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Norfolk Naval Base is the largest naval base in the continental United States, providing anchorage, maintenance and replenishment for the main fleet of the United States Navy, and is also a comprehensive military base with runways, aprons and hangars for a large air base. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The site covers 6 kilometres of waterfront and 11 kilometres of jetty and shore-along piers on the peninsula known as Hewell's Headlands at Hampton Roads. It is also the largest naval base in the world, as it can provide the U.S. Navy with 375 warships docked at 54 docks and 3,200 fighter jets parked in 411 aircraft hangars. At the same time, there are 21 fortress battery groups built on its coast, with 433 fortress guns, guarding the entire naval base and Washington, D.C., the deepest part of the bay.

The Imperial Chinese Navy tried to get close to Norfolk, but the US military had already taken precautions, and a large number of mines were placed in the nearby shallow sea area, and a large number of US submarines and destroyers patrolled, making it difficult for the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy to get close to attack the US military base.

Only combat aircraft can strike at the Norfolk base, and after the Chinese Emperor regained the Bermuda base, the runway of the St. David's air base was being repaired, and it was impossible to take off and land the air force's heavy bombers in a short time. Therefore, the task of attacking the Norfolk naval base fell on naval aviation.

Beginning on July 2, the Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force flew about 4,000 fighter and bomber sorties a day, taking off from 36 aircraft carriers to attack the Norfolk Naval Base.

The U.S. military is also prepared. U.S. combat planes taking off from Curtis Air Force Base intercepted a group of carrier-based fighters and bombers of the Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force, and a fierce air battle broke out between the two sides.

The Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force used the most advanced Thunderbolt fighters and Hellfire fighters, and after a series of air battles with the Chinese Empire, the US Air Force found that the Camel fighters, F1 fighters, Newbot 17, and HP-12 fighters in service were not the opponents of the Thunderbolt fighters and Hellfire fighters of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, and the US Air Force suffered heavy losses in every air battle.

To this end, the U.S. Aviation Commission called on the people to vigorously develop new fighters that could compete with the Thunderbolt and Hellfire of the Imperial Chinese Air Force, and spared no expense to achieve this.

Curtiss and Boyin, the two largest airlines in the United States, have made progress, of which Curtis, as the earliest airline, has extensive ties with the United States, and has received $4 million in research and development funds, and BO has received $1.5 million.

Curtiss conducted research on combat aircraft in the European theater and the Americas, and finally successfully flew the NC-4 fighter in early June 1917. This fighter still can't get rid of imitation and copycats, mainly referring to the cat demon fighter of the Chinese Empire, and has been maximized in xing energy, surpassing the cat demon type and approaching the thunderbolt type.

It adopts fixed landing gear, semi-metal structure. The top speed reached 220 km/h, second only to the thunderbolt's speed of 250 km/h. Since the U.S. Air Force does not have the concept of wind tunnel testing, it can only rely on the data of the Thunderbolt fighter of the Chinese Imperial Air Force provided by the front-line pilots, and the aircraft designers on the ground constantly observe the Xing energy of the Thunderbolt fighter, and finally combined with the limited intelligence provided by the US military's intelligence department, comprehensively estimate the Xing energy parameters of the Thunderbolt fighter, and then develop the NC-4 fighter for Xing.

In terms of armament, due to the heavy losses of the US combat planes in the past, the US pilots complained that the planes of the Imperial Chinese Air Force were so fast that they were killed before they could even detect the other side. At the same time, the fighter planes of the Chinese Empire had a very high ceiling, always occupying the commanding heights of air combat, and they were coldly diving down from a high altitude, and the US pilots had no time to react.

In response to this weakness, Curtis maximized the ceiling of the NC-4 fighter so that it could climb to an altitude of 4,000 meters, offsetting the commanding height advantage of the Thunderbolt fighter.

However, Curtis's aircraft manufacturing technology was not strong enough, and it lagged behind the airlines of the Chinese Empire. In order to increase speed and climb altitude, Curtis had to reduce the bomb load and range of the NC-4 fighter in exchange for speed and climb altitude.

For this, the NC-4 fighter sacrificed part of its firepower and payload. Compared with the meter-heavy machine gun of the Thunderbolt fighter, the NC-4 is still a one-millimeter machine gun, and its firepower is significantly weaker. In order to climb to a height that can compete with the Thunderbolt fighter, a lot of protection and payload were sacrificed, so that its bomb reserve and fuel carrying capacity were far inferior to the Thunderbolt fighter, and it could only fight at medium and close ranges.

However, for the U.S. Air Force, which has been defeated repeatedly, the emergence of the NC-4 fighter gives the U.S. Air Force the ability to counter the Thunderbolt fighter of the Imperial Chinese Air Force for the first time.

To this end, the US Air Force, after learning of the successful test flight of the aircraft, immediately issued an order for 2,000 aircraft, which was required to be completed within three months.

But apparently this is an impossible task. Curtis had only completed the production of 40 NC-4 fighters at the end of June, and the cost of a single aircraft was very expensive, exceeding the manufacturing cost of the Thunderbolt fighter jet to $350,000. In comparison, the cost of the Thunderbolt fighter of the Chinese Empire reached 330,000 dragon coins at the beginning of trial production, but with the thorn of the war against the United States, after the loss of a large number of cat demon fighters, the Chinese Empire produced Thunderbolt fighters on a large scale, making the production cost of the Thunderbolt fighter reduced to 120,000 dragon coins. Moreover, in terms of production capacity, more than 100 airlines of the Chinese Empire can provide 1,000 Thunderbolt fighters for the Chinese Imperial Air Force every month.

It can be said that when the United States developed a new fighter that could compete with the Thunderbolt fighter, the Chinese Empire had already realized the industrial mass production of the Thunderbolt fighter. And the war is about attrition, and the US Air Force is still in a passive state.

Again, this happened to another American airline, Bo Yin.

As early as 1916, Boyne Airlines developed the Thomas ? The Thomas-Morse MB-3 fighter, which was developed for the European theater of war and was produced for the Luftwaffe's Fokker fighters. However, the speed of replacement of fighters on the European battlefield is too fast, and basically a new fighter or improved model will leave the factory every month, so the research and development of MB series fighters by BO Yin has never been able to meet the requirements of the European Air Force and has been repeatedly postponed.

It was not until after the outbreak of the Sino-American War that the U.S. Air Force felt that the gap with the Chinese Imperial Air Force was too large, and in order to avoid being slaughtered by one side, the U.S. Air Force asked Bo Yin to compete with Curtis to develop more advanced fighters.

Bo Yin then made a number of improvements to the MB-3, and finally completed the test flight of the MB-3A fighter in May 1917.

The MB-3A fighter is designed for the Cat Demon fighter of the Imperial Chinese Air Force, absorbing the all-metal structure and streamlined design of the Thunderbolt fighter, and surpassing the Camel, Newbot, F1 and other fighters in service in the US military, and is listed as a key research and development project by the US military.

The aircraft redesigned the tail wing surface, modified the radiator, and replaced the original wooden structure with a welded steel pipe structure. It is worth noting that the Bo Yin company is gradually on the right track with the good reputation of the MB-3A, and this fighter is actually Bo Yin with commercial spies from Thomas? Morse obtained, but the latter quickly lost the patent for this fighter and was forgotten by the Americans.

Due to the fact that the Imperial Chinese Air Force came out of the Thunderbolt fighter, there was a more powerful Hellfire fighter that was called a perverted Hellfire fighter by the U.S. military, Bo Yin's next fighter plan took Hellfire as the goal, but because he could not obtain the xing energy parameters of the Hellfire fighter, he only relied on the oral description of a U.S. pilot who escaped from the Hellfire butcher's knife by luck, knowing that the Hellfire fighter had a perverted meter-heavy machine gun and airborne rocket weapons, as well as far exceeding the speed and climb height of the Thunderbolt fighter. The company developed 15 fighters for this purpose, but only the last Boyin 15 fighter was closer to Hellfire in appearance and weapons.

The Bo Yin 15 fighter jet uses a steel tube skeleton fuselage with wooden wings, and is equipped with a 535 hp Curtiss D-12 liquid-cooled engine, which reaches a staggering 270 kilometers per hour. However, the true speed of the Hellfire fighter of 380 kilometers per hour was not guessed by the US military, so the speed of the Boyin 15 fighter still could not compete with the Hellfire.

Also in terms of the effective ceiling, because the US planes could not reach the 6000-meter ceiling altitude of the Hellfire, the 5000-meter ceiling dictated by the US pilots alone made the BO Yin designers limit the BO Yin 15 fighter to 5000 meters, and when it came to the real air battle, it was still impossible to seize the commanding heights.

In terms of firepower, the Boyin 1 machine gun was also no match for the Hellfire fighter. Moreover, the Boyin 15 does not have a rocket device, and in order to increase speed and altitude, like the NC-4 fighter, it sacrifices payload and range, and can only fight within a range of 200 kilometers, which is more than a notch lower than the 1200 km range of the Hellfire.

Of course, the purpose of Bo Yin's development of the aircraft was not really to compete with the Hellfire fighter, but to compete with Curtis for the market, purely for profit. It can be said that the BO Yin 15 was developed to cater to the mentality of the US Air Force, and was developed in order to monopolize the aircraft orders of the US Air Force.

The U.S. Air Force signed an agreement with Bo Yin to produce 3,000 Bo Yin 15 aircraft, which were named PW-9 (PursuitWater-Cooledde Dead GN9), and the U.S. Navy also purchased 1,140 aircraft under the code name FB-1 (F: Fighter, B: Boeing). But the size of the Bo sound company is too small to provide so many fighters in a short time. Moreover, the cost of the Boyin 15 fighter is also more than 380,000 US dollars, and the production cost of the Hellfire fighter has been reduced to dragon coins, and industrial mass production has been achieved.

By the beginning of July 1917, the U.S. military had only 40 NC-4 fighters and 52 Boyin-15 fighters, while the Chinese Empire had 3,000 Thunderbolt fighters and 1,500 Hellfire fighters.

However, the US military is glad that the Chinese Emperor has not yet repaired the air base in Bermuda, and a large number of advanced combat aircraft cannot be transferred to the Bermuda base, and the naval aviation has a small number of Thunderbolt fighters and Hellfire fighters, and most of them are still the main Cat Demon carrier-based aircraft.

The only concern of the US Air Force is the carrier-based aircraft of aircraft carrier fighters from the Chinese Empire, and the threat to the Norfolk base from 2100 fighters and 200 bombers is huge, so the US Air Force's primary target is also locked on the aircraft carrier battle group of the Chinese Imperial Navy.

When the attack aircraft group of the Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force went to Norfolk to bomb the US military base, the US Air Force also dispatched more than 2,000 combat aircraft to intercept it. At the same time, U.S. Navy submarines and reconnaissance aircraft also quickly searched for the location of the Chinese Empire's aircraft carrier battle group.

At about 10 a.m. on 2 July, when the Imperial Chinese Naval Air Force was engaged in a battle with the US Air Force over Norfolk, a submarine and a reconnaissance plane of the US Navy discovered the location of the Third Aircraft Carrier Battle Group of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, the US Air Force Commission issued an order to attack the aircraft carrier battle group of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and 800 Handley O400 bombers that took off from more than a dozen airfields on the east coast of the United States, escorted by 400 fighters, pounced on the Third Carrier Battle Group of the Imperial Chinese Navy 200 nautical miles southeast of Norfolk.

On the Wudang Mountain, the flagship of the Third Aircraft Carrier Battle Group of the Imperial Chinese Navy, Commander Vice Admiral Zeng Jitang and Chief of Staff Major General Cao Zukun were patrolling the deck.

At this time, there were less than 10 fighters left on the huge deck of the Wudangshan aircraft carrier as the air defense of the fleet, and it appeared empty on the flight deck, which was the size of three football fields.

Zeng Jitang looked at the busy sailors on the deck and said: "If the war continues like this, I don't think there will be any suspense, and in less than a month, we can go home to celebrate." ”

Cao Zukun nodded and said, "Yes! I didn't expect that the U.S. Navy's usual clamor for a decisive battle with us caused us to worry about it for a long time, but when we were ready, they hid and did not dare to fight us, and gave us the right to control the sea in vain. I think the General Staff should soon work out a plan for attacking Washington. ”

Zeng Jitang said: "Then we have to wait until Norfolk is defeated, and the door to Washington is opened, and the Americans may take the initiative to surrender." ”

After saying that, the two laughed.

At this moment, suddenly a communications staff officer hurriedly came to report, "Report to the commander, chief of staff, and No. 3 alert ship to report that a large number of aircraft have been found approaching in the southwest direction, less than 100 kilometers away from us." ”

Zeng Jitang asked, "Is it our plane?" ”

The communications staff officer replied: "The communication could not be connected, and the alert ship said that the aircraft group was above the clouds and could not distinguish between friend and foe. ”

Cao Zukun looked at the time and said, "At this time, our plane is almost back." ”

Zeng Jitang looked at the clouds in the sky and said: "We are outside the attack radius of the US military planes, and intelligence shows that the US military planes have limited climbing, and the clouds are very high today, so it should not be an enemy plane." Perhaps the radio system of the leader captain was broken during the battle, try to contact it again and order the alert plane to check it out. ”

"Yes!" The communications staff officer received the order.

At 12:17 p.m., an air alert reconnaissance plane of the Third Aircraft Carrier Battle Group went to reconnoitre, but the US military had already taken precautions and sent several advanced Boyin-15 fighters to intercept it in advance and shoot it down before the reconnaissance plane raised the alarm.

At half past twelve, the US attack aircraft group was less than 50 kilometers away from the third aircraft carrier battle group of the Chinese Empire. At this time, the US escort fighters had reached their maximum range and returned home from the bomber group. 800 US bombers changed to 4 attack bombers, successively lowered their altitude, and prepared to attack.

At this time, the US bomber group had already broken through the two fleets' air defense identification circles of the Third Aircraft Carrier Battle Group, and the Imperial Chinese Navy thought that it was its own plane returning home, so it did not carry out the attack, and at the same time, the altitude of the US bomber group exceeded the fire height of the fleet's anti-aircraft fire network.

At 12:45 p.m., when the 200 bomber group of the first US bomber descended below the clouds, it was discovered by two Aegis air defense cruisers of the third air defense identification circle of the Chinese Empire.

"It's an enemy plane!"

"Battle Alert!"

The rapid siren sounded, and the officers and men of the Chinese Empire in the entire Third Aircraft Carrier Battle Group were immediately shocked.

When it was too late, the two Aegis air defense cruisers quickly opened fire, and the air defense battle began. Subsequently, light cruisers and destroyers in the vicinity of the 3rd Carrier Fighter Group also opened fire.

"Knock knock!"

Dense shells shot into the air, temporarily releasing huge plumes of smoke.

The direction of the US bomber group remained unchanged, and it continued to approach the aircraft carrier battle group of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and from time to time bombers were hit by shells and fell into the sea with a roar.

"Damn it! It's a bomber! ”

On the bridge, Zeng Jitang had clearly seen the status of enemy planes in the air through the telescope.

The chief of staff said: "About 200 or so!" No, there is a batch later! No, no, no! My God, there are four batches of them, no less than seven or eight hundred! There are no escort fighters! ”

Zeng Jitang and Cao Zukun glanced at each other, and suddenly gasped and broke out in a cold sweat.

"When did the US military have so many bombers? Judging by its size, it seems that it is about to catch up with our bombers. ”

In the midst of suspicion, 10 alert fighters on the Wudangshan aircraft carrier took off urgently to intercept the US bomber group, and 40 fighters also took off from the other eight escort aircraft carriers.

Fifty fighters quickly rushed into the US bomber group and fired at the US bombers, shooting down more than a dozen US bombers at once, but they still could not stop the course and speed of the US bomber group.

The purpose of the US bomber group was very clear, that is, to go straight to the aircraft carriers of the Chinese Empire at any cost.

"Commander, hurry up and give the order to turn around and leave, right? I am afraid that our anti-aircraft fire will not be able to withstand the attack of so many US bombers. ”

Zeng Jitang shook his head and said: "Our plane is also coming back soon, at this time, we change course and leave here, won't it make hundreds of planes of our army die at the bottom of the sea?" ”

At 12:55 p.m., the US 1st BO bomber group approached the last cordon of the 3rd aircraft carrier battle group, and at this time, the US planes had dropped to an altitude of about 1,000 meters and began horizontal bombing.

At this time, a large number of anti-aircraft phalanx arrays on the six Aegis air defense cruisers of the Third Aircraft Carrier Battle Group of the Chinese Empire opened fire quickly, and in an instant, countless shells were fired at the enemy planes, and one US bomber after another was hit, caught fire, exploded, and fell into the sea.

The pilots of the American bombers in the air looked down and were immediately stunned. This was the first time they had seen such powerful anti-aircraft firepower, and the bombers around them were constantly hit, and the violent explosion caused the nearby bombers to be swayed by the impact of the air waves, and the US pilots suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and many novices were already scared to pee.

Only 47 of the first BO200 bombers of the US army broke through the anti-aircraft fire network of the Imperial Chinese Navy, flew over the aircraft carrier, and began to drop bombs.

"Babble~Babble~Babble~"

With a sharp whistle, the US aerial bombs surrendered to the aircraft carrier of the Imperial Chinese Navy on the sea. Due to the late establishment of the US Air Force bomber group, they had not yet learned the dive bombing tactics of the Chinese Imperial Air Force bomber group, and the hit rate of horizontal bombing was very low.

Despite this, quite a few aerial bombs hit the aircraft carriers of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At 12:58 p.m., five aerial bombs were hit on the deck of the Wushan aircraft carrier, and three openings more than six meters wide were torn open on the deck, and flames and smoke erupted from the gap, and the fire was delayed, and dozens of officers and men of the Imperial Chinese Navy were killed.

At 59 minutes, two aerial bombs were hit on the island of the Laoshan aircraft carrier, and because it was a modified aircraft carrier, the island was very small, and after the two bombs exploded, the entire island was immediately flattened, and hundreds of people were killed or wounded.

At one o'clock, the US 1st BO bomber group completed the bomb drop, losing 182 bombers, and only 8 bombers rushed to a high altitude after completing the bomb drop.

At one point and four minutes, the second BO US bomber group also broke through the anti-aircraft fire network of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and this time 70 US bombers survived and dropped more than 400 aerial bombs.

The flagship Wudangshan became a key target, and the US Air Force saw such a large aircraft carrier for the first time, which was three times larger than the US-built Hornet, which shocked the US pilots and vowed to sink the aircraft carrier