During the Qingming Festival just past, the tomb of the martyr Jiang Shenghu next to Zoujia Village, Jiangdong Village, Gaoshang Town, Xing'an County, was full of flowers, which were sent by the people who came to mourn, including cadres and workers of government agencies, teachers and students of schools, and staff of enterprises and institutions...... Jiang Shenghu's son, 89-year-old Jiang Chengyi, told reporters on the phone: "I couldn't go back to my hometown to visit the grave this year, but my relatives in the village told me that many people came to my father's grave to remember him, and I was very moved, grateful and proud." ”
Jiang Shenghu, born in 1913, was a noble man in Xing'an, graduated from the second training class of Guangxi Aviation School, and died in the first Sino-Japanese air battle over Guangxi. In this Sino-Japanese air battle, a Chinese pilot trained by a Japanese flight instructor used a fighter that the Japanese army was about to obscure to repel the invading Japanese air force and shot down one Japanese plane, creating a miracle in the Sino-Japanese air battle.
Jiang Shenghu's costume photo. (Data map)
Martyrs' Tomb. (Photo provided by the Propaganda Department of Xing'an County Party Committee)
He died in the first Sino-Japanese air battle over Guangxi
At the beginning of the establishment of Guangxi Aviation School, its instructors were mainly from Guangdong Aviation School in neighboring provinces. However, in the British-style flight education and training, flight accidents occur frequently due to various reasons, and aircraft are constantly damaged and students die. At this time, in order to realize its ambition of further aggression against China, Japanese militarism also continued to take every opportunity to infiltrate into the interior of the mainland. The Japanese military sent people to Guangxi on many occasions to persuade Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi to purchase Japanese-made planes, and promised that the Japanese side would send people to the Guangxi Aviation School to help train pilots.
At the instigation of the Japanese side, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi finally dismissed the foreign instructors who served at the Guangxi Aviation School and hired more than 10 Japanese people to take charge of flight teaching and training at the aviation school. After the Japanese instructors arrived at the school, all the pilots who had already served in the Katsura Air Force and the cadets at the school were re-trained by the Japanese Air Force in air combat tactics, reconnaissance tactics, bombing tactics, ground support, and joint ground and air operations. In this way, the Chinese pilots gained a better understanding of the tactics used by the Japanese Air Force, and in the air war against Japan that began in the future, they had the advantage of "knowing themselves and knowing their opponents," which was something that the Japanese army did not expect.
After the outbreak of the North China Incident in 1935, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi dismissed the Japanese pilots who were instructors at the Guangxi Aviation School and repatriated them to Japan. After the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Guangxi Air Force was reorganized and merged into the Central Air Force, and immediately began preparations for the war against Japan. Because the planes originally used by the Guangxi Air Force were relatively backward, in August 1937, the Aviation Committee ordered the 7th and 8th squadrons of the 3rd Group to go to Xi'an Airport in Shaanxi Province to stand by first and then to Fancheng Airport in Hubei Province to receive training from Soviet flight instructors for China's aid without a single aircraft. After the training, the two squadrons went to Lanzhou, Gansu Province to receive Soviet-made E-15 fighters, and then returned to Fancheng to take up air defense duties. At the beginning of March of the following year, he was ordered to move to Xiaogan Airport in Hubei Province and officially began to carry out air combat missions against Japan.
The 32nd and 34th squadrons left behind in Guangxi were stationed in Nanning and Wuming respectively on standby. Jiang Shenghu was in the 32nd Squadron at that time.
The 32nd Squadron was originally a reconnaissance squadron of the Guangxi Air Force, and after it was ordered to be stationed in Nanning, it used one British-made AW-16 fighter, more than 10 Japanese-made A-4 fighters, and nine Japanese-made Type 91 fighters. These backward fighters were only designed to train the squadron, adapt to the shift in combat duty, and the task of the squadron was to further wait for the reception of new aircraft, included in the combat sequence. Unexpectedly, during this transitional stage of training, our side was attacked by Japanese planes and had several air battles.
Just after 8 a.m. on January 8, 1938, the 32nd Squadron was doing routine flight training at the airport when it suddenly received a call from the air defense headquarters: "14 enemy planes, divided into two groups, took off from Qinzhou Bay and sailed in a northwest direction, and there was ......an attempt to invade Nanning." Deputy Captain Wei Yiqing immediately ordered the flight training to be stopped and the planes and non-combatants that could not be used for combat were evacuated. At about half past 9 o'clock, Wei Yiqing took off from the airport first in piloting the No. 501 Japanese-made Type 91 fighter, followed by Ma Yuxin (No. 503 fighter), Yang Yongzhang (No. 502 fighter), Wei Dinglie (No. 505 fighter) and Jiang Shenghu (No. 507 fighter). In the face of a strong enemy and the former "instructors," the young Chinese Air Force pilots were fearless and resolutely took to the air to meet the battle.
When the five fighters of our side rose to an altitude of 1,000 meters, they turned and continued to climb in the southeast direction of Nanning. After rising to an altitude of 2,100 meters, it will patrol in a semicircle from southeast to southwest along the periphery of Nanning. At 9:50 a.m., our planes patrolled to the lower reaches of the Yongjiang River and saw a group of flickering light spots near the Qingshan Tower.
The goal of the enemy group on this trip was to destroy the Nanning airfield, and they did not take the Guangxi Air Force, which was once a "student", into account at all. When our fleet approached them, they didn't even notice. Just as the enemy plane group was dropping bombs at our airfield at an altitude of 800 meters over the Nanning airfield, our plane group swooped down from the west at an altitude of 1,000 meters and suddenly launched the first round of attacks at a distance of 400 meters from the enemy plane group.
Wei Yiqing and Yang Yongzhang cooperated and took the lead in damaging one Japanese plane. This Japanese plane was the leader plane, and under the cover of other Japanese planes, it quickly fled at a low altitude in the direction of Castle Peak Tower. At this time, the formation of the Japanese planes, which had lost their command, immediately dispersed. Wei Dinglie seized an excellent opportunity to launch a fierce attack on a Japanese plane, killing the pilot of the Japanese plane on the spot, and the plane fell in the direction of the lower reaches of the Yongjiang River.
Just as our planes were frequently successful, 7 Japanese planes appeared in the sky (4 planes recorded in Japanese sources). Jiang Shenghu, who was chasing the Japanese plane, suddenly fell into a heavy siege. After Wei Dinglie discovered the danger, he rushed in at full speed to try to rescue, but it was too late. The No. 507 fighter piloted by Jiang Shenghu was hit in the fuel tank and caught fire, Jiang Shenghu parachuted, was seriously injured by Japanese plane fire, and finally landed on the riverside near Tingziwei on the Yongjiang River, unfortunately died of his injuries.
In the Changchun literary and historical materials, Lu Guangqiu recorded in his personal experience that the pilots of the 78th Squadron in Xiangyang heard the news and learned that the enemy dared to sneak into our hometown and killed one of our comrades-in-arms.
After the air battle in Nanning, the 32nd Squadron was ordered to go north to Hengyang, reequipped with new aircraft, and continued to participate in the operation against Japan.
People are remembering the martyrs. (Photo provided by the Propaganda Department of Xing'an County Party Committee)
Martyrs' Tomb. (Photo provided by the Propaganda Department of Xing'an County Party Committee)
People are remembering the martyrs. (Photo provided by the Propaganda Department of Xing'an County Party Committee)
The spirit of the martyrs is forever inherited in their hometown
After Jiang Shenghu's death, a memorial meeting attended by tens of thousands of people was held in Nanning City, and Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and other important Kuomintang party, government, and military officials, as well as the Guangxi Air Force, Yongning Police Force, and other organs sent the couplet. Jiang Shenghu died at the age of 25, leaving behind a wife and a 3-year-old son.
The reporter recently contacted Jiang Chengyi in Zhuzhou, and the old man talked about his father on the phone: "I was only 3 years old at that time, and I only listened to my mother about my father after I became sensible. ”
Jiang Shenghu was born in a noble peasant family in Xing'an, and was diligent and studious since childhood, with excellent grades. In May 1934, Jiang Shenghu, then 21 years old, was in high school at Guishan Middle School. One day, Guangxi Aviation School came to the school to recruit pilots, and Jiang Shenghu felt that the opportunity to serve the motherland had come, so he signed up with his classmates. The aviation school has strict requirements for pilots, and because of his good grades and good physical fitness, Jiang Shenghu was selected, and passed the interview, written examination and physical examination, and was admitted to the aviation school as he wished. When he returned home, Jiang Shenghu mentioned the incident to his family, and his mother said that it was too dangerous to be a pilot and asked him not to go. Jiang Shenghu said to his mother that everyone is going to die, but death is heavier than Mount Tai and lighter than Hongmao, if he can sacrifice his life for the country, even if he dies, he is not afraid. He quoted the words of the ancients, "The eldest husband should die on the battlefield, and the body should be shrouded in horse leather" to persuade his mother, saying that he entered the aviation school as a pilot to defend the country's territory, and the family had his brother to take care of him, so that his mother should not worry about him.
After graduating from the aviation school, Jiang Shenghu once flew a few laps in the sky over his hometown of Xing'an Gaoshang Town, and the villagers all ran out to see and applaud the air force flying the plane in the village.
Jiang Chengyi said that his mother was a very traditional and kind woman, and in her mouth, her father was filial and took care of the family.
My mother said that when my father came home from work, the first thing he did was to visit his parents and greet them before returning to his wife and children. I always have to discuss with my parents first about everything in the family, and I have great respect for my elders. Therefore, his knowledge of his father was first and foremost filial piety, and this became their family motto.
Jiang Shenghu's grandson, Jiang Zhouxiong, told reporters about another thing he heard from his grandmother. Jiang Shenghu was always very concerned about his family, the family was poor at that time, and Jiang Shenghu was always at ease with his parents and wife when he was away. Once, when his plane was about to fly over his village, he dropped a package from the plane, which was the supplies he brought for his parents, wife and children.
Jiang Chengyi saw a photo of his father with his colleagues when he was young, and his father was so young in the old photo through the school newspaper of the aviation school in the past. His father dedicated his young life to the motherland, and his mother guarded him, and after his father's death, his mother never remarried, and raised him all the time, and suffered a lot of hardships in life, but she never said a bad word about her father. After the death of the mother, the family buried the graves of the mother and father together.
Jiang Chengyi said that his family could not leave his father's relics, and in recent years, he has also been contacted by the Nanjing Anti-Japanese Aviation Martyrs Memorial Hall, and books such as memoirs written by his father's colleagues before his death have also been given to him, and he has learned more details from those books. He was grateful that his father was treated as a hero.
In 2007, Jiang Chengyi returned to his hometown to rebuild his father's tomb, with the local government, together with several schools in the town and villagers, to fund it. The cemetery, which consists of a sword tower, 16 steps, and an inner and outer ring, is forty or fifty square meters, and people often worship in front of the tomb.
"Study hard and serve the motherland", Jiang Shenghu made a note with his life. Jiang Shuangwu, head of the service station for veterans in Jiangdong Village, Gaoshang Town, told reporters that Jiangdong Village, Gaoshang Town, is a traditional village, and the people here are simple and simple, and there is no one in the village who does not know Jiang Shenghu. Over the years, Jiang Shenghu's deeds have been known to people in patriotic education again and again, and his deeds are the most vivid in the village, because they all grew up in this land. When someone comes to the village, the villagers are willing to tell about the hero's deeds.
Source: Guilin Evening News