As Japan's most famous general during World War II, Yamamoto Isoroku was ranked first by military experts from various countries. He was unique in both his personal charm and commanding skills. If you have to find something that he is not good at, it would be him. He trusts his cronies too much. Of course, conversely, this is actually one of his advantages. He does not trust those who doubt him, but trusts those he employs. Now that he has decided to hand over the remaining fleet to the command of Masafumi Arima and the aviation force, After giving Tsukahara 243, he stopped intervening in their specific command, and this was obviously conducive to Arima and Tsukahara's respective command characteristics.
Under Tsukahara's dispatch, fighter planes took off one after another under Yamamoto's nose. As the battlefield commander of the second wave of fighter clusters, Yamabekawa Sankey paid tribute to Yamamoto when he passed under the bridge. With a beautiful military salute, Yamamoto waved to him and introduced to Koizumi Minichiro: "His name is Yamabekawa Sankey, and he is our best pilot."
Koizumi: "It seems like he is already a trump card."
"Yes, in the Battle of Songhu, he shot down a total of four Chinese fighter jets. In addition to his previous results, after the battle, he was personally awarded the Ace Pilot Medal by the Mi Cabinet. You have also seen Yamabe's previous performance. , what I admire most about him is his calmness and never following blindly."
Koizumi had already heard this scene mentioned by Tsukahara. Tsukahara criticized Yamabe at the time, believing that with his skills, he was capable of fighting even in the face of superior enemy aircraft. However, Yamabe directly led his team to break away from the battle, which was detrimental to the empire. Koizumi disagrees with Tsukahara's view on the bravery of soldiers. He is familiar with that period of history and knows that the empire's final failure was related to the large number of pilots missing. Therefore, he completely disapproves of aimless special attack operations, and many officers of the Japanese aviation force today Different perceptions. In his eyes, an excellent pilot is far more valuable than a fighter plane or even a ship. He nodded and said: "Sir, you are right. Calmness is indeed a basic quality that a pilot must possess. , being able to assess the situation, protect yourself, and accumulate strength for the next battle, Yamabe has done a really good job. Your Excellency, I have a suggestion. In view of the long training period for pilots, we need to remind the active pilots to let They are better at protecting themselves..."
A small butterfly can also blow up a hurricane. Koizumi very purposefully influenced Yamamoto Isoroku through his words. Under his influence, the latter became closer and closer to a famous general.
The topic quickly returned to reality. Yamamoto looked at the fireworks rising at the end of the realization. He said: "Koizumi, I am now more and more convinced that Qiongxi Southwest is where the Chinese people's defense is weak. Do you remember that our air raid in Wanning can We did not encounter such tenacious resistance. What does this mean? The Chinese people are guilty. They want to use the stubborn resistance of the air defense forces to cover up the fact that their ground defense forces are empty. However, they underestimated our determination this time. If I expected it, If so, this will be one of their few lines of resistance. Next, there should be a line of defense. However, under such an intensity of air strikes, it is doubtful whether this line of defense still exists. As long as they can successfully land, The road ahead will be smooth and smooth.”
Koizumi deeply believed that the key reason why the landing battle in Wanning encountered strong sniper attacks was that the air raids and artillery attacks were discovered by the Chinese in advance. They were prepared and were able to save their effective forces. But in the east, Changjiang In this area, under the unexpected surprise attack by the imperial army, their defensive strength should have been almost destroyed in the first place.
In an air-to-ground battle, if there is not a huge disparity in numbers between the two sides, then the ground air defense forces on the shield side are basically unable to fight back and have the advantage in numbers and firepower. The resistance of the Xuebing Army's air defense forces not only did not scare the Japanese. The aviation force made them even more excited. Perhaps in their eyes, this was more exciting and more fulfilling than shooting unarmed people on the ground with machine guns.
One after another, the Japanese planes roared and dived down. Suddenly, one or two flames shot out from under the wings or the cockpit. The next moment, a certain anti-aircraft firepower point on the ground suddenly lost its sound, one after another. The bomb dropped from the sky with an unpleasant sound of tearing the air. The next moment, an anti-aircraft firepower point was engulfed by the fireworks from the explosion.
The silence of every firepower point meant the death of several cadets. Chang Geng stood beside the bunker of the Western Front Headquarters regardless of the obstruction of his men. He silently watched the mushroom fire clouds rising up one after another, his eyes constantly flashing. A look of pain passed by,
"This is a duel with great disparity in strength. Facing superior enemy aircraft and superior firepower, our soldiers did not flinch. They moved their positions as quickly as possible, catching traces of enemy aircraft, and concentrated their firepower to shoot. One Another enemy plane was hit, some were directly blown up in the air, and some smashed into the ground dragging thick smoke and turned into a burning fireball, or fell directly into the sea..."
This was a battlefield news report published on the front page of the "Xuebingjun Times" the next day. Because the reporter Fang Xuemeng who reported the news was also killed in the air raid, the preciousness of the news was even more reflected.
Although the outcome was not in suspense, the air-to-ground battle still lasted for an hour and a half, and the Japanese aviation force, which had an absolute numerical advantage, ultimately suffered the loss of as many as eleven fighter planes in this battle.
Seeing his own fighter planes being hit continuously, Tsukahara, who originally wanted to destroy the ground air defense forces by himself, had to lower his proud head and ask for help from Yamamoto.
"The Chinese anti-aircraft tanks move quickly, and it is difficult for bombers to capture them. Fighters will be in danger because they have to swoop and strafe... The Chinese are trapped animals and are still fighting, and the danger level is far more than usual." Tsukahara told Yamamoto. Explain the reason for requesting naval gun support,
Yamamoto did not make things difficult for him. He personally ordered naval guns to provide support. As a result, this air-to-ground battle finally ended with the addition of the combined fleet's splitter fleet. Under the double blow of bombing and strafing by planes on the little devil, and indiscriminate bombardment by artillery below. In the end, only about one company of cadets from the three exposed air defense regiments survived. By about 1 p.m., almost all the houses in the towns where the Japanese army focused on bombing and shelling in advance were turned into ruins, and those who were killed There are more than 2,000 civilians,
After the bombing and shelling, Tsukahara 243 dispatched two squadrons of fighter planes according to the plan to fly deep into Hainan along the Dongle Line (Dongfang City to Ledong) and the Changcheng Line (Changjiang to Chengmai), and were responsible for the landing. During the battle, Sawada Shigeru began to command the troops to begin landing.
At this point, the war on the Western Front was fully ignited, and Hainan Island was attacked from both the east and west directions at the same time. The time to truly test the Fifth Army finally came.
(Old poison: My father-in-law’s 60th birthday,,,, I don’t know how many updates I can keep, so I’ll seize the time to post one first,,,sweat)