The Centennial of the Republic of China Air Force

The Centennial of the Republic of China Air Force
Fighting for China’s Freedom
By: Samuel Hui, legal aide, office of legislator Charles I-hsin Chen, Legislative Yuan, Taiwan

Unknown author / Public domain

The Armed Forces Museum in Taipei is holding an exhibition from July to November to mark the 100th Anniversary of the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF), established as the Aviation Bureau under Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Constitutional Protection Junta in Guangzhou on November 29, 1920. Because the ROCAF answered to the Kuomintang, rather than the entire Republic, it initially did not receive recognition as the legitimate Chinese Air Force. Considering the Beiyang Government also called itself the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s air force was one of two different ROCAFs at its founding in 1920. However, the Kuomintang’s air force became the only air force that fought to defend China’s freedom during World War II. And eventually, an air force created in mainland China became the guardian of Taiwan’s airspace. The reasons for these turns of fate lie in the complicated history of the Chinese Republic’s early development of military aviation.

A Republic Divided

Chinese aviation began only six years after Wright Brothers’ first flight, when Fung Joe Guey took to the sky on September 21, 1909, in Feng Ru No. 1, a biplane he constructed himself. Since this flight took place in Oakland, California, Fung also became the first Chinese man to fly in the United States. Both Taiwan and Mainland China consider him the father of the Chinese aviation.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Chinese revolution, paid close attention to the development of aviation. “Saving the Nation through Aviation”（航空救國）is one of his most famous ideas remembered on both sides of the Taiwan straits. Chinese revolutionaries even procured two Etrich Taube aircraft from Austria-Hungary to drop leaflets and bombs against Qing Army, though the dynasty fell before the two aircraft arrived.

Yuan Shih-kai, the leader of Qing Dynasty’s modernized Beiyang army, forced Puyi, the last Emperor of China, to give up his throne in exchange for Dr. Sun Yat-sen to become the first president of the Republic of China. This is why the Beiyang Government existed before the establishment of the National Government in 1928.

With the support of the Russian Empire, Outer Mongolia declared its independence in 1911. Yuan Shih-Kai became the first Chinese president to order the ROCAF into military action when Outer Mongolia began an offensive to annex Inner Mongolia, still controlled by China. The ROCAF subsequently flew operations against various insurgencies.

Yuan Shih-kai lost the support of the people when he declared himself emperor on December 15, 1915. Yuan’s action triggered the National Protection War against his throne which eventually forced him to give up his Chinese Empire in March 1916. Three months after his deposition, Yuan passed away in Beijing as the president of Beiyang Government.

Yuan’s death paved the way for provincial military leaders to rise up and take power into their own hands. China became a nation divided by warlords. Some local strongmen even established their own provincial air forces with support and training from various foreign powers. Thus, more than one ROCAF existed during the

Warlord Era. Chang Tso-lin, for example, more commonly known as the Old Marshal, built the most modern air force in Manchuria with assistance from France and Japan. Dr. Sun Yat-sen established the Constitutional Protection Junta in Guangzhou in 1917 with the intent not only to unify China’s government, but also to consolidate the various ROCAFs back into one air force.

Though China was still a divided Republic, a Chinese pilot named Etienne Tsu（朱斌侯）scored the Republic of China’s first aerial victory in France during World War I. Tsu shot down two German aircraft and one observation balloon with Aéronautique Militaire’s Escadrille N37. However, Tsu’s victories did not become well known in China because they were all scored in the Western Front.

Sun Yat-sen’s Air Corps

Dr. Sun Yat-sen established Constitutional Protection Junta in 1917 to protect the Republic of China’s constitution from the warlords, who Sun considered obstacles to China’s unification. Sun further expanded the Junta into the Government of the Republic of China in Guangzhou despite the fact the Beiyang regime still enjoyed more widespread diplomatic recognition.

Unable to gain support from Japan, France, Great Britain and other great powers, the overseas Chinese as well as the newly established Soviet Union became the only two sources of help for Sun to obtain the aircraft so desperately needed by the Kuomintang air force. Sun recruited Chinese Americans to join his revolution because he himself was educated in America.

Young Sen-yat（楊仙逸）, a Chinese American, became director of the Aviation Bureau in 1923. With the financial support of overseas Chinese, Young purchased ten Curtis JN-4 biplanes as surplus from World War I to build up Sun Yat-sen’s Air Corps. As a graduate from the Curtiss Aviation School, he proved himself to be not only good at flying aircraft, but at building them as well.

Only four of the ten JN-4s made it to China, but Young managed to build an additional one with materials in China with the assistance of American engineers. This aircraft, powered by an OX-5 V-8 liquid-cooled, became known as “Rosemonde” after Song Ching-lin, the wife of Dr. Sun. With one JN-4 donated earlier by overseas Chinese, the Kuomintang had a total of six aircraft.

Six JN-4s were insufficient to help the KMT to overthrow the Beiyang warlords and unify the divided nation. A fire destroyed Rosemonde in October 1923, further diminishing the KMT’s capability. Ironically, the Soviet Union saved the Kuomintang’s air force from total annihilation. With Soviet assistance, Dr. Sun established the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924.

Between 1925 and 1927, the Soviet Union provided fifteen Polikarpov R-1M5 reconnaissance aircraft to Kuomintang. The R-1M5, basically a redesigned version of the British-built de Havilland DH.9 bomber, was the first type of aircraft ever produced in the Soviet Union. During the Northern Expedition, the R-1M5s commonly bombed enemy positions.

Under the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the Northern Expedition Army, composed of graduates from the Whampoa Military Academy, defeated the warlords and in 1928, made Nanjing the new capital of the National Government of the Republic of China. Even before completing this campaign, Chiang began his purge of the Communist Party of China.

Forming the United Front against the warlords and Western Imperialism with the Communist Party was one of the conditions that Soviet Union set before it would provide assistance to Dr. Sun Yat-sen. However, Chiang Kai-shek, as Sun’s successor, did not endorse the policy of KMT-CCP cooperation. After the purge, Moscow terminated its support to Nanjing.

Creating the one and only ROCAF

After the National Government gained recognition from the Western world as the one and only legitimate government of China, a ten-year long civil war followed. Not only was it a civil war between the ruling Kuomintang and the Communist insurgency, it was also a civil war between different factions within the ruling Kuomintang.

During the Northern Expedition, several warlords defected to the Kuomintang in order to keep their semi-independent regimes. By cooperating with Chiang, they were allowed to maintain their lands and militaries. Among those warlords, Chang Hsueh-liang, the Young Marshal in Manchuria, Chen Chi-tang in Guangdong, and Lee Tsung-jen in Guangxi all had their own air forces.

On September 18, 1931, the Kwantung Army of the Imperial Japanese Army took over Manchuria. The Young Marshal’s Northeastern Army submitted without even a fight and the Kwantung Army took over all of the Northeastern Air Force’s 262 aircraft. After the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932, those captured aircraft became the backbone of the Manchukuo Air Force. Though the invasion of Manchuria wiped out the entire Northeastern Air Force, some of the Young Marshal’s best pilots, including Kao Chi-hang（高志航）, escaped to Nanjing to join the Central Government.

Unknown author / Public domain

Several aerial skirmishes between the ROCAF and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service took place in the skies over Shanghai in early 1932. However, Chiang knew more than anyone else that the Republic of China was not ready for full-scale war with Japan. Before starting his war of resistance, he believed he must destroy the Chinese Communist Party and collect the nation’s divided militaries (especially the divided air forces) into one. After the destruction of the Northeastern Air Force, the Guangdong and Guangxi Air Forces remained Chiang’s biggest threat.

Chang Chi-tang, Lee Tsung-jen and Pai Chung-hsi criticized Chiang Kai-shek for focusing all his attention on fighting his own countrymen instead of the Japanese invaders. However, Lee Tsung-jen and Pai Chung-hsi ironically hired Japanese advisors to train the pilots of Guangxi Air Force and Japan provided twelve Nakajima Type 91 fighters to Guangxi to strengthen Lee and Pai’s capabilities against the Central Government.

制作者不明 / Public domain

While ordering his Central Air Force to bomb and strafe the CCP during their march to Yenan, Chiang Kai-shek defeated both the Guangdong and Guangxi Air Forces through political means. Tai Li, the head of Chiang Kai-shek’s Military Intelligence Service persuaded the airmen of the Guangdong Air Force to defect to the Central Government in 1936.

Most of General Chen Chi-tang’s airmen had once been followers of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s revolution. After Chiang Kai-shek established his new Central Government in Nanjing, General Chen took over the aviation academy Dr. Sun established in Guangzhou to form his own Guangdong air force. Since most of those earlier pilots were Cantonese, General Chen easily convinced them to join his faction.

Because most of those pilots—including future aces Arthur Chin and Buffalo Wong—were Chinese American who returned to their motherland to fight the Japanese invaders, none of them were interested in a civil war against the Central Government. After the defection of the pilots of Guangdong Air Force, the airmen from Guangxi joined in.

One reason for the Guangxi Air Force’s defection was that nearly all of their commanders and senior officers were either from Guangdong or trained by the pilots of the Guangdong Air Force. Additionally, it was extremely difficult for cadets in the Guangxi Air Force to accept being trained by Japanese advisors to fight against their own countrymen.

Fortunately, China managed to unite its disparate air forces into one before the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, finally transforming the Kuomintang Air Force into the real Republic of China Air Force. Only then was China ready to confront Japan.

Surviving the Japanese attack

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek established the Central Aviation School in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, in September 1932 with the help of Major John H. Jouett and the sixteen American advisors under his leadership. An Italian delegation led by Roberto Lordi established a branch of the Central Aviation School at Luoyang.

Unknown author / Public domain

With the permission of American and Italian contractors, two aircraft factories were built in Hangzhou and Nanchang to assemble the American as well as Italian aircraft. The one in Hangzhou was called the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO) while the one in Nanchang was named Sino-Lta-Lian National aircraft Works.The existence of both the American and Italian training systems in the ROCAF later brought serious trouble to the Chinese during the early phase of the war. Under Japanese pressure, Jouett had to leave China in 1935. Italy, a future ally of Japan, only cared about selling obsolete aircraft to China instead of preparing the ROCAF for a fight against Japan.

Eventually, Madame Chiang Kai-shek hired another American advisor, named Claire Lee Chennault, to take charge of training at the Central Aviation School in Hangzhou. With the United States unprepared for conflict with Japan, Claire Lee Chennault played only a minor role in the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War, despite the fact he would later initiate the reforms that brought about the modern ROCAF.

US Signal Corps / Public domain

Chiang Kai-shek knew China could not fight alone in a modern war against Japan. Without the aid of the United States and Great Britain, the Soviet Union became the only hope for the National Government. After the Xi’an Incident in late 1936, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to form a Second United Front with the CCP to gain Soviet support.

Unknown author / Public domain

During the first three months of the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy wiped out nearly all of China’s American aircraft introduced in the early 1930s, including the Boeing 281, Curtis Hawk II, Hawk III, A-12, and Northrop Gamma 2E. The Soviet Union immediately replaced the United States to become the main supplier of modern fighters to the ROCAF, such as the I-15 and I-16.

The original uploader was DCTT at English Wikipedia. / Public domain

In addition to fighters, the Soviets also provided volunteer pilots and ground crews and bombers like the Tupolev SB-2, TB-3, and Ilyushin DB-3. Soviet volunteers carried out the first long-range raid against Japanese territory in their SB-2 bombers against Matsuyama Airfield on February 23, 1938, to celebrate Red Army Day. It was also the first time ROCAF aircraft flew over Taiwan.

Public Domain, Link

China launched the first air raid against mainland Japan in May 1938 with two Martin 139WC, the export version of the American-built B-10 bomber. However, they did not drop a single bomb on Japan, only leaflets. However, after the fall of Wuhan in October 1938, the ROCAF could no longer conduct long-range raids against Japan.

Republic of China Ministry of the National Defense / Public domain

After the retreat of the National Government to Chongqing, skirmishes between Chinese, Russian and Japanese aircraft took place over China’s wartime capital. Eventually, Japan gained control of the entire Chinese sky with the arrival of its A6M Zero fighters, with longer range and awesome maneuverability. The ROCAF virtually nearly ceased to exist by September 1940.

Meanwhile, Moscow and Tokyo signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact on April 13, 1941. The pact obligated the Soviet Union to recognize the puppet state of Manchukuo and to stop providing military aircraft to the ROCAF. Chiang Kai-shek turned to the United States for further assistance.

Go Fully Americanized

After signing the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, Japan totally gave up its Northern Expansion Doctrine. Instead, both the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy planned to move south to control the natural resources in the American, British, and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia. In light of this, President Franklin D. Roosevelt finally threw his support behind China’s war of resistance.

In addition to the American Volunteer Group, famously known as the “Flying Tigers,” the most important program President Roosevelt initiated was to include the ROC in the Lend-Lease Act. Under this program, supported and encouraged by Claire Chennault since the day he arrived in China, the ROCAF could finally send pilots to the United States for training.

Chennault believed it would be more important for the United States to Americanize the ROCAF rather than provide American airmen to fight for China’s war. He encountered serious cultural conflicts with the senior ROCAF commanders trained by the Beiyang Government, Italy, or the Soviet Union. He thus believed the ROCAF could only win the war under American supervision.

Sending a younger generation of Chinese airmen to the United States would not only enable the ROCAF to win the war of resistance as a major ally of the United States Army Air Forces, it would also to create a pro-American Chinese Air Force in post-war Asia. A pro-American air force would not only be an important partner against Soviet influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but also the foundation of an enormous market for American businesses. This is why Chennault supported the idea of sending the Chinese pilots to the United States for training. Today, ROCAF fighter pilots of the 21st Fighter Squadron train at Luke Air Force Base, but more importantly, this airfield in the Arizona desert served as the site to train ROCAF P-40 pilots 80 years ago. In fact, while a young cadet at Luke Field, Chuck Yeager, the famous American pilot who broke the speed of sound, became good friends with General Kuo Ju-lin, the future commander of the ROCAF in Taiwan.

Training at Luke Air Force Base marked the beginning of Taiwan’s security cooperation with the United States, with a history of training ROCAF fighter pilots long before the ROCAF moved to Taiwan in 1949. The first Chinese graduates from Luke Field later became the nucleus of the Chinese-American Composite Wing under Claire Lee Chennault’s 14th Army Air Force. With most of the ROCAF’s pilots having received training in the United States, most were fully dedicated to the cause of the Republic of China.

In wars against both the Imperial Japanese Army and later, the People’s Liberation Army, very few American-trained ROCAF pilots defected to the enemy. Even until the late 1950s, they were the backbone of Taiwan’s aerial defense. Only under their leadership and supervision did the next-generation of ROCAF pilots achieve so many victories in their F-86 Sabres.