Compared to the P/A-38 attack aircraft, the P/A-47 can dive up Xìng better. In fact, this distinction was inherited from their prototypes. In terms of the general ability to use attack aircraft, the P/A-38 attack aircraft has an extremely obvious advantage over the P/A-47 attack aircraft in terms of Xìng ability, that is, the P/A-38 has a much longer range. Although compared to the original P-38 fighter, because of the increase in armor and pylons, the weight of the aircraft has increased significantly, which has led to a significant decrease in range, but its range is still much larger than that of the original P-47 fighter, not to mention that the range of the P/A-47 attack aircraft has also decreased compared to the P-47 fighter.

This is a huge advantage, which means that with the same number of P/A-38 attack aircraft, it is possible to control a much larger area than the P/A-47 attack aircraft; Or it means that the same number of P/A-38 attack aircraft can have a longer battlefield cruise time. This is very important for providing direct fire support against the enemy. In addition, due to logistical considerations, the more single the model, the more convenient it is to maintain. There are a lot of P-47s, and there is absolutely no shortage of raw materials for modification, but there are also a lot of P-38s in the hands of the Army Airlines. If the P/A-47 attack aircraft had nothing special to surpass the P/A-38 attack aircraft in Xìng, then the U.S. Army Air Force would never have procured such an aircraft.

The first obvious advantage of the P/A-47 is its ability to dive and pull up. This allows it to dive at a large angle like a dive bomber, and the attack of a large dive bomb is much higher than that of a horizontal bomb. For example, the famous Stuka dive bomber is capable of dropping bombs vertically at 90 degrees. Its bomb throwing degree can be controlled at about 15-20 meters; The bombing degree of horizontal bombers is quite tragic, taking the B-25 medium bomber as an example, even if it bombs at low altitude, the bombing degree is more than 300-400 meters.

The Jīng degree of bomb dropping of the P/A-47 attack aircraft when it is also a dive bomber cannot be compared with that of a genuine dive bomber, such as the Stuka or the Dreadnought, but compared with the P/A-38, which can only drop bombs horizontally or shallowly, the jīng degree is not high. There will always be times when the U.S. Army Air Corps needs to attack fixed, solidified targets. At this time, the irreplaceable advantages of the P/A-47 were revealed.

So, when Ron got his first airfield on the continent, he reported to his superiors that he would get a few P/A-47 attack planes that would come in handy when he needed to strike targets at fortified points.

Nowadays, the task of blocking traffic is indispensable to attack bridges. And to do this job, at least for now, there is no more suitable aircraft than the P/A-47.

Yesterday the bombers of the Eighth Air Force launched another air raid on a railway bridge in France, and although the bombing caused some damage to the bridge, the piers, the most crucial part of the bridge, were still unharmed. For a large industrial country, the steel frame of a railway bridge has been blown up or something, and it is too easy to repair it. In Ron's original time and space, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, in order to encircle and annihilate the First Division of the United States Marine Corps, the Chinese People's Volunteers sent a commando team to attack and blow up the only railway bridge on the road where the First Marine Division retreated. Who knew that the Americans directly transported the damaged steel parts on the railway bridge by transport aircraft, repaired the railway bridge in a very short time, and rescued the 1st Marine Division.

If you want to make it difficult for the enemy to repair it in a short time, you have to destroy the bridge piers. But the piers are very, very strong targets, and they are not something that can be destroyed casually. Obviously, heavy bombers were not suitable for attacking such a target, so the task of destroying this target was entrusted to Ron's 21st Attack Aircraft Wing.

"The situation of enemy air defense in the target area is approximately like this." Ron's aide-de-camp, Scott, was in the war room, pointing to the map and explaining the combat mission to the other officers.

"The bombers of the Eighth Air Force have launched several attacks on targets. The enemy also has a large number of anti-aircraft units in the vicinity of the target, and according to the information provided by the Eighth Air Force and the French underground resistance, the enemy has 88-mm anti-aircraft artillery units here, here, and here, and as for the small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery units, because they were not useful in the air raids of the Eighth Air Force, we also lack information in this area. However, it is certain that around the bridge, small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns are absolutely indispensable. We only have six P/A-47 attack aircraft, and a hard break is not necessarily a good practice. So we came up with such a plan. After a slight pause, Scott continued:

"Tomorrow at about 11 a.m., the bombers of the 8th Air Army will again bomb the target. They will enter in two batches from a height of 4000 meters and drop bombs. Our attack aircraft will appear a little higher than the heavy bombers in the guise of P-47 fighters, which escorted the first batch of bombers. The P/A-47 attack aircraft has never appeared in Europe before, and the enemy can't tell the difference between it and the authentic P-47 fighter," Scott smiled a little at this point, "Seriously, at such a distance, even ourselves, most of us can't tell the difference between the P/A-47 attack aircraft and the P-47 fighter." When the bombers of the Eighth Air Force finished dropping bombs. The enemy's attention will certainly be diverted to the second batch of bombers, which are about to enter the bombing route. At that point, our P/A-47 swooped down and launched a lightning attack on the target. …… That's our plan. Let's see if there's anything else you need to add? ”

"The bombs dropped by the bombers will produce a lot of smoke, which will interfere with our dive bombing." Squadron Leader Malone said. He will lead the action tomorrow, so he is quite attentive to such details.

"According to the intelligence, tomorrow the wind will be three or four, so the smoke will be blown away quickly. The impact on the line of sight should not be too great. However, Major Malone, you need to consider the problem of wind deviation when you drop bombs. I've got detailed information on tomorrow's weather that you can take and look into. Scott replied as he pulled a document out of the folder and handed it to him.

"Can we get those authentic P-47s on escort missions to also hang bombs or auxiliary fuel tanks, and let them make a dive towards several other piers since we were diving. Their dive speed is higher than ours, and any high-profile gunner will instinctively target them. Let them dive to an altitude of about a kilometer and level out, and it will be difficult for small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns to hit such high-speed targets. The enemy's small- and medium-caliber high-shè guns will definitely be attracted to them. This way we will be more sure of our bombing. Boynton interjected.

"Well, Daddy! Your conscience is greatly broken! Ron immediately complimented him, and then said to Scott, "Scott, send this request to General Doolittle in a moment." ”

"Of course, what is this called following someone and learning what kind of learning! Can you stay with a guy like you who has no conscience at all, and it won't be affected? Boyynton immediately launched a counterattack.

……

Squadron Leader, Major Malone, followed behind and above about 24 B-17 bombers of the Eighth Air Force, with six P/A-47s, toward the target. On his side, there were quite a few P-47 fighters of other units on escort missions. These aircraft have a large drop fuel tank under the belly. From a distance, it looked a bit like the 1,600-pound heavy aerial bomb hanging under the belly of his plane. And about 3000 meters behind him, there was another bomber formation.

The earth slowly unfolded in front of Major Malone, and a meandering river still appeared in his field of vision—it was almost there! Sure enough, a few minutes later, a majestic railway bridge appeared in Malone's field of vision.

Black roses bloomed in the sky, and it was the German 88-mm anti-aircraft artillery units on the ground that were firing towards the bomber group. The artillery fire was quite intense, but Major Malone was not much threatened. Because no fool would spare the bombers at such a time to give priority to attacking fighters.

In accordance with the rules determined by Li Mei at the beginning, the B-17 group flew directly in accordance with the bombing route without making any evasive actions under artillery fire, and then began to drop bombs. Strings of bombs rained down on the railway bridge. The smoke from the explosion covered the bridge in an instant. And one of the bombers in the bomber group was also hit, and the engine ignited flames.

As the weather forecast says, there is a lot of wind below, but after a while, the smoke below is blown away. And at this time, Ma Long's formation also flew over the railway bridge.

The high shè guns below did not fire at the Marlons, firstly, the efficiency of the large-caliber high shè guns in attacking targets such as fighters was very low, and secondly, there was another group of bombers approaching not far behind, so all the 88mm high shè guns were busy turning their muzzles towards those bombers that were about to fly over.

"Follow me! Attack! Malone shouted, and at the same time kicked the rudder and rolled, the lever dived, and at a large angle of 80 degrees, swooped towards the target pier. And the other P-47s with auxiliary fuel tanks also dived down after him.

The dive flaps of the genuine P-47 fighter were smaller than those of the P/A-47 attack aircraft. They accelerate faster in dives. So these genuine P-47s quickly overtook Malone and their P/A-47 attack aircraft and flew to the front.

At this time, some small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the side of the bridge began to fire at the group of aircraft that were diving down. However, most of their fire was directed at the P-47s that rushed ahead. The P-47s immediately threw away the auxiliary fuel tanks, began to do all kinds of dodge maneuvers, and then quickly leveled them out, relying on the high speed brought by the dive, and quickly flew in other directions.

The speed of these P-47s was so fast that it was already beyond the angular velocity of the barrels of those German small and medium-caliber high-shè guns. So, all the shells that the Germans shè out fell behind them. And Malone's P/A-47 was almost ignored, and until now, not a single anti-aircraft gun fired a single shell at them. In fact, it was impossible for the Germans to attack them, because time had not allowed them to turn their guns.

Malone pressed the target pier into the sight, and then pressed the bomb button.