"The Ki-44 is not very easy to handle, especially at high speeds. This is its most obvious weakness. The biggest advantage of the P-51 is its maneuverability at high speeds. Ron thought, "Now, although the enemy aircraft have a great numerical advantage, it is the eight Ki-44s that are really the most threatening. As long as these Ki-44s are settled, the situation is not as bad as it was thought at the beginning. And those Ki-44s can evade our surveillance and ambush us, the only possibility is that they take off before our fleet arrives, and then stay there for a long time. The Ki-44 is not a fighter with a long range, and after a long period of standby in the air, they may not have much fuel in their tanks. ”

"Maintain a speed and altitude above Ki-43, command each other, and dodge Ki-44's attacks with instantaneous movements. The crew that was not attacked accelerated to climb! Ron gave instructions to the P-51s, who were struggling hard.

The so-called instantaneous action refers to the change of the flight state of the aircraft in an instant by a very short and violent pull rod or push rod. Such an action is sudden, and the flight state of the aircraft changes greatly instantaneously, but the total change is small, and the energy loss is relatively small. Of course, in doing so, the technical level and physical fitness of the pilot are very demanding.

The so-called requirements for technical level actually mainly refer to the pilot's perception and control of the air situation. In fact, in terms of piloting skills alone, the flying skills of many veteran pilots are not [one^book^read^novel][.[ yb][du].] No less than those super aces, their biggest difference is actually their perception and judgment of the ever-changing air situation. A super ace, even in a melee, can have a good grasp of the air situation around him, know where the enemy aircraft is, know where his teammates are, and can also deduce their next move. That's what sets them apart from each other what makes them super aces.

Obviously, it is impossible to equip every pilot with such qualities. The concentration of most pilots is not up to such a level. Then, enhancing each pilot's understanding of the air situation through mutual cooperation between teammates has become the focus of air combat cooperation.

In air combat, one of the basic principles for determining the relative position of the long plane and the wingman is to facilitate the long plane and the wingman to observe the area of the other side that they would not normally be able to observe. Now, the attack pattern used by the Japanese Ki-44 "Zhong Kui" is basically like this:

Dive first below six o'clock in the Americans, (for any fighter, this angle is an absolute blind spot.) And then pull up from this angle and launch an attack on the US fighters. Since the US pilots could not see the position of the enemy planes at this time, it would be extremely difficult for them to grasp the timing when they were dodging. At such times, Ron demanded that the captain and wingman command each other in order to be able to avoid enemy aircraft as effectively as possible.

……

Koga pulled up with his wingman and pulled it up until it reached a height of about 5,000 meters before leveling it again. In the attack, he and his wingman swooped down to a P-51 at six o'clock and attacked from there, and as he swooped down on the P-51, the P-51 seemed defenseless, until he had put it in the shooting halo and was about to open fire, when the P-51 suddenly made a light sideways slip and dodged right under his gun.

Koga knew that at that high speed, the Ki-44's maneuvering reaction would be quite slow, and it would be impossible for him to bite on someone's six o'clock, and if he really wanted to do this, it would not take a few movements to turn the needle on his speedometer as fast as an electric fan.

Scoundrel, Koga had no choice but to abandon the attack and quickly climb up, preparing for a second dive attack.

"Thank you, brother!" Just now, under Christie's reminder, Ronald used a light side slide at the most opportune time to thwart an attack by the Japanese.

Now, everyone has recovered from the panic when they were attacked. The situation is not as bad as it seems. The Japanese only had 8 Ki-44s, and although these planes had a significant energy advantage over the P-51 due to their high initial position, their limited number was not enough to suppress the climb of all 12 P-51s, and the initial energy of the Ki-43s, which were originally used as decoys, was too low to climb up and drag the American P-51s all at once.

In this way, every time the Japanese fighters swooped down, the attacked American fighters would maintain their altitude and speed to evade, and those that were not attacked would take advantage of the opportunity to climb. In this way, the Ki-44s only made a few dives, and they found that some of the P-51s had climbed to a fairly high position, and if they continued to use the dive-high-angle pull-dive-dive routine, I am afraid that when they pulled up at a large angle, they would be attacked by these P-51s who had already climbed very high.

"Since the Ki-43 won't be of much help for a while, it's better to continue the mission of intercepting the transport plane."

……

Faced with such a situation, General Kato resorted to such a move.

If the P-51 swooped down again to intercept the Ki-43, the altitude they had managed to climb would be lost again. The Ki-44s can then continue to use the dive-pull-dive pattern against them. If the American fighters did not intercept the Ki-43, but continued to compete with the Ki-44, the Americans' transport aircraft formation, which had no fighter cover at all, would definitely suffer huge losses.

……

"Leave those Ki-43s alone, get rid of those Ki-44s first!" Ron gave the order. Ron, of course, knew what would happen to those C-47s without escort if they encountered the Japanese Ki-43s. They have no fighter escort and no firepower for self-defense. The flight performance is also completely unable to compete with the fighter, and there is almost only a dead end.

"But, Kato, do you really dare to bet on this? We have a lot more planes than you. Even if all six C-47s were shot down, it would not be a big loss for the US Army Air Corps. But your Ki-43 has wasted a lot of time as a decoy before, and now it has a lot longer to fly whether it is to catch up and attack, or to return after completing the attack. This means that after your fleet has completed the attack on the transport fleet, you will definitely be attacked by more P-51s on the way back. …… The purpose of this campaign was not to send anything over the route, but to destroy the Japanese fighter forces in the air. In order to achieve this strategy, we can afford to lose even more, but Kato, are you willing to gamble like this? Do you have the capital to gamble like this? Ron thought as he gave the order.

……

After Ki-43 left, "Zhong Kui" began to gradually fall into a bitter battle. Originally, the initial energy of these Ki-44s was not much higher than that of the American P-51s, and after a period of fighting, this gap was gradually about to be erased. And at this time, the numerical superiority of the P-51 began to gradually show.

In fact, the P-51 showed not only numerical superiority, but also firepower superiority and mobility superiority. Losses also began on the side of the Ki-44.

Less than two minutes after Ki-43 left, Ki-44 began to suffer casualties. Koga saw lightly that a "Zhong Kui" was hit by a 20-millimeter attack by the US military, and almost instantly, this "Zhong Kui" was shot into the air and blossomed. In contrast, the Ki-44's four 12.7mm machine guns were as good as the P-51's four 20mm guns.

The P-44s, who were not entangled in the Ki-51s, began to seize the opportunity to climb, and it didn't take long for them to gain an advantage in height. Then it will be the turn of the Americans to play BZ (dive attack - pull-up at a high angle).

The Ki-44 is an interceptor, and its climb and speed are quite good among Japanese fighters, but when it comes to agility and hovering performance, it is very average. If you are bzzed up by others, when you dodge, the loss will be very fast. And once the speed is lost, the plane becomes more clumsy. And then, do you need to talk about it? Dead.

As a result, the Ki-44s were no longer entangled with the P-51, and took advantage of the little energy advantage that still remained, and pulled away from the P-51 a little, and then began to climb rapidly.

The climb of the Ki-44 is quite good, and if the P-51 in the hands of the Americans is B or D, then there is no problem at all in climbing with it. However, these P-51s were all Type A. The P-51 did not have a two-stage pressurization, so its high-altitude performance was quite poor (which is why it was not well received by the British). If you climb with the Ki-44, you may be able to keep up in a short time, but once you reach an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, its engine will immediately be unable to hold up, and the output horsepower will plummet. At that height, the P-51A would certainly not be able to beat the Ki-44.

"Don't follow too closely, keep a relatively safe distance. But don't lose it. Ron continued to give orders to the group.

The Ki-44 is a difficult fighter to handle, but these Ki-44s perform quite well in air combat, which shows that they are piloted by top pilots. Such pilots are absolutely treasures, as long as they can be eliminated, it will be worth paying more.

"Where is the P-38 of the 14th Air Force?" Ron asked.

"It's time to reach Area 10." A staff officer replied.

Ron walked over to the map and took a closer look.

"Command P-38 to accelerate towards the third sector...... Order the Bugs Bunny formation, Goofy formation, Mickey Mouse formation, and vampire formation to bite the enemy and hold them back for another ten minutes! ”

"Also, in which airspace is the transport plane located?"

"The transport plane has already reached the seventh airspace. The Black Knights formation is now in the sixth airspace, which is the closest from there. Firefox ...... in the ninth airspace"

"Order them to rush to the aid of the transport planes in the seventh airspace. Note that in air combat, the first goal is to destroy the enemy! ”

Ron put down the walkie-talkie and looked at General Bissel.

"Well handled, Ron! It's going to be a crucial battle. I believe that after this battle, the existence of the 64th Sentai of the Japanese Army Aviation will be more than existing. ”

……

At the same time, the war room of the 64th Sentai of the Japanese Army Aviation

"Order the Koga formation to immediately get rid of the entanglement of enemy planes and return as soon as possible! Order the decoy formation to abandon the interception mission and return home! Kato gave such an order.

"General? We're at an advantage, so why go back? ”

"Our Ki-43 is already approaching the route of the enemy's transport aircraft, and the enemy's transport aircraft will appear at any time, why give up interception?"

"We may not be able to find the enemy's transport planes, and the enemy has far more planes in the airspace than we do, and if we continue to linger on the results of the battle, we will fall into the enemy's encirclement. Don't argue anymore, carry out the order! Kato's tone was unusually resolute.