When the Third Battle of Wuhan was in full swing, an air-to-ground battle was taking place in the Ulanqab area of Inner Mongolia. On both sides, the ones in the air were the 1st Fighter Division and the 3rd and 6th Long-range Fighter Division under the Chinese Air Force Headquarters. One each for the aviation division; one for the Japanese Far East Army and one for the North China Front on the ground.
The special terrain of Inner Mongolia has actually determined the outcome of this confrontation. However, because Hu Li and Zhang Zizhong's troops are attacking Hohhot, last month Yoshio and Yano Masao have sent no less than ten letters to Umezu Meijiro and Okamura Neji. Therefore, even if they knew that there was an air trap ahead of them that the Chinese army had already laid out, Yoshijiro Umezu and Neji Okamura could only bite the bullet and dig in.
In the Xuzhou air battle, the Japanese aviation force was severely defeated. After the relevant battle reports were sent to Okamura Neiji and Umezu Yoshijiro, the two people had realized that it was no longer realistic to solve the Inner Mongolia problem before the Soviet Union and the Far East. Both of them Decisive people, after weighing the matter, made the following decision. The Inner Mongolia offensive continued, but the Far Eastern Army no longer served as the main force, and the main force was taken by the North China Front Army; while the main force of the Far Eastern Army was transferred to Tianjin, and from there took a boat to Lushun in order to take the east route. The two men originally planned to conquer the Soviet Union on the front line of Inner Mongolia. The goal was to completely control the Inner Mongolia. Now the purpose has changed, to maintain the status quo, and then after stabilizing the current front line, they can then attack Outer Mongolia.
The Japanese troop mobilization could not be hidden from Hu Li. After calculations by Hu Li and Jiang Tiezhang, they believed that with the support of the air force, plus the troops of Zhang Zizhong and Fu Zuoyi, they could completely solve the problem before the Far East Expeditionary Force entered Mongolia. In order to solve the problem of Inner Mongolia, he contacted Zhang Zizhong and Fu Zuoyi and decided to take the initiative to launch an offensive. The three Chinese armies in the northwest region, the Northwest Group Army (formerly the Northwest Army of the Xuebing Army, the Army Group Army) adopted the strategy of using all the people as soldiers. It is now the largest It's scary; and Fu Zuoyi belongs to the local area. Although the size of the army is not as good as that of the Northwest Army, its degree of regularization is higher. And because it has firmly controlled parts of Suiyuan and Chahar, it can be considered a relatively stable development and a success. A nail embedded in the hinterland of the Japanese army; the situation of Zhang Zizhong's Department is different from that of Hu Li's Department and Fu Zuoyi's Department. During the National Government era, although the department could obtain some supplies from the Xuebing Army through the Northwest Army, most of them needed to be self-sufficient. , so its development path is quite similar to the GCD guerrillas, focusing on guerrilla warfare, so its soldier losses are also the largest. Although there are few soldiers, because they are veterans who have experienced hundreds of battles, their unit combat effectiveness is the highest among the three armies. The highest point, no, after receiving supplies from Chongqing, this department immediately sprung up and became a serious problem for Okamura Neji.
The march on the prairie was unobstructed, and it was impossible to hide its whereabouts beyond a certain scale. Therefore, from the moment Zhang Zizhong entered Inner Mongolia, his whereabouts were known to the Japanese army. At that time, Okamura Neji judged their intentions, but Because the Chinese fighter planes had never stopped nuisance them, he was unable to send out a large army to intercept them. It was not until Zhang Zizhong and Hu Li's troops reunited and began to attack the four directions that he realized the dangers of their unity, and then he could only be Leading the way by the nose,
After Japan introduced 88mm anti-aircraft guns from Germany, its independent production has now reached a large scale. Therefore, both the Far East Army and the North China Front are equipped with a large number of such high-efficiency anti-aircraft guns. The Japanese are still clever, but they cannot manufacture them. Land and air combat vehicles similar to those of the Xuebing Army installed 88mm anti-aircraft guns on military trucks or armored vehicles. As a result, such a spectacle appeared in the more elite troops of the Japanese army. In the strict queues, there were always With some weird-looking trucks or armored vehicles,
A large number of actual combats have proven the high efficiency of air defense of the German 88mm anti-aircraft gun. However, just like the contest between shield and spear, the spear has always been the winner. Chinese fighter jets still have a strong position in the contest with Japanese ground air defense forces. Moreover, the aerial fortress can carry out horizontal bombing at an altitude of 8,000 meters, which is exactly the air defense limit of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun. Therefore, although the 88mm anti-aircraft gun has caused considerable trouble to the pilots of the Chinese Air Force , but it is impossible to affect the direction of the war.
Zhou Zhirou was responsible for providing air support to the Far East Expeditionary Force. He cleverly divided the aviation forces directly under the Air Force Headquarters into several groups. Each group was equipped with a certain number of fighters and bombers, and each group took off at a certain time. In this way, ensuring the continuity of bombing,
For the Japanese soldiers of the North China Front Army and the Far East Army, often, the previous batch of Chinese fighter jets are still hovering above them, and the next batch of Chinese fighter jets appear in their field of vision, as if there is no end. It was naturally a heavy blow to their morale. After being led by Okamura Neiji, the North China Front Army has grown into the elite of the Japanese troops stationed in China. Its combat effectiveness is not far behind the standing divisions at the beginning of the invasion of China. However, , In this kind of inherently asymmetrical battle, the Japanese army has the embarrassment of having nowhere to use its strength, and most of the time it can only dodge and escape but has no resistance. No matter how high its combat effectiveness is, it is in vain.
This air-to-ground battle lasted from ten o'clock in the morning to more than three o'clock in the afternoon. In the end, after all the 88mm anti-aircraft guns were destroyed, the Japanese army had to disperse and evacuate. With their withdrawal, the Mongolian army was destroyed. It has become an unchangeable fact,
At around nine o'clock in the evening, in Huai'an County to the west of Zhangjiakou, Okamura Neiji saw the first batch of troops withdrawing, and witnessed the miserable scene of his subordinates who were in despair. The old Japanese looked pitiful, looked at the eastern night sky and cursed bitterly: " This is the consequences of losing air supremacy, stupid First Class Tojo."
Before the Xuzhou air battle, although the Japanese aviation force did not have an advantage in China, it was still able to target the Chinese Air Force's long-range raids and provide limited air support to the ground forces. Now, taking the North China Front Army as an example, all its The total number of fighter planes is less than 100. Not to mention going to Inner Mongolia to provide support for the ground forces, even helping the local garrison to guard the local airspace has become a problem. Prior to this, Okamura Neiji had been vigorously transforming the ground forces. According to his estimation, , if a battle of the scale of the Battle of Changsha happens again, the North China Front Army can definitely fight a draw with a similar number of student troops. He has invested too much effort in transforming the North China Front Army, so he naturally has high hopes for it. But one day Suddenly, he suddenly discovered that because he had completely lost air supremacy, no matter how powerful the ground troops were, they would only be cannon fodder. In other words, all his hard work over the years had been in vain. This made him how to ignore Tojo Hide, the instigator of the Xuzhou air battle. Motivation breeds resentment,