The forward troops commanded by Zhang Lingpu had set up an ambush and were waiting for the arrival of the Japanese Xiangshan Division, but the Japanese Xiangshan Division had been advancing at a turtle speed, and at the same time, the anxiously waiting Hasegawa Kiyoshi was waiting for a bad news again, and the bomber group sent by the Flying Division to Xiangshan was completely annihilated. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info "This is impossible, absolutely impossible." Kojiro Hyamokawa, then the commander of the 8th Air Division of the Japanese Army, could hardly believe his ears. He had just boasted about Haikou in front of Governor Hasegawa Kiyoshi, but in an instant, the bomber group he sent out was all shattered, which made him a little unable to get off the stage anyway.

"Continue to send fighter planes to carry out air strikes on the landing sites of the Chinese army, and we must slow down their landing." Hasegawa Kiyoshi's words made Momogawa Kojiro's face change greatly. The Eighth Air Division of the Japanese Army, as the only air force defending the island of Taiwan, has not been valued by the Japanese base camp because of its geographical location. It was not until the rise of the Chinese army and the complete withdrawal of the Japanese army from the mainland that the Japanese military began to pay attention to this aviation unit deployed in Taiwan.

However, what made the commander of the Eighth Aviation Division, Kojiro Baichuan, feel depressed was that his own aviation division had finally received the attention of the military department. However, in the face of the increasing shortage of domestic production capacity and the Cabinet's decision to tilt resources and troops towards the American theater, the entire Eighth Air Division was not able to exchange large quantities for the Army's latest combat aircraft, as the War Department said. So far, his aviation division is still equipped with fighters and bombers that have lagged behind for several years, and in addition, in the air raid that broke out a few days ago, the combat planes of one of his own air wings were all destroyed in the airfield before they could take off to meet the enemy.

At this moment, all the fighters that the entire Eighth Flying Division can take up are combined, and there are less than eighty of them when they are fully counted, and if all the fighters in their hands are sent out according to Hasegawa Kiyoshi's orders, then won't he become the commander of the Light Pole Division? After thinking about it in his heart, Momokawa Kojiro immediately replied to Hasegawa Kiyoshi, "Your Excellency the Governor, the Shina Army is menacing, and I judge that it is absolutely impossible for them to land in only one place, if all our fighters are transferred to Xiangshan, once there is a military situation in other places, I am afraid that we will not be able to provide air support." ”

When Hyamogawa Kojiro said this, Hasegawa secretly pondered to himself, as if what Hyamogawa Kojiro said was not wrong, and sent all the fighters of the flight division to Xiangshan, which seemed to be a taboo for soldiers. After consulting with Chief of Staff Fujita Takushi, Hasegawa Kiyoshi revised the order he had just made, and only ordered Momokawa Kojiro to transfer two-thirds of the fighters to Xiangshan, but Hasegawa Kiyoshi also asked the remaining fighters of the flight division to be ready to take off at any time to prepare for war.

Kojiro Momokawa's order soon reached the airport, and the Japanese Flying Division, which had learned that the bomber group had been shattered, immediately took action, and a mixed group of 52 bombers and fighters took off one after another and flew towards Xiangshan Beach, which was full of gunsmoke. At this time, more than 20,000 soldiers who had already completed the landing at the Xiangshan beachhead were orderly transporting all kinds of strategic materials piled up on the beach to the rear as the capital for the troops to attack the interior of Taiwan.

In the busy front-line command headquarters, a crisp telegraph machine sounded in the command center, and immediately after, the voice of the communications staff reached Zhuo Fei's ears. "Commander, the forward reconnaissance team is in an emergency....The fighter group composed of 52 bombers and fighters of the Japanese Eighth Air Division is rapidly rushing towards our beachhead, and the reconnaissance team reminds us to make air defense preparations."

Seeing the nervous look of the combat staff officers under him, Zhuo Fei waved his hand and smiled, "Don't worry, the Japanese army has planes, and we have them too." Immediately send a telegram to the fleet, ordering all carrier-based fighters on board the fleet to take off immediately and prepare to meet the enemy. At the same time, we will send a report to the Taizhou Command Headquarters ordering the other flying teams assembled in Taizhou to immediately take off and transfer to Xiangshan, so that we will take this opportunity to destroy all the air forces of the Japanese army in the Taiwan region in one fell swoop. ”

The carrier-based fighters carried by the temporary fleet were only forty. But these fighters, both in terms of armament and pilot combat experience, were several notches higher than the aviation units of the Japanese army in Taiwan. After receiving Zhuo Fei's order, the fleet that had been cruising in the sea off Xiangshan immediately sounded the battle alarm, and after a short time, all the 40 carrier-based planes on board the aircraft carrier took to the air to prepare for battle.

All the carrier-based planes carried by the fleet took to the air to meet the enemy, and the ground troops that had already completed the landing were not idle, especially the armored vehicle units equipped with large-caliber Browning heavy machine guns, and they were ready to meet the enemy. The first wave of attacks by the Japanese flight division was 12 Nakajima Type 97 fighters and more than 20 Type 96 land attack aircraft, Nakajima Type 97 fighter is a single-engine, single-seat lower wing structure light fighter developed by the Japanese Army in the late 1930s, and began to equip troops in large quantities in 1938, because this fighter has excellent horizontal mobility, so it is also called "the ultimate light fighter". [1]

The Type 96 land attack aircraft, a land attack aircraft developed by Mitsubishi, has always been the strongest land attack fighter equipped by the Japanese army's flight units in the mid-to-late 30s, and has also been valued by many foreign countries. The Type 96 land attack aircraft was heavily equipped with Japanese air units in 1936, and was once the main air combat weapon used by the Japanese army to invade China. In addition to being intercepted by the Chinese Air Force over Hangzhou Bay and shooting down three and seriously damaging another, the Type 96 attack aircraft has always been used as the main force of the Japanese Navy's bombers invading China.

In addition to the indiscriminate bombing of the positions of the anti-Japanese national army on the front line, the Type 96 land attack, which was the backbone of the Japanese army's air force, also carried out long-term bombing of Nanjing, Nanchang, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, and other cities, causing heavy casualties among the Chinese military and civilians

Because the range of the Type 96 attack aircraft was very large, it could be said that it was the longest-range bomber at that time, and the Type 96 land attack aircraft taking off from Taiwan could easily threaten Singapore, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, the Philippines, French Indochina and other vast areas, so the Japanese army deployed a large number of Type 96 attack planes in Taiwan. It's just that due to the changes in the war and the upgrading of aircraft, coupled with the fact that the Type 96 attack planes deployed in Taiwan have been continuously transferred to the Far East battlefield, Kojiro Momokawa has only laid down more than 20 Type 96 attack planes in his hands.

Escorted by the most powerful ultimate light fighters, the more than 20 Type 96 attack planes, which were the backbone of the air war against China in the past, simply ignored the ground forces that had already formed a position on the ground, and instead chose to go straight to the mountain of materials on the beachhead. "Open fire" was accompanied by a long shout, and hundreds of heavy machine guns gathered by the ground troops opened fire at the same time, and all the projectiles that flew into the air from the ground formed an impenetrable barrage, enveloping the group of Type 96 attack planes that were caught off guard.

As soon as they flew over the beachhead, the Japanese Type 96 attack aircraft were enveloped in the dense anti-aircraft fire network of the ground troops. With an air defense battalion and hundreds of heavy machine guns firing at the same time, even if the more than 20 Type 96 attack planes of the Japanese army have great capabilities, they will not be able to escape such a dense firepower network. Accompanied by the rapid sound of gunfire and explosions in mid-air, only two wounded Japanese Type 96 attack planes remained over the beachhead.

No matter how to recover after going back, and even more so that they had no time to care about what was embarrassing or not, the only two remaining Japanese Type 96 attack planes did not dare to continue to stay, but desperately pulled up the nose of the plane and directly dragged the billowing smoke from the fuselage, and fled in embarrassment in the direction of Taipei Airport. The first wave of bombing by the Japanese flying division ended in failure, and the 12 Nakajima fighters who had given up the opportunity to attack aircraft at the last moment were greatly annoyed, but before they could strafe the beachhead, they were swept away by the swooping umbrella carrier-based aircraft group.

Carrier-based planes seldom engage in combat with fighters, but now the umbrella side has the advantage in numbers, and in the cheering and shouting of the ground troops, the air battle is about to break out, and in the course of the entire air battle, the follow-up fighters of the Japanese flying divisions have arrived one after another, but even though the Japanese army has an absolute numerical superiority, half an hour has passed, and the fighting in the air is still not over. At this moment, the first group of fighters who had rushed to Xiangshan from Taizhou and had been hiding at the temporary airfield for a long time suddenly took to the air to help in the battle, and although there were only 30 fighters in this batch, it was tantamount to crushing the last trace of confidence of the Japanese planes.

In less than half an hour, the umbrella side almost completely annihilated 52 bombers and fighters sent by the Japanese flying division at the cost of losing 18 fighters and seriously damaging 13 fighters. The battle soon reached the Governor's Palace, and when he learned that the Flying Division had been defeated again and had lost most of his fighters, Hasegawa Kiyoshi finally couldn't control the anger in his heart, and not only smashed the objects in his office, but also clamored that he would personally lead his troops to fight to the death against the Chinese troops who landed in Xiangshan.

Hasegawa Kiyoshi's clamor will naturally be blocked by Chief of Staff Fujita Takushi, and if it is the governor's turn to fight in person, it will indicate that Taiwan will not be able to hold on. "Your Excellency, please don't be discouraged, don't forget that we still have a lot of cave fortifications. Taiwan is mountainous, and the roads are not in very good condition, so as long as we can give full play to the advantages of terrain and fortifications, the air superiority of the Chinese army will not really play a big role. ”

Fujita Takushi's words of consolation brought Hasegawa Kiyoshi back to his senses, "That's right, Fujita-kun, even if we lose most of our air power, we still have a large number of ground troops and deliberately used fortifications. As long as we pull our troops into the mountains and make use of our mountain fortifications, we can completely drag the Chinese army attacking us to death in the mountains and forests. ”