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Chapter 1779 Air Raid on Luzon

January 22, 1940 is the 14th day of the lunar month of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

At half past four in the morning, it is the darkest time before dawn, the land is silent, and the ten major military airports in Vinh City, Hue, Da Nang, Quy Nhin, Tuy Hoa, Cam Ranh, Nha Trang, Da Tang, Ninh Thuan and Phan Thiet in central and eastern South China are brightly lit. Under the command of the command platform, one fighter plane after another took off into the air, and Operation "Hurricane" aimed at rescuing MacArthur and the US Far East Force under his command officially began.

The fighters and bombers of the 1st Air Force Division and the 3rd Air Force Division will take up sortie missions in different waves, and the AN6 and AN7 large transport planes of the 1st Air Force Division will take off half an hour after the departure of the first wave of planes and head for the airspace of Luzon Island.

In order to make up for the weakness of the local air strike force that had emerged after the sorties of the 1st and 3rd Air Divisions, 10 fighter squadrons and 15 bomber squadrons were transferred from the 5th Air Force Division in Syria, and 5 fighter squadrons and 10 bomber squadrons were transferred from the 2nd Air Division stationed in Nanhua Bay and the 4th Air Force Division guarding the border security of Burma to be stationed at airfields along the eastern coast to ensure the safety of the airspace and to coordinate the actions of the 1st and 3rd Air Force Divisions.

The South China Air Force is composed of aviation combat units, paratroopers, and base units, of which the aviation combat units are further divided into flight teams, air transport teams, and airship teams.

At present, the Nanhua Flying Corps is divided into divisions, regiments (brigades), and squadrons, and a regular aviation division has five flight regiments under its jurisdiction, each of which is composed of five fighter squadrons, five bomber squadrons, two reconnaissance aircraft squadrons, and one transport aircraft squadron, and each squadron has a standard establishment of 15 fighters.

As early as when the battle plan was being formulated, five radar airships had already drifted to Luzon Island to monitor the movements of Japanese fighters at an altitude of 25,000 meters around the clock.

In this sortie, the target was first directed at the various airfields deployed by the Japanese troops on Luzon Island, and the fighter squadrons covered the bomber squadrons, destroying all the Japanese fighters parked at the various airfields, and striving for air supremacy for about a week.

The establishment of the air transport fleet is the same as that of the air fleet. At present, the airlift team is composed of five airlift divisions, each of which has five airlift regiments under its jurisdiction, and each airlift regiment is composed of five squadrons of transport planes, five squadrons of fighter planes, and one squadron of reconnaissance planes.

According to the "Hurricane" plan, while the air force launched a surprise attack on the Japanese base on Luzon, two squadrons of 30 large transport planes, under the cover of an equal number of fighters, went straight to Manila on Luzon Island to pick up the main generals of the US Far East Army and their families, and then pick up the officers and men at the grassroots level one by one.

In the dazzling searchlight, the group of planes assembled and formed in the air, and then flew towards the eastern sky.

It was pitch black on the ground at this time, and at a height of several thousand meters, the brilliance of the rising sun in the east could already be seen. Since it was still early, most of the people in South China did not witness the spectacle of overwhelming fighter planes flying eastward, but American and British reporters who were suddenly notified by the political department of South China listened to the roar of heaven and earth and used their cameras to shoot indiscriminately into the black night sky, regardless of whether or not they could catch the shadow of the fighter planes.

According to intelligence, the Japanese army is now in the Philippines and has five flying regiments deployed, but the quantity and quality of fighters cannot be compared with the powerful air force of South China.

The US mainland has coordinated with the Philippine side, all the airports around Manila have been cleared, oil depots and ammunition depots are open for supply, anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine gun positions are deployed in various parts of Manila City, and troops are in strong positions at key points north and south of Manila.

......

Chunxiang City in the central and eastern part of South China, the base camp of Longtan.

The war room of this wartime base camp is located in the belly of a mountain more than 100 meters above the ground, and is completely powered by diesel generator sets for lighting and various machinery and equipment. The war room is composed of three floors, just like an Italian-style opera house, this war room is connected with the outside world in an all-round way through countless wired and wireless communication lines, in addition to having a computer control center that represents the highest scientific and technological achievements of South China, it is also equipped with a special map station, which is convenient for the commander to make judgments at the first time according to the intuitive impression.

Today, the base camp has almost become the command center of the Air Force Command, and General Officers An Yi, Yang Fei, and Liu Qing are all observing how the Air Force faithfully implements the "Hurricane" plan.

At this time, in front of the "opera house," where the curtain should have been hung, a large electronic display screen covering the entire wall was installed, and there were markings of different colors on the display screen, representing the location of the departure airfield of our air force, the place where the various fighter squadrons were located at the moment, and the situation of the enemy's airfield and fighters.

In front of the map desk in the middle of the ground floor, there are more than 20 telephones, and around the map station, more than 20 highly trained female officers and their assistants sit on the map in a timely manner, using a baton several meters long with a hook to clearly place the marks of friend or foe on the map in a timely manner.

On the left and right sides of each floor, there are small rooms like glass seats, which are the places where the commanding officers and staff officers of the Air Force at all levels work. These officers and staff officers will review the information transmitted back by the radar airship and the information compiled and sorted out by the computer center, and then transmit it to the map station below in a timely manner, and the staff next to the map station will control the buttons and display the situation of the enemy and us on the electronic display screen one by one.

An Yi smoked a cigarette, paced back and forth, occasionally looking at the current location of our fighters on the electronic display screen, and his expression was extremely serious.

This time, so many planes were dispatched in one go, spanning thousands of kilometers of airspace, and simultaneously striking at many targets on Luzon Island, and every procedure was full of challenges in terms of the assembly, formation, deployment, liaison, and command of the fighters.

"What, are you nervous?"

Yang Fei walked up to An Yi and asked with a smile.

"It's a little ......"

An Yi nodded, seeing that Yang Fei took out a cigarette case and wanted to smoke, but the cigarette box was empty, he reached out and stuffed the cigarette case in his pocket into Yang Fei's hand, and then said:

"Indeed, after all, Luzon is so far away from us that many practical situations could not have been imagined in advance, and these omissions may become the difference between success and failure...... Now I only hope that the Japanese army will be paralyzed, they have gained air supremacy in the Philippines, and the naval aviation has successfully attacked the Panama Canal and achieved another brilliant victory, and now some pride should be understandable. ”

"Don't worry, it's going to be fine!"

Yang Fei took out a cigarette, lit it for himself, took a beautiful puff, felt refreshed, and continued: "With the intention of calculating or not, the strength of our army obviously has the upper hand, and the Japanese army is caught off guard, and the loss is certain!" The key is to see if they can react in time, evacuate the fighters from Luzon, and then wait for the opportunity to find our decisive battle after assembling. In addition, there is also concern about the intensification of the Japanese ground offensive, and as long as we have no foothold in Manila, the threat will naturally be lifted...... These are not things that we can solve, and it depends on the will of the US military and the Philippine army to resist. ”

"Yes!"

An Yi smiled, seeing that Yang Fei wanted to return the cigarette box to himself, he waved his hand to signal that he didn't need to, and raised his wrist to look at his watch, at this time the time had already pointed to half past five, so he greeted:

"Let's go, leave it to Lao Huang and them to command, call the brothers to the dining room for breakfast, and then go to the conference room, drink morning tea while waiting for further news to come."

"It's okay, after a busy night's work, I happened to be hungry, I heard that the chef here was specially invited from the South Sichuan by the General Logistics Department, and I just happened to taste the craftsmanship of these chefs."

After that, Yang Fei went to call Liu Qing, Shen Ziling and others.

The distance between Nanhua and Luzon is more than 1,000 kilometers, and it will take at least two hours to reach Luzon, and by the time the attack is launched, it will already be a matter of 7 o'clock in the morning. For two or three hours, it's not a matter of pacing here, it's better to find a place to sit and wait for good news.

......

Three fighter squadrons, three bomber squadrons, and one reconnaissance squadron of the 14 th Air Force Regiment, which took off from the Da Nang military airfield, totaling 105 fighters from seven squadrons, assembled in the air, completed their formation, and slowly climbed to an altitude of more than 6,000 meters in order to conceal their whereabouts as much as possible, and then flew toward the eastern sky.

When the time pointed to seven o'clock, the vast South China Sea, already behind it, after getting in touch with the fraternal troops and sending each other a radio signal of "good luck", the group began to enter a state of radio silence.

According to the "Hurricane" plan, the target of the attack of the 14th Air Regiment was the Tuguegarao military airfield in northern Luzon. The airfield is deep inland in Luzon, so it is manned by the latest A29 fighter jets and B4-B bombers.

The B4-B bomber is an upgraded version of the B4 four-engine bomber, using a higher horsepower engine, through the change of the wing and cabin layout, the fuel tank capacity has been increased, so that the range has been increased to 5,000 kilometers in the case of adding auxiliary fuel tanks, the cockpit is very spacious, the cabin is a large corridor from beginning to end, and there are member posts in front and back, left and right, and up and down.

Sitting in the pilot's position, you have a good view in front of the cockpit, and you can see the situation from near and far.

At this time, the sky was already bright, and because the weather was clear, you could see that the white clouds were like cotton wool, one after another, and they were quickly thrown behind the fuselage by the high-speed flying fighters. Looking down at the land of Luzon from above, the mountains and rivers are crisscrossed, and the babbling streams and paddy fields scattered in the fields reflect the glory of the rising sun, and everywhere is shining, like a piece of brilliant jewels.

The pilot constantly pays attention to the information fed back by the airship's radar on the electronic screen on the side of the bridge. So far, the whereabouts of the Japanese fighters have not been discovered, everything is going well, and the fighters, guided by high-altitude radars, are flying quickly towards the predetermined target.

"Dididi-"

The siren above the cockpit sounded, and Lieutenant Zhang Yan, whose ancestral home is Fuyu, Jilin, participated in the Anjia Army in ***, and was later selected to enter the aviation school and became a pilot all the way smoothly, calmly picked up the microphone: "Pay attention to all combat positions on the plane, you are about to fly over the target, now prepare for combat!" ”

As soon as he put down the microphone, the voice of Squadron Leader Major Wen Xiang appeared in the speaker: "Brothers, everything goes well!" The battle is about to begin, everyone take care, tonight I drink everyone in Manila, I heard that the Americans have hoarded a lot of good things, I will take care of everyone. ”

"Okay!"

"Okay! It's decided! ”

"This time you must have a good drink!"

There was a relaxed laughter from the speakers, and the captains were talking back, and everyone seemed very relaxed. Everyone knows that they have already flown over the airfield of the Japanese army, and they have not yet seen the devil's fighter take off, even if they want to meet it now, it is too late.

At this point, the surprise attack is basically a success, and the rest is a matter of the size of the results.

The P29 fighter is suspended with 1,000 pounds of aerial bombs and 10 5-inch rockets, and its ground power is not weaker than that of the B2 dive bomber, and its performance is not comparable to that of the B2 bomber with low speed and low range.

At this time, the B29 fighter group had already rushed towards the anti-aircraft gun positions and anti-aircraft machine gun positions near the Japanese airfield, striving to destroy all these nasty anti-aircraft weapons before the devils could react.

At this time, at the Japanese airfield on the ground, the air defense sirens sounded loudly.

The Japanese pilots, who were preparing to go out on a mission, found the sudden dense group of planes, and one by one they turned pale and quickly ran towards their fighters, while the air defense soldiers rushed to the air defense positions, while those airport command, control, and other ground personnel went crazy to the air defense trenches to dodge, and several mechanics who were standing on the planes for maintenance also quickly jumped down, threw off the planes, and fled lifelessly.

The entire airport was in chaos in an instant.

Around several 75mm and 88mm anti-aircraft guns, the soldiers who were in control finally ushered in, and the loaders hurriedly stuffed the shells in, and as soon as the gunner pulled the bolt, a black smoke rose from the sky.

It was only when the shell was fired out that the gunner remembered that he had not taken aim and hurriedly yelled, "Come again!" Then he pulled open the chamber of the gun, withdrew the smoking cartridge case, and the loader held the shell and stuffed it in, and then the gunner, according to the data reported by the observer, shook sharply to make the barrel more vertical, and aimed at the fighter plane that was constantly passing in the air.

"When—"

"Bang-"

The cannonballs were sent into the sky again, and there was one more black spot in the sky, but unfortunately the accuracy was too poor, and again it was useless.

At this moment, the first wave of P29 fighters had already roared down, the nose and winged machine guns flashed, three clouds of smoke and dust exploded on the ground, dozens of bullets were eaten by sandbags in the gun mount, and a swarthy and round thing was directly dropped.

There was a loud bang, and the bomb hit the anti-aircraft gun.

As the flames rushed up, with a "woo-" sound, the plane swept past the anti-aircraft gun emplacement, and pulled up again.

The five bubblers who operated the cannon could not dodge, and were blown to pieces on the spot, and the turbulent air currents mixed with flesh and blood powder flew in all directions, and the anti-aircraft guns were blown apart, and parts were scattered everywhere.

Of course, not all P29 fighters dropped bombs so accurately, after all, they were fighter pilots, and their profession was aerial combat, so some bombs were thrown a little off, beyond a few meters to more than ten meters. However, although these bombs did not directly hit the target, the sputtered shrapnel and the huge shock wave set off still killed and injured a large number of Japanese anti-aircraft artillery, and made the remaining artillery lie in the sandbag pile and dare not raise their heads.

The second wave of P29 fighters saw that the brothers in front of them had good results and followed the dive.

The Japanese air defense is more miserable, not only to suffer the baptism of aerial bombs, the threat of P29 suspended rockets is also very large, the power of 5-inch rockets is about the same as 125mm howitzers, although the hit rate of rockets is not as high as the fighter dive bomb, but there is no need to dive and pull up in a straight line when attacking, it is relatively safe, and the rockets are fired all over the sky, making a terrible whistling sound, and the morale of the Japanese army is also relatively large. It has already collapsed under the fierce blow.

Lieutenant Colonel Xue Mingyu, deputy commander of the 14th Air Regiment, piloted the S3-B reconnaissance plane to observe the situation on the entire battlefield.

This airport is located in the relatively safe north of Luzon Island, and the 12th Flying Team of the Army Air Corps stationed at the airport is basically equipped with heavy bombers, and from the air, there are about 40-60 Ki-47 Mitsubishi heavy bombers neatly arranged on both sides of the runway.

The Ki-47 Mitsubishi heavy bomber, which almost completely copied the design of the American B-17 four-engine heavy bomber, was extremely powerful, and in the Japanese attack on the Philippines, the army air force equipped with this heavy bomber caused great trouble to the US military, and the Americans tasted the bitter fruits they planted.

On both sides of the runway, there are six small hangars, four large hangars, and the rest of the fighters equipped by the 12th Flying Team are basically in these hangars, including two squadrons of Hayabusa fighters.

Lieutenant Colonel Xue Mingyu quickly issued orders to the various squadron leaders and constantly adjusted the focus of the attack.

The three fighter squadrons competed, and after confirming that there was no longer a threat of ground anti-aircraft fire, they rushed to the ten hangars and command buildings of the airfield under the leadership of their respective squadron leaders.

As the aviation machine gun in the nose spewed out tongues of fire, lines of fire jumped, intertwining on the surface of the hangar and command building. The first unlucky thing was the command building with an extremely significant target, the glass windows of the tower were shattered in an instant, and six or seven officers of the *** Army Air Corps who had not had time to run down were beaten to pieces.

Immediately after that, several rockets hit the command building at the same time, and the two-story command building and the six-story tower of the brick and concrete structure collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust.

As a string of bombs fell, rockets shot out like meteors, and four large hangars exploded, detonating the planes and fuel pumps inside, and quickly falling into a sea of fire. Half of the six small hangars exploded and burned, and the other half were empty when the roof was lifted, but it didn't cause much damage.

By the time the P29 fighters were in full swing, the B4-B bombers had also been lowered to a suitable altitude.

With his eyes on the scope and his hand on the red button, the bombardier looks at the runway below and takes aim slowly. Soon, the planes parked on the runway entered the sight, and subsequently into the center of the crosshairs.

"Put-"

The bombardier let out a loud shout and quickly pressed the red button.

Eight 250-kilogram bombs were loosened and detached from the left and right shelves, and the plane suddenly became 2,000 kilograms lighter, the fuselage trembled, the speed increased much in an instant, and it rushed out of the air for more than 100 meters before regaining balance. A rapid flash of light appeared on the ground, followed by a long line of fireball and smoke in the air. The blast belt swept diagonally past the queue of planes on the runway, and at least four or five aircraft were caught in the fireball.

As a steady stream of aerial bombs were dropped by heavy bombers, for a time, dense columns of black smoke rose on the runway and apron of the airport, and the fighters below collapsed in the fireworks explosion one after another, and clouds of black smoke and fireballs rose into the sky, and many planes were directly blown into the sky.

Many *** pilots, as soon as they jumped into the cockpit, were reduced to pieces along with the landline, and a few started the propellers, and the bad luck had already come, only one Ki-47 Mitsubishi heavy bomber took off into the air, and was also volleyed apart by the P4 fighter following the B29-B because it could not turn during the climb.

If the P29 fighter planes were brave eagles, constantly circling over the airfield, and when they saw fish that had slipped through the net, they would dive and throw bombs or launch rockets, and those surviving fighters would completely disintegrate into pieces under such a heavy blow.

At the end of the bombing, the B4-B heavy bombers began to throw a silver container downward.

These silver containers are packed in magazines, each containing 18 spider mines. This spider mine is a special mine, and eight slender nylon "antennae" protrude from its projectile body, like a large spider, hence the name. Equipped with a mixture of TNT and aluminium powder, and equipped with a trigger fuse and self-destruct device, the shell of the projectile body is made of alloy steel, and the surface is obliquely placed with strip prisms to allow for grounding at the predetermined contact point when landing.

Due to the violent impact, the container broke open after touching the ground, and the spider mines shot in all directions, and after landing again, these spider mines popped out 8 nylon lines about 8~10 meters long from 8 small holes on the surface of the bullet hole at the same time, and these nylon lines flew in all directions, and when they hit obstacles, they were wrapped around it, like a large open spider web, just waiting for the enemy to touch. Due to the small size of this mine, the nylon thread is long, and once touched, it explodes immediately. Hundreds of pieces of shrapnel are flying around, which can create a large killing area.

A B4 bomber can lay tens of thousands of spider mines, so the airfield is considered useless, and it will take at least several months to remove these mines.

Lieutenant Colonel Xue Mingyu lowered the S3-B reconnaissance plane to an altitude of two or three hundred meters, looked down with satisfaction, and saw that not a single fighter plane was not burning on the airfield, the seven hangars were in flames, the four large hangars continued to explode, and fireballs rushed out of the big holes in the top of the storehouses.

"Beautiful! It's all over! ”

Xue Mingyu tried his best to suppress the excitement in his heart, and calmly gave the order: "Now start assembling, turning, target, Manila City in the south." ”

The cheers of the squadron leaders were heard from the loudspeakers, and the group slowly formed in the air, and after a quarter of an hour, began to march towards the city of Manila in the south.

While the 14th Air Force Regiment succeeded in its surprise attack on the Tugugarao military airfield, the Japanese military airfields on Luzon Island, such as Laoag, Mi'an, Iba, and Tarlac, were also attacked by the Anjia Air Force at the same time.

As a result of the complete annihilation of the fighters of the US Far East Air Force, the Japanese army was very relaxed, and as a result, they suffered the same fate as the US troops at Pearl Harbor and Luzon, and almost all the fighters were blown up on the runways, tarmacs, and hangars of the airfields, and nearly 300 fighters were lost before they could engage in battle.

For a long time afterward, the air supremacy of the entire Luzon Island was controlled by the South China Air Force, which created conditions for the smooth withdrawal of US troops.

~~~~~~~~~

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