Eurasia Aviation Corporation (Chinese: 歐亞航空公司) was a Chinese airline headquartered in Shanghai.[1] The company had a Sino-German joint-venture with Deutsche Luft Hansa.[2] Eurasia, classified as a state-owned airline by the Ministry of Communications of China,[3] operated the Junkers W33[4] and, later, the three-engined Junkers Ju 52.The main fleet base was Hong Kong. When the Japanese began occupying portions of China in the late 1930s, the airline encountered difficulty.[3]
Founded | 1925 |
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Ceased operations | 1943 |
Hubs | Kai Tak Airport |
Headquarters | Shanghai, China |
Eurasia Aviation Corporation | |||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 歐亞航空公司 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 欧亚航空公司 | ||||||||
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On the day of the Pearl Harbor attack, about a dozen of Imperial Japanese Army Air Force's Ki-36 attack bombers from the 45th Sentai, escorted by nine Ki-27s from the 10th Dokuritsu Hikō Chutai led by Captain Akira Takatsuki, attacked Kai Tak airfield, Hong Kong, destroying many civilian and combat aircraft of the Commonwealth, the CNAC, and three Eurasia Aviation's Junkers 52/3m airliners; these were believed to have been aircraft ‘XIX’ (fmr. D-AGEI), ‘XXII’ (fmr. D-ABIZ) and ‘XXIV’ (fmr. D-AIMP). A fourth Junkers, believed to have been ‘XV’ (fmr. D-ANYK) was undamaged, as was a single Junkers W 34 ‘II’ (fmr. D-7).[5]
Routes included Shanghai-Lanzhou, Beiping (Beijing)-Henan, Liangzhou-Urumqi, and Shanghai-Manzhouli.[6]
Japanese aircraft bombed and attacked from low level, heavy bombs falling on the barracks in Shamshuipo Camp while the fighters strafed; one of the three present Vildebeests (K2924, K2818, K6370) and both present Walrus amphibians (L2259, L2819) went up in flames. The Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps Tutor, two Hornet Moths and two Cadets were also put out of action... Three Ju 52/3m airliners of Eurasia Air Corporation were also destroyed... Japanese pilots claimed 12 aircraft destroyed at Kai Tak... WO Eiji Seino, who together with his wingman, staffed the airfield and claimed a number of aircraft destroyed on the ground... all undamaged civil aircraft, crowded with evacuees, were flown away from Hong Kong by American and Chinese pilots to Namyung, 200 miles inland...