Compared with Qi Zhibiao, who was frightened by the huge power of napalm bombs, Colonel Tabaota did not have to worry about this shock. He escaped the first wave of explosive bombs, but he did not escape the second wave of napalm bombs. During the attack, a 100-kilogram napalm bomb landed near his command post, cremating him and his regiment on the spot.
Moreover, the cremations were so clean that even if someone wanted to collect their ashes for them, they would not be able to find them. Of course, the biggest advantage is that it reduces a lot of trouble for both the enemy and us. At least they don’t have to collect their bodies, let alone worry because in early summer In the weather, plagues arise due to rotting corpses.
Before the Japanese army, which had narrowly escaped the raging fire, could wake up from this horrific blow from the sky, the plane that had dropped all the bombs dived down again, using its onboard 12.7 mm large-caliber machine gun. , and carefully sorted out the front line of Jinshagang, and beat up the Japanese soldiers who survived the air raid on the ground and suffered heavy casualties.
After all the aircraft had used up all their ammunition and started to return, Zhang Yi, who was a little worried about the results of the battle, swooped down again, carefully observed the results he had produced on the ground, and then walked away with his subordinates with satisfaction. Behind them, they left the scorched earth of Jinsha Gang and a completely destroyed 12th Regiment.
This bombing almost became a nightmare experience for all the surviving officers and soldiers of the 12th Regiment. They were horrified to find that the new bombs dropped by the opponent could not escape even if they hid in what they thought was the safest place. , when your body is ignited by an incendiary bomb, you cannot extinguish it even if you use various methods. You can only watch your comrades being burned alive.
Especially the most terrifying scene when the new bombs burn is that even if they are lucky enough to escape the attacks of all high-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs, they will still be suffocated to death by the inexplicable lack of oxygen. , a large number of officers and soldiers of the 12th Regiment were not killed by bombs or burned to death, but suffocated to death due to severe lack of oxygen.
The officers and soldiers of the 12th Regiment, who were in hell, didn't know that compared to their comrades who also suffered roughly the same treatment in Qingyuan, their experience in Jinsha Gang was not the worst, because what happened to them The number of napalm bombs dropped on them was far less than that of their comrades in Qingyuan, and they still had survivors, while almost no Japanese officers and soldiers in Qingyuan could escape during the bombing.
Less than five minutes after the bombs fell on the Jinshagang front line, Qingyuan, where the division headquarters of the 11th Division is located, also enjoyed roughly the same treatment. The only difference was that compared to attack aircraft that only had light bombers and fighter jets modified The Jinshagang front line and the Qingyuan front line encountered more intense bombings.
Taking off from Jiamusi, at such a short distance, these bombers with a bomb load of about tons took off with full load. In order to ensure that there were enough bombs for this bombing, under Yang Zhen's suggestion, Yuan Bin not only transferred the bombs in stock In addition to the one-time clearance process, Zhang Zhenhua was also asked to specially approve 150 rounds of 150mm howitzer warheads, which were urgently converted into 75 bombs.
If Yang Zhen hadn't disagreed because he was worried about the safety without testing, this guy would have directly hung the 107mm rocket or the 122 rocket directly on the aircraft to attack the ground. However, although Yang Zhen He didn't agree with his plan, but this guy's idea reminded Yang Zhen that the rockets at this time were not suitable for air combat because of their poor accuracy, but they were a pretty good weapon for ground attacks.
Jiangbei had already used rockets as airborne weapons during the Battle of Nomonhan. Although it was unsuccessful, in Yang Zhen's opinion it was not that this weapon was not suitable as an airborne weapon, but that they used it in the wrong direction. At this time Although unguided rockets are powerful, their accuracy is far behind compared to other airborne weapons, especially the airborne machine guns currently used on a large scale.
In addition to having some power against heavy bombers with large targets and slow flying speeds, it is quite unable to deal with various types of fighters and light bombers that are much more flexible, both in terms of accuracy and firepower density.
This kind of weapon is actually more suitable for ground attack. It is quite lethal when attacking marching groups and vehicles, especially trains that are inconvenient to move. Even for tanks, the king of land warfare, it is extremely threatening. On the European battlefield in the next few years, this weapon that seems very inconspicuous now will become a star, and even become a large-scale use of ground attack aircraft and armed helicopters in the next few decades. Than the highest weapons.
Those unguided air-to-ground rockets even performed extremely well in several large-scale local wars after World War II. Even the US military, which is rich and equipped with a full range of precision-guided weapons, did not use such weapons. The weapon was eliminated and has been used as the standard equipment of armed helicopters.
It's just that this kind of weapon that has just entered the battlefield still needs a step-by-step maturation process, especially if your own troops have not had time to undergo adaptive training. The weapon launch platform is in the air and not on the ground. Once any accident occurs, the only thing waiting for the pilot is The plane crashed and people died, so although he was very moved, Yang Zhen decided to give up for the time being.
However, although it is not mature yet, Yang Zhen will not give up this extremely powerful weapon for ground attack. In the situation where there are only fighter jets and the lack of ground attack aircraft, these rockets are very suitable. It just takes a certain amount of time to put it on a fighter jet to perform ground attack missions, and find a way to make it more mature. As for now, it is not used yet.
Although they are not equipped with rockets, these two dozen medium bombers plus five light bombers with a bomb load of up to 700 kilograms are enough to destroy a small city with more than 20 tons of bombs plus napalm bombs. The small village of Qingyuan was completely razed to the ground.
Of course, the reason why we chose this place as the focus of the bombing was not because we knew that this is now the headquarters of the 11th Division. In fact, it was because this was the transportation area for the 11th Division, and the headquarters of the 11th Division was just taken along. , that is to say, the bombing of the 11th Division Headquarters was just an unreasonable disaster.
Ushijima Mitsuru was very cunning. He hid his division headquarters in the baggage train station. Although the reconnaissance troops from the north bank of Qixing River spent a lot of effort, they did not find out where his division headquarters was, but the baggage train was there. Horses are a large amount of supplies, but they are not difficult to find.
Unlike the Jinshagang front line where high-explosive bombs were first used to clear out the Japanese artillery units and then napalm bombs were used to bomb the infantry, since the Japanese 11th Division supplies and heavy equipment were all deployed in Qingyuan Town, napalm was used in such towns. The effect of bombs will be better, so the planes that bombed Qingyuan carried napalm bombs. Only five light bombers and two Type 97 medium bombers carried more than four tons of high-explosive bombs as backup .
After An Zaijiang led the Chinese bombers to arrive in the sky over Qingyuan, according to the daily training pattern, the two DO17 bombers as the lead aircraft took the lead in using napalm bombs to cross-drop bombs, and lit two blazing cross fire dragons on the ground as a follow-up Bomber bombing instructions.
Other medium-sized bombers carrying napalm bombs followed up and dropped bombs one after another after the fire ignited on the ground, landing the bombs carried on the fuselage accurately on the ground where the two fire dragons crossed. More than ten medium-sized bombers In addition, several transport planes that had been modified to carry one and a half tons of bombs under the wings dropped all 20 tons of napalm bombs into the small village of Qingyuan.
In order to ensure the accuracy of bombing, the bombers commanded by An Zaijiang were even less than 700 meters high when they dropped bombs. His tactics were very simple. After flying at low altitude and dropping bombs, all the aircraft quickly climbed to a safe altitude and returned. After regrouping, we returned collectively.
Like the 12th Regiment on the front line of Jinshagang, the division headquarters and baggage troops of the 11th Division in Qingyuan Town never thought that the opponent actually had aircraft. Not only did they not make any air defense preparations, they were also lightly equipped It didn't carry any anti-aircraft weapons at all.
Not to mention anti-aircraft guns, they didn’t even carry anti-aircraft machine guns. Even the muzzles of the Type 92 heavy machine guns that could be used in the air were always pointed outside the town. As for the sky, they never thought that there would be opponents. Compared to the defense on the ground. The area was heavily guarded and there was no air defense arrangement at all.
In fact, as Lieutenant General Ushijima Mitsuru, the division commander, was very clear about the air attack on Mudanjiang Langlang Airport, but he was stubborn and did not believe that his opponent would have the ability to carry out air strikes against field troops. The reason was very simple. Before setting off, he I have reviewed the information on various weapons used by my opponents since the beginning of this battle.
The opponent has used a large number of artillery of various calibers in various battles, but has never found any case of using aviation for ground support. In other words, although the opponent has a certain amount of air power, this power is not perfect, and it is not possible. That is to say, their air power can only carry out bombing of fixed targets, but does not have the ability to directly support the ground. It is simply incomparable with the experienced Japanese Army Air Force.
The most important thing is that Namada Juichi once promised him that the Kwantung Army Headquarters has agreed that new aviation forces will be mobilized from Harbin and Qiqihar as soon as possible to cover the 11th Division's operations. When the 11th Division moves westward, the newly arrived aviation forces An airtight air defense network will be established over the 11th Division.
With the assurance from his superiors and Ushijima Mitsuru, who had always had confidence in the empire's aerial warriors, when he formulated this combat plan, he never thought that he would encounter an aerial threat. Yes, this time he was really dazzled by his boss and his boss's boss.
The price paid by the 11th Division was not only that the northbound operation, which had great hope of success and might even restore the previous passive situation, failed due to this air raid, but more importantly, Ushijima Mitsuru and his 11th Division failed.
The division also paid the price with their lives. After the battle, less than one or two officers and soldiers of the 11th Division were able to return.