[Unknown photographer].
[China, World War II]. Large vintage photograph, titled on the
verso in pencil “Evacuation during a Jing Bao (air raid) Kunming China 1942”.
11 x 14 inches. (Light soiling [see image]).
“Kunming, also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China…
Kunming was transformed into a modern city as a result of
fighting of the Second
Sino-Japanese War/World War II in 1937 with the outbreak of the
Battles of Shanghai, Nanking and Taiyuan, forcing a great movement of
refugees from the north and eastern coastal regions of China,[21] bringing much commerce and industry into the southwest of
China, including Kunming. They carried dismantled industrial plants with them,
which were then re-erected beyond the range of Japanese bombers. In
addition, a number of universities and
institutes of higher education were evacuated there. The increased trade and
expertise quickly established Kunming as an industrial and manufacturing base
for the wartime government in Chongqing.
As the battles of
Shanghai, Taiyuan and Nanjing were lost by the end of 1937,
and with Wuhan falling
into Japanese occupation by the end of 1938, many more of China's military
forces and civilians retreated to cities outside the reach of the Japanese
military ground forces a year prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in 1939,
including the relocation of the Chinese Air
Force Academy from Jianqiao Airbase to
Kunming's Wujiaba Airbase,
where the airfield was vastly expanded, becoming the new training hub for the
battered but regrouped Chinese Air
Force in which Lieutenant General Claire Lee
Chennault took command of cadet training duties in the summer
of 1938. The Chinese Air Force command established the 41st Pursuit Squadron
based in Kunming, also known as the French Volunteer Group squadron in June
1938, and with them they brought Dewoitine D.510 fighters, with the
intention of securing the sale of the planes to the Chinese Air Force; the
French participated in some combat engagements against Japanese raids,
including dogfights against Mitsubishi A5M fighters with Chinese Hawk III fighters over Nanchang,
but after several setbacks, including a fighter pilot KIA, the group was disbanded in
October 1938.
Although the Empire of
Japan was focusing on ending the Chinese war of resistance at
the Battle of
Chonqing and Chengdu, Kunming was not out of the reach of Japanese
air raids, and faced attacks by IJAAF and IJNAF bombers; military assets and infrastructure were under regular
attack, while the RoCAF 18th Fighter Squadron and units
of the Air Force Academy at Wujiaba were tasked with aerial defense of Kunming. The
city of Kunming was prepared as an alternate National Redoubt in case the
temporary capital in Chongqing fell, with
an elaborate system of caves to serve as offices, barracks and factories, but
never utilised. Kunming was to have served again in this role during the
ensuing Chinese Civil
War, but the Nationalist garrison
there switched sides and joined the Communists. Instead Taiwan would
become the last redoubt and home of the Republic of China government; a role it
fulfills to this day.
When the city of Nanning fell
to the Japanese during the Battle of South
Guangxi, China's sea-access was cut off. However, the Chinese
victory at the Battle of Kunlun
Pass kept the Burma Road open. When the Japanese began
occupying French Indochina in
1940, the Burma Road that linked Kunming and the outside-world with unoccupied
China grew increasingly vital as much of the essential support and materials
were imported through Burma. After the attack on Pearl
Harbor, and the start of the Pacific War in December 1941, Kunming
acted as an Allied military command center, which grouped the Chinese,
American, British and French forces together for operations in Southeast Asia.
Kunming became the northern and easternmost terminus of the vital war-supply
line into China known as "The Hump', which stretched over the
Himalayas from British bases in India to port-of-entry Kunming. The Office of
Strategic Services' Service Unit Detachment 101 (predecessor to the 1st Special
Forces Group) was also headquartered in Kunming. Its mission was to
divert and disrupt Japanese combat operations in Burma.
Kunming,
the northern terminus of all three of the Burma Road, the Ledo
Road, and The Hump supply-line, was increasingly targeted by
the IJAAF. When the Burma Road was lost to the Japanese, the Hump became
China's primary lifeline to the outside world. The 1st American Volunteer
Group, known as the "Flying
Tigers", was based in Kunming and tasked with
defense of The Hump supply-line against Japanese aerial interceptions.
Industry
became important in Kunming during World
War II. The large state-owned Central Machine
Works was transferred there from Hunan, while the manufacture of electrical products,
copper, cement, steel, paper, and textiles expanded.”