Guo Ziyu came to Seogwipo on the 21st. When Tan Renhao came to Jeju Island to take charge of the strategic bombing, he assigned Guo Ziyu a task to collect as much intelligence as possible from the Japanese side, summarize all kinds of information, and provide it to the strategic bombing force.

For Guo Ziyu, this task is not simple, because he has not been exposed to strategic bombing before, let alone what intelligence is useful. The Imperial Intelligence Department did not have a lot of information about Japan, especially before the war, Japan had always been the main object of the Empire's vigilance, and collecting Japanese intelligence became the most important work of the Empire's major intelligence departments. And it is not easy for Guo Ziyu to find out the useful part from so much intelligence.

It is for this reason that Guo Ziyu brought a large box of intelligence documents. Tan Renhao has access to Class A secrets, so he does not need to apply to his superiors to read this information. Now, the trouble fell on Tan Renhao, and he had to judge by himself which information was useful and which was useless. …． 1

"Colonel, you will stay here for the first time, and during this time, you will cooperate with Colonel Hao Dongjue and familiarize yourself with the situation in strategic bombing, so that you will be able to make reasonable analysis and judgment on intelligence in the future."

Of course, Tan Renhao will not take everything on himself, if everything is done by himself, then what do other staff officers need to do. "Also, help me contact General Wu Xianyu, and if you can, transfer the Western Pacific Theater Staff to Seogwipo. Now that the bombing is at a critical moment, I have no choice but to deal with the work of the staff here. ”

"Okay, I'll contact General Wu Xianyu right away!"

Guo Ziyu smiled slightly, he also knew that he was not doing a good job as an intelligence staff officer.

"That's it, these days, you are responsible for laying out the foundation of the staff first, and when other staff officers come, you can start work immediately."

Tan Renhao sent Guo Ziyu to the door. "I'm too busy during this time, and I'm going to ask you for a lot of things in the staff."

"Chief of Staff, I'll take care of it, don't worry!"

Tan Renhao smiled and patted Guo Ziyu on the shoulder. After Guo Ziyu left by car, he just wanted to go back to see the information, and Luo Yunchong rushed over in the car.

"Lao Luo, you came just in time!"

Tan Renhao immediately brought Luo Yunchong into his room, "Guo Ziyu has just arrived." He brought me a box of papers, and I was worried that I couldn't read them alone! ”

"That's why I just got the news, and I rushed over."

Luo Yunchong didn't look polite, he sat down as soon as he saw the big cardboard box on the table, and immediately laughed, "This Guo Ziyu is still very serious, and he got us so much information at once." ”

"It's because he's not very familiar with strategic bombing issues, so he can't sift through intelligence, so he simply brings everything he thinks is useful."

Tan Renhao went and poured two cups of tea. Then I sat down. "Now, these things can only be done by us. I asked Guo Ziyu to familiarize himself with Hao Dongjue's strategic bombing situation first, and in the future. He can be in charge of screening the information, and we don't have to do it ourselves. ”

"Then do you want to send someone to call Dong Jue?"

Tan Renhao took out a cigarette. "Forget it, I've already asked Guo Ziyu to find him, let's just get busy with the two of us first!"

Luo Yunchong didn't say anything more, and immediately opened the cardboard box and took out the top document, and Tan Renhao picked up the second document.

These two documents are the equipment performance tables of the Japanese army, and in Guo Ziyu's opinion, they are the most important information, so they are placed on the top. The one Luo Yunchong picked up was the intelligence on the performance of the Japanese army's anti-aircraft artillery, while Tan Renhao picked up the information on the performance of the fighters equipped by the Japanese army and navy. Both of them picked the key points and looked at them quickly. I take the important parts very seriously.

Half an hour later, both of them put down their papers at the same time, and then laughed at the same time. Tan Renhao picked up the cigarette case, lit one for Luo Yunchong first, and then lit it for himself.

"It seems that we still know a lot about the situation of Japan's air defense forces!"

Luo Yunchong slowly exhaled a cigarette, "If this information is reliable, then Japan has deployed at least half of its anti-aircraft artillery on Kyushu Island to deal with our bombers!" ”

Tan Renhao nodded slightly. "Judging by the current situation. The focus of the air defense of the Japanese mainland is on the island of Kyushu. We bombed targets on Kyushu Island eight times in a row, dropping nearly 10,000 tons of bombs. Otherwise, they would not have put the focus of their homeland air defense on this side. ”

"Well, then, it's time for us to change the bombing target!"

Luo Yunchong leaned back in his chair, "Why don't we choose a target other than Kyushu Island?" ”

"That's what I thought too!"

Tan Renhao knocked on the table a few times, "If we continue to bomb the island of Kyushu, it will be equivalent to drilling into the place where Japan's air defense forces are most concentrated, and it will be difficult to reduce the loss of bombers." And the best way to reduce the losses of bombers is to make Japan's air defense forces scattered and unable to be used centrally. When the time comes, wherever we bomb, it will be impossible for them to concentrate enough anti-aircraft fighters, anti-aircraft artillery, etc. ”

"Yes, we'll pick a new target next time!"

Luo Yunchong flipped through a map, "Shikoku is too far away, if you don't cross Kyushu Island, you can only bypass it from the south, in this way, the bomber can only hang 2 tons of bombs at most, and it will take nearly ten hours to lie back and forth, and the pilot is under a lot of pressure." We are better off choosing important targets in the western part of the island of Honshu. ”

Tan Renhao leaned on the table, looked at the map for a while, and said: "Just choose Maguan, the bomber enters from the sky over the Korean Strait, and then returns the same way." If all goes well, the bombing can be done in five hours! ”

Luo Yunchong nodded. "The city has little industrial value, and there are not many military targets, what are we bombing?"

"Bomb people's houses, don't choose targets, drop bombs directly over the city, and bomb whatever you want!"

Tan Renhao sneered, "Moreover, if you choose Maguan, the bombers mainly fly on the sea, you can use ultra-low altitude to enter, and then drop bombs at ultra-low altitude, choose an urban area, hundreds of bombers will drop bombs in a concentrated manner, even if you can't blow up many factories." It can also kill a lot of little devils! ”

Luo Yunchong's eyes fell on the third piece of information in the box, and he did not immediately agree to bomb civilian targets. When Luo Yunchong picked up the document, Tan Renhao also stopped. Luo Yunchong took five minutes to read the main content of the document, and then handed it to Tan Renhao.

"One more thing, we didn't think of!"

Luo Yunchong lit a cigarette, "There is indeed a problem with the low-altitude performance of Japanese fighters, but there is another point, we have been missing!" ”

Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment, and also opened the document.

"Did you find out, there are almost no night fighters in Japan!"

Tan Renhao was slightly stunned, the content of this information is about Japanese night fighters.

"Japan's 'Zero Battle' is indeed very good, and when the war began, we had almost no fighter that could compete with the 'Zero Battle', and neither the Army nor the Navy had a fighter with better performance than the 'Zero Battle'. And now HNA's 'vulture' actually only surpasses 'Zero Battle' in some aspects of performance, and it does not have the overall advantage. ”

Luo Yunchong has a very thorough understanding of aviation equipment, "But Japan does not have night fighters. Judging by this intelligence. The Japanese side does not even have plans to develop a night fighter. In the naval battle for the reconquest of Ryukyu Island, the pilots of the Army Aviation reflected this situation, and there were few interceptions during night bombing. ”

"One more point. There is no radar in Japan! ”

Tan Renhao also lit a cigarette, "Japan still has no radar, which is a fatal flaw." If our bomber fleet were to fly at low altitude at night and only enter the skies over the Japanese mainland at the last moment, the probability of detection would be very small. In this way, the suddenness of the bombing will be great, and perhaps the Japanese air defense forces will be alerted when the bombers have finished dropping their bombs and have begun to return home. And the loss rate of the bomber group on the return is much lower than the loss rate on the assault! ”

Luo Yunchong nodded slightly: "If you choose Maguan." Moreover, the main bombing of urban areas was carried out, so the problem of targeting for night bombing was also solved. In other words, there is no need to aim at all, as long as it is over the city, the bomber can drop the bomb, there is no need to choose the aiming point! ”

"Yes, but there is still a problem, and that is the navigation problem of long-distance flights!"

After this period of familiarity, Tan Renhao's understanding of strategic bombing has also deepened a lot. "Moreover, this time it is mainly flying at sea, and if the problem of navigation is not solved well, then it is very likely to deviate too far!"

"Unless the aircraft factory can make a better gyroscope, we can't solve this problem."

Luo Yunchong smiled bitterly, "In this way, when choosing a route, you can choose a nearby island before entering Maguan, and then extend the route on land." It's a bit risky, but there's no way around it. ”

"Well, it's up to you to plan the specific actions!"

Tan Renhao stood up, "The bombing time is set for the twenty-fourth. In the past two days, let the bomber crews responsible for piloting the bomber crew seize the time to conduct ultra-low-altitude flight training over the sea surface, especially the ultra-low-altitude flight training at night, so that all the navigators can seize the time to familiarize themselves with how to confirm their course at night. If I take a little more time to look at this information, maybe we will soon be able to find a better solution. ”

"And the matter of contacting the aircraft factory!"

Luo Yunchong then stood up, "I'll call General Liao Hanxiang and ask him to contact the aircraft factory, and strive to form a third regiment in March, when the time comes, we can concentrate more than 400 bombers to deal with Japan." If we can have six regiments by the middle of the year, we can take out a Japanese city at once! ”

"That's it, I hurry up at night to read the information. You go and train now, and from tonight onwards, train in a new way! ”

Intense preparations began immediately, and the training area chosen by Luo Yunchong was Xiaoheishan Island in the northwest of Jeju Island. This is a small island in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. The islands in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula are geographically similar to those near the Japanese mainland, which greatly helps in the training of pilots.

Thirty-eight crews participated in the training, in which all company commanders and crews of officers of the two regiments and above participated. The focus of the training is to make the bomber fly at the fastest speed at night at an altitude of 200 meters above the sea surface, without the help of any other equipment. The navigator, on the other hand, must determine the object on the distant island in the night sky to determine whether the course is correct, correct the course, and so on.

In order to improve efficiency, the 38 bombers took off with full fuel, and after arriving over the training area, they would fly several times on several set routes, and the navigators had to accurately judge the routes each time, and the training results would be recorded. As a result, the fleet returned almost every day before dawn. The pilot's schedule is also reversed, sleeping with his head covered during the day and busy at night.

The aviation service personnel were also driven, and after knowing that they would use a new way to fight the little devils, the service personnel were much more motivated and took the initiative to cooperate with the pilots. Of course, other pilots who did not participate in flight training also made a request, hoping to participate in flight training.

On the night of the 23rd, all the pilots took part in the training. Both regiments had reached full strength, and in addition to the absence of three faulty bombers, 321 bombers flew at the fastest speed at an ultra-low altitude of 200 meters above the sea surface in strict bombing formations under the leadership of their respective captains. In order to reduce the width of the channel, the distance between the aircraft was reduced to 100 meters, which was indeed an extremely severe test for the pilot. After the flight training, all the pilots were sweating profusely, and many pilots collapsed after several hours of flying.

During the day of the 24th, all the pilots were ordered to rest, and as a result, hundreds of sleeping pills were prescribed in the medical room that day. The aviation crews were all mobilized to check the status of the bombers, prepare ammunition, fuel, etc. The whole preparation lasted until half past two in the afternoon.

The pilots got up at this time, had dinner at 3 o'clock, listened to the briefing, and then began to make preparations. According to Luo Yunchong's arrangement, the group of planes will take off at five o'clock, and when it gets dark, it will just enter the waters near the Japanese mainland, and will reach the target at about seven o'clock. If all goes well, there will be a second round of bombing in the evening!