As an air commander with high hopes from the aviation wing commander, Captain Saburo Shindo would not immediately attack with all his strength as soon as his prey appeared.
The characteristics of the I-15 biplane were so obvious that the air commander of the Japanese navy, who was eager for revenge, did not take this backward old aircraft seriously and only led an aviation squadron to break away from the bomber group and attack it.
If the swooping Yi-15 aircraft group wants to attack the huge bomber group, it must break through the defense line laid by 12 Zero fighters in the air.
With more versus less, and based on Captain Saburo Shinto's understanding of the Chinese Air Force pilots, the Chinese fighter groups will definitely rush over without hesitation, and then he and his subordinates will kill each other one by one with the maneuverability of the Zero fighter jets that far exceeds the opponent's.
In this airspace.
Unexpectedly, there were still about 3,000 meters between the two sides' aircraft fleets. Seeing that in ten seconds, they would be within range of each other, the Chinese aircraft fleet unexpectedly turned around.
In normal times, Shindo Saburo would definitely take protecting the bomber group as his own responsibility. As long as the Chinese fighter planes did not come, he would protect the bomber group from returning smoothly. However, the Japanese naval aviation captain who had experienced the Yiling air battle and the fierce artillery fire over the mountain city not long ago was now
What he needs most is the blood of his enemies. Only these bright reds can extinguish the anger in his heart.
Through the rearview mirror in the cabin, one could see the bomber group accelerating away from the battlefield under the protection of 12 Zero fighters. After thinking for a few seconds, Shindo Saburo finally issued the pursuit order.
He believed that even if this was a Chinese trick to lure the enemy, the remaining 12 fighter jets would be able to hold on until he finished killing these old Chinese fighter jets and returned.
At an altitude of less than 3,000 meters, the Zero fighter's maximum speed exceeds 500 kilometers per hour, which is far beyond the reach of a biplane fighter with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
Captain Saburo Shindo's tactical thinking is completely correct in a certain respect.
According to the post-war comparison of the combat power of Japan's Zero fighter jets against the Chinese Iraqi series of fighter jets, it was a completely unilateral crushing. If it wanted to break through the defense line of 12 Zero fighter jets, China would have to mobilize at least 3 to 4 times the number of fighter jets.
However, with 24 already dispatched, dispatching another 40 or so Iraqi series fighters is an almost impossible task for the current Chinese Air Force.
Because the maximum range of the Iraqi series fighter jets is only 500 kilometers, it simply does not support the fighter jets distributed at airports across Sichuan Province traveling such long distances to arrive here for air combat, and then fly back to their respective airports.
The start of the battlefield was just as Shinto Saburo expected. Five minutes later, 12 menacing Zero fighter jets bit the Chinese aircraft group that was "escaping in embarrassment" in an area 28 kilometers away from where the Chinese fighter jets appeared.
Seeing that speed could no longer escape the pursuit of the Japanese planes, the 24 Chinese fighter planes could only leave some of them to tangle with the Japanese planes, while the other dozen fighter planes struggled to dive and change directions to gain a favorable position to fight the Japanese planes.
Then, the Chinese people watching the battle on the ground saw an extremely tragic scene.
Whether it is turning radius, maneuvering speed or firepower, the plane with the blood-red sun on its tail is far above the plane with the blue sky and white sun flag.
The eight Chinese fighter planes left behind to block the enemy could not escape the pursuit of the Japanese planes, no matter whether they dived to escape or climbed desperately. Even a three-year-old child could see how cumbersome the biplanes were in front of the monoplanes.
In just 2 minutes, 8 Chinese fighter jets were either shot down or damaged and emitted thick smoke. The fighter jets had to make an emergency landing in the farmland dragging smoke columns, but there was only a chance for 3 white flowers to bloom in the sky!
As for the only fighter plane that made an emergency landing, when the villagers rushed to the plane in an attempt to rescue the pilot, risking being swooped down by Japanese planes, they found that the windshield had long been shattered, the pilot had been shot in the chest, and his blood had long been
Dyeing the entire cockpit blood red.
Before the villagers could lift him out of the cockpit, the young pilot breathed out his last breath.
God knows what kind of perseverance he had. At the moment before his life was about to end, he not only smoothly controlled the damaged fighter plane to rush into low altitude, but also stopped the plane steadily in the rice fields full of muddy water.
No one knows how he accomplished this miracle, but the fighter plane was saved by the villagers using local materials and using muddy water and rice from the rice fields to extinguish the flames. It was eventually transported back to Jiulongpo Airport.
Although this old and severely damaged fighter plane will never have the chance to take to the skies again because of the new fighter planes in service, it has been preserved in the Chinese Military Museum. The bullet holes on its fuselage have not been repaired, and the cockpit of the fighter plane has not been repaired.
The blood stains have not been cleaned either.
An old antique from the 1930s, in an inconspicuous position in the China Military Museum, displays the glory of blood and sacrifice to all visitors!
Sometimes, it is true that not only victory is glorious, but also failure and sacrifice.
It was these most outstanding young people in China who sacrificed their lives to slow down the advance of the Japanese army and gave the entire nation a chance to breathe.
Just like this battle that is destined to fail, before they boarded the plane, they knew that they were just bait and consumables, and the risk was much greater than those of their comrades who were circling at an altitude of nearly 7,000 meters looking for fighter planes.
Moreover, as the commander, Zheng Shaoyu gave them the opportunity to withdraw. If there were not enough people willing to serve as "cannon fodder", he would re-modify his tactics and use a head-on approach to fight the Japanese escort aircraft group and bomber group.
But these young people from elite families choose to face death head on!
There is a choice on the battlefield called living to death. Only by fighting hard can you have a chance to live. And they are called dying to die, using their own lives to exchange for the chance of others living.
In the end, as people in Bishan County waited eagerly, 24 Chinese fighter planes were defeated!
The battle damage ratio was an extremely frustrating 0 to 18! Less than 4 of the 18 Chinese fighter planes were able to make a successful forced landing. A full 14 fighter planes were shot down in the mountains and fields, but only one Chinese pilot could survive by parachuting.
7 people.
On the Japanese side, only two fighter planes had white smoke rising from their tails, but judging from their attitude and speed in the air, they should have suffered only minor injuries.
If you look at this battle alone, China is already a complete loser in this mountain city air defense battle. Not only the city was still bombed, but all its fighter planes were shot down and 18 were damaged.
But this is just the first wave in this air battle!
The Japanese planes that had won the air battle were not hovering in the sky as usual and waiting for opportunities to attack the Chinese fighters that had successfully landed on the ground. They were leaving at high speed.
To be more precise, they left at full speed, including the two slightly damaged Japanese fighter planes.
The roar of the 900-horsepower engines of the 11 Zero fighter jets could be clearly heard by the Chinese people on the ground more than 2,000 meters away. China was shrouded in great sorrow after witnessing the defeat of its own fleet.
People don't understand, but the Japanese who won a great victory for Mao left the battlefield as if their buttocks were on fire.
Captain Saburo Shindo was not as happy as he had imagined after winning the victory. He did not even bother to chase the last six remaining Chinese fighter planes, and his face was full of anger and fear.
Because, 70 kilometers away from the battlefield where he was, the bomber group that was returning at high speed was ambushed by the Chinese aircraft group from high altitude.
They were not afraid of dozens of them, and they were all the latest fighters. What really frightened Shindo Saburo was that the Chinese were so forbearing and waited for a full 10 minutes before launching an attack.
Don't they know that the Yi series fighters are not the opponent of the empire's latest fighters? As a Japanese naval aviation captain who once fought against the Chinese Air Force over Yiling, he knows very well that his opponent knows very well that even 24 of them are against each other.
With 11 aircraft, the Chinese Iraqi series fighters also have no chance.
But the Chinese still did it. Dozens of fighter planes followed the bomber group at an altitude of 7,000 meters, just waiting for him to lead the imperial fighter planes to shoot down 18 Chinese fighter planes, like golden eagles in the sky, waiting
The best time to catch prey.
This tactic is really so cruel, so cruel that even the enemy Shindo Saburo is cold all over!
Because he knew what these ruthless enemies were waiting for, waiting for their comrades to waste their lives for 10 minutes, waiting for the bomber group to get further and further away from the battlefield.
For humans, 70 kilometers is a long way. Even for the toughest troops, it would take more than 15 hours to advance lightly. But for fighters, especially the Zero fighter with a top speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, it is not needed at all.
In 10 minutes, if you push the throttle lever all the way and turn on the afterburner, you may arrive there in seven or eight minutes.
However, can 25 bombers and 12 escorting Zero fighters survive until he leads his team to arrive?
Shindo Saburo didn't know the result, but he knew that if the Chinese sneak attack on the bomber formation was successful, not to mention that he only shot down 18, even if all 24 Chinese fighter planes were destroyed, the Imperial Navy would also suffer a huge defeat in this air battle.
"Everyone, return immediately! The bomber formation is being attacked by the Chinese. Everyone should return as quickly as possible. There is no need to save fuel!" Captain Shindo Saburo, who tried his best to stay calm, said this on the wireless intercom and turned the throttle lever.
Pushed to the bottom.
In fact, the Chinese are not as calm as Shindo Saburo imagined.
The young Chinese pilots at an altitude of 6,800 meters covered by clouds are also suffering in their hearts.
The radio performance of the Mao Bear People's I-15 fighter jets is really poor. In many cases, it cannot communicate with the ground at all, leading to errors. Even with the most advanced I-16 fighter jets supported by the Mao Bear People, air signals are intermittent.
Therefore, when Tang Dao and Zheng Shaoyu formulated the tactic of "flying a moth to the flame", the country immediately hired Mi maintenance pilots at the airport to upgrade the radio of the I-16. In fact, it was to upgrade 10 sets of Wildcat fighters.
The radio system is installed on the I-16. This is to facilitate the main fleet to communicate with them and to notify them at any time to leave the battlefield at a more suitable time.
Each of the two Yi-series aircraft fleets responsible for executing "Moths to Flames" has five Yi-16 aircraft.
Even if they are dozens of kilometers away, the main force can still receive the voice of the decoy fleet.
In the cockpits of young Chinese pilots, the most common sound is the rustle of electronic signals after entering the signal blind zone. There are occasional intermittent voices from comrades, but they are constant farewells.
"Meng Qing's No. 16 plane caught fire. He tried to make a low-altitude emergency landing, but failed. No. 16 plane has crashed! It's too low and there is no chance to parachute!"
"Guang Zhong is parachuting, and the Japanese Japanese are trying to shoot him with machine guns. I'm going to block him!"
"I was shot and I no longer have the strength to climb out of the cockpit. Goodbye, brothers!"
"Most of our side has been damaged in the battle, and we are no longer able to survive. The rest is left to our brothers!"
........
The constant bad news has made the young Chinese pilots burst into tears, high in the sky with their engines roaring.
"Captain, launch an attack! If you don't launch an attack, Squadron Leader Wang and the others will be doomed!" The young Chinese pilots kept asking Zheng Shaoyu, the supreme commander of the Bishan airspace, while suffering.
"The distance is not enough, wait a little longer!" Zheng Shaoyu's order could not be shorter, his tone was as firm as before, and no one could hear his emotional changes.
But perhaps only the wingman pilot who was less than 20 meters away from him could see the resolute-faced major captain in the cockpit with tears shining on his face.
His brothers had already died under his orders, so what he had to do now was not to let their deaths be in vain.
"Dive attack! Squadrons 17 and 18 attack the enemy bombers first, and the rest will join me to entangle and kill the escorting Japanese Zero aircraft!" It was not until a full 10 minutes later that Zheng Shaoyu, who had been staring at his watch, finally roared angrily.
Issue an attack command.
48 high-altitude Wildcat fighter jets roared down and swooped down to kill the Japanese bomber group flying at an altitude of 3,200 meters away.
The Japanese bomber fleet is entirely composed of the 97 heavy bomber series. Some are early models and some are later revised models, but the main differences are in anti-air weapons. The earliest KI-21 model only has 4 machine guns, and the revised KI in 1939
-21 II has been increased to 6 thrusters, and the vertical tail has been enlarged. It can reach a speed of 430 kilometers per hour in full flight.
This was already considered a mid-level level among bombers at that time, and even flew faster than the Chinese Iraqi series fighters. Faced with interceptions by the Iraqi series fighters many times, the 97 Heavy Explosion was able to increase the throttle and fly away.
But this time their opponent was a Wildcat fighter with a top speed of 550 kilometers per hour. The distance of 3,000 meters, and the speed difference of more than 100 kilometers per hour, was only a matter of two or three minutes.
The 12 Zero fighters were already working very hard. While the bomber group was trying hard to continue escaping forward, they completed a turn in the air with a quarter of the opponent's strength and rushed towards the powerful opponent head-on.
But how could the Chinese fleet, which had an absolute advantage in numbers, be stopped by 12 Zero fighter jets? About 20 Wildcat fighter jets, led by Zheng Shaoyu, strangled the 12 Zero fighter jets in the air, while the other 28 were resolute.
of bombers attacking the Japanese army.
Naturally, 97 Heavy Explosion was unwilling to surrender, and its onboard machine gun fired desperately at the approaching Wildcat fighter jets.
However, the Wildcat fighter with a length of only 7 meters compared to the 97 heavy explosive aircraft with a length of more than 16 meters, is as light as a falcon encountering a vulture, constantly flying up and down to cut into the battlefield from the bomber's blind spot.
To describe Wildcat fighter jets as hawks is to describe their agility, but when it comes to lethality, the lethality of the Type 97 heavy bomber is not as great as that of the Wildcat fighter jet.
One of the tactical purposes of the Wildcat fighter was to intercept opponent bombers, so all machine guns used were 7mm heavy machine guns, and later revised models were even equipped with 20mm machine guns and 23mm cannons.
The thick warhead can easily tear through the skin of the 97 heavy explosive machine and cause damage to the body!
In less than 5 minutes, 19 of the 25 Japanese bombers were shot down. Two Chinese Wildcat fighters were hit by heavy machine guns and crashed. Fortunately, the pilots were able to parachute successfully, and another 5 Wildcat fighters were injured.
Two of them were ordered to return from low altitude because of billowing smoke.
Compared with the one-sided battlefield on Shinto Saburo's side, the Japanese bomber group actually broke the record of zero, and its performance could be rated as 30 points.
But as more Wildcat fighters that destroy their own targets enter the battlefield, it is only a matter of time before the remaining six 97s are destroyed.
From the beginning, the 12 Zero fighter jets were still able to rely on their super maneuverability and the 20 Chinese fighter jets that were larger than their own to entangle. However, as nearly 10 Wildcat fighter jets finished solving their opponents and returned from more than 10 kilometers away.
, the Japanese aircraft fell into complete passivity.
Because they were heartbroken and watched their comrades sacrifice their lives to fight for a chance for themselves, many young Chinese pilots adopted the lose-lose tactic of "injuring the enemy by one thousand and destroying themselves by eight hundred", in the hope that they would be hit by Japanese machine guns.
We also had to use machine guns to leave a few holes for the Japanese aircraft.
You have large numbers and targeted tactics, but you still want to engage in such tactics. Who can withstand it?
What's even more terrible is that the Wildcat fighter's protection of the fuel tank and pilot cockpit is much better than that of the Zero fighter. At least six Wildcat fighter jets have dozens of bullet holes left on them, but they are still jumping up and down vigorously.
As for the Zero fighter, as long as it takes a dozen rounds of 7mm caliber bullets, almost none of them will not emit smoke.
It is a good thing to see smoke coming out of ancestral graves, but if you see smoke coming out of your own grave, it is going to burn down.
By the time Shindo Saburo rushed to the scene of the air battle, the air battle was basically over. There was black smoke from burning everywhere on the ground. You didn't need to look closely to know that it was the wreckage of the plane crash.
There are still nearly 40 Chinese fighter planes painted with blue sky and white sun flags circling in the sky.
The Chinese aircraft fleet, which won a great victory by shooting down all the bombers and killing 9 Zero fighters, did not want to circle and demonstrate on their victory. They were just waiting in this airspace for the return of the enemy planes that killed their comrades.
"kill!"
Two identical orders were issued from the mouths of two commanders in China and Japan.
Like two groups of bulls with red eyes, 37 Wildcat fighter jets and 11 Zero fighter jets clashed without hesitation.
For the pilots of the two fleets, any words are enough to express their anger and sadness, only the blood of the enemy can.
In the end, the 11 Zero fighters that lost all their sanity had no chance to return.
In the sky, 32 Wildcat fighter jets circled their battlefield three times before flying to the most tragic and brilliant battlefield. They circled there for more than 10 minutes.
Looking from the ground, it looks like a flock of geese that have lost their companions. Although there is no mournful cry, there is sadness.
Finally, they raised their noses high and flew into the distance.
Those were our fighter planes, but did they arrive too late? The people on the ground with tearstained faces did not know the news of the victory.
