Xijun Hua

Lost Black Cats Xijun Hua

On May 1, 1960, a U-2 was shot down over Russia and its pilot, Gary Powers, was captured, followed by Premier Khrushchev using the long-waited summit meeting in Paris as a public platform to denounce U. S. intrusion on Russian air space and to demand an apology from President Eisenhower. All these events made U-2 a world-renowned spyplane. This extraordinary high altitude reconnaissance aircraft had also been used over China and her vicinity. A US-ROC joint entity (Black Cat Squadron) was organized to conduct the operation from Taiwan for fifteen years. Five U-2s were shot down by Communist surface-to-air missiles. Two of the Nationalist Chinese pilots survived the missile explosion, yet were severely wounded, and then captured by the People