In 1965, when Fang Huai was a military commander, he participated in a flight at Dandong Airport. China Military Network Infographic
The stars will fall.
The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) reporter learned from the relatives and friends of General Fang Huai that Fang Huai, the founding major general and former deputy commander of the Air Force of the Wuhan Military Region, died in Wuhan on February 16, 2019, at the age of 102.
According to the China Military Television Network, Fang Huai was born in October 1917. His hometown of Yinkengwei in Yudu County, Jiangxi Province, was a red base area and the place where the Long March of the Central Red Army began. Fang Huai's father's family was very poor, renting 4 acres of land from the landlord, and harvesting 40% of the crops every year had to be handed over to the landlord. In order to make ends meet, he was adopted by his parents as a stepson by his uncle in the next room shortly after his birth. With the financial support of his uncle, Fang Huai attended a private school for two years.
Fang Huai's fate was changed at the age of 12. In that year, the revolutionary struggle in the Central Soviet Region was in full swing, and Fang Huai joined the children's group. Two years later, in 1931, Fang Huai secretly joined the Communist Youth League of China. The following year, Fang Huai joined the Red Army and became a Red Army soldier, transferring to the Communist Party of China in 1933. After the failure of the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign, he bid farewell to his hometown and embarked on the Long March. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he was sent to the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University to study.
At the end of 1937, Fang Huai was selected to go to Xinjiang to study aviation technology. April 8, 1938, is a day that Fang Huai will remember for the rest of his life. On this day, Fang Huai flew a plane to soar into the sky, which was the first time in his life that he had gone to heaven. Since then, Fang Huai has not been afraid of danger, studied hard, mastered the full set of technical performance of the Yi-15 and Yi-16 new fighters, and met the requirements of being able to perform various combat tasks in such models. In February 1942, Fang Huai officially graduated. After graduation, due to changes in the situation in Xinjiang, Fang Huai and others were imprisoned by the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai. After being rescued by the Party Central Committee, Fang Huai and more than 100 other people returned to Yan'an on July 11, 1946.
In 1946, in accordance with the changes in the war situation, the Party Central Committee decided to establish the first aviation school of our army in the northeast, the Northeast Old Aviation School, in preparation for the creation of the people's air force. On September 20, Fang Huai and 31 other comrades who had returned from Xinjiang, together with Liu Shanben and four other comrades from the Kuomintang Air Force uprising, left Yan'an and headed for the northeast. In the autumn of 1947, Fang Huai served as political coordinator of the school's training office.
In March 1949, the Central Military Commission established the Aviation Bureau, and Fang Huai was transferred to the Aviation Bureau of the Central Military Commission and served as the director of the Combat Education Division.
In late August 1949, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De and Acting Chief of general staff Nie Rongzhen presided over a meeting of leading comrades of military organs stationed in Beiping (now Beijing), which was attended by Chang Qiankun and Fang Huai, director of the Aviation Bureau of the Central Military Commission. At the meeting, when Nie Rongzhen asked whether the Aviation Bureau of the Central Military Commission could organize a group of aircraft to participate in the sorting ceremony of the founding ceremony and accept the inspection of the central leading comrades through the skies over Tiananmen Square, Chang Qiankun immediately said that he could organize a small aircraft group to be paraded. Nie Rongzhen said happily after hearing this, "Good! There are formations of planes passing over Tiananmen Square to participate in the parade, which adds luster to the founding ceremony, and you must make good preparations when you go back. ”
On September 1, 1949, the Aviation Bureau of the Central Military Commission decided that Fang Huai was responsible for the division of tasks in the organizational plan of the general reading, and An Zhimin assisted Fang Huai in his work. After the meeting, Fang Huai and An Zhimin began to make intense preparations: They mobilized aircraft, selected and dispatched pilots, and drew up formations and formations according to the actual situation of the number of aircraft and pilots of each type; drew up flight training plans according to the different types of aircraft of each group; and made a clear division of labor in terms of pilot calculations, organizational training, arrangements for the take-off and end of the aircraft, organizational command and support on the ground to be paraded, and command of airport towers. After careful organization, this led to the boiling scene of tiananmen square.
The task of being read was completed safely and smoothly, which made Fang Huai feel extremely happy. In his opinion, this is one of the most glorious things in his life.
According to a previous report by China News Network, according to the needs of aerial reading, it is necessary to be excellent in flight technology and absolutely reliable in politics. Fang Huai suggested to Nie Rongzhen that in view of the fact that the whole country has not yet been completely liberated and there have been incidents of harassment by Kuomintang aircraft, at least 4 aircraft under review carry live ammunition to cope with possible sudden situations.
Those familiar with the flight parade know that it is forbidden to carry live ammunition on the aircraft under parade. The founding ceremony was paraded by aircraft with bullets, which is rare in the history of military parades in the world. Fang Huai's suggestion was eventually adopted.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Fang Huai successively served as director of the Aircraft Navigation Division of the Civil Aviation Bureau of the Central Military Commission, director of the Operations Division of the Air Defense Force Headquarters, director of the Navigation Affairs Department and Director of the Telecommunications Department of the Civil Aviation Bureau of the Central Military Commission, manager of the civil aviation Chinese, principal of the Third Aviation School of the Air Force, commander, deputy commander and commander of the Air Force Division of the Air Force, and former deputy commander of the Air Force of the Wuhan Military Region. In 1955, he was awarded the rank of major general.