John Wong Pan-yang

Huang Panyang (a.k.a. Wong Pan-yang/Wong Pan-Yang or simply John Wong, ; 1910 – ?) was an American aviator who volunteered to serve in the Chinese Air Force in the looming war against the Imperial Japanese invasion and occupation; first entering service in China with the previously-separated " warlord air force" under Guangdong provincial leader General Chen Jitang, before centralizing under the Nationalist Chinese Air Force of the Republic of China.

Biography

John Wong Pan-yang (Cantonese: Poon-Yeung Wong; Mandarin Pinyin: Panyang Huang) was born in Zhongshan County, Guangdong Province, China. In 1916, at the age of 6, he traveled with his father to Seattle, Washington, where he would live with his uncle even as his father returned to China six years later. John Wong befriended Arthur Chin after moving to Portland, Oregon, where they both enrolled in a Chinese-American-established flight school (the Chinese Flying Club of Portland) with tuition costs and expenses paid-for by donations from the Chinese-American community for the promise to join the Chinese military in the looming war against the Empire of Japan at the time. John Wong received his U.S. civilian pilot's license in April 1932, traveling to China to join the Guangdong Provincial Air Force under General Chen Jitang, and was then sent to Germany along with other native Chinese and Chinese-American volunteer pilots by the Guangdong government, including Arthur Chin, for advanced aerial gunnery training with the Luftwaffe at Lagerlechfeld Air Base in southern Germany. Upon the airmen's return to China, the provincial and warlord air forces have become absorbed into the central Chinese Air Force, and thus Wong was assigned to 17th Pursuit Squadron of the central government's 3rd Pursuit Group as the squadron commander, flying the Boeing P-26 Model 281, and to be stationed at Chuyung Airbase (Jurong Airbase) in defense of Nanking.

Captain John Wong Pan-yang's first aerial battle took place on 15 August 1937 when he scrambled eight of his 17th PS/3rd PG P-26/281 fighters against an incoming raid of 20 Mitsubishi G3M bombers from the Kisarazu Kokutai, along with five Fiat CR.32s of the 8th PS/3rd PG led by Capt. Chen Yaowei, seven Hawk IIs of the 28th PS/5th PG led by another Chinese-American, Capt. Chan Kee-Wong (Chen Qiguang), and five additional Hawk IIs plus a single Hawk III of the 34th Provisional PS; Capt. Wong's squadron deputy commander and fellow Chinese-American Lt. John Huang Xinrui would make the first claim over Nanjing that day, shooting down a G3M, this followed by a shared-kill over a G3M between Capt. Wong and his fellow Peashooter pilot Lt. Su Yongxiang directly over Chuyung; another Peashooter pilot Lt. Qin Jiazhu would singlehandedly send a G3M crashing into the southeast of Nanking. As the remaining Japanese bombers tried to make their escape, Capt. Chen Yaowei, Lt. Huang Chuku, Lt. Shen Tse-Liu and Lt. Liu Zhiwei gave chase in their Fiats, each pair sharing in the downing a G3M each. Capt. Zhou Dingfang of the 34th Provisional claimed a bomber, while Hawk III fighters based at the Hangzhou Jianqiao Airbase began arriving to support the heavy attack on the Chuyung squadrons; pilots of the 21st and 22nd squadrons of the 4th PG including Capt. Li Guidan (Li Kuei-tan) claimed a 1/4 victory over a G3M (shared with three other 4th pilots), Lts. Zheng Shaoyu, Ba Jingcheng, Wu Tingchun would each claims solo victories over the fleeing G3M bombers, while Lt. Liang Tianchen would score a double-kill over the G3M.

Capt. Wong had yet again engage another large bombing raid on Chuyung the following day, 16 August 1937, scoring a triple-kill over the G3M raiders. His deputy commander John Huang Xinrui had perfectly locked into a G3M and started firing bullets into the bomber when his machine guns failed due to an electrical malfunction, and thus deprived of an additional kill. Capt. Wong's fellow Chinese-American volunteer fighter pilot, Lt. Arthur Chin of the 28th PS, who've flown into battle the previous day but was unable to engage an enemy plane, barely caught up with a G3M in his antiquated Hawk II whose top speed in level flight is only 202 mph, vs the 232 mph max-level speed of the sleek and modern twin-engined G3M bombers. Lt. Chin shot up the fleeing bomber, however his seemingly lumbering Hawk II running at max-power was also an easy shot for the G3M's turret gunner, and Lt. Chin had to break off chase and make an emergency landing at Jiaxing Airbase.

In the first three days of the air war, from 14, 15 and 16 of August 1937, the Japanese having been strongly influenced under the new airpower doctrine of Italian aerial warfare theorist, General Giulio Douhet, believed that they could force submission of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and his forces using only strategic bombing as exemplified at the Bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War. The concept of the ''schnellbomber'' (fast bomber) was the design incorporated into the Mitsubishi G3M; with a max-speed of 232 mph in level flight, it in theory ''should'' outrun the Curtis Hawk II/Hawk III biplanes that formed the primary fighter aircraft of the Chinese Air Force inventory at the beginning of the war, each with a max-speed of 202/225 mph respectively. However, in practice, the Chinese Hawk II and III pilots were still able to vector into and dive for extra speed in pursuit of the Japanese ''schnellbombers''; Capt. Wong's squadrons' P-26/281 fighters have even more benefit from its max-speed of 234 mph, but lacked the higher-altitude operation compared to the Hawk III due to lack of supplemental oxygen for its pilot.

In the early morning of 23 August 1937, Capt. Wong led seven of his P-26/281 fighters in an escort of at least 12 Hawks of the 4th and 5th groups led by Capt. Huang Kuang-Han (a.k.a. Raymond Wong) on a strike against Japanese landing forces and naval assets at Wusongkou on northern shores of Shanghai metropolis; while on approach over the target area, Capt. Wong's 17th PS Peashooter pilots engaged the defending Japanese navy fighters while the Hawks went for the ground targets, and in the intense running dogfight, deputy commander Lt. John Huang Xinrui shot down a Nakajima A4N fighter near Chongming Island, however, Lt. Qin Jiazhu in the P-26/281 #1702 was killed in the melee.

See also

* Louie Yim-qun

References

Bibliography

* Cheung, Raymond. ''OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 126: Aces of the Republic of China Air Force''. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2015. .

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong Pan-yang, John
Republic of China Air Force personnel
Chinese aviators
American aviators of Chinese descent
Chinese World War II flying aces
1910 births
1937 deaths
Military personnel of the Republic of China killed in the Second Sino-Japanese War