The four P-51s that pounced from Sasaki's direction at six o'clock did not go straight towards Sasaki, but rushed straight towards the rookies who were attacking the transport plane. Obviously, it was their first goal to prevent the Japanese from continuing to attack the transport aircraft.

Although the rookies below have been reminded by Sasaki's wingman on the radio, the situation of low altitude and slow speed cannot be changed all at once. In front of the P-51s rushing at high speed, they were now dead fish on the chopping block. In just one attack by 4 aircraft, two Ki-43s were volleyed into the air. There was also a Ki-43 that actually stalled and crashed because it turned too fast.

After completing this round of attacks, the four P-51s did not stay at a low altitude to continue entanglement, but used the high speed to quickly open the distance between them and the Ki-43s, and then jumped up at a large angle. Prepare for a second round of attacks.

At this time, those Ki-43s also began to wake up from the panic of the attack, pushed the throttle valve to the end, and began to climb hard. So when the four P-51s turned around with a sledgehammer and rushed over again, the rookies performed much better than last time, in this round, only one plane was hit and caught fire, and the bullets fired indiscriminately during their counterattack wounded one P-51. This P-51 had a fuel tank leak, and in order to ensure that it could fly back, this P-51 could only immediately drop {one + {read} novel ybdu head and fly home, while another P-51 also followed him away.

Now the Japanese have 9 Ki-43s left, and the Americans have only two P-51s. It looks like the Japanese are quite capable of fighting in one go. But Sasaki knew that in fact, the situation of his formation was not much better. Because since a group of P-51s has already discovered themselves, it means that it won't be long before more P-51s will appear. Just like when the first vulture appeared above the corpse, the big vulture group that came to divide the corpse was not far away.

"Shanxian-kun, it's up to you to take the newcomers back, and Takeda and I try our best to drag down our opponents." Sasaki gave an order to his own fleet.

"Sir, we're going to stay and fight alongside you!"

"Sir, the samurai of the Great Japanese Empire, how can you turn around and run away in the face of the enemy!"

The rookies started shouting over the radio.

When he heard the first sentence, Sasaki was still a little moved, but as soon as the latter sentence came out, he was immediately so angry that he almost vomited blood. If it weren't for saving this group of pig teammates, how could Sasaki make such a decision that bordered on suicide? At this time, there were still people who came up with nonsense such as "Imperial samurai should not run away" to talk about things. In fact, Sasaki also wanted to say something like "Okay, after you stay, we'll withdraw" or something like that. But the old bird's sense of responsibility to the rookie made it impossible for him to make such a decision. Staying by yourself, no matter what, is more likely than these rookies staying and surviving. And although these rookies are so stupid that Sasaki vomits blood now, as long as they can live, they always have a chance to grow up. Japan can't always rely on a few old pilots to fight, right?

"Shut up for me and honestly obey military orders!" Sasaki roared.

The Americans, who now had only two planes left, no longer directly crossed the higher-altitude Sasaki-Takeda formation to directly attack the Ki-43 at a lower position. Now they are too few in number, and if they are to attack, they should attack the most threatening targets. This target can undoubtedly only be Sasaki, who is in the highest position.

Two American fighters began to turn, trying to find a better angle of attack. But Sasaki, keeping an eye on them, adjusted the direction of his nose to make sure that when the Americans pounced, he could avoid the Americans' attacks with the simplest possible movement. So a strange situation arose: two P-51s drew circles at a higher altitude, and two Ki-43s drew circles at a much lower altitude.

The circling performance of the P-51 is not good, especially compared to the invincible Ki-43 in the circle, in such a circle, it is not easy to curse the opponent by drawing circles. If the height of these two Ki-43s is higher, it will be easier to deal with, and it will be enough to dive directly at a large angle. But now, Sasaki's Ki-43, which is the tallest, is no more than 900 meters high, and if it rushes over at a large angle, it will most likely crash to death on the earth. Sasaki couldn't help but think with a little pride, "Those beautiful animals must be very embarrassed." ”

But Garfield, who was piloting the P-51, was not as embarrassed as Sasaki imagined. Because of this situation, when preparing for the battle, Instructor Ron analyzed it with everyone. As Ron had demonstrated, he began to speed up, distancing himself from his wingman. In a few moments, he and the wingman were half a lap away. Now, no matter how Sasaki and Takeda adjust the nose pointing, there will always be a P-51 in a dangerous position.

Since he couldn't do both, of course, he could only focus on the most dangerous one first, and Sasaki carefully kept Garfield's P-51 at 10 o'clock, so that it would be difficult for Garfield to attack him. Of course, the result of this must be Garfield's wingman, Phillips, who will appear at 5 o'clock.

Now that he had the opportunity to attack, Phillips immediately rolled 180 degrees, then gently pulled the lever and pounced on Sasaki.

Sasaki has actually been focusing on Phillips, who is in a more dangerous position. So when Phillips rushed over, Sasaki was already on guard. Just when the distance between the two sides was shortened to the distance that Phillips could fire immediately. Sasaki made a sharp turn, and the shell fired by Phillips swept past Sasaki's Ki-43.

The first shot missed, and Phillips did not chase after it, but calmly pulled up the plane and returned to a higher position. In fact, his attack was not without effect, Sasaki had to make a sharp turn in order to avoid his attack, and it was Garfield, who was originally in his 10 o'clock direction, who also got the opportunity to attack.

Garfield swooped in as well, and a sharply turning Sasaki appeared in the aperture of his scope. Garfield quickly closes the distance and starts shooting.

……

Koga's seven Ki-44s had already relied on climbing to get rid of the P-51 entangled in the back, and when they climbed to an altitude of 7,000 meters, the Americans, who had a numerical advantage, did not dare to catch up anymore because of the severe decline in performance. At this height, the P-51A is really not enough to see. For safety, his formation was maintaining such an altitude on the way back. Seven Ki-44s flew over from high altitudes, and droplets of water condensed on the microscopic particles emitted by the aircraft's engines pulled a long trail behind the fuselage.

Koga was flying while calculating the outcome of this battle, although the Americans fell into the trap, but in real terms, the losses of the Americans were not too great. The point is that this loss, compared with the strength in the hands of the Americans, is simply a drop in the bucket. Thinking of this, Koga couldn't help but be quite worried about the future of the empire.

But Koga's worries didn't last long, because suddenly someone shouted: "Enemy plane spotted!" ”

In front of Koga were 16 P-38s with hideous shark mouths painted on them! The planes were approaching them at high speed from the direction of 9 o'clock, and apparently, they had been spotted.

Koga felt a chill in his heart, although the Ki-44 "Zhong Kui" was developed to deal with the "twin demon" P-38 (for which it was named after being able to restrain the devil), but except for rolling and diving, it hardly had any performance compared to the P-38. The high-altitude performance of the Ki-44 is good, but the high-altitude performance of the P-38 with two-stage supercharging is even more powerful.

"If you can't run, then fight. As for the outcome, leave it to fate! Koga thought so, while giving an order to the formation: "Defeat the American ghost beast!" Emperor Banya! ”

Ron has mentioned more than once to others the importance of a fighter jet's sturdy body and powerful firepower. These two requirements would result in a significant loss of maneuverability for the aircraft. In heads-up, such an aircraft will always be difficult to fight against those lighter opponents. But large swarms are a completely different story. Thick guns are king, because in dogfights, both your chances of attacking your opponent and your opponent's attack on you are greatly increased. If your opponent has to hit you ten times to shoot you down, you only need to hit your opponent once. Then even if the opponent is far more flexible than you, in the melee of the large fleet, you will have an overwhelming advantage in the final exchange ratio.

This is the situation now, Koga saw a Ki-44 bite a P-38 at 6 o'clock, and shot for a long time, but people just dropped some skin fragments, just when the Ki-44 was shooting hard, a P-38 came out of nowhere, and then a short shot, the Ki-44 turned into fireworks.

There are more than twice as many P-38s as Ki-44s, which makes it possible for each Ki-44 to be followed by a P-38. In just a few minutes, all seven Ki-44s were shot down. Only two pilots were able to make a successful parachute jump.

……

The total annihilation of Koga dealt Kato a heavy blow. For Kato, even if all the sixteen Ki-43s sent out this time were killed, the blow would not be as great as the loss of all the Ki-44s. Because, the losses in this battle were the most elite pilots of the 64th Sentai Team. But that's not all the bad news. Two minutes later, the news of Sasaki's skydiving came on the radio.

"Alas, if only those rookies were enough, there are too many old birds who went to Kudanzaka this time." The sudden turn in the tide of battle was painful for Kato.

……

"Okay, that's it! Don't let the family run away. "When the news came that the P-38 of the 14th Air Force had shot down all the Ki-44s in one fell swoop at the cost of three aircraft wounded, Ron, who was in command of the air battle in the operations center of the 10th Air Force, almost jumped for joy.

However, General Bissel was not very happy:

"Isn't there still a group of Ki-43s? Catch up with them or not? We can't afford to beat the Fourteenth Air Force! ”

It seems that this old man's competitive spirit is really not ordinarily strong.