Disappointed by the performance of the BMW VI-powered He 111 A-0, Germany redesignated six of these ten aircraft as the 'He 111 K', and sold them to the New Guangxi Clique in 1936. These aircraft were then taken over by the central government of the Republic of China and incorporated into the Air Force of the Republic of China, specifically in the 19th Squadron, 8th Group. After the Lugou Bridge Incident - the battle on the 7th of July 1937 that began the Second Sino-Japanese War and, debatably, the Second World War - five He 111s were deployed on a combat mission against Japanese troops near Shanghai. Three were shot down. This is attributed in part due to excessive deployment of the retractable ventral gun 'dustbin', which made the He 111s lag behind their escorts and the six Martin 139 bombers of the 30th Squadron. On the 25th of August, a raid by three He 111s of the 19th and two Martin 139s of the 30th took off from Nanjing to bomb Japanese troops and Liuhe, northwest of Shanghai. The bombs were dropped successfully, but Japanese fighters attacked the bombers and forced two He 111s to crash land. Two crewmen were then killed when the Japanese pilots strafed them on the ground. In December 1943, the last surviving He 111 was modified with Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines and used as a transport aircraft by the Chinese National Aviation Corporation. It was destroyed in a takeoff accident on December 23rd, 1944.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinke...tional_history

https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase/368078

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