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ROCAF (Republic of China Air Force)

Operator Identification

  1920 to present

  Republic of China (later Taiwan)

TYPE: Air force

IATA/ICAO CODES: Nil

HEADQUARTERS: Guangzhou, Guangdong (1925-1927), Nanking, Jiangsu (1927-1937), Chungking, Sichuan (1937-1945), Nanking, Jiangsu (1945-1949), Taiwan (since 1949)

OTHER NAME: China Nationalist Air Force (CNAF)

FATE: Fled to Taiwan in April 1949, and functions as the Taiwanese Air Force to this day.

Republic of china government

Operator History

The Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) was founded in 1920, and acted from 1925 as the air arm of the Kuomintang. The latter, headed by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, had taken power after a decade and a half of unrest that followed the fall of the last emperor. The military forces of the Kuomintang faced many challenges: uniting China, then under the influence of several warlords, fighting the Japanese invasion from 1937 to 1945, and finally the Communist rebels from 1927 to 1949.

Following the Japanese invasion, ROCAF received a massive amount of help from the USA. After it retreated its government from Nanking to Chungking in 1937 in the face of enemy advance, retired US Army Air Corps general Claire Lee Chennault headed the Republic fo China Air Force. From 1940, he arranged the purchase of 100 Curtiss P-40 fighters and the recruitment of 300 American volunteers who would form ROCAF's 1st American Volunteer Group, later known as the Flying Tigers. Following the Japanese invasion of Burma, which effectively isolated the nationalist Chinese, USAAF's Air Transport Command established an air bridge to supply the Kuomintang. The 14th Air Force was later established and deployed in China to fight off the Japanese in support of the overwhelmed ROCAF.

After 1945, ROCAF turned its attention to Communist rebels. The outbreak of the Cold War meant that the USA still supported intensively the Nationalist Chinese, now against the threat of communism. Massive amounts of equipment, most USAAF leftovers in China from WWII, were sold to ROCAF between 1945 and 1949 instead of being repatriated or destroyed. Most of it ended up being taken over by the Communist upon their victory on the mainland in April 1949, but some was saved as Kuomintang forces fled to Taiwan.

Following the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan, ROCAF became Taiwan's air force.

Commando Operations

March 1946* to April 1949

China received 23 Commandos under Lend-Lease in 1945 (twelve C-46E, C/N 2933-2935 and 2937-2945, were earmarked for delivery to China in 1945 but remained in the USA).

A large number of Commandos left over from USAAF Air Transport Command were stored in Chungking, Sichuan after the war. On 15 April 1946, the US Congress approved the sale of dozens of them to ROCAF in support of its fight against communism. Somehow, a few Commandos were sold to ROCAF on 31 March 1946, a couple weeks ahead of the decision, while the rest were handed over on 15 April.

Finally, in 1948, the USA decided to provide an additional 150 Commandos to Nationalist China. These were taken from the RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corporation) stocks at Walnut Ridge AAF, AR, de-mothballed and overhauled. TALOA won the contract to overhaul the airplanes and ferry them to China, while another outfit was put in charge of overhauling the engines. TALOA was selected on its ambitious proposal to ferry the airplanes between Oakland, CA and Shanghai, China, while all other bidders proposed to dismantle the airplanes and ship them. Under that scheme, the airplanes were fitted with cabin ferry tanks at Oakland, CA and ferried by TALOA pilots to China. The tanks consisted of a metal shell with a neoprene rubber bladder inside, and extended the range from 1,500 to 2,600 miles. They were connected to the aircraft fuel system by a makeshift system of hoses and valves, and vented to the exterior of the aircraft. As experts evaluated the probable loss during these ferries to 7 aircraft, a total of 157 airplanes were overhauled and ferried across the Pacific - but in the end not a single one was lost. The ferry route was Oakland, CA - Honolulu, HI - Wake or Midway - Guam - Okinawa, Japan - Shanghai, China. The Commandos were dispatched in groups of 5, and a TALOA DC4 was later flown to China to bring the crews back to Oakland.

Very little information exist about the service of all these aircraft with ROCAF, it is even possible that a number of them were never actually operated. Some early ones were also probably operated by Chinese airlines CAT (Civil Air Transport), CNAC (China National Aviation Corporation) and CATC (Central Air Transport Corporation). In any case, the majority of them was seized by the Communists in April 1949, with only a fraction being able to flee to Taiwan and remain with ROCAF.

ROCAF operated many of its Commandos directly under their USAAF Serial Number, while the ones received in 1948 were assigned a serial in the C-46XXX format.

Commandos Operated

Commandos purchased by China under Lend-Lease - April to June 1945:

Commandos purchased by China from Chungking, Sichuan USAAF surplus - 15 April 1946:

Commandos purchased by China from RFC surplus - August 1948:

Last edited: 17/08/2024