Chengdu Fenghuangshan Airport () is a

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force, also referred to as the Chinese Air Force () or the People's Air Force (), is the primary aerial warfare service of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAAF controls most of the PLA's air assets, includi ...

airbase in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was a

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 ...

airfield. It is located approximately 10 miles south of Chengdu.

History

Fenghuangshan Airport, also known as Chungsing Chang, Fenghwangshan and Makiashipen was built under the directives of Sichuan warlord Liu Xiang in 1931 for his fledgling air force operations, and was integrated into the centralized operations of the

Chinese Nationalist Air Force Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

as the War of Resistance-World War II was starting with the invasion and occupation by the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

; Fenghuangshan served as an operations base for Chinese fighter squadrons during the terror bombings of Chengdu and Chongqing, and was regularly under bombing attack by Japanese. Fenghuangshan was also the base where Captain Xu Huansheng and his B-10 bomber crews initially trained for the planned transoceanic strategic bombing mission against the Empire of Japan in 1938. Years later, after the United States became involved in World War II, it was a major command and control base for

Tenth Air Force The Tenth Air Force (10 AF) is a unit of the U.S. Air Force, specifically a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). 10 AF is headquartered at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base/Carswell Field (formerly Carswel ...

, being the home of the 312th Fighter Wing from July 1944 until August 1945. The wing commanded three fighter groups (33rd, 81st and 311th) in central China as well as provided support to

Twentieth Air Force The Twentieth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) (20th AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. 20 AF's primary mission is Intercon ...

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), 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 ...

groups which staged strategic bombardment missions over

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

though bases in the Chengdu area from their home bases in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

(see:

Operation Matterhorn Operation Matterhorn was a military operation of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in World War II for strategic bombing of Japan by Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers based in India, Ceylon, and China. Targets included industrial fac ...

). Also, the 426th Night Fighter Squadron operated

P-61 Black Widow The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first operational U.S. warplane designed specifically as a night fighter. Named for the North American spider ''Latrodect ...

night interceptor aircraft from the airfield, providing a night defense against Japanese fighter and bomber raids at night in the area, along with the B-29 bases before their move to the

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

. At 2:00 p.m. on December 10, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his son

Chiang Ching-kuo Chiang Ching-kuo (, 27 April 1910 – 13 January 1988) was a politician of the Republic of China. The eldest and only biological son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, he held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China and ended ...

took off from Chengdu Fenghuangshan Airport on an airplane and arrived at

Taipei Songshan Airport Taipei Songshan Airport is a city airport and military airbase located in Songshan District, Taipei, Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. The airport covers an area of . The civilian section of Songshan Airport has scheduled flights to domestic ...

in Taiwan at 6:30 a.m. They never returned to mainland China again. During the 2013 Lushan earthquake in Sichuan, the airport was used as a major air hub for the relief effort and medical evacuation.

References

External links

{{authority control 1931 establishments in China Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command in the China-Burma-India Theater Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in China Airports established in 1931 Airports in Sichuan Buildings and structures in Chengdu Chinese Air Force bases Transport in Chengdu

History

References

Further reading

External links