This time it wasn't F4F that was killed, but F4u.

According to the numbering principle of the U.S. ** team, only from the number, F4F and F4u should be the same level, with two different modifications before and after, just like the "Sparrowhawk" has several modifications such as A, B, and C. But in reality, the two fighters are not the same model, and they are not even produced by the same manufacturing plant. The suffixes "F" and "u" are not the numbers of the modifications, but the codes of the production formulas.

As early as 2o (Tang calendar), the fighters carried by the US naval aviation on its aircraft carriers were in danger of falling behind in performance. High (relative to that level at that time) fighters are coming, and honest fighters will sooner or later be eliminated. Soon, the Navy came up with the F2, but its performance made the Navy extremely dissatisfied, and it was imperative to develop a fighter to replace the F2 (in fact, as early as the development of the F2, the Navy was dissatisfied with this fighter, so a new round of bidding was carried out almost at the same time). Net...

After a public tender, Chanceswott used the xF4u with gullwings (the exact name should be "inverted gullwings") to compete with Grumman's dual-release xF5F, but Grumman continued to develop a single xF4F. In the later stage of design, the xF4F used folding wings, which can greatly reduce the storage space of fighters on the aircraft carrier, increase the number of fighters carried by the aircraft carrier, and can also carry larger fighters.

In just one point, the Navy fell in love with the F4F, and soon placed an order for Grumman to put into production as soon as possible to replace the F2 as the main fighter of the Navy's carrier-based aircraft. But in fact, the performance of the short, fat fighter of the F4F is not outstanding, and it is much worse than many fighters in service at the same time. Especially after Japan's "Zero War" entered service, the performance of the F4F has lagged behind. And the Tang Empire's "Sparrowhawk" is very close to F4F in terms of performance, while "Vulture" has fully passed F4F, and "Falcon" is much better than F4F.

Then. Walter's xF4u lost the bid, but Walter didn't give up. In terms of overall design, the F4u is actually much better than the F4F, and Walter engineers are convinced that their fighter is the best. As a result, Walter privately funded the F4u and continued to open the F4u, waiting for the next round of competition, and has been trying to improve the F4u in the meantime. Walter's gamble was a success. The backwardness of the F4F's performance has made the Navy demand better fighters, and now the opportunity for the F4u has come.

Originally, an important reason for the failure of the F4U was that its cockpit was too backward (for the purpose of installing a high-power engine) and the pilot's vision was particularly poor, so the Navy considered the fighter to be "too dangerous" for use on an aircraft carrier. During this period of silence, Walter made a lot of modifications, and even did not hesitate to replace it with a less powerful motive (a very wrong decision, but the supporting motive had not been successfully developed at that time) to move the position forward. In addition, the curve of the front of the aircraft has been modified to expand the pilot's field of view and improve the performance of take-off and landing on the aircraft carrier. But. These improvements were not entirely successful, and the Navy still did not fit such fighters for deployment on aircraft carriers.

In the end, the Navy procured the F4u, not to deploy it to aircraft carriers, but to shore airfields, where it was first supplied to shore-based aviation, not carrier-based aircraft units. The performance of the F4U will not be denied, and the US Navy immediately recognized this after the outbreak of war. In the face of the "Falcon" of the Tang Empire, the F4u is the only fighter that can compete with it, and the F4F does not even have much chance to fight back. Soon. These early models (using a low-power motor) F4u were transferred to the Mariana Islands battlefield and began to compete with the "Falcon" for air supremacy in the Pacific Ocean.

This is the first fighter that can confront the "Falcon" in the war, the pilots of the Tang Empire (especially the bomber pilots) compared the image of this fighter with gull-shaped wings to a "whistling whistle", its biggest feature is that it is fast (very close to the "Falcon"), the body is solid, and the firepower is fierce (the early model is 6 heavy machine guns, and the later model will be improved) In addition, it can also be used as a tactical bomber, and its bomb load is not in the United States. When facing F4F. The bomber pilots were not very afraid, the 11 2o mm guns on each bomber were not easy to mess with, but in the face of the F4u, the bomber pilots did not dare to be careless. Since the F4u appeared on the Mariana battlefield, there have been 15o bombers shot down by "Pirates" (the nickname of the F4u), which is 7% of the bomber losses during this period! It can be said that the F4u is the nemesis of those "vultures" who have escaped the protection of fighters!

"Division commander, fighter, damn it, it's a 'whistle'!"

Jiang Shikuan was immediately shocked, those dense little black dots were very fast, the difference between F4u and F4F was too significant (the difference in the wings was very obvious) It was not the first time he had encountered this kind of fighter.

"Damn, Whistle never flew so far before!"

The co-pilot also cursed in a low voice, now they are still 3oo kilometers away from Saipan, and the interception radius of the F4u is generally 25o kilometers.

"The enemy's fleet is definitely not far away, this is an air defense fighter!"

Jiang Shikuan understood, "All the bombers are close, we rush over, and dropping bombs is victory." Gunner, wait for you! ”

"Commander, no problem!"

"Wait for these to raise it!" ……

As the gunner's voice came, Jiang Shikuan also heard the sound of the safety bolt of the machine gun being pulled.

The plane group quickly approached, and all the pilots became nervous, and they were angry and hated in the face of the "pirates", angry that their fighters were gone, and hated that too many comrades-in-arms had died under the guns of such American fighters. Perhaps, these pilots are eager for the "wolf dove" to turn into a "falcon" to avenge their comrades!

"Above, above!"

"See,, it's too fast!"

"Divisional commander, left!"

Jiang Shikuan immediately looked to the left, and the cockpit of the "Wolf Dove" in the third position on the left was hit by bullets, and the pilot's blood was splashed all over the front glass.

"'Goose Five', 'Goose Five', answer quickly!"

The co-pilot had already shouted.

"Division commander, the pilots have all died. I'm a navigator and I'm controlling the plane! ”

"Can you operate the plane?"

Jiang Shikuan gritted his teeth.

"It's okay, I can control it now."

"Return immediately, drop the bomb immediately, climb and return!"

Jiang Shikuan didn't want the other comrades on the bomber to be sacrificed.

"Commander, we ......"

"Hurry back, damn, this is an order!"

Just over ten seconds. More than a dozen bombers in the group had already caught fire and fell, and one bomber had fallen hundreds of meters before exploding violently. More and more F4U are coming, and many pilots are realizing that the American fleet is ahead, otherwise there would not be so many fighters, and these fighters would not be coming in batches. Only fighters who perform the tasks of fleet air defense will concentrate in several main directions!

"Division commander, the second division has news that they have appeared in the American fleet and are entering the bombing channel!"

Hearing the voice of the navigator (who also served as a communicator), Jiang Shikuan immediately asked: "How far is the Second Division from us?" Give me a new route. ”

"About five minutes. 3o degrees, no, 33 degrees. ”

It doesn't matter how many degrees it is. With such a large fleet, the five-minute flight range is about 12 nautical miles, and the deviation of the 3-degree route is only a few hundred meters in the end, and it will definitely be able to fly over the US fleet. But the question now is, will they be able to hold out for five minutes?

Because the bombers of the 1st Division flew in the front, they were the first to be intercepted by American fighters. This created an opportunity for a smooth assault by the 2nd and 3rd Divisions. That is, the sacrifice of the first division was exchanged for the victory of the other two divisions! There are at least nearly 100 F4U besieging the 1st Division, and it seems that there are only these air defense fighters in the sky over the American fleet.

Five minutes, to Jiang Shikuan. As far as all the pilots of the First Division are concerned, it is as long as five hours, and one bomber is hit every ten seconds, although many American fighters are hit by the heavy self-defense fire on the bombers, but even if it is a one-to-one loss, Jiang Shikuan and they cannot afford it. How much is a fighter jet? Moreover, a fighter has only one pilot, and there are nine crew members on one bomber. U.S. military pilots can parachute and then be rescued. And the pilots of the Tang Empire who parachuted in this sea area were either taken prisoner or fed sharks, and they didn't even want to be rescued!

When Jiang Shikuan saw the U.S. fleet in front of him, at least 3o bombers had been killed, and more than a dozen bombers were dragged back early with injuries and bodies. The U.S. fighters also withdrew from the battle at this time (many of them ran out of ammunition, and the bomber group was about to enter the range of the fleet's anti-aircraft artillery) As Jiang Shikuan expected, the bombers of the first two divisions were not intercepted, and now they are climbing all the way back home.

"Division Commander, keep the course, let's kill the one in the middle!"

At this time, the bombardier in charge of the pilot was already in charge.

"No problem, in the last 3o seconds, the bomber will be handed over to you!"

Jiang Shikuan said as he turned on the safety on the autopilot, and then wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Three months ago, Hafei completed the autopilot test, and then began to install the kind of instrument that controls the aircraft by the bomber when the bomb is dropped on all "wolf doves". In this way, the bombardier no longer needs to control the bomber through the captain, which greatly improves the bombing accuracy.

"Ready in a minute!"

Hearing the bombardier's words, Jiang Shikuan nodded to the co-pilot, and then did not let go of the five fuses on the autopilot, and then turned on the power supply on the five fuses one by one, and when the five small light bulbs lit up, it meant that the bomber had been out of the pilot's control and was controlled by the bombardier's small joystick. Both pilots immediately let go of their grips on the steering wheel, and the bomber shook slightly, then regained its composure.

"Twenty seconds...... Ten seconds...... Five...... Four...... Three...... Two...... One...... Bombing! ”

Jiang Shikuan quickly grabbed the steering wheel, and the co-pilot immediately disconnected the power supply of the autopilot, and after the five small light bulbs went out, the bomber shook slightly, Jiang Shikuan had pushed the power of the engine to the maximum, and the bomber began to climb higher with a heavy vibration sound, out of the strike range of the American battleship's air defense artillery.

"Division commander, look, we have been hit, we have been hit!"

Jiang Shi glanced back quickly, the bombers of the two regiments were dropping bombs for 6 years, the bombers that dropped the bombs were climbing higher, and the bombers of the last two battalions had just dropped bombs. One "wolf dove" carried 24 bombs of 25o kg, and nearly 3ooo bombers dropped 7ooo bombs. These 7ooo bombs, if they exploded at an equidistant distance of 25 meters (which is impossible, the average width of an American battleship), would cover at least 4 square kilometers, and in fact at least 2.5 square kilometers of sea surface!

The bombs that were dropped one after another were like the scattered flowers of the goddess, but this was a bomb with a death tag. Maybe this is not enough to cover the entire American fleet, but those American battleships used to attack the core will definitely have a chance to succeed, and dozens of bombs will hit the target!

There were indeed bombs that hit the target. When the bomber continued to climb, Jiang Shikuan saw the falling bombs smash on the battleship, and the bombs that exploded violently were like an epiphany that suddenly bloomed, and then only the smoke of gunpowder remained.

“…… 45，46，47……”

The bombardier was still counting the number of bombs that landed on the battleship and exploded, "Oh my God, division commander, at least 5o bombs hit the target, those American battleships must be finished now!" ”

"Now, let's fly back and celebrate the victory!"

Jiang Shikuan wiped it on his forehead with the back of his hand, "'Big geese', follow me back, stay close, don't give the bitch a chance!" ”

When Jiang Shikuan and the others returned, the news of the successful bombing of the American fleet was delivered to Luo Yunchong, and the staff officers who were eagerly waiting for the news immediately became excited. Luo Yunchong breathed a sigh of relief, although the loss was huge, but the task was completed. When the staff officer was celebrating the victory, Luo Yunchong sent people to report the battle back to the naval headquarters, and then took people to prepare to welcome the returning bomber group, there must be many wounded who need to be treated, and there must be many wounded bombers that need to be repaired in time.

The good news was transmitted in the degree of radio waves, and soon all the participating units received it. This is exciting news, and it is the best way to boost morale and morale. In the afternoon of the same day, Yan Guozhong had good news that the airfield on Agrihan Island had been completed and was ready to welcome the first batch of HNA fighters!