China

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Fresh troops of the Chinese 74th Corps arrive in the Hubei-Hunan border region, wiping out two battalions of the rear-guard Japanese 17th Independent Mixed Regiment. Five P-40s strafe trucks, barracks, and personnel at Tangyang; claiming fifteen trucks are burned and considerable damage done to the barracks area. Eleven P-40s hit the approaches to a bridge at Puchi, claiming two locomotives destroyed. Ten other P-40s attack Shasi Airfield and hit river shipping, damaging Japanese river gunboat Seta. Seven B-25s bomb the airfield at Pailochi.

 

• Eight Japanese light bombers escorted by fourteen fighters raid Liangshan just as thirteen Chinese P-40s are returning from the above missions. Having just landed, Captain Chow Chin-kai, commander of the 23rd Squadron and veteran of many years of combat, runs from his P-40 to a P-66 Vanguard parked nearby, and takes off to attack the Japanese formation.

 

Vultee P-66 in 1942

 

Chow attacks the retreating bombers (which have already dropped) and shoots down three of them. Twelve P-40s and one trainer were destroyed on the ground. For his courageous action, Chow will receive the Order of the Blue-Sky-White-Sun personally from Chiang Kai-shek.

 

Order of Blue Sky and White Sun"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years and one day ago] "• The “Dixie Mission” arrives in China. Officially titled the United States Army Observation Group, its purpose is to establish ties with the Chinese Communists and the People’s Liberation Army in order to coordinate against the Japanese, cooperate in the rescue of Allied airmen, and prevent a civil war with the Nationalists. It is initially led by Colonel David Barrett as military and State Department diplomat John Service as civilian liaison.

 

Colonel Barrett with Mao Zedong.

 

- The Mission will report that the territories controlled by the CPC are better run and with lower taxes and less corruption than those under Nationalist control, and also reports that the Chinese Communists have an antipathy towards the Stalinist USSR that might be cultivated as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union.

 

- The mission will continue into 1947, but fall victim to Nationalist condemnation and McCarthyism and be withdrawn. In the 1950s Barrett and Service will both be accused of being communists and helping to “lose China”. Despite a lack of evidence, Barrett will be denied promotion and retired while Service will be fired from the State Department. John Service will be reinstated after a legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court.

 

• One-hundred-twenty P-40s and P-51s attack the town area, airfield, railroad yards, and shipping at Hengyang, bomb the towns of Chaling, Yuhsien, and Chuchou, hit river shipping, troops, trucks, and targets of opportunity in the areas around Changsha, Kiaotow, Siangtan, and Sinshih, and hit troop compounds and shipping at Yuhsien. Twenty-five B-24s bomb Changsha, causing heavy damage; and thirty-one P-40s and P-51s bomb Tsingyun and strafe about 40 junks to the south of town."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The US War Department notifies General Stilwell that operations to open the land route to China must be limited to construction of a 2-way, all-weather road to Myitkyina. This decision is made in order to increase manpower for Pacific offensives but limits tonnage to China.

 

• President Roosevelt again urges Chiang Kai-shek to put Stilwell in command of Chinese forces.

 

• Chinese ace Tsang Hsi-lan (Zang Xilan) is leading a group of ten P-40Ns escorting three B-25s to attack a bridge near Kaifeng, Henan Province. The P-40s engage Nakajima Ki-44s and Tsang downs two of them, damaging a third before having to crash land due to damage. His first victory was over a Ki-43 with a P-40E and his final will be over a MiG-15bis with an F-84G Thunderjet during one [1955] of the Taiwan Strait crises."

 

 

Damaged P-40N of the Chinese Air Force in 1944 or 1945

Edited August 23, 2024 by cardboard_killer

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Thirteen P-40s of the Chinese-American Composite Wing attack Japanese shipping and dock facilities at Shayang in Hubei Province. On the return flight, 21 Japanese fighters intercept the formation near Jiayu. One Chinese P-40 is lost and Allied claims are seven Japanese fighters shot down in the engagement.

 

• Thirteen Ki-84 fighters of Japanese 22nd Sentai and sixteen Ki-43 fighters of Japanese 25th Sentai intercept a formation of B-24 bombers escorted by P-40 and P-51 fighters near Yueyang in Hunan Province. Five American and two Japanese fighters are shot down.

 

• The Japanese Eleventh Army, consisting of seven divisions, starts south down the railroad from Hengyang towards Chennault’s Fourteenth Air Force bases at Kweilin and Liuchow.

 

Aircraft of the C.A.C.W.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In China, sixty-one P-40s and P-51s attack bridges, roads, shipping, airfields, troops, and other targets of opportunity around Yangtien, Nanyo, Hengyang, Anjen, Changning, and Chiuchiang.

 

P-40 at Kunming China 01 September 1944"