The bombing of the Japanese warships at the mouth of the Yangtze River was led by the first squadron of bombers codenamed "Golden Eagle" led by Poleunin, and this time because it was a short-distance sortie mission, the 12 bombers were all reduced fuel load and attacked with the maximum bomb load, of which six bombers were loaded with two 500-kilogram bombs in the magazine, and one 500-kilogram bomb was attached to each of the wings, and the other six planes were attached to the outer wings unchanged, but the magazine was changed to six 100-kilogram explosive bombs. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info Polunin did not know that this operation was destined to leave a heavy mark on the history of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, because there was a "wolf" "waiting" for him at Wusongkou.

Because the anti-aircraft firepower of the Japanese Navy was not strong at that time, Poleunin boldly chose the "high-low-high" sortie method, that is, when bombing the Japanese ships, the altitude would be lowered to ensure the hit rate, and the altitude would be reduced to 1,500 meters during the attack.

Just after half past eight in the morning, 12 SB-2 bombers arrived at Wusongkou under the escort of eight Yi-16s, and at this time a small number of barges were carrying out landing operations on the water -- unloading Japanese soldiers and supplies supporting the Songhu battlefield from three large ships.

It was a cloudy day, the clouds were very low, and Pollunin, who was in the position of the pilot, looked at the sea through the air raids between the clouds - two of the three large ships should be ordinary transport ships with a displacement of about five or six thousand tons, and the third, from a distance, should be a heavy cruiser with a three-turret load!

"Attention all, I'm Squadron Leader Poliunin. Now I order: Aircraft No. 1 to 6 to bomb the Japanese cruisers in cross, single numbers from the left, double numbers from the right, planes 7 to 9 to bomb the proximal transports, and planes 10 to 12 to bomb the far transports! Attack height 1500 meters, horizontal bombing! ”

After resuming the squadron leader's order, the planes dispersed according to their numbers and pounced on their respective targets.

The heavy cruiser "Aoba" was one of the treasures of the Japanese army, completed in September 1927, with a full load displacement of nearly 10,000 tons, a length of 183.58 meters, a speed of 33 knots, and three twin 200 mm turrets, as well as four 120 mm high-level dual-purpose guns and several 25 mm anti-aircraft guns. It had just completed its overhaul last year, and this time it had rushed to Wusongkou to transport the landing troops, and it had just arrived yesterday afternoon. (The "Aoba" Heavy Patrol was once "famous" in the Pacific War in history, and was known as the "Wolf of Solomon.") ）

The "Aoba" had already begun the landing operation last night, but due to the excessive wind and waves, it had not finished unloading the materials it was carrying until this morning, which was very unfavorable to it, and the whole ship was worried about this: Some time ago, the Japanese landing was basically not worried about this, except for some small-scale shelling, because the Chinese navy was not enough to pose a threat to it at that time, and even the torpedo boats that made the aging "Izumo" cruiser suffer were useless here. The Emperor's air force had a firm grip on air supremacy, and although a small number of Chinese planes had bombed ships anchored in the area, the threat was not great. But all this has changed since yesterday -- the "Ryusho" has sunk, the "Kaga" has returned to the mainland as an empty shell, and the emperor's air pride has also been lost. At present, "Aoba" is tense its nerves and guards against a potential threat in the air -- it can be exploded into a "dragon champ", and its "Aoba" has to be guarded against.

And this morning's weather was very unfavorable for it - the clouds were low and there were faults, and it would be difficult to spot them in case the planes were coming; Even if you find out, it's hard to fight back. What's worse is that the unloading of goods is going to break down! It can only step up its operations, unload the cargo and leave this "place of right and wrong", in order to prevent accidents, it also released the Type 90 seaplane it carried early in the morning as its own eyes in the air.

They were worried until 8:30 a.m., when the Japanese sailors' worst fears happened: the roar of the engines of a large number of planes was heard in the air, but they could not see the precise direction of the enemy planes. At this time, the call of the seaplane pilot observer also sounded in its communication room: the enemy medium bombers have been detected, numbering about ten ―――――"

Suddenly, the voice on the intercom became hoarse, and there was the sound of metal tearing, and then there was silence.

Alyosha was one of the fighter pilots escorting the 1st Bomber Squadron today, and his plane had just been completely repaired last night - there were still a few bullet holes in the wings of his plane during the second sortie yesterday. As soon as the plane arrived over Wusongkou, he spotted a Japanese seaplane -- this was the eyes of the Japanese army!

There were instructions in the meeting before the sortie: once the Japanese patrol plane is discovered, it must be solved as quickly as possible, no matter who discovers it first. Alyosha flew at the Japanese planes the moment she spotted them—perhaps the seconds of a second attack after reporting could have changed the tide of battle. He had no time to inform the formation commander of the formation after a series of maneuvers such as turning the course and increasing the throttle, and by this time his I-16 had already rushed towards the Japanese plane at high speed.

The observers of the Type 90 seaplane did their job very competently, but unfortunately Alyosha's quick action did not give him enough time to report - Alyosha was already firing a four-pronged salvo at the clumsy seaplane at a distance of less than 50 meters before breaking away from the attack. The disintegration of the Type 90 water plane in the air also announced that the "Aoba" had lost its most important pair of eyes.

The Japanese sailors operating the anti-aircraft guns were on standby, carefully monitoring the direction of the sound of aircraft engines in the air, but the clouds interfered with their observations. Although bombers may faintly appear in the cloud fault in the distance, the four 120-mm anti-aircraft guns on the "Aoba" can only fire jamming -- the bombers will disappear in the blink of an eye, and can only shoot according to speculation, which is simply like a blind man and a blind horse.

The captain of the "Aoba" gave the order to set sail urgently, but it would take at least 3 minutes for the preheated turbine to output power, but unfortunately, the "Aoba" did not have this precious 3 minutes.

The Japanese sailors below were closely monitoring the sky, and the Soviet pilots in the air were also watching the sea: the three SB-2s on the Porunin side had opened their magazine covers, and the three of them were separated into a line. According to the target position he had just seen, Porunin slowly descended the plane, broke through the clouds and appeared in the sight of the sailors of "Aoba".

The anti-aircraft gunners on the "Aoba" quickly adjusted the angle of fire, and the 25-mm anti-aircraft guns began to show out their tongues of fire -- the veterans of the Japanese anti-aircraft gunners had already noticed that the situation was not good -- and the bombers in the sky had already entered the stage of flying in a straight line before the bombs were dropped.

The Japanese anti-aircraft guns fired in a hurry, and the impact point of the large-caliber shells and the 25-mm tracer bullets showed that the trajectory of the Porunin's plane was still relatively far away, and the bombardier on the Porunin plane had already firmly encased the "Aoba" on the sea in his bombing sight. The moment the black cross in front of him reached the middle of the "Aoba", the bombardier pressed the bomb button in his hand, which looked like a button on the shutter release of a camera.

The four 500-kilogram blasting bombs in the wings and magazines were like four black ghosts, falling towards the "Aoba" in a graceful parabola. As the bombardier's voice "Bomb dropped" came from the intercom in the plane, Poliunin swung the control wheel, and the plane rose in altitude and flew into the clouds.

The sailors on the deck of the "Aoba" watched in despair at the bombs that fell from the sky, and now they could all see that the bombs were likely to hit their own warship.

The first 500-kilogram blaster hit the No. 2 turret at the front of the Aoba, and its pitiful 25mm top armor was easily pierced by the bomb (if the blasting shell was thicker, it might not be able to penetrate it, but the top armor of the Japanese cruiser turret was so thin, which was also "Japanese characteristic"). The bomb exploded violently inside the turret, and everyone on the "Aoba" felt the warship under their feet tremble violently, and many people were thrown the deck. Turret No. 2 was lifted in its entirety, but that wasn't the end of it, the other three bombs landed in the water on both sides of the front of the "Aoba", the closest was less than three meters, and the farthest was only 10 meters.

The bomb in the water exploded earth-shatteringly, setting off a column of water dozens of meters high -- at this moment, the fate of the "Aoba" was already sealed! The destructive power of a near-miss bomb (some people are accustomed to calling it a "near-arrow bomb") to a ship was even greater than a direct hit, and the huge water pressure generated by the explosion instantly tore through the hull of the "Aoba", and many sailors in the compartment below the waterline inside the "Aoba" were killed in an instant by the huge current -- a close miss by three 500-kilogram aerial bombs was like being hit by three heavy torpedoes, which could only mean sinking for a cruiser.

The disaster of "Aoba" was far from over, and the two SB-2 bombers behind dropped a total of 8 500-kilogram bombs one after another, and two more directly hit "Aoba": one of them hit the bridge, and the violent explosion not only destroyed half of it, but also killed almost all the people inside; The other hit the "Aoba" in the middle of the No. 1 and No. 2 chimneys, and suddenly there was smoke billowing out of the place. Although the other 6 pieces did not directly hit "Aoba", they all fell within 20 meters of "Aoba".

By the time the three bombers on the other side dropped their bombs, all the anti-aircraft fire on the "Aoba" had been muted, and one of the 12 bombshells directly hit the hull of the "Aoba", and the others set off huge columns of water near it.

Alyosha had been weaving through the clouds to observe, and she saw that the battered "Aoba" had tilted, and five minutes later, the front hull of the "Aoba" made an earth-shattering explosion - the ammunition depot under its No. 2 turret was detonated!

(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the WWW.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )