Pengshan Air Base is a

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

(PLAAF) air base, located approximately 1 km east of Gongyi Town, in

Pengshan County Pengshan District () is a district of the city of Meishan, Sichuan Province Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" b ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

province,

Southwestern China Southwest China () is a region in the south of the People's Republic of China. Geography Southwest China is a rugged and mountainous region, transitioning between the Tibetan Plateau to the west and the Chinese coastal hills (东南丘陵) and ...

. Beginning in 1949, it was part of the PLAAF Second Aviation School. The Second Aviation School was established on the basis of the 138th Division. The Third Training Regiment had 16

B-5 B5, B05, B-5 may refer to: Biology * ATC code B05 (''Blood substitutes and perfusion solutions''), a therapeutic subgroup of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System * Cytochrome ''b''5, ubiquitous electron transport hemoprotein ...

s and 32 BT-5s (PRC manufactured

Ilyushin Il-28 The Ilyushin Il-28 (russian: Илью́шин Ил-28; NATO reporting name: Beagle) is a jet aircraft, jet bomber of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Forces. It was the Soviet Union's first such ai ...

s) at Pengshan airfield as late as 1986.

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...

, People's Liberation Army Air Force, DIC-1300-445-91, May 1991, Appendix, via https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1991/plaaf-appe.htm

History

Built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the base was used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

XX Bomber Command The XX Bomber Command was a United States Army Air Forces bomber formation. Its last assignment was with Twentieth Air Force, based on Okinawa. It was inactivated on 16 July 1945. History The idea of basing Boeing B-29 Superfortresses in C ...

468th Bombardment Group The 468th Bombardment Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. The unit served primarily in the Pacific Ocean theater and China Burma India Theater of World War II as part of Twentieth Air Force. The 468th B ...

as an airfield to stage

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

bombing missions from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

to attack

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

.Craven, Wesley Frank; James Lea Cate. "Vol. V: The Pacific: MATTERHORN to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945". The Army Air Forces in World War II. U.S. Office of Air Force History. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/V/index.html. It was known by the Americans as Pengshan Airfield (A-7). It was one of four B-29 bases established by the Americans in China. Staging through Pengshan from its base at

Kharagpur Airfield Kalaikunda Air Force Station is an Indian Air Force Base in Kharagpur, located in the West Midnapur district of the state of West Bengal. It was the home of No. 18 Squadron IAF, the Flying Bullets. The squadron flew the Indian license-bui ...

, on June 15, 1944, the 468th BG participated in the first USAAF attack on the

Japanese Home Islands The Japanese archipelago (Japanese: 日本列島, ''Nihon rettō'') is a group of 6,852 islands that form the country of Japan, as well as the Russian island of Sakhalin. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East Chi ...

since the

Doolittle raid The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japan ...

in 1942. Operating from bases in India, and at times staging through fields in China, the group struck transportation centers, naval installations, iron works, and aircraft plants in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...

. The 468th BG received a

Distinguished Unit Citation The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enem ...

for bombing iron and steel works at

Yawata is a city located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. the city has an estimated population of 70,433 and a population density of 2,893 persons per km². The total area is 24.35 km². The city was founded on November 1, 1977 and currently has a s ...

, Japan, on August 20, 1944. When the B-29 bombers were moved from India in February 1945 to the newly captured bases in the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

, the B-29 use of Pengshan Airfield ended. The Americans used the airfield as a communications station and turned over the airfield to the Chinese government on 30 June 1945.

References

* Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . {{authority control Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in China Airports in Sichuan Chinese Air Force bases

History

See also

References