A Wartime International Romance?

[Scarecrow]

Kind of a long story but I will tell it anyway as there may be some Interest. About 15 years ago I acquired this lot belonging to a Chinese Pilot, who graduated from the Luke Field Advanced Training course, earning his wings (Dondero), . As you can see the lot contains his Pilot wings, a Chinese Aviation cadet patch and a graduation photo of his class. The photo was inscribed to "Kelly" from Jackson Fong, in Miami Beach. For all these years I wondered how a recently graduated Chinese Pilot met an American girl in Miami Beach! Even if they were granted leave would they go from AZ to FL? I thought highly unlikely. A couple of months ago I purchased a book titled "The Immortal Flying Tigers" published by the Ministry of National Defense, ROC.. It is a book of personal reminiscences, not by the AVG Flying Tigers that we know but by Chinese Pilots who flew in the CACW. ( Chinese American Composite Wing) Many of their stories start with their training to become pilots and most were sent to the US for flight training. You would think that once graduated, in AZ, they would be sent back to China via the Pacific route. But no. I learned that once graduated they were shipped via train to Miami Beach! Where they awaited ship transportation to Africa, then flights to India then to China. The wait in Miami beach could take anywhere from a week to a month. They all mention how well they were received by the people of Florida. The 15 year mystery of how Jackson Fong became acquainted with "Kelly" in Miami Beach was solved. If I hadn't purchased that volume, the mystery would continue today. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Paul

[Garandomatic]

Wonder what became of him?

[sundance]

That is interesting. It's funny when you think that one or both of them could still be alive. Unlikely, but possible.

[cutiger83]

Kelly is also a man/boy's name...

[Scarecrow]

Kelly is also a man/boy's name...

Hey Kat,

 

Great to hear from you. You are absolutely correct Kelly could also be a male name. However in this instance I think it's almost certainly a female.

 

Paul

[cutiger83]

I was just thinking this may have been given to a young boy. Many servicemen were away from their children, brothers, and sisters. My Dad has always talked about how soldiers would give him all sorts of military items.

 

Either way, these are very nice! Congrats!

 

...Kat

[Fubuki]

The pilot may is Jiechen Fang.In Chinese,Jiechen is similar like Jackson. He graduated from Luke at the same time and then he serviced in CACW 3rd FG.

more information about him.http://www.flyingtiger-cacw.com/new_page_67.htm

[Scarecrow]

On 9/23/2022 at 10:25 PM, Fubuki said:

The pilot may is Jiechen Fang.In Chinese,Jiechen is similar like Jackson. He graduated from Luke at the same time and then he serviced in CACW 3rd FG.

more information about him.http://www.flyingtiger-cacw.com/new_page_67.htm

Fubuki,

 

Thank you very much for the information and link.  Unfortunately for me the link information is in Chinese and I'm sad to say I cannot read Chinese.  But I will print it down and see if I can get it translated.  I'm particularly interested to see if he survived the war and if he had any victories, either ground or air.  Again, many thanks!

[eaglerunner88]

Here's a simplified translation of the article via Google translate:

 

Fang Jiechen is a native of Kaiping, Guangdong, and graduated from the thirteenth term of the Air Force Academy. Tall and sturdy, he has the sturdy beauty of a southern man. He has a smile on his face when he speaks, and his perseverance can be seen from his expression. Since he learned to fly in the United States and successfully fought against the country, he has experienced many times. combat mission records. Although Fang Jiechen is an excellent sports page in the Air Force, he has made some superb records in running 100 meters, high jump hurdles, long jump, and high jump, but he is also a broom star in the occasion of flying battles and often encounters some unlucky people. thing.

 

He even flipped the car to the airport when he got on the plane. One time he took off from a certain place for a mission, and the plane took off as soon as someone pulled it. He only got off the ground and stopped the plane. He quickly dropped the auxiliary fuel tank and pinned it on. The shoulder straps, and then the fuel door pulled the control stick, but he couldn't pull it up and fell to the ground. The side of the wing touched the ground. He quickly jumped out of the plane and was stunned by the damaged part of the wing.

 

Going to work, I feel a great humiliation in my heart.

Temporary failures on this kind of equipment continued to occur during his combat flight. Once during a mission, he served as the No. 4 wingman to bomb the enemy position. It was not a high-altitude cover plane, but a ground attack plane in a happy mood. When he reached the sky above the scene, he opened the switch of the machine gun. The machine gun went off with a bang, and he hurriedly closed the switch. When Xiaogan opened the safety switch and the switch went off again, he had no choice but to close the switch, changing from a performer to an audience, to a cover machine, circling to watch others hit the ground target, and felt the taste of flying in vain.

 

The next day, I still went to Dangyang to bomb the original place. When I reached the enemy's position, I turned on the switch. The machine gun went off again and was acting as a cover plane. When I arrived at Jiayu, I saw a Japanese light bomber shot down by Chen Hongjun and Mao Zhaopin, but I couldn't do my best. , The anger in his heart was burning, and he scolded the mechanic fiercely when he got off the machine, but it didn't help his dissatisfaction.

 

Fang Jiechen is from Kaiping County, Guangdong Province. He has a slender body and a small long face. He speaks slowly and is not very willing to speak. In addition to his bad luck, he is even more reluctant to talk about battles. However, he is still quite patient, knowing that he is a first-class pilot, and there will be many opportunities in the future, so he looks forward to drawing sketches of women's shapes to entertain himself when he has nothing to do.

 

Sure enough, at the end of the 33rd year, Gu Bo told him that Fang Jiechen had destroyed an enemy bomber on the ground while attacking the enemy plane.

 

"At 12:35 yesterday morning, several enemy and US P-51 fighter jets attacked the city and dropped several small bombs near the station. I didn't suffer any major losses. One enemy plane was my anti-aircraft force. The wreckage of the plane has been found immediately! An enemy and American pilot is at large and is being searched." (Xuzhou Puppet Xuhai Daily, July 5, 34)

 

"The wreckage of the enemy's American plane that was shot down by me that harassed the city this morning was found near a village in the west of the city. At that time, an enemy American pilot was on the run, and no official clues have been found yet. The Japanese military authorities have offered a reward of one million yuan. Reward the public for arresting or reporting the hiding place.” (Pseudo Xu Hai Daily, July 6 of the same year)

 

When Fang 𠎀Chen took out two of his wallets, which looked very old and contained the two piercing false reports in front of them, it was obviously the life and death of a young combatant who was in danger. The person who has experienced this matter has a relaxed expression on his face, as if he is telling an interesting story of someone else. He recalled in Cantonese mandarin:

 

Last summer, the famous Air Force Long March 3rd Brigade, after repeatedly attacking major cities in enemy-occupied areas, made great use of the superior long-range range of the P-51 Mustang in order to meet the needs of the entire strategy. Performance, starting from a base as far as 2,000 feet above sea level on the edge of Daba Mountain, flying to places thousands of miles away to fight, using squad tactics, constantly attacking Japanese transport routes, and several railways running through the north and south, the main It is along the Jinpu line. On this team, the task of sweeping the lines of communication is like daily work, regardless of the bad weather conditions, and regardless of personal physical fatigue, working day and night, naturally, this is a great challenge for the Japanese army. With a major and powerful blow, the Japanese army gradually strengthened the anti-air defense along the railway line in order to struggle before dying.

 

On July 4th, Fang Jiechen and four other comrades in arms set off in five separate P-51 aircraft. They first crossed the peaks on the southwestern border of Henan and entered the Great Plain and the vast Huangpan area in central Henan. The worst climate, with dense clouds covering the entire sky, and the attack of thunderstorms, is obviously very unfavorable for flying. The comrades in arms lost contact with each other, Fang Chen broke out of the encirclement alone, and flew along the Longhai Railway, hitting a lot of carriages and locomotives along the way. When I arrived in Xuzhou, I passed through the city at low altitude for reconnaissance and photography. Under the shelling of strong machine guns and anti-aircraft guns from all directions, I burned several cars at the station and pulled up the plane. I suddenly found that the engine was smoking black smoke. Both the aircraft and the wing were hit by a lot of bullets, and the pressure of the instrument engine on the aircraft continued to drop. Judging from experience, it was an irreversible situation. I wanted to parachute off the aircraft, but once the altitude was not enough, I couldn't pull it up again. . In extreme danger, he calmly and swiftly pulled off the fuel tank and the cockpit cover, still holding the steering stick tightly in his hands, avoiding the trees and making an emergency landing on a flat ground.

 

His forehead hit the body, and his head was slightly injured. He resisted the pain and looked around. The sorghum was growing so densely that it could cover his body. He lay quietly on the field, removed his safety umbrella and flight coat, took out the Sul-Iizine pills from the emergency package, swallowed them, and finally put on his only vest and shorts, got up, and went to the North escape.

 

This is about ten kilometers away from Xuzhou City. He climbed over the mountain and saw many villages and a large crowd of people in the distance. He did not dare to go straight forward, and only slowly covered the mountain. Crawling forward. In fact, he found gunshots behind him, and when he looked back, the gunshots happened in the field where he had just been sitting. The Japanese troops who came from two sides were desperately fighting for the safety umbrella and flying cap that he had left behind. Scrambled (80% want to take it back as a trophy), looking from a distance, it was a few soldiers in yellow uniforms. He thought, maybe those soldiers will chase after him? He is a little worried, where is the way out? He didn't dare to think about the law anymore.

 

In such a critical situation, hesitation is the easiest thing to do. He remembered that although this was an occupied area, there were also kind-hearted Chinese people with integrity, enthusiasm, and a national concept, and they would come to rescue him. Haven't there been many comrades on the team who were rescued by the local people after the forced landing in the enemy area! He moved on with hope, battered by physical trauma and excessive fatigue on the one hand, but spurred by the desire to live on the other, he descended the mountain and climbed into another dense In the sorghum field, I greeted the two children who passed by the road:

"I'm a Chinese pilot, tell me if there are Japanese soldiers in this bag?" Fang Jiechen asked

"No." The child stared at him in amazement.

"Is there an army? What kind of army are they?"

"There are peace troops from Shandong."

"Stay in those villages."

"The regimental headquarters is at my house, and the regimental leader is a very good person."

 

Fang 𠎀 Chen thought to himself, isn't the Peace Army a puppet army? In the twilight and darkness, I followed the two children on the road leading to the village where the Peace Corps Ministry was stationed. On the way, I met a few soldiers in full armor, leading the team. With a pistol hanging from his waist, they were looking around and searching. Fang 𠎀 Chen saw this, and his heart trembled, but he immediately thought that when disaster strikes, it is useless to panic, but he calmed down in his attitude. As soon as the other party saw that he didn't look like a local and had wounds on his face, the soldiers came over to greet him, and as soon as they opened their mouths, they asked him if he was a pilot from Chongqing, and told him that he was specially ordered by the perimeter to find the missing man. The pilots who have arrived, their commander's name is Lu, this unit has just arrived from Shandong and moved to Anhui via Xuzhou.

 

The soldiers led Lichen to the hillside in front of the village, where the puppet commander Lu was waiting. Under the faint moonlight, Fang Chen could see that Lu had a sincere face, probably in his thirties. He asked Head Lv to help him and try to save his life. Head Lv replied, "It's not a problem."

 

Commander Lu asked the soldiers to take off their uniforms and put them on for Fang Jiechen, and then led him into the village where the regiment headquarters was stationed. Sitting quietly in the pseudo-commander's room, he recalled the experience of escaping from departure to forced landing that day, and then stroked the scar on his forehead. He felt particularly tired and uncomfortable, and fainted because of it. He drank more than five bowls of water in a row to regain his consciousness. The barber came in to shave his long hair, trimmed it into a small flat head, and dressed up like a private soldier. He also put on some medicine to protect the wound. It just started to fall asleep.

 

After living in the pseudo-regiment headquarters for two days, Fang Jiechen would indeed bear a lot of worries. Every night, Japanese soldiers came to investigate as usual, and the Japanese military issued a notice nearby to arrest the escaped American pilot. A Japanese Colonel personally drove a car to give orders everywhere. The situation is very urgent, as long as there is a little bit of wind from one person, Fang Jiechen's life will be difficult to save.

 

The Japanese military division stationed in Xuzhou called the commander-in-chief of the puppet peace army X and asked him to be responsible for arresting the prisoners. The division commander summoned Commander Lv to ask questions, but Lu refused to admit: "There is no such person hidden in the army. As far as I heard it was an American pilot, not a Chinese!"

 

At this time, Fang Jiechen temporarily acted as an entourage of Wang Mou, the director of the pseudo-command headquarters. On the morning of the third day, when it was just dawn, Fang Chen followed Wang along the trail into Xuzhou City, and the puppet guards did not question him along the way. They were temporarily staying at the military liaison post in Xuzhou. Fang Jiechen was so obsessed with returning to the army that he didn't fall asleep late at night. He listened to the conversations of the soldiers who were staying overnight:

"The plane was shot down a few days ago. I heard that it was driven by a Chinese pilot. It's a pity that he escaped. If you catch him, you can get a million yuan bonus."

"Someone said he was hiding in the Peace Corps."

"This is a great opportunity to make a fortune!"

"I don't dare to agree with your idea, it's too bad for my conscience."

 

Fang Jiechen couldn't help but feel a little shocked when he heard this, but he believed that he had been freed from this bad luck for the most part. As long as he could get on the train going south, and after arriving in "Wanzhong", he would dress up as a "single helper" and follow Yu. The smuggling route in the Anhui border can return to our air force forward base. Thanks to God, although he suffered a thrill, he only suffered minor injuries on his body. After returning to the team to recover from his injuries, he can still take up the battle. task comes.

 

In Xuzhou City, he and Wang Xiang had patrolled everywhere, and he remembered clearly the location and outline of the warehouse of the enemy's headquarters and other military targets. He thought that there would be a day when he led a group of comrades in arms and revisited here from the sky. At that time, he would be sure to inflict more serious damage on the enemy. Sure enough, after keeping Xuzhou City for three days, Wang took him on a train from Nankai to Suxian that day and Bengbu the next day. After arriving in Bengbu, he immediately got in touch with the military spies sent by the central government to appease the puppet army anyway. After completing all the formalities, he disguised as a good citizen who moved in, and followed a group of businessmen to the place where the Chinese army was stationed. In Linquan, a small plane took him back to the team, and it was a week after the Japanese surrender. He would never get a chance to fight again with the Japanese army.

[Scarecrow]

Thanks eaglerunner88.  Much appreciated!