Chapter 190: The Great Retreat of the Japanese Army from Shanghai (7)
In order to allow the trapped Japanese troops in Shanghai to hold out longer, the plan of airdropping supplies to the Japanese troops in Shanghai has already begun to be implemented. However www.biquge.info the air supremacy of Shanghai was already in the hands of the Chinese army, so in order to reduce losses, the Japanese army had to arrange the operation at night, so that it basically avoided the Chinese air force and only had to face the threat of Wei Qidong and Tang Xinyi.
Through lessons again and again, the Japanese army understood that Wei Qidong and Tang Xinyi could basically only dispatch one plane, so in order to avoid being attacked by Wei Qidong and Tang Xinyi as much as possible, the Japanese army decided not to appear in the form of a group of planes, but to let the planes be dispersed as much as possible.
The Japanese army's policy is naturally good, Tang Xinyi also knew the intentions of the Japanese army through radar surveillance, and fed back the news to Wei Qidong as soon as possible.
After getting the news, Wei Qidong went to intercept the nearest Japanese plane as soon as possible.
A transport plane loaded with supplies and converted from the Japanese Type 96 land attack aircraft set off from Nagasaki and headed straight for Shanghai. At this time, the Japanese plane was less than 300 kilometers away from Shanghai. Of course, behind this Japanese fuselage, there were also more than a dozen planes that were also loaded with supplies, all of which took off according to different routes and at different times.
Because it is a night flight, these Japanese planes have turned on the lights, especially the searchlight at the bow position of the modified load, and two pillars of light can be seen from a distance.
At this moment, suddenly, with a whoosh, a brighter ball of light rushed towards the Japanese plane. There is more than one person in the Type 96 land attack plane, and there are seven crew members alone, and each person has a different division of labor, and some of them are responsible for observation. In the dark and empty sky, such a bright ball of light rushed over, and the blind could see it.
"Ah......h
"Boom", although the plane was still flying fast, this fireball flew from the side, but the two sides did not stagger away, but perfectly collided together, a violent explosion occurred, and suddenly a larger fireball rose, and it fell downward while burning.
This fireball naturally did not appear suddenly, but the Hellfire missile launched by Apache, in the case of such a high speed of hellfire, the observers of the Japanese plane naturally did not have time to warn, and under the precise strike of the hellfire, no matter how fast this Japanese plane was, it would be impossible to escape death if it was locked.
After easily killing the Japanese plane, Wei Qidong quickly drove the Apache in the next direction, and the little devil deliberately scattered the plane, which did cause him a lot of trouble, and it was difficult to annihilate all the Japanese planes. The purpose of the Japanese army was to allow some of the planes to enter Shanghai at the expense of the troops' aircraft, and then airdrop supplies to the Japanese army in Shanghai.
Since it was destined that all the Japanese planes could not be wiped out, Wei Qidong took the initiative to target the Japanese planes flying from Japan to Shanghai, because these Japanese planes must be loaded with supplies, and if more such Japanese planes were shot down, the losses caused to the Japanese army would naturally be greater.
For the Japanese planes that returned from Shanghai after the airdrop of supplies, unless they were really close, Wei Qidong didn't bother to make a detour to attack them.
Gradually, the Japanese army seemed to have discovered this pattern, because they required each Japanese plane to send a message back to the Japanese mainland every once in a while to ensure that they were safe. It is precisely because the Japanese base camp always maintains contact with each Japanese plane, so once any Japanese plane loses contact, they think that the Japanese plane has been attacked, plus they know the route of each plane, the time of the plane, the distance from Shanghai, and so on, the Japanese base camp can probably deduce which area Wei Qidong is in, so as to warn all Japanese planes.
In order to ensure the safety of the planes transporting supplies as much as possible, the Japanese base camp even ordered that the Japanese planes returning after the successful airdrop of the supplies should try their best to attract Wei Qidong's attention, and once Wei Qidong's attention was shifted to their planes returning empty, then the other planes transporting supplies would be safe. Moreover, the speed and flexibility of the unloaded aircraft will be much stronger, and it can hold on for a longer time during the evasion process.
It can be said that in order to ensure the life transportation line from Japan to Shanghai, the Japanese are racking their brains to think of all the strategies they can think of.
After a week of emergency retreat, after a week of emergency retreat, the Japanese army in Shanghai had less than 100,000 men left. As for the other 100,000 or so, half were dead or missing, and less than half of them managed to join the Japanese fleet and then withdraw to Japan.
The losses were very heavy and painful to the Japanese, but the evacuation of the remaining 100,000 people still had to be intensified, but it was more difficult.
Because with the reduction of troops, the Japanese army has less and less pressure to defend against the offensive of the Chinese army, and the battle space has also shrunk sharply, retreating again and again. It has been forced by the Chinese army to the area along the Yangtze River, and in order to expand the living space, nearly 60,000 Japanese troops have entered Chongming Island.
Because the Japanese Combined Fleet was forced to withdraw from the waters around Shanghai by Wei Qidong and Tang Xinyi at an early stage, the Chinese Navy's original plan to sink and block the Jiangyin fortress was suspended, until the war situation became clear and the Chinese army counterattacked, this plan was immediately scrapped. Therefore, the Chinese Navy avoided the tragedy of self-sinking, and at this time the main force was especially there, and most of them were engaged in the war against Japan in Shanghai.
Although the Japanese were very angry, they were helpless, not only had to brave the rain of artillery to build more ships on the one hand, but also to block the attack of the Chinese army on Chongming Island.
During this period, the Chinese army took turns to attack the Japanese attack in corps and divisions, which really made these Japanese elites miserable, and almost every soldier was tired of fighting. Even if it's not fatigue fighting, it's fatigue shipbuilding, and there is no time to rest anyway.
"Your Excellency, Commander, you must also hurry up and retreat, the longer it drags on, the more dangerous the retreat will be." Several staff officers of the Central China Front Headquarters admonished Matsui Ishine and other high-ranking officials of the Central China Front, these people are all elites of Japan, and if they lose one or two, it will not be nothing, and if all these people are confessed in Shanghai, it will not only be a great loss, but also make the face of the whole of Japan look bad.
Therefore, not only was the Central China Front considering a high-level retreat, but the Japanese base camp also asked Matsui Ishine and other high-level leaders to find a way to quickly withdraw from Shanghai.