Wings for the Dragon

Air Classics, Sep 1999 by Barton, Charles

Chiang, greatly pleased with this coup, was disturbed at how easy it had been to shift air power from one faction to another. Thereafter, one of his most trusted generals kept close watch over the Air Force.

One day, Patterson's partner, Knamacher, who drank too much too often, showed up at the airport while Pat was away. The United Aircraft mechanic, imported to assemble 17 Vought Corsairs (export versions of the US Navy's 03U biplane bought by the Chinese as "diving bombers") greeted him.

"Let's try the Corsair you just assembled," Knamacher said. They strapped on their parachutes and took off. Knamacher was in no condition to fly that day and had very little flight time, At 10,000 feet, he entered a steep dive. At pull-out, the Corsair's wings came off,

"The next thing I knew I was hanging from my chute," the mechanic told Patterson. "I don't know how I got there."

Knamacher left a sizable brokerage debt, so his Eurasian broker, Leslie Lewis, whose office was down the hall from China Airmotive, went to Patterson and said, uI guess I'm your new partner."

The new partners were made for each other. Lewis, born in China of a Chinese mother and an English father, had the manners and education of an English gentleman, spoke fluent Chinese, and handled office management, paper work and business affairs. Patterson took care of sales and contracts.

During the Shanghai years, Patterson entertained frequently. Lewis, a gentleman jockey at the Shanghai race track, borrowed horses for Patterson's week-end guests. Sunday-after-saddle brunches became a regular social event.

Meanwhile, the Jouett Mission built and ran the Central Aviation School at Shien Chiao Airfield in Hangchow some 100 miles down the coast from Shanghai. When the mission fulfilled its contract in June 1935, the contract was not renewed because Chiang Kai-shek was angered by the American's refusal to participate in attacks on the dissident 19th Route Army under General Tsai Tingkai during the Fujian (Fukien) rebellion of late 1933.

Considering that this was the army and the commander who had put up such surprising resistance to the Japanese during the 1932 Shanghai Incident, Chiang's vindictiveness is illuminating. China was as much at war with itself as Japan. The Americans considered themselves advisors, not mercenaries. In addition, the State Department advised President Roosevelt not to approve renewing the agreement because of Japanese objections!

For several years thereafter, an Italian air mission was active in China, but the Central Aviation School carried on with Chinese instructors and three American holdovers, Roy Holbrook, W.C. "Foxy" Kent, and William A. "AI" Spencer. Patterson often had his aircraft serviced at Shien Chao, and filled in as a ground and flight instructor when regular instructors were sick or absent.

In 1935, Patterson and Lewis imported a single-engine Porterfield, a two-place, high-wing cabin monoplane to facilitate visiting military airfields throughout China. This posed special problems for the Nationalist Government as there was no private flying in China in those days. The problems were resolved when the Air Force issued them private licenses, the first ever issued in China. The two men drew straws to see who would be number one. Patterson lost and so came to hold the second civilian flying license issued in China.