Zhou Guoxuan said there is one day he will never forget.
It was May 8, 1945, the turning point in China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).
The Xiangxi Battle in western Hunan started on April 9, 1945. Japan mobilized five divisions and three mixed brigades - a total of 80,000 soldiers. Their mission was to seize an air base in Zhijiang.
China assembled 20 divisions, about 200,000 soldiers, and deployed more than 400 battle planes.
The Japanese army quickly marched toward their destination with little resistance at first. They encountered determined Chinese forces on May 1 near Xuefeng Mountain. They were later defeated at that spot.
"I can still recall on that day 60 years ago the Chinese and US air forces aroused batches of battle planes to bombard the positions of the Japanese army in my hometown and nearby Qingyan Village," the 75-year-old man said.
"The fierce battle started at dawn. The roar of guns and artillery did not cease until 4 in the afternoon. My pals and I then went to the battlefield," he continued. "When we saw the corpses of Japanese soldiers scattered far and wide on the hillsides and fields, we all exclaimed with the greatest excitement 'the Japs were defeated and we won."'
His fellow villager Xiao Yansheng was even more excited when recalling the battle.
Xiao pointed at a forest on Xuefeng Mountain and said he saw the planes of the Chinese and US air forces come one squadron after another on May 8 around Jiangkou and Qingyan. They bombed and strafed Japanese forces.
"The Japanese army had no anti-aircraft weapons and scampered off like frightened rats. The bodies of Japanese soldiers were seen all around the mountain," Xiao said.
"The Japanese army were routed like an ebb tide. No one expected them to lose the battle so quickly."
Xiao Dongliang, researcher of the Hunan Academy of Social Sciences, said the battle was important for more than just military reasons.
"It was the first thorough victory Chinese people had in battling foreign intruders in more than a century," Xiao said.
Xiao, an expert on Chinese anti-Japanese history, also said "the turning point of the Xiangxi Battle on May 8, 1945, was a prelude to China's counterattack against Japan."
China lost 7,737 men in the Xiangxi Battle. Nearly 12,500 Japanese soldiers were killed and another 23,300 were wounded.
Senior military officials from both China and the United States went to the battlefield about 10 days later to commend the troops on their success.
Xiao said the Xiangxi Battle proved China played an important role in defeating fascism during World War II.