Japanese naval soldiers ran back and forth on the deck and cabin, carrying ammunition and cleaning shells. The gunners in the gun room were also waiting for instructions to observe the global balloons and perform the final calibration of the elements.
Although they can't stand the stubborn attitude of the Army's genius, they can no longer put on airs at this critical moment. They can still be clear about the more important ones.
The communication orders from the Garrison Command in the radio kept ringing, all of which were urging the navy to open fire immediately. However, because the enemy's gun positions were too scattered and different from the previous location, it took time to recalibrate the aiming and choose the strike.
"The main gun has a height of 5, the left 12 position is tight, adjust immediately! The secondary gun..."
On the heavy cruiser of Football, the Japanese gunner lieutenant was standing on the deck, staring at the movements on the shore through a high-power telescope, while adjusting the shooting angle based on the intelligence command position given by the observation balloon.
But the next moment, dozens of black dots suddenly appeared on the distant skyline. When he saw the object clearly, his expression instantly frozen.
"そんオわけないでしょ? How could it be..."
The second lieutenant slowly lowered the telescope, looked at the horizon with a dull expression, muttering to himself in disbelief.
At this moment, other observation positions also saw the attacking enemy planes. A harsh alarm sounded immediately on the ship. In an instant, the Japanese naval soldiers became panicked as if they were struck by lightning.
"Roll the air strike alarm quickly!"
"Hayaku! Everyone entered the air defense seat!"
A group of black aircraft rushed from the north, with P40, F4U, B17 air fortresses, and various types of fighter bombers emerged one after another, and even Beaufort torpedo bombers... At first glance, there were countless aircraft.
It is not just Liao Mingyu's work to mobilize so many fighter jets at the same time. This time it was a joint attack operation composed of the Allied Air Force and the Heihe Flying Brigade.
The battle in Yangon has been delayed for too long. In order to solve the problem as soon as possible, Stilwell also faced huge pressure and provided it with a large number of military aircraft, which took off from airports such as India and Mandalay in a mighty manner.
The purpose of this battle was mainly to attack several heavy cruisers and destroyers on the Japanese sea. Those little Japanese navy at sunset dared to drive ships to the port to block the expeditionary force. It was too arrogant.
You should know that the US military has done a lot of this kind of thing on the Pacific islands and reefs, which can be said to have tortured the Japanese enough, but if you change the role, it will be less pleasant.
However, killing the opponent's three heavy patrols can further weaken the Japanese army's sea power and bring an advantage to the subsequent battle situation.
For this reason, the Allied forces were also actively preparing for war, until a few days ago, Liao Mingyu handed over the plan for the general attack to Stilwell. After a brief discussion, the latter decided to provide five airports with more than 90 fighter jets as line reinforcements.
In addition to the four flight squadrons of the 88th Army's Heihe Base and Mandalay Airport, a total of more than 100 fighter jets were on standby all day during this period. As long as Liao Mingyu gave the order, they would immediately take off and rush to the battlefield.
Now the opportunity has finally arrived. After a wave of poisonous gas bombs in the early morning, the fighter planes at each airport immediately took off as planned, and the shelling came as scheduled. A massive general attack began.
The noisy and harsh air raid sirens have sounded, and there are a lot of chaos in Yangon City or naval ships. Faced with such a terrifying air raid, everyone can't suppress the fear in their hearts.
The anti-aircraft guns on the sea were the first to fire, and tracer bombs formed countless fire colors intertwined in the sky.
The fighter planes in the sky are like eagles, shuttled through the line of fire composed of endless rain of bullets.
The Japanese navy no longer had the energy to care about land affairs, because they were already in danger of protection. Almost at the same time as the anti-aircraft guns were fired, an attack echelon of hundreds of fighter jets and bombers also launched an attack on the sea.
The three high-level cruisers headed by Akatsura have not many air defense weapons on their ships and are not very large in caliber.
Each ship is only equipped with twelve Type 89 high-angle guns and twelve anti-aircraft machine guns. There is a big problem in the design of this anti-aircraft gun by the Japanese, that is, the anti-aircraft gun and the ammunition depot do not form an integrated ammunition supply process, which limits the efficiency of the ammunition transfer from the ammunition depot to the anti-aircraft gun position. This structure in disguise weakens the combat capability of the anti-aircraft gun.
The key is that its rate of fire is only about 10 rounds per minute, and manpower is required to carry it from boxes of ammunition depots to the position. Many times, the anti-aircraft guns are silenced because the ammunition cannot be continued.
Fortunately, since this Japanese fleet is supporting the ground, the distribution range of seven or eight large and small warships is not large, the air defense firepower network built is also quite dense.
At present, Yangon's foreign port is fighting more fiercely than on land. Pilots in the sky dodge and shuttle in various ways, trying to avoid attacks from anti-aircraft machine guns, and at the same time looking for opportunities to dive toward the target.
The Japanese were not willing to be outdone. All the navy soldiers were involved in air defense operations. The ammunition was holding a box in their arms and lined up to recharge the high-angle artillery. The delayed artillery shells burst into a black explosion fireball in the sky, struggling to block the fighter planes trying to cross the defense line.
The two sides' gun showdown began. The pilot controlled the fighter's series of strafing and diving, which always took away some unlucky guys, and the Japanese also rushed up to take over the post of the dead companion.
To attack such a giant sea-surface ship, besides torpedoes, dive bombing is the most effective and has the best impact. However, it is very dangerous for pilots. They have to pass through the heavy firepower net and then stretch and leave. This behavior can be said to be a life-threatening death.
From time to time, a fighter plane would drag black smoke to the sea, but the parachuting pilots became the most dangerous target in the air. Some Japanese machine gunners specially selected parachutes that opened in the air to shoot, and the battle seemed to have entered a white-hot heat from the beginning.
However, as more and more fighter jets joined the attack echelon, the air defense firepower network on the Japanese army's heavy patrol gradually became unsatisfied.
The first thing that was opened was a Bailu-class destroyer on the edge. Its ship was hit by two KI30 torpedo attack aircraft's KI30 torpedoes on the stern side. The sea water poured violently backwards from the gap, and the entire ship slowly tilted to one side.
The Japanese soldiers on the boat were in a panic, and some people had already started wearing life jackets to dive into the water to escape.
At this moment, a P40 fighter jet braved the dense line of fire and finally successfully broke through, and dropped 500 kilograms of high-explosion bombs mounted on the belly of the aircraft under the terrified eyes of hundreds of naval soldiers of the Miaogao heavy cruiser.
The bomb hit the front of a double-company main gun behind the ship like a meteorite.
With a loud bang, the terrifying explosion directly exploded a big hole on the deck, and countless Japanese evaporated on the spot, and even the main gun next to it was blown upside down.
Chapter completed!