He always loved the blue sky of the motherland, and his daughter Wang Xiaohua recalled the late Air Force Admiral Wang Hai

Source: Beijing Youth Daily

2020 "Moving China" Top Ten Figures Winner First Class Combat Hero

He has always loved the blue sky of the motherland

——Daughter Wang Xiaohua recalls the late Air Force General Wang Hai

"It wasn't until my father left and my mother fell ill that I came to the house to accompany and take care of my father's life, that I began to really understand my father and finally realized the greatness of that generation." The person who spoke was Wang Xiaohua, the daughter of Wang Hai, the first generation of pilots after the founding of New China, a first-class combat hero of the Air Force, and a general of the Air Force.

70 years ago, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Wang Hai, then 25, served as the commander of a large detachment of the Ninth Regiment of the Third Air Division, and led the whole brigade to engage in fierce battles with the US Air Force, which is known as the "world ace," more than 80 times, shooting down and wounding 29 enemy planes. Wang Hai himself shot down and wounded 9 enemy planes. For its outstanding merits, the brigade was later named "Wang Hai Brigade" and awarded the collective first class merit. Wang Hai himself has successively been awarded the title of "First Class Combat Hero" by the Air Force.

70 years later, in the warm and cold early spring of February 2021, Wang Hai was named "Moving China 2020 Person of the Year". At the awards ceremony, Wang Xiaohua took the stage to receive the award for her late father, and on the stage she said emotionally: "It has been 70 years since the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and my father can still move China, which also moves me." The motherland and the people have not forgotten them! ”

On August 2, 2020, Wang Hai died in Beijing at the age of 95. On the day of her father's death, her daughter Wang Xiaohua wrote this passage on the title page of her father's memoir, expressing her thoughts about her father: "Dear father: I am proud of you, I am proud of you, and I love your daughter Wang Xiaohua. ”

For the country and the people, Wang Hai is a hero and a warrior; for her daughter Wang Xiaohua, her father Wang Hai is the person who worries and admires her the most.

Heart to the blue sky Over ninety years old do not forget to ask young people to "fly J-20, to fly well"

The Beijing Youth Daily reporter met Wang Xiaohua in Beijing, she looks very similar to her father Wang Hai, Wang Xiaohua added: "I am also like my father. After his father's death, sorting out the precious photos of his life became the most common thing Wang Xiaohua did in his free time, and many items related to his father's deeds were also displayed in the home. In an interview, Wang Xiaohua recalled in detail the bits and pieces of his life with his father over the years.

Wang Xiaohua was born in Hangzhou in 1960, her older brother was born in Shanghai, her younger brother was born in Nanjing, and the three brothers and sisters all went everywhere with the transfer of their father's work, so they were born in different cities. In 1969, my father went to Beijing to serve as the second director of the Military Training Department at the Air Force Command, and the family lived in the Air Force compound with him. After that, his father was transferred to the commander of the Guangzhou Air Force, and the family moved to Guangzhou.

After the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Wang Hai served as division commander and deputy commander of the Air Force unit, second director of the Air Force Military Training Department, commander of the air force of the military region, and deputy commander of the air force. In July 1985, Wang Hai was appointed by the Central Military Commission as the fifth commander of the Air Force of the People's Republic of China, leading the modernization of the Air Force in an all-round way. He was awarded the rank of General of the Air Force in 1988.

Wang Xiaohua recalled that after his father left in 1992, he finally had a rare leisure time after a busy life. She revealed that her father had to walk 5 kilometers to Yuyuantan Park every day, "I occasionally went to Yuyuantan with my father, it turned out that there were many people swimming there, and some people recognized him when they saw my father and called him an old hero." ”

In the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution, there is still a MiG-15 fighter painted with 9 red stars, which is the meritorious fighter that General Wang Hai flew in the past. In July 2017, when the military expo was renovated, Wang Xiaohua once accompanied his father to visit his fighter, and Wang Xiaohua clearly remembers that when his father stayed in front of the fighter he had piloted for more than 40 minutes, did not rest, and took a photo with his "old buddy" with great interest. Even at the age of 91, Wang Hai can still explain the performance of the MiG aircraft very clearly and clearly.

"It's not like an old man over ninety years old." Wang Xiaohua said that in her eyes, even in his old age, his memory has seriously declined, but his nostalgia for his sacrificed comrades-in-arms, his concern for the development of the people's air force, and his enthusiasm for the cause of the air force have not changed.

Wang Xiaohua mentioned that when the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China was held in 2019, she accompanied her father to watch the live television broadcast of the Tiananmen Square military parade, and the father and daughter watched from the beginning to the end, and when they saw the parade flying party equipped with the J-20 of the Air Force, Wang Hai was very happy. Wang Xiaohua recalled: "I told my father that we all flew on the J-20. My dad said, 'Ah, that's great!' The young man flew the J-20, and he had to fly well. ’”

Go to The DPRK to fight "The sky is so big, why can't we beat you down?"

Just 70 years ago, the hardware conditions of the People's Air Force were still very different from today. According to the data, in the early stage of the war in North Korea, the US military participated in the war more than 1,200 aircraft, while the Chinese Volunteer Army Air Force participated in the war less than 200 aircraft. Some pilots in the U.S. military have more than 1,000 hours of flight time, while the average flight time of volunteer air force pilots is less than 100 hours. Chinese pilots can be said to be truly "learning war in war."

Such a comparison of conditions did not crush the belief of Wang Hai and his comrades-in-arms. Wang Xiaohua mentioned that in the book, his father described the scene of comrades-in-arms taking the oath before the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. "Father told the pilots, the sky is so big, why do we only let them fight down, and we can't beat you." He said: You must have confidence in order to be fearless, fearless to be brave, and brave to defeat enemy aircraft. ”

On June 19, 1950, the first aviation unit of the People's Air Force, the Fourth Mixed Brigade of the Air Force, was formally established in Nanjing, which concentrated all the combat strength of the Air Force at that time. On October 1, 1950, the 3rd Air Brigade was established, which was later changed to the 3rd Air Division, and according to the unified deployment of the Volunteer Air Force, on October 20, 1951, the 3rd Air Division entered the Dandong Langtou Airport Round Battle.

Due to the lack of actual combat experience, several times in a row, they flew away with pleasure and returned empty-handed, not only did they not fight, but even the shadow of the enemy plane was not discovered. Wang Hai also wrote in his biography that if he could not find the enemy plane after flying up, he would have to think of returning as soon as possible, because the aircraft at that time had limited fuel load, and because of this, it was easy to miss the fighter.

If the hardware conditions are poor, the software will rely on its own efforts to make up for it. In order to find out the reason, as soon as there is time, Wang Hai will organize everyone to study and analyze. After some meticulous research and exploration, the crux of the problem was finally found, Wang Xiaohua said, every time the enemy plane can not be found, the father and comrades are particularly anxious, they practice on the ground, look at the birds and small objects in the distance to improve the observation, slowly trained to quickly discover the ability of the enemy plane after lifting off, everyone is also looking forward to the arrival of a new battle.

On November 18, 1951, the U.S. military sent 184 fighters to bomb railway targets in many places, seriously damaging the transport lines of the Volunteer Troops, and the 9th Regiment of the Third Division of the Volunteer Air Force flew 16 MiG-15 fighters to meet the battle. A large group of brigade commanders Wang Hai and his comrades-in-arms piloted MiG-15 fighters and were ordered to take off into the air to intercept the enemy planes. Wang Hai suddenly found that there were more than 60 F-84 fighters at a low altitude in the left front, although the strength of the enemy and us was very different, but Wang Hai resolutely issued the order to "attack with me", so he led the team from a height of 6000 meters to 1500 meters to attack the enemy aircraft. In this air battle, the Wang Hai Brigade took advantage of the strong vertical mobility of the MiG-15 fighter, and in just 10 minutes, our army did not suffer any casualties and achieved a 5-0 result.

"Flying an airplane requires superior courage, responsive reflexes and confidence in victory, as well as decisiveness, because the fighter is fleeting." Wang Xiaohua concluded that these valuable qualities were all possessed by his father and his comrades-in-arms.

By the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Wang Hai's brigade had participated in more than 80 air battles, shot down and wounded 29 enemy planes, and was awarded the first class of collective merit. Every pilot created a record, and each fighter was painted with a red five-star symbolizing the shooting down of the enemy aircraft, becoming the first ace flying team of the Republican Air Force and was known as the "heroic Wang Hai Brigade".

Old Aviation School Years Father participated in the establishment and growth of the People's Air Force

"In fact, at the time of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, my father flew for more than 200 hours. At first, he flew at the old aviation school in the northeast, then trained the MiG-15, and then went to participate in the actual combat duty. This flight time was too short, and at that time, there was no training in shooting empty targets and ground targets, and many of them had to rely on their own exploration. Wang Xiaohua said.

The old northeast aviation school mentioned by Wang Xiaohua is the place where Wang Hai first formed an indissoluble relationship with flight. In 1946, the first aviation school of our army, the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army Aviation School, was formally established in Tonghua, and was renamed the Northeast People's Liberation Army Aviation School in January 1948 and the Chinese People's Liberation Army Aviation School in May 1949. This is what people are accustomed to call the "Old Aviation School of northeast China".

At the beginning of the establishment of the old aviation school, because it was bombed indiscriminately by the Kuomintang air force planes many times, it moved everywhere, and Wang Hai and the trainees ate corn grits porridge, cornmeal nests, salted boiled cabbage, potatoes, etc., and they could only eat a steamed bun made of flour on weekends; the trainees also had to stand guard at night; the cold dormitory, more than forty degrees Celsius below zero, sleeping on the floor, and when they woke up the next morning, their mouths were frozen with cotton quilts. But even so, no one gave up. There is no airplane, the technical personnel dismantle the east wall to supplement the west wall, piece together the aircraft; there is no aviation fuel, they refine high-purity alcohol instead; there is no runway, everyone will build the runway, build the nest, build the dormitory; there is no primary teaching machine, the middle teaching machine, directly on the Ninety-Nine High Education Machine...

Because of the bombing of the Kuomintang Air Force, the old aviation school had moved to Mishan, the house was either without a roof or without doors and windows, and the aircraft were organized to go to the three eastern provinces to find the old aircraft parts to pull back, and then reassemble.

In these arduous years of old aviation school, Wang Xiaohua only listened to his father after he left his retirement. And how he entered the old aviation school to study experience, wang Xiaohua was even more impressed:

Born on January 19, 1926, Wang Hai is a native of Weihai, Shandong Province, and as early as 1944, at the age of 18, Wang Hai joined the Jiaodong Anti-Japanese Youth Detachment and joined the Communist Party of China the following year. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, at the end of 1945, Wang Hai led 10 students from Weihai Middle School, a total of 11 people, to walk 500 kilometers to Linyi Revolutionary University (the predecessor of Shandong University) to study; just after half a year of study, his superiors conveyed instructions, because the northeast had been liberated, and a large number of cadres were needed in the base area, wang Hai rushed all the way to the northeast. Together with his classmates, he crossed the Kuomintang blockade line from Linyi, Shandong Province, to Longkou, then by wooden boat to the Zhuang River in Dalian, and then traveled a long way to Harbin. At that time, there were three choices: to study at the University of Military Cadres, to study at the Tank School, and to study at the Northeast Democratic Coalition Army Aviation School. Wang Hai chose to go to the aviation school, and he hiked for 5 days to Mudanjiang (when the old aviation school moved from Tonghua to Mudanjiang), and eventually became the first batch of students of the old aviation school in Northeast China. After graduating from the first phase of mechanicals, Wang Hai entered the second phase of the flight class and graduated in August 1949.

After the founding of New China, in order to concentrate on running aviation schools, with the coordinated efforts of all parties, the aviation schools opened in early December 1949. In order to speed up the completion of various training tasks, the leaders of the Air Force instructed 89 flight cadets and 20 air pilot cadets who were originally studying at the old northeast aviation school and already had a certain technical foundation to be assigned to each aviation school to form a crash course to carry out a six-month training to study the modification of Soviet-made combat aircraft. Wang Hai was one of these people, and at the end of 1949 he entered the crash course of the Fourth Aviation School in Shenyang.

In the more than three years from March 1946 to December 1949, the old aviation school trained a total of 560 backbone personnel of various types, including pilots, mechanics, navigators, as well as field stations, communications, meteorology, instrumentation, and staff personnel, most of whom later became the backbone of the construction of the people's air force, and a large number of combat heroes and model figures such as Wang Hai, Liu Yudi, Zhang Jihui, Zou Yan, and Li Han emerged.

"When I was a child, I really didn't know that my father was a hero"

Perhaps it is precisely because his father personally participated in and witnessed the creation and growth of China's air force, Wang Xiaohua also better understood the responsibilities shouldered by his father Wang Hai, and his mission and responsibility also continued from the battlefield to the battlefield.

Because I have been committed to the development of the People's Air Force for many years, I always gather with my family and leave more. In Wang Xiaohua's memory, his father was always very busy at work and on business trips. Wang Xiaohua did not have much contact with his father when he was a child, and his parents never told their children about these glorious years. Talking about his father as a general, Wang Xiaohua said: "When I was a child, I really didn't know that my father was a hero. ”

Wang Xiaohua still remembers that when she was about five or six years old, she already knew some words, and she pointed to her father's name in a beautifully bound "Biography of a Volunteer Hero" at home and asked her brother: "Is this Daddy?" Is Dad still a hero in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea? "My brother told her it was Daddy. His father's characteristics as a soldier also influenced Wang Xiaohua's three brothers and sisters. The perennial career of an air force pilot has enabled Wang Hai to develop the habit of rigor, meticulousness and precision, and there are strict regulations at home, from the time of eating to the placement of various small things.

Wang Xiaohua recalled that when he was 16 years old, he entered the Bayi skydiving team to become a skydiver, and occasionally came back to visit his relatives, and his father would only say those few "rutted words": You must respect the leader, unite comrades, and work well. In the eyes of Wang Xiaohua at that time, his father was really kind to outsiders, and he was particularly strict with himself. "I thought, Dad, wouldn't you say something else, it wouldn't hurt me at all." Wang Xiaohua said.

When the skydiver is Wang Xiaohua's own choice to go, Wang Xiaohua graduated from high school at the age of 16, the height is already 1.68 meters, according to the pilot's physical standards, she is fully qualified, because her dream from childhood is to become a pilot, but the yin and yang mistakes have not been desired. "I was only 12 years old when the Air Force recruited the 4th batch of pilots, and by the time I recruited the 5th batch, I was already 22 years old, and I was already a surgeon at guangkong 458 Hospital, because the Air Force had not recruited female pilots for ten years, so I missed the opportunity to become a female pilot."

Although he did not realize his wish to "inherit his father's business", Wang Xiaohua felt that he did not disgrace his father. Because of her relatively tall stature, she was the first to leave the plane every time she jumped, jumping 600 times.

Parental Love "Neither of them can be separated from the other"

Today, in Wang Xiaohua's home, there is still a memorable thing - a 1953 marriage certificate, which is the precious emotional witness of his father Wang Hai and his mother Meng Hua.

"Without the dedication and support of my mother, I would not have been able to achieve what my father can achieve today." Wang Xiaohua said. The acquaintance of the parents has a pure, simple flavor of that era - the two were introduced to each other and married. Her mother, Meng Hua, was originally a female pilot recruited by New China, but due to national difficulties, she did not learn to fly and was assigned to the Eighth Aviation School in the northeast as a draftsman. After the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, my father could find a partner. Li Faying, the principal of the Eighth Aviation School at that time, and Yuan Bin, the commander of the Third Air Division, were old comrades-in-arms, and under the discussion of the two, they introduced Meng Hua, a draftsman of the Eighth Aviation School, to Wang Hai.

"My mom didn't know about this, but my dad knew, and my dad went to the window of the drawing room to sneak a look at my mom during the flight training break, and when he saw it, he was quite satisfied, so he said yes." Wang Xiaohua recalled. In this way, after the two met several times, they both felt that the other party was not bad. With the consent of the organization, they came together. On July 13, 1953, Wang Hai and Meng Hua registered their marriage. The acquaintance, acquaintance, and mutual observance of the two are not as vigorous as they are, but they are full of love.

In Wang Xiaohua's memory, her mother was the one who took care of her father at that moment, because her father became a deputy division commander when he was less than 30 years old, and the pressure of work and training was relatively large, so her mother took on the responsibility of running the house, and everything did not distract her father. "Later, when my mother got old, she told me that we were all fine when your father was not at home, but it was only after your father left that he quarreled." As soon as he leaves Hugh, he can take care of this matter at home, so sometimes he will quarrel and talk. Wang Xiaohua laughed.

Their love story is not romantic, in Wang Xiaohua's memory, his father did not even prepare any decent birthday gifts for his mother, but Wang Xiaohua knew that neither his father nor his mother could do without anyone.

Wang Xiaohua mentioned that her mother cared for her father meticulously, and even in the last days of her life, she did not forget to arrange her father's life. "In the last few months of my mother's hospitalization, my aunt came back to accompany her, because my mother was worried that my father was in his 90s and no one took good care of her, so she asked me to come back to accompany my father. You see how thoughtful my mom thinks. ”

After his mother died before his father, Wang Xiaohua also specially instructed the family staff to hide the fact that his mother had died from his father, telling him that his mother was still hospitalized in the Air Force General Hospital for blood transfusions, so as not to let him lose his confidence in life. "He actually knows that sometimes when I come back from work, I hear my dad himself looking in the bathroom mirror and saying, 'You see you go first, leave me alone.'" I stood outside the door listening, and the tears were about to fall. Wang Xiaohua said. After his father left, Wang Xiaohua wrote in the article: He went to meet our dear mother, leaving us with infinite thoughts!

No complaints, no regrets "Fathers and comrades-in-arms are optimistic and tough people"

Wang Xiaohua usually has the habit of writing, in order to express her thoughts and admiration for her father, she will write the stories and experiences of her father and other veterans of the Air Force into articles and share them on her social accounts, which is a kind of record and memorial. "The older generation of pilots have never complained about the bad conditions, and the planes of the old aviation school are all saved together with 'broken' aircraft and parts, and they do not fly out as usual." So don't complain about the surrounding environment, equipment, to see people, people's wisdom to the extreme, this is very critical. ”

After her father retired at home, he occasionally told his daughter Wang Xiaohua the story of when he participated in the revolution and went to the old aviation school when he was young, especially the years when he and his companions hiked 500 kilometers from Weihai in Shandong Province to Linyi Revolutionary University and trekked all the way to the old aviation school in Northeast China, which made Wang Xiaohua very impressed, and the optimism and tenacity of her father and old comrades-in-arms also deeply affected her. Wang Xiaohua said: When the old Northeast Aviation School, which trained the first batch of outstanding pilots of the New China Air Force, went to the army units to select people to learn to fly, most of them were demoted and used, but no one complained.

"In my eyes, my father and old comrades-in-arms are optimistic and tenacious people, and their generation just doesn't want to reciprocate, never thinks about what treatment should be given to me in the organization, and is conscientious in every post, bent on doing a good job, and living up to the cultivation and expectations of the party and the people."

The People's Air Force was conceived in the revolutionary war years, and soon after its establishment, it rushed to the battlefield to fight for the defense of the motherland, achieved brilliant victories, and defended the peace and dignity of the republic's sky. Wang Xiaohua said: "My father has never forgotten the Wang Hai Brigade, has not forgotten those martyrs who sacrificed, and we cannot forget it either." ”

Why can the hero of the air war, Admiral Wang Hai, still be able to "move China" in the new era?

The award speech written by the "Moving China" organizing committee to the old hero Wang Hai, who flew high and far, may have given the world the best answer: "Swoop under the morning sun and fire in the west wind." The sharp knife in the air, with one for ten; the strong shield of the territory, surveys the heavens and defends the country. The mountains and rivers are unharmed, the eagles of the motherland have flown higher, and the stars you carve on the fuselage are the cruising coordinates of the warriors. ”

And Wang Xiaohua said: Father Wang Hai is only a representative of the Volunteer Air Force, and what touched China was the entire Volunteer Air Force!

Text/Reporter Lei Ruotong Courtesy photo/Wang Xiaohua

(Liang Tianyi, a reporter of this newspaper, also contributed to this article)