原创 webbersuperman
Looking at the books and articles depicting the history of the Chinese Air Force's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the records of ground operations in North China are often the most neglected, most of them are not mentioned, and a few are mentioned. In order to make up for this shortcoming, this article will start from the historical materials of China and Japan, and detail the ground attack operations of the Chinese Air Force in North China in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.
When the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in July 1937, the Chinese Air Force was organized into 9 flight groups and several independent squadrons, with more than 300 combat aircraft. Most of the equipment was purchased from Europe and the United States in the early and mid-30s, and in terms of performance, it was not backward compared with the Japanese military aircraft at that time, but there was a large gap in quantity, and if we take into account factors such as the construction of China's local military airports, the state of combat readiness, the level of ground maintenance, and the level of backup of key components, the gap between the two sides in terms of overall strength will be further widened.
The Anti-Japanese War broke out in North China, and the Japanese army attacked Nanyuan
When the "77 Incident" had just broken out, the Chinese Air Force was still planning to set up a Tianjin detachment and a Nanyuan detachment to coordinate the ground forces' operations in the Pingjin area. However, by the time the brigades and the front-line airfields were preparing for the operation, the Pingjin area had already fallen, and the situation in Shanghai had taken a sharp turn for the worse, so the North China Flying Brigade began to move to Central China. During this period, on July 29, the Japanese army reported that it had been attacked by the Chinese air force in the Tianjin area, but the Chinese side did not have any relevant records.
Combat sequence of the Chinese Air Force in 1937
In August 1937, the Nationalist Government deployed more than 70% of the combat strength of the Air Force in the Nanjing Defense Circle, and some military aircraft were deployed in South China. In the entire Hebei, Chacha, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan regions, only the 7th Brigade in Xi'an and a small number of directly subordinate units were left in charge of defense, and after mid-August, the Japanese army steadily advanced on various fronts in North China, and it was difficult for the Chinese Air Force to deploy its forward airfields, so it could only be temporarily concentrated in Shanxi and the areas west of it, and the preparation of military facilities was also slightly slow.
The stations of the various divisions of the Chinese Air Force
Equipment and troop tables of various units of the Chinese Air Force
Until September 14, in order to assist the operation of the Pinghan Line, the Chinese Air Force set up a North Front Detachment, the leader of the detachment was Chen Qixia, under the jurisdiction of the 7th Brigade (6th Team, 12th Team, 16th Team, 31st Team), 27th Team, 28th Team (1/3 owed), with Luoyang, Xi'an, Nanyang, Suide as the base, and Taiyuan, Taigu, Linfen, Fenyang, Changzhi and other airports in Shanxi as the advance airport. In the early days, the main task of the North Front Detachment was actually air defense, and although ground attack was also one of the tasks of the detachment, its purpose was to "strengthen the morale of our front line and strike at the enemy's positions (the history of the Air Force's War of Resistance Against Japan)."
On 14 September, the Japanese 1st Army launched the Battle of Zhuobao, marching south along the Pinghan Line with a group of three divisions, tearing open the Chinese army's Yongding River defense line on the same day. The rapid changes in the war situation in North China made it necessary for the North Front Detachment to enter the battlefield as quickly as possible, so Chen Qixia decided to send fighters to conduct ground support operations on September 16.
On 16 September, Tao Zuode, the commander of the 7th Group, led nine "Ke Aircraft" (see Note 2), each carrying four 50-kilogram bombs, from Taiyuan to bomb Datong. After getting rid of the entanglement of several Japanese planes over Yanmen Pass, the fleet arrived at Datong at 11:45 a.m., dived and dropped bombs on the target, and one plane was slightly damaged when it returned to landing. The "Diary of the Shinohara's Detachment in the Formation" records that "at 11 o'clock in the afternoon, nine enemy planes flew over Datong," but there is no other description, and there is no record of the dead in the "Official Bulletin" book of "Other Dead on the Battlefield."
Note 1: On the same day, in the direction of the Pinghan Line, the Japanese army frequently reported that it was attacked by the Chinese Air Force. The 14th Division, which forcibly crossed the Juma River, suffered more than 100 casualties in air strikes at Wanghaizhuang and Beixiang, but it is difficult to obtain a corresponding comparison to verify the sortie records of the Chinese Air Force. It turned out that it was the coordinated operation of the Japanese infantry unit and the army aviation unit that had deviated, resulting in the Japanese infantry who had just crossed the river being mistaken by the army aviation unit for the Chinese army and attacked. In the face of such a serious accidental injury, the chief of staff of the 14th Division felt deeply aggrieved and shouted angrily to his subordinates, "Don't care whose plane is in the sky, if you see it, shoot it down for me!"
The 7th Brigade is a reconnaissance aircraft unit with 18 "Ke Aircraft" under its jurisdiction; the 27th Brigade is an attack aircraft unit with 12 "Xu Aircraft"; and the 28th Brigade has 7 "Huo Ji" (old Hawk fighters, all of which are new planes sent to Central China). With such a weak strength, it was difficult to compete with the Japanese Provisional Aviation Regiment and the Kwantung Army Air Force. At that time, Chen Qixia, the commander of the North Front Detachment, thought that the detachment was too small and too weak, and not only the fighters of the 28th team were old equipment, but the 27th team was also transferred to North China after suffering heavy losses in the Songhu battlefield, and there were only 5 attack planes actually available (Chen Qixia: Air Force dynamics at the beginning of the Shanghai War). However, at that time, the greatest pressure on the air force was in the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou area, and the air force command made a clear distinction between "watermelon" and "sesame," and the North China Air Force could not solve its difficulties at all, and it could only find ways to give full play to its existing capabilities.
Due to weather conditions, the North Front Detachment did not attack on 17 September, and the fleet that bombed Datong on 18 September also returned home with bombs due to heavy fog. On September 19, the 7th Brigade sent 3 "Keji" planes to bomb Datong again, but the continuous repeated attacks also made the Japanese army on guard. The Chinese Air Force fleet was ambushed by Japanese planes over Huairen, one plane was forced to land, and the other plane returned to Taiyuan when it coincided with a Japanese air raid on the airfield and was unfortunately blown up.
The analysis of the "stopper" machine mentioned by Gao Yide
Note 2: "Keji" is a Chinese export version of the O3U reconnaissance bomber produced by Chance Vought, nicknamed Corsair, transliterated as "Ke". The early imported model of the National Government was V65C, and the later model was V92C. This model is mainly used for reconnaissance missions, and can also carry small bombs for reconnaissance operations, but it is slow and extremely vulnerable to attack.
On September 20, the 7th Brigade again made a failed sortie. The 27th team, led by Fan Guanghua, led 3 "Xu Ji" to reconnoiter the highway between Guangling and Wei County. At 14:40 in the afternoon, the fleet found that there were Japanese marching columns and a large amount of baggage on the road, so they lowered their altitude and strafed them. As a result, the attack height was too low, and they were attacked by light ground fire from the Japanese army, and two "Xu Ji" were shot and forced to land, one of which flipped over and caught fire on the river beach southwest of Guangling City, and the pilot Fan Guanghua escaped, but the gunner Ye Gui died heroically. On the same day, the "League" also recorded that the Japanese army shot down one Chinese fighter plane over Guangling. There is no trace of the results of this ground attack, which shows that the Chinese Air Force's ground attack capability is really average.
The "Alliance Xunbao" recorded the downing of a Chinese Air Force fighter
The Chinese Air Force's A-12 ground attack aircraft, also known as "Xu Laike aircraft" and "Xu aircraft"
Note 3: "Xu Ji", in the 30s of the 20th century, the American Curtis Aircraft Company began to develop a metal monoplane attack aircraft for the military, and the development number was Curtis-59. The military codenamed A-8 and A-10 successively, and later modified to A-12, nicknamed Shrike, this is the company's first generation of monoplane attack aircraft officially adopted by the military, in 1936 and later, the Chinese Air Force ordered 20 aircraft, transliterated as "Xu". At that time, the aircraft was a relatively new type of equipment, but because the Chinese Air Force did not have air supremacy, this ground attack aircraft could not give full play to its advantages.
Regardless of whether it is a "Ke Machine" or a "Xu Machine", there was a common problem of ground combat aircraft at that time, that is, the bomb load was small, and the pylons could only carry bombs of less than 50 kg, and in many cases only 14 kg or 18 kg bombs were mounted. As a result, the bombs were not powerful enough, and if the ground attack was to be effective, it would have to increase the density of bombs, which was almost an insatiable demand for the northern frontal detachment, which had few fighters.
The Japanese air force attacked the position of the Chinese army at Xinkou, and it can be seen that the bombs dropped were extremely scattered and had almost no effect on a single point attack, which was also a common problem in the ground attack tactics of light fighters at that time
On 26 September, the North Front Detachment, which had been silent for many days, attacked the Japanese mechanized units outside the Pingxing Pass with several "Ke Aircraft." The pilots reported that "the enemy's ground forces were very confused by our bombing." However, on the way back, due to the weather, 2 planes were forced to land and were damaged. On September 27, the Chinese Air Force attacked again to attack the targets of Dingxian and Pingxing Pass on the Pinghan Line, and the order of the 5th Division on September 28 was recorded in the "History of the Hamada Wing", which mentioned that "our army at the Pingxing Pass was bombed and counterattacked by the enemy for several days, and lacked ammunition", which shows that the Chinese Air Force's sortie still had a great impact on the Japanese army.
On 28 September, the ground attack operation of the North Frontal Detachment finally achieved relatively direct results. On the same day, the 16th team dispatched five "Keji" planes to fiercely attack the Japanese positions in the mountains on both sides of the Pingxingguan Highway, throwing 16 50-kilogram bombs and 31 18-kilogram bombs, of which more than 10 bombs hit the Japanese position, and blew up the Japanese artillery position on the north mountain of the highway. On the same day, the Japanese army admitted that the 3rd Wing of the Independent Mountain Artillery, which supported the operation of the 5th Division, suffered heavy losses near Pingxingguan, and suffered heavy losses of horses and horses, and according to the records of "Other Deaths on the Battlefield", more than 20 people were killed in the division that day. The "History of the Hamada Wing" also recorded this, saying, "Three enemy planes attacked, dropped about 20 bombs, and the dust exploded everywhere, and the 5th Mountain Artillery Squadron was wounded 7 people, and 30 others were seriously wounded." Because it is a record of the 21st Infantry Wing, it is inevitable that the description of the losses of the mountain artillery unit will be biased, and judging from the circumstances of the losses, it is very likely that the explosion of the mountain artillery ammunition caused such heavy casualties.
The 3rd Artillery Wing of the Independent Mountain suffered heavy losses from the Chinese Air Force
On September 30, the 7th Brigade made another meritorious service. The Japanese army on the Pinghan Line had already used Baoding as a transit station, and a large number of materials were gathered along the railway line to prepare to continue to attack the Shijiazhuang line in the south. The 7th Brigade dispatched three "Keji" planes No. 1603, 1608, and 3105 to reconnoiter in Dingxian and Tangxian counties, and after reconnaissance, they discovered targets near Baoding Station and dropped all the bombs. According to the description of the "First Series of the Loyal and Brave Biography of the Chinese Incident," the 1st Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade of the 3rd Division occupied a key point at Baoding Station on the same day for air defense, and was attacked by a number of bombs dropped by the Chinese Air Force at 6:30 p.m., and several bombs exploded near the antiaircraft gun position, causing a large number of casualties among the unit's antiaircraft observers and operators. According to the records of "Other Deaths on the Battlefield", the 1st Squadron of the Anti-aircraft Artillery of the 3rd Division died nearly 20 people, and it is speculated that the equipment losses of the division were also relatively large.
The 1st Anti-aircraft Artillery Brigade of the 3rd Division suffered heavy losses from air raids in Baoding, and the 14th Division's medical team also suffered casualties
On the same day, the Shinohara Corps broke through Tiejiaoling and occupied Fanzhi, cutting off the retreat of the main force of the Chinese army in the direction of Pingxingguan. The Chinese Air Force received an order to dispatch four "Xu planes" under Meng Guangxin of the 27th Brigade to attack the Kwantung Army on the Fanzhi-Ruyuekou-Tiejiaoling line, dropping a total of 40 14-kilogram bombs. Captain Zenmatsu Ito, squadron leader of the 16th Infantry Wing (Goto Force), was seriously wounded in the explosion and died of his wounds on October 3, but the overall losses of the unit were slight.
At the beginning of October, the Kwantung Army began to attack the area north of Xinkou, and the Chinese Air Force had to abandon Yangmingbao and other front-line airfields, while major airfields such as Taiyuan and Taigu were also frequently attacked by the Japanese army aviation units, which had a great impact on the Chinese Air Force's sortie capability. As the 14th Division continued to attack on the Pinghan Line, the 7th Brigade organized a fleet to repeatedly attack the railway line and bridges in the direction of Xinle as ordered, but the bombing effect was not clear.
On October 12, Yuanping was lost, and the 7th Brigade, led by Deputy Captain Wu Yuanpei, bombed the Japanese troops near Laoxian and Yuanping with 4 "Ke Aircraft", and used 24 18-kilogram bombs to destroy many Japanese military rooms. On the same day, the Shinohara's Corps reported that the artillery wing of the 2nd Division had suffered heavy losses, with dozens of casualties under Captain Kiichiro Wayama, the squadron leader, and the baggage wing of the 5th Division also suffered heavy losses. The Chinese Air Force No. 3105 lost its way when it returned home, and crashed into a mountain when it was forced to land to replenish fuel and then take off, resulting in the destruction of the plane and the death of pilots Yan Wenzhuang and Yun Yi'an.
The Shinohara's Corps and the 5th Wing of the Baggage Corps were attacked from the air near Harapyeong-Lao County
After mid-October, in order to cooperate with the Battle of Xinkou, the North Front Detachment focused on attacking the Japanese communication routes and positions at Xinkou and the rear of Yuanping. By 15 October, as the main air defense force in North China, only three of the old Hawker fighters of the 28th Brigade had been consumed, and only one had the conditions to take off, and the number of existing fighters of the 7th Brigade had also shrunk considerably. By the end of the Battle of Xinkou, the 7th Brigade and the attached 27th Brigade repeatedly attacked the Xinkou and Yuanping areas, bombarding the Japanese army's transportation lines several times a day, but the effect was unknown.
On October 22, the 16th team of the 7th Brigade that attacked from Luoyang to the Pinghan Line made a lot of gains. On the same day, the team was led by Yang Hongding to dispatch five "Ke Aircraft," each carrying two 50-kilogram bombs and four 18-kilogram bombs, to bomb the Japanese troops along the railway in the direction of the Zhanghe River. At 8:15 a.m., the group flew over Shuangmiao Station, saw that there were more than 10 carriages in the station, and then dived and bombed them, and the flight team reported that it had destroyed 5 columns, and then strafed the Japanese troops who had escaped the carriages and crossed the river on the west side of the Zhanghe Bridge and returned. The Japanese side recorded that on that day, the 2nd Railway Wing, the 7th Division Land Brigade, and the Construction Brigade, which assisted the Yuanshan troops in the Zhanghe River Raid, were operating in Shuangmiao Station, and were severely damaged during the air raid, with 32 dead and wounded (6 died on the spot and 3 died of serious injuries). Judging from the impact points marked by the Japanese army, only one bomb hit the platform and destroyed one water pump, and another three bombs fell within 20-30 meters of the station, causing some damage.
The Japanese side recorded an air raid on Shuangmiao Station
The loss of Japanese personnel during the air raid on Shuangmiao
Due to the limitations of communication technology at that time, the effectiveness of air-ground coordination was often poor, resulting in ineffective attacks or accidental hits of friendly forces. On October 23, the 27th team sent two "Xu Ji" to attack the Japanese position near Yuanping, dropping 20 14-kilogram bombs. However, after landing at the airport, I received a report from the front, and I learned that the Chinese position had been bombed by mistake. On October 26, the 4 Hawker fighters of Liu Cuigang's division of the 24th team of the 5th Brigade rushed from Central China to the North China battlefield, but due to the weather and the pilot's judgment, the 3 planes were damaged due to fuel exhaustion, getting lost, impacting and other reasons, and the captain Liu Cuigang died, and the plan to enhance the defense force of the North China Airport was completely ruined, and led to the cancellation of the plan of the 7th Brigade and the 5th Brigade to attack Yangmingbao Airport on October 28 (to investigate the cause of the loss of Liu Cuigang's fleet, the "History of the Air Force's Anti-Japanese War" believes that a large factor was caused by the captain's ineffective command). As the Japanese army on the Eastern Front was approaching Taiyuan day by day, the units of the 7th Brigade began to transfer to Luoyang, Nanyang and other places. On October 29, the 6th squadron was ordered to attack Harapyeong with 9 "Ke planes", but was ambushed by Japanese planes, most of the fighters were shot, and 1 was forced to land, causing serious losses.
Liu Cuigang collided with the scene
After November, because the Taiyuan, Taigu, Changzhi, Jincheng and other airfields in Shanxi either fell or were seriously suppressed by the Japanese army, the 7th Brigade had to withdraw from Shanxi and move to the Qianqian airfield in Henan, and the base was still in Xi'an, the 31st Brigade of the unit was transferred to Hankou, the 28th Brigade was transferred to Guangzhou to return to the establishment, and the 27th Brigade was transferred to Anhui to assist in the defense of Nanjing. By the end of the year, the old models were lost, and the remaining fighters were also affected by maintenance, spare parts, ammunition and other factors, and the attendance rate was reduced. Although the new aircraft introduced by the Chinese Air Force arrived one after another, they had not yet formed combat effectiveness, and the ground attack on the North China battlefield immediately turned silent.
Attached is a summary of the losses of the North Frontal Detachment and the results of the air battle:
On September 16, the 7th Brigade bombed Datong, and when returning, two "Ke Ji" planes ran out of fuel and made a forced landing, one of which was slightly damaged;
On September 18, the 28th team guarded Taiyuan, and Lei Yanjun drove the "Huo Machine" to shoot down a Japanese reconnaissance plane (belonging to the 15th Wing of the Kwantung Army, and the pilots Iwahashi and Fujino Saburo died), Lei himself was wounded in the right leg, and the fighter was unharmed;
On September 19, the 7th Brigade bombed Datong and was ambushed by the Japanese army, 2 of which were wounded, one of which was forced to land, and the other 1 flew to Taiyuan and was blown up during the Japanese air raid, and the personnel were unharmed;
On September 19, the 28th Squadron again met the invading Japanese planes and shot down 1 Japanese light bomber (belonging to the 15th Wing of the Kwantung Army, pilots Tanitabe Inzo and Watanabe Takeho died)
On September 20, 3 planes of the 27th team "Xu Ji" attacked the Japanese army column near Guangling, but were attacked by ground fire, and 2 were wounded, one of which flipped and caught fire on the river beach southwest of Guangling City, and the machine gunner Ye Gui was killed, and the other 1 aircraft fuel tank was damaged and forced to land in the friendly position of Lingqiu;
On September 21, the Japanese plane re-invaded Taiyuan, and Chen Qiguang, the captain of the 28th team, shot down one Japanese plane (belonging to the 16th Wing of the Kwantung Army, and the captain of the 1st Brigade Miwa Kuan Shaozuo died), but he was seriously injured, and after the forced landing, the fighter plane was damaged, and the No. 2801 plane was shot down, and the pilot Liang Dingyuan died; unfortunately, the 12th team had two "Ke planes" transferred from Taigu Airport for maintenance, and they were shot down in encounters with enemy planes, and the pilots Lei Guolai and Wu Zhiyuan died;
On September 26, An Jiaju, the captain of the 12th team, led a team to attack the Japanese troops near Pingxingguan, and encountered bad weather when returning, and 2 fighters were forced to land and were damaged, and the personnel were unharmed;
On September 27, the 27th team attacked the target of the Pinghan Line, the No. 2706 fighter was shot down, the pilot Qi Qingyuan, and the machine gunner Chen Weizhen disappeared (according to the "League Xunbao", the plane was shot down by the 6th Division Niudao troops, and Chen Weizhen was captured), and the 2704 plane was also wounded; on the same day, the 7th group attacked the target near Pingxingguan, and the 3104 plane was shot in the wing 3 rounds;
An interview with Chen Weizhen, a captured member of the Chinese Air Force, published in the "Alliance Xunbao".
On September 28, the 16th team attacked a target near Pingxingguan, and the wing of No. 1607 was hit by 5 shots;
On October 1, the 27th team transferred to Fenyang "Xu Ji" 2 planes and encountered Japanese planes and was slightly injured;
On October 6, the 27th team dispatched two "Xu Ji" to attack the northern Shanxi area, and was ambushed by Japanese planes near Pingxingguan, one of them was shot, and the pilot Qiao Wei and the machine gunner Mai Zhenxiong were missing;
On October 12, the 7th Brigade was led by Deputy Captain Wu Yuanpei to bomb the Japanese troops near Laoxian-Yuanping with 4 "Ke Aircraft", and the No. 3105 aircraft lost its way when it returned, and crashed into a mountain when it was forced to land to replenish fuel and then lifted off, resulting in the destruction of the plane and the death of the pilots, Yan Wenzhuang and Yun Yi'an;
On October 15, the 28th team sent 3 "Huo planes" to bomb Laoxian, which were ambushed by Japanese fighters, 2 crashed, and the pilots Su Yingxiang and Liao Zhaoqiong died;
On October 21, when the 27th team attacked Yuanping and returned home, No. 2705 crashed out of the airport when it landed, and the personnel were unharmed;
On October 23, the 27th team attacked Yuanping, and the No. 2701 plane was damaged during a forced landing due to a pilot's error, and the personnel were unharmed; on the same day, the 31st team dispatched three "Ke aircraft" to bomb the road near Laoxian County, and was attacked by ground fire, and all three planes were slightly injured;
On October 25, the 2 "Ke Planes" of the 7th Brigade encountered Japanese planes when they were reconnoitring on the Pinghan Line, and both planes were shot down, the pilots Wang Gan and Wang Wenxiu were missing, and Han Shiyu and Ding Jiaxian died;
On October 26, the 24th team of the 5th brigade was led by captain Liu Cuigang from Central China to aid North China, transferred to Luoyang, and continued to fly to Taiyuan when encountering bad weather and getting lost.
On October 27, the Japanese air raided Taiyuan and damaged one "Da plane" of the Jinsui Air Force on the ground;
"Daji" is a large number of models introduced to the Chinese Air Force in the early days
Note 4: "Daji", Douglas O2MC reconnaissance bomber, in 1929, the mainland first purchased 10 O-2MC reconnaissance/bombers from the Douglas Aircraft Company, and from 1929 to 1936, it continued to purchase 7 batches of 85 aircraft from Douglas Company. Guangdong Shaoguan Aircraft Factory changed its fuselage to an oval shape and imitated it, naming it Yangcheng "Daji".
On 29 October, the 7th Brigade sent 9 "Ke Aircraft" to attack the vicinity of Xinkou, the first 5 fighters were ambushed by Japanese planes on the way, the formation was scattered, the 3102 fuel tank was bombed and flew to Taigu to make a forced landing, Li Xiehe's trouser legs and flight suit in the back seat were pierced by bullets, fortunately he was not injured, and then the plane turned to Luoyang, on the way because of the oil tank leakage and forced landing again, fortunately, the man and the plane were intact, and the remaining 4 fighters were all wounded in the air battle; the 4 planes that were launched later took off and transferred to Luoyang when they were attacked by Japanese planes at the airport, and 1 plane was forced to land on the way, and the plane was slightly damaged.