Accompanied by the strength of nine divisions, the Japanese army launched an attack on the whole line of the battlefield from the Pinghan Line in the west to the Bohai Bay in the east. With the strength of two divisions, they simultaneously launched an attack on the Taihang Mountains in the southeast of Shanxi, aiming directly at the periphery of Changzhi. And on the Jiaodong Peninsula, the Japanese army also completely completed the blockade of the main force of the Shandong Military Region. The Jilu battlefield was only quiet for more than half a month, and once again there was a dense sound of gunfire.

In order to cover the Japanese offensive of various divisions and regiments on the ground, all the army and naval aviation units mobilized by the Japanese army to the periphery of the battlefield were also dispatched. Compete for air supremacy with the anti-coalition air force and provide air cover for the Japanese army on the ground. The two Japanese aircraft carriers anchored in the Bohai Bay also dispatched all their carrier-based aircraft to cooperate with the Texas battlefield to compete for air supremacy.

It's just that compared with the army aviation and the navy's shore-based aviation, the carrier-based aircraft dispatched by these two aircraft carriers have fought very miserably since they were put into the battlefield. Its main fighter jet, which is still equipped with Zero Combat, has been upgraded. It was upgraded from the original 21 type to the 22 type, but due to the small body and engine, the performance has not been fundamentally improved and transformed.

Although among the P40K fighters and Yak-9 fighters equipped by the Anti-United Nations in the North China battlefield, the Yak-9 fighters have medium-low altitude performance, although their performance exceeds that of the Zero-22 type. However, in the face of the Japanese army aviation and the navy's shore-based aviation, it is impossible to put too many numbers in the direction of the Jinpu line.

The P-40K fighter, although it is also a new model among the P-40 fighters. The performance is no longer the same as that of the previous anti-union equipment Type B. But against the Japanese army's Zero Battle 22 type, the performance is still very reluctant. However, the Japanese Navy dispatched this Zero Combat 22 carrier-based aircraft, although it was the first time to fight with the Anti-Japanese Union.

But for the anti-union, he has already figured out his previous model. And the performance of this Zero Battle 22 has not changed much in terms of performance compared to the model that fell into the anti-alliance at the beginning. The Achilles' heel that existed in the previous Type 21 is still its Achilles' weakness in Type 22.

However, the Zero Fighters in the Anti-Japanese Alliance, despite the lack of spare parts, have become exhibits. However, this kind of combat aircraft, because of its excellent low-altitude combat performance in air combat, is still the opponent of all fighter pilots of the Anti-United Nations to conduct the first class of simulated air combat. Even though most of these zero battles are no longer in action, the anti-United Nations aviation forces are trying their best to replace them with other aircraft for simulation.

For the current Zero Combat 22 type, although it is the first time that the anti-United Nations air force has fought each other. However, this fighter has not fundamentally improved its performance from its predecessors who have fought against the United Nations, making it almost difficult to take advantage of the combination of P40 and Yak-9 fighters in air combat.

In addition, in the whole four or three years, the Japanese Navy has consumed too much in the southwest Pacific theater, and those operating pilots who have been painstakingly trained have basically lost embers. At present, the quality of the Japanese naval aviation, whose training standards and time have been greatly reduced, cannot be compared with those of the past.

After half a day of air fighting, all 72 zeros sent by the two Japanese aircraft carriers were only recovered when they returned. The remaining wreckage of the Zero War is scattered throughout the entire Bohai Plain between the Maji River and the Machang Alkali River, east of the Jinpu Line. This price can almost be said to be lost for the two aircraft carriers that the Japanese Navy threw into the Bohai Bay battlefield.

The Zero Combat 22 fighter, which they thought they had put into the Chinese theater, had indeed lagged behind in its performance against the US military's new F6F Hellcat and F4U fighters in the Pacific theater. But once in the Southwest Pacific theater, the P-40 fighter was still holding a handle.

In addition, in the southwest Pacific theater, in the face of the tremendous pressure brought about by the Americans' endless emergence of new aircraft, the Japanese Navy's poor production of new fighters had to be mainly focused on the Pacific theater. Therefore, in this Hebei battlefield, the Japanese Navy, which did not want to work hard for the army, did not put the latest Zero Combat 52 fighter into the Chinese battlefield.

And they are full of confidence and want to take advantage of this, and in the Pacific theater, they have actually withdrawn from the front-line combat and transferred to the training of pilots and second-line troops, and continue to stage the scene of their slaughter of P-40 fighters in the southwest Pacific theater on the Chinese battlefield.

The Japanese naval aviation, which was proud and ambitious, dispatched all 72 aircraft equipped with two aircraft carriers in the first wave. As a result, I did not expect that the first batch of seventy-two aircraft carriers of the two aircraft carriers dispatched to the battlefield were zero. Not to mention that only seven of them returned to the sea, two of them were actually scrapped by the time they barely landed.

However, these Type 99 and Type 97 carrier-based attack planes covered by zero combat, these two more veteran attack planes suffered greater losses, and all the attack planes dispatched basically went and never returned. Even if they were lucky enough to break through the interception of the anti-United Nations fighters, they also suffered heavy losses in the face of dense ground-to-air firepower.

As a result of the First Air Battle, the losses of the Japanese Navy's carrier-based aviation far exceeded that of land-based aviation and army aviation. After the end of the first day of air fighting, the two Japanese aircraft carriers could only go home in a gloomy way. What if you don't go? There are very few carrier-based aircraft left, and not only can they no longer play a role in staying in Bohai Bay, but they are also easy to be targeted.

There are also bombers, although they have not been able to take into account the Bohai Bay before. But now that their protective layer has been stripped away, can people still think about taking advantage? Now the aircraft carrier is the deadliest weapon of the Imperial Navy, and if it is lost on the Chinese battlefield all at once, it will be a watermelon and a sesame seed.

Having lost most of the carrier-based aircraft, the Japanese Navy did not hesitate in the slightest. In addition to leaving two old armored cruisers Yakumo and Tsumide, five destroyers plus three coastal defense ships, plus seven destroyers remained in Bohai Bay. All large ships in the Bohai Sea were immediately withdrawn to Lushun. Under the strict protection of the destroyers, the two aircraft carriers directly withdrew to the mainland to replenish the carrier-based aircraft.

In fact, the Japanese Navy's carrier-based aviation suffered such heavy losses, except that it was too light on the enemy and did not mobilize new fighters to participate in the battle. Another main reason is that the performance of their carrier-based attack aircraft is too old. Those two attack planes have been in service since before the outbreak of the Pacific War, and now they have been fighting in high-intensity warfare for two years, and they are still charging forward in the front line.

These two kinds of veterans who have been used to ambush can barely be used when there is fighter cover. When the fighter is also unable to protect itself, he can only stare dryly. The zero battles that covered them were all defeated, and the results of these two attack aircraft, which were already quite old, can be imagined.

It's not that the Japanese Navy doesn't want to make progress, it's just that the two newly developed attack aircraft are not progressing well. When taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier, the Japanese soldiers who crashed were terrified, and the other was overweight and could not take off on the aircraft carrier with torpedoes or bombs. These two new aircraft are not competitive, and the Japanese navy in desperation can only continue to use these two old aircraft and continue to act as the main force on the front line.

However, compared with the carrier-based aviation, it was the embarrassing situation of being beaten home in one day. The land-based air force invested by the Japanese Navy has performed quite well. Its newly equipped Thunderbolt fighter has exceptionally excellent performance. In the air battle, it was inseparable from the Yak-9 fighters of the Anti-United Nations.

In the case of the Zero War, because of the corresponding tactics, the P40K fighter can also take advantage. In the face of this new Japanese fighter equipped with a high-power bomber engine, it was basically powerless to fight back. Two-thirds of the losses of the anti-coalition air force on the entire Eastern Front battlefield were caused by this new Japanese fighter.

And this kind of fighter, the Japanese army only put into play more than 40 in the North China battlefield. Not only the shore-based aviation fighters of the Japanese Navy performed quite well. Moreover, the Comet dive bombers that the Japanese Navy put into the North China battlefield performed far better than the carrier-based aviation.

Although the Japanese Navy was almost blinded when this kind of aircraft crashed on an aircraft carrier, it performed very well on the land base. Its extremely fast flight speed makes it difficult for the anti-United Fighter group to intercept effectively. It was only because of the intensive anti-aircraft fire of the Anti-United Nations that this kind of bomber did not bring much trouble to the anti-United Nations forces.

Compared with the extremely fierce ground battlefield, the Bohai Bay, the easternmost part of the entire battlefield, is quite calm at the moment. In addition to dispatching a large number of naval ships to carry out large-scale artillery bombardment from Tianjin to Qikou, the Japanese army and navy operated in the Bohai Bay in addition to dispatching a large number of planes to fight for air supremacy or to provide support for the Japanese offensive on the front line in Texas. It was as quiet as if it had ended here, without any actual movement.

The Japanese army, which was in a hurry to reopen the Jinpu line and restore ground contact with the Kwantung Army outside the Kansai. It was to pour out the nest and invest heavy troops to launch a full-front attack on northern Shandong, northwest Shandong, and northern Henan. In the face of the full-front counteroffensive launched by the Japanese army, Yang Zhen immediately instructed all units participating in the war to act according to the predetermined plan.

In the northwest of Shandong, two brigades of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region and three other independent regiments gave way to the front of Xiajin and held the area east of the Linqing Canal with the main force. Along the Linqing-Qinghe highway and along the Linqing-Guantao highway, we will make every effort to ensure the safety of the flanks of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region operating in southern Hebei. and contained the 118th Division attacking in this direction to ensure the implementation of Chen Hanzhang's battle plan losses.

In front of Xiajin, a brigade from Jin-Cha-Ji went south, and two regiments of the Anti-Japanese Union were strengthened, with the cooperation of the troops of the 5th Division in southern Hebei. Fight along the Xiajin to Wucheng highway. The direction of attack of a division of the Japanese army attacking in front of the face was contained along the Zaonan and Zaobei highways.

At the same time, on the two flanks of the Xiajin battlefield, the artillery and anti-aircraft artillery groups secretly mobilized by Chen Hanzhang were moving rapidly. One of the divisions that Yang Zhenxin added to him was in the area between Zaobei and Nangong to wait in concealment. Chen Hanzhang's intention was that the main force of the 72nd Division, which was to attack from the Xiajin battlefield, would first attack this rising bird after crossing the Zaonan line.

As long as this 72nd Division is defeated, there will be a gap between the Japanese army on the Eastern Front and the Japanese army in northwestern Shandong Province that will be difficult to fill, and he can make a big fuss about it. Strengthen all the tank forces in his hands with a force, or outflank the Dezhou battlefield to the east, or cooperate with the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region to the west to encircle the 118th Division of Linqing.

After the Japanese counterattack on all fronts began, Chen Hanzhang was very keen to discover a big weakness of the Japanese army in the entire strategy. The Japanese army, which was too eager to restore the situation on the battlefield in North China, came up and attacked on all fronts. In addition to the two almost immobile divisions in eastern Henan, as well as one division in Yanzhou, which is deep in the Jinpu line, and one division deployed in northeastern Lu.

Almost all the forces at hand were put into the front-line attack. In this way, between the Texas battlefield and Yanzhou, and between the Texas and Linqing battlefields, there are two considerable gaps left, which are basically filled by no troops. In other words, the Japanese army's current tactics of front-line horizontal push look fierce and abnormal, but the entire depth is quite empty.