At the beginning of October, the rainy season in Ceylon had passed, and the time had come for Li Guang's major counteroffensive, and the fighting between the Naval Resistance Army and the Japanese army quickly heated up.

Lieutenant General Tanaka Kuichi of the Japanese army has more than 30,000 troops. It has jurisdiction over the 21st Division, the 21st Independent Mixed Brigade, the 34th Independent Mixed Brigade, and the 70th Independent Mixed Brigade. The attached configuration is one field artillery wing, one army aviation team, and one tank brigade. The supplies and ammunition that have just been replenished are also quite sufficient.

Although there are a large number of recruits in the two main formations of the Japanese army. The other two separate mixed brigades were also not a strong field formation. Tanaka Kuichi was quite dissatisfied with his boss's assignment of troops, but with more than 30,000 troops, Tanaka Kuichi did not think that the opponent in front of him could withstand the attack of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Faced with the Cutler Mountains, which were not dangerous and did not have much depth, Kuichi Tanaka used all his strength, and in the rainy season, which lasted for nearly a month, Kuichi Tanaka was fully prepared. Almost all of the experience accumulated by the Japanese army in the decades of war was used by Tanaka Kuichi. In terms of tackling tough battles, the little devil still has a few brushes, and he has fought a lot of tough battles over the years, and he is not lacking in experience. Lieutenant General Kuichi Tanaka has full confidence in this.

But the pace of the battle was unexpected from the start.

As far as the Japanese army is concerned, it is a very extravagant act to normally allocate a front army to a flying division. For Tanaka Kuichi, the 38th Army, he was assigned a flying team with more than 30 aircraft, which was not a bad configuration in the Japanese Army.

In the past month or so, battles have occurred from time to time between the Japanese air force and the army air force of the Naval Resistance Army. However, due to the unpredictable weather in the rainy season, neither side was able to achieve a decisive victory.

In Li Guang's military thinking, air supremacy comes first in both naval and land warfare. Therefore, the air power of the devils is a crucial move in the counteroffensive of the naval resistance army. The Air Force General Staff, under the leadership of Chief of Staff Yuan Yin, began to develop plans.

To take out the devil's air power. The best plan is to attack the Japanese airfield and destroy the Japanese fighters on the airfield. However, after the September battle, the Air Force Staff found that the little devil was better than the monkey and had complete vigilance methods. In several sneak attacks on the airport, neither the ground special squad nor the air fighters were able to achieve their goals.

Ground operations have failed several times, but it is understandable. The Japanese army deployed a large number of troops around the Trincomalee airport, and the special forces were not immortals and difficult to penetrate.

But a sneak attack from the air. Every time it was discovered by the Japanese army, this was extremely abnormal. Later, the wireless detector of the Maritime Resistance Army was put into use, and it was discovered that the little devil had deployed an air defense radar in Trincomalee.

In World War II, the Japanese Army was inferior in equipment to the Navy. But not every piece of equipment is outdated. In 42, the Japanese army was equipped with more advanced air defense radars than the navy. But. The Japanese Navy and the Army are in turmoil over resources. Even radar equipment was not developed jointly, but independently. But the anti-aircraft radar used by Kuichi Tanaka was not made in Japan.

This electric scout (the Japanese name for radar) was a secret weapon obtained by the Japanese army in Ceylon at the strong request of Kuichi Tanaka. In the early days of the war, when the Japanese occupied Singapore, they captured the British anti-aircraft radar, which is now being repaired. Was sent to Ceylon. Its performance seems to be good, with a peak power of 10-50kw, a pulse repetition rate of 500-1000MHz, and a maximum range of 100 km. But in reality, the sensitivity is not high. The effective distance is only more than 40 kilometers.

However, Ceylon itself is not large, and the ground observation post and the detection range of more than 40 kilometers from the Japanese air defense radar are enough for the Japanese army to have enough time to give warning. Originally, the little devil's radar performance was inferior, and it was not effective from time to time, but what made the naval resistance army depressed was that the army aviation was discovered by the Japanese radar several times.

To destroy the air power of the Japanese army, there is actually no other way than a sneak attack, such as a war of attrition.

In October 1942, the Navy purchased only a batch of American fighters in the past 10 months, a large number of them, but they were all old-fashioned torpedo planes with inferior performance. And the P40 fighters ordered as early as the beginning of the year, the delivery time is far away. As for other advanced fighters, the United States has not even accepted orders, and there is no hope in sight.

In the Naval Resistance Force, the three air forces of the Air Force, the Navy, and the Army Aviation, among which the weakest army aviation is even more unable to consume.

Tu Yuanchao became the captain of the army aviation brigade, and the establishment of the brigade (regimental level) was considered a promotion, but there were only a dozen fighters and not a single bomber. Originally, there were two dreadnought dive bombers in Tang Port, but due to the lack of carrier-based aircraft on the naval side, they were also transferred out of Tang Port.

Li Guang agreed, and allocated a large number of American-made torpedo planes to the army air force to use as bombers. However, these torpedo machines have just begun to be installed and trained in Madagascar.

You must know that these torpedo pilots are all rookies among the pilots of the Naval Resistance Army, and they are rookies among rookies, and it is difficult to even complete basic take-off and landing, let alone send them to the battlefield to confront the Japanese fighters.

Therefore, Tu is far more than can not afford to consume.

Therefore, as soon as the war on Datang Island ended, the air force led by Liu Guobang was transferred to India.

On October 4, Kuichi Tanaka, who had been preparing for a month's offensive battle, launched in front of Cutler Hill. This time, Kuichi Tanaka had enough strength to take Cutler Hill in one battle. He knew that once the Cutler Hill was crossed, it would be flat land, and the Naval Resistance Army would no longer have favorable terrain to rely on.

In fact, this was completely wishful thinking on the part of Tanaka Kuichi, who had already laid a strong line of defense in the limited passage between the large lake area and the swamp, south of Cutler Hill. Even if Cutler Hill was lost, the Japanese army would not want to go straight to Tang Harbor.

As an important part of the Japanese army's offensive methods, the Japanese army's artillery preparations had just ended, and the Japanese fighters poured out, and more than 30 fighters of various kinds appeared over the battlefield almost at the same time.

The Naval Resistance Army did not have a radar, but it had a radio detector, and the Japanese telegram had just begun to dense in the early morning, and Tu Yuanchao had already led the fighter to take off.

As soon as the devil group arrived at the battlefield, before they could drop bombs, they were ambushed by the army aviation of the Naval Resistance Army, which had been in ambush for a long time in the air. Hit a surprise attack.

Under the leadership of Tu Yuanchao, the captain of the army aviation brigade, more than a dozen P40s of the Naval Resistance Army suddenly swooped down.

In just one round, the Japanese were shot down seven planes, and none of the fighters of the Naval Resistance Army were lost.

The tactics of the Naval Resistance Army are not unusual, they have always been hit-and-run. Based on battlefield experience, the devil pilots will definitely pursue. Although the firepower of the Japanese army's one-type land attack was weak, its flexibility and speed were not much worse than those of the Zero fighters, and the pilots of the naval resistance army adopted the tactics of hitting and running, and the most dangerous stage after the attack was to break away from the Japanese aircraft group.

At this time, a strange phenomenon occurred. Tu Yuanchao and other pilots got rid of the pursuit of Japanese fighters and the process went very smoothly.

Tu far beyond discovery. This group of devil pilots was very strange, suffered such a big loss, and only pursued for a few minutes before turning around and retreating.

Such a good-tempered devil, Tu Yuanchao is the first time he has met him. However, there is a cheap and not a bastard. Besides, his mission is not yet complete.

Army pilots formed a little in the air. The group quietly flew back to the battlefield again.

The battle is still the same as before. It was only when the Japanese were prepared that only three Japanese planes were shot down.

It was too easy to get rid of the tracking of Japanese fighters.

Tu Yuanchao was extremely puzzled, he really couldn't figure out what was going on, and even suspected that the devil had some big conspiracy. He was even eager to try, and the fighter plane returned again and attacked again.

But. The Army Aviation of the Naval Resistance Army had completed its mission, and for fear of affecting the overall battle plan, Tu Yuanchao returned with questions.

Later, the Naval Resistance Army captured a Japanese army pilot. Only then did I understand the reason for the devil's abnormality -- the pilots of the Japanese army aviation were afraid of flying over the sea.

There were relatively more battles between the pilots of the Naval Resistance Army and the pilots of the Japanese Navy. During this period, the flying skills of Japanese naval pilots were quite good, but the army aviation was far behind. Not only are the fighters of the Japanese Army Aviation inferior to the Zero fighters of the Japanese Navy, but the training of pilots is also far inferior.

One of the most obvious phenomena was that the pilots of the Japanese army aviation simply did not dare to fly over the sea.

In the vast sea, even on a sunny day, it is quite difficult for pilots. The sky is blue, the sea is blue, and the place where the sea meets the sky is often blurred by fog, so much so that pilots will find themselves covered in blue on all sides.

In flight of airplanes, there is a phenomenon. Anyone who has ever driven a car knows that even if the steering wheel doesn't turn at all, the car will not be able to move in a straight line due to worn tires or under-inflated tires, or other reasons.

The same is true for fighter planes in flight, and the direction of flight often changes unconsciously, and in this case, it is normal for many people who cannot distinguish between the sky and the sea and cannot figure out the direction. And once you admit that you are wrong, you will run out of fuel and fall into the sea and die in the belly of a fish.

Flying on land is relatively easy to navigate, as there are countless landmarks on the ground that can be used as a reference for flying, such as mountains, rivers, villages, railways, roads, towns, etc. And what about flying at sea? There are no signs. The only means of navigation is to measure latitude and longitude with a sextant. To say that the use of a sextant is not complicated, but the devil army aviation does not have this course at all.

Since the Japanese land-based air force arrived in the South Seas to fight, it has been lost at sea, and crashes have abounded. Therefore, the Japanese land-based air force simply did not fly to sea, and as for bombing sea targets, they would not drop bombs when they saw it. Because they have not been trained at all to bomb moving targets at sea, and throwing them is also in vain.

Over time, the Japanese army aviation was frightened by the sea, and it was extremely foolish to refuse to learn the sextant as a means to avoid carrying out combat missions at sea.

Devils are strange and have a very strange way of thinking.

On the other hand, almost all of the pilots of the Maritime Resistance Army were born on Stone Statue Island. On the small stone statue island, as long as the fighter plane takes off, it is on the sea, and the pilots are all familiar with the environment of flying at sea. Moreover, whether pilots of the Navy Resistance Army, whether in the navy, the army, or the air force, the use of the sextant is a compulsory course. In addition, the Maritime Resistance Army built a navigation system early, and with the development of technology, the originally huge Yagi antenna has become quite compact, and the Maritime Resistance Army is now not only a transport aircraft, a reconnaissance aircraft, but even a fighter plane is also equipped with a navigation system. Therefore, the pilots of the Naval Resistance Army, who regarded it as a common sense flight, were regarded as a daunting path in the land-based aviation of the Japanese army.

Tu Yuanchao led the group to break away, just in the direction of the sea, and it is not surprising that the Japanese group gave up the pursuit.

The Japanese air force returned dejectedly, and after the plane landed, it was as usual to refuel and hang up bombs. At this moment, the air defense siren sounded again poignantly. There was chaos at the airfield, and the Japanese air force rushed to the planes in a vain attempt to take off again. But it was too late.

The air force unit led by Liu Guobang has reached the sky above the Japanese airfield. The little devil was caught off guard and immediately hit.

If Kuichi Tanaka had known the details of the Battle of Midway, he would have found that this was simply a replica of the Battle of Midway.

The Army Aviation fighters led by Tu Yuanchao actually played the role of US fighters that took off from Midway Island. Two sneak attacks entangled the Japanese aircraft group.

When the Japanese aircraft group landed and refueled and hung up bombs, the aircraft group led by Liu Guobang of the Naval Resistance Air Force played the role of taking off fighters from the aircraft carrier of the US-Tang coalition.

In this gap, what can the Japanese army do even if it has radar. It was impossible for the Japanese fighters who were refueling and hanging bombs to take off immediately, and they could only be completely destroyed.

On the ground, the Japanese fighters had not yet started, and the devils had already seen a scene that made them desperate.

Twelve B17 bombers rained down bombs from high altitudes. The cluster bombs of the Maritime Resistance Force, after being upgraded again and again, are no longer in their original primary state. The huge ammunition bay of the B17 bomber, which released twelve cluster bombs at once. These huge bombs fell rapidly below the kilometer, and with a gentle explosion, the wooden shells cracked, and hundreds of small shells were unleashed.

In less than five minutes, 60 or 70 tons of bombs flew down from the sky like a waterfall, and within a radius of several kilometers they were blown up like a doomsday hell, and a Japanese flying team was reimbursed. And as the focus of the bombing, the Japanese radar was also blown into a pile of scrap metal.

In this battle, the Maritime Resistance Army completely annihilated a Japanese flying team with zero casualties, and on the island of Ceylon, the Maritime Resistance Army completely controlled the air supremacy.

Yuan Yin, chief of staff of the Air Force of the General Staff of the Naval Resistance Army, once again shined, and this battle was a battle in which Yuan Yin learned from the experience of the naval battle of Midway and was strictly deployed and commanded.

In the course of long-term battles, the generals of the Naval Resistance Army have increasingly discovered that stratagem is important on the battlefield, but in modern warfare, organizational ability is even more important. The plan of this battle is not a big deal, but it is just a sneak attack that is not uncommon on the battlefield. However, the two air forces in two separate places were able to cooperate so closely, and the timing was accurate, and they won a complete victory with the opponent's advanced technological means. In fact, it is not easy to do this, and the most important thing is the ability of the Naval Resistance Force to organize the battle. Before the war, Yuan Yin, chief of staff of the Air Force, led a group of staff officers, and many deductions were indispensable. The Navy's electronic reconnaissance capability and grasp of meteorological reconnaissance have matured.

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From this day, Lieutenant General Tanaka Kuichi, commander of the 38th Army of the Japanese Army, felt that the battle was becoming more and more awkward, and the Japanese army, which had superior forces, could not grasp the rhythm of the war at all. (Asking for tickets) (To be continued......)

PS: Thanks to snce18012 for the tip.