China-Japan Air War, 1937-45

Any good English-language sources on the China-Japan air war in 1937-45? My impression is that the Chinese Air Force, supported by the Soviets, were initially able to hold their own against the Japanese. That changed with the introduction of the Claude and then the Zero fighter, which gave Japan air superiority. But this changed by 1944? I'm curious about the performance of the Chinese Air Force in the later stages of the war.

is a great resource and I also heard good things about but haven't read it myself but maybe you should check it out.

tdxer said:

Any good English-language sources on the China-Japan air war in 1937-45? My impression is that the Chinese Air Force, supported by the Soviets, were initially able to hold their own against the Japanese. That changed with the introduction of the Claude and then the Zero fighter, which gave Japan air superiority. But this changed by 1944? I'm curious about the performance of the Chinese Air Force in the later stages of the war.

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Actually, Nationalist Chinese air fleet also received major support from the US even before 1937, Nationalist fighterr fleet during Shanghai crisis and subsequent battle of Nangjing consisted largely of Curtiss Hawk, and Grumman F2F, and battled a combination of Japanese naval aviation and Japanese army air force. The first ever attempt to bomb Tokyo was mounted around 1938 by the nationalist Airforce flying Martin B-10 bombers.

Later, the US supplied the nationalists with Curtiss P-40, along with "Volunteer" american pilots, which briefly restored qualitative superiority and local air control. But that ended with the Japanese introduction of Mitsubishi Zero.

In 1942-1943, the US army Airforce again expanded great effort to set up its air strength and establish air superiority over nationalist controlled china, with logistic support supplied by air over the himalayas from Berma.. The intention was use Chungking as forward air base from which to mount B-29 bombing strikes over Japan.

After the capture of the island of Tinian in 1944, which was a better base for b-29 operation then Chungking, the use of chungking as a b-29 base was abandoned, and the US army in china turned to tactical support for nationalist ground forces. By then Japan had withdrawn much of her air strength in china to meet the exigencies of the war in pacific and defence of japense home islands.

General Chennault, the famous leader of the flying tigers gave an detailed account of the Chinese air battles against the Japanese and the complexity and hardships of the air operations in the China war, in his memoir: Way of a Fighter.

The book The Battle for China is a very good book if your interested in the Chinese Air War component. There is a full chapter on the air war. China's aircraft were at first from the Europeans then the US and then the USSR and the US again. It also covers the missteps in coordination of the Japanese Air force and Naval Aviation.



I have to reread this chapter.