ORIGINAL: YankeeAirRat
Yes, it is typically a wrongly referred to force that was the Japanese puppet Nationalist Government formed after Chaing abandoned Nanking in 1937. At this
link to the Air Combat Information Group's website,
www.acig.org and do a search for "Cochinchina AF". I had also seen references to the same in some research papers I had seen referenced when talking about the formation of the PLAAF in the NHHC archives and the NARA archives as it related to intel on ROC/PRC relations vis-a-via the Matsu island crisis of the 1950's. Basically some of the aircraft that were going to be assigned to the Reformed Nationalist Chinese Air Force, again mistakenly identified as the Cochinchina AF were going to be authorized by the Imperial Japanese Army, but the aircraft were ordered or were salavaged from the airfields around Nanking. However, the IJA and IJAAF didn't trust their puppets so instead they were drilled and trained on maintenance; while the aircraft tasked to the were instead sent to Cochinchina (Southern Vietnam) instead to fill IJAAF losses there. It is believed that is where the confusion arose since radio traffic may have stated that the Air Units be transferred to Cochinchina, some intelligence officers might have believed the IJA was standing up an air force in Cochinchina.
Most of the books that I have read on the Viet-Minh and the years prior to the American involvement in the Indochina wars, state that very few (like less then 1%) of the Vietnamese people were happy with the Japanese being there since the Japanese operated no differently then the French with regards to treatment of the native population. So it would be real suprising to see Southern Vietnamese people be willing to stand up and go willingly with the Japanese to learn how to fly and fight for the Japanese.
That reference site is pretty good (from the point of view of a student of Chinese air forces).
Except it has not one word about the CoChin China Air Force (possibly it was deleted?)
However, it has one thing wrong - it says the Manchukuo Air Force was disbanded by 1940, with the
formation of the (Japanese puppet) air force in China. In fact the Manchukuo Air Force greatly
expanded during WWII, and while it had a few chutai's at the start, it had numbers of sentais
by 1945. These were not well endowed with modern aircraft, but had numbers of obsolescent ones.
It is less clear they did a lot of flying. Apart from issues of trust, there was also the matter
of aviation spirit - hard to come by in Japanese territories late in the war. Once - at John Fluke
Mfg Co in Everette, Washington, I met a research engineer who, as a boy, grew up in Manchukuo,
and built a wind powered generator using a propeller he salvaged from a Ki-43 in Manchukuo service -
after it disbanded during the Soviet occupation. He had interesting things to say about the Chinese,
Japanese, Koreans and Russians he met - both good and bad in all cases. But clearly there had been
an air force under local colors.
As for people in "Co Chin China" being willing to fight for the Japanese, such an opinion ignores
the actual alliance of various groups - including one fairly large scale one involving both para military
(that is police) and military elements. Co China China was the formal French name for Southern "South"
Viet Nam - the middle was Annam and the North was Tonkin. These were traditional and separate polities
with somewhat different ethnic foundations and histories. Co China China was dominated by the Mekong
River system. From that area (originally named for a village that was its first base) formed a group -
often called "pirates" (by those not familiar with the SOPs in the entire area - you had Chinese para
military groups doing similar things - well actually to at least the end of the 20th century and maybe still)
- known to history as Bin Xuyen. The leader of the land force - Ba Du'ong - managed to field 2000 men
in 1945 when he decided to act against the returning French: he joined the communists - he was commissioned
colonel and later general by different South Vietnamese regimes - until Diem decided to consolidate power
and wiped them out. The idea that mercenaries might ally with Japan is not in the least far fetched in the
context of the area. The idea that "if you feed me and let me have guns, I will do your bidding" is also
the SOP of the entire region - and often the "feed me" part was NOT in the deal - you were expected to feed
yourself (and after all you had guns - leading some to call it piracy - whereas it was the SOP of how military
units survived for a long period of history). I find Francillon to be an outstanding source, and even when
he says something controversial (look up the A6M4) - evidence indicates he was not confused - and was precisely
correct in what he wrote. He also has a fine reputation among resident staff at the National Diet Library.
If he says there was a CoChin China Air Force - and that it was allocated the old Italian bombes - probably that is
true.