"March 23, 1941, I will always remember this day. Before that day, the government was broadcasting good news every day, promoting victory every day, and everyone's morale was high, and young people were proud to be able to wear military uniforms. But after that night, my family and I realized that the propaganda was false and deceitful, and that the Japanese government and we had already begun to lose the war.

The bombs were very dense, about every fifty meters, bursting out in bands of sparks. Yes! Like a strap. I can't put it into words, you never know how horrible it was without experiencing it. I took the children with me, grabbed my wife, and we ran desperately, running for our lives! A lot of people go into bomb shelters, but the rudimentary ones are not safe at all, because the flames flow, they suck the air out of the bomb shelters, and they all end up choking to death because of the lack of air or smoke! All the houses are burning! There are many post and telecommunications offices, shops, and cotton clothing factories in Yamada. I was terrified, but luckily I saw a cistern, and my whole family jumped into it. The water was hot, but fortunately the fire around was not too big, and many people crowded in. We survived, but the whole neighborhood was gone. ”——

Survivor of the Great Tokyo Bombing, Yuta Norio.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the report of the damage caused by the Deshan bombing had not yet come out, and the Mishan base was already full of people. Next to the four airports not far away, many local villagers who had finished their work gathered around the barbed wire fence and watched the people come and go in the airports they helped build. Four brigades, totaling 472 H-7s, waited quietly on the tarmac, each surrounded by busy soldiers. Fuel tankers, oxygen trucks, charging vehicles, etc., shuttle back and forth in the fleet.

In order to leave a "profound" memory for Japan, in addition to the main base in Mishan, a total of 708 bombers from five airfields and six bombing groups in Qingdao, Weihai, and Hangzhou are also actively preparing. "Commander, this is the Rainbow Four schedule." He Hai, a 29-year-old graduate of the Air Force Academy, quickly knocked on the door and handed over the bombing plan to Xu Huansheng, who had already changed into a flight suit: "All 10 brigades, 6 of which go to Tokyo, and the remaining 4 brigades go to Yokohama, Kawasaki and Chiba." This is the call code for the various escort and bombing formations. This is the guidance aircraft, a total of 3 radar guidance aircraft and 126 'Night Jiao' fighters (the night combat type of the Air Force Jian-6 double-headed Jiao). ”

The Rainbow No. 4 Plan was a bombing operation plan drawn up by the Air Force before the war, and there were seven types of bombing operations according to different environments. Among them, Rainbow 4 was formulated for the current environment. In fact, as early as the end of January, the Air Force was fully prepared to bomb the Japanese mainland, but for various reasons it has been postponed until now. "Is Tokuyama's assessment report out?" Putting on the pistol, Xu Huansheng asked about the noon bombing report.

"Not yet. The reconnaissance aircraft said that the smoke was so great that it was impossible to distinguish ground targets. The only thing that can be assured is that the fire at the oil depot has not been extinguished, and there have been several explosions. The last one was at 3 p.m., causing a massive landslide and a large amount of rocks and mud pouring into the Seto Inland Sea. However, I estimate that the toxic fumes from the heavy oil will probably cover a larger area than our bombing tonight. ”

"Hehe, Gao Zhihang, they did it hard enough." Hearing that the explosion caused a large-scale landslide, Xu Huansheng couldn't help but hook the corners of his mouth. Put on a tactical vest, stick the planner in your jacket pocket, and walk outside: "Go, accompany me to see how ready it is." ”

After walking out of the office, most of the bombers had already hung up their bombs and were doing their final oxygenation work. The early H-7 was not a fully pressurized sealed cabin design, so it did not need to be oxygenated because of the low cruising altitude. But as the air defense forces and fighters of various countries became more and more advanced, the Air Force began to order a supercharged version from June last year. Compared with the original model, the new H-7 adopts a fully sealed nacelle, a more advanced twin-mounted electric turret, enhanced bulletproof capabilities in the wings and belly, and a two-stage supercharged engine with better high-altitude performance. Under the condition that the speed of the improved H-7 remains the same, the dead weight is increased by 2 tons, and the bomb load is reduced from a maximum of 10 tons to 7 tons, but the cruising altitude is increased to 10,000 meters. It seems that the bomb load decreases, but in fact, the radius is too short when the full load is fully loaded, so the impact is not great, but the survivability is stronger after the cruising altitude increases. This is because many fighter jets in Japan and the Soviet Union can have a data ceiling of more than 10,000 meters, but in fact, because of poor supercharging technology, there are often problems with engines up to 8 kilometers. And at this height, the largest number of small- and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns equipped by various countries cannot reach it.

Xu Huansheng's landline, like everyone else, has already hung 35 small 120-kilogram napalms. Napalm was developed very early, but produced very late, mainly because it was not easy to preserve.

After checking the ammunition, he was about to get into the engine room to check the situation of the plane, when a Y-5 transport plane suddenly appeared at the end of the runway. "Huh? It's a political person, how can there be a US military? After the plane stopped, the sharp-eyed He Hai saw two officers from the Political Department walking out with three US military officers. This surprised everyone, how could the US military appear here?

"Commander, Commander Xu!" A moment later, a jeep came in front of him with five people in tow. As soon as the car came to a stop, an officer of the Political Department with the rank of major ran towards him.

"It's Xiao Wang, why are you here?" Xu Huansheng is known to Major Wang Meitang of the Political Department of the Air Force. How could the Department of Political Affairs come here, regardless of the actual operation? Looking at Wang Meitang, his eyes turned to point here after getting out of the car, and from time to time he asked the three ** officers of the other political department, and asked, "Who are?" ”

"Hehe, the pilot of the US military delegation." Wang Meitang took out the folder and handed it to him: "This is the commander-in-chief's warrant, they will act with you to observe this bombing operation." ”

"What the hell! How do you get Americans to come and see? Xu Huansheng scratched his head. I was a little reluctant to let the US military observe the bombing because I was afraid that the secrets would be leaked, but because the two sides were not very friendly at present. Wang Meitang smiled and leaned closer and said, "It's not a matter of purchasing fighter jets. "It turned out that after the US Army and Navy suffered heavy losses in the planes in a row, they realized that their fighters were inferior to their opponents, and the progress of new research and development was too slow, so they had to decide to purchase part of the first to make up for the gap. What the US military hopes most is China's "dual-electric" fighter and the British "Spitfire," but Yang Qiu is reluctant to sell them, and instead hopes to sell the "Storm" fighter that competes with the "dual-electric" but ends up being out of the game to the US military. For this matter, he also wrote a special letter to Churchill, demanding that the British government strictly abide by the contract and not sell the simplified version of the "Thunderbolt" sold by China to the US military. Under the circumstance that Roosevelt had already fallen into the trap, Churchill, the "king of the pit people," was very happy that the United States would spend a lot of money to avenge the "exchange of destroyers for islands," so he used the contract as an excuse and very cooperatively refused to deliver the two "Thunderbolts" to the US military for study.

The performance of the "Storm" fighter is worse than that of the "Twin Electric", about the same as the historical F6F, but a little smaller in size and range. The U.S. military is not stupid, so it kept refusing at the beginning. However, the situation in Europe has changed recently, and it is seen that its new fighter will not be installed until the end of 1941 at the latest, so it has begun to test fly the "Storm". After many test flights and comparisons with US fighter jets, it was confirmed that the performance of the "Storm" fighter was not much worse than that of the "Shuangdian" (in fact, it was a simulated air battle with a simplified version of the Thunderbolt), which met the current requirements, and then it was agreed to buy all the patents for a one-time payment of $5 million, and for each aircraft manufactured, it would pay $3,000 in patent fees to China's Airbus Company. However, in the procurement, the US military also has an additional condition, that is, to observe the combat operations of the Chinese Air Force.

For this large order, Air Force Commander Yu Lei agreed to it after consulting with the General Staff.

"This is Colonel Chennault leading the team."

"Hello, General Xu."

"Do you know Chinese?"

Chennault's non-standard Chinese startled Xu Huansheng, and Wang Meitang hurriedly introduced it when he saw this. It turned out that Chennault was a former Army pilot, and after retiring from the army, he lived in Shanghai and had a Chinese wife. After the Cairo Declaration, he wanted to join the Chinese Air Force, but at this time he was contacted by the U.S. ambassador Jensen, who wanted him to serve as an observer in the U.S. military and accept Stilwell's leadership. After the United States entered the war, Stilwell became the commander of the Allied forces in the Asian and Southwest Pacific theaters, but he was now without authority and troops, and only a few hundred American "advisers" managed some Philippine guerrillas. Originally, Chennault wanted to form his own flying team, but he gave up because China refused to provide a base. At this time, the United States happened to be about to purchase fighter planes, and the United States set up a member of the US Procurement Committee, so he was appointed head of the delegation to be responsible for purchasing aviation military technology and materials from China.

"Thank you for allowing us to participate in this operation, what is the goal this time?" In contrast to Xu's lukewarmness, Chennault and the other two pilots were very happy to have the opportunity to observe the actual combat operations of the Chinese Air Force. What's more, if you look at the scale of the surroundings, you can see that this is probably a very big operation.

"It's Tokyo." Although I don't like it, the military still has to obey the political tasks above. What's more, this big business can greatly promote China's aviation industry and make a large number of large companies such as Airbus and Meteor famous, so Xu Huansheng is still willing to actively cooperate and take the initiative to tell the bombing target.

"General, can we take a look at the plane?" Chennault couldn't wait to see how the world-famous H-7 differed from the U.S. military's B17 and the upcoming B24 bomber. Xu Huansheng did not refuse this, but just took care of Wang Meitang and did not let them enter the fire control cabin under the nose. This is because the navigation radar and reflex bomb sight of the new H-7 are located in this position, and these two technologies cannot be leaked for the time being.

Watching Chennault happily get in and out of his plane, Xu Huansheng smiled bitterly. Fortunately, during the Battle of Wake Island, several lost B-17s landed on Pagan Island, and these planes have been transported back by the Air Force for study, and they have not suffered a loss. However, I thought that the US military was not short of technology, and the main problem was experience, so he grabbed He Hai and whispered: "Change the plan." Quickly go and inform the major teams to cancel the box-shaped formation and change to the goose formation. ”

The box-shaped bombing formation, like the multi-layered four-four tactics in one area, is a new type of tactic explored by the Air Force, which can give full play to the self-defense firepower of bombers. He didn't want to give such an important tactic to the Americans in vain.

At six o'clock in the evening, Xu Huansheng took Chennault into the plane and gave a signal to act.

Signal Signal: Rainbow!

As the signal was issued, bombers that had long been ready to take off from the runway took off, and a huge roar rang out for miles, attracting many nearby villagers to come out and watch. The flashing red navigation lights on the fuselage, after drawing beautiful streamers, slowly converged to form several huge bombing phalanxes.

An hour later, the second batch took off.

Two hours later came the third batch.

Five batches, a total of 3 Yunba radar navigation and command planes, 126 "Night Jiao" fighters, and 1,118 bombers, roared towards Tokyo Bay——

At this time, Tokyo also had a very unusual atmosphere, with the collective anxiety of the top brass on the one hand, and the ignorance of the people on the other.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister." In the Prime Minister's Mansion, Shunroku Hatata's loud voice echoed violently.

Immediately after coming to power, Hidehide Tojo, who was confronted with the war between China and Japan, and saw the destruction of the sea and air forces with his own eyes, was like a knife, and the news of the devastating bombing of Tokuyama was like a dull stick that smashed him and the military full of gold stars. He never understood what kind of bomb China used to penetrate the surface of the earth at a depth of nearly 10 meters and destroy the oil depot. Of course, these details are irrelevant, and what really makes him anxious is that after the 3 million tons of oil reserves at the Deshan oil depot were burned, the country's oil reserves have plummeted to 1.3 million tons.

Without oil, how can warships, planes, and tanks still drive?

"Someone has to be responsible for Tokuyama!" Shunroku Hata glared at the Minister of the Navy, Shigetaro Shimada. In the eyes of the Japanese Army, the Navy is the culprit of this series of failures, if it were not for their disgrace, how could they have come to such a desperate situation? Shigetaro Shimada, who had just become Minister of the Navy, was worried about how to solve the source of oil, but he didn't think that the army would not think of a way first, but instead burned the fire on himself, and suddenly slapped the table in anger: "Shunroku Hatata, what do you mean by this?" We didn't support the war against China in the first place! It was your army that said that the empire rose and fell, and fought here! Now that something goes wrong, is it all the responsibility of our Navy? If you want me to say, the empire is ruined by you bastards! What samurai spirit, what to open up the territory for the empire is nonsense! So you say this just to shirk responsibility! ”

"What is the responsibility of our Army? The Tokuyama Oil House is controlled by your navy, and you don't give us more oil when we want to do it in normal times, but now it's blown up, do you want us to be responsible? See what kind of war you've been fighting so far? Sasebo, Mariana, Truk, Marshall are all losing! Is this the third navy in the world and the first in Asia that you have built by exhausting the empire's financial resources? It's a shame! The face of the empire will be disgraced to you. ”

"Did you win? Why can't I cross the Yalu River in North Korea? How come Burma, Vietnam and India have not heard the news of a single victory? ”

"Yaga! Isn't North Korea victorious?! ”

"Okay, okay, don't get excited, don't get excited. Let's figure out what to do together. "Foreign Minister Shigetoku Togo saw that the two armies were not in harmony, and hurriedly stood up to be a peacemaker. In fact, he could also see that the army and navy were really anxious this time. After the bombing of the Tokuyama Oil House, the aircraft, combat vehicles, and ships of the two companies were in danger of running out of fuel.

"What to do? There's only one way, and that's to keep fighting! "Shunroku Hata's anger is not extinguished. Speaking from the heart, the war has been fought so far, whether it is the navy or the army, but there is a fire in their hearts.

Because the opponent doesn't play according to the routine at all!

In the thinking of the Japanese leadership, China will definitely fight a land war first, because the several Central Asian battles before the start of the Sino-Japanese war have proved that the army is the trump card in Yang Qiu's hands. Therefore, after the war began, the army was the most concerned about the Japanese army, and it was also the army that worried the most, and it also worked out a series of measures to deal with the defeat after defeat, and even made preparations for using the mountainous areas of Korea and the dense forests of Southeast Asia to fight guerrilla warfare for a long time. But what about Yang Qiu and the Beijing General Staff? Except for one sortie in Vietnam, it has been shrinking and retreating in places such as North Korea and Burma. Even India, if it weren't for the Indian National Congress and the CPI, might have turned a blind eye to it so far.

The expected army war has not broken out for a long time, but what about the other side? But the sea keeps attacking! Raids on Sasebo, bombing of Okinawa Harbor, the Battle of the Marianas, the Battle of Truk, and the ongoing naval battles of Wake Island, Marshall, and Gilbert. Yang Qiuyi was unusual, not using his strongest force, but bypassing the army, implementing strategic encirclement from the sea through a surprise attack, and using his advanced and sudden naval forces to continuously strike at Japan's strongest navy!

This style of play is really very uncomfortable for the Japanese high-level.

It feels like fighting with others, putting on a posture by yourself, being upright, and even calculating how to escape after failure, while the opponent is always hammering at a position with hundreds of punches!

It's uncomfortable, it's so uncomfortable!

In the face of this situation, it's no wonder that Shunroku Hata is not angry! "The empire is very difficult, but the more difficult it is, the more it proves the tenacity of our Yamato nation, and we must persist in fighting!" Like all the enemies of the empire prove that the Yamato nation is invincible! ”

"Then I'd like to know how your army is going to solve the oil problem?" Shimada is also on fire: "Coal and steel can still be supported, but there are only 1.3 million tons left in oil reserves, which is only enough for the combined fleet to make two sorties at most!" ”

"We also have Wah Thai Island, as well as Palembang and Balikpapan! Isn't there still an oil field in Hokkaido? (During World War II, there were small oil fields in Hokkaido, Japan, with an annual output of 200,000 tons) Shunroku Hata exclaimed: "I believe that the empire will win the final victory!" Of course, as long as there are some people who don't hold our army back any longer. ”

"Yaga! What's going on with Hatata? ”

Seeing that the quarrel was about to start again, the lights suddenly went out, and before Togo could finish speaking, the piercing air raid sirens hit Tokyo, and the guards quickly rushed in: "Prime Minister, please stay away for a while." ”

"Panic what! Are there fewer voices like this? The quarrel just now had already annoyed Tojo very much, especially when Shimada pointed at the monk and scolded the bald man, which made him very embarrassed. Because everyone knows that he is currently the Minister of War at present, and he also single-handedly contributed to the war against China. So when I saw the guards panicking, I scolded them angrily before getting up with everyone.

While Tojo and his ministers were escorted by guards into the bomb shelter at the prime minister's residence, Yuda Kio was also woken up by the shrill sound of air raid sirens. But he, like most ordinary residents, did not panic too much, and instead pushed open the window to see if there were really enemy planes. It's not that he's not vigilant, it's that they've been false alarms lately. What's more, the radio station and the government said that the Chinese plane would not be able to fly here, and even if it flew over, it would be shot down by the more advanced imperial planes and artillery, so there was nothing to worry about.

But soon, he and everyone else sensed that something was wrong.

"Knock knock." Strings of ground shells and searchlight lampposts soared into the sky, and as the shells became denser, the piercing hum poured into the ears from the surface of the sea like a tide. "Aiko! Son! Get up! Seeing that the situation was not good, Yuda Norio was so frightened that he immediately hugged the child and pulled his wife to run to the nearest air-raid shelter. At this time, the streets were already in disarray, full of disheveled residents rushing out of their homes, shouting and crying of children.

But it was too late!

"Descent to 3000 meters!"

After seeing Tokyo through the light of anti-aircraft fire, Xu Huansheng immediately ordered to lower the altitude. "General, this is very dangerous!" Chennault was taken aback by the order. But Xu Huansheng didn't think so, and smiled: "Don't worry! ”

After the bomber descended, the power of the artillery fire began to be revealed. The shells that constantly exploded around the group disrupted the air flow, making everyone feel like they were in a bumpy tunnel, and the bombers of dozens of tons trembled violently in the light of the fire. "There are losses, there are losses! The tail wing of Mallard 37 was hit. ”

"Mallard 71 reported that my wing was on fire, and I requested a forced landing to return!"

As the bombers approached the shoreline, the sound of being hit through the horns increased. Chennault turned his head to see that the left tail of the 37 bomber that had been hit was barely visible, and even if it could complete the mission, it was doomed to land safely. Just when he was most worried, the navigator finally signaled: "Reach the target!" ”

"Mallard 2! Call Mallard 2 and lead the bomb with me! ”

"Mallard 2 understands!"

After arriving over the target, Xu Huansheng and his wingman immediately broke away from the formation and used the descent to accelerate ahead. Then quickly swooped down at a 40-degree inclination to the bustling commercial area on the ground. It was not until close to a thousand meters that the two bombers leveled and dropped bombs at the same time as leveling. A total of 35 120-kilogram incendiary bombs left the magazine one by one, each covering an area about 500 meters long and 60 meters wide. The new napalm was much more powerful than the old incendiary bomb, and the flames even rose several hundred meters into the air after the explosion. The sparks burst into flames, quickly igniting the surrounding flammable materials and spreading. At the same time, the wingman also dropped an incendiary bomb, but the wingman threw the bomb at an angle of 90 degrees to Xu Huan, so that the two fire dragons formed an obvious and huge cross, providing coordinates for the group of aircraft in the rear.

The first group to enter the skies over Tokyo were three groups with a total of 354 H-7s, which descended from the sky one after another, centering on the cross and expanding their bombs into the surrounding dark areas. From the sky, the ground flickered, like countless flashing lights flickering on and off. This is a veritable rain of bullets, a total of 1,474 tons in just one hour! 12,285 napalm bombs were dropped, and a dense fireball covered almost half of the Tokyo area, creating a spectacular night scene!

In less than a moment, the entire city of Tokyo was covered in flames and smoke, and from a distance, it seemed as if a layer of red liquid was flowing on the surface. Civilians fled in all directions to avoid the explosions and fires, and the Japanese city defense units were quickly evacuated and did everything possible to extinguish the fire. But they underestimated the power of napalm, and the jumble of wooden buildings became the best place for arson, and as time went on, scattered fireballs gradually joined together to form several large flares. Then they converge again to form a firestorm! Quickly swept through Tokyo! The sea breeze from Tokyo Bay fueled the fire again, and in the heat of thousands of degrees, all combustible objects began to burn! Houses collapsed, human bodies scorched, and even metal began to melt! The fire spread like a flood, and the fleeing crowd ran back and forth. But the flames soon consumed them one by one, and all they spat out was coke. Some people who are trying to survive start jumping into ponds and rivers, but by this time the water temperature is close to boiling, and jumping is also scalding to death! Due to the shortage of materials and other problems, the rudimentary air-raid shelter has become a nightmarish existence, and countless people hiding inside have either been scalded to death or choked to death by the smoke poured in!

An hour later, the second batch of 118 H-7s continued to drop bombs in the dark area, followed by the third and fourth batches.

At the same time, Yokohama, Kawasaki and Chiba were bombed at the same time.

It was later confirmed that in just four hours of bombing, 22 arsenals located in Tokyo were destroyed, and the industrial area burned 43. Commercial and residential areas are up to 60! A total of 450,000 houses and buildings were burned, 100,000 were burned to death, and another 150,000 were injured to varying degrees. Together with Yokohama and other three places, 300,000 casualties were caused in just one night! The bomber group led by Xu Huansheng only lost 11 planes of its own, of which 7 were finally forced to land in the open sea, and the crews were rescued by submarines.

A few hours later, a report aired on Radio Tokyo. On the radio, the announcer, on behalf of the Japanese government, strongly condemned the "massacre" of the Japanese people by the Chinese Air Force!

But in fact, the bombing campaign, codenamed "Rainbow", has just begun. Over the next two weeks, the Air Force deployed a total of 3,300 bombers of all types to carry out another series of air raids on Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Okinawa. A total of 152943 napalm bombs were dropped, killing and injuring 850,000 people, leaving 3 million people homeless, and more than 80% of the burned area in 11 cities!

Chennault, who had witnessed the "sea of fire," reported the results of the bombing of Tokyo to Marshall, and soon the "sea of fire" spread from Asia to the European continent.