Seventy years ago, on November 21, 1937, Republic of China Air Force Colonel Kao Chih-hang was killed by a bomb dropped from a Mitsubishi G3M2 “Nell” bomber as he attempted to start the engine on his new Polikarpov I-16 fighter aircraft in order to intercept the Japanese bombers. Since Colonel Kao’s career as a fighter pilot is already described in a fair amount of detail on Håkan Gustavsson’s excellent site, I’ll try to avoid merely repeating what’s written there. Instead, I’ll try to focus on the significance of Kao Chih-hang to the Chinese people.
After several years of tension between China and Japan following the latter’s occupation of Manchuria in 1931, open conflict between the two nations broke out in July of 1937. At that time, Kao Chih-hang was already commander of the 4th Pursuit Group, equipped with the Curtiss Hawk III fighter-bomber. They had been called north to support the fighting in Henan Province but, when fighting broke out in Shanghai on August 13, they were called back south to defend the area around the capital city of Nanjing. Delayed by bad weather, most of the fighters of the 4th Pursuit Group arrived at an airfield near Hangzhou the next day, shortly after the airfield received warning of approaching enemy aircraft. Colonel Kao had arrived some time earlier, and he hurriedly took off in his personal aircraft, which had just been ferried in, without even waiting for it to be refuelled. Other planes were hastily refuelled to one degree or another. The flight of three Japanese Nell bombers dropped its bombs on the airfield, but did little damage. Meanwhile, the Chinese fighters attacked. A Lieutenant Tan made the first pass, but he opened fire at too great a distance, wasting much of his ammunition. Colonel Kao shot the two gunners on one of the aircraft, then closed to about 65 feet, at which point he fired into the bomber’s left engine. The plane caught on fire and plummeted to the ground. It was the first aerial victory by a Chinese pilot in defense of China.
After scoring his first victory, Kao spotted another flight of Nell bombers. He closed in on one of them and fired into its left engine, just as he had done before. At this point, his Hawk III ran out of fuel, and he had to glide back to the airfield. The bomber managed to make it back to its airfield in Taipei, but it crashed upon landing, and was never flown again. Another member of the 4th Pursuit Group shot up a third Nell’s fuel tank. The bomber lost so much fuel on its return flight that its crew was forced to ditch it off the coast of Taiwan. All told, the Chinese pilots claimed three aerial victories, while Chinese anti-aircraft gunners claimed another three. The Chinese lost one Hawk III and its pilot when the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. Two other planes, including Kao’s, ran out of fuel, but landed safely.
The victories of that day were marred by an earlier ill-fated sortie against Japanese ships anchored in the Huangpu River, which flows through Shanghai. Due to cloud cover, Chinese Northrop Gamma 2E bombers came in low to attack the Japanese cruiser Izumo, but the inexperienced crews misjudged the distance and three of their bombs fell on the crowded city itself, causing 1740 civilian deaths and 1873 injuries, most of them Chinese or Westerners. A Chinese Hawk III mistakenly attacked the British cruiser HMS Cumberland, but its two bombs fortunately fell harmlessly into the water. Yet another mistaken attack was made on the American cruiser USS Augusta, but again the bombs missed. No Japanese warships were damaged. The pilot of the Hawk III that attacked the Cumberland was mortally wounded by a Nakajima E8N “Dave” floatplane, while the gunner on a Northrop 2E was killed by another E8N. Due to the tremendous loss of life in Shanghai, the day was called “Bloody Saturday”. Nevertheless, the Kuomintang proclaimed August 14th “Air Force Day” due to the 4th Pursuit Group’s success against the Japanese bombers.
In 1921, a scant three years after the end of the First World War, Italian General Giulio Douhet published an influential book titled The Command of the Air. Controversial at first, it soon became accepted doctrine in the world’s military forces. Douhet advocated strategic bombing: pounding an enemy nation’s urban centers until the civilian population demanded peace. For this, one needed aircraft which were both very large (to hold plenty of bombs) and very fast. During the 1930s, the world’s industrial nations scrambled to produce heavy bombers with the speed and range necessary to carry out this type of mission, to strike before they were detected and speed homeward before anything could be done about them. Fighters, on the other hand, were seen as a relic of the previous world war. With bombing runs taking place with such speed and across such great distances, what could a single-seat fighter do? By the time it took off the bombers would already be on their way home. And, even if it managed to intercept a bomber, what chance would it have to bring down a very large aircraft bristling with gun turrets? Because fighters were on the way out, the development of advanced fighter designs lagged that of advanced bomber designs. And fighter tactics received very little innovation in the interwar years.
The Japanese were disciples of Douhet. The Mitsubishi G3M “Nell”, a predecessor of the better-known G4M “Betty”, was an example of the sort of aircraft Douhet thought would rule the future of warfare. The Japanese did produce excellent fighters as well, but for whatever reason they chose to send bomber flights unescorted over China in the early days of the Sino-Japanese war. The Chinese Air Force, on the other hand, was advised by Claire Lee Chennault, who would later become famous as the commander of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers”, and then of the U.S. 14th Air Force. Chennault was convinced that fighters could still present a threat to bombers. Ignored by the U.S. Army Air Force during the 1930s, in China he had a chance to put his own theories into action, and his innovations in fighter tactics (and an air raid early warning system) helped the Chinese pilots bring down a number of Japanese bombers in the early days of the war. The Japanese learned their lesson and started sending their bombers out accompanied by fighter escorts.
Kao Chih-hang claimed two more victories, Mitsubishi B2M torpedo bombers, on August 15, but was wounded in the right arm during the fight. He was out of action for nearly two months, during which time the Chinese Air Force suffered high attrition rates of both pilots and aircraft. The Japanese had fielded a new fighter, the Mitsubishi A5M “Claude”, which was superior to any fighter the Chinese had at the time. Most of the 4th Pursuit Group was busy up north retraining on the Polikarpov I-16 and I-15bis fighters, but for those who remained to defend Nanjing, morale was low. In these circumstances, Colonel Kao led a flight of Hawk IIIs against a couple of Nakajima E8N “Dave” floatplanes that had been spotted over Shanghai on October 12. Both floatplanes were destroyed, with Kao sharing in the destruction of one of them. Later in the day, Colonel Kao led another sortie against a formation of Nell bombers escorted by the dreaded A5M “Claude” fighters. In the mix-up, one of the Claudes got on the tail of a Lieutenant Lo. Kao, in turn, got on the Claude’s tail and sent it crashing to the ground, allowing Lo to escape unharmed. However, three more Claudes ganged up on Kao. Kao pushed his Hawk III to the limits, pulling every maneuver he could to escape from their guns, while firing back at them every chance he got. Eventually, two of the Claudes pulled out of the fight, possibly from lack of fuel, but the other fighter continued flying, pulling loops. Kao closed with it until he could see the pilot, and he realized its pilot was dead. The Claude continued looping around until its fuel ran out.
Kao Chih-hang was promoted to Commander of Pursuit, but still retained his position as commander of the 4th Pursuit Group. His group re-equipped with the Polikarpov I-16 Type 5, and in November they delivered their new fighters to Nanjing. It was at an airfield on the way back to Nanjing that the bombing attack occurred in which Colonel Kao lost his life. He was promoted to a Major General posthumously.
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