"Don't be nervous, boys, the fight should be a very pleasant thing for you. You are the elite of the Empire, the most elite warriors in the world. Our air force is also the most powerful air force on the planet, they will get rid of those annoying pillboxes, artillery and tanks, we are behind enemy lines, but the sky is our friend! A sergeant comforts his men on a JU52 transport plane who are fighting for the first time.

The sergeant was not false, at least in this airspace the Luftwaffe was indeed the most powerful air force, and the various attack planes did sweep all the enemy units that could be found on the ground. In terms of sheer size, the Luftwaffe had already surpassed the battles of Florence and Naples in the number of aircraft that had been put into service. After all, this time the Germans mobilized 300 transport aircraft and gliders in the first wave alone! Together with the fighters responsible for escorts, bombers and attack aircraft for ground attack, this number reaches almost 1200 units! (Including bombers supporting the Ancona Front Army.) ）

"From the Balkans, through the Adriatic to Ancona and Foliño, the Luftwaffe planes formed an impermeable air corridor in the air, our fighters were driven aside, and we could only see transport planes and bombers flying slowly in the air, the former aiming at Foligno, while the latter attacked all the prey they could find, like vultures looking for carrion! The opposing side did not have a specific target for their attacks, and their attacks ranged from fortifications and positions on the front line, to railway junctions and logistics warehouses. The only relaxation was the airfields everywhere, because they were still useful to them, and after the British and Huaxia air forces went north. The combat effectiveness of the US and French air forces is no longer able to threaten the adversary. The commander of the US Air Force in Italy, General Lee May, wrote in a later report.

Li May's report only gave a general description of the scale of the Luftwaffe's campaign, but a lieutenant colonel named Ridgway had a first-hand experience of the Luftwaffe's bombing of Foligno. "They are not just the grim reaper on the battlefield, but the rulers of the battlefield. They controlled the rhythm of the war, and even though we retained a considerable part of our troops and technical equipment in the bombing, they could not play a role under the suppression of the other side. It was one of the most terrible battles I've ever experienced, and I've experienced the Florentine Void, where the opposition is attacking fiercely. But it only lasted an hour, and this time the Germans attacked like boiling frogs in warm water, and they continued to suppress us. Made me and my troops feel hopeless! This is something more terrible than indiscriminate bombardment. ”

Although Ridgway was an Army member, his report inspired the U.S. Air Force that the Air Force's mission was not to shoot down opposing fighter jets and attack targets on the ground with bombers. It's just tactical. The highest mission goal of the Air Force is to control the battlefield! This control consists of two aspects. On the one hand, in terms of time, the continuous suppression of the other side has made it impossible for the surviving units of the opposing side to be effective. And the other is spatially, completely locking a certain area! The outside can't get in, the inside can't get out!

But these are all later, and at this time, Ridgway was directing his men to evade the attack of the other party in the southeast of the city. Ridgway's brigade was the one that had been forced to stay here because of lack of transportation, and after some time, some of his troops arrived at the front, while his regiment and others remained there. Although he has not been ill for a long time, he has become a doctor. Although they had not yet entered the battlefield, German air raids were almost daily. During this time, Ridgway learned nothing else. The ability to dig bomb shelters, quickly evacuate troops, and organize anti-aircraft fire has grown in full. At this time, there was no radar, and the command system was relatively backward, and the role of a small number of medium-caliber antiaircraft guns was more to disperse and interfere with the enemy's bombing, and it was very difficult to shoot down enemy planes.

So Ridgway prefers small-caliber anti-aircraft guns that are easy to camouflage, can maneuver quickly, and have an extremely fast rate of fire. During this time in Foligno, he decisively installed the 20MM Erley anti-aircraft guns and Bofors anti-aircraft guns on various half-tracks, concentrated them, and then concealed them around the opponent's key targets in advance. When the opponent's bomber enters the dive route and cannot effectively avoid the attack, it will suddenly attack. After a round, move your position and choose a place to continue the ambush. Not to mention, this method of attacking and hiding is really useful, and there are already as many as eight planes in Li Qiwei's hands, so Li Qiwei and his mobile antiaircraft artillery unit have the name of fly swatters. The Supreme Commander of Foinho thought that it would be more useful for him to swatt flies here than to go to the front, so Ridgway and his troops were left behind under various names. The front line is not very tight anyway. What's more, there are still not enough train wagons!

But this time, Ridgway's good fortune seems to have come to an end! The fly swatter team hides around a marshalling station, and in order to prevent detection by the other side, they all cover it with canvas to make people think that it is nothing more than a pile of cargo. The marshalling station is the center of the railway station, and the marshalling station is responsible for arranging how to transport. So in the eyes of the attacker, it is much better to destroy the marshalling station than to blow up some cargo. And Li Qiwei took advantage of the other party's psychology to cleverly set up an ambush. Just when Li Qiwei was thinking about whether he could make the fly swatter team's record rise to double digits today, the roar in the air startled him!

"What are they going to do?!" Li Qiwei frowned as he looked at the group of attack planes getting closer and closer in the distance, and the opponent's attack formation was a mixed formation of two types of aircraft. One is an ordinary twin-engine bomber, while the other is like a twin-engine fighter to make a cameo appearance on a ground attack mission, but they are also professional, and two cannon hangers are suspended between the wing engines and the fuselage. At the same time, small bombs were mounted in the lower part of the auxiliary officer. For such a target as a marshalling station, it is definitely better to use high-power aerial bombs. But what do you mean by bringing small bombs for anti-infantry? It wasn't unthinkable that one day the Germans would take some action specifically against his fly swatter squad, but this anti-infantry bomb was not very lethal against armored anti-aircraft vehicles. The bombshell was inaccurate, and he couldn't figure out what the other party wanted to do.

"Rapier squadron, you can attack the formation station, and if something happens, I can help you deal with those guys." Rudel said in the channel.

"Okay, Rapier understands, pay attention to their anti-aircraft guns, they will hide part of the firepower as a backhand, you must be careful." After a few seconds, the Rapier squadron leader replied. Rudel shook his wings to signal that he had received the information, and the Rapier squadron began to enter the dive course to open a gap for units on the ground.

Li Qiwei's layout is still very detailed, the 20MM Erley anti-aircraft gun is deployed in the core area of the target, when the Thin Sword squadron begins to bombard, the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns hidden around immediately die and camouflage in the air to form a dense tongue of fire, at least 8 air defense vehicles, nearly 30 20MM anti-aircraft guns and a large number of M2 machine guns, weaving an insurmountable fire net at low altitude. TRACER ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS AND HIGH-EXPLOSIVE BOMBS DREW A DANGEROUS ARC TO BITE THE BOMBERS TRYING TO ESCAPE, A TWIN-ENGINE BOMBER HURRIEDLY DROPPED THE BOMB IN THE BELLY, AND WAS ABOUT TO CLIMB AND ESCAPE, WHEN SUDDENLY THE REAR OF THE RIGHT ENGINE COMPARTMENT WAS PIERCED BY A SERIES OF 20MM HIGH-EXPLOSIVE SHELLS, BILLOWING BLACK SMOKE CAME OUT OF THE BREACH, JUST WHEN THE PILOT WAS HURRIEDLY CONTROLLING THE FLIGHT ATTITUDE. Several armor-piercing shells were fired into the cockpit from behind the cockpit, directly cutting the pilot in half.

"It's time for us to act, these anti-aircraft guns are too hateful, and keeping them is a big hidden danger to the Airborne Forces." Rudel began to fly quickly over the battlefield with two three-plane formations. "Pay attention to the north, there are new flies coming, they are going to drop bombs at low altitudes, everyone pay attention." The alarm from the observation post was quickly transmitted to the various gun emplacements that were fighting, but the American GIs who were fighting were not too concerned about this. According to past experience, the accuracy of horizontal bombing is generally not high. Not to mention that there was also sufficient armor protection on the hull. So they don't care. But this encounter can be described as empiricism killing people!

The other party is throwing bombs, but this bomb is not an ordinary high-explosive bomb, nor is it an anti-infantry submunition, but a kind of anti-armor submunition that uses a shaped warhead and has a certain anti-armor capability, the weight of each bullet is not large, only about 2KG, after throwing it, the tail of the bomb will open a parachute to stabilize the flight attitude, and when these bombs fall above the target, the metal jet generated by the shaped charge can penetrate the top armor of the vehicle, although this shaped armor-piercing technology is still very immature, The accuracy of spreading is also very problematic, but the number of drops in this wave is really a bit much, a 250KG submunition has nearly 100 bullets in it, and 6 planes have dropped more than 600 bullets. And the target against it is nothing more than a couple of half-track anti-aircraft vehicles! After the five bombers flew, they left irregular spreading areas on the ground like seeds.

"This little thing will suddenly explode when it comes into contact with the armor plate in the upper part of the hull, and then a flash of fire will directly tear the armor plate. Countless fragments and high-temperature jets rampage through the body of the vehicle, an air defense vehicle was directly detonated, the ammunition was blown apart, and countless small bombs like snowflakes fell from the sky, turning the surrounding area into a death zone, if we were not far away, I am afraid we would also be buried in this iron coffin. An American sergeant said with palpitations after the war. Although the momentum is huge, the actual strike effect is just like that, 6 rounds of 250KG submunitions threw hundreds of rounds of bullets in a small range, but only 4 air defense vehicles were knocked out. However, this also opened a gap in the already dense air defense network.

Thank you for the good reward of the book friend YY novel~~~, and the monthly ticket support of the book friend f663026 ~~~, today's Lantern Festival, the side position is presented with a double change, I wish you a happy Lantern Festival ~~~, family reunion, all the best~~~. (To be continued......)