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Chapter 1236 The Battle of Eastern Hebei (4)

Gong Heming climbed his A26 fighter to a height of 5,000 meters and roughly observed the melee below, the fighters of the Chinese Air Force were numerically inferior and surrounded by Japanese fighters, making it difficult to give full play to their advantages in firepower, speed and maneuverability. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Gong Heming immediately gave an order to the microphone: "All the fighters participating in the battle will fly at a low altitude above our ground air defense troops, so that the Japanese fighters will have some concerns and will not be able to give full play to their numerical superiority, and then we will use the high performance of our fighters to annihilate their fighters one by one." Do you understand? ”

"Roger!" Gao Zhihang, on behalf of the Central Air Force, took the lead in expressing his position, and then led the group of fighters to suddenly reduce the flight altitude and skim over the mountain.

"Understood!"

After the squadron leaders of the three squadrons of the Southwest Air Force replied one by one, they did the same, broke free from the encirclement of the Japanese fighters, and roared all the way to the air defense positions below.

Gong Heming saw that the Japanese fighters were caught off guard and were in a mess in the air, obviously worried about whether to lower the flight altitude or not, and followed the pursuit, he couldn't help but smile slightly, and rushed towards a new Japanese fighter plane that was climbing at high speed and approaching his own fighter.

Jiro Sasaki is a captain of the Army Aviation Corps, and he piloted the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter specially produced by the Army in response to the war in China, and his heart was full of excitement.

As early as 1933, during the Anti-Japanese War on the Great Wall, the Kwantung Army and the Military Department urgently felt that their dignity had been challenged by the superior performance of the Chinese Air Force fighters, so they issued a bidding plan to various aircraft manufacturers to solicit a new model with better performance than the Chinese fighters. As Mitsubishi's design lagged behind in the invention of speed, creeping rate, and maneuverability, it eventually evolved into a dispute between Nakajima and Kawasaki.

In 1935, Kawasaki's Ki-28 Kawasaki fighter and Nakajima's Ki-27 Nakajima fighter were introduced successively, although the Ki-28 was superior to the Ki-27 in terms of maximum level flight speed and climb rate, the Ki-27 had excellent maneuverability, especially in cornering performance.

"The most important characteristic of a fighter is the ability to win in close quarters dogfights, as the pilot hopes, and maneuverability is undoubtedly the most important performance of a fighter, compared to other aspects such as flight speed, which can be sacrificed to maintain maneuverability." The Japanese army and navy air forces that advocate the offensive all hold this point of view, so the Ki-27 is favored by the first army, and an order of 2,000 is given, but in order to test more in actual combat, the Ki-28 has also purchased a hundred, and even Mitsubishi's obsolete models have placed an order for 20 aircraft, which is the reason why there are various air force fighters in the air war in Baoding.

In 1936, in order to maintain an advantage in the competition, Nakajima continued to increase its research and investment in fighter jets, and with the help of American aircraft engineers, the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter was officially launched in May of this year. This fighter adopts the HA-25 fourteen-cylinder star air-cooled engine, which can output 950 horsepower constantly, and the power is strong, the Ki-43 fighter absorbs the advantages of the Ki-28 of the Kawasaki company, adopts the cantilever lower single-wing layout, the left and right wing roots and the front fuselage are manufactured as a whole, which greatly reduces the weight of the aircraft, and the wing reverse angle is six degrees, with good stall performance, in order to reduce the structural weight of the wing, the fire system is installed in the nose hood, The space in the wings is used to store fuel.

After adopting such a delicate design, the maximum level flight speed of the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter exceeds 500 km / h, and the climb ability, combat radius and maneuverability are far superior to the Ki-27, compared with the A25 fighter equipped by the Chinese Air Force, the performance is more superior, and the A26 comprehensive comparison, although the Ki-27 is slightly behind, but it does not suffer much in the actual air combat, it depends on the pilot's ability.

This time, in order to meet the challenge of the Chinese Air Force, the Japanese army base camp quickly passed the examination of the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter, named it the Nakajima Ichi fighter, and transferred the 20 prototypes produced by the Nakajima Company to the Army Air Force Command, and all of them were transferred to North China to participate in the war. Jiro Sasaki had the privilege of being the owner of one of the Ki-43 Nakajima fighters, and after a simple mastery, he quickly fell in love with this advanced fighter and was convinced of the victory in a head-to-head victory with the Chinese fighters.

Jiro Sasaki aimed at the A26 fighter piloted by Gong Heming, desperately firing *** 7.7mm aviation machine gun bullets, but was shrewdly avoided by Gong Heming, and then used 20mm cannons and aviation machine guns to shoot at Japanese fighters.

At this time, the performance of the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter was fully displayed, and Jiro Sasaki flexibly evaded, returning fire from time to time, and the two fighters were fighting at an altitude of five thousand meters, staggering from time to time, and then turning back and continuing to shoot at each other. For this brand-new model, Gong Heming played 120,000 points of spirit, and continuously did maneuvers such as diving, rolling, and somersaulting, and went around to the back of the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter, and the shortcomings of Sasaki Jiro's lack of actual combat experience finally showed, and when it was too late to dodge, he did not choose to dive or rise, and was seized by Gong Heming, and the cannon and aviation machine gun fired a salvo, instantly hitting the wings of the Ki-43 Nakajima fighter.

Jiro Sasaki suddenly felt a violent tremor of his fighter, stagnated a little in the air, and then the fuel tank in the wing part jumped into the sky, and then spread to the fuselage, burning violently in the air, Jiro Sasaki was surrounded by fire, let out a terrible scream, and finally relieved the pain in a huge explosion.

Gong Heming quickly lowered his altitude and flew low into the air.

At this time, the Japanese fighters were also desperate, and they lowered their altitudes one after another, and fought with the fighters of the squadron. Because the density of Japanese fighters was much larger than that of the Chinese Air Force, they suddenly became the target of ground anti-aircraft fire, and from time to time fighters roared and rushed to the ground and exploded.

Gong Heming came to the outside of the battle circle, found a Ki-27 Nakajima fighter, followed it, opened fire fiercely, the enemy plane swung left and right, and avoided the blow in time, at this time, two Japanese fighters on the left and one on the right rushed over, aiming at Gong Heming's A26 fighter is a burst of shooting.

Gong Heming immediately made an evasive move, a beautiful vertical turn - A26 rushed into the air, a 360-degree flip, and when it flew back to the normal course, it had fallen behind the Japanese fighters, aiming at one of them was a fierce bombardment, and the Japanese fighters suddenly smoked and fell to the ground.

Gong Heming just wanted to adjust the course and attack another fighter, but at this time, the ground air defense artillery fire was very dense, and under the high-speed movement of the fighter, it was impossible not to be injured by mistake, and several of the anti-aircraft artillery shells almost hit Gong Heming's landline.

Just as Gong Heming was looking for the next target, the eager voice of Yi Dingfa, the leader of the reconnaissance squadron, came from the interlocutor: "Captain, a large number of Japanese aircraft groups suddenly appeared in the south, dense and extremely numerous, please be more vigilant." ”

Gong Heming was slightly stunned, and said in his heart, Could it be that the Japanese fighters stationed in Tianjin came to help in the war? However, his subordinates did not dare to slack off, and continued to pounce on the next Japanese fighter. He knew very well in his heart that because the Japanese army had never seen a new type of fighter before, the superiority of the Chinese Air Force in the quality of the fighters had been offset to a certain extent, and now it could only use the anti-aircraft fire network on the ground as much as possible to give the Japanese fighters a great deterrent and strike, and consume the opponent's strength as much as possible. Nowadays, the air battle has shown a never-ending situation, and if one side takes the initiative to retreat, it will inevitably become the target of the opponent's pursuit and killing, and there is no way to fight back.

Five minutes later, the Japanese fighter group arrived, immediately divided into a part, braved the dense anti-aircraft artillery fire on the ground, and pounced on the antiaircraft artillery position.

In this decisive battle, which was a matter of life and death, the Japanese army finally used its trump card -- large-caliber incendiary bombs, and in the midst of the not too loud explosions, the flames rose into the sky, igniting the trees that had been scorched dry by the frequent explosions of aerial bombs and fighter planes falling to the ground.

The fire borrowed the power of the wind, dozens of fire heads quickly connected into a fire, becoming a fire in the plain, the entire mountainous area south of Jixian County, became a terrifying sea of fire, and the antiaircraft artillery position of the air defense unit of the ground Anjia Army was surrounded by raging fire in an instant.

Gong Heming's eyes were full of tears, and he finally understood that the tactics of the Japanese air force were to completely eliminate the threat of anti-aircraft artillery fire on the ground by all means, and then use the superiority in the number of fighters to win this air battle.

On the ground, the air defense units of the An Jiajun saw that the fire was closing the mountain, and they had no choice but to give up holding on to the antiaircraft artillery position, and retreated to nearby places where there were streams.

The air defense positions carefully set up by the An Jiajun army finally completely collapsed under the extremely barbaric and ferocious attack of the Japanese army.

As boxes of antiaircraft artillery shells and machine gun bullets were burned and exploded by the flames, explosions shook the ground and shook from various antiaircraft artillery positions, and countless gun barrels, gun barrels, and butts flew everywhere, which further increased the spread of fire in the entire mountainous area, and the county seat of Jixian County was also surrounded by the fire.

At this point, all ground-based anti-aircraft weapons of the Fifth Army were completely destroyed, and it was no longer possible to provide any fire support from the air.

Gong Heming clenched his teeth, tried his best not to let himself see the tragic situation of the rout of the Anjia Army air defense force below, and deftly avoided the bullet marks left in the air after the attack of the Japanese fighters, and rushed towards a new Japanese fighter in front, at this time the other party had just shot down an A25 fighter, and did not change the course in time, Gong Heming coldly pressed the machine gun fire button, and the Japanese fighter immediately emitted black smoke and fell to the ground.

Gong Heming did not adjust the course, still rushed straight forward, only to see that the air was full of Japanese fighters, he barely aimed, the machine guns and aviation machine guns fired indiscriminately, and the three Japanese fighters were hit and exploded in the air. Subsequently, Gong Heming turned the nose of the plane in time, and with the advantage of speed, got rid of the pursuit of a Mitsubishi fighter behind him, and pounced on a fighter who had newly joined the battle group in front.

Gong Heming rushed to the rear of the Japanese fighter 300 meters, and found that this plane was the 96-type shipboard fighter that he had studied when he was teaching at the Syrian Aviation School, which is the main model of the current naval aviation, using 610 horsepower Nakajima 41 air-cooled nine-cylinder engine, the fighter's hovering performance is very good, and it is one of the best fighters in this era. Gong Heming did not hesitate at all, pressed the cannon button, and the Japanese fighter plane fell.

Gong Heming felt heavy, and the appearance of the Type 96 fighter on the ship showed that the Japanese naval aviation had been dispatched, that is to say, the number of Japanese fighters detected by the high-altitude reconnaissance planes was not accurate, and the total number of fighters invested by the Japanese army in North China should at least double the previous data.

The plan of having the Chinese Air Force, which has less than 100 fighters in the entire North China region, engage in a strategic decisive battle with 7 or 800 Japanese fighters was extremely risky from the very beginning, and now it has become a living reality after the defeat of the ground air defense forces on all fronts.

Gong Heming quickly reported his findings and worries to the headquarters of the Sixth Air Regiment at Nanyuan Airport, and made up his mind to fight to the death to serve the country, and to destroy a few more Japanese fighters if he could.

At this moment, bad news came again: In the northeast and northern skies, a large group of Japanese fighters once again appeared, the specific number of which was unknown, and the shadows of Japanese fighters were overwhelming as far as the pilots of the reconnaissance planes could see.

The Chinese Air Force was surrounded by Japanese fighters!