Chapter 52 Elephant Ambition

What is the embodiment of national strength, perhaps there is nothing more fully embodied than war in a country's national strength, the war of a poor country is all barren and insufficient, and the war of a rich country is full of war resources that can be squandered by officers and men on the front line.

But the same principle is not suitable for China, which is a poor country that has never put itself in the position of a "rich country", at least in its official rhetoric. A few years ago, there was a news report that was widely circulated in China, quoting the analysis and calculation of a British economist:

"In 1912, the average national income in China was £12, £75 in the United States, and £62 in the United Kingdom,......"

In the eyes of the people, the national income of the United States is more than six times that of China, and the national income of the United Kingdom is five times that of China, and China is clearly a poor country by comparison, which is an answer without objection.

No one ever doubted this statement, but the poor country of Danshi has always given the best treatment to the army, especially in times of war, and it seems to be a customary that the emperor of soldiers will always treat his soldiers well, and people never doubt this. Because of this, on the battlefield, these soldiers can get the most abundant supplies, although the country is very poor, Danshi will never hold back on military supplies.

Although the army and navy troops arriving in the Persian Gulf are only more than 100,000 people, Danshi has correspondingly transported hundreds of thousands of tons of materials from China, and in the middle and west bays of Daman Bay, thousands of sappers are building improvised ports day and night, and one person's crude steel pipe is under the pressure of a large steam pile driver, penetrating deep into the seabed shore foundation, and on the other side, hundreds of landing craft are continuously transferring materials to the coast.

On the coast, thousands of trucks are waiting to load supplies, and in the desert in the distance, long-range cannon heavy artillery is being assembled under the operation of technical officers and soldiers, and on the coast, which stretches for more than ten kilometers, the sound of soldiers' passwords, the roar of cars, and the sound of landing craft rushing to the beach have plunged this coast, which has been silent for thousands of years, into a boil.

The mountains of materials piled up on the coast are enough to make any person admire, Danshi in this regard, whether it is the army officers and soldiers who go ashore, or perhaps the naval officers and soldiers on the warships in the bay, they are not strange, they have long been accustomed to this kind of adequate material support, according to the habits of the Guards, often reserve more than twice as many materials in the theater of operations, to ensure that the troops will not be defeated in battle due to insufficient material preparation due to other factors.

And this time, because it is an expeditionary operation, the Royal Guard Staff Headquarters has prepared five times as many war materials for the army, and the materials that have arrived in the Persian Gulf alone are enough to support the expeditionary force to carry out high-intensity operations for half a year, and of course, in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, there is still a steady stream of merchant ships to transport supplies to the Persian Gulf.

With a roar, more than a dozen planes flew over the bay, and when the planes flew over, the vigilant soldiers in the dozens of guard balloon baskets on the coast only felt that the balloons seemed to shake under the impact of the airflow stirred up by the planes, and these officers and men in the stuffy hanging baskets looked at the planes flying at high speed, with some envy on their faces.

Before the airfield was built, the air surveillance of the entire bay was provided by 24 8-year fighters aboard the aircraft carrier "Pingbo", in addition to relying on alert balloons, although no one would doubt that China's aviation technology was far ahead of other countries, and it was clear that only 24 aircraft in Danshi could not provide adequate air cover.

Until yesterday, after nearly 3,000 engineers had spent five days building an airfield near the coast, the commanders of the Expeditionary Force Command, who had been worried about being bombed from the air, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At a distance of only 100 meters from the bay, planes are constantly taking off and landing from this field airfield, which seems to be very rudimentary, with accommodation tents, medical tents, and logistics tents...... In short, tent after tent, and then there are several flat earthen runways scattered in between, plus a steel girder conning tower, and that's all there is to the airport.

When the assembled planes roared overhead, Ma Mingxiao took a cigarette in his mouth, lying under the tent and looking at the airport that had just been built, the airport was quite simple, just a flat hard ground, at this time, those planes that needed to be tested were still constantly getting off the plane, and every time they took off and taxied, a yellow smoke dragon would always be dragged out of the rear of the plane. …,

"The sandfilter should be improved!"

Ma Mingxiao is so xiangdao in his heart, as a pilot, he knows what to pay attention to, but this problem does not seem to be something he needs to worry about, naturally there are commanders and ground staff to consider these issues.

He knew that his commander, Li Qinyun, was a very good commander in the Army Air Corps, he was one of the first pilots in the Empire, and he had a lot of experience, he had traveled all over Europe alone when he was studying mechanical engineering in Germany a few years ago, but the most amazing thing was that he knew very well the psychological state of young soldiers, and knew how to bring out the potential of the big guys.

Li Qinyun was very talented in mechanics, and when he was directing the ground crew to assemble the planes there, in order to improve the living conditions of this desert airport, he took matters into his own hands, using dozens of empty oil drums and wooden boxes for the planes, to build a shower tower, and even before the planes were built, a simple bathhouse that could provide showers for dozens of people was repaired.

When the sappers built the airport and assembled the aircraft on the ground, he quietly used the wooden box for the aircraft to repair a small fishing boat abandoned on the shore, and then took him out to sea to fish, that night, the big guy ate a meal of seafood, although it was not enough to fill the gaps, but despite this, Ma Mingxiao found that in the past two days, it seems that as long as everyone is fine, they will take a boat with a fishing rod to go fishing.

"I'm not afraid that the ship will be hit and sunk by a warship!"

Ma Mingxiao, who never eats fish, muttered in his heart, lying on the marching bed, he endured the heat of the desert, looking at the plane that was still in the wooden box, and his heart was even more depressed, it takes time to assemble the plane, and the order of assembling the plane is the number of the formation and the order of the plane number, and his plane number is the last number of the Ninth Air Force, which means that he will be the last one in the team to get the plane.

And before the plane was assembled, he could only stay in the tent, watching others enjoy the freedom brought by the sky.

"560 hp star engine, wooden wings, Seagull upper wing, steel tubes, Dura aluminum fuselage, cloth rear fuselage, maximum speed 280 km/h......"

With his eyes closed, Ma Mingxiao can clearly tell the parameters of the nine-year aircraft that has just been put into service, according to the test flight results, the nine-year aircraft is the best fighter in the whole shijie, it only takes 8 seconds to circle 360 degrees at an altitude of one thousand meters, in Ma Mingxiao's opinion, the nine-year fighter is a perfect biplane, at least before the monoplane enters service.

Before the war, the Royal Guards Army Air Corps had the largest fleet of fighters, attack planes, bombers, and even transport planes that seemed useless to the outside world, and nearly 2,000 aircraft were several times more than the rest of the Shijie combined.

But among the large number of aircraft, the nine-year aircraft is the most advanced, the high-speed brought by the high-power twelve-cylinder star engine, the powerful firepower brought by the nose machine gun, and the survivability brought by the bulletproof cockpit, and compared with ordinary fighters, the nine-year aircraft can also carry 200 kg of bombs under the belly or wings, so to speak, there is no more perfect aircraft than the nine-year aircraft, but now, his nine-year-old, but lying asleep in the wooden box, just like now Ma Mingxiao himself.

"Damn, I don't know, why pretend to be an elephant!"

Yixiangdao himself didn't know how many days he had to sleep, Ma Mingxiao complained unevenly, if it weren't for the assembly of 12 elephant bomber transport planes, maybe his nine-year-old Yijing had completed the assembly, and now he was enjoying flying in the sky, enjoying the cool breeze in the air, not the heat on land.

While complaining, Ma Mingxiao cast his eyes on the behemoths in the distance, which were several large biplanes, compared with the nine-year fighter, it was like the difference between a baby and an adult, the "elephant" type, that was the nickname given to it by the pilots, and now the elephant type has replaced its official name "Type 8" bombing transport, between the wings up to thirty meters wide, four 560 horsepower engines, in fact, the nine-year high-power twelve-cylinder star engine was developed for it.

This kind of bomber was under the direct interrogation of His Majesty, and it took three years for China Aviation Technology to successfully develop it, during which six test planes were dropped, and more than 10 pilots were killed and injured.

In the end, all this was worth it in the eyes of His Majesty and the top brass of the Army Air Corps, carrying 2.5 tons of bombs to fly 2,400 kilometers and a combat radius of more than 1,000 kilometers. …,

This is a weapon that can change the course of the war!

His Majesty once praised the "elephant" in this way, but in Ma Mingxiao's view, this kind of aircraft is simply a "burden", and during an exercise last year, he attacked a group of Type 6 bombers, and the survivability of the bombers when attacked by fighters was very doubtful.

"A hundred rounds at most, you can shoot down a bomber!"

At least in Ma Mingxiao's opinion, the bomber has poor maneuverability and slow speed, and in air combat, it is deadly! However, a "small soldier" cannot influence the decisions of the top echelons of the air force, let alone change His Majesty's determination to establish a "strategic air force."

"Can you think about Baghdad!"

Under the belly of an "elephant" bomber that Yijing had assembled, the captain muttered to the captain wearing a soft-brimmed military hat peculiar to the air force.

"Elephant, elephant, stupid elephant!"

In the air force, this joke has long been spread, and since receiving the combat mission, Su Guanghua imagined that through a "strategic bombing", everyone would change their prejudice against bombers and strategic bombing, so as to justify the name of bombers and bomber units.

"Bombing Baghdad?"

Xu Huansheng, who was checking the pylon in the cabin, was stunned, and then looked at his deputy captain in some surprise.

"We have been tasked with bombing the railway junction, preventing the Turks from gathering troops, and bombing Baghdad, and it is estimated that even if we apply, we may not be approved!"

The so-called strategic bombing is to bomb the enemy's national borders in depth, and bombing the enemy's territory in depth will bring about certain political consequences, and this is something that the military cannot but consider.

Strategic bombing not only strikes at the enemy's military targets, i.e., troops, military bases, and military installations, but also completely attacks the enemy's rear production facilities and transportation organs, and even includes ordinary residential areas.

Therefore, strategic bombing is inevitably an inaccurate "indiscriminate bombardment," and under normal circumstances, non-combatants are bound to suffer extremely serious injuries, and everyone may be a victim of war.

"Strategic bombing is a strategy of dropping massive bombs on large cities, causing destruction and terror to the citizens in order to seek an end to the war."

Su Guanghua blinked his eyes and said a sentence, this sentence is the "strategic bombing principle" mentioned by His Majesty when he spoke to the pilots when he inspected the strategic bomber unit, and the fundamental principle of bombing and bombing is to create destruction and terror, and to win the war by any means necessary.

"Political consequences, political consequences, ......"

Shaking his head, Xu Huansheng still did not accept his suggestion.

"That's a politician's business, it's not about the military!"

Su Guanghua said a sentence straightforwardly, the most classic sentence, and it was also the principle of the guards.

"If we bomb Baghdad, all shijie will be able to see it, and by then, those children will ......"

When speaking, Su Guanghua turned his attention to those fighters, they who were piloting bombers, they had always regarded those fighters as children, compared to the huge bombers, the fighters were too light, and the bombs they carried alone were equivalent to several fighters.

"Don't dare to underestimate us anymore, Captain, we're going to correct the name of the bomber unit, right?"

Seeing that the captain seemed to be a little hesitant, he hurriedly continued to incite.

"What's more, strategic bombing is still advocated by His Majesty, and since we have been transferred here, we should go to fulfill Your Majesty's wishes! Prove the value of expensive bombers to Your Majesty and the people with a beautiful strategic bombing! ”

"But, we have too few planes!"

Twelve bombers, even if they were full of bombs, were only a few dozen tons of bombs, and the damage they could do was too limited.

"Therefore, we have to bomb Baghdad, first prove our value, and then the country will continue to transfer bombers, at that time, we can even suggest that the bombers fly directly from Xinjiang, this is also training, in any case, this war is an experiment, we can carry out strategic bombing tactical exploration here, and we can also carry out other training, in short, as long as we want, this Turk is our experiment!" …,

When talking about the test subject, Su Guanghua's mood did not fluctuate at all, in his opinion, this kind of bombing is no different from the training he carried out in the past, this is the difference between the air and the land, when the infantry on land attacks, they will see the enemy with their own eyes, and see with their own eyes how the enemy is killed, while the bombers in the air are at an altitude of three thousand meters, drop the bomb, and then fly away, at most they only see puffs of black smoke rising from the ground, as for the casualties on the ground, they can not see it, and they don't care.

In his opinion, there is no more suitable opponent than Turkey, the whole of Turkey is only a little more than 100 planes, the old German-made and Chinese-made planes, will not pose any threat to bombers, with such an opponent to improve the theory and tactics of strategic bombing, can minimize casualties.

“…… Carrying out a strategic air offensive advocated by His Majesty, with the aim of destroying the opponent's will to resist, continuously bombing the opponent's political, economic, and military targets, forcing the opponent to give up resistance and make concessions under the weight of unbearable human and material losses. ”

Inside the Expeditionary Force Headquarters, Xu Huansheng pointed to the map on the wall and reported to the staff officers of the Expeditionary Force Headquarters.

"Baghdad is our first target, Baghdad is the largest city of the Turks in the Near East, and it is also the capital of Baghdad province, according to the preliminary plan, in the next month, we will carry out ten bombings of Baghdad, dropping a total of 300 tons of bombs, through bombing, to create psychological pressure on the defenders of Baghdad, to create conditions for the army to attack, and in future operations......"

A few points on the map of his fingers, Xu Huan rose to the point that he had a feeling of pointing out the country.

"As the army advances deep into Turkey, the bombing targets of the air force will continue to expand within a radius of 1,200 kilometers or even 1,500 kilometers, and if all the 320 "elephant" bombers in the country are transferred to the near east, then a devastating blow can be inflicted on a city with a single bombing, and no city can withstand the bombardment of hundreds or thousands of tons of bombs! ”

While he was making his report, the staff officers of the Expeditionary Force Command were constantly pondering the possibility of strategic bombing.

"Bombing and bombing, is there no distinction between military and civilian targets, so have you considered political factors? Did you take into account that such bombing could cause protests in other countries! ”

Faced with a staff officer's question, Xu Huansheng immediately retorted.

"All a soldier needs to think about is shengli! As for the protests of other countries, that's something for diplomats to think about! Sir! ”

"Hmmm......"

As the commander of the expeditionary force, Duan Qirui groaned and was silent for a minute before he said slowly.

"Give it a try!"

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