A Japanese Air Base, Feb. 24.
More than 50 Chinese aeroplanes were either shot down in the air or damaged by bombs in the yesterday's Japanese raid upon Lanchow, Kansu base, on the Sino-Soviet air route, pilots revealed here today. Official data, however, was still unobtainable as headquarters officers sought to correlate various reports.
Officers participating in the raid were unanimous in the opinion that a heavy blow was inflicted against Chinese efforts to reorganize an air force by means of heavy purchases of Soviet and American craft.
Appearing for the first time were American Seversky single-seat fighters, while increased numbers of Curtiss-Hawks created, together with Soviet-build 1-15 and 1-16 machines, a heavy cordon. Between 20 to 30 of these combat aircraft were in the air to repel the Japanese.
On the ground, were sighted American Douglas bombers, additional Seversky machines and Soviet-built TH bombers, many of which were assortedly demolished by Japanese bombs.
Because of the furious fights that took place, officers found difficulty in determining the exact number of Chinese planes shot down in combat as many reports duplicated each other.
The total Chinese aircraft concentration at Lanchow yesterday was placed at 70 machines.—Domei.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.