How light is a fifty kg wing load?

Historically, the unarmoured, bulletproof fuel tank Zero had a wing load of 107 kg/m², which was almost the lowest wing load of a monoplane fighter in World War II. F6F Villain is 187 kg/m2, F4U Corsair is 197 kg/m2, Mustang is 212 kg/m2, BF109E is 161 kg/m2 (Note: After BF109F, the wing load is getting bigger and bigger, and the handling is getting worse and worse. The Hurricane fighter has a wing load of 138 kg/m², while the Spitfire has a wing load of 150~200 (the wing load of the Spitfire is different in different periods, but in general, the wing load of the Spitfire series is also rising).

No matter how light a monoplane is, it is impossible to maneuver and hover with a biplane with an extra pair of wings.

In the face of the Japanese attack planes wreaking havoc on the bows of the US warships, the pilots of the P38 were no longer willing and could only lower their altitudes to attack the enemy planes that were still carrying bombs. However, it is too technically difficult for them to catch these low-speed, low-altitude (crab) rogue planes with a speed of only more than 100 kilometers per hour at a low altitude of several tens of meters.

First of all, in order to catch these enemy planes that are attacking at the altitude of the "seawater washing wheel", the planes should lower their altitude and enter at a low altitude, and at the same time reduce the speed of the aircraft as much as possible. Otherwise, if the speed is too fast, you will accidentally fly over your head and miss the attack window.

If you choose to reduce the altitude at a small angle and enter at a low altitude, it can effectively reduce the acceleration of the aircraft during the transformation of momentum, but the problem caused is that the entry time is too long, and at this critical moment that determines the life and death of the battleship, it takes more than ten seconds of time, which is equivalent to giving the bat attack aircraft more than ten seconds of attack time.

The two-winged Bat attack aircraft flew too slowly, leaving a small attack window for the P38. In addition, it was night again, and it was extremely difficult to lock on to the target. What's worse is that these P38 fighters that took off flew "too high" before entering the stadium.

Altitude is energy, altitude is speed, and when a fighter jet is in a hurry to reduce its speed and use it as a "low-speed" fighter, it flies too high in front. It becomes a disadvantage.

The first batch of P38 fighters who were in a hurry to descend from a high altitude to save the scene all encountered the embarrassing situation of "converting potential energy into kinetic energy" and increasing their flight speed instead of decreasing, and then because of the excessive speed, they did not grasp the target in time and flew over their heads all of a sudden.

By the time they flew over their heads and then turned around and came back, the Bat attack planes had already completed their mission of attacking, and could not only exit lightly, but also bite them from behind to chase and shoot.

For the P38 fighters who rushed to the port of San Francisco, they had only one chance to intercept the bat. And this time the chance. The premise is that they choose the right angle of entry for the Japanese planes and bite the opponent from the six o'clock direction of the tail, but in order to catch the bats entering at low altitude and low speed at night in dim light (with the light of flares and searchlights), the requirements are too high for young American pilots who lack actual combat experience and night combat experience.

The first batch of P38 fighters who rushed to the old Golden Harbor were all because when they descended from the sky, they cut in the vertical direction at too large an angle when they entered. A large amount of potential energy is converted into kinetic energy to fly too fast while capturing the target. And because the horizontal angle was not right, as a result, none of the pilots grabbed the target, and all of them collectively rushed over their heads.

In the process, an unlucky P38 was nearly exploded by a VT shell fired by a 90mm anti-aircraft gun on the shore, and the shrapnel of the explosion shattered the wing of the aircraft on the spot - the VT tube was ineffective against canvas bats, but sensitive to all-metal P38 fighters. Then rushed to the scene from other directions P38 fighters. Many have made similar mistakes.

In this low-altitude air battle that took place at the "height of the seawater washing wheel", there were also "smart" P38 fighter pilots who had the idea of lowering the landing gear to increase the drag and slow down the flight speed, but the P38 arrived at the battlefield too late, and the Bat attack planes that succeeded in the first wave did not immediately withdraw from the battlefield, but circled over the port of San Francisco.

If it's during the day or at high altitude. This biplane fighter, which was only equipped with two 7.7mm forward-firing machine guns, was abused in the face of the P38. However, at the height of the "seawater washing wheel" below 100 meters, when everyone plays low-altitude and low-speed "dog-fighting air combat" together, any monoplane on the earth will only be abused miserably when it is on a "low-altitude, low-speed and high-performance" biplane.

In the air battle of the night in the old gold port, the P38 lightning fighter that rushed to the old gold port was extremely humiliated by the opponent in the "dog fight" with the "bat", and many of them were injured, and in the process of attacking the bat attack plane, there were also many P38 planes that stalled and crashed due to the low speed, and also flew too low and lost control and crashed into the sea. In addition to the accidental fire of our own anti-aircraft artillery, the US Army lost 16 P38s in the air battle that night, while the opponent did not lose a single one in the air battle.

The Army's performance is a disgrace, and HNA's performance is just as bad, with only the outdated F4F Wildcat fighter and the F4U Corsair, which has been converted to land-based because of the difficulty of getting on the ship. Although the pirate fighter is an excellent fighter, the history of the middle and late World War II also developed a night combat type of pirate, but now at this time the pirate has a bunch of problems have not been solved, its flight stability at low speed and poor stall tailspin, is the nightmare of all pirate pilots.

On the HNA side that night, only one Wildcat fighter crashed into the tail of a bat in an air battle, and achieved a "down" in the way that both sides died together. As for the F4U pirates, the 12 pirates that forced their sortie found nothing, just like the P38, and three crashed in an air battle, once again fulfilling their nickname "Second Lieutenant Murderer".

That night, 120 Bat attack planes attacking the port of San Francisco eventually withdrew from the port with only five of them, and most of the losses were the result of the air defense forces.

When retreating, the US fighters, which had already taken off in large numbers, were unwilling to bite their tails to pursue and retaliate, but they had nothing to do with this group of "nocturnal rogue (crab) hooligans" flying at a low speed at the "height of the washing wheel." After leaving the port of San Francisco, without the help of flares and searchlights in the port, whether it is the F4F or F4U of Hainan Airlines, or the P40 or P38 of the Army Airlines, it is self-inflicted humiliation to play low-speed air combat with the bats at the "height of the washing wheel" below 100 meters.

With the help of the night and a small number of airborne flares, the unwilling American pilots forcibly chased the bats and attacked several times, barely achieving the result of shooting down two planes, but they themselves paid for the fact that three of them were shot down, three of them crashed into the sea, four of them stalled and fell into the sea, and many of them were damaged. If it weren't for the fact that the Bat attack aircraft had only two 7.7-mm aviation machine guns with poor firepower, the losses of the American aircraft would have been even greater.

At 3:20 a.m., the Japanese Combined Fleet received an attack from 110 bats on the ocean about 200 kilometers away from the old Golden Harbor. The other Bat attack was in the middle of the flight, and its engine was completely scrapped by ground-based anti-aircraft guns in a previous air raid, and it was unable to return to the mothership. The pilot of the second Bat was found captive by a searching American rescue plane after dawn, which was also the first time that the Americans captured the Japanese in the "Battle for the Homeland".

When the Japanese planes left, the Port of San Francisco was still burning.

The attack by the Bat Attack Squadron on the Port of San Francisco lasted less than 20 minutes before it ended, but the damage caused to the warships was extremely heavy.

Seven escort carriers were stationed in Old Hill Harbor that night, and they were on their way to welcome the return of Fletcher's fleet. Compared to professional combat ships, these aircraft carriers converted from merchant ships are structurally fragile, and one or two aerial bombs or a torpedo is enough to take heavy damage. In the end, after dawn, all but one of the seven escort aircraft carriers was lucky enough to escape without a single bullet, and the remaining six were all sunk or sunk.

In addition to the large warships, two cruisers moored in the harbor were sunk, three seriously damaged and several lightly damaged. Due to the "small target" of the destroyer, the Japanese did not take the initiative to aim and attack, but there were three "stray bullets" that hit three unlucky destroyers, resulting in two sinking and one serious injury. In addition, a number of maintenance vessels, supply vessels, and refueling vessels were damaged or sunken in the harbor.

After this battle, the U.S. Navy finally recovered a little vitality after the Battle of Guam, but it was once again knocked into the dust and once again reduced to a situation similar to that of the Italian Navy.

The only thing that makes the Americans feel fortunate is that the USS Iowa, a cutting-edge battleship that has just been commissioned and joined the US Navy, is now in the Atlantic Ocean for sailing tests and has not stopped in San Francisco Harbor. Another high-speed aircraft carrier, the USS Saratoga, was accompanying the USS Iowa at the time, and was lucky to escape.

After this war, the US Navy's mobile forces in the Pacific Ocean were once again wiped out, and in a short period of time, it completely lost the initiative to attack in the Pacific.

After receiving the returning carrier-based aircraft, the Japanese Combined Fleet sailed desperately in the direction of Hawaii at full speed, as far away as possible from the American coast, in order to avoid the retaliation of the air raids by the American planes that might arrive after dawn.

After daybreak, as the Japanese had guessed, the angry Americans sent a large number of planes to search the Pacific Ocean in a dragnet search, and then discovered the traces of the Combined Fleet in the open sea 400 kilometers from the port of San Francisco. It's just that this distance is free from the attack radius of land-based anti-ship aviation. In the end, the unwilling US Army Air Force dispatched a group of more than 30 B-17 bombers to carry out inaccurate high-altitude horizontal bombing by the retreating Combined Fleet at an altitude of 4,000 meters, but none of them hit, and two of them were shot down by the ship's anti-aircraft fire. (To be continued......)

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