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Letter 1938 airdropped by China Air Force to the Japanese people in May.
China Air Force Expedition to Japanese Mainland

On the night of May 1938, the China Air Force dispatched two Martin B- 10 bombers, dropped more than 100 leaflets on Japan, and issued a solemn warning to the Japanese aggressors: "Without training, millions of leaflets will turn into thousands of tons of bombs. I will quit it again. " This is the first time that Japan has been bombed by a foreign plane in history, and it is also a unique "paper bombing" in the history of world aviation operations.

Nagasaki was shocked, and Japan was shocked.

May 20th, 1938, Japan's coastal city of Nagasaki.

Early in the morning, the owner of a sushi restaurant opened the door and found white pieces of paper everywhere on the street in front of the door. The boss picked up some pieces of paper, which read: "Our country invaded China, and it was a heinous crime. Without training, millions of leaflets will turn into thousands of tons of bombs. I will quit it again. "

Where did you get so many leaflets? Are these leaflets from China? Nagasaki is located in Kyushu, Japan, thousands of miles away from Chinese mainland. Only planes can fly over the ocean and drop so many leaflets in Nagasaki. This shows that the Japanese government claims that the local defense is tight and impregnable, which is incredible.

The Japanese security department immediately searched the area under its jurisdiction, and handed over the leaflets to the paper factory for testing to confirm that the leaflets really came from China. This is China's "paper bombing" against Japan. Because this was the first air attack on Japan by the anti-fascist camp in World War II, it quickly caused a sensation all over the world.

Chinese bombers with "bare hands"

1937 12. Nanjing fell and the Kuomintang government moved its capital to Chongqing. Wuhan has become the political and military center of Chongqing government and the main distribution center of war materials. To this end, the Japanese Air Force stepped up its air strikes against Wuhan and continued its indiscriminate bombing. Facing the arrogant Japanese invaders, the China Air Force decided to fly over the East China Sea for an expedition to Japan to warn the Japanese authorities.

At that time, the aircraft equipped by China Air Force had a maximum range of less than 1000 km. Japan's domestic air defense is heavily guarded, and a large number of fighter planes and ground air defense units have been deployed. At that time, the bombers did not have self-defense weapons, and the China Air Force did not have suitable fighters to escort the bombers. In this way, going to Japan to carry out an air strike mission is tantamount to going into battle with bare hands.

Originally, it was planned that foreign pilots would take on the heavy responsibility of this expedition, but the foreign pilots claimed that it was too risky to carry out this task and proposed a sky-high reward that the Kuomintang government could not accept. Therefore, the Kuomintang government decided to change to China pilots to perform this task.

The weather is changeable, so it will take off at one o'clock.

After 1 months of secret training at the Phoenix Mountain Base in Chengdu, it was finally finalized by Xu Huansheng's unit 1403 (Xu Huansheng is driving, Su Guang Huawei is the co-pilot, Liu Rongguang is the driver, Wu Jichong is the communicator) and Tong Yanbo's unit 1404 (Tong Yanbo is driving, Jiang is the co-pilot, and Lei is the driver). In order to increase the range, the plane was also modified, and the bomb compartment of the bomber was converted into a large fuel tank.

Due to the limitation of technical conditions at that time, pilots could only rely on visual flight, navigation and finding ground targets. Therefore, bombing Japan should choose a moonlit night. The members of the expedition are all looking forward to fine weather. May is the rainy season in the Yangtze River basin, and the climate is unpredictable. Because we don't have local meteorological data in Japan, we have to copy the meteorological reports from all over East Asia for speculation. The conclusion of a few days is that it is difficult to have good weather around the full moon. Due to the tight war situation in Wuhan and the delay in exploration, Captain Xu Huansheng simply flew to Ningbo, the forward base, and directly observed and speculated the climate change in the East China Sea with his long-term experience in flying at sea.

1938 on may19, the headquarters finally issued the order of "executing the task immediately". After receiving the notice, the pilot flew eastward with the only two long-range bombers left in China at that time.

Expedition and retreat across the sea

1938 May19, Hankou Airport. For the sake of confidentiality, no one on the ground saw me off.

15: 23, the two planes flew for two hours and landed at Ningbo airport. Because the voyage from Wuhan to Japan and back to Wuhan exceeded the maximum voyage of Martin B- 10 bomber, the plane had to "make a transition" in Ningbo-refuel.

At 2: 45 on May 20, two planes flew over Nagasaki, Japan. The bomb bin was opened and the "paper bomb" flew to the ground.

After dropping leaflets in Nagasaki, the two planes turned to Fukuoka and dropped more than 6,543,800 leaflets in Japan. Only then did the Japanese air defense department "wake up from a big dream" and hacked Fukuoka. The whole city was dark and the ground anti-aircraft guns fired fiercely, but the two planes left Japan's airspace from Nagasaki unscathed and returned to China successfully.

The Premier of the National Government was at Wangjiadun Airport in Hankou, and the Minister of Military and Political Affairs He, representatives of the Central Committee and the Eighth Route Army Office in Wuhan, Wu and others met him at the airport in person.

Zhou Enlai sent a flag.

This air raid, known as "paper bombing" and "humanitarian expedition", did not change Japan's aggression against China, but it completely broke the rumor that "the sacred airspace of Great Japan is inviolable". This is the first time that Japan has been attacked by a foreign plane.

Wang Ming and Wu personally went to the National Air Force Command to express their condolences to the victorious China Air Force personnel, and presented a pennant with the eight characters "both virtue and prestige, wisdom and courage". Zhou Enlai also delivered a speech praising their achievements and heroic actions, and took photos with Xu Huansheng and Tong Yanbo as a souvenir.

Major media at home and abroad reported on this. At the end of World War II, Life magazine published photos of 12 pilots who were famous in the world during World War II, including Xu Huansheng, the captain of this "paper bombing" operation. The magazine clearly pointed out that Xu Huansheng was the first person to bomb Japanese mainland before Du Lide. Text/Yu Xin

Leaflets distributed by the air force expedition to Japan (excerpt)

Letter to Japanese nationals

( 1)

Our air force of the Republic of China is flying over your country now. Our aim is not to hurt your people's lives and property. Our task is to explain to the Japanese people what evil your warlords have done all over China. Please listen carefully. ...

Japanese brothers, some of you opposed the war and dreamed of justice and peace, and some praised the war because of the propaganda of warlords; However, no matter what kind of people want to come, they must be controlled by your speech, so it is difficult to know the truth of the present situation. So, try to make the following explanation, I hope everyone will consider it in detail.

China-Japan People's Goodwill Alliance, member of the Republic of China Air Force.