Some of these high-spirited teenagers are only teenagers when they enter school, what are we doing as teenagers? We enjoy the peace and tranquility they have created in the classrooms with clear windows, and at a young age, they have made "death" their final destination.
Bloody battles in Shanghai
Gu Youyun: "Ten years of sharpening a sword", but at that time, under the enemy's step-by-step pressure, China did not have that long, and the enemy would not give us too long time to strengthen our strength. On August 13, 1936, layers of dark clouds covered the ground, making the whole space darker and darker, and outside was a howling wind whirling against the windows, making a sound, and a lightning bolt streaked in the sky from time to time, with the rumbling thunder, as if a great disaster was brewing.
At this time, a man in an officer's uniform in the Japanese barracks was pacing back and forth in the room, muttering in his mouth that he was extremely irritable. Today is the day they plan to bombard Shanghai, and the Japanese have launched a heavy attack on the land of Shanghai, and as long as they cooperate with the air attack, Shanghai is already in their pocket in their plan. But looking at the sky that seemed to fall in the next second, their bombing plan had to be postponed.
On the other side, in Jianqiao, Hangzhou, China, and Guangde, Anhui, which are not airports today, a group of young people have already dressed up and are ready to go. China's first batch of air forces, who have just undergone four years of campus study, are about to usher in their first actual combat. The equipment at the airport is really not good, this group of neatly equipped young people seems a little silent at the moment, they hug each other, pat the shoulders of their comrades around them, no one speaks, but everyone's eyes are extremely firm. They all know that from this moment on, every time they fly, they may never see each other again.
In the early morning of the 14th, taking advantage of the faint light of the car headlights, the Chinese plane set sail. The unknown Shanghai masses were soon awakened by a burst of bombing, and after a brief disturbance, they discovered that the planes were bombing in the direction of the enemy's camp. This made the masses, who had been harassed by the Japanese army for days, excited for the first time they had seen a Chinese air force plane. Although there are no specific enemy casualties yet, this progress is enough to give them hope.
Amid the cheers of the Shanghai masses, the Japanese army's large battlefield armory, the flagship "Izumo" and the Japanese Marine Corps headquarters were all bombed. Although the Japanese army, which was caught off guard, hurriedly organized a counterattack, compared with the fearless Chinese soldiers, the Japanese counterattack in a hurry was obviously not imposing. During the 30-minute fierce battle, the Chinese Air Force shot down three Japanese fighters and damaged one, while none of our side was damaged.
The enemy general, who was already extremely irritable because of the postponement of the plan, looked even more angry at this moment, he never expected that the "Zhina people" who had no power to resist in his eyes a few months ago would have such combat strength in a short period of time, although the casualties were not very serious, but the resistance of our army was indeed like a slap on his face. However, at this moment, both our side and the enemy know that all this is not over, the haze in the sky is about to dissipate, and when the sky clears and a fierce battle is about to begin, everything is just beginning.
sacrifice
Zhang Boling, president of Nankai University, once said in a speech at the graduation ceremony of the Central Aviation School: "In ancient times, there was a mother-in-law who tattooed the words 'Jing Zhong Serve the Country' on her son's back, and now we should also engrave these four words in the child's heart." That's what he said, and that's how he educated his son. So his son Zhang Xihu took to the air in bad weather in order to fight against Japanese fighters, and finally crashed over Linchuan, crashing and dying, he was only 25 years old at the time, and he had just been engaged to his fiancée.
Yan Haiwen, a pilot from northeast China, should not have appeared on the battlefield of the Battle of Songhu, but he could not forget the tens of thousands of northeast compatriots who died under the Japanese bombing of the "September 18 incident," and took the initiative to ask Ying to take over the bombing mission. Unfortunately, on the way back from the bombing, Yan Haiwen was hit by enemy troops, parachuted and fell into the enemy base. The Japanese did not actually want to kill him, but only ordered him to be captured alive. But in the face of a circle of Japanese encirclement, he shouted "There are no prisoners of the Chinese Air Force!" It was this act that made the Japanese who were enemies see the bloody nature of Chinese and did not hesitate to erect a monument to him to pay respect. He was 21 years old.
Shen Chonghai, the son of the well-known jurist Shen Jiayi, found several enemy ships on the sea surface in the air, at that time his plane had already failed, ammunition was not enough, if he wanted to live, he could only land urgently or parachute to escape, but he glanced at the warship below, but chose to use himself as the last shell, and together with his comrades-in-arms who went with him, crashed into the enemy troops below, and both sides died together, and there were no bones left. They were also 25 years old that year.
Gao Zhihang, known as the "ace pilot of the Chinese Air Force" and the "chief instructor of the Air Force" and the first to shoot down a Japanese fighter, was once recognized by the world as the most promising Chinese pilot and commander. However, in the face of the surprise attack of the enemy, he refused to retreat, and finally died in the fire with fourteen fighters, and when his body was found, his charred body was still holding the joystick. He was only 30 years old when he died, and the young daughter of the family waited for her father, as usual, to fly a fighter and "greet" her in a special way...
Soon after, together with Gao Zhihang, Liu Quigang, Le Yiqin, and Li Guidan, who were known as the "Four King Kongs" of the Chinese Air Force, were all martyred in the same tragic way. However, this is only the casualty of a battle, and the real battle is much more than this one.
From 1936 to 1945, in less than ten years, more than a thousand pilots fought with mortal determination, and finally all left their young lives on the battlefield, and their average age was only 20 years old. The War of Resistance was won, but their lives became cold tombstones.
Did they leave? I think not, they just looked at today's great rivers and mountains in a different way, these ancestors who paved the way for us with their blood will always live in the hearts of every Chinese.