At 11 a.m. on 12 October 1937, two enemy planes flew to Nanjing to reconnoitre, and Gao Zhihang, commander of the Fourth Brigade of our country, led four planes to intercept them.
At 14 o'clock in the afternoon, it was reported that nine enemy bombers and six destroyers were attacking Nanjing, and Liu Cuigang, the captain of our 24th team, led a total of eight planes to take off to meet the enemy, Liu Cuigang immediately attacked the enemy bomber group, and the enemy destroyers turned to attack Liu Ji.
In the course of the operation, our pilot Huang Panyang shot down an enemy plane, Gao Zhihang, the captain of the Fourth Brigade, shot down an enemy plane, Cao Fangzhen, a member of the team, was martyred, and Huang Zizhan, the leader of the detachment, was slightly injured in a forced landing.
On the same day, Mrs. Chiang and Mrs. Soong Meiling, together with countless Nanjing citizens, witnessed the course of the Chinese Air Force's interception of enemy planes.
The reporter wrote down the figure of Liu Cuigang fighting bravely to kill the enemy:
When there is an enemy destroyer to Liu Jun provoked, to the south of the city, Liu Jun suddenly volleyed into the air, ready to manipulate the enemy, the plane also flew to compete, fighting each other up and down, no less than a dozen rounds, just when the enemy plane turned, Captain Liu shot fiercely from the side, the enemy was caught off guard, that is, the bullet **, loud noise, sound shock the city, the enemy plane crashed into the Yang Mansion No. 5 in Mendong Shuizuoying, Captain Liu bravely killed the enemy's superior technology, witnesses all praised, Yu Ji saw that the situation was not good, and fled in the direction of Maqun Town outside Zhongshan Gate.
Liu Cuigang smiled and boarded the plane, also captured by the reporter's lens, became his most famous image, but two weeks later, Liu Cuigang was killed in a crash while supporting the Northern Battlefield, only twenty-five years old, less than a month later, thirty-year-old Gao Zhihang also died heroically, although their lives stopped, but the fearless Jianqiao Air Force spirit still became the benchmark for backward pilots, forever shining in the Chinese sky.
*From Qiu Zhixian on Sina Weibo, October 12, 2023.