Episode 65 The swan slaughters Hai Dongqing

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon on January 23, 1936, that is, 7 hours before the Lunar New Year, "Manjianghong".

A total of 385 planes of the 6th Bomber Group, 12th Bomber Group, 15th Bomber Group, 22nd Bomber Group, 3rd Fighter Group, 5th Fighter Group, 8th Fighter Group, 10th Fighter Group, 17th Fighter Group, and all carrier-based bombers of the East China Sea Fleet took off from 15 military airfields and assembled, climbed, and formed 30 kilometers southeast of Nanjing.

There are 175 carrier-based dive bombers of the Osprey, 90 twin-engine medium bombers of the Swan, and 120 Kingfisher fighters.

For a time, the large group of aircraft covered the sky and the sun, and the sky and the earth were shrouded in a low roar. The common people below ran out of their farmhouses to see the magnificent spectacle that had never been seen before.

In order to fight back and understand the siege of Nanjing, the Ming Empire dispatched more than one-third of its combat aircraft, which can be said to be a bloody gamble.

The scale of the air raid that mankind will not have until the air war in Britain will have, because Xiang Xiaoqiang arrived 6 years early. Prior to this, there were generally no large-scale wars involving aircraft in the world, and even between the Ming and Qing dynasties, air battles were only small fights, with a few or at most a dozen planes. Before today, the use of airplanes in the world, the extent to which airplanes can play in wars, and the extent to which air battles can be fought are still in the stage of exploration.

But after today, the whole world will be in for an eye-opener. General Xiang Xiaoqiang, the old men of the Ming Command, and the world how to fight the air battle after World War I.

In terms of the number of combat aircraft, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had about 1,500 planes, and the Nanming Dynasty had about 1,000 planes, and the Nanming Dynasty was at a disadvantage. But in terms of the performance of the aircraft and the training level of the pilots, Nanming was above the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Of the 800 fighters of the Manchu Qing dynasty, 600 were old biplanes. And the Nanming 500 fighters, the old biplane has less than 200 units. The number of new fighters for both is about the same.

This is also the reason why the Nanming Command dared to listen to Xiang Xiaoqiang and provoke a large-scale air attack first. Because from now on, the big competition of the aircraft industry on both sides will begin. Although Nanming's aviation industry technology is currently inferior to Britain, the United States and Germany, it is significantly ahead of the Northern Qing Dynasty and almost the same level as Japan, and the aircraft race will not suffer.

In this era, although the Ming and Qing dynasties and other countries in the world attach importance to aircraft, Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that compared with the role that aircraft will play in the war in the future, they do not pay enough attention to it. Far from enough.

It's time for everyone to take it seriously.

……

But Xiang Xiaoqiang's nervousness is no less than that of the old men in the command. After all, this is the first time that so many planes have been sorted, and it is still attacking multiple targets at the same time, which no country has done before. assembly, formation, deployment, liaison, command...... Everything is challenging.

The High Command has carefully selected six major airports within 200 kilometers of Cingjing. First, these airports are big enough, there are enough planes parked, and they are close enough to Nanming. Second, the intelligence of these airports is relatively good and relatively confident. Third, according to intelligence, there is a relatively high concentration of advanced aircraft at these airports. The Manchu Air Force's few new single-wing fighters, the Haidongqing, and the twin-engine medium bomber Wuyun, were parked in large numbers in these places. If a large number of them can be annihilated on the ground, it will greatly improve the balance of air power in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The most direct advantage is that it can win temporary air supremacy in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and can attack the Qing army on the north bank without any scruples and win the battle to defend Nanjing.

Xiang Xiaoqiang's initial idea was just to mobilize dive bombers to attack the Qing army in the city, which only relied on dive bombers. Later, however, after envisaging the expansion into a grand plan for air raids on airfields and seizing partial air supremacy, he asked the Army Air Force to send three bomber groups, totaling 90 horizontal bombers.

The Osprey dive bombers have a maximum bomb load of 450 kilograms, and this time each one carries two 220-kilogram bombs, which are responsible for point targets, such as hangars, command buildings, and anti-aircraft guns.

The "Swan" horizontal bomber is responsible for a group of targets, that is, aircraft parked in the open air. As a twin-engine bomber, the maximum bomb load of the "Swan" is relatively small, only 1,000 kg. In order to deal with the Qing army planes that might be scattered and parked, each of them was equipped with 10 bombs of 100 kilograms, striving to be "small but many" and have the effect of blowing up a large area.

Of course, the task of the fighters is to protect the bombers, and if they are lucky enough to have time for the Qing fighters to fly, they must participate in strafing and maximize the results of the battle.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang clearly knows how the German army bombed the Soviet Union on the first day of the German raid on the Soviet Union in 1941. The air raid was a teaching lesson. The Germans specially designed a "butterfly shell", each weighing only 2 kilograms, which is equivalent to a medium-caliber anti-aircraft shell. The German army could carry hundreds of bombers per bomber, and the effect of 10 100-kilogram bombs was by no means comparable to that of 10 100-kilogram bombs. A vulnerable target, such as an airplane, can be completely destroyed if it hits just one.

The USSR lost 1,811 aircraft on the first day. Of these, 1,489 were blown up by such bombs on the ground.

Xiang Xiaoqiang tried to move that kind of attack here, and he quietly asked the commander of the army aviation if there were similar small bombs in Daming now. The answer is no.

Then he quietly asked if he could replace it with something else, such as a 60-millimeter mortar shell. The 60-mm mortar shells of the Ming army could be supplied in large quantities, which also weighed exactly two kilograms. And the shape of the mortar shell is suitable, spindle-shaped, with a tail, which was originally designed for vertical fall at high altitudes. If each plane can fit a few hundred, the bombing effect is too good.

However, the reason why Xiang Xiaoqiang asked quietly was that he knew that it might be a little whimsical. Mortar shells, after all, are not designed for aircraft, there must be problems.

Sure enough, the commander of the army aviation thought about it for a while and replied that he was afraid that it would not work. He raised some very real questions. For example, so many small bombs must not simply be stacked in the bomb bay, and special equipment must be required. Also, security is not guaranteed. When reloading, be sure to remove the safety bolt from all shells. A large pile of mortar shells with the safety bolt pulled out was piled together, plus the shock wave of the plane taking off, diving, dodging fighters, anti-aircraft guns...... and other possible vibrations, it is very likely that they will explode in the bomb bay and destroy the plane and kill people. Or, maybe one or two will get stuck in the bomb bay and explode when it lands.

This is a good idea, but the shells need to be handled specially, and special equipment needs to be added to the bomb bay. Or simply design a small bomb specifically. …… However, this time it was too late.

Xiang Xiaoqiang also knew that he couldn't risk his own plane in order to kill and damage more enemy planes. On the one hand, there is a moral issue, on the other hand, after this air raid, the era of the great air war between the Ming and Qing dynasties came, and every plane was precious to the Ming Dynasty, especially the valuable twin-engine bombers.

……

After the 385 planes of the Ming army were assembled in formation, in order to be as concealed as possible, they climbed to an altitude of 6,500 meters, flew across the Yangtze River between Nanjing and Zhenjiang, and then divided their troops into three routes.

Donglu flies to Dongtai Airport and Baoying Airport; Fly to Sihong Airport and Fengyang Airport in the middle road; West Road flies to Hefei Airport and Lu'an Airport. The average military airfield is just a brigade with dozens of aircraft. And these six airports are all regimental airports, and there are more than 100 aircraft. These are six daggers pointing at the defense line of the eastern section of the Yangtze River.

The Yangtze River is already behind us. After sending each other's "good luck" radio signals, the three groups began to disperse and entered a state of radio silence.

The middle and west fleets turned to fly westward, and the eastern route continued to fly due north.

The closest route is the East Road. Baoying Airport is only 80 kilometers away from Nanjing, and it will be the first place to start.

The cockpit of the "Swan" bomber was very cramped, and it was not like the later four-engine bombers, which had a large corridor from beginning to end, with member posts in front and behind, left and right, and up and down. "Swan" had only four members, and all of them were concentrated in the front half: the captain and pilot, the nose machine gunner and co-pilot, the rear of the cockpit machine gunner, the bombardier.

The captain patted the co-pilot, pointed down, and motioned for him to go to the nose. The co-pilot nodded, bent down to the captain's feet, climbed into the glass cover of the nose, hugged the machine gun handle, and tried it up and down, left and right, very good.

Although the actual space in the front glass cover is small, the field of vision is wide, and there is no feeling of crampedness at all.

Now that we have flown half the distance, we are already far away from the dense fog of the Yangtze River, and it is already a good cloudy weather here. Overlooking the land of southern Jiangsu from a high altitude, it is like a silk satin, the water network is dense, and the paddy fields reflect the sunset, and the ridge paths are vertical and horizontal, and the texture is very beautiful.

In between, the white clouds were in large chunks, like cotton wool.

The co-pilot, like most bomber pilots, flew over the Yangtze River into the Chingland for the first time, and it was also the first time to actually bomb. Nervous, scared, excited, the hands in the big leather gloves clung to the machine gun, and the eyes nervously searched around.

Until now, not a single Qing fighter has appeared. There was also no black cloud of anti-aircraft guns under the belly.

Everyone is praying that they hope to stay in the sky above Baoying Airport.

……

The Donglu group was divided into two again, and one part flew eastward to bomb Dongtai Airport.

Flew over Gaoyou Lake.

The wide Gaoyou Lake below is grayish-yellow, and the sunset is sparkling, like a giant mirror.

The captain looked at the direction chart, pulled out the flight chart from under his seat, marked it a few times, and then lifted the oxygen mask and looked ahead.

Ahead were dive bomber formations. At the beginning of the attack, they had to be the first to pounce, taking out the anti-aircraft gun positions and conning towers, and then their own horizontal bomber formations would drop bombs on the planes on the ground.

He looked up and above him was a formation of fighter jets. They spread out in a formation of four or four, appearing small.

Soon, the lake below narrowed and eventually narrowed into a river. - Bao Ying is ahead.

The voice of the group leader appeared in the headphones:

"Brothers, go back and drink tonight, I'm in for a treat."

Then, there was a light laugh. Everyone knows that they have already flown over Baoying, and they have not seen the Qing fighters yet, even if they take off now, it will be too late. The surprise attack was basically successful, and the rest is a matter of the size of the results.

The voice of the leader of the dive bomber formation appeared in the headphones:

"Then you're welcome! I have long heard that the duck in Nanjing is delicious, hehe, I must try it tonight. ”

The leader of the fighter formation said lukewarmly:

"I said be careful, if you let people fight it, you can only eat Gaoyou preserved eggs at night."

"Gaoyou preserved eggs are also good! I haven't eaten it yet! ”

At this time, black clouds began to appear below the group.

"Qing anti-aircraft artillery! Shut up," said the group leader, "and here we go." Osprey preparation. ”

The dive bomber leader replied:

"Osprey in place."

"Did them!"

"Yes!"

The black cloud of anti-aircraft artillery gradually became denser, and quickly approached upward, and soon the muffled sound of "bangbang" could be heard in the cabin, and the bulkhead also felt the vibration.

……

Baoying Airport of the Qing Air Force, at this moment, the air defense alarm is in full swing.

Some of the recruits ran to the bunker very seriously, but many more were unhurried, walking and talking, and wiping the plane, as if the alarm had nothing to do with them.

Although Baoying was only eighty kilometers from the Yangtze River, it was never bombed, like the rest of the Northern Qing Dynasty. Since the start of the war, because of its proximity to Nanming and the fact that it is an important airport, the air defense exercises have been carried out over and over again, but the Qing army was already bureaucratic and superficial, and it was quite fresh at the beginning, but then it became numb, and few people followed it seriously. Anyway, the gendarmes don't care if they stand there, they turn a blind eye. It's just that those recruits just didn't understand, and they were afraid of being reorganized by the veterans, so they ran very seriously.

It wasn't until they heard the anti-aircraft guns around them that everyone reacted, this is real!

Everyone rushed to the air raid shelter like crazy, and the pilot, who was standing on the plane for maintenance, also jumped down, threw off the plane, and ran for his life.

Airplanes were parked on both sides of the runway, lined up as if they were being reviewed.

No one tried to get the plane flying.

On the anti-aircraft gun position, the artillery was scrambling 75-mm anti-aircraft guns. The gunner pulls open the chamber and exits the smoking cartridge case, into which the loader holds the shell. The gunner then shook sharply according to the data reported by the observer, making the barrel more vertical and aiming at the horizontal bomber group high in the air.

"Dang!"

The cannonballs were sent into the sky, and there was one more dense black dot in the sky.

"Damn," the observer scolded, "I'm at Grandma's house!" ”

", you don't say it's accurate!"

"Hey, what's that?"

A dozen small black dots appeared in the sky, slowly growing larger.

The artillery commander suddenly shouted:

"Enemy planes! Shake it down! ”

The "little black dot" quickly turned into an airplane, roaring down, the machine guns on both wings flashed, the smoke and dust on the ground exploded, the gun mount sandbags ate several bullets, and a swarthy thing fell straight down.

There was a loud bang, and the bomb exploded ten meters away.

With a "woo-" overhead, the plane swept past the scalp and pulled up again.

The artillerymen of this gun killed two people on the spot, and the other three lay on their stomachs in the sandbag fortifications, holding their heads and not daring to move.

……

After all, the "Osprey" is a carrier-based bomber, and the pilots have not been trained to aim at such a small target, and the first round of bombs dropped is generally a little off, ranging from a few meters to more than ten meters. Although there were no direct hits, shrapnel and shock waves killed and injured a large number of Qing artillerymen, and left the remaining artillerymen lying in the sandbags and not daring to raise their heads.

The Qing army had never been taught dive bombing, and it can be said that they had basically never learned about bombing, and one round of dive bombing almost destroyed their morale.

The leader of the Ming army's fleet was observing from a high altitude and was surprised to see that there were almost no anti-aircraft guns firing so soon. He had planned to let the horizontal bomber formation attract firepower for a little longer.

The dive bomber leader was also overjoyed, pulled the lever, and ordered:

"Second wave, begin!"

Then he led the remaining dozen or so "Ospreys" to roll over on the right side and go straight down.

Overlooking the airport, the situation is similar to that given by the intelligence. This airfield is basically full of fighter jets. According to intelligence, there should be almost 120 fighters at Baoying Airport, 20 of which are of the new "Haidongqing" type.

Now there are 40-60 planes lined up on both sides of the runway. All you can see are biplanes, which are the main fighters of the Qing Air Force, and have a very good name: Jebe, which means Mongolian word for archer.

There are five small hangars on both sides of the runway, three large hangars. Presumably, the rest of the aircraft were in several hangars. The twenty precious "Hai Dongqing" should also be hidden in the hangar.

……

The fifteen "Ospreys" of the first wave pulled up and climbed again, and the fifteen planes of the second wave, under the leadership of the team leader, pounced on the eight hangars and the airport command building.

Three dive bombers pounced on the command building, while the machine guns spat tongues of fire, and six lines of fire jumped and intertwined on the command tower. The large glass window of the tower shattered instantly, and the blood of the two officers who had not had time to run down was splattered on the spot.

Immediately afterwards, three 200-kilogram bombs exploded on the left, right, and center of the command building, and the brick two-story command building and the six-story tower collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust.

The twelve "Ospreys" that pounced on the eight-seat hangar also gained a lot of money, and the hangar was much easier to aim at than the anti-aircraft guns. Two of the three large hangars were hit by one bomb each, and one was hit twice in a row, and the planes and fuel pumps inside were detonated and plunged into a sea of fire. Of the five small hangars, two of them were hit by bullets and were exploding and burning, the other three were missed, and the bombs were thrown more than ten meters away, and one hit the plane on the runway.

Until now, each "Osprey" has dropped a bomb, and one is left of each. The Osprey leader led the re-ascent, commanding:

"Everyone, hold steady, don't panic, try to be accurate! If you're not sure, don't vote, you can rush another round! …… There is no threat at the moment, we can take it easy! But the results must be great! ”

Nervous laughter came from the headphones:

"Hehe, it's so enjoyable!"

"It's so much harder than I thought!"

The original first wave of "Ospreys" has now climbed, and nine planes have dived down again. This time with some experience, nine bombs exploded around three small hangars, each of which hit at least one.

In these three small hangars, there are 20 "Haidongqing" monoplane fighters parked. This fighter was specially designed by the Japanese company Mitsubishi for the Qing army, and its performance was comparable to that of the "Kingfisher" designed by the Ming army, which could be called a fierce rival.

The reason for this name is that, on the one hand, "Haidongqing" is a traditional bird of prey of the Jurchen people, and on the other hand, the Ming army first commissioned the "Swan" medium bomber, and the Qing Air Force named its new fighter "Haidongqing". Hai Dongqing is specially trained to catch swans, here to take the meaning of natural enemies and nemesis. It's a pity that the 20 Haidongqing here were blown into wreckage before they were released.

At this point, the main task of the dive bomber was completed. The group leader ordered the "Osprey" formation to begin assisting the "Swan" formation and bombing the planes on the airfield. Half of the 20 Kingfisher fighters were on alert at high altitude, and half of them also swooped down, firing anti-aircraft guns incessantly, not giving them a chance to fire again.

Fifteen "Swans" swooped down from a high altitude. Because there is no threat, for the sake of accuracy, the altitude is very low, only a few hundred meters.

Horizontal bombardment began.

"Open the bomb bay door!"

The belly bomb bay door opened. The cabin began to whist, and the temperature became colder. The bombardier's eyes are on the scope, his hands are on the deadly red button, he looks at the runway below, and slowly aims.

Gradually, the planes on the runway entered the scope...... Enter the center of the crosshairs again.

"Put!"

The bombardier let out a loud shout and pressed the red button.

The 10 100-kilogram bombs were loosened and dropped off from the shelves one by one, one on the left and one on the right, and the plane trembled, lightened, and began to climb higher.

There was a rapid flash of light on the ground, followed by a long line of fireball and smoke that rose up. The blast zone swept diagonally past the queue of planes on the runway, and at least three planes fell in the fireball.

Fifteen "Swans" flew over the runway in turn, throwing 10 bombs out of the bomb bay one after another. For a time, dense columns of black smoke rose on the runway, and the fighters below collapsed in the fireworks explosion one after another, and clouds of black smoke and fireballs rose into the sky, and many planes were directly blown into the sky.

The "Osprey" dive bomber followed behind, and when it saw a fish that had slipped through the net, it dropped the remaining bomb. When all the bombs were dropped, they were machine-gunfired. The last surviving dozen or so "Jebes" also caught fire and fell under machine-gun fire.

The group leader looked down and saw that not a single plane on the airport was not burning. The eight hangars were all caught in flames, and the three large hangars continued to explode, and fireballs rushed out of the big holes in the top of the warehouses.

"Very well," he said, holding back his excitement, "now let's go home, brethren." ”

There was a cheer in the headphones, almost breaking the leader's eardrums.

……

The report of the successful surprise attack was sent back to the Purple Mountain Fortress Headquarters in secret words.

At present, there are two focal points on the large map of the Central Command Hall, one is the defense of Nanjing, and the other is the air raid being carried out more than 100 kilometers to the north.

Above the hall, the announcer lady broadcast in a pleasant voice:

"The first battle report of the 'Man Jianghong' operation...... the first battle report of the 'Man Jianghong' operation...... The Dong-1 group arrived at Baoying Airfield 20 minutes earlier and did not encounter enemy fighters...... Up to now, about 60 open-air fighters and 8 hangars of various sizes have been destroyed, and all targets have been successfully destroyed...... The Dong-1 fleet was undamaged...... The return voyage has begun. ”

The hall was filled with jubilation, and many young officers applauded. After the Qing army invaded the city, the negative atmosphere that had formed here has finally been reversed. Everyone saw the hope of winning the battle to defend Nanjing.

Xiang Xiaoqiang sat in a chair and looked at the big map. Xiuxiu stood quietly beside her.

On the map, the location of Baoying, the three small red planes representing the three brigades of the Qing Air Force were removed. So far, the "Manjianghong" operation has been one-sixth successful.

In fact, he doesn't need to, and Xiang Xiaoqiang doesn't expect everything to be like Baoying. As long as Baoying has two more functions, and the loss of its own aircraft does not exceed one-third of the Qing army, it will be considered a complete success.

But Baoying was the first airport to be attacked by surprise after all. It is likely that they were already alerted by the airstrikes at several other airfields. The ideal state of such a multi-target air attack should be to strive for simultaneous bombing. But this is too demanding for the coordination of multiple fleets. After all, this is the first time that so many planes have been dispatched, and it would be good to be able to blow them up smoothly in their own way.

Xiang Xiaoqiang glanced at the big clock on the wall, it was already half past five. In the next half hour, the reports of each fleet will be sent back. That's when you know. In the next hour, they will all be back. …… Or, only a part of it back.

But he thought about the basic conditions of this operation, and he was full of confidence.

First, we were a surprise attack, and they were caught off guard. Secondly, the performance of our fighters and the quality of our pilots are above them.

With these two items, the situation will not be too bad. It's just a matter of the size of the results.

Xiang Xiaoqiang relieved himself and began to look at the map, reviewing the next steps.

Next, it's time to blow up Pukou before it's dark. This is mainly the job of a dive bomber. If you were lucky, the Battle of Nanjing was won on Chinese New Year's Eve.

However, in the case of absolute air supremacy, it is too cheap for the Qing army to only win the "defense war" of Nanjing, right?

His eyes were fixed on the map, and he slowly moved south, moving to the three pontoon bridges on Zimu Island.

Then Xiang Xiaoqiang began to calculate his strength.