In the first three days of the air war, from 14, 15 and 16 of August 1937, the Japanese having been strongly influenced under the new airpower doctrine of Italian aerial warfare theorist, General Giulio Douhet, believed that they could force submission of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and his forces using only strategic bombing as exemplified at the Bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War. The concept of the "schnellbomber" (fast bomber) was the design incorporated into the Mitsubishi G3M; with a max-speed of 232 mph in level flight, it in theory "should" outrun the Curtis Hawk II/Hawk III biplanes that formed the primary fighter aircraft of the Chinese Air Force inventory at the beginning of the war, each with a max-speed of 202/225 mph respectively. However, in practice, the Chinese Hawk II and III pilots were still able to vector into and dive for extra speed in pursuit of the Japanese "schnellbombers"; Capt. Wong's squadrons' P-26/281 fighters have even more benefit from its max-speed of 234 mph, but lacked the higher-altitude operation compared to the Hawk III due to lack of supplemental oxygen for its pilot.