The Boeing 218 was an export version of the F4B (US Navy) and P-12 (USAAC) fighter, which had entered American service in 1929. A small number of 218s were sold to Chinese warlords (sources are not clear and it may have been just a single aircraft), and it was during the delivery of one of these by an American contractor named Robert M. Short that the type claimed its first victories during the Shanghai Incident. A few days later Short again encountered Japanese aircraft over the city, claiming one shot down, but was himself shot down and killed by a Nakajima A1N.
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