On June 7, 1937, it was an extremely unappetizing morning for His Excellency Prince Hatohiko Asakanomiya, the acting commander of the Central Branch of the Imperial Empire, when the aircraft carrier group of the Sakamoto Navy anchored outside Wusongkou was attacked by the Chinese Air Force, which was absolutely superior.

When Hatohiko Asaka heard the news, he was enjoying breakfast, and was preparing to celebrate the victory of the battle of air power in order to attack the [***] airfield and completely destroy the [***] air power, Hatohiko Asakanomiya was extremely satisfied with his surprise attack plan, and the BF-109F multi-role fighter of the Rehe Army was not powerful in the air? Then we will say that this imperial army will destroy all of you on the ground, and as long as we grasp the air supremacy over Nanjing, then the initiative in the Nanjing campaign will change hands.

However, to the surprise of Hatohiko Asakanomiya, he had just sent all his fighters to attack the four main field airfields and two spare airfields in the north of the [***] River, and as a result, the fleet moored outside Wusongkou was attacked by the Chinese Air Force, which had an absolute advantage and almost poured out.

For the crazy actions of the Chinese Air Force, Asakamiya Hatohiko can understand, because in his memory during the Battle of Songhu, a Chinese pilot after parachuting was blown by the wind and fell to the position of the Yue Army, and the renamed pilot killed four Imperial soldiers in a row with the revolver he was wearing, and committed suicide with the last bullet, and Hatohiko even remembered the name of the Chinese pilot, his name was Yan Haiwen.

Hatohiko Asaka decided to immediately convene an emergency meeting of the commanders of the army aviation units under the 3rd and 4th Flying Divisions and the chief of liaison staff of the naval aviation.

The 3rd and 4th Flying Divisions were both expanded from the original Shanghai Dispatch Army Flight Unit, and the 1st Combined Air Force of the Army Air Force under its jurisdiction was commanded by Commander Michitaro Tozaka, the 2nd Combined Air Force, Commander Mitachi Sada, the 21st Air Force, Commander Hasegawa Kidasa, the 23rd Air Force, Commander Okada Shisaku, the 22nd Air Force, the Commander Soyuki Shinnosuke Nakasa, and the Special 12th Fleet for the purpose of campaign synthesis, Commander Major General Yoshiichi Miyata, Major General Takasu Shiro, commander of the First Air Force of the Army Aviation Headquarters, and Major General Rokuro Tsukae of the Second Air Force of the Army Aviation Headquarters were summoned to the luxurious headquarters of Asakanomiya Hatohiko from his own headquarters and even from the airport control tower to attend an emergency meeting.

As a result, everyone arrived for a full twenty minutes, but the convener of the "emergency" meeting, Hatohiko Asakanomiya, was stunned and did not show up, and many senior officers of the military aviation unit couldn't help but look at each other, and Major General Takasu Shiro, commander of the First Air Force of the Army Aviation Headquarters, said with a cold face to the dige Rokuro beside him: "It's all our three unknown princes who always do some things that anger and resentment, and now it seems that what he said is really true?" In such an important military operation today, the fighters of the Chinese Air Force attacked our warships at Wusongkou, but what are we doing? We, commanders, are ridiculously waiting for an idiot to give us a meeting? It really doesn't make sense. ”

Dig Jiang Rokuro sighed helplessly and said: "I really don't know what His Majesty the Emperor thinks, if it is General Matsui Ishone, I am afraid that at this moment our army would have already attacked the city of Nanjing, I heard that the battle lasted for twelve days, not to mention the heavy casualties of the troops in front, the troops only advanced to the city wall of Nanjing, and if they continue to fight like this, I am afraid that the reinforcement of five divisions will not be able to defeat Nanjing." ”

Hasegawa, who was sitting on the side, looked around, lowered his voice and whispered: "Those wretched people on the front line lost the battle, I heard that our aviation unit is not played, saying that we can't control the air and can't destroy the Chinese artillery, this is the real bastard, Chengde Nahuizhi people don't have any planes, our army has fighters, heavy artillery, and combat vehicles, isn't it the same that hasn't captured that small city?" Now that we have lost the battle, if we don't examine our own wrongs, we will be smeared. ”

As soon as Hasegawa's words fell, with a voice of the acting commander, His Royal Highness Prince Hatohiko Asakanomiya arrived! The senior officers of the Yue Army present immediately stood up and saluted!

Hatohiko glanced at the rumbling cannons and explosions in the direction of Wusongkou, and looked around at the people present with nonchalantness: "Those arrogant guys in the navy always think that they are higher than us, and now it's okay, in front of the bombs in the middle [***], whether it is the army or the navy, everyone is equal."

Since all the generals present were army generals, and the chief of liaison staff of the navy, Tonichiro Nishida, had not yet arrived, everyone present laughed heartily, and the generals below were also shocked by the disconnection of Prince Hatohiko of Asakanomiya, a guy who never spoke through his brain and always thought about problems with his ass.

It's as if it was not the warships of the Great Empire that were bombed outside, but the Chinese!

The five aircraft carriers of the Chinese fleet were attacked by more than 300 Chinese air force fighters, and many of them, together with the destroyers, light cruisers, and heavy cruisers escorting them, suffered heavy damage; however, the Chinese air force was not equipped with torpedo attack planes, and it was very easy to inflict heavy damage on the aircraft carriers of the Chinese army with 500 pounds of bombs, as long as two or three of them hit their flight decks, and the aircraft carriers of the Yue army that were hit by 500 pounds of high-explosive bombs on the deck needed at least six or at least eight months of emergency repairs before they could fully recover their combat effectiveness.

However, it would take a lot of luck to sink the aircraft carrier, because the Chinese Air Force, the Rehe Flying Tigers, and even the Soviet Volunteer Air Force were not equipped with the corresponding types of ammunition suitable for attacking large surface ships, such as spiral tail armor-piercing blasting bombs, sharp armor-piercing blasting and incendiary bombs, and so on.

Ordinary high-explosive bombs can only cause heavy casualties to the surface and personnel of a ship, but cannot sink its ship; you must know that when designing a surface combat ship, the survivability of the ship must be placed before its firepower projection and combat effectiveness, so it is difficult to easily hit the fuel tanks, gas stations, ammunition depots, and separate storage places of military aircraft carriers.

Although the 20 or so warships of the Yue army fleet outside Wusongkou were billowing smoke, not many of them could really be sunk, and many Chinese people in Shanghai were climbing the heights to watch the restoration of the Southern Division, and some reporters from various countries in the British, French, and American concessions also seized the highest point one after another, and took pictures that made Yue himself extremely annoyed.

However, many foreign reporters have gradually discovered that although the Chinese Air Force has been attacking one after another, the bombs that really hit the warships did not pose much of a threat, that is, although the fighting was very lively, the real damage to the warships was not great. And it is very strange that the fighters of the army aviation in the direction of Hongkou have not yet come to reinforce it? And where did the fighters of the naval aviation, which were constantly taking off, go? Is the navy relying entirely on the ship's anti-aircraft fire in passive defense?

As the nearly 70 warships of the Chinese army began to concentrate outside Wusongkou and formed a tight fire blockade network through coordination, the losses of the Chinese air force increased sharply.

The nine "Hengel" light bombers of the Eighth Air Force's Eighth Brigade, which had been hovering at high altitudes, had been hovering at high altitudes looking for appropriate opportunities to enter the battlefield; in order to increase their bomb load, they had only one-way fuel supply; first, they gave up their fighters to parachute after bombing, and second, they drove their planes to ram ships.

Most Chinese pilots have already estimated that it would be difficult to sink the large surface ship of the Yuejian with only 500 pounds of bombs, and the No. 1029 "Nospouro" light bomber hit the Yaeyama, which had almost sunk, and the pilots of the nine "Henger" light bombers were blinded.

You must know that neither the "Nospou" light bomber nor the "Hunger" light bomber are horizontal bombers, and their 1,500-foot bombing hit rate against dynamic targets on the sea surface is only about 2 percent, that is to say, 100 aerial bombs can only hit two or three bombs.

Therefore, most of the Chinese bomber crews took the risk of intruding into the anti-aircraft fire circle of the Chinese army, increasing the hit rate by diving and dropping bombs, and severely damaging the aircraft carriers of the Chinese army, which can give a great deterrent and blow to the morale of the entire Chinese army.

Li Hao, who was the leader of the nine "Henger" light bombers, found that a large aircraft carrier of the Yue Army seemed to be running at full power while billowing black smoke, and the anti-aircraft fire on it was much more fierce than that of the Kaga and Fengxiang ships.

Therefore, because the "Hengel" light bomber was not equipped with a radio like the BF-109F multi-role fighter, Li Hao shook the wings of the plane, pointed the nose of his bomber at the heavy aircraft carrier Kamikaze, and pushed open the side window to launch a red signal flare at the kamikaze.

The nine "Hunger" light bombers suddenly began to climb, and they all aimed their fighter noses at the Kamikaze aircraft carrier, and the Kamikaze, which was the first to start evasion, also discovered the offensive intention of the "Hengel" light bomber formation of the Chinese Air Force, so the Kamikaze began to use radio and lights to contact nearby destroyers and cruisers to intercept it with anti-aircraft fire.

Braving the dense air defense fire network of the Chinese army, the nine "Hengel" light bombers belonging to the Eighth Brigade of the Chinese Air Force rushed straight to the "kamikaze" aircraft carrier one after another, like air knights who had generously died in the air.

Under the command of the gun officer, the soldiers in the anti-aircraft gun emplacements of the Kamikaze aircraft carrier were howling and firing desperately, and a hit "Henger" light bomber rolled and mounted on a Japanese destroyer, triggering a series of explosions.

Rumble! The "Hengle" light bomber piloted by Li Hao crashed into the kamikaze's conning tower with billowing smoke, boom! In the orange-red flames of the explosion, the lives of the warriors of the Chinese Air Force were sublimated in the violent explosions! Honor will be with them.

(To be continued)