"Where is it?"

"110 kilometers north of the Qatar peninsula, it's coming towards us."

Soon after the air raid siren sounded, Bai Chongxi rushed into battle in a military uniform. Li Mingrui pointed to the map to introduce the situation: "It was discovered by the navy's radar, and it should be that it wants to take advantage of the gap before dawn to sneak attack oil fields and airports." The Navy has gone up, and I have informed the Saudis that planes have been sent to protect Riyadh. ”

"What about domestic?"

"I've gone to telegraph."

"Hehe, it's really a soft pinch of persimmons, and we can't afford to consume it."

Although the military rank has not been taken a step forward, Bai Chongxi is still very happy to be officially the commander of the Persian Gulf Army, and at the same time feels a heavy pressure on his shoulders. In fact, the Afghan campaign has exposed all the weaknesses of the Soviet army after the Great Purge, and after Wu Peifu personally went to Afghanistan for a field investigation, he even said that the current Soviet army is not as effective as the tsarist army in the middle of the European war. This may be an exaggeration, but it's pretty much the same. If it weren't for the damned plateaus, mountains, and roads, if it weren't for Zhukov's initiative to shrink hundreds of thousands of troops, and the fact that the General Staff was not in a hurry to immediately solve Khan, but used the medium-intensity conflict to constantly rotate troops to exercise, I am afraid that the entire territory of Afghanistan would have been recovered long ago.

But Bai Chongxi and the staff of the Persian Gulf Army still didn't dare to take it lightly, because the reserves in their hands were seriously insufficient! In the whole of Arabia and even in the Persian Gulf, only Saudi Arabia and Iran have independent arsenals, but they can only produce light weapons and ammunition. Even though Saudi Arabia has built ammunition, vehicle and even aircraft assembly plants with the help of China, raw materials have been purchased from outside. So don't look at the fact that there are 2 armies, and the total strength has exceeded 200,000, but if you really fight a high-intensity offensive battle, this reserve can only last for three to four months. As for the Saudi army and the Iranian army on paper, Bai Chongxi didn't consider letting them fight at all, because he couldn't afford it.

Modern warfare is all about logistics, and tanks, planes, and artillery are shining. But without logistical support, it's dead. What's more, the Siwan Theater still needs to raise a detachment of fleets, and the pressure is even greater! Stalin saw this, so he first avoided a full-scale declaration of war and took the initiative to attack the Persian Gulf, taking advantage of the convenient Caucasus supply route to attack the Persian Gulf first. Of course, there are also reasons why Stalin is still not at ease with Europe. After all, the current German army is no longer the German army of the Sudetenland, with a total of 140 divisions and a large amount of motorized equipment, so that Hitler could easily send 50 more divisions to Poland. Therefore, before Germany fulfilled the agreement to carve up Poland and the Baltic Sea, Stalin would not be stupid enough to start an all-out war with China if he was angry.

Stalin's abacus rattled and rattled, but Bai Chongxi was very distressed. The quality of the German army is so good, and Poland, which is a second-rate player in Europe, has gathered 50 divisions. There are only 10 of them. No matter how powerful the strategic transport brigade is, it will replenish several hundred tons a day, even if there is no need to worry about the oil, if the 10 divisions move slightly, the warehouse will have to be deflated.

"Don't worry, Commander, the fleet to Italy is already on its way back." Li Mingrui knew his worries, and just wanted to persuade was interrupted by Bai Chongxi's wave of his hand. He is not a person who hesitates, no matter how short the supplies are, he can hold out for a while, and immediately picked up his hat: "I'll go to see the Saudi king, you are staring here." That's right. Tell Zhao Meihang that if you can, wait for the Soviet plane to return before fighting. ”

"Fight again?" Li Mingrui looked at Bai Chongxi's back, and after thinking about it, he understood.

When Bai Chongxi took the Yun-7 general liaison plane to Riyadh, the sea in the Persian Gulf was already noisy with cannons.

Soviet intelligence knew that China, the United States, and Britain were secretly developing radio detection devices. But I never got the information about the installation, so I didn't report it at all. Even when the 22 fleet arrived in the Persian Gulf, it was always assumed that the radar antenna was just some kind of communication antenna. So when the shells exploded around them, the Soviet bombers were suddenly stunned! "Leave. Get out of here! Yakovsky, the commander of the 19th Aviation Division of the Soviet Army, who flew the HE111 long plane, was gone. There was no moonlight tonight, and the group had been kept high in the air, so he had always thought that he would not be able to hear the sound of the motor until he was 30 kilometers closer to the coast. But he didn't expect that the group had not yet crossed the center line of the bay. The shells had already exploded in the swarm.

Without moonlight, the effectiveness of optical sights is greatly reduced, but the radar can clearly guide the direction and movement route, and guide the anti-aircraft artillery to fire at full speed. In the ammunition compartment under the turret, the loader constantly stuffs the shells into the grooves of the rotating cartridge, and when the 31-round disc is running at full speed, it takes only 100 seconds per revolution. "Bang bang." The self-loading 120 anti-aircraft guns fired fiercely, and nearly a thousand shells burned the sky red in less than two minutes.

Rumble!

A shell exploded next to Yakosky's plane, and the HE111, which was converted from a transport plane, was not as strong as a professional bomber, and shrapnel easily penetrated the cabin and cut off the bombardier's arm in half, and also tore a gap in the surface of the plane. The air currents caused the plane to jolt violently, but fortunately the shrapnel did not hit the bomb and fuel tank, and the German process ensured that the HE111 could still fly smoothly. HE111 can hold up, but TB3 can't. The wooden structure was already fragile, and it was an open flight capsule from the First World War, so in the face of shrapnel and steel balls after the shells exploded, two planes were immediately hit and planted downward.

"Get out of here, get out of here!" Yakoski was still shouting, waving vigorously to signal the chaotic group to the left and right. The appearance of the new division commander's deputy made the co-pilot next to him, who had just been released from the labor camp, sigh in his heart, took out a flare gun and handed it over: "Division commander, you should disperse the assault!" If we concentrate any more, we will all be shot down, let the fighters go against the warships and deflect the fire! ”

The co-pilot's shouting finally calmed down Yakosky, and immediately fired two flares, one red and one green. There was no way, most of the Soviet planes did not have radios, and they could only rely on the color of the flares in advance to command the aircraft group. However, the signal flare made it easier to locate the anti-aircraft gun below, so as soon as the window was closed, a HE111 next to it, which had only been in service for 22 days, was hit by a shell and the wing root was directly broken.

Three bombers were lost in less than four minutes, the Soviet pilots were so frightened that they hurriedly dispersed, and two novices had even begun to return home. However, Sun Hongyang, the commander of the Xiangjiang air defense below, was not very satisfied, and if it were not for the fact that the newly developed radio proximity bombs were not brought by the navy as a secret weapon against Japan, he would have been sure to knock down at least 10 of them.

"Enemy planes!"

With a shout, seven or eight escort I16 fighters appeared on the flanks of the fleet, and although the machine guns of the fighters could not damage the warship, the small bomblets could still cause some damage. Therefore, as soon as the plane appeared, the captain immediately ordered the Z-word evasion, and the 40 and 25 mm anti-aircraft guns, which were responsible for the air defense at close range, opened fire at full speed. After the warship maneuvered at high speed. The accuracy of the 120 anti-aircraft guns has dropped significantly, but at this time, the Soviet bomber formation is no longer large-scale, and the surprise attack of a single or multiple aircraft is not very harmful to the oil fields and refineries with tight anti-aircraft firepower, not to mention that the radar has already found its own fighter group, so after beating down two more, Sun Hongxiang focused his attention on the approaching fighters.

The i16 was fast and circled nimblely, but in the face of a hornet's nest-like small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, the inexperienced Soviet pilots simply did not know how to deal with it, and soon three more were shot down. The remaining planes fired a few shots indiscriminately and quickly fled the sea. But their attack helped the bombers break through the warship's anti-aircraft fire net.

Captain Yakoski breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the warship being thrown away, but the lack of radio left him unable to regroup, so he could only assemble the HE111 with radio, and let the rest go to the target on their own. Ten minutes later, when the first rays of light appeared in the east, the Soviet bombers finally saw the coastline. Seeing that there were no enemy aircraft in the sky, HE111 began to approach O'Gel.

As soon as they arrived over Port O'Gel, another burst of shells rushed up with more artillery than before. The HE111 that hit the head was shot down by the 85 anti-aircraft gun before it could react. Seeing that the enemy's anti-aircraft fire was ready, God knows whether it will be able to return safely if it continues deeper, and coupled with the worry of Chinese fighters, the Soviet bombers who are not pleasing to the enemy have no intention of going deeper. In addition, the group of aircraft has been dispersed by artillery fire. It could not form the kind of intensive bombing advantage used by the Chinese Air Force in Afghanistan and Sumatra, not to mention that the Soviet bombers had a very small bomb load for the sake of the range, and even the HE111 only carried 10 50-kilogram bombs, so Yakosky hurriedly issued the bomb dropping order.

After the bomb was dropped by a long machine. The rest of the bombers were also in a hurry to drop bombs. The 50-kilogram bomblets were not powerful enough, and they were dropped from an altitude of 5 kilometers, so most of them missed the target. Only a few hit the harbor and the city, and did not do much damage. The BF109 and I16, which followed the escort, had intended to strafe the warship, but after a dense burst of 40 and 25 mm shells swept in, they immediately pulled up and returned.

Yakovsky, who had completed the bombing mission, did not bother to see the results of the battle, and immediately accelerated towards the bay. A few minutes later, when the planes that bombed Dammam and Zahran returned, he found that only 46 of the 60 bombers and 33 fighters had left. But no matter what, the bombing mission was finally completed, so he finally put his mind at ease. As soon as he was about to give the order to return to the formation, he saw that his co-pilot was still looking around, and asked: "Comrade Reeve, what are you still looking at?" Fly the plane well! ”

"Commander, don't you think it's strange? Why didn't we see Chinese planes all the way? ”

Yakosky was stunned, the sky was already a little bright at this time, and it stands to reason that he would take off to intercept when he encountered the fleet just now. "Aren't you ready?" Yakoski muttered, unwilling to think about it again. Anyway, now that they have reached the middle line, even if the enemy planes chase them, they will be able to return to the coast safely. So he waved his hand: "It should be that their navy did not report, or the communication was not smooth." Never mind it, we can be much faster without the bombs, and even if they do, it's too late. ”

Reeve looked at Yakosky with an idiot's eyes, and scolded in his heart, how did this idiot become a teacher?

Reeve was dissatisfied, but he had just been released from the labor camp, and now he was still in the observation period and had to behave well, so he wanted to remind him again: "Division commander, you should let the fighter go to the front to reconnoitre." ”

"Ahead?" Yakosky just wanted to scold the idiot, because there is Iran in front, and the Chinese plane is coming from behind to chase it, how can it appear in front? But before he could open his mouth, a sharp and piercing whistling sound suddenly came.

"Enemy planes! Front, look! They have been hiding in the clouds! ”

The Heavy with the best roof view shouted in horror, and when Yakosky looked ahead, dozens of bright spots had already swooped down from the clouds high in front of him. "What kind of plane is that?" Reeve's eyes were sharp, and he immediately noticed that there were more than a dozen new fighters with a stout appearance that had never been seen before.

"Lao Tzu is thunder and lightning! Ace booking machine! ”

Xiong Bofei smiled and steadied the joystick, so that the fighter would not dive too fast and disintegrate beyond the speed of sound. As his name suggests, he is a typical violent impulsive element, just like the latest J-6 Thunderbolt fighter of the Air Force under him! The outer left side of the cabin represents the symbol of a small golden dragon that has been effectively shot down, and it shines even brighter in the morning light.

The appearance of the Thunderbolt was actually quite accidental, because it was originally a fighter developed for the Navy.

The German BF109 in the Spanish Civil War was impressive, especially in terms of climb and roll capabilities, which only the Navy's Mighty Wind fighter could match. Considering that they would face stronger opponents in the future, Wang Zhu and others immediately began to develop new fighters at the request of the navy. Because Yang Qiu gave the famous Grumman F8F Panda fighter blueprint in his early years, and many technologies were basically mature at that time, and even the 2,000-horsepower engine had been tested, so Wang Zhu decisively decided to design this as a prototype, and also gave a loud name, Lightning!

At that time, the Air Force was also fully cooperating with Raytheon to develop the Tianquan fighter, but it did not expect that the progress would be delayed due to the use of too many new technologies at one time, and it had to be considered as a replacement. It just so happened that the Navy "Lightning" took part in the finalization exercise and swept the record of all aircraft, including the double-headed Jiao. Let the Air Force immediately decide to order a batch of Air Force version of the emergency, also named Thunderbolt.

The sea and air have always been at odds, and of course they were unwilling to let the air force use their own planes, but in the end, it was Song Ziqing who stood up to mediate and promised to purchase no less than five brigades of double-headed Jiaojiao for the navy before he was convinced.

The basic stats of Thunderbolt and Lightning are comparable to those of the F8F, and the Air Force model lacks a wing folding device. It uses a 2,000 hp air-cooled engine with two-stage supercharging from the Meteor or Airbus, with a maximum output of 2,350 hp for water injection in the cylinder, a bubble-shaped monolithic bulletproof canopy, and a four-bladed adjustable propeller. The maximum level flight speed is 680 km/h. The maximum range is 1700 km, the combat radius is 700 km, and the transfer range with three 500-kg drop fuel tanks is 2500 km. Two 12.7 mm coaxial machine guns with deflectors are installed in the upper part of the nose, and two 25 mm guns and two 12.7 mm machine guns are installed in the wings, so that the whole machine has four machine guns and two guns. The firepower is exceptionally high.

The Thunderbolt retains the F8F's good climb and low-to-mid-altitude capabilities, and the maneuvering response is very fast, but this also makes new pilots often very uncomfortable. But the old birds can't put it down, especially as it climbs from a standstill to a tyrannical speed of 3,000 meters. Faster than even the jets on trial! At 6,000 meters, even the Thor Tianquan fighters, which claim to be able to seize the "right to the sky" for the Air Force, must retreat! Because of this, the Air Force began to add a large number of orders from the beginning of the year and began to equip troops in batches.

It's a pity that it has to be supplied domestically first. So the 9th and 16th mixed wings of the Air Force stationed in the Persian Gulf received only 12 each.

As soon as the thunderbolt appeared, the BF109 escorted by the Soviet army also rushed up to try to intercept it. But the lightning dive speed was too fast, and if Xiong Bofei hadn't tightened the throttle, he would have exceeded the speed of sound long ago. So before the BF109 could climb up, the three Thunderbolt squads had already broken through the defense line and fired fiercely at the HE111 in the group. Two 25 machine guns and four 12.7 machine guns fired at the same time, and the slow and bulky HE111 couldn't dodge at all, and in just one dive, 7 of them were hit with black smoke. Yakosky's long plane was swept from the nose to the tail by Xiong Bofei, and the fire was directly ignited.

"The second one!" Xiong Bofei is a veteran pilot who participated in the Afghan campaign and shot down an I16, born in Harbin, he has been accustomed to hearing about the Soviet Union's Maozi rampant in the northeast since he was a child. So after the hit, there was another burst of applause, and a light tumble burrowed through the belly of Yakoski's burning HE111 and aimed at the second PE8 bomber. The sturdy HE111 couldn't stop a 25mm shell, let alone a light PE8 bomber, and after only two triggers, the PE8 turned into a fireball.

After shooting down two bombers in a row, an escort BF109 finally rushed back and bit him. "Want to bite me? Let's see what thunder and lightning are! "Not to mention that Germany only sells the BF109B type, and even the more advanced C type cannot be compared with the Thunderbolt. So Xiong Bofei, who was furious, pulled the joystick lightly, and climbed vertically in front of the BF109 so straight. At first, the Soviet pilots laughed at it, because the BF109 is best known for its vertical crawling ability, but when he tried to catch up, he found that Xiong Bofei's thunder and lightning were like a fierce horse, making a scream and then rushing over his head like a rocket, and then a backward flight rolled and disappeared behind him.

Soviet pilots were terrified! BF109's vision was already bad, and after losing track, he subconsciously deviated to the left of the lever in an attempt to escape the pursuit by rolling and diving. But the operation of 109 was too slow to thunder and lightning, and before the plane made a move, Xiong Bofei bit the tail of the opponent's plane. After pursuing until 300 meters, in order to save shells, he chose to attack with a machine gun. Dadada, 4 12.7 machine guns and semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs left BF109 powerless, and pulled out black smoke and fell halfway through.

After shooting down this BF109, Xiong Bofei looked up and saw that the snake B and the double-headed Jiao behind him had also entered the group. In particular, the double-headed Jiao, relying on the powerful nose firepower, swept down a lot of Soviet bombers in an instant. This can make him anxious, you must know that the air force ace standard is 5, and now he only has 4, so using speed and good handling, he quickly found a TB3 that had been knocked out by the snake and the machine gun was killed. Regardless of the scolding of his comrades, he rolled backwards and cut horizontally, swept out 30 shells in one go, and then triumphantly rushed towards several besieged I16s.

At the same time as the 9th mixed wing of the Air Force, the 1122nd Thunderbolt squad gave birth to the first ace pilot, the first air battle in the Persian Gulf ended. The 9th Mixed Wing of the Air Force shot down 65 Soviet fighters at the cost of the loss of 4 snakes, only 5 BF109 and 4 I16 escaped early when they saw that the plane was not good, and none of the 60 bombers escaped...... (To be continued.) )