The Kwantung Army was founded in 1906 and was first called the War Department of the Kwantung Governor's Office, and later renamed the Kwantung Army. Pen ~ fun ~ Ge www.biquge.info With the passage of time, the scale of the Kwantung Army has also grown from more than 40,000 people in the first two divisions and regiments to a huge strategic group with 14 A horse pulling divisions, 23 B pack horse divisions, more than 10 mixed brigades and thousands of fighters.

In the more than 30 years since the establishment of the Kwantung Army, except for a big loss suffered by the Soviets in the Battle of Nomenkan, the Japanese Kwantung Army has never encountered a decent opponent. Although the Battle of Nomenkan suffered a big loss and lost more than 17,000 people, the Soviet-Mongolian coalition army did not take any advantage, and objectively speaking, the losses of the Soviet-Mongolian coalition army were even greater than those of the Japanese Kwantung Army, after all, when the Battle of Nomenkan broke out, the Soviet army had just experienced an unprecedented purge, and the combat effectiveness of the troops had dropped amazingly, so in the eyes of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the army of the Great Japanese Empire was still very powerful.

But just today, the Japanese Kwantung Army Command was stunned by a flurry of bad news. Just over two hours after Umezu Mijiro gave the order, the battle report from the front was used like flowing water to the headquarters of the Kwantung Army.

"Report! The Second Air Force reported that the aviation they sent was intercepted by the naval aviation units of China, and Lieutenant General Toyama Fushu reported that three consecutive batches of air strikes were repelled by the Chinese people, and the aviation units that launched the raid suffered heavy losses, and they have lost 93 fighters so far! ”

"Report, the independent 105th flight regiment stationed at Yingkou reported that the group of planes they sent to attack was discovered by the Chinese people, and the ambush of the Zaona people, the 105th flight regiment suffered heavy losses, and Matsuiwa Dazuo was wounded, and had to be forced to cancel the raid plan and be forced to return!"

"Report, the Shanhaiguan garrison reported that they found the reconnaissance plane of China, and after being expelled, the reconnaissance plane of China has fled eastward!"

One by one, bad news kept gathering at the headquarters, which also made the originally tense atmosphere in the battle hall of the headquarters almost solidify, and at this time, everyone's eyes were on Umezu Mijiro standing in front of the sand table in the center of the war hall.

More than a dozen senior officers, including Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Sadachi, chief of staff, Major General Junhisa Ikeda, deputy chief of staff, Masao Terada, chief of the first section of senior staff, Takushiro Nakasa, chief of staff of Hattori, chief of staff of operations, and Toshio Nakasa, chief of the second section of the intelligence director, stood behind Mijiro Umezu, waiting for their commander to give another order.

Yoshiku Umezu Mijiro slowly raised his head, and his face was a little pale, and he snorted coldly: "It seems that we still underestimated that Su Jin, and we could let our aviation suffer such a big loss." ”

After that, Umezu Mijiro turned his head and asked Yoshimoto Sadachi: "Yoshimoto-kun, how about the loss of the Shina people?" ”

Yoshimoto was stunned one by one, shook his head and said, "There is no news about this, but I think the loss of the people of Chi Na must be not small, right?" ”

"Your Excellency Commander, Lieutenant General Toyama Fulu has telegraphed that the fighter planes of the Chinese people are attacking very fiercely, and he requests to suspend the attack."

At this time, the chief of staff of operations, Takushiro Hattori, reported another piece of news.

"No way!"

Umezu Mijiro shouted with a calm face: "The current Shina people have just landed less than four hours, and it is when they are the most vulnerable, if we don't take advantage of this time to annihilate them, it will be even more difficult for us to annihilate them when they gain a firm foothold!" ”

"Hay!"

Seeing Umezu Mijiro's grim face, Yoshimoto Sadachi quickly agreed to go down to deliver the order.

Umezu Mijiro was ruthless, and the Second Air Force naturally did not dare to disobey the order, and Lieutenant General Toyama Fukushi had to grit his teeth and continue to mobilize troops to storm Huludao......

The Kwantung Army is a heavy military group, and its subordinate Second Air Force is not simple, and it has more than 400 fighters under its command, including Type 97, Type 1, and even the latest Type Zero fighters; under the orders of Yuanshan Fuyu, hundreds of fighters have taken off from various airfields and rushed towards Huludao, and for a while, the roar of guns and cannons began to sound again over Huludao, which had just stopped for less than half an hour.

On the escort aircraft carrier of the Yue Fei, a staff officer hurriedly ran over to report to Su Jin: "Sir, the Japanese attack is too fierce, and our aircraft fuel and ammunition are not much left, continue to return to the aircraft carrier to replenish, General Pollard sent someone to ask for your opinion, do you want to let the pilot continue to stay in the sky?" ”

"What are you doing in heaven? Let them see the Western landscape? Su Jin asked rhetorically: "You tell Pollard immediately, let those planes that have run out of fuel and ammunition return to the aircraft carrier immediately to replenish fuel and ammunition, and as for the air defense problem, it will be handed over to the anti-aircraft artillery units on the ground first." You tell the air defense regiment that it must hold out for more than half an hour, and you must not allow the Japanese themselves to break through their defensive circle, otherwise I will ask him! ”

"Yes!"

Soon, as the order was issued, one after another shrew fighters that were about to run out of fuel and ammunition flew towards the aircraft carrier at sea.

"Squeak......

A shrew fighter plane near the wing, which had been blackened by the smoke of gunpowder sprayed by machine guns, stopped steadily on the deck, Chen Zhiming jumped out of the cockpit and shouted to the ground crew who rushed over: "Hurry up...... Malaysia Airlines has refueled the planes and ammunition, and I'm going to get back into the air right away! ”

The ground crews didn't speak, they dragged the fuel pipe and pushed the ammunition cart and ran over, some of them began to check the plane, some refueled the plane, some reloaded the ammunition, and as more and more planes landed, the deck became busy for an instant.

"Quick...... Speed up! ”

"Hurry up, hurry up and reload my plane!"

The deck was filled with the shouting of pilots.

At this time, most of the fighters in the sky have returned, and only a small number of fighters that later took off are still holding on, but in the face of a steady stream of Japanese planes, even if the performance of these shrew fighters far exceeds that of the Japanese army, but as the saying goes, hungry tigers are hard to defeat wolves, and air battles have begun to appear casualties one after another. However, it is fortunate that because of the sturdiness of American fighters and the importance of pilot safety, most of the pilots who were shot down could be rescued, while those Japanese fighters who did not take their lives seriously were not so lucky, especially after being hit by armor-piercing incendiary bombs, the thin skin and big stuffing characteristics of Japanese fighters were even more revealed, and a fire dragon flying in the air has already explained the problem.

Chen Zhiming, who was so anxious that the corners of his mouth were almost foaming, shouted to a ground staff member who was inspecting the plane: "I said the boss of the Wang family, you fucking hurry up, the plane is coming soon, and the brothers in the sky are still fighting hard, can't you speed up any more!" ”

"Smack!"

A wrench was thrown to the ground by the ground crew and made a crisp sound, only to see the non-commissioned officer with the rank of sergeant on the collar and shout with a straight face: "Chief Chen, if you are not satisfied with my work, you can tell our commander and let him get rid of me." Or you can check and reload the aircraft yourself, and if you can do it better than us, you can do it yourself! ”

"Ugh!"

Chen Zhiming was dumb suddenly, as the saying goes, there is a specialization in the art industry, although Chen Zhiming is a fierce eagle after going to the sky, but in terms of overhauling the loading of aircraft, any ground crew on the deck can now pull him a few streets. Even though he is now a major general, he really has to shut up in the face of this impatient non-commissioned officer.

As the fighters continued to return home, there were fewer and fewer Chinese fighters in the sky, and Vice Admiral Laborde, who was commanding more and more Japanese planes on the aircraft carrier, simply ordered all the fighters that were still capable of fighting to return to the skies over the fleet. In this way, the defensive circle of the entire sky was suddenly opened, and the Japanese planes in the sky were suddenly overjoyed and rushed towards the port one by one.

The air defense radars of the five "Fletcher"-class destroyers that served as defense in the outer harbor were all densely packed with bright spots, and even the soldiers in charge of operating the radar looked straight at the two points flying towards the harbor.

"Woo woo woo ......"

The terrible anti-aircraft sirens sounded again, countless sailors ran on the deck, and soon a gunner was already in place, and the anti-aircraft guns that had long since faded their armor began to point high to the sky, and rows of shells were loaded into the barrels, and the gunners stared at the sky with wide eyes, and as soon as there was a trace of Japanese planes in the sky, they would not hesitate to step on the firing pedal.

When there was a faint roar in the sky, the gunners became even more nervous, and sweat oozed from the palms of many people.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Just as the gunners were about to open fire, the sound of anti-aircraft artillery was heard in the harbor, and an experienced person immediately shouted, "That's the air defense regiment of the port that opened fire." ”

Yes, the anti-aircraft artillery regiment in the port finally opened fire, the most powerful anti-aircraft weapon in the hands of Su Jin, and the power of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment is naturally beyond doubt.

In another time and space, this M2 90mm anti-aircraft gun is one of the best anti-aircraft guns in World War II, especially when the Americans integrated the control of anti-aircraft guns, proximity fuses and SCR-584 radar, the power of this anti-aircraft gun has increased exponentially.

After seeing that the originally ferocious shrew fighters on the Chinese side had to withdraw from the battlefield due to running out of fuel and ammunition, the commander of the Japanese air formation could not help but be overjoyed, and immediately commanded hundreds of planes to fly towards the port. It was only when they rushed to the periphery over the harbor that they were stopped by anti-aircraft fire from the ground.

"Boom ......"

Two shells suddenly exploded in the formation of the Japanese planes, and in an instant, a Type 4 fighter plummeted down to the ground with black smoke.

"Baga, what's going on, how can the artillery fire of the people of China be so accurate?"

Masayan Matsumoto, the commander of the formation at the top, was shocked when he saw that the ground artillery fire had shot down one of his own bombers in just the first round of fire.

Before Matsumoto could finish speaking, dense artillery sounds rang out one after another, and one after another anti-aircraft guns exploded around the formation or in the middle of the formation as if they had eyes, several planes were shot one after another, and even the fuel tank of a Type 4 heavy bomber was hit, and the plane instantly turned into a fireball in the sky, and then ignited the bomb in the cabin, and the whole plane exploded in volley. The 2,359-pound high-explosive bomb in the cabin exploded no joke, and the violent shock wave instantly raged in a radius of hundreds of meters, and the two fighters who were caught off guard and evaded were affected by the shock wave, and instantly became like a kite with a broken string and fell to the ground with black smoke.

"Spread out...... Hurry up and disperse ......"

Matsumoto Masayan, who saw this scene, shouted in the public channel almost in disarray, but in fact, without his order, those experienced pilots of the Kwantung Army also quickly dispersed the formation one by one. Under this kind of dense artillery fire, if you still maintain a dense formation, you are looking for death.

"Quick...... Locked...... Fire! ”

"Fire!"

On an anti-aircraft artillery position on the ground, a radar operator stared at the bright spots on the screen, trying to manipulate the radar to lock onto the target, and next to him, several towed 90-mm anti-aircraft guns kept pouring tongues of fire into the sky, and one after another 90-mm shells were fired into the sky. Because it is equipped with an automatic loader, the rate of fire of the M2 anti-aircraft gun has reached 20 rounds per minute, which can really be called terrifying at the moment, and the two air defense regiments with a total of more than 80 antiaircraft guns have turned the entire port into a barrage composed of steel, and with the continuation of the barrage, one after another Japanese planes are like birds that have been hit.

By the time the flight formation stubbornly flew over the port, the entire formation had lost more than 30 aircraft, especially the heavy Type 4 bombers, not to mention others when they saw such a situation, even Matsumoto Masaya almost dripping blood in his heart, these planes and pilots are the precious wealth of the empire.

"Your Excellency Dazuo, the ground artillery fire of the people of China is too powerful, let's retreat first!" Matsumoto Matsumoto's deputy, Machida Toshihide Nakasa, suggested.

"No way!" Although he was very distressed in his heart, Masayo Matsumoto did not forget his mission, and saw him resolutely say: "Don't forget, the order given to us by the commander is to bomb and sink the fleet of China in the port at all costs, and we finally rushed to the sky above the fleet at such a big price, how can we give up halfway." If we retreat now, wouldn't the blood of the countless warriors just now be shed in vain? Now I order you to immediately launch an attack on the Chinese fleet in the harbor and open a bombing channel for the bombers! ”

"Hay!"

Although Machida Toshiei Nakasa was very depressed, he did not dare to openly disobey the orders of his superiors, under his command, four Type 1 fighters began to dive towards the fleet in the harbor, and soon more than a dozen destroyers in the port, as well as the air defense on the escort aircraft carriers, aircraft carriers and cruisers, all poured shells into the sky, and one shell after another exploded in the sky, and the two Type 1 fighters crashed into the dense barrage and turned into pieces before they had time to turn.

Not only that, the M2 anti-aircraft guns on the pier also began to chase after the Japanese planes, and with the cooperation of radar and high-explosive bombs with proximity fuses, the losses of the Japanese army began to rise in a straight line...... (To be continued.) )