World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), founded by US businessman William D. Pawley and with ties to the US aircraft manufacturing firm Curtiss-Wright, had been in China since 1933. The main assembly plant had been in Hangzhou in coastal Zhejiang Province, but through 1937 and 1938, as the Japanese advanced during the opening stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the factory moved several times southwestward, ultimately, in 1939, to the small town of Leiyun (Postal Map romanization: Loiwing) in Yunnan Province on the Chinese side of the Chinese-Burmese border. Although it was operated as a CAMCO factory, the facility was, for the most part, funded by the Chinese government. Most of the raw materials for the factory arrived from the south via the Burma Road. Only eight Hawk Model 75 (known as P-36 to US Army aviation) fighters were built through Oct 1940, and a few CW-21 fighters by the US entry into the war in Dec 1941, as the factory spent more repairing damaged aircraft than assembling new kits. The runways neighboring the factory was briefly used by the 1st American Volunteer Group, "Flying Tigers", to mount raids against Japanese positions in Thailand and Burma in late 1941 and early 1942. The Leiyun location was captured by Japanese troops in Apr 1942, but not before the equipment and personnel were moved to Bangalore, India and Kunming, China.

Leiyun CAMCO Factory Interactive Map

Photographs

Leiyun CAMCO Factory Timeline