After the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, it began to use the airfield facilities in the hinterland of China to bomb important cities and strategic points in the interior of china, and as the main force of the Chinese Air Force turned to central and southern China, a large number of Soviet pilots and Chinese pilots were concentrated in the airfield with Wuhan as the core, and the Chinese Air Force also launched a new round of hard-core air battles with the Japanese army.
On February 18, 1938, when Japanese fighters bombed Wuhan, the Chinese Air Force responded to orders and shot down 12 enemy aircraft in one fell swoop, which was the first major victory in the history of Chinese aviation.
Stills from the Wuhan air battle
The fiercest air battle over Wuhan took place on April 29. On this day, the Japanese army dispatched a total of 69 fighters to directly attack the air over Wuhan, and the Chinese Air Force quickly rose to the ground and rushed out, and the citizens of Wuhan, who had never seen such a battle, looked up to the sky to watch the battle in spite of the air defense sirens.
Over Wuhan, where the smoke of gunfire was thick, fighter planes from both sides of the enemy and us were like home swallows before the storm, shuttling through the smoke and low altitude. In just half an hour of fierce fighting, our military pilots shot down 21 Japanese fighters, eliminated 50 Japanese pilots, and captured 2 Japanese pilots alive at the cost of losing 2 fighters and sacrificing 5 people.
In this air war, the citizens of Wuhan also witnessed a magnificent scene that they will never forget: a wounded Chinese fighter actually relied on its last bit of dive power to crash head-on into a Japanese fighter, and the two fighters exploded in the air in an instant, turning into a cloud of black smoke.
The name of the pilot of this Chinese fighter is Chen Huaimin, a native of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, whose father was a martial artist and whose mother was in the silk business, can be said to be a proper "rich and handsome man."
Chen Huaimin set out on a plane still
Chen Huaimin joined the Volunteer Army with his brother during the "128" Shanghai War of Resistance, and graduated from the fifth phase of the Central Aviation School after enlistment.
During the Battle of Songhu in august 13, Chen Huaimin was awarded the title of "Air Warrior" for shooting down a number of Japanese aircraft. He was thrown out of the cabin and injured by the forced landing of the fighter, and was also injured again by the damaged high-altitude parachute of the fighter, while the Wuhan air battle was to take his wounds out when his war wounds had not yet healed. But this time, he ended his 22-year-old young life in the most tragic way.
The Japanese pilot who was knocked down by Chen Huaimin was named Kenichi Takahashi, who was also known as the "Red Samurai" in Japan, and it is said that only a few dozen people in Japan at that time received this title. Among Kenichi Takahashi's relics are photographs and letters from his wife, who wrote in a letter to her husband:
"Somehow I can't rest assured that I want to receive your letter... I even sometimes think that it is better not to be a wife who is not a pilot, and to be a wife of a pilot is always living a lonely life. So I was sometimes happy, sometimes sad, and deep inside I was weeping! Sometimes when you think that many people have sacrificed innocently and will not return to this world, and you are still alive, you can comfort yourself, but after three or four days, you are still discouraged! Your family misses you infinitely and hopes that you will take good care of your body. Death is not an honor, and I beg you to be very careful in performing your duties! ”
Martyr Chen Huaimin
Chen Nan, the sister of the martyr Chen Huaimin, was deeply touched when she saw this letter, and she wrote a letter to the Japanese woman who had lost her husband in her own name and on behalf of her parents:
"The loss of my brother and my state of mind makes me put myself in the shoes of the state of mind of your loss of Mr. Takahashi, of the fact that the Chinese and Japanese people have so tragically sacrificed themselves to the wrong policies of your warlords, so I cannot but tell you the truth!" Brother Huai mingo resolutely slammed into Takahashi's plane and died with Takahashi Jun, which was not to vent his personal vendetta against Takahashi Jun. He and Takahashi Jun have no personal hatred, they just represent two different forces that crush themselves. I tell you, the parents in my family care very deeply about you, as they care for their children, without the slightest resentment. I look forward to the day when our hands are holding each other lovingly, our hearts and hearts are imprinted, and we are immersed in the enthusiasm of fresh young people. Again, we have reason to work on this belief. ”
Chen Nan's letter is written with tears and words like blood, profoundly exposing the cruelty of war and the helplessness of those who are deeply involved in it. Some say it is a declaration of war of aggression, while others say it is a call for the best of mankind. For in this letter there is no hatred and resentment, only mercy and concern.
Later, Wuhan Daily published this "Letter to Mieko", which was quickly reprinted by many newspapers at home and abroad, and even translated into many languages to broadcast to the world. For a time, the whole world was touched by what happened to these two women.
Chen Nan wrote a letter to Mieko
However, due to the Japanese government's wartime information blockade, it was not until 1990 that Mieko saw the letter.
On June 5, 1938, the Nanjing government held a memorial service in Hankou for Chen Huaimin and other martyrs who died in air combat. In honor of the martyred air force hero, the Wuhan municipal government renamed a street in Hankou "Chen Huaimin Road", and the place where Chen Huaimin was born was also renamed "Huaimin Village".
Chen Huaimin was only 22 years old when he died, and his mother advised him when he was seriously injured and hospitalized:
"Since you have chosen to pledge your country with your body, you should naturally kill the enemy first, but it is easy to encounter accidents in air combat, in order to continue the family bloodline, you had better find a girlfriend to get engaged first."
But he didn't know that he already had a girlfriend who had been dating for more than two years, and he never told his family because the war was not extinguished.
Chen Huaimin and Wang Lulu Stills
Chen Huaimin's girlfriend is called Wang Lulu, a talented daughter of Zhejiang University, and her father is a banker, if you use the current standards, it is also a proper "Bai Fumei". Therefore, if their love is in peacetime, there should be a happy ending, but unfortunately they were not born at the right time, even in the two years of love, they basically wrote letters to talk about the pain of lovesickness.
Chen Huaimin said to Wang Lulu in the letter: "For you, I love to go crazy, for you, lovesickness into madness you don't know." Will I see you again in this life? I only want to put it on your lips again, so I will be happy for the rest of my life. ”
Wang Lulu was also waiting for Chen Huaimin's promise in torment. So, when she learned in the newspaper that Chen Huaimin had died, she was deeply stimulated and eventually suffered from schizophrenia.
One evening at the end of May, a month after Chen Huaimin's sacrifice, Wang Lulu came to the river alone, jumped into the rolling Yangtze River... In the end, the "rich and handsome" dedicated themselves to the country, and the "white rich and beautiful" martyred for love, which was the young people of that era, their hearts were like the sky, and their true feelings were like the sea.
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