Upvote:1
It appears that was killed in a napalm strike by U.S. forces, although there is at least a slight possibility that the responsible aircrafts was South African.
By then four US bombers had flown past the village where the headquaters was located. People thought the bombers went to bomb the Yalu River bridge. Mao Anying and the soldier went into the headquaters, and found some eggs Marshal Peng had saved for himself, and started cooking egg fried rice. At this time, an officer was checking on the headquaters staff, and noticed the smoke coming out of the chimney. He went inside and told Mao Anying to leave immediately. Mao Anying agreed to leave as soon as he finished the egg fried rice. As the officer was leaving the village, he saw the four bombers return from the north. They dropped napalm bombs on the village. Mao Anying's charred body was found afterwards in the burnt out ruins.
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An American fighter-bomber swooped over the site, machine guns going, strafing from a low level, and leaving the Chinese no time to take cover. Casualties were not great, but one of the three officers killed was Mao Anying. Mao refused to have his son's body returned to China. Mao made no public expression about his son's death and Anying's death was kept secret for years. Peng Dehuai did not tell Mao Zedong of his son's death for weeks in fear of Mao's reaction.
Another story tells that: The evening of 24 November 1950, two P-61 Black Widows were spotted on a photo reconnaissance mission by the Chinese on the ground near the location. The next day on 25 November at around noon, a South African Air Force A-26 bomber dropped four napalm bombs, one of which hit a makeshift house near the cave, killing Mao Anying and another officer who were cooking their lunch in violation of war-time regulations of Chinese Army. _ Source
On Thursday, the 60th anniversary of his death, a phalanx of North Korean officials paid their respects to Mao Anying, who was killed by an American airstrike while fighting as a volunteer in the Korean War and subsequently buried in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il himself sent a wreath of flowers to the gravesite, according to reports by the state-controlled news agencies of both North Korea and China.
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