520 Airdrop Mission over Kyushu, Japan(Date: 20th May 1938)
In order to raise the collective consciousness of Japanese population, the ROCAF planned a purposeful long-distance mission in the beginning of March 1938, and conducted drills accordingly on navigation, command and control, weather forecasting, and liaison personnel in related airfields. The weather became unpredictable in the following May, but the weather status in Japanese territory, unable to forecast at the time, was more crucial to the mission. The ROCAF could only collect weather statuses in neighboring East Asian countries as a reference. In the meantime, Cmdr. Hsu Huan-sheng for the mission came to Ningbo of Zhejiang Province to get ready.
Photo: Cmdr. Hsu Huan-sheng (second from the left), Deputy Cmdr. Tong Yan-bo (fourth from the left), and the rest of the mission crew
Photo: A Martin B-10 was going to departure on the expedition
At 1523 hours on 19th May 1938, two Martin B-10s took off from Hankow, and they headed to Ningbo, a forward location for the mission. During the flight, they began air-land communications check to confirm that all the ground radio stations had received their signals, and at the same time, to notify all airfields and anti-air units to be vigilant along their flight path. At 1755 hours, they landed at Lishe airfield in Ningbo. At 2348 hours, when everything was ready-to-go, Cmdr. Hsu Huan-sheng, 14th SQ, 2nd Bomber Group (BG), acted as the flight lead, and flew with Deputy Cmdr. Tong Yan-bo, 19th SQ, 8th BG as his wingman in two Martin B-10s from Ningbo to Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Kurume of Japan to drop leaflets and reconnoiter harbors and airfields of Japan along the way. At 0042 hours on 20th May, these two Martin bombers began to fly in total darkness. At 0050 hours, their engines’ noise was heard by Japanese vessels while flying over Dinghai of Zhejiang Province. Japs used searchlights to locate bogies, but found nothing because Martin bombers were high in the clouds. At 0240 hours, Martin bombers were approaching the coast of Japan Proper. At 0245, they were at 3,500 m high over Nagasaki, released a flare after completion of dropping leaflets several rounds over the city, all lights on the ground were out instantly, and they headed to the next waypoint: Fukuoka. At 0325, they were still at 3,500 m high approaching Fukuoka where harbors for seaplanes and naval vessels were easily spotted with all lights on. Martin bombers then dropped leaflets and released a flare when it was done. The lights again were out at once, and Martin bombers spread out to head to Kyushu respectively to resume dropping leaflets along the path. They were unchallenged by Japanese flaks or planes, and were wet-feet again at 0400 hours. The weather was getting worse on their way home, they couldn’t see one another because of the heavy overcast, and had to count on ground stations to transmit their locations. At 0615 hours, Martin B-10 #1403 was approaching the coast of the Chinese mainland while #1404 was doing the same at 0616 hours. At 0848, # 1404 landed at Yushan airfield via Ningbo while #1403 landed Nanchang airfield via Linhai at 0924. After refueling, two Martin B-10s took off again, joined over Wuhan at 1113 hours, and landed at Hankow airfield.
Result:
This mission of eastern expedition was used to demonstrate our humanity by nature, and ROCAF bombers dropped only propaganda leaflets, not bombs targeting at innocent population. It was hoped the mission could arouse the consciousness of Japanese people for them to be aware of the grave consequences befell on them if Japanese military continued their invasion in China.
Photo: General He Ying-qin (dressed in formal attire) welcomed the crew for their mission success