Even in an unsatisfactory battle situation, there is still a lot of good news. The anti-aircraft artillery unit within the Dahua Army has performed very well recently.
Their performance has improved visibly, because the performance of their weapons is improving, and their combat methods are also constantly improving.
The unique and terrifying sound of the Tang Army's dive bombers could no longer scare these anti-aircraft artillerymen who were no longer rookies.
They used the new weapons in their hands to fight more and more bravely, causing huge losses to the Tang Army's dive bomber force.
This is no joke. From the time when the clouds cleared and the air force could participate in the war, until this moment, the Tang Army has shot down more than 200 aircraft of various types and lost more than 170 pilots.
Most of the aircraft were dive bomber pilots, and there were some fighter pilots. On the contrary, it was the Flying Fortresses that performed deep bombing missions that suffered the least losses.
Because there are not many anti-aircraft guns that can hit the flying height of the Flying Fortress bombers, and the Dahua Empire's fighter interception forces cannot fly to an altitude of 10,000 meters, the Tang Army's large bombers that perform high-altitude bombing missions are often very safe.
If you draw the range of an anti-aircraft gun, it is basically a small hemisphere. The shooting height is slightly lower, the range is slightly higher, and it looks like a big bowl when it is buckled on the ground.
Therefore, the higher you go, the smaller the coverage area of anti-aircraft guns, the lower the firepower density, and the worse the air defense effect.
In order to deal with high-altitude bombers, anti-aircraft guns have to be deployed densely to increase the density of high-altitude firepower, which makes the defense area of the unit number of anti-aircraft guns smaller.
As a result, it is difficult for the concentrated anti-aircraft artillery to deploy in advance and effectively intercept the enemy's bomber force without the support of detailed intelligence and high mobility. This is also called air defense and air defense.
The origin of the saying.
Fortunately, the performance of the anti-aircraft guns in the Dahua Empire was not good enough, so they were all used for field air defense. Instead, they gave up on deep air defense, which unexpectedly enhanced the field air defense firepower.
In this way, it is very easy to understand that the losses of Stuka dive bombers against the Dahua Field Force remained high.
Cruel war makes people progress. No one is a fool. When life and death are at stake, everyone is more willing to use their subjective initiative.
The technicians of the Dahua Empire, as well as the engineers of the Cyric Consortium, are working hard to develop new, more advanced, and more powerful air defense weapons for the powerful air force of the Tang Kingdom.
Through repeated experiments, the Anti-Tang Alliance launched many improvised weapon systems, as well as newly designed brand-new equipment.
For example, the Dahua Empire temporarily installed four machine guns together to increase the density of firepower and increase the possibility of shooting down Tang Army aircraft.
Frankly speaking, this kind of weapon seems to have no technical content, but the effect is better than imagined. Compared with those ideas of using new technology to seek improvement, this simple and crude method has immediate results.
However, it is easy to use. It is just better than using a machine gun alone for air defense. It does not mean that this weapon is really "invincible".
The biggest problem is that this method of connecting machine guns in parallel to increase firepower density cannot increase the range, and the air defense effect is still unsatisfactory.
Range is very important for anti-aircraft guns. The range of an anti-aircraft gun determines the shooting height, the number of anti-aircraft guns deployed, and the length of the window for firing attacks.
The Tang Army's aircraft was equipped with a 20 mm caliber cannon. The range and damage capability of this thing were obviously much better than the Maxim machine gun. It was more than enough to suppress this parallel machine gun.
Therefore, the Dahua military urgently needs stronger anti-aircraft firepower to meet the demand in terms of range. In other words, the anti-Tang alliance needs anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 20 mm or more.
They did not have the Bofors 40 mm caliber anti-aircraft guns equipped by the Tang Kingdom, nor the 88 mm caliber anti-aircraft guns of the Tang Kingdom. So they could only do their own research and come up with a lot of weird gadgets.
The first is the twin-mounted 25mm caliber anti-aircraft cannon built by the Dahua Empire. This anti-aircraft cannon emphasizes firepower density and increases the range, and its performance is quite good.
But it is not without its shortcomings. The high cost makes the Dahua Army dumbfounded. The production of tanks, artillery, aircraft, etc. has already stretched the funds of the Dahua Military, not to mention the strict requirements of this kind of artillery on craftsmanship.
You can't say that in order to produce such expensive anti-aircraft guns, the production lines of other weapons have been stopped, right? Isn't that a joke?
Another problem is that it is bulky: the entire artillery weighs 4 and a half tons, which is only more than 1 ton compared to an 88 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun. Moving it requires a truck with good performance to tow it, and ordinary vehicles are not powerful enough.
Too much.
Therefore, the Dahua Empire obtained the 30mm caliber anti-aircraft gun technology from Cyric and began to produce this single-barreled anti-aircraft weapon with slightly inferior performance.
Although the performance of this 30mm caliber anti-aircraft gun is slightly worse, compared with the old anti-balloon guns, the improvement is huge.
With these high-rate and small-caliber special anti-aircraft guns, the field air defense strength of the Dahua Empire has greatly increased, and it is natural that it has achieved good results.
After purchasing a large number of these small-caliber field anti-aircraft guns, Dahua troops gradually mastered some "new tactics."
They will use these anti-aircraft weapons as temporary anti-tank guns to deal with the armored vehicles of the Tang Dynasty: even if they cannot destroy the No. 4 tank and the Panther tank, the Lion Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle and the 113 Armored Personnel Carrier are still quite useful.
In addition, Dahua has also purchased a number of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The 76mm caliber anti-aircraft guns improved from anti-balloon guns are the most numerous, taking into account both air defense and anti-tank.
Compared with the backward performance of its old predecessor, the performance of the new and improved 76 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun has been greatly improved. It is equipped with a special gun mount, which can pitch and rotate faster, and the range has also been improved a lot.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In order to make it easier to hit the target, the initial speed of the new 76-gun shell has been nearly doubled, which means that it has been almost completely redesigned except for the caliber.
Compared to the arrogant Dahua Air Force, the results of the ground air defense troops were very impressive. In addition, the anti-aircraft artillery troops protected the ground troops, preventing those annoying Stukas from swooping down unscrupulously, which stabilized the morale of the military.
Therefore, the anti-aircraft artillery unit of the Great Chinese Army has become a treasure in the eyes of commanders at all levels.
On a Dahua Army anti-aircraft gun position, the gunners were sitting in the shade covered by camouflage nets to rest. The loaders were busy loading shells into special magazines, because the 30 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun they were serving was a
Magazine fed.
The observer in charge of the alert was searching the sky in the distance with his telescope, and the officer commanding the anti-aircraft gun was sitting on a sandbag, overlooking the camp not far away.
This is a small material supply distribution center, otherwise anti-aircraft guns would not be arranged for key protection. Dahua does not have enough anti-aircraft guns to cover all areas.
On the nearby high ground, three anti-aircraft guns are arranged to cover each other. If enemy planes attack, they can serve as horns to drive away those annoying Stuka dive bombers.
In fact, if it can attract Stuka dive bombers to use their precious 500 kilogram bombs to destroy anti-aircraft artillery defensive positions, it will be worthwhile.
After all, the ammunition, supplies, medicine and food stored in the camp below are much more valuable than an anti-aircraft gun.
"Enemy plane! Enemy plane!" The alert observer who had been watching the sky vigilantly suddenly shouted nervously.
The officer who was sitting there in a daze immediately looked in the direction pointed by the observer. Sure enough, there were several small black dots flying towards this direction quickly.
The officer immediately picked up the whistle hanging around his neck and blew it hard, causing the other two nearby anti-aircraft guns to quickly prepare for battle.
Soon, the responding whistle sounded, and the other two anti-aircraft guns raised their barrels, obviously they were also ready to fight.
Before these anti-aircraft artillery soldiers could wait too long, bombers from the Tang Air Force pressed over. As the distance gradually came closer, the commander of the Dahua anti-aircraft artillery who had been staring at the Tang aircraft frowned.
"The wings don't bend...a fighter jet?" The officer murmured in confusion when he saw that the wings of the incoming aircraft were not of a seagull-shaped design.
"It's not a butcher, is it? It doesn't look like it!" The gunner heard his commander's muttering, looked at it through the sight for a while, and became confused.
"Don't be our plane..." He was sure that the incoming plane was not a common Stuka dive bomber, nor a fighter escort escorted by the Tang Army. Commander Dahua, whose mind was full of question marks, was a little unsure.
"We have never seen such a plane before..." Seeing the four planes getting closer and closer, the gunner changed his words before he finished speaking, and exclaimed: "Yellow nose! It's a plane from the Tang Dynasty!"
"
Bright yellow is the friend-or-foe identification color of the Tang Air Force. It is painted on the nose and wingtips to avoid accidental damage by friendly forces. Because the aircraft have overwhelming advantages in performance, the painting of Tang Army aircraft has always been very arrogant.
As he spoke, he had already stepped on the pedal, and the 30mm anti-aircraft gun beside him had begun to roar: "Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!"
The expensive tracer bullets rushed towards the fast-flying Tang aircraft one after another, and those Tang aircraft immediately began to disperse and changed their flight paths after being attacked.
As soon as they dodged, their belly was exposed, and their unique appearance became even more obvious. The Tang Dynasty dragon emblem on the wings shone brightly in the sun.
Between the dragon emblem on the wing and the fuselage, there were some extremely slender bombs hanging. These never-before-seen details made Commander Dahua, who was standing next to the anti-aircraft gun, very uneasy.
