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Here's something we bet you didn't know: in 1938, Soviet pilots in Soviet planes (disguised to look like ROC Air Force planes) bombed the main airfield in Taihoku (now the Songshan Airport 臺北松山機場 in Taipei City). We've got that story and more as this week John and Eryk get a bit geeky and delve into some of the stories behind the planes we saw during recent visits to the Gangshan Aviation Education Exhibition Hall (航空教育展示館).
Cover image by John Ross.
Below: The Soviet Tupolev SB. Planes like these were disguised with ROC insignia for a 1938 bombing raid on Taipei's main airfield by Soviet pilots. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Below: A rare image of Soviet aviators at Hankou (now part of Wuhan) airfield. It was from this airfield in China that the secret Soviet bombing mission took off from in February, 1938.
Anyone interested in Taiwan's wartime history should visit the Aviation Education Exhibition Hall (航空教育展示館) in Gangshan District, Kaohsiung.
Map link 920139:0x4008a79808e521a9!8m2!3d22.7941523!4d120.2690732!15sCjdodHRwczovL3d3dy5hZWVoLmNvbS50dy90dy9pbmRleC5hc3A_YXVfaWQ9NTgmc3ViX2lkPTYykgELYXJteV9tdXNldW3gAQA!16s%2Fg%2F11c0pz4dpj?entry=ttu">HERE.
Below: The Starfighter - a jet used in the last air ROC-PRC air battle. Photo by John Ross.
Below: The lounge/meeting area in the former presidential jet. Photo by John Ross.
Photos below by Eryk Michael Smith
Below: Eryk's youngest daughter, Lucy, demonstrates her "wow" face after entering the main hall of the Aviation Education Exhibition Hall.
Check out an amusing video of Lucy's walk through the former presidential plane, during which she suddenly becomes rather autocratic :)
Below: The cover of the 2017 edition of Formosa Betrayed, by George Kerr (1965). Right: The book we quote from in this episode is Kerr's 1974 book Formosa: Licensed Revolution and the Home Rule Movement, 1895-1945.
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
