World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseLiu Zhesheng (Wade-Giles: Liu Che-sheng) was born in Baoding, Hebei Province, China in Feb 1914 into a family originally from Liling, Hunan Province, China. His father was a military officer. In 1931, he joined the Central Officer Academy as a patriotic response to the Japanese invasion of northeastern China. In 1934, he was transferred from the army's academy to the Central Aviation Academy; in 1936, he received a commendation from Chinese leader Chiang Kaishek for academic excellence. Upon graduation in Oct 1936, he was assigned to the 21st Pursuit Squadron of the 4th Pursuit Group. He scored his half-victory (shared with fellow pilot Li Guidan or his wingman Lieutenant Wang Wenhua; records differed on this information) on 14 Aug 1937 near Shanghai, China by downing a G3M bomber of Japanese Kanoya Air Group which had originally launched from Matsuyama Airfield in Taihoku (now Songshan Airport in Taipei), Taiwan. On the following day, he again shared the credit of a downing of a Japanese carrier aircraft near Shanghai; during this engagement, his aircraft was shot in the fuel tank, but he was able to land at Qiaoshi Airfield. In Sep 1937, his squadron was transferred to Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China, where the squadron would be changed to flying US-built Hawk III fighters to Soviet-built I-16 fighters. His first victories in the cockpit of an I-16 fighter came on 18 Feb 1938, when he shared the credit of downing two Japanese A5M monoplane fighters near Hankou, Hubei Province, China. On 31 May 1938, he again shared the credit for the downing of an A5M fighter. After the loss of Hankou to the Japanese, he was transferred to Chongqing, the temporary Chinese capital. During the night of 3-4 Aug 1939, flying alone in an I-15bis fighter, with assistance of search lights, he shot down a Japanese bomber. On 10 Jun 1940, he claimed a Japanese G3M2 bomber east of Chongqing; post war studies of both Chinese and Japanese records showed that the victory should have been shared with other pilots. On 16 Jul 1940, he shot down two Japanese aircraft. Late in the war, he attended the US Army Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Leavenworth, Kansas, United States. When WW2 ended, he was the commanding officer of 24th Pursuit Squadron of 5th Pursuit Group.

ww2dbaseLiu relocated to Taiwan in 1949 when the Chinese Nationalists lost the civil war to the Communists. On 26 Feb 1961, the corpse of a female victim was found in a canal off Xinsheng South Road in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, and a dog hair was found on the body. For unknown reason, the dog hair matched that of Liu's family's pet, and the subsequent sensational news reporting led to his forced retirement from the Chinese Air Force at the rank of major general. It was ultimately found that the female victim was Chen Femei, and she was murdered by her husband Lu Jiaxiang, who had no association with Liu. After his retirement, he operated an ice cream parlor for some time. In late 1990, he traveled to Canada to visit his children, where he would pass away from cerebral hemorrhage in Feb 1991.

Photographs

Liu Zhesheng Timeline