429 Air Battle over Wuhan

429 Air Battle over Wuhan(Date: 29^th April 1938)

To safeguard Wuhan and defense against hostile raids, the ROCAF had drafted up a counter-air plan as follows: I-16s were used to patrol over Wuhan, focusing on Japanese bombers; I-15s were assigned to patrol the northeast corner on the fringe of Wuhan to lure Japanese pursuers separated away from Japanese raiding formations so as to facilitate I-16s’ interception of Japanese bombers.

According to ROCAF’s intel analysis, Japanese forces were attempting to harass Wuhan on 29^th April (the Emperor’s Birthday of Japan) 1938. The ROCAF decided to inflict a surprise blow to them by using a massive force from Wuhan, and the planned order of battle was as follows: 9 I-15s and 7 I-16s from the 4^th PG, stationed at Wuhan; 2 I-16s from 24^th SQ, and 23 I-15s and 16 I-16s from Soviet Volunteer Group (SVG); 10 I-15s from the 3^rd PG and 17^th SQ, stationed at Xiaogan airfield.

Photo: Japanese Type 96 (A5M) pursuer

Photo: Japanese Type 96 bomber / AHS of ROC

At 1430 hours on 29^th, 39 Japanese planes indeed showed up in two formations to raid Wuhan (bomber formation flew in from the southeast direction while pursuer formation from the northeast). The 3^rd PG, 4^th PG, and SVG, following the plan, took off to engage the enemies. Cmdr. Mao Ying-chu, 4th PG, led Cmdr. Liu Zhi-han, 22^nd SQ and Cmdr. Liu Zong-wu, 23^rd SQ in a formation of 9 I-15s, and spotted over 20 Japanese Type 96 (A5M) pursuers over Wuchang. After engaging in a more than 10-minute dogfight with numerical inferiority, Cmdr. Liu Zhi-han, Cmdr. Liu Zing-wu, and Pilot Yang Shen-xian shot down one respectively, but Cmdr. Liu Zong-wu crash-landed later because of the damage on his fuselage while shooting down another Japanese plane. Deputy Cmdr. Dong Ming-de, 4^th PG flew an I-16 intending to join in SVG’s formation. But SVG’s formation was too far away at the south of Wuchang; then, he decided to lead the rest of I-16s from the 4^th PG to patrol over the airfield. On the other hand, Cmdr. Lee Ke-yuan, 24^th SQ, led 5 I-16s assisted by the SVG to engage the Japanese planes over Liangzi Lake, and knocked down one Japanese bomber. Another bomber was flying low in an attempt to evade, and was later shot down in the vicinity of Huanggang of Hubei Province by Cmdr. Lee and his wingmen.

The SVG took off and turned its course to join the 3^rd PG and the 4^th PG’s fight with Japanese planes over Wuchang, and they knocked down 6 Japanese bombers and 7 pursuers.

Four I-15s from the 3^rd PG and 6 I-15s from the 17^th SQ took off from Xiaogan airfield, and were flying at 6,500 m to patrol the skies. Flying till the southern corner of Wuhan, Cmdr. Cen Ze-liu, 17^th SQ, was the first one to spot Japanese bombers, and he, joined by Pilot Qiu Ge, descended quickly to reach a position lower behind their formation and open fire. After seeing the smoke coming out of right wing of a Japanese bomber, he flew back to the formation while his wingmen joined up to engage. Deputy Cmdr. Zhu Jia-xun, 17^th SQ knocked down one Japanese bomber at the southeast of Wuhan while Pilot Mo Da-yan shot down another one near Hongshan, Wuhan.

Result:
Eleven Japanese pursuers and 10 bombers were killed. But the ROCAF lost 12 planes, 10 personnel wounded. After being hit, Pilot Chen Huai-ming sacrificed himself by colliding with a Japanese plane head-on.

Photo: Debris of a Japanese plane knocked down by the ROCAF