John Huang Xinrui

John Huang Xinrui was born in Huangwu village, a large Chinese-American enclave in Taishan county of Guangdong province. He immigrated to the United States with his mother in 1923 when he was nine years old, joining his father, Huang Jinghu, who had already landed in the United States years before during the Qing Dynasty, and ran businesses that included a small market and a restaurant called the "Break Drum Cafe Shop" on the corner of 1st and 3rd streets in Los Angeles.[1][3]

Ever so influenced by his father's patriotism and generosity to the revolutionary causes of post-imperial China under Dr. Sun Yat-sen, John Huang had a vision and a filial yearning since a young age "to support and serve the country of the motherland". Joining the Chinese-American aviation club in Los Angeles as a teenager, John Huang began taking flight lessons at the age of 18 in 1932, completing advanced studies and his U.S. pilot's license in 1934. Along with over a dozen other Chinese-American volunteer aviators leaving for military aviation careers in China, including Arthur Chin, John Wong Pan-yang, Hazel Ying Lee, Louie Yim-qun, Chan Kee-wong et al, John Huang initially joined the Guangdong provincial air force under Chen Jitang, one of numerous "warlord air forces" that dotted China before centralizing under the Nationalist Air Force of China prior to the outbreak of full-scale war between China and Imperial Japan in 1937.[4][5][6]

As part of the centralized Chinese Air Force, John "Buffalo" Huang (a.k.a. John "Buffalo" Wong), so named due to his "stocky"-built physique, was now a Lieutenant and Deputy Commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, 3rd Pursuit Group composed of P-26/281 fighters, soon to be stationed at Jurong Airbase, the Nanjing defense sector along with the 28th PS, 5th PG composed primarily of Curtiss Hawk IIs under the command of Captain Chan Kee-wong.[7][8][9][10]

On 15 August, 1937, John "Buffalo" Huang Xinrui and John Wong Pan-yang (the names of these two Chinese-American volunteer aviators often confused with one another) led their squadron of P-26/281 fighters against an incoming raid of IJN Mitsubishi G3M medium-heavy bombers on approach to Jurong-Nanjing; John "Buffalo" Huang personally shooting down one, sharing in another G3M kill, John Wong Pan-yang himself claiming one, while their squadron mate Lt. Qin Jiazhu (秦家柱) claimed another. Capt. Chan Kee-wong also claimed a G3M in the Nanjing airspace, while Curtiss Hawk III squadrons of the 4th PG under the command of Colonel Gao Zhihang based at Jianqiao Airbase claimed several more; in all the Imperial Japanese raiders lost 26 aircraft of different types in the first three days of aerial combat from defending Chinese fighters 14-16 August, 1937.[11][12][13][14][15][16]

By the end of August/beginning of September, the 28th PS, 5th PG based Jurong Airbase was split into two smaller squadrons, with Capt. Chan Kee-wong leading half of Hawk II pilots to the northern front at the Battle of Taiyuan, and Lt. Art Chin leading the other half to the southern front in Guangdong province with a specific task of guarding the Shaoguan Aircraft Factory, while John Huang Xinrui and John Wong Pan-yang remained stationed at Jurong Airbase to continue support of the Nanjing-Shanghai operations[17][18]

On 19 September, 1937, various Japanese bomber and fighter aircraft, including the highly advanced new Mitsubishi A5M carrier-based fighters raided Nanjing at around 0800; 21 Chinese fighters from Jurong and other airbases around Nanjing rose to engage the raiders. At 0900, Lt. John "Buffalo" Huang led five P-26/281s against eight enemy fighters, and in the ensuing melee, Lt. Liu Lanqing's (劉蘭清) P-26/281 fighter was shot-up and forced to bail out in his parachute; John "Buffalo" Huang tried to fight off the Japanese pilots who were taking turns at strafing Lt. Liu Lanqing trying to descend to safety in his parachute over Jiangning District of Nanjing, but was hit and killed in what would amount to a combat war crime committed by the Japanese pilots (as codified under Article 42 of Protocol I amended to the Geneva Conventions). John "Buffalo" Huang was then himself shot down, seriously wounded, but bailing out and waiting for the last possible moment to pull his parachute cord to avoid getting strafed under the parachute by the Japanese pilots.[19][20]

While recovering from battle wounds, and with all the spare parts and airworthiness of the remaining Boeing P-26/281 fighters exhausted, as well as the impending Fall of Nanking, John Huang Xinrui's 17th PS of the 3rd PG was renewed into the 29th PS with new Gloster Gladiator fighters, of which he was promoted to Captain and CO in January of 1938; he'll go on to score several more victories in this fighter aircraft. On 23 February 1938 (some sources date 24 February), in what was to become the British-made Gloster Gladiator's first aerial combat engagement ever, Capt. John Huang Xinrui led nine of his 29th PS Gladiators along with three of the 28th PS Gladiators (belonging to squadron commander Capt. Arthur Chin), in the interception of thirteen Nakajima E8N fighter-attack seaplanes from the tenders Notoro Maru and Kinugasa Maru; the Chinese pilots efforts were severely thwarted in the ensuing battle however, as most of the machine guns on the Gladiators jammed, nonetheless, five of the E8N were still shot-up enough to go down as victory claims by Capt. Huang and the other pilots targeting the bogeys with only one, two or three working guns (out of four) per Gladiator. Arthur Chin revealed later that the cause of the jamming of the Gladiator's machine guns were the result of defective Belgian-made ammunition rounds.[21] Tragically, the bad ammunition led to fatal consequences, as the Gladiator flown by Lt. Xie Chuanhe (Hsieh Chuan-ho) targeted an E8N, all four of his guns jammed, and the E8N was able to counter-attack, hitting Lt. Xie's wingman Lt. Yang Rutong, whom also appeared to be unable to fire his weapons, and was sent down in flames from a burst of machine gun fire from the counter-attacking E8N; Lt. Chen Qiwei (Chen Chi-wei) was lost under similar circumstances.[22]

On 13 April 1938, Capt. Huang scored a triple-kill against squadrons of attackers from the fleet aircraft carrier Kaga; an Aichi D1A dive bomber, a Nakajima A4N fighter and an A5M fighter piloted by PO2c Yukio Miyazato over Guangzhou.[23] Capt. Huang was himself shot down in this battle by the A5M flown by PO1c Jirō Chōno; seriously wounded again, Capt. Huang would be out of action for an extended period time.[24]

As the war between China and the Empire of Japan continued into its fourth year, material support from the U.S. had long since mostly disappeared, and reliance on mutual agreement to fight the Empire of Japan had been largely sustained through the Sino-Soviet Treaty in China's continuing war of resistance against the Imperial Japan's aggression and occupation. The Chinese Air Force had mostly converted to Soviet-made Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 series of fighter aircraft, and the losses at the Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of South Guangxi had pushed the Chinese hinterland to the new wartime capital in Chongqing, Sichuan province, and all seaports that previously supplied China's most important materials for the war effort, including quality aviation fuel needed for proper fighter aircraft performance, have become cut off.[25][26]

After John Huang's 29th PS transitioned into Polikarpov I-15 fighters, his unit was posted to the defense of Chengdu, about 485 kilometres (301 mi) northwest of provisional capital Chongqing in Sichuan province. At 0915 hours on 14 March, 1941, John Huang led the initial patrol with his squadron of nine I-15s on high-cover at 7500 feet, his deputy commander Cen Zeliu led eleven I-15s on an intermediate cover at 7000 feet, while the commander of the 28th PS, 3rd PG, Chou Lin-xu, led another eleven I-15s at the low-cover of 6500 feet on reports of incoming enemy aircraft consisting of ten attack-bombers escorted by twelve A6M "Zero" fighters, which unbeknownst to the West, was the most advanced air-superiority fighter aircraft in the world at the time.[27] While upon the return leg back to Shuangliu Air Base at 1140 hours, four of John Huang Xinrui's fighters had already dropped out due to mechanical problems, yet he immediately pressed on and engaged when the Japanese Zeroes appeared, but was quickly hit in the head by a round from a second flight of Zeros attacking from above and behind, yet managed to crash land his I-15 in spite of the grievous injury sustained to his head; while he survived for his 27th birthday the following day, John Huang Xinrui died from the injuries the day after that on 16 March 1941. Commanders Cen Zeliu and Zhou Linxu (Chou Lin-xu) led their remaining fighters to battle the Zeroes, and in a string of brutal dogfights lasting from 1140 to 1220 hours, the Chinese pilots fought valiantly against the far superior speed, acceleration, maneuverability and firepower of the Zero fighters, and both commanders Cen and Chou, along with five others pilots, including Jiang Dong-sheng and Lin Heng (younger brother of renown architect Lin Huiyin) all died in the fierce battle against the Japanese Zeroes.[28][29][30]

John Huang Xinrui left behind his wife (surname Liu), daughter Huang Yali and son Huang Chuansheng.[31][32][33]

• Air Warfare of WWII from the Sino-Japanese War perspective
• Aircraft of Chinese civil and militaries/warlords from before 1937

Bibliography