Xu Huajiang (second from right) took a photo with American pilots and comrades during the War of Resistance Against Japan
1946, the Kuomintang army launched a full-scale attack on the base areas inside and outside the pass. Before the enemy's advance step by step, the Northeast Aviation School established in Tonghua, Jilin had to retreat to the Mudanjiang Hailang Airport in Heilongjiang. However, the enemy air force was determined not to give Northeast Aviation School any chance to breathe, tracking along the way, bombing and strafing continuously, forcing the aviation school to move to Dong'an Tangyuan Airport near the Sino-Soviet border in November 1946. However, the enemy still learned about the general location of the aviation school through spies. On April 26, 1947, two P-38F-5 reconnaissance aircraft from the 12th Squadron of the 4th National Air Force 4th National Air Force conducted reconnaissance and photos of Tangyuan Airport. However, because it was close to the Sino-Soviet border and limited to the navigation conditions of that year, the Kuomintang Air Force was worried that a cross-border incident might occur when sending aircraft to the air strike at the aviation school. In addition, our Northeast Democratic Alliance Army had already begun to turn defense to offense at that time, and was exhausted from being assigned to the Shenyang "Northeast Suppression Headquarters", so hesitated whether to attack the National Army of the Northeast Aviation School and had not made up his mind for a long time.
At noon on August 25, 1947, four P-51 "Bronco" fighters of the 4th National Air Force in Changchun, namely the famous "Zhihang Brigade" (named because the air force hero Gao Zhihang was the captain of the brigade) were ordered to dispatch a reconnaissance in Heilongjiang. The pilots were the leaders Xu Huajiang, Chen Luyuan, Wu Rujie and Song Dashou.
Xu Huajiang was an "old bird" in the National Air Force at that time. He graduated from the Central Aviation School in 1938 and was then ordered to accompany the team to Lanzhou to receive the I-15 fighter jets assisted by the Soviet Union. He then flew the plane to participate in the Lanzhou Air Battle in early 1939, the Bishan Air Battle in 1940 (his landline was shot down in this battle) and the Hainan Qiongshan Air Battle in 1944.
Xu Huajiang's Yi-15 landline
In Anti-Japanese War , Xu Huajiang claimed to have shot down 7 sunshine planes, but the Air Force Headquarters only determined that his record was 3.5, which was a good deal. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Xu Huajiang was promoted to the deputy captain of the 4th Brigade.
After that, Xu Huajiang lived a comfortable life. But he was a restless person, unwilling to be down-to-earth in the army, and by consuming money everywhere, he finally became a representative of the first "Pseudo-National University". However, Xu Huajiang spent too much time and energy on running relationships and scheduling, and putting combat missions aside and letting his subordinates "exercise his subjective initiative" caused great dissatisfaction from the Air Force Commander Zhou Zhirou to the "Northeast Suppression Headquarters". Although he had the pseudo-"National Congress representative" yellow jacket , all levels required him to be transferred from the 4th brigade, and the calls for someone who could fight were getting up are getting higher and higher. In order to regain the trust from above, after the reconnaissance aircraft sent back to Tangyuan Airport, he volunteered to take several pilots to the "behind enemy" for long-range reconnaissance. According to the plan, he will lead four P-51D fighter jets to Harbin in this mission, then fly along the north bank of Songhua River to Jiamusi , and finally return to Changchun base along the Sino-Soviet border.
KMT Air Force's P-51D "Bronco" fighter
The weather was clear that day, cloudless, and the visibility was very good. It was a good day for reconnaissance. The mission was lengthy and boring. The four "wild horses" first made a round over Harbin, and then flew the railway from Harbin to Jiamusi as a ground reference for a long time. When these "wild horse" fighters flew over Dong'an Tangyuan, the bored Xu Huajiang suddenly found that there was an aircraft flying at an altitude of about 150 meters. It seemed to be a single-engine single-wing two-seat fixed landing gear trainer. The plane was painted with camouflage and the Kuomintang Air Force's aircraft emblem.
The original painting of the Type 99 advanced trainer of the old Northeast Aviation School, the aircraft emblem and identification bar are very similar to the Kuomintang Air Force
This aircraft aroused the curiosity of several national army pilots. It is located in the depth of our military base and is quite far from the Kuomintang army's airport. Who has the courage to drive the trainer to "go deep behind enemy lines" and fly so low? Xu Huajiang is worthy of being an old bird. He found a flaw after a closer look. This is a "Communist Army" aircraft! Although the outer ring of the machine emblem is white after being painted by the Guojun, the authentic machine emblem does not have this white circle. The rudder recognition stripes of vertical tail wing are 6 blue and 6 white, and this "fake" is obviously wrong.
Xu Huajiang made a very accurate judgment. This was the "116" Type 99 advanced trainer of Northeast Aviation School. At that time, the students Lu Liping and Japanese teacher Shigeo Kiriki. Fearing that the daytime practice was raided by the National Army plane, the aviation school adjusted the flight time to before 8 a.m. and after 16 p.m. every day. But unexpectedly, by chance, I unfortunately had an encounter with the Kuomintang aircraft.
Northeast Aviation School's Type 99 Advanced Training Plane
Lu Liping
When the encounter occurred, Lu Liping had almost completed the flight training subject of the day and was declining. Lu Liping focused his nose at the earth runway and prepared to land. But at this moment, the 4 P-51 fighter jets led by Xu Huajiang suddenly arrived! Xu Huajiang was happy to see the hunt. This was a great opportunity to make money! It seems that this is indeed a prey at your fingertips: the P-51 fighter has a speed of up to 700 kilometers per hour, with 6 12.7mm machine guns, while the 99 high-training speed is less than 400 kilometers per hour, and there is no weapon installed on the plane, so there is no power to fight back.
Xu Huajiang ordered Wu Rujie and Song Dashou to circumvent the air and monitor it. He rushed to the 99 High School Practitioner under the cover of wingman Chen Luyuan. Xu Huajiang, who was eager to make a contribution, just entered the effective range and shot, hitting the elevator and rudder at the tail of the No. 116 aircraft and causing a fire, but did not cause fatal injuries to the aircraft (the skin of the Japanese aircraft is made of cloth. Even if the skin is burned out, as long as the skeleton is not damaged, it will be a new aircraft if it is replaced with skin).
Lu Liping was shocked when he was attacked. At this time, Xu Huajiang's P-51 had rushed to the front of No. 116 and quickly pulled up to prepare for a new attack. Lu Liping wanted to turn to leave, but the Japanese instructor Mu in the back seat was very experienced and decisively took over the plane. With rich experience in fighting with the P51 fighter, he knew that 99 High School Practitioner was not the opponent of the P-51 in the air. Only by landing immediately can the plane be destroyed and killed. Mu Mu calmly lowered the head of the machine and aimed it at the runway. Taking advantage of the speed of the P-51 that it took a long time to turn, landed on the runway as quickly as possible, and then pulled Lu Liping out of the cabin.
At this time, in addition to the 116 99 high-level training training aircraft that had just landed successfully, the ground also had 5 trainers of various models, all of which were completely exposed to the P-51 fighter jets.
Xu Huajiang's P-51 had completed the steering at this time and carried out a dive attack on the 99 high-level practitioner who had already parked on the runway. He was fully fired, and the bullets of 6 large-caliber machine guns sprayed at the trainer plane without resistance like heavy rain. Lu Liping and Mu Mu could only hide under the fuselage for a while, and the people around were suppressed by the dense rain of bullets and could not rescue them.
Xu Huajiang was eager to make contributions at this time and wanted to blow up the trainer plane at once. However, he was busy with various social engagements and had almost returned the basic skills of attacking the ground to the instructor. In addition, he wanted to eat alone, and strictly ordered wingman and others not to attack without their own permission. This ugly eating habit of "eating alone" quickly caused him to suffer retribution.
Due to the long-term distant battle formation, the shooting skills have been abandoned for a long time. Although Xu Huajiang's attack seemed scary, it had no effect. The bullet only made a piece of smoke and dust on the ground and did not hit any target. The second round of strafing was a little accurate, but it only hit a few bullets in the No. 116 trainer aircraft. It can be seen that Xu Huajiang's technology has been abandoned to the point of shocking, so it makes people wonder how he shot 3.5 Japanese aircraft.
At this time, our personnel from the aviation school had gradually woken up from the raid. Under the command of airport commander Xia Boxun , everyone immediately pushed the plane on the takeoff line away and concealed. Comrades Zou Yan and Chen Ming, who were responsible for maintaining the No. 116 plane, flew towards the plane regardless of the rain of bullets, rushed towards the plane, and together with Lu Liping and Mu Mu, quickly put out the fire on the No. 116 plane.
Aviation school personnel who are rescuing aircraft No. 116
Just as Xu Huajiang launched round after round of attacks on 99 High School Training, there was actually an aviation school aircraft in the air. It was a Japanese-type 1 "Falcon" fighter jet piloted by the old Red Army Fang Hua , number 306. Fang Hua is the captain of the 2nd Brigade of the Aviation School. His flight technology has long passed. This time he is here to conduct further study on the fighter flight.
He found an incoming P-51 fighter while flying in the air and wanted to attack the enemy planes, but his plane was not equipped with ammunition at that time (the aircraft usually did not carry ammunition during training in the aviation school, because the components of the aircraft collected by the aviation school were usually worn out. Many of the rifles of the machine guns, were worn out, and many of the ammunitions were seriously expired. Not only could they not shoot normally, but they were in danger of dying). At the same time, in order to facilitate students to fly, the ground crew locked the landing gear of the No. 306 fighter in a lowered position, which affected the speed and maneuverability of the aircraft and could not fight the P-51 at all.
Type 1 fighter jet from the old Northeast Aviation School (drawn by Chen Yingming)
Fang Hua was interested in notifying the ground personnel, but there was no radio station on the plane, so he could only do it in a hurry. Perhaps because he was extremely anxious, Fang Hua had a plan and immediately drove the plane high and pretended to be diving attack. This move scared the dual-plane formation of Wu Rujie and Song Dashou who were covering Xu Huajiang at high altitude. These two brothers themselves were afraid of staying in the liberated area for too long, and were also seriously dissatisfied with Xu Huajiang's behavior of "eating alone". Therefore, after discovering that Fang Hua's aircraft occupied a favorable altitude, he immediately informed Xu Huajiang via radio: I found that an unknown number of "common aircraft" were preparing to launch an attack.
At this time, Xu Huajiang's landline had fired 4 rounds of fire at the ground, and fired more than 800 12.7mm machine gun bullets in total, but it did not cause too much damage except for the heavy damage caused by the No. 119 trainer plane being shot in many places and the fire of some ground facilities. I have to say that his shooting skills and "vegetarian" are so unbearable that Gao Zhihang would have shot him on the spot if he had seen his accurate head in Tian Youling.
After receiving the alarm from Wu Rujie and Song Dashou, Xu Huajiang looked at the dusty earth runway and some fired facilities. Given that the return fuel for his plane was not much, he might encounter trouble if he dragged it down. Therefore, the satisfied Xu Huajiang ordered to withdraw his troops, and four P-51s completed their formation in the air and returned to Jilin. In order to reduce the burden, Xu Huajiang and others threw the plane's sub-fuel tank into the farmland southwest of Tangyuan Airport. Two days later, they were taken back to the airport by a fellow villager and handed over to the aviation school by a car.
This attack caused serious injuries to No. 116 99 High School Training, but no casualties were found, and other aircraft were not damaged. Eight precious fuel tanks were picked up for nothing. However, we, who have always paid attention to summarizing the experience and lessons, learned from our mistakes. The aviation school carefully summarized the experience and lessons. In addition to taking stricter measures to prevent enemy aircraft attacks, they also actively strengthened preparations for war, replaced the Type 1 "Falcon" fighter with a new machine gun, equipped with bullets and scrambled the target. The air and ground crew were also trained accordingly and were preparing to engage in air combat when encountering Kuomintang Air Force aircraft. At the same time, in order to identify us, the original Kuomintang army's emblems were replaced with red star emblems with the character "Chinese".
Northeast Aviation School 99 senior trainer
However, with the Northeast Democratic Alliance winning steadily on the ground, the Kuomintang Air Force no longer had the intention to go to our rear to reconnaissance and attack the aviation school, but instead focused on dealing with our army's offensive, which also made the aviation school no longer have the opportunity to engage in air combat with enemy aircraft. However, these preparations have also become the first combat preparation in the history of the People's Air Force, laying a solid foundation for the future development and growth of the People's Air Force.
After Xu Huajiang and others returned to Jilin, they immediately reported to their superiors that they had achieved a "great victory": claiming to shoot down 4 of our army's planes. However, the National Air Force headquarters, which was somewhat shameful at that time, did not confirm these results at all, and Xu Huajiang's official number of falls still stopped at 3.5. This made Xu Huajiang, who was boasting at the beginning, very unable to come to Taiwan. He felt that he was disgraced and continued to boast about "shooting down 4 aircraft in total" in his memoirs and private occasions, and at the same time, he "denied" the bureaucrats at the Air Force headquarters who "had no eyes" and "not knowing real heroes." As a result, these words reached Zhou Zhirou's ears, and Xu Huajiang was put into another book on the spot, and he would always remove the scope of "reusing" considerations, which made Xu Huajiang's official fortune come to an end.
Xu Huajiang after fleeing to Taiwan
After the Kuomintang regime was defeated and fled to Taiwan, Xu Huajiang was assigned a position with no power to pass the time by the Air Force. He was not promoted to major general until 1961. Then he sat on the bench for another 12 years. Until Xu Huajiang retired in 1973, he was still a major general, and he did not even upgrade to a first-level retirement based on management. On September 1, 2010, Xu Huajiang died of illness at the age of 93.
Lu Liping became a senior commander of our People's Air Force after the founding of New China . He has served as principal of the Aviation School, combat commander of the Dandong Sino-Korea Air Force Joint Command, training class teacher of the Beijing Air Force Commander, principal of the Beijing Senior Aviation School, on-duty commander of the Fuzhou Air Force Command Post, commander of the Shenyang Military Region Air Force, and deputy commander of the Shenyang Military Region Air Force. He was awarded the rank of Air Force Colonel in 1955 and was promoted to the rank of major general in 1961. He won the second-level August 1 Medal, Second-level Independence and Freedom Medal, and the first-level liberation Medal. In July 1988, he was awarded the first-class Red Star Merit Honorary Award. He died of illness in 2001 at the age of 84.
Major General Lu Liping
Fang Hua went to Tianjin in January 1949 to serve as the director of the People's Liberation Army's North China Aviation Department. But unfortunately, on June 28 of the same year, during the airport command flight training, Fang Hua conducted cockpit exercises on a P-51 fighter aircraft used for air command at the airport, and conducted flight inspections on pilots participating in the flight that day. After the flight, he walked out of the cockpit and looked through the notes while walking. Unfortunately, he was hit on the head by a taxied aircraft propeller and died at the age of 32. On July 13, 1949, the Aviation Bureau of the Military Commission held a grand memorial service for Fang Hua to deeply mourn this old Red Army Air Force commander, and built a martyr Fang Hua's martyr in Changchun Victory Park on August 1 to commemorate this outstanding member of the Communist Party of China and the founder of the People's Air Force.
Mu Shigeo Mu brought out a large number of early famous pilots from the People's Air Force during his Northeast Aviation School, including Liu Yuti, who shined over North Korea and Lin Hu , who later became deputy commander of the People's Air Force. 8 pilots in the air formation of the founding ceremony were his students. After the founding of New China, he trained the first batch of 14 female pilots, including Chen Zhiying, Qiu Yiqun, Shi Lixia, etc. for the People's Air Force. In 1958, Shigeo Mu returned to Japan with his wife. On May 30, 1986, Shigeo Mu was invited to return to China to participate in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the old Northeast Aviation School; in 2005, Shigeo Mu returned to China again as a member of the anti-war alliance, , to participate in the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War and received a commemorative medal; he died of colorectal cancer on August 28, 2014 at the age of 94.
Ki Shigeo's first female pilots in the new China trained by Shigeo Muk
Ki Shigeo in his later years/Ki Shigeo Muk
