The battle reports of the other five fleets were also quickly sent back.
Sihong Airport is the location of the 6th Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Qing Air Force. It has more than 100 bombers of various types, one-third of which are the latest "Black Cloud" bombers.
However, the anti-aircraft artillery troops here were not as cowardly as those at Baoying Airport. They persisted in shooting under the constant attacks of dive bombers. Although they did not hit the Ming army aircraft, they caused the inexperienced Ming army aircraft groups to disperse and fight in formation.
There was chaos, and there was no orderly bombing in accordance with the predetermined plan. Instead, they fought independently and lacked coordination.
In this case, although more than thirty heavy twin-engine "Dark Clouds" were blown to the ground, more than forty bombers flew up and fled in all directions. The Ming Army's Kingfisher fighter jets shot down ten of them in the air.
Several aircraft. However, due to the chaos in the sky, the Qing army's "dark clouds" and the Ming army's "swans" were mixed together. The Kingfisher fighter pilots had never seen such a battle, and they were eager to pursue the enemy. The two Kingfishers fought hard.
A Swan was stationed in it and it was shot down. In the end, more than thirty Qing bombers escaped.
But the results were also huge: 32 Wuyun twin-engine bombers and 36 old single-engine bombers were destroyed, a total of 68 aircraft. The Ming army lost one "Swan", which was shot down by itself.
Dongtai Airport, like Baoying, is close to the Yangtze River and is the location of the 18th Combat Aviation Regiment of the Qing Air Force. There are 92 Jebie fighter jets and 20 Haidongqing fighter jets parked, for a total of 112 fighter jets.
But here, just like Baoying, there was paralysis and lack of alertness. The alarm was not sounded until the fleet of aircraft flew overhead. However, because the pilots of the Qing Army Aviation Group worked hard to fly the aircraft, and the Ming Army bombers lacked experience, they only sounded the alarm on the ground.
45 Zhebies were blown up, and 37 fighter jets flew into the sky, including 10 Haidongqings. These 10 Haidongqings fought with the Ming army's 24 Kingfishers and were quickly shot down one by one, but the Ming Dynasty
The army also shot down two Swans and a Kingfisher, and allowed the 27 Jebies to escape.
However, the surprise attack here was also very successful: 45 Jebie biplane fighters and 10 Haidongqing new fighter jets were destroyed, a total of 55. 27 Jebies flew away and escaped, and 20 Jebies and 10 Haidongqing stopped.
On the ground, the leakage net was not destroyed. The Ming army lost two Swans and one Kingfisher, both of which were shot down by the 10 Haidongqings.
The aircraft fleet on the west route also achieved great results.
Hefei Airport is the location of the 12th Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Qing Air Force. 71 old single-engine bombers and 40 twin-engine Dark Cloud bombers were destroyed, a total of 111. However, due to the fierce anti-aircraft artillery, the Ming army was shot down 3 Swan bombers and 1 Osprey.
The dive bombers, the team leader ordered to return early, leaving 20 single-engine bombers and 15 Dark Cloud bombers on the airport.
Lu'an Airport is the location of the 5th Combat Aviation Regiment of the Qing Air Force. It destroyed 80 Jebie fighters and 24 Haidongqing fighters. It can be said to be a total annihilation. 4 Haidongqings were forced to fly into the sky, but they were all shot down by Kingfishers. However,
The Ming army lost 1 Osprey dive bomber and 1 Swan bomber.
…
However, the only difference is Fengyang Airport. This is the location of the First Combat Aviation Regiment of the Qing Air Force. The First Combat Aviation Regiment is the first air force of the Qing Empire. Among the Qing Air Force, it is the most heroic in combat and the most disciplined.
A strict regiment. This regiment has a concentration of elites. Many ace pilots belong to this regiment. The average flight hours of the entire regiment's pilots is more than 300 hours. All kinds of new equipment and new aircraft models are also given priority to this regiment. It can be said that the first
The Combat Aviation Regiment is the symbol of the Qing Air Force.
This regiment has 160 fighter jets, 80 of which are new Haidongqings. Moreover, Fengyang Airport is the farthest away from the transit point of the Ming army fleet, and was the last airport to be attacked. Before that, it had received air attacks on three airports.
In response to the alarm, 43 of the entire regiment's fighter jets were under maintenance and repair, while the remaining 60 Haidongqing and 57 Zhebie fighter jets, a total of 117 fighter jets, had all taken off and were ready.
The tragic fate of the Fengyang detachment of the Ming Army's central air group began.
Originally, I just thought that the First Fighter Regiment of the Qing Army would be more tenacious and would fly regardless of the bombing. There might be some air battles, so more aircraft were allocated to the Fengyang detachment. There were more swans and ospreys.
In other fleets, there are 32 Kingfisher fighter jets.
But what I didn't expect was that the first combat group did not "fly tenaciously", but the whole group took off and already formed a formation in the air.
When the Ming army's fighter formation saw this scene, 32 Kingfishers immediately bravely rushed forward and started a melee with 117 Qing army fighter jets. The Osprey formation and the Swan formation also dispersed, evading while continuing to fly towards the airport.
.
The Qing army's 44 Haidongqing entangled 32 Kingfisher fighters, making them unable to protect the bombers. The other 16 Haidongqings led 57 Zhefa and began to kill the Ming army bombers.
When the Ming Army's 60 "Ospreys" and 30 "Swans" flew over the airport to drop bombs, they had already suffered heavy losses. There were still 40 Osprey dive bombers left and 8 Swan bombers left. These 8 were already 4.
injured.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the leader of the Ming army's fleet immediately ordered the Swan bombers to drop their bombs and escape separately. The task of bombing the hangar was handed over to the Osprey formation. The Osprey bombers were better because they were more flexible and could dive to dodge, plus the Qing fighter jets
Having no experience in dealing with dive bombers, and focusing mainly on large targets like the "Swan", the Osprey suffered limited losses and successfully dropped the bomb on the hangar. Of the 23 Jebies being maintained in the hangar, 20
The aircraft at Haidongqing was blown up.
However, the bulky Swan bombers did not escape at all. They were shot down one by one by Haidongqing like turkeys, which is exactly what the saying "Haitongqing catches swans" was said to be. When the leader of the fleet looked at the end
After a "Swan" fell to the ground dragging black smoke, he gritted his teeth and ordered everyone to return. The leader led the remaining 20 Kingfishers and fought with the remaining 40 Haidongqings, trying his best to form the Osprey formation.
Create opportunities for escape.
The "Kingfisher" and the "Haitongqing" are the same generation of fighter jets designed in the early 1930s and put into service in the first half of the 1930s. It can be said that the performance is almost the same. It can be said that the "Kingfisher" is slightly higher. But the "Haidong"
The number of "Qing" is twice that of "Kingfisher", and the quality of the pilots of the Qing Army's First Fighter Regiment is equivalent to that of the Ming Army's pilots. The Qing Army can easily use a "Four-Four Formation" to attack a "Four-Four Formation" of the Ming Army.
"Two-two formation" means using two pairs of lead aircraft and wingmen to attack a pair of lead aircraft and wingmen.
In addition, Fengyang Airport is the farthest airport, and the Ming army came from afar. At this time, the "Kingfisher" was almost running out of fuel and could no longer withstand the fight. There were only 4 Kingfishers left.
Qing's faster speed allows him to escape from the battlefield.
The Fengyang detachment of the Ming Army suffered heavy losses: all 30 Swan bombers were lost, 23 of 60 Osprey dive bombers were lost, and 28 of 32 Kingfisher fighters were lost.
In comparison, the results were very pitiful. 23 Jebies and 20 Haitung Qins were blown up in the hangar, and 24 Haitung Qins and 12 Jebies were shot down in air combat. A total of 79 aircraft.
If it was an air battle in which both sides were prepared, this loss ratio should be considered a defeat, but it cannot be regarded as a disastrous defeat. But as a sneak attack, and it was beaten like this, it was a complete disastrous defeat.
…
At about six o'clock in the evening, all the formations came back. At more than a dozen airports, pilots took off their flight hats tiredly, sat in the hangar, and told the statistical officers about their results. The difference was that at most airports,
It was full of victory and laughter, but only three airports were shrouded in sadness and depression. These three airports even seemed empty because there were not so many planes anymore.
Detailed battle reports have been sent to the headquarters one after another. Now the central command hall is full of joy. The two commanders Xiang Xiaoqiang, who is the direct planner, and Lu Hang, who is the direct commander, and Haihang Commander, have become the focus of everyone. The officers are all happy and congratulate them.
The female officers brought champagne and opened it for everyone on the spot. This victory was worth celebrating. Even including the failure of Fengyang Airport, the victory was greater than expected.
Xiang Xiaoqiang held the victory statistics table, and the bottom column clearly read:
A total of 72 Wuyun twin-engine bombers, 107 various old single-engine bombers, 98 Haidongqing fighter jets, and 260 old-fashioned Jebie fighter jets were destroyed. A total of 179 bombers and 358 fighter jets were destroyed. A total of 537
shelf.
Our losses: 37 Swan twin-engine bombers, 25 Osprey dive bombers, and 30 Kingfisher fighters. - A total of 92 aircraft.
The results cannot be said to be huge! It cannot be said to be amazing! This is a typical one-sided victory.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the jubilant officers around him, and he was grinning from ear to ear. This victory was of great significance. The Manchu and Qing Air Force currently had about 1,500 combat aircraft, but now they had destroyed more than 500 of them.
, the number of combat aircraft in the Ming and Qing Dynasties has basically equalized. Moreover, the aircraft performance and pilot quality of the Ming Army are generally higher than those of the Qing Army. This means that the strategic advantage in the air has been greatly favored by the Ming Army.
What's even more valuable is that this operation destroyed 98 Haidongqing fighter jets of the Qing army. This new type of fighter jet, the Manchu and Qing Air Force only had about 200 in total. Now it is equivalent to destroying half of them, leaving about a hundred. And the Nanming Air Force
There are still about 300 Kingfisher fighter jets in existence.
It can be said that for a long period of time, the Ming army will have the upper hand in air combat.
Xiang Xiaoqiang even thought that if the timing could be more perfect this time and Fengyang Airport did not receive early warning, more than 100 Qing fighter jets would be destroyed, and his own losses would probably not exceed 20.
Instead of the current 92.
Of course, this unprecedented air raid taught the Qing army a lesson. There will never be such an opportunity again. In the future, every time a Qing aircraft is destroyed, it will have to rely on real air combat.
Now, it’s time to start solving the problem in Nanjing.
There are still 150 Osprey dive bombers left out of 175. The pilots of these dive bombers are destined to have a very hard day today. As soon as they got off the plane, they were given priority to report the results, and then were immediately arranged to have dinner in advance. Then they were assigned new tasks,
While it's still dark, bomb Pukou and northwest Nanjing.
Although the pilots were very tired, they knew that the next step was to directly relieve the siege of Nanjing. Moreover, many of them found it very enjoyable and unfinished in their first actual combat. They welcomed this important and not too dangerous mission.
150 Ospreys were filled with fuel, reloaded with bombs, and escorted by 150 Kingfishers, they took to the sky. The escort ratio reached one to one, which was very high. And actual combat proved that this kind of dive bomber is not as good as a level bomber.
It is easy to shoot down. But the commander of the Army Aviation still sent them a large number of escort aircraft. On the one hand, the fighter jets are relatively idle now. In addition, Xiang Xiaoqiang also suggested that these 150 Ospreys should be protected carefully to prevent the situation like Fengyang Airport from happening again. Now
Dive bombers are so important to ground operations that they will be used frequently in subsequent military operations. And there are only 150 of them, so losing one is a huge loss.
…
In a fortification at Pukou Pier, Emperor Guangwu sat at the table and looked at a report with an expressionless face. - About forty minutes ago, Dongtai, Baoying, Sihong, Fengyang, Hefei, Lu'an, six blocks
At the same time, the military airport was bombed by a large number of Ming army aircraft. Our army suffered heavy losses, with the loss of aircraft estimated at more than 500 aircraft.
He looked at it for a while, then raised his head blankly and asked:
"What's this?"
The faces of the generals in front of them were as white as paper, and no one dared to speak.
Emperor Guangwu lowered his head, looked at it again, and tapped the paper:
"You guys are talking, what on earth is this? Where did it come from?"
The air force staff officer in front of me turned red in the face, and said after a long pause:
"This...this is the report that was just...sent. We were bombed by Ming army planes and suffered...losses..."
Emperor Guangwu suddenly became happy. He threw the paper on the table and said:
"Are you kidding? We lost more than 500 aircraft. How many more did the Ming army gain?... They only had a thousand or so aircraft that they could fight with. Why did they kill more than 500 of us in just half an hour? How can you continue?
Go check it out and ask them to write down the numbers after they wake up."
This air force staff officer was just a colonel. Originally, he had nothing to do with the attack on Nanjing. He was just the only representative of the air force among the officers who followed the emperor to Pukou. But with this report, he believed in the seriousness of the matter.
. Unlike Emperor Guangwu who only knew about cannons, he knew what the air force could do.
"Your Majesty," his throat was dry and he mustered up the courage to say, "The Ming... Ming army launched a sneak attack. Most of our planes didn't take off and were blown up on the runway... So, more than five... five hundred
, is completely...possible..."
The smile on Emperor Guangwu's face froze. He picked up the report again and read it carefully. The more he looked at it, the whiter his face became, and finally his hands were shaking.
He covered his forehead and murmured:
"So... this could be true?"
The air force staff officer nodded with a pale face. He immediately followed up with:
"Your Majesty, this servant is not clear about this matter at all. Maybe they made a mistake, or maybe..."
Emperor Guangwu held his forehead, waved gently, and handed him the report:
"Go and check again..."
Suddenly, he seemed to hear a strange sound of cannons coming faintly from outside the fortification. This was very different from the sound of cannons that had been going off all day.
Anti-aircraft guns?
Before he could react, the fortification seemed to have been hit hard. Amidst the huge vibration, the light bulb went out and on again, and a large amount of dust fell from the top.
Several officers rushed in and shouted:
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Emperor Guangwu staggered up from the ground, his ears still ringing, and he asked in a daze:
"What, the fortification was hit by a shell?"
When the officers saw that he was fine, they were overjoyed and stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, it's great that you're okay!... Your Majesty, it's not a cannonball, it's a bomb!"
"bomb?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, the Ming Army's planes are coming for air raids. You must not go out!... The bombings are going crazy outside. I have never seen such a bomber! Such a small plane can bomb so accurately!"
Emperor Guangwu straightened up and said angrily:
"Where are our fighter jets? Shoot them down!"
Several officers looked at each other, and then one of them said:
"Your Majesty... who... who knows, there is an explosion outside..."
Emperor Guangwu said nothing, grabbed the phone, shook it a few times, and said:
"It's me. Pick me up at Pukou Airport right away."
After a while, the operator's panicked voice appeared again:
"Your Majesty... the phone line was blown up. Your Majesty... Your Majesty, please spare your life..."
Emperor Guangwu hung up the phone silently, touched his forehead, listened to the muffled sounds of explosions outside from time to time, and the constant vibrations under his feet, and let out a long breath:
"Can we still win Nanjing tonight?"
…
150 Osprey dive bombers were divided into three groups. The first group bombed several thousand Qing troops in the zoo in the northeast corner of Nanjing City.
The second group flew to the Zimuzhou area and bombed the Qing troops who were in a stalemate with the garrison there.
The third group was the largest, with a total of 100 aircraft, and it continuously bombarded Pukou's docks, military camps, train stations, and six heavy artillery positions a few kilometers to the west.
Thousands of Qing soldiers gathered at the military camp and docks fled in all directions. They watched in horror as the bombers roared down from the sky. First, they fired with machine guns, dozens of people fell into a pool of blood, and then a black thing
When it fell, there was a loud noise in the crowd, and countless flesh and blood limbs were thrown up.
The problem is that there is no escape. This thing in the sky explodes so accurately. Just go wherever there are people. Hundreds of thousands of Qing soldiers gathered in Pukou, which is already dense enough. Originally, we only needed to consider the issue of artillery fire from the other side.
.But the artillery on the other side couldn't see this side at all, so they could only fire randomly based on estimates, not even indirect aiming, and there were not many casualties.
But now 100 dive bombers are hovering overhead, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on people, which is equivalent to 100 cannons mounted directly overhead. And the "giant shells" fired are 220 kilograms...
In this case, the mental impact on the Qing army was much higher than the actual number of people killed. When the bombers roared down, every Qing soldier on the ground thought it was coming for them, and they scattered with their lives.
Escape, all structures were disrupted, and everyone just wanted to survive.
At first, the anti-aircraft artillery position was still firing tenaciously, but later it was discovered that it was difficult to hit an aircraft with an anti-aircraft gun that flew down vertically at more than 80 degrees. Large and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns were simply impossible, and even small-caliber rapid-fire cannons required very high skills.
When this kind of aircraft swooped down, it continued to fire. Those artillerymen who insisted on shooting always suffered heavy casualties, while those who abandoned the anti-aircraft guns and ran away survived. Soon, no one cared about the anti-aircraft guns anymore, and all the artillerymen also
Like the infantry, they looked for places to hide, hoping to survive this disaster.
…
Pukou Airport was a small airport with more than twenty Jebie fighter jets, but it was so close to the Yangtze River that it was destroyed on the runway without even a minimum warning time.
Now that the Ming Army's aircraft have experience, it is sometimes more efficient and economical to use strafing to deal with aircraft parked on the runway than to drop bombs. The bombs are reserved for dealing with some high-value hard targets, such as hangars and train stations.
Such.
After twenty Ospreys "swept" Pukou Airport, they turned around and bombed the train station.
The piercing sirens of Pukou Railway Station rang in the sky, but there were neither anti-aircraft guns nor Qing fighter jets around. I watched helplessly as swarms of bombers roared down and fireballs rose up from the ground.
The bombing targets were all the buildings, all the trains parked at the station, and the shiny rails.
There are not many buildings on the train station, but they are all important. The dispatch station, control room, train warehouse, etc., successively collapsed in the explosion of the 220 kilogram bomb. To deal with the long train lying on the rails, dive bombers are most suitable
However, especially the kind of trains parked very densely in the shunting yard, a bomb will blow up a large area.
Several Ospreys noticed several very conspicuous carriages, which seemed to be armored and had turrets above them. They were very interested and thought they were worth bombing. Each of these Ospreys dived once and finally dropped a bomb on it.
Emperor Guangwu's armored train was blown into two pieces with a loud noise. The fire ignited the artillery shells in the turret carriage. As a result, a series of explosions ignited an arms train on the track next door. The explosion was earth-shattering.
In addition to several rows of flatbed trucks pulling cannons and container trucks pulling munitions exploding and burning at the station, the pilot also saw two rows of long flatbed trucks with tanks tied to them with steel cables. The pilot counted them.
There are hundreds of vehicles.
The team leader immediately judged that these were tanks that the Qing army had removed from various army units in order to deal with the People's Guard's armor advantage, and were preparing to transport them across the Yangtze River to attack Nanjing. He immediately called in twenty Ospreys and dive-bombed them in turn until
Every tank and train were blown to pieces.
…
These dive bombers continued to bomb, and after dropping the bombs, they immediately flew back to reload. The pilots did not even get off the plane, and then flew directly back to the battlefield.
At first, they were equipped with two 220 kilogram bombs. Later, hard targets such as train stations and heavy artillery positions were completed. Against the fleeing Qing infantry, this kind of heavy bomb was not effective, and the damage was not as good as that of fighter jets. In addition,
It was getting dark, and the accuracy of the bomb delivery was not very good, so they all went back one after another to replace the 100 kilogram bombs. Four of these bombs could be loaded at a time, and their killing effect on infantry was greatly enhanced.
Xiang Xiaoqiang kept seeing the latest battle reports in the fortress. When he learned about this situation, he immediately changed his mind and directly suggested that the Army Aviation Commander send horizontal bombers again to carry out extensive bombing of Pukou.
A few old men did some research and thought that now that they had absolute air supremacy and it was still dark, there was nothing wrong with being more aggressive, so they sent 50 more Swan bombers, each carrying 10 100kg bombs, to Pukou.
From the sky, conduct a thorough bombing of strategic areas such as the military barracks, dock area, station area, and warehouse area.
It was not until seven o'clock, when it was completely dark and precision dive bombing was no longer possible, that the Osprey formation returned. However, the bombing of Pukou had not stopped. More horizontal bombers were transferred from nearby airports to continue the night bombing. At this time,
There is no need to talk about accuracy, just drop bombs into the sea of fire below. In the end, the number of "Swan" bombers and old-fashioned biplane bombers that participated in the bombing reached 150.
Pukou has become a sea of fire. As a traditional military stronghold in the Northern Qing Dynasty, it has completely lost its value.
The dock area is completely unusable. The station area is completely unusable. The warehouse area is completely blown up. In the barracks area, not a single dormitory is on fire. As for the number of Qing soldiers killed by the bombing... there is no statistics yet. But
According to Ming Jun's estimation, it should be in five figures.
More importantly, this air raid completely destroyed the fighting will of the Qing army on the north bank. Emperor Guangwu's plan to capture Nanjing on New Year's Eve was completely bankrupt.
As burning as Pukou, there are also zoos and Qing army positions at Zimuzhou.
The zoo was littered with dead bodies, some of them animals, but most of them were human. People wearing Qing army uniforms. A bomb fell on the snake house, and hundreds of venomous and non-venomous snakes crawled out and scattered around every corner of the zoo.
In a corner, the Qing soldiers were all from the north, and most of them had never seen a snake before. They were terrified, as if these snakes were ten times more terrifying than the bombers in the sky. They yelled "Long worm", "Long worm" and ran away in all directions.
However, the Ming army is all from the south and knows snakes better. Firstly, they are not so afraid. Secondly, they all know that snakes are hibernating during this season. Now that they are woken up, they are not so active. If they pay a little attention, they will not be
bite.
But these snakes also caused some troubles to the Ming army. Many snakes got into the engines of tanks and vehicles of the Ming army in order to stay warm, and were twisted in. The engines always stopped working, and it took a lot of effort to kill them.
Get the snake out.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the People's Guard completely occupied the zoo and captured more than 4,000 remaining Qing troops. These Qing troops were the remnants of the Fourth Eight Banner Division. At this point, the second Eight Banner Division became prisoners of the People's Guard.
"Now," Xiang Xiaoqiang leaned back in his chair comfortably, took a deep breath, and said to himself with his eyes closed, "the battle to defend Nanjing is basically won."
After a while, he opened his eyes, looked at the big map, and asked Xiuxiu behind him:
"Hey, are the three floating bridges on Zimu Island still there?"
Xiuxiu nodded and smiled:
"Well, I still have it... Mr. Xiang, do you really think... that the Battle of Nanjing was not won?"
"What's true?" Xiang Xiaoqiang said with a smile, "I have to discuss the detailed plan with the old men...If I win, I have won a long time ago...But this battle is not over yet...I
I said, you can’t just let Qinglu go so cheaply.”
As he spoke, he stood up with a fierce light in his eyes, which startled Xiuxiu.