The Black Bat Squadron

In January 1955, the ROC government was planning to implement airdropping missions for psychological warfare and ELINT missions, ROCAF GHQs mapped out the “Fox Hunt Project” accordingly to incorporate all relevant training and operational activities. For the sake of the Project, A P4Y Privateer_[sic] was chosen from the 8^th Group of the 2^nd Wing, together with 13 crew selected from the 33^rd, the 34^th, and the 35^th SQ from the Group, including Pilot Lu De-chi, and Electronic Warfare Officers (EWO) Lo Pu and Li Chong-shan.

P4Y Privateer_[sic] is a four-engine heavy patrol bomber, capable of long-range reconnaissance and patrol. It is equipped with a AN/APS-15 airborne search radar and a blind bombing radar, able to perform surface scans over 100 miles in range for vessels and maritime features, and drop bombs disregard of weather conditions. It also accommodates a complete ELINT suite, including various receivers, pulse analyzers, signal direction finders, semi-automatic signal indicators, automatic low-frequency indicators, and tuners for all frequencies. Under the Project, a total of 14 missions were conducted from April 1955 to April 1956.

In August 1958, the 8^th Group was disbanded, and its 33^rd SQ with its personnel and equipment were used to staff and equip the “3831^st Unit,” which was commissioned on 1^st March 1959 to be responsible for airdropping deep inside Mainland China as well as shipping ammunitions, military supplies, and personnel into the Da Shin military base in the triangle area of Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos.

The 3831^st Unit had operated P4Y and C-47 aircraft to conduct missions from 1959 to 15^th April 1961. During a mission to the borders between Thailand and Myanmar, a P4Y was attacked and shot down by 6 bandits from Myanmar Air Force, and crew onboard were killed except for Captain Liu Chao-chen and Captain Wang Xiang-yun bailing out. On 15^th April 1961, because of the ill-fated P4Y, the presence of our anti-Communist troops stationed in Da Shin military base had triggered an international uproar, and the ROCAF couldn’t help but had to initiate a series of transport maneuvers, code-named “Guolei Exercise,” to evacuate all troops stationed there.

To jointly fight against Communists in Mainland China and Viet Cong in Vietnam, the U.S. and the ROC had signed several special operations agreements in which U.S. side provides aircraft and equipment while ROC side assigns pilots, navigators, radio officers, and EWOs to physically implement the special ops. The mission results would be shared between both sides.

In March 1963, to support U.S. special ops troops in Vietnam, both sides signed the agreement on the “Nanxing Project” to assist South Vietnamese in transporting and airdropping missions to the frontlines, and train their paratroopers to fight against Viet Cong. From 1963 to 1969, 252 transport sorties were conducted and 3 among them were injured by Viet Cong flaks. Luckily, they survived and lost no one because the damages weren’t serious enough, and the crew onboard dealt with them quite skillfully.

As requested by the U.S., ROC government instructed the ROCAF, under the code name of “Jilong Project,” to assign crew to operate a C-130E with latest electronic equipment at the time, taking off at nightfall from USAF Takhli AFB or Chiang Mai AFB, and flying at low altitude to airdrop specialized electronic sensors at designated locations in Ussuriysk, so as to monitor the test launch statuses of various types of PLA missiles.

The ROCAF then selected qualified aircrew to receive conversion training in the U.S. from 27^th September 1968 to 30^th April 1969. At 1711 hours on 17^th May 1959, a C-130E controlled by Pilot Sun Pei-cheng, together with Pilot Huang Wen-lu, Pilot Yang Li-shu, Navigator He Zuo-ming, Navigator Liao Huang-ying, Navigator Feng Hai-tao, Radio Officer Shi Tong-chin, EWO Chen Qi-shan, EWO Liu En-gu, Flight Engineer Yi You-neng, Loadmaster Liu Gui-sheng, and Loadmaster Gui Hsin-de onboard, took off from Takhli AFB in Thailand, and maintained an altitude at 16,000 ft high. While entering the airspace of Mainland China through the its borderlines with Thailand and Myanmar, the C-130E flew at its lowest possible to reach the target area of Mazong Mountain. Then, it followed the same route to fly back, and arrived at Chiang Mai AFB at 0610 hours on the next day to complete the mission successfully.

“Jingbian Project,” or known as a mission to Laos, was proposed by U.S. CIA in the beginning of 1971. Under the Project, the ROCAF assigned 12 pilots, 7 from the Air Rescue Squadron in Chiayi AFB and 5 from Air Transport Group in Pingtung AFB, to receive a fast-paced 30-day conversion training of UH-1H Iroquois in Chiayi AFB. The training was assisted by Air America. After the training, all crew reported to the 34^th Squadron “Black Bats” in Hsinchu AFB, and received follow-on training provided by pilots from Air America.

The mission of the crew was to deploy high-tech acoustic sensors (or called “spiders”) at concentrated and populated areas of Viet Cong (on the north of 17° North latitude), to monitor their ground activities, force movements, and even human voices. They operated a Hughes 500P or Hughes 600, a 5-blade Hughes 500 with a modified engine so as to lower its noise, and took off from PS44, an undisclosed location of U.S. military, during dark hours. Then, they flew at low altitude to penetrate inside the mountainous areas close to Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu in North Vietnam, and collected intelligence of Viet Cong at designated locations.