Roi Island and Namur Island are located in the northern part of Kwajalein Atoll, and the two islands are close to each other, connected by a natural sandbar and a levee, so they are called Roi Island - Namur Island. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Exactly 20 years ago, after a tug-of-war of diplomatic negotiations, the Japanese government leased a series of islands and reefs from the Germans, including Kwajalein Atoll and Roi-Namur, at a great cost, in order to establish and consolidate their strategic system in the South Pacific. In the winter of 1936, the Japanese brought in a large number of air forces from South Asia, and the headquarters of the 15th and 20th Air Groups were stationed in Kwajalein Atoll and Roy-Namur Island, respectively, to complement and cover each other in order to resist the powerful offensive launched by the American army in the central and southern Pacific Ocean.

On this day, the Japanese troops deployed in the Kwajalein Atoll were subjected to a fierce air attack by the US air force, and the Japanese troops on Roy Island-Namur Island were not spared, but the US army's early attack was mainly in the direction of Kwajalein Atoll, and only half of the former came to bomb Roi Island-Namur Island, and under the desperate resistance of the Japanese 21st Air Force, the US military only destroyed the three airfield runways on Roy Island, and failed to destroy the air force headquarters and barracks, material warehouses and other important military facilities built on Namur Island. After the U.S. airstrike, Japanese soldiers and North Korean laborers stationed there quickly repaired one of the runways, allowing the remnants of the 15th Air Force to land from Kwajalein Atoll.

Shigeaki Nango, who was a lieutenant in the Navy at the time, was the ace pilot of the Japanese Navy's 15th Air Force. In the Japanese army's combat operations of sweeping through Southeast Asia and occupying the Australian islands, the fledgling Nango Shigeaki had already shown his edge, and later during the first Hawaiian Islands Campaign, he was even more brilliant, shooting down 7 US fighters successively, and was touted by the Japanese military as the "god of war", and was also rewarded by the emperor.

After replenishing fuel and ammunition on Roy Island, Shigeaki Nango immediately led four 95 warships and three 93 fighter planes that were still able to take off back to Kwajalein Atoll in an attempt to give the US pilots an unexpected "surprise."

When Nanxiang's temporary flight formation arrived over Kwajalein Atoll, the second wave of US attack planes had just finished bombing, and the entire Kwajalein Atoll had already turned into a sea of fire, the existing aviation facilities were completely destroyed, and the air defense units were also ravaged to the point of dying. Under such circumstances, the US pilots relaxed their vigilance, and the fighters escorting the land-based bombers were the first to return, leaving the clumsy Martin B-10 bombers behind.

In just a quarter of an hour, Nango's formation actually shot down 3 B-10s, 2 B-18s, 4 A-17s, and 1 "Eagle Falcon", while only two fighters were wounded, setting a record for the most disparity in battle losses since the Second Battle of Hawaii.

On the other hand, the US military command discovered the mystery of the "resurrection" of the Japanese air force through aerial reconnaissance, and early the next morning, nearly 200 US warplanes violently slaughtered Roy Island-Namur Island.

With the experience of the previous day, Nango Shigeaki did not lead the few remaining fighters to confront the enemy group that was attacking head-on, but moved to the air base in Eniwetok one step earlier, so as to avoid the crushing air raids of the US air force, and waited until the US military bombed two rounds before quietly returning from Eniwetok to Roy Island-Namur Island, taking advantage of the US air force to land on the temporary runway that the garrison hastily repaired during the air raid, spending less than a quarter of an hour to refuel, and then rising into the air in the smoke of flames.

This time, Nango, who had just received the commendation from the base camp, ran into not a soft persimmon, but a squadron of Gray Eagles who had been ordered to wait in the airspace near Roy Island-Namur Island.

As soon as the cunning Japanese fighter appeared, Major von Leres, hovering high in the air, rushed down in his Fokker G-51K. In the battle the day before yesterday, two fighters in his squadron were damaged, so only 10 warhawks came today, but it was more than enough to deal with the nine Japanese fighters of the Nanxiang formation.

Dive down from a high altitude, Major von Leres quickly bit a 95 ship battle with his excellent flying skills and rich combat experience, no matter how the opponent dodged, he did not let go, and then all the firepower was fired in a volley, and within a second, 180 rounds of 7.92 mm machine gun bullets and 16 20 mm machine gun shells flew towards the opponent, even an armored vehicle could not resist such ferocious fire, let alone an old fighter with only a thin iron package. After being hit by a large series of bullets, the Japanese fighter suddenly whimpered and planted on the ground, I don't know whether the cockpit canopy was stuck or the pilot directly hung on the point, in short, the plane continued to drag black smoke until it fell to the ground and exploded, during which there was no sign of the pilot's escape.

Before Major von Leres, who had won the victory, savored the thrill of killing, the wingman reminded him over the radio: "Feather, Feather, there is a wolf behind you, 1500 away, maneuver quickly!" Maneuver quickly! ”

Major von Leres did not hesitate, he used his hands and feet at the same time, by manipulating the cockstick and flaps to make the landline quickly roll to the right, and at the same time glanced at his speedometer, the speed of the Fokker Warhawk at the moment is only more than 400 kilometers per hour, which is not conducive to getting rid of the entanglement of the enemy aircraft, so after the landline rolls 360 degrees back to the normal state, he immediately pulls back the joystick and turns the flap knob, so that the warhawk enters a large-angle climb state. With the powerful roar of the engine, the Fokker G-51K made a ladder climbing maneuver that the Japanese could never do in the 95th ship battle - a moment later, Major von Leres saw the Japanese fighter plane behind him rushing under him out of the corner of his eye, and the speedometer reading had dropped to the early 200s.

Seeing that the time had come, the major slammed on the rudder pedal and quickly changed the state of the flaps, and in the blink of an eye, the Fokker fighter was reversed 180 degrees vertically, the nose of the aircraft was pointed straight to the ground, the engine was still running at full strength, and the fighter descended wildly at a near-vertical angle, and the readings on the speedometer skyrocketed......

Major von Leres glanced at the speedometer and altimeter every second when the altitude dropped to 400 meters. He pulled the control stick again, and the plane immediately changed out of the dive state with a huge centrifugal force, reaching an astonishing speed of 590 kilometers per hour -- such a maneuver of jumping up and falling backwards, and Major von Leres put his plane behind and above the Japanese fighter plane that had just chased him. At this time, the opponent's firepower is helpless against him, and he can approach the opponent from the tail at maximum speed.

In an instant, the major loaded the Japanese fighter plane that almost succeeded in the sneak attack into his aiming circle, and after a burst of accurate short shots, the target was hit by dozens of bullets and machine shells, and the simple black smoke only lasted for two seconds, and the fuel tank burst into flames, and the entire plane suddenly turned into a huge fireball in the air, and even the people and the plane fell.

A series of skillful maneuvers satisfied Major von Leres with his increasingly proficient air combat skills, but when he set his sights on the entire air battlefield again, he could no longer find a few intact targets, and the difference in the number and performance of the fighters, as well as the quality and experience of the pilots on both sides, caused the air battle to once again present a one-sided situation. In the battle, which lasted a little more than a quarter of an hour, only one of the Japanese fighters that took off to meet the enemy managed to escape the battlefield.

The fighter planes cleared the target airspace, and the more than 100 bombers that were engaged in the follow-up air raids began to wantonly display their ground attack capabilities, and those fighters that had not yet taken off, as well as fuel depots and air defense positions, became their most delicious meals. Even Lieutenant Colonel Josef Shcherram, a German volunteer and former Luftwaffe ace pilot, arrived with his 222nd Squadron of carrier-based dive bombers.

"Attention to the planes, attention to the planes, and then dive bombing in small teams, and rendezvous at an altitude of 2,000 meters after the end! Let's get started! Team 1, follow me! ”

After releasing the throat communicator, Lieutenant Colonel Strand pulled the lever back, and the nose of the plane went up, and the blue sea and the wolf-smoked islands and reefs quickly disappeared from view, replaced by a blue sky with white clouds.

Shcheram glanced back, and the other planes in the squadron began to climb upward, and when he looked back at the instruments in front of him, the altimeter pointer had already passed 3,000 meters. Normally, the Ju-17T needs to climb to an altitude of more than 3000 meters, preferably 4000 meters, and then increase its speed to more than 500 kilometers per hour with a dive from 2000 to 2500 meters. Drawing lessons from previous combat operations, the German army made a series of technical improvements to its own dive bombers, including the use of pull-up warning lights that can be set at a set height and an automatic leveling controller, which greatly reduced the accident rate of dive bombers, especially carrier-based dive bombers, and improved their combat performance.

At an altitude of 3,500 meters, Lieutenant Colonel Scherram circled around Roy-Namur Island for several weeks, and the Japanese air defense forces were still trying to fire at the air, but how could their anti-aircraft guns, which were not as fast as they could be, could compete with the invincible steel vultures that swept across the ocean?

The airfield on Roy Island had been blown to the ground, and the three runways looked like there were craters in every inch, but from the information available, the Japanese soldiers were always able to repair a section of a certain runway so that their fighters could temporarily land and take off, and their fuel and ammunition depots were placed deep underground fortifications, and unless the precise location of the target could be determined, even if hundreds or thousands of heavy bombs were dropped, the air base could not be completely destroyed.

After thinking for a long time, Lieutenant Colonel Schcheram had a plan, he ordered the pilots under his command to carry out large-angle precision bombing on the middle of the three runways, once the 500-kilogram high-explosive bomb landed on the sandy runway, it was bound to blow up a huge crater, and the Japanese army concentrated manpower to fill one or two, and it was possible to fill a dozen, even if it took a whole night, it might not succeed.

A few minutes later, smoke rose from the Japanese airfield in a series of violent explosions.

(End of chapter)