While the tank battles on the ground were unprecedentedly fierce, the air battles were also darkened. 1――

After the Japanese carried out large-scale aircraft group bombing, the air supremacy was once in the hands of the Japanese army, but the Northeast Army quickly turned the situation around. The Northeast Army grouped together the "Skylark" fighters, which were faster than the Japanese fighters but had slightly less maneuverability, and the "Swift" fighters, which were faster than the Japanese planes and were more maneuverable, and put into the skies the battlefield the new "Woolly Rhino" fighters and the new "Kuaidao" medium bombers, which surpassed the Japanese planes in speed and firepower.

On September 7, near the end of the ground war between the two sides, the air battle was entering **.

The Japanese Army Aviation Unit stationed in Eastern Siberia is the 2nd Flying Corps, which consists of more than two flying regiments, and the flying regiments are subordinate to the flying teams. Since the regiment is dedicated to air supremacy or ground attack missions, its composition often changes depending on the combat situation, but the flying regiment generally has 10 flying teams, and each flying team is later divided into 3 flying squadrons. Due to the extremely chaotic establishment of the Japanese Army Air Corps, the formation of the flying corps was only reorganized from the flying brigade and company in 1938. The establishment of the Flying Regiment only appeared in 1939, and the 2nd Flying Regiment was formed in March 1939 together with the 1st Flying Regiment of the homeland, and in April 1942, it was reorganized into the 2nd Flying Division. Before the Battle of Sangye River, the 2nd Flying Regiment had two flying regiments, and the 12th Flying Regiment, which was responsible for air supremacy, had four flying teams that used fighters, the 1st Flying Squadron, the 64th Flying Squadron, and the 11th Flying Regiment were equipped with a total of 88 advanced "Gale", while the 24th Flying Regiment, which used the more backward "Zero" type, although it also had dozens of fighters on paper, the Japanese side was very self-aware and did not give these planes to the Chinese for snacks.

Japan's squadrons are equipped with 10 fighters as standard, but they are actually equipped with 8 to 12 fighters, and when they use bombers or observation planes, they are equipped with only 6 aircraft, and in practice they are generally not more than 8 aircraft, nor less than 4 aircraft.

In addition to fighters, the 2nd Flying Regiment was armed with 24 light bombers (light explosives) and 13 heavy bombers (heavy explosives), all of which belonged to the 9th Flying Regiment. Compared with the fighter unit, the source of the bomber squadron is more complex, for example, 13 heavy bombs, including two flying squadrons of the 12th Flying Squadron.

In 1940, the Japanese Army Air Force was no longer a "young vulture" waiting to be fed, and began to set its greedy eyes on the air force of China's Northeast Army to the west, which was extremely active in all previous armed conflicts with the Soviet Union, causing great trouble to the Japanese army. Although the aviation level of China and Japan is among the world's first-class, China's industrialization and large-scale production are relatively good, and human resources are also more abundant, and the Japanese Army Aviation Headquarters believes that it is unwise to fight with the Northeast Army, so it decided to enhance the mobility of the aviation units by separating the aviation units from the bases, relying on rapid front-line airfields to deploy, and attacking the Northeast Army is not prepared. In order to make the aviation units no longer tied to their respective airfields, starting in 1937, that is, in the 12th year of Showa, the Japanese army aviation began to form flight teams with independent support ground support and even airfield anti-aircraft artillery units on the front line of the Sino-Japanese confrontation in East Siberia and the Japanese mainland, which could independently maneuver from the airfields. The daily ground maintenance and overhaul capabilities of the field factories and airfield ground defense units in the hands of the various flying teams have been unified into the "airfield brigade".

In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese Army Aviation has developed a more exciting and flexible flying division, and an "independent flying squadron" that can closely coordinate with the ground and form a slightly larger than an ordinary flying squadron, and two independent flight squadrons can form an "independent flying squadron." Of course, this kind of flexible organization did not appear out of thin air, and its indiscriminate use was the "independent flying group" that appeared many times in the battlefields of East Siberia and China. …,

A few days after the Independent Flying Group was stationed in Baihua City, on July 20 (recorded by the Japanese side) or 21 (recorded by the Chinese side), the first air battle broke out over the Sangye River, and a "Qingfeng" reconnaissance fighter of the Northeast Army carrying out battlefield reconnaissance and patrol missions was shot down by the Japanese "Gale" fighter. After being attacked, the Northeast Army sent fighter jets to grind their fists over the Sangye River, and on July 22, the first two fighter planes broke out for the first time in a head-to-head confrontation, and in the Japanese record, a "Gale" encountered a group of 6 "Qingfeng" fighters on patrol, and shot down three of them, the Chinese record admitted defeat, but the details were somewhat different from the Japanese army: 3 "Qingfeng" and 2 "Skylark" were attacked by 5 Japanese "Gale", one "Qingfeng" was unfortunately shot down, and the other was seriously injured, but landed safely. At the same time, both the Northeast Army and the Japanese headquarters were looking for reinforcements to replenish their air forces, and the Northeast Army appeared to be careless in its preparations before July 20, only to find that the Japanese on the other side had obviously been planning for a long time. Painfully, the Chinese, with astonishing efficiency, crammed warplanes into airfields capable of covering the Sangye River.

On July 23, the 22nd Fighter Regiment of the Northeast Army arrived at the front-line airfield, and the most striking thing about its equipment was 28 new "Swiftlet" fighters, which were based on the experience of the Spanish Civil War, doubling the firepower, with a total of 4 machine guns installed on the hood and wings, good speed acceleration, excellent vertical and horizontal maneuverability, and the only slight deficiency compared to the front was that the roll performance was slightly poor. In addition, the 22nd Fighter Regiment also had 36 old "Qingfeng 123B", which served as ground missions for most of the subsequent operations, and their sturdy airframe, agile body and underwing rockets made them a nightmare for Japanese troops on the ground. A few days later, 59 "Quick Knife" medium bombers belonging to the 38th High-Speed Bomber Regiment also arrived at the front.

In the face of China's large-scale troop increase, the Japanese side has never stopped increasing its troop strength. On July 24, two squadrons of the 11th Flying Squadron flew to Birch City with 200 "Gale". Three days later, the Japanese were already able to photograph a huge swarm of planes over the Mulberry River. While the air forces of both sides were sharpening their knives, the herringbone flags on the ground had already crossed the Sangye River, and a solid bridgehead position had been established on the east bank, waiting for the beasts under the banner of the rising sun to come over and break the blood flow, and the Japanese army, which deeply felt that the face of the "imperial army" had been slapped by the Chinese, was gathering forces to prepare to teach the Chinese a great lesson; of course, the development of future campaigns proved that this lesson was given to the Japanese themselves in the sky or on the ground.

Although the ground battle was fought vigorously, the sky was obscured by the wings of Japanese aircraft. On 28 July, three "Qingfeng" planes collided with a group of Japanese fighters over the Sangye River. Later that day, another 10 "Qingfeng" planes were attacked by Japanese planes, and 18 "Gale Winds" hid in the air and roared down after seeing their targets. Although the Chinese fighters fought back, the altitude and speed advantages were not on their side, and in the end they were shot down 6 planes, and another "Qingfeng" was forced to land, thinking that they had escaped, but they did not expect the Japanese to be unrelenting, swooping down and strafing in turns, and finally the "Qingfeng" was beaten into a pile of flames. Two of the "Qingfeng" that survived were seriously damaged and could only make a forced landing at the nearest front-line airfield, and were scrapped after landing. However, the Japanese, who had only one aircraft left in the Northeast Army and retreated, were unscathed.

Seeing the gradual increase in losses in the air, the senior generals of the Northeast Army were also anxious. Guo Songling, commander of the 37th Armored Corps of the Northeast Army at that time, personally wrote to Beijing to report that the Japanese air force had gained the upper hand and was unscrupulous in the skies over the Sangye River. As a result, he was dismissed on August 2 on the grounds that he had "lost the will to fight", and his successor, Zhong Liwei, began to reorganize the demoralized troops into the First Army as soon as he took office. …,

In fact, Beijing has long heard about the poor performance of the Northeast Army Air Force at the Sangye River, and has already planned how to reverse the decline. The new commander arrived with a large number of veteran pilots of the Army Air Corps who had fought in the Spanish Civil War. In view of the bloated structure and chaotic command structure of the Chinese air force units previously stationed in Central Siberia and the three eastern provinces, Beijing transferred Bao Yunsheng, the "flying general" on the Spanish battlefield, to Central Siberia and placed the entire aviation unit under his full command.

At the same time that elite soldiers and strong generals gathered at the Sangye River, a large number of new fighters also gathered from all over China. On August 21, 1942, the balance of air power over the Sangye River was undoubtedly tilted in favor of China: more than 900 fighters painted with the military emblem of "Ren" and their high-morale pilots arrived one after another, ready to beat the Japanese on the other side of the river, who had only more than 400 fighters, less than half of the Northeast Army.

By this time, both China and Japan understood that whoever had air superiority was more likely to achieve a final and complete victory.

When both China and Japan could no longer squeeze out even a single reinforcement, it was clear to everyone that the desperate battle that began on August 22 would determine who would ultimately shine over the Mulberry River with the herringbone flag or the rising sun flag. On this day, the Chinese sent a huge group of 256 "Skylarks" and 149 "Woolly Rhinos", and the Japanese side claimed that more than 400 Japanese fighters participated in the air battle that day, but the final word of everyone's imagination did not appear, and as a result, in the next few days, large-scale melee of hundreds of fighters became commonplace in the sky over the Sangye River.

In view of the gap in manpower and material resources, the last thing the Japanese side wants to see is being dragged into a war of attrition by the stubborn Chinese, and seeing that simply sending a large group of aircraft is useless, the commanders of the Japanese army aviation thought of a trick to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, that is, to send out smash planes to destroy the Chinese's airfields. On August 27, 237 Japanese bombers, covered by 180 fighters, pounced on three Chinese airfields. The Chinese did not expect the Japanese to dare to penetrate into the airspace of the hinterland of Central Siberia on a large scale, and the airport was not fully prepared, but even so, the Japanese sneak attack only succeeded in one of them. The Japanese army sent a large number of special teams before the sneak attack, and one of them successfully cut off the telephone line between the radar station at the airport, the air defense lookout post and the airport headquarters, and as a result, the airport was lined up with Chinese fighters who were unaware of the Japanese sneak attack, and they did not try to take off to resist until the Japanese bombs hit their heads, but it was too late, and many planes were blown into scrap metal, and the Japanese fighters who succeeded in their hands left before the planes of the Northeast Army arrived at other airports to reinforce them.

Not every group of Japanese planes that attacked by surprise had such good luck; at the other two airfields, it was difficult to make a long-distance attack over the Chinese airfield, and the sleepy Japanese fighters were "welcomed" by the fierce ground fire and the Chinese fighters who were waiting in the air, and they were beaten to the ground and fled, and the bombs were all dropped into the Siberian steppes to dig pits. Although the actual victory is better than nothing, the propaganda organs in Japan have worked hard to create public opinion, preaching that this is a "great victory blessed by God."

At this time, the Japanese propaganda organs had reached a very high level of falsification, and newspapers all over Japan published in black and white the "unprecedented results" of "destroying 244 Chinese fighters on the ground and shooting down 102 in the air." This number is far greater than the combined number of warplanes parked at the three Chinese airfields attacked. The actual losses of the Northeast Army were much smaller, and some of the fighters were eventually repaired.

If it is said that it is a common practice for the armies of various countries and periods to falsely report the results of the war, but I am afraid that this kind of cowhide will be blown too big, and even my own people will be fooled. It's a pity that the Japanese Army is a fool who can be sold by his own people and still be elated. Hearing that the Japanese Army Air Force had won an unprecedented victory, the Japanese generals on the ground calculated that the Chinese Air Force had been eaten up by nearly half of them in one go, and that the loss of nearly 300 fighters would inevitably be a matter of trauma, and it was estimated that they would have to retreat back to the hinterland of Siberia to heal their wounds for a few days. The thought of dropping death on the top of no Chinese bomber immediately made the Japanese army come back again. …,

In the early morning of September 3, the 26th and 28th Wings of the Siberian Garrison Army, led by Lieutenant General Komatsubara, smuggled across the Sangye River and touched Bayindagang. Seeing that the Japanese seemed to have come out of the ground, the 6th Cavalry Division of the Northeast Army was taken by surprise, and was chased to the northwest of Bayindagang before dawn. Fortunately, an officer patrolled Bayinda on the night of September 2 and discovered the night attack of the Japanese, so he immediately ran back to the headquarters of the First Army and reported this urgent military situation to Zhong Liwei. Zhong Liwei immediately smashed all the tanks, armored vehicles, and motorized cavalry of the Northeast Army and the Northeast Army at Baindagang, and as soon as the sky was bright, Zhong Liwei himself also came to the nearest position to Bayindagang, and also brought the 185th Artillery Regiment and other heavy artillery units. And the Chinese Air Force, which had been disabled in the imagination of the Japanese army, also flocked to it. At 7:30 a.m., as many as 73 "Kuaidao" bombers spread out a cloud of death over Bayinda Gang, and several Japanese "Gale" fighters, which had been frightened by the Northeast Army's overwhelming numerical superiority, scrupulously fulfilled their samurai responsibilities and launched a suicidal counterattack against the Northeast Army's aircraft group, but they were instantly shot down by the "woolly rhinoceros" fighters roaring down from high altitudes. More Chinese fighters took advantage of the Japanese army's preoccupation with the bombers to rain bullets on the hastily constructed positions on the ground. After several hours of heavy artillery and rain of fire from the air, the 11th Tank Brigade of the Northeast Army attacked, and the shattered Japanese defense line that had been blown up was crushed by the Chinese iron cavalry. However, the Japanese carried another day with their beastly ferocity, and although they were slapped a little bit towards the east slope of Bayindagang facing the Sangye River in front of the rolling iron flow of the Northeast Army, the Japanese soldiers who participated in the battle believed that they could finally get reinforcements or escape from Ascension through the pontoon bridge on the Sangye River. At 3 o'clock in the morning on September 5, when the Japanese troops on the front line could no longer support and were ready to retreat using the pontoon bridge, the pontoon bridge was blown to pieces in front of them. However, this was not a blow from the heavy artillery or fighter planes of the Northeast Army, but the general Komatsubara, who led his headquarters to smuggle back on the night of July 3, was worried that the Northeast Army would rush across the Sangye River along the pontoon bridge, so he ordered the sappers to blow up the bridge regardless of his subordinates who were fighting desperately on the other side. There were pursuers in front and a large river in the back, and the Japanese troops who crossed the river were finally tragically annihilated on the river beach. It is worth mentioning that the Northeast Army also sent a "Hongyan" gunboat to use the river beach as a testing ground to use the defeated Japanese army, which was called ineffective every day, as a target to conduct actual combat tests. This gunboat is a test machine with machine guns and howitzers on the basis of the "Hongyan" strategic bomber. There are only 4 in total. The test of the "Hongyan" gunboat in the Sangye River battlefield left a very good impression on the top level of the Northeast Army and the aircraft designers.

By the time the sun rose lazily on 5 September, the battle for Bayindagang had ended. Both Japanese wings on the ground were wiped out, hundreds of artillery pieces were destroyed, and the planes in the sky were no better, according to the records of the Chinese side, a total of 75 Japanese planes were shot down.

After the bloody battle of Bayindagang, there was an eerie silence on both sides of the Mulberry River. The three-day bloody battle exposed all kinds of weaknesses and problems of the Chinese and Japanese armies. The Northeast Army found that the cavalry units (many of them militiamen) from the Mongols, although armed with modern weapons, were far from the level of the regular army in terms of organization and training. Even the Northeast Army itself lacked sufficient preparation for the cunning, insidious, ferocious, and stubborn nature of the Japanese army. And the Siberian garrison was also smashed by the Northeast Army's bullets and fires -- in addition to the fanatical spirit of "bushido," the "Imperial Army" was really far behind the squadron in terms of equipment and firepower. Especially in terms of armored operations, the difference is not half a star. Therefore, both China and Japan have begun to seize the time to rebuild and reorganize their troops, and although it is a race against time, many of the problems exposed are actually freezing for three feet, not a day's cold. Therefore, during this period of time, except for the sound of China and Japan sharpening their knives, the Sangye River was quite calm.

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