8th Bomber Division (People's Republic of China)

The 8th Bomber Division was founded in Siping, Jilin, on 27 November 1950, under the Northeast Military Region Air Force, the first bomber unit of the newly established People's Republic of China, joined by the 10th Bomber Division in January 1951. With pilots from the 12th Regiment of the 4th Composite Air Brigade (), the original 8th Bomber Division comprised the 22nd and 24th Bomber Regiments, each of which commanded three flight groups () of 64 Tupolev Tu-2 bombers. The 8th Bomber Division recruited ground support personnel from the 504th and 510th PLAGF infantry regiments and recent graduates of the 1st and 2nd Air Force Aviation Schools. After the division was moved to the 3rd Air Corps () in Liaoning Province, it was moved to Shenyang in Liaoning on 13 October 1951. The 8th Bomber Division and ground forces of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) had forced South Korean-allied forces south from Ka-do and T'an-do islands to Taehwa-do, primarily by intense daytime bombing raids. British second lieutenant Leo S. Adams-Acton organized a complex defense of the southernmost island of Taehwa-do principally involving the destroyer HMS Cossack and a sizable contingent of US Air Force fighters. Following the catastrophic November 1951 loss, the Chinese Air Force made no attempts to conduct daylight raids in the Korean War. In January 1953, five months before the conclusion of the conflict, the division began training on Illyushin Il-28 bombers from the Soviet Union. In August 1958, regiments of the 8th Bomber Division were called to Fujian Province to bolster the PLA's blockade to 'dispel the nationalist enemy from the Kinmen Islands' in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. On 22 August, the 22nd Bomber Regiment of the 8th Bomber Division was transferred from Wuhu, Anhui Province, to Zhangshu Airbase and on 26 October, the 24th Bomber Regiment was also transferred to Zhangshu Airbase from Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Eight months later, in April 1959, five Il-28 bombers of the division's 22nd Bomber Regiment were dispatched to Wugong, Shaanxi Province, to join the PLA's efforts to quell the 1959 Tibetan uprising by flying over Golmud, Qinghai. On 11 November 1965, pilot Li Hsien-pin, navigator Li Tsai-wan, and radio operator Lien Pao-sheng of the division's 22nd Bomber Regiment defected from Jianqiao Air Base to Taoyuan Air Base, Taiwan, in an Il-28. Killing Lien Pao-sheng in the subsequent crash landing, the captured Il-28 was the fourth PLAAF aircraft to defect to the island and the first Ilyushin bomber to defect to a non-communist nation and is on display in the Republic of China Air Force Museum. Little is known about the unit's history after 1965 until October 1999 when the 48th Bomber Division, also a bomber division, was merged into the 8th Bomber Division. With a new headquarters in Leiyang City, Hunan Province, 8th Bomber Division was assigned to the Guangzhou Military Region Air Force. In 2011, 24th Bomber Regiment, 8th Bomber Division was the first unit to receive the newly upgrade H-6K with an initial batch of twenty and an operational focus on the South China Sea, Japan, and Guam. The second batch of H-6Ks, also approximately twenty, jointed the PLAAF's 10th Bomber Division in mid-2013 with a focus on Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. In the 2016 restructure of the People's Liberation Army, the Guangzhou Military Region Air Force became the Southern Theater Command Air Force. == Activities ==

In 2015, a pilot of the 8th Bomber Division unintentionally achieved the unit's first low-visibility landing in an H-6K after encountering inclement weather returning from a combat patrol mission in the South China Sea. The pilot's regimental commander remarked that no pilot of the division had prior dared attempt foul-weather take-offs or landings. This deficiency appeared to have been addressed by December 2016 when 90% of pilots from that regiment were said to be trained in low-visibility take-off and landing. The division's training has also included simulated strikes on enemy missile and radar sites. Following the Permanent Court of Arbitration's July 2016 decision to favor Philippine sovereignty in the South China Sea and during United States Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson's visit to Beijing to discuss the issue, the Chinese Communist Party sought a show of force over the South China Sea, tasking elements of the 8th Bomber Division to patrol the disputed South China Sea territories of Fiery Cross Reef, Scarborough Shoal, Mischief Reef, Livock Reef, and Woody Island. The PLAAF released a number of photos and videos of the flights including a twenty-minute feature titled 'My Story with the God of War' in which the interviewed bomber pilot remarks how his bomber could have a "decisive impact on a conflict with just one strike." On 13 July 2017, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) scrambled jets from Okinawa, intercepted, and photographed six Chinese H-6K bombers conducting long-range drills over the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait through the Taiwanese, East China Sea, and Japanese Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ). A PLA spokesperson told Chinese news service CGTN that the aircraft were "testing actual battle capabilities over the sea" as part of "routine exercises". Two bombers were of the 8th Bomber Division and the remaining four of the Eastern Theater Command's 10th Bomber Division. Similarly, on 25 May 2018, the JASDF joined F-16 fighter jets of Taiwanese Air Force in intercepting and photographing two H-6K bombers looping around Taiwan Island through the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait. A photo released by the JASDF shows an H-6K of the 8th Bomber Division, tail number 10192. These flights around Taiwan, unique for their approach over the Bashi Channel to the island's south and exit over the Miyako Strait to its north, are the only documented observations of 8th Bomber Division bombers joining those of the 10th Bomber Division or conducting patrol missions focused on Taiwan. In a summer 2021 attempt to demonstrate British commitment to freedom of maritime navigation and challenging Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea, the HMS Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group, despite warnings by Chinese Communist Party press, sailed through international waters in the South China Sea. Part of these warnings included China Central Television (CCTV) airing a segment featuring ground crews strapping four YJ-12 anti-ship cruise missiles to hardpoints under the wings of an H-6K of the 24th Bomber Regiment, 8th Bomber Division, tail number 11196. In 2022, at the annual China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (colloquially known as the Zhuhai Airshow), an H-6K of the 8th Bomber Division's 24th Bomber Regiment (tail number 11097) was observed carrying what some western defense analysts suspect is the first air-launched model of the CM-401 anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). == Organization ==

Today, the 8th Bomber Division commands three subordinate bomber regiments, the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th Bomber Regiments in Hunan Province. The division headquarters comprises a Staff Department (), Political Work Department (), and Support Department (), each having subordinate second and potentially third-level departments below them. A number of principal leaders in division headquarters also form the division's Party Standing Committee () which includes the division commander and at least two of his deputy commanders, the political commissar and at least one of his deputy political commissars, the secretary of the Discipline Inspection Committee, the division chief of staff (who directs the Staff Department), director of the Political Work Department, as well as the director of the Support Department and his political commissar. • 22nd Bomber Regiment (Unit 95183) at Shaodong Air Base operates H-6K bombers, tail numbers 18091–18499 A unit's TUD is intended for internal use while the MUCD is intended to be used externally to protect and conceal the true identity of the unit. Some speculate the presence of H-6J naval-variant bombers in the 8th Bomber Division after an apparent H-6J was photographed at Leiyang Air Base (garrison to the 23rd and 24th Bomber Regiment) bearing the tail number 11294, within the range of the 24th Bomber Regiment. == See also ==