After the September 18th Incident in 1931, eight young people from Zhejiang, including Shen Huaijin, a history student at Zhejiang University, Chen Shaokun, the son of an official, and Lin Yutang, a student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, joined the army and became German mechanics. Wearing M35 helmets and holding medium-sized rifles, they became elites under the training of German consultants.
In 1937, the Battle of Songhu broke out, and eight people rushed to the battlefield. Shen Huaijin led a platoon charge in the bloody battle of Luodian, Zhou Wenhan was seriously injured in the Suzhou River, Fang Mingyuan shot down an enemy plane in the Jianqiao air battle and became an ace pilot, and Wu Jingshu rescued the wounded in the field hospital. After three months of bloody fighting, more than 80% of the German weapon divisions suffered casualties, and Zhou Wenhan died of serious injuries.
After retreating from Nanjing, a more brutal defense battle came. Shen Huaijin led the last seven people to hold on to Yuhuatai and died for the country after running out of ammunition and food; Chen Shaokun held an explosive bag and died together with the Japanese tanks at Guanghuamen; Xu Ziqing was lurking in Nanjing and was arrested and sacrificed. After the fall of Nanjing, the German armorers were basically exhausted.
The survivors Zhao Tiezhu, Lin Yutang, Fang Mingyuan, Wu Jingshu, and Li Nianci moved to Jianghuai. Zhao Tiezhu died while covering his comrades in the Battle of Lanfeng. Lin Yutang died with the enemy after his legs were blown off at Madang Fortress. Fang Mingyuan died when his plane hit an enemy plane in an air combat in Wuhan. Wu Jingshu was shot and killed while protecting the wounded during the retreat. By the end of the Battle of Wuhan, not even a single veteran of the original German armorers was left.
In 1975, survivor Xu Ziqing erected 43 tombstones and planted a plum tree in Nanshan Cemetery in Hangzhou. Every year during the Qingming Festival, future generations come to pay their respects and sing "Plum Blossoms": "Plum blossoms are all over the world, and the colder they get, the more they bloom." Those young students bloom like plum blossoms in the ice and snow.
