[Leo Etgen]

Hi GuerraCivil

I have no idea if the losses given are combat losses or total losses but I agree with you in that they are quite higher than one would imagine considering the qualitative superiority that the Japanese consistently enjoyed versus the Chinese. On the other hand, these losses were suffered over a four-year period so perhaps they were not as excessive as appears at first glance. I agree that it was quite notable that the heaviest losses were suffered when the mainstay of the ROCAF was the Hawk III and this would appear to indicate that the early Chinese pilots were not of such indifferent quality as is often thought although perhaps the Japanese were simply experiencing difficulties due to their not having mounted such ambitious operations before and were still learning their craft. The ROCAF was badly damaged by the end of 1937 yet the infusion of Russian aircraft such as the I-15 and I-16 as well as Russian aircrews allowed it to continue to put up resistance as was described in the book during the air battle over Hankow on 29 April 1938, when the Japanese raided the city with 18 Nell twin-engined bombers and some 30 Claude fighters and were engaged by some 60 to 80 Chinese and Russian flown Russian-built aircraft. Both sides claimed victory with various claim totals given but the official losses on either side was 12 aircraft according to the Chinese and two bombers and two fighters according to the Japanese. The supply of Russian-built aircraft kept the ROCAF alive and able to put up serious resistance against the Chungking raids in summer 1940. This was broken, though, in the autumn by the arrival of the Zeke allowing the Japanese to claim the destruction of 50 aircraft in aerial combat and 63 on the ground by the end of autumn 1940.

Horrido!

Leo