Komatsu was the first real Japanese to be captured in this battle, and he was actually able to capture him alive, thanks to the southern pistols produced by the Japanese. If you want to ask which was the best pistol in World War II, there will definitely be a lot of debate. The Chinese would say that it was the German Mauser 20-round Zilaide (box gun) that could be used as a submachine gun, the Russians would definitely say that it was the penetrating TT33 (the prototype of the 54), the Americans would say that it was the classic .45 caliber M1911A1 with amazing stopping power, and the Germans would show off their elaborate P38 pistol, which was like a work of art. But if you ask which is the worst combat pistol, I'm afraid everyone will say in unison: Japan's southern pistol (commonly known as the "Wang Ba Box" in China). Since Japan is a resource-scarce country, when it came to producing such guns, the Japanese resorted to all possible methods to cut corners. The result was a rotten pistol that was unparalleled in the world. The reliability of this pistol is a nightmare, and when you want to shoot with it, it often fails to fire because the firing pin is deformed; But when you don't plan to fire with it, it often goes off on its own because of a failure in the safety. Just like this time, Komatsu's road to the Yasukuni Shrine was completely blocked by this rotten gun.

Because Komatsu was captured before committing suicide, the officer in charge of the interrogation thought that it would be very difficult to pry open the mouth of a staunch militarist like him, and for this purpose they prepared a whole bunch of plans, ranging from civilized to barbaric. What I didn't expect was that when the interrogation began, they found that this Japanese was very easy to deal with, much easier to deal with than the "death-afraid" Yankees. It's just answering whatever you ask, and saying whatever you have, just like pouring beans into a bamboo tube. In the morning, everything I wanted to know was known. At that time, the official in charge of the interrogation thought that he was lucky and had met someone who was easy to deal with. Later, as more and more Japanese soldiers were captured, they realized that this situation was really common. The Japanese army never considered that their soldiers would be captured, so they did not conduct any basic counter-interrogation training for their soldiers, and many Japanese soldiers did not know what to say and what not to say. Moreover, Japan directly ruled that the capture was an act of treason in the law, which also caused the psychology of the captured soldiers to break the jar and break it.

From the interrogation of Komatsu, the Americans learned that the Japanese had assembled more planes and ships in Rabaul in preparation for intensifying the battle for Kuah Island. It seems that despite their defeat in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands on August 24, the Japanese did not waver in their determination to retake Kuah.

Vandergrift, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, took this news very seriously, as it meant that the Japanese might instigate a new offensive. He immediately telegraphed General Nimitz, who was in charge of the Battle of Kuah, asking for reinforcement of the island's air force and the delivery of more supplies. He knew that the outcome of this battle would depend on who could get more supplies. Although the U.S. Navy has recently won a victory in the East Solomon, it has also suffered a lot of losses, and now near Kuah Island, the U.S. Navy does not have too much strength. In order to ensure supplies, it is necessary to first ensure sea supremacy, at least during the day. And these are almost entirely dependent on the land-based aviation of Kuah.

The one-sided air battle on 30 August apparently gave the Japanese a great shock, and for several days there were no more Japanese planes over Kuah Island. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Americans further strengthened their military presence on Kuah Island. More troops were sent here. At the same time, Ron also got more P-38s. Twelve new factory P-38s were sent to the island, but Ron didn't get the pilot he was most looking forward to. Also did not expect a new model with a 6-barreled Gatling gun.

Along with the planes was a letter from his brother stating that samples of Ron's Gatling cannon had been produced and that testing was going well. But the military is a little skeptical about the new artillery, and it will take time to make it an option for the army. Perhaps, however, some by-products of this cannon would have come in handy first.

With more P-38s, Ron felt that he couldn't just wait for the Japanese to come to the door. The defeat of the Japanese last time was not unrelated to the fact that the number of planes sent at one time was too small. The capacity of Rabaul's airport is not comparable to that of Kuah. If the Japanese had amassed enough planes in Rabaul to carry out a surprise attack with 100 planes, they might not be able to withstand it. He felt he had to do something to avoid this.

In the past, due to the range of fighter jets, the US air force on Kuah Island had always been out of reach of the Japanese airfield in Rabaul. Therefore, the Japanese defenses were not too tight, if the captive did not lie. But now the range of the P-38 can fully cover Rabaul. It's not necessarily a good idea to take the initiative.

At the regular meeting of the air team, Ron presented his idea. This idea was also supported by other pilots. So the first initiative to attack the Japanese airfield in Rabaul was put on the agenda.

The purpose of this sortie was twofold, the first was to wipe out as many Japanese planes as possible on the runway of the airfield, but more importantly, to provoke the Japanese and entice them to launch a counterattack on Kuah before the time was ripe. To put it more plainly, they went to slap the Japanese in the face.

At 5 o'clock the next morning, as soon as the sun was shining, Ron set off with a few selected pilots. The operation was not large, with only eight P-38 aircraft taking part. Other aircraft are on standby at the airport.

Each P-38 came with a drop fuel tank and a 250-pound bomblet. In fact, the P-38 has a very strong payload capacity, almost no less than the four-engine strategic bomber B-17, but if it is hung so much, the range will not reach that far. According to the plan, if there were no patrolling fighters near the enemy's airfield and the ground anti-aircraft fire was not strong, they would carry out low-altitude bombing, first dropping bombs and then strafing the airfield with machine guns. If the enemy has patrol fighters, drop bombs on the airfield from a high altitude and take out their patrol fighters in front of the enemy.

After a long flight of several hours, according to the charts, Rabaul was almost there. If the suddenness of the attack is pursued, Ron should choose to enter at a low altitude. But now it is not known whether the enemy has fighter jets on patrol. It is very dangerous to reduce the altitude rashly. So Ron still flew at an altitude of 5,500 meters with his group.

Not far away, a majestic figure of an island has appeared in front of Ron......

Kim Sook-hee was a low-ranking comfort woman at the Rabaul comfort station. (Pure Japanese comfort women were more expensive and had a higher status) and the Japanese established several comfort stations in Rabaul. There were also many comfort women like her "Three Kingdoms" (the Japanese scornfully referred to the aborigines of Korea and Taiwan, which were then colonized by them). Recently, there have been more and more soldiers in Rabaul. In particular, the number of army soldiers worth 5 yen (5 yen was the cost of sending letters at the time of conscription) skyrocketed. These guys don't have a high salary, and they can't afford to consume those pure Japanese comfort women, so they can only come to her like this. Last night, she received a full dozen army soldiers. These people did not forget to show off to her when they accepted her comfort, they were soldiers of the Eastern Army of the Flower Pass of the Imperial Army, and the American and British ghost animals were not their opponents at all.

However, Kim Shu-hee was not interested in any of this, she only knew that in another hour, the comfort station would open again. Now outside the comfort station, there may have been a long queue. Although she was severely lacking in rest, as soon as the door opened, she still had to ......

It was then that she heard the roar of the plane's engine. When Kim Sook-hee was a child, she was full of fantasies about this kind of machine that could fly in the sky. But now, by this time, she had seen a lot of airplanes, and many of them were on par with the men she had seen. So she didn't even lift her head, and went on doing her own thing - hurry up and eat.

But then, a series of explosions were heard at the airport not far away, and then the Japanese samurai who were lining up at the gate dispersed.

Rabaul's Japanese were barely guarded, and few people paid attention to Ron as he led his group to dive down in groups of two planes. Next to the runway, fighters and bombers lined up in a neat queue, without any camouflage. Ron swept past several Type 1 land-attack planes parked on the side of the runway, and 250-pound bombs whizzed down, instantly blowing one of them to pieces.

"Well, if only there were cluster bombs, at least four could be killed at once."

Ron pulled up the plane, flipped over in a somersault, and rushed towards the Japanese plane parked at the airfield again, with four .50s and a 20mm door on the nose firing all the way down the tarmac. One Zero after another caught fire and burned under the rain of his bullets.

Knowing this, the Japanese troops on the airfield reacted, and all kinds of weapons, 20mm anti-aircraft guns, 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, 7.7mm Lewis anti-aircraft machine guns, and even 38 large covers began to sound in the fire.

But by this time Ron had already flown out of the design range of these small-caliber weapons with the swarm, and began to climb.

Ron looked back and saw a few men hurrying into the undestroyed Zero, ready to take off in pursuit of them.

If Ron and the others were going to leave now, these slow 0s wouldn't be able to catch up with them, but they weren't just here to drop a few small bombs. The more important purpose was to slap the Japanese in the face, and what could be louder than slapping their fighter jets into turkeys in front of those Japanese soldiers on the ground?

Several Japanese planes have already flown and are now climbing up at full speed.

"Wait until they're out of range of anti-aircraft artillery fire." Ron ordered.

Several Japanese planes chased after them. Ron once again offered the P-38's killer feature - the spiral climb.

"Climb in front of me? It's really looking for death! As soon as the pilot dog Fumio pulled the operating lever, he chased after him. Several planes climbed higher and higher, and soon the altitude exceeded 6,000 meters. Now people on the ground can see clearly with the help of telescopes

On the ground, a Japanese officer with a telescope was watching the battle.

"Inu-kun is in danger."

"Your Excellency Shaozuo, Inu-kun is an ace pilot, so there shouldn't be a problem." A captain next to him asked.

"At an altitude of more than 6,000 meters, the engines of our fighters have a serious lack of output, and Inuyo-kun probably thought that he could catch up with the other party at an altitude of less than 6,000 meters," he paused for a moment and continued to add, "I originally estimated it this way, but obviously the performance of the opponent's aircraft exceeded our estimates, and now Inu-kun has a difficult situation to ride a tiger." One can only hope that his opponent can make a mistake. ”

In the middle of the conversation, the situation in the air has changed dramatically. The dog's zero battle can no longer continue to follow the climb. Climb higher, with the high-altitude performance of zero combat, then it is no longer an air battle, but looking for death. But if you break away now, you will definitely be attacked by someone else. But Inukai still has confidence, and he feels that with Zero's spinning ability, even if the opponent dives and attacks, he may not be able to hit him. So the dog breed chose to take his wingman with a shallow dive to descend to the altitude.

Since the opponent has given himself the opportunity to dive and attack, of course he has to attack.

Ron and his wingman, Kanu, swooped down one after the other, swooping straight towards Inukai's fighter, who turned his head and looked at the enemy plane that was swooping down. When to turn is asked by the university, turn early, people have time to cut your inner line, turn late, people will fire directly.

However, the speed of the enemy is now amazingly fast, and the proximity rate is very high, in such a situation, a move a little earlier or later can be fatal.

Due to the insufficient anti-precession of the effective range of the P-38, the canine turn was made a little later. As a result, his Zero was bitten by the dense bullets of .50. Now the aviation machine guns of the US military are using armor-piercing incendiary bombs specifically aimed at Japanese aircraft, and the planes immediately caught fire. The flames soon grew bigger and bigger, and the dog could only pull open the canopy with all his strength and jump out.

As the parachute opened in the air, Inukai noticed that another plane was going down - all Japanese planes!

Ron triumphantly planned to circle the air two more times. At this time, a large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery shell exploded not far from his plane. The fuselage shook a little, and it seemed to be slightly injured.

"Damn, forgot about the anti-aircraft guns, right? I told you to pretend to be 13, and you are going to be struck by lightning. Ron thought.

"Mission accomplished, all return."

On the way back, Ron was reflecting on himself.

"Soldiers are in danger, and they can't be so negligent at any time." He admonished himself secretly.

Fortunately, the P-38 was very sturdy, and although Ron always felt that the plane was a little injured from the operation, the plane still flew back safely. After landing, Ron personally checked it, and the wingtip on the right side was broken in a small section, presumably from the anti-aircraft gun.

But Ron didn't have time to be afraid now, because someone had come to report him, and a powerful reporter had come to the island, who had just interviewed Vandergravet, and was now looking for him again.