"One final check! The wings and landing gear! Be careful! Get ready for takeoff!" In the evening, in a forest covered with camouflage nets, a huge biplane bomber was making its final takeoff.
Prepare.
There are more than a dozen bombs mounted under the belly of this aircraft, which is its maximum bomb-loading state. The aircraft is full of fuel, and the two machine gunners are wearing their own clothes and wrapping their heads with thick scarves.
neck.
The bombers of the Tang Army have been doing their best to destroy the Dahua Air Force Airport in the direction of Jiange. In order to avoid the attack of the Tang bombers, it has been carefully camouflaged.
The airport runway is disguised as farmland and is usually covered with branches and other random debris to ensure that it is not visible in the sky every day.
At the same time, four anti-aircraft gun positions are hidden in the woods on the side of the airport to ensure the safety of the airport when enemy planes attack.
There were three bombers parked in the entire airport, and they were all placed in hidden places in the woods and covered with camouflage nets.
Because of its small size and careful disguise, this airport has never been discovered by the Tang Army. It is considered a secret base of the Dahua Army, or a trump card that threatens the southern oil fields.
"Remember, you must keep the course! Deviation will make it impossible for you to find the attack target!" An officer thrust a planetarium into the hands of the machine gunner in the back row and warned him very solemnly.
During night bombing, there is no radio guidance or ground guidance. It is very difficult to maintain the course and find the attack target.
Therefore, several people on the plane must work together, and everyone must play an important role.
Compared with daytime bombing, they do not need to face the dangerous interception of Butcher fighter jets, but the risk is not small at all.
They must determine their position through the starry sky along the way, combine it with the compass, and finally fly over the southern oil fields.
In the area controlled by the Tang State, they may be attacked by the Tang Army's anti-aircraft guns at any time, and they must be careful of the enemy's searchlight search.
In short, they need to be very careful, finally approach the target and complete the mission of bombing the oil field - as for whether they can fly back to Jiange, only God knows.
There was no previous record of a bomber returning safely from a night bombing, so for these pilots, there was almost no difference between performing this mission and committing suicide.
Even machine gunners who perform night bombing missions are completely different from ordinary machine gunners. Machine gunners who perform night bombing missions must also take care of the work of navigators. They must determine the stars, observe the compass, and even make general predictions based on some lights on the ground.
Determine where they are.
To put it bluntly, these machine gunners are also valuable talents, the kind of elites with excellent skills who are only selected from a thousand.
What is uncomfortable is that these selected elite talents will inevitably be lost in the upcoming bombing mission.
They are destined to never come back, which is really sad. Knowing that they will never come back, they are still willing to get on the plane here, which is even more sad.
"I know, I learned it all when I was in school! If I can fly that far over the sea, I can definitely fly back with everyone!" The young machine gunner replied with a smile.
"Check the instruments! Don't have any problems!" A ground staff member confirmed again after helping the pilot climb into the plane.
The pilot nodded and once again checked the status of the instruments in the cockpit under the illumination of the oil lamp.
"I wish you success!" The commander of the unit to which the aircraft belonged stood beside the wing of the aircraft and said goodbye with tears in his eyes.
"Thank you! We will definitely succeed!" The co-pilot stood at attention and saluted, and then prepared to climb into his own plane under the escort of the ground crew.
Everything was ready, and soon they would rush to the runway, take off under the moonlight, and fly to the Tang State-controlled area to carry out the mission of bombing the southern oil fields.
Under the moonlight, a car slowly parked in the forest. An officer opened the car door, nervously got out of the car, and rushed towards the brightly lit aircraft in the distance.
"Stop! Stop everyone!" The officer was running while holding his hat. Hearing his shout, many people around the plane looked in his direction.
Under everyone's gaze, the officer ran to the wing of the plane, panted for a while, then adjusted his breathing and said: "Prince's order! ...The bombing mission is cancelled!"
"Are you kidding? Cancel?" The officer of the bomber unit frowned and took a document from the other party's hand in confusion.
The subordinate handed him the kerosene lamp and helped him illuminate the document. He saw that the document said that due to the peace talks, all night raids on the oil fields were temporarily cancelled.
"Why cancel? Didn't it mean that the armistice agreement has not been signed yet?" the commander of the bomber unit asked again.
"His Majesty personally issued an order prohibiting further attacks on the southern oil fields..." the officer explained: "Cancelled! Mission cancelled!"
"Yes! I understand!" The air force commander of the Great China Empire nodded slightly, then looked towards the plane: "Stop the engine! Help the pilot and machine gunner down."
The ground crew heard the order, hesitated for a few seconds, and then began to scramble onto the plane.
They helped the pilot off the plane, and then the commander canceled the bombing mission in front of everyone: "Gentlemen! The mission to bomb the oil fields has been cancelled. I will be on standby tonight... I need to go back and verify the prince's order."
.”
After saying that, he nodded slightly to the soldiers and walked towards his own car in the dim light.
…
"Did you see the black smoke on the horizon? We may have found that damn fleet!" A captain stood on the hull, pointed to the sea in the distance, and shouted to the sailors beside him.
The sailor picked up the binoculars and looked in the direction of the captain's finger. Sure enough, he saw some black smoke that had not completely dissipated.
"Yes! Captain! I think we found them!" The sailor put down his telescope and said excitedly to his captain.
"Go back! Let them speed up! Prepare the torpedoes! Victory belongs to Datang!" the captain ordered loudly, raising the telescope again and looking at the target in the distance.
The waves were still beating against the slender submarine, and the waves hitting the hull were still splashing everywhere. The submarine moved forward on the ocean, cutting through the turbulent sea with its sharp bow.
The antenna of the long-wave radio station was slanted all the way to the forward deck. Through this antenna, you could see the black smoke that filled the sea level even without using a telescope.
Not only did this submarine find the target, on the other side, further north, on another Tang Army submarine, the sailors were also excitedly pointing to the black smoke in the distance and shouting.
Inside the small submarine, the sailors were already debugging torpedoes and preparing for the upcoming battle. They were going to send all these damn enemy warships to the bottom of the sea. They won this war.
"Wake up all the crew! Sound the battle alarm! Let everyone wake up! Drink less water and eat less!" The officer on duty issued combat orders one after another. Under the dim light, from time to time, there were
The sailor ran by.
The densely packed turntables and instruments everywhere declare the complexity of this submarine. The sonar soldier is already in place and is wiping his beloved earphones.
Everyone was very nervous because the specific situation was not clear yet. If the enemy fleet was heading in the same direction as theirs, frankly speaking, Tang's submarines really couldn't catch up with the escaping enemy warships.
Even when submarines of this era were sailing on the water, their speed was only about the same as that of merchant transport ships, and still much slower than battleships.
Therefore, everyone is hoping that the routes of these enemy fleets will be facing them, so that they can meet.
For submarines, the moment of intersection is the attack window, and pursuit is just a waste of time.
The good news is that since they gradually discovered the black smoke coming from the enemy fleet, the distance between them and the opponent is getting closer and closer, which means that they have a chance to catch up with the opponent.
"Sir!" Just when the tension reached a certain level, the communications soldier in charge of communication tore off a piece of telegram paper and handed it to the captain who had just returned to the submarine: "An urgent telegram from General Bernard."
"Huh?" The captain was stunned for a moment, and then took the message: "Cancel the attack order to attack the enemy fleet..."
"Is there a mistake?" After drifting at sea for more than ten days, enduring the ravages of the cold, and finally finding the enemy fleet, the attack was cancelled? The Tang submarine captain said that he could not understand such an order at all.
"There must be a mistake..." The first mate took the order and felt that there must be an error in the content of the message. He glanced at the captain and saw unwillingness in the other's eyes. So he thought about it.
In two seconds, he gave his opinion: "How about... just pretend that you didn't receive this message... and continue to attack?"
"Are you stupid in your sleep? What did you do in the past?" The captain directly rejected his suggestion. If someone is not allowed to do something against the emperor's order, he will have to go to a military court.
However, the captain obviously had no intention of giving up like this: "However, it is possible that the order was wrong! Keep the course! Let's catch up! What if there are new orders issued?"
"Yes!" The first mate stood at attention and saluted excitedly, and then immediately issued the message that the submarine should continue to maintain its course.
On the sea, a submarine was ordered to turn around and draw a large U-shaped white track on the sea. The other submarine maintained its course and continued to rush towards the black smoke on the horizon at full speed.