On October 13, 1964, the US unmanned reconnaissance plane "Black Crow" intruded into China's territorial airspace to conduct reconnaissance activities, and a pilot named Zhou Guangyu of the 4th Division of our Air Force took off and intercepted the "J-6." However, because the "Black Crow" flew too high, the "J-6" was pulled up to the limit altitude and aimed at firing the cannon, but it still could not hit.
In order to shoot down the "black crow", Zhou Guangyu made an extremely dangerous choice: driving the "J-6" into the US plane. However, because of the excessive movement, the plane stalled and crashed, and Zhou Guangyu himself had to choose parachute.
After the incident, Zhou Guangyu was criticized for "acting recklessly" and may also be punished. When Liu Yalou, then commander of the Air Force, learned of this incident, he personally sent a telegram to the Fourth Air Division, instructing him: This pilot should not be criticized, this is not a reckless act, but bravery.
Why did Liu Yalou give such instructions? What was the result of the "second contest" between the Chinese and US air forces that occurred at that time?
Today, we will tell this story.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > aid Vietnam to resist the United States, and the Chinese and AMERICAN air forces competed for the second time</h1>
In July 1954, French representatives signed the Geneva Armistice, and French troops withdrew from Vietnam and all of Indochina. But as soon as France left on the front foot, the United States came in on the back foot, constantly interfering in Vietnamese affairs, supporting the Ngo Dinh Dinh regime in South Vietnam through various means, and creating the "Beibu Gulf Incident" that shocked the world on August 5, 1964, and spreading the war to North Vietnam.
In the face of the aggressive acts of US imperialism, the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong held that if the United States is allowed to gain inches in Vietnam, it will endanger China's security and will be detrimental to peace in Southeast Asia, Asia as a whole, and even the whole world.
Therefore, on August 6, 1964, the Chinese government issued a statement strongly condemning the aggression and atrocities of the United States, saying: "The us invasion of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is an invasion of China, and the Chinese people will never sit idly by and save it." ”
At the same time as the statement was issued, workers, peasants, and cadres of the organs in Beijing took to the streets one after another and held a huge parade to express their support for the Vietnamese people and their condemnation of US imperialism.
However, US imperialism mistook the Chinese government's statement as a bluff, continued to increase troops to Vietnam, and continuously expanded the scale of aggression.
In April 1965, The First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam, Le Son, Vice Premier and Minister of National Defense, Vu YuanJia, and Ho Chi Minh himself came to China to describe the unfavorable situation facing Vietnam and ask for China's assistance.
Mao Zedong, who was in Hunan at the time, personally received Ho Chi Minh, agreed to Ho Chi Minh's request, and issued an order to "secretly send troops to aid Vietnam and resist the United States."
After the order was issued, the Platon Air Force and naval aviation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army moved at the behest of the order, the fighters fought with the US aircraft on the border line, and the anti-aircraft artillery unit entered Vietnam to fight.
This is the "second contest" between the Chinese and AMERICAN air forces after the Korean War.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="70" > pilots were criticized for losing control of enemy aircraft, Liu Yalou said: "This is bravery</h1>."
On October 13, 1964, a U.S. "Black Crow" invaded China's airspace from the skies over Friendship Pass. The "Black Crow" is the common name of the American unmanned aerial reconnaissance aircraft, because of its gray color and the strange sound it makes when flying, so it has such a nickname.
The aircraft travels at 800 kilometers per hour, which is not very fast, but it flies very high, up to 20,000 meters.
At that time, our army's fighter jets could not fly to the same altitude, so the Americans thought that we had no way to take the "black crow", which was very rampant.
On the same day, Zhou Guangyu, pilot of the 4th Air Division, was ordered to fly a "J-6" to take off to intercept the "Black Crow." The maximum ceiling of the "J-6" is less than 18,000 meters, so even if Zhou Guangyu pulls the plane to the maximum altitude and fires, he still cannot hit the "black crow".
Seeing that he could not complete the task of intercepting the "Black Crow", Zhou Guangyu was a little anxious, and he made a decision that he would rather sacrifice himself than destroy the enemy plane: to hit the enemy plane.
To this end, Zhou Guangyu first pulled the plane to the limit altitude, and then quickly pulled up again at the enemy plane.
But what Zhou Guangyu did not expect was that his operation made the aircraft move too violently, not only did not hit the enemy aircraft, but also lost control. The plane began to fall downwards, and Zhou Guangyu tried to regain control of the plane, but tried several times without success. In desperation, Zhou Guangyu had to choose to skydive.
After the accident, Zhou Guangyu was criticized. Some people say that if the shells can't hit, they still have to hit a plane, which is purely arbitrary; others say that Zhou Guangyu caused a plane to crash for personal merit, causing heavy damage to state property in order to make a splash, and should be punished.
After receiving the report of the troops, Liu Yalou, commander of the Air Force, immediately sent a telegram instructing:
"It is necessary to sum up the experience of accidents, but we cannot criticize pilots for being reckless because they fell off the plane. It is important to further study the tactics, and morale can be boosted. ”
Subsequently, Liu Yalou personally led the investigation team to go deep into the troops to understand the situation, and once again affirmed Zhou Guangyu's brave spirit. However, Liu Yalou also said:
"To destroy the enemy on the premise of preserving ourselves, we must stress science and tactics."
Liu Yalou also said:
"Still use the 'J-6' to shoot down the 'Black Crow', because the 'J-7' is flying too fast, and it will fly before the enemy plane before it can aim." In addition, the troops can come to a big contest to see who can take down the first enemy aircraft. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="79" > Xu opened the first record and laid the "black crow"</h1>
After this storm, air force pilots focused their energy on the tactical research of how to smoothly maneuver the aircraft at extreme altitudes and shoot down the "black crow".
Soon, the pilots' efforts paid off.
At 11:53 on November 15, 1964, a "black crow" appeared on the surface of the sea 215 kilometers southeast of Haikou and flew northwest, and Xu Kaifang, the commander of the 5th Squadron of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Air Division, was ordered to take off and intercept the "J-6".
At that time, the Black Crow flew at an altitude of 18,000 meters and a speed of 800 kilometers per hour – an altitude that exceeded the limit of the J-6 flight. According to the tactics of the exercise, the ground command ordered Xu Kaitong to pull up and jump up to attack when he chased to the 35-degree observation angle.
Xu Kaitong quickly approached the enemy plane, aimed at the position of the "black crow's" abdomen, and calmly corrected the aiming point. When the two planes were 450 meters apart, Xu Kaifang slammed the gun button and a string of shells shot out.
Unfortunately, the "J-6" fought at an extreme altitude and was not easy to operate, and Xu Kaitong used too much force when approaching the enemy plane, resulting in the aircraft being unstable, and the shells were all deflected on the left side of the enemy plane.
Xu Kai opened to see that the first shot did not hit, quickly adjusted the crosshairs, and fired again at a distance of 300 meters from the enemy aircraft. Unfortunately, this time, the nose of the aircraft was still not stable, and the shells hit directly below the enemy aircraft.
At this time, the "J-6" driven by Xu Kaitong was only more than 200 meters away from the enemy. In air combat, this is a very dangerous distance, and the slightest accident between two fighters will collide.
However, Xu Kaitong was not afraid of danger, and he decided to shoot one last shot with the belief that "the enemy plane must be shot down."
After aiming, Xu Kaifang pressed the gun button for the third time. This time it finally hit, and the "Black Crow" was hit and exploded.
At the moment when the "Black Crow" exploded, the "J-6" piloted by Xu Kaifang was less than a hundred meters away from the enemy plane, and it was about to collide with the enemy plane in about 1 second. At the critical moment, Xu Kaifang violently pushed the rod with a left slope, skimming over the enemy plane at a height of only a few meters, and broke out in a cold sweat.
After flying to a safe distance, Xu Kai looked back and saw the wreckage of the enemy plane falling into the sea with a wisp of black smoke. At this time, his emotions calmed down and he flew back to the base.
Xu Kaifang shot down the "Black Crow" and created a record for the Air Force to shoot down enemy aircraft in the stratosphere with fighters, which is of great political and military significance. Later, Xu Kaitong's deeds were written into the school textbooks of the time, and he himself was received by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other party and state leaders.
Later, someone asked Xu Kaitong how he laid down the "black crow". Xu Kaitong said that it was a tactic formulated in advance, "fixing the ring, close range, and shooting continuously to hit the belly."
On January 2, April 3, April 18, and December 24, 1965, the Air Force shot down the "black crow" four times, dealing a heavy blow to the arrogance of US imperialism.
According to later statistics, from August 1964 to the end of 1969, U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles invaded China's airspace 97 times and were shot down 20, of which 14 were shot down by air force aviation, 3 were shot down by naval aviation, and 4 were shot down by surface-to-air missile forces.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="81" > us machine "wipe the edge" provocation, Mao Zedong instructed: resolutely fight</h1>
On April 9, 1965, eight carrier-based F-4B aircraft of the US Navy brazenly invaded the skies over Hainan Island, and our Air Force took off four "J-5" surveillance enemy aircraft. At this time, the US plane actually launched the "Sparrow-3" missile at our plane. Our pilots responded decisively, not only dodging missiles fired by enemy planes, but also shooting down a US plane.
In the face of the provocation of the US Air Force, Mao Zedong immediately issued an instruction: "When the US plane invades Hainan Island, it should be fought and resolutely fought." ”
According to Chairman Mao's order, the naval aviation corps immediately made preparations and stood ready to resist the invasion of US aircraft.
On the morning of September 20, 1965, an F-104C fighter of the US military invaded the skies over Hainan Island and flew along China's national border, moving in and out of the country from time to time, and provoking the edges. The aviation command post of the South China Sea Fleet of our Navy immediately issued an order, and Gao Xiang and Huang Fengsheng, pilots of the 10th Regiment of the 4th Naval Aviation Division, took off two fighters to meet the enemy.
According to the instructions of the ground command post, Gao Xiang and Huang Fengsheng rushed to the position where the US plane might enter China's airspace in advance and hid in the clouds at a high altitude to observe.
It didn't take long for the F-104C to fly over. At that time, the American F-104C fighter was the world's most advanced supersonic fighter, with a maximum speed of 2400 kilometers per hour, and in addition to being equipped with artillery, it also carried four Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.
After discovering the enemy plane, Gao Xiang and Huang Fengsheng threw away the auxiliary fuel tank and quickly approached the enemy plane. At that time, the operational concept of the air force pilots was to annihilate the enemy in close combat and "see the red with bayonets", so Gao Xiang flew until he was only 291 meters away from the enemy plane and the "Eagle" mark was clearly visible, and then he pressed the gun button and shot a string of shells at the enemy plane.
The enemy plane desperately dodged, and Gao Xiang pursued it relentlessly, hitting from 291 meters to a distance of 39 meters, and finally beating the US plane into a volley.
Because the firing distance was too close, the plane piloted by Gao Xiang was injured in many places by the fragments of the US plane, and one engine was damaged and could not be used. But Gao Xiang, with his skillful driving skills, successfully returned to the base with another engine.
The pilot of the American plane was a captain named Smith, who parachuted before the plane exploded to escape, and was captured by our militia after landing on the ground.
When Smith was escorted to the Naval Aviation Base, his face was still as earth-colored and trembling as chaff. He kept saying, "It's terrible! Shooting at such a close range, we dare not think of it! ”
After this war, Gao Xiang's regiment was awarded the honorary title of "Sea and Air Eagle Regiment", and he himself was received by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other party and state leaders many times.
This battle was the first face-to-face contest between the Chinese and US air forces during the period of aiding Vietnam and resisting the United States. After that, as long as the US aircraft dared to "wipe the edge" and invade China's territorial airspace, they would be taught a lesson by the Air Force and naval aviation.
According to statistics, in the "anti-edge" battle, the US military has shot down 8 planes and 3 planes have been injured, and finally had to stop the violation of our border.
In addition to the Air Force Aviation corps and the Naval Aviation Corps, the anti-aircraft artillery units of our Air Force have also achieved fruitful results. In August 1965, the anti-aircraft artillery unit was ordered to enter vietnam to fight, and soon engaged the American army.
On August 9, two U.S. F-4Cs entered the skies over Amphi and were severely attacked by the 61st Anti-Aircraft Artillery Detachment of the Air Force, one U.S. aircraft was shot and crashed, and the other fled in a hurry. On August 23, 63 detachments shot down and injured one U.S. plane each.
According to post-war statistics, the anti-aircraft artillery unit of our air force fought more than 2,000 times in the more than three years of anti-US aid to Vietnam, shot down 1,707 US planes, wounded 1,608 aircraft, and captured 42 US pilots, effectively dealing a blow to the US aggressors.
On November 1, 1968, the United States announced that it would stop bombing North Vietnam, and China's anti-American anti-Aircraft Artillery Units in Vietnam were withdrawn to China.
The second contest between the Chinese and AMERICAN air forces once again ended with China's victory and the united States' defeat.