Whether it was the First Sino-Japanese War or the Russo-Japanese War, at that time, either there were no airplanes, or airplanes had not been used on a large scale in military affairs

As a result, the Japanese army's field air defense capability was very poor, and each division was equipped with only two or three antiaircraft artillery squadrons, whose task was mainly to defend the airfields of the army aviation units and large-scale distribution centers for military supplies, and could not help the air defense of the ground forces

Of course, if the ground forces of the Japanese army are willing, they can also use heavy machine guns for both flat and high purposes to shoot at the air, but the heavy machine guns of the Japanese army are all small-caliber, and they can barely deal with ordinary aircraft, but it is too much worse to deal with aircraft with protective armor like Qianger

The Japanese army's anti-air firing made the armor of the strong two who dive and bomb strafe clang, but it had no effect at all, and those strong two who were rampage on the head of the Japanese army did not even bother to pay attention to the Japanese soldiers who fired at the air, they only dropped their bombs in the areas where the Japanese army was concentrated and the Japanese artillery positions were occasionally annoyed, and only then did they use the two heavy machine guns in their noses to shoot at the Japanese troops who were shooting on the ground

The follow-up attack units of the Japanese army were quickly scattered in all directions, and they all dodged the Japanese troops who were frantically attacking the positions of the 88th Division

As the sky became brighter and brighter, these rough-skinned and thick-skinned strong two became more active, not only bombarding the Japanese artillery positions and large groups of Japanese troops who had almost no shelter measures, but even enthusiastically "caring" for the Japanese troops in groups of 35

Matsuki Mashiro was annoyed and helpless at the Chinese planes that flaunted his might, so he had no choice but to order the 28th Brigade to suspend the attack, and then, while calling Shirakawa, reporting the situation, and requesting air support, he sent a telegram to Atsuichiro Atsuto, asking the 11th Division to organize troops as soon as possible and coordinate actions with the 14th Division, so as to achieve the effect of internal and external attacks

After receiving Matsuki's telegram, Shirakawa was very anxious, he knew that the 11th Division stayed in the encirclement for a few more moments, and the more dangerous it was, the reason why the Chinese army had now suspended the oppressive attack on the 11th Division was because the Chinese also needed to make some adjustments to the troops besieging the 11th Division, and they also needed to take a breath and rest their feet, so that they could next strike more fiercely at the 11th Division

Although the losses of the 14th Division in the air raid by the Chinese have not yet been reported, yesterday afternoon in Loutang, the 11th Division suffered heavy losses in the air raid, and the goal of encircling and annihilating the 517th Regiment of the 87th Division of the Fifth Army was not only not achieved, but also suffered hundreds of casualties

Today, without strong air support, the chances of successfully rescuing the 11th Division are very slim

Shirakawa personally approached Nomura, explained to Nomura the current dangerous situation of the 11th Division, and asked Nomura to immediately send a fleet of aircraft to provide air support for the 11th Division's breakthrough

Nomura was a little embarrassed by Shirakawa's request

At present, the fleet, consisting of three aircraft carriers and more than a dozen destroyers and cruisers, is on its way to Shanghai from the open sea, and in order to guard against the torpedo attack of Chinese warships at night, the aircraft carrier fleet must sail to the open sea before sunset every day, and then sail back to the vicinity of Shanghai after sunrise the next day, and then return to the vicinity of Shanghai to take off carrier-based aircraft to support the army's operations

It's just that in this way, there is a gap in the air support of the army every morning and evening, which is why Nomura transferred the carrier-based aircraft on the Kaga aircraft carrier to land

If, according to Shirakawa's order, the carrier-based aircraft are allowed to leave the ship and fly to the Shanghai battlefield now, the time on the road will take about an hour, that is to say, the time of these carrier-based aircraft in the sky over the battlefield will be shortened by one hour, and the impact on the airtime will be minimized, and the aircraft carrier fleet will only get as close to Shanghai as possible to shorten the time for the return of the aircraft carriers...,

There is a certain risk that the aircraft carrier will be bombed by Chinese planes when it is close to China's coast

Although Nomura believes that even if it is bombed by Chinese aircraft, the blow to his fleet will not be fatal with only those small bombs of the Chinese, and now the largest aerial bomb abroad weighs less than 500kg, weighs only half of the 203mm naval artillery shells, and cannot penetrate the deck of any of his warships, and now the biggest threat to his Third Fleet is the torpedoes of the Chinese Navy

Although the Chinese navy has always been friendly, Nomura knows that the top brass of the Chinese navy is under tremendous pressure from domestic public opinion, and he does not dare to guarantee these old Chinese warships and fight to the death against his fleet

In addition, if the fleet is really harassed by Chinese aircraft, although the warships are not afraid, the carrier-based aircraft parked on the aircraft carrier will not be able to withstand the attack

However, if Shirakawa's orders are not carried out, once the 11th Division is destroyed, Shirakawa will first shift the blame to the navy, and he will likely become a scapegoat

Nomura hesitated, but finally decided to carry out Shirakawa's orders

In view of the fact that the Chinese dispatched 36 fighters with advanced performance at one time, they sent too few fighters and would suffer a big loss, which has been proven in yesterday's air battle

Nomura still has 70 Nakajima fighters in his hands, and it is necessary to leave two squadrons of fighters to protect the aircraft carrier fleet, and at most 46 can be dispatched at a time, and the number of Chinese planes is not large, according to the pilots who participated in yesterday's air battle, the Chinese's aircraft are fast and flexible, and it is impossible to take advantage of anything without absolute numerical superiority, since the number of fighters is not enough, then he has to use the 13th type attack aircraft with a certain air combat capability to make up the number, and his attack aircraft still have 128, Although the ants are small, they will bite the elephant to death if there are too many

Nomura immediately sent a telegram to Masao Shibayama, the captain of the Akagi and acting commander of the Third Fleet, who was still at sea, and ordered the carrier-based planes to take off

On the battlefield south of Jiading, although the 14th Division had stopped attacking the positions of the 88th Division, dozens of planes of the Fourth Route Army did not stop bombing and strafing, and even the 36 fighters that had been hovering over their heads joined in, and the bombing and strafing area was also expanded from the 14th Division to the encircled 11th Division's bombing and strafing, which brought great difficulties to the 11th Division's mobilization of troops (to be continued)