One of the oldest carrier-based aircraft pilots in the Japanese Navy and one of the "three birds of the Phoenix Landing Ship," Kamei Kaio Osa, and Egusa Shigetaka, who is known as the god of critical hitting, are among the few remaining "critique planes" and "attack plane" aces of the Japanese naval aviation. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Compared with the pilots of the Zero fighters, the Japanese Navy's carrier-based critter and attack planes suffered greater losses in previous fierce battles, often hitting a success rate of more than 70%. Kamei and Egusa survived not because they always belonged to the 30% of pilots who didn't become gods, but because they didn't participate in the Battle of Christmas Island and the subsequent pursuit of the 58th U.S. Broken Fleet.

Throughout the second half of '43, both of them were busy working on the implementation of the "most powerful in the world" naval land crit "Galaxy" critter.

The Galaxy Crit is a high-performance long-range universal bomber developed by the Japanese Navy inspired by naval and air operations in the European theater. Not only does it have a large flight speed and a long range, it can not only attack the enemy's large ships by means of air-dropped torpedoes, horizontal bombing and dive bombing, but also rely on its own high speed to get rid of the interception of the opponent's fighters.

And such a "versatile" fighter, although the performance on paper is superior, can be called the first in the world (probably only the German Ju288 bomber can compete with the "Galaxy"), but the difficulty of research and development is also super high. The aircraft was developed in 1940 under the name of the "15th Test Land Crit Aircraft", and it was not until the first half of 1943 that various problems were overcome and put into mass production (it was possible to mass-produce so early because Germany helped solve the heat dissipation problem of Nakajima's "Yu" engine). In the second half of 43, the troops began to be equipped to replace the "one-type lighter".

However, in the process of actually equipping the troops, the "Galaxy" land critique plane encountered an unexpected problem -- a good plane must be equipped with an excellent pilot!

Because the "Galaxy" has the functions of a dive bomber, horizontal bomber, torpedo attack aircraft, heavy fighters and other fighters. Therefore, the pilot who pilots it is also required to have a number of skills in dive bombing, horizontal bombing, torpedo attack and aerial dogfighting.

In contrast, the pilot of the German Ju288 was very easy to become, and he only needed to fly high to avoid the anti-aircraft guns of American fighters and surface ships.

Therefore, the Japanese Navy had to transfer a group of elites to form the 521st Air Force, which was specially equipped with Galaxy crit fighters.

By February 1944, the Second Hawaiian Islands War had begun. The Navy's 521st Air Force has been equipped with five squadrons of "Galaxy", with a total of 106 commonly used "Galaxy" crit aircraft, all of which have been deployed to Oahu.

In the attack on the afternoon of March 4 (Hawaii time), all 106 "Galaxy" were incorporated into the first attack wave. And escorting them are 94 Zidian fighters, which also belong to the 521 Air Force.

The Zidian fighter is not improved from the Zidian fighter, but like the Zidian, it is improved on the basis of the strong wind water fighter. The development of the two aircraft, Zidian and Zidian, was carried out almost in parallel, so Zidian and Zidian were put into use at about the same time.

The code name of the Zidian fighter is the Zidian 11, while the code name of the Zidian is the Zidian 21.

Unlike the "Galaxy" critter plane, which had high hopes from the very beginning, the "Purple Electric" and "Purple Electric" were actually two emergency models, and they were urgently launched because the performance of the "Thunderbolt" fighter was far inferior to expectations.

However, due to the installation of the powerful Nakajima "Yu" 21 air-cooled engine, and there are no too harsh requirements (it was originally an emergency), there is no need to go on board. Therefore, the development of the two "Purple Electrics" went unexpectedly smoothly and their performance was very satisfactory -- in fact, as long as they did not seek perfection, Japanese aircraft designers could still design fighters with good performance.

"Ekusa-kun," the voice of the commander of the 521st Air Force, Kamei Kaio Osa, came from Ekusa Shitaro's headphones, "The formation has been completed, and you are responsible for leading the team, please leave everything to me." ”

"Hay!"

Shigetaro Ekusa looked at Oahu below, the airfield on the island was still full of planes taking off, and those were all army planes.

I don't know if it's because of the "lesson" of the Battle of Christmas Island, and now the fighters of the Japanese army and navy no longer cooperate with the operation. Instead, it has returned to a state in which the army and navy are fighting separately, and the "galaxy" dispatched by the navy is escorted by the navy's "purple electric reform". The Army, on the other hand, dispatched its own ace critters, the Wyvern, the Dragon-Swallowing Dragon, and the Hurricane.

The Type 4 "Flying Dragon" crit aircraft is also known as the Type 4 heavy crit aircraft, and by the standards of Europe and the United States, this "Flying Dragon" is a relatively strange aircraft. It is known as "heavy", but the full take-off weight is only 13.7 tons, and the bomb load is only more than 1,000 kilograms. And the speed and range are also unsatisfactory, the maximum level flight speed is only 537 km / h, the ultimate range is only 3,800 km, and the ceiling is less than 10,000 meters. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't match the "heavy", except that there are more crew members, there are 6-8 people.

However, the "Type 4" Wyvern crit is not useless, this aircraft has relatively thick armor protection, has a strong ability to resist strikes, and has relatively strong self-defense firepower, with a 20mm cannon and five 12.7mm machine guns.

If you don't have a bomb and a 37mm gun, you can use it to attack armored forces on the ground...... It's just that this head is a little too big, and the total weight of 13.76 tons is more than 2 Il-2s (only more than 6 tons). It is really difficult for such a large plane to operate at ultra-low altitude without being beaten down by dense ground artillery fire.

In the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese Army Aviation also had no armored units to fight, so the whimsical Japanese Army used the 13.76-ton Type 4 "Flying Dragon" heavy bomber as a torpedo attack aircraft.

On the island of Oahu, the Japanese Army Air Force has deployed a total of 260 "Flying Dragon" Heavy Explosive Type 1 that can carry aviation torpedoes, and they are the main force of the Japanese Army's anti-ship operations -- the Japanese Army even has aircraft carriers and submarines, and it is not surprising that it has torpedo attack planes.

In addition to the "Flying Dragon," the Japanese Army has also placed 220 "Flying Dragon" planes on the Hawaiian Islands that are not much different in performance than the "Flying Dragon" -- I really don't know why the Japanese Army will spend money to develop the "Flying Dragon" after the "Flying Dragon." Isn't it possible to improve on the basis of "swallowing dragons"?

In today's attack, these "Swallowing Dragons", which are similar in performance to the "Flying Dragons", will form a second attack wave together with the "Flying Dragons" heavy explosions, half of which will be equipped with aviation torpedoes, and the other half will be equipped with four 250-kilogram bombs for horizontal bombing.

The 480 "Flying Dragons" and "Swallowing Dragons" were escorted by 220 Army "Hurricane" fighters.

That is, the first attack wave launched by the Japanese army today consisted of 200 naval aircraft, while the second attack wave consisted of 700 army aircraft.

Two attack waves will put 900 aircraft into it, which is unprecedented!

However, when the "God of Critical Hits" Egusa Fanlong Shaozo saw a Japanese Army's "Flying Dragon" crit plane rise into the sky and began to circle, the original belief in victory somehow fell.

The army's red deer is wasting Japan's already very tight resources! Two foolish planes, "Swallowing Dragon" and "Flying Dragon", were created, and they were also used to counter-ship. However, these two large planes could not be used as dive bombers, and there were only two options: horizontal bombing and torpedo attack. And the former is basically ineffective against surface ships in action, and the latter is completely brainless to die!

If, at the beginning of the war, the anti-aircraft fire on the ships of the US Navy was not very strong, the tactic of dropping torpedoes with bombers from both sides (three shots) was still more effective. But today, the firepower of US surface ships is already very strong, and the carrier-based torpedo attack planes that conduct low-altitude and low-speed horizontal flights have been beaten to the ground. Even if it's relatively strong, it can't withstand the beating of a 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

And...... Do pilots of army aviation really play torpedo attacks?

Jiang Cao Fanlong thought to himself: If the resources (including pilots) for the manufacture and use of the "Flying Dragon" can be given to the navy and used to build the "Galaxy", then today's first attack wave will be able to put 366 "Galaxy" into dive bombing.

With the high speed and good dive performance of the "Galaxy", the American fleet will inevitably suffer heavy losses!

But Japan has its own national conditions, not to mention that there is no way to do it like Jiang Cao Fanlong, even if the emperor comes.

"Guys, I repeat, our mission now is to intercept, so don't go and get tangled with the Japanese fighters, just hit their bombers, understand?"

George Flying F4U Fighter Aircraft. The voice of Squadron Leader Captain Thomas also came from the earphones of Second Lieutenant Bush.

The other 11 F4U in the flying wing of the escort aircraft carrier "San Jacinto," to which Second Lieutenant Bush belongs, are now appearing on the battlefield as interceptors -- the concept of interceptor aircraft first appeared on the European battlefield, and the German Fw-190 is a perfect interceptor that can be used to deal a major blow to the invading enemy plane with the "assassin tactic" of striking away.

And the Americans, who had suffered all the hardships of the Ju288, spared no effort to develop interceptors and perfect interception tactics. In addition to the "one-time Spitfire", the US Navy's F4U and the Army's P47 have extended the volley model.

At the same time, the "interception tactic" of using radars on surface ships or ground radar stations to guide interceptors into advantageous positions and then launch dive attacks has also become increasingly skillful in the use of the US military.

Therefore, in the air battle on the afternoon of 4 March, the US naval aviation no longer carried out the so-called "high-low coordination" but adopted a brand-new method of "interceptors" and "air supremacy fighters" in sub-regional operations, and the first batch of attacks on Japanese fighters will be more than 100 F4Us.