Seeing Major General Kawashima, he still didn't understand the meaning, and General Ito, who was obviously in a good mood, continued to patiently explain: "After destroying the American planes, the counterattacking US troops are not just gifts sent to the door, we have more than 90,000 attack troops, after the US army has been heavily damaged, how many troops are left, surround the Americans, it is easy, order the attack troops, put the counterattacking US troops in, we are in the first position, completely solve the US Third Army!" ”

Chief of Staff Kawashima's thinking suddenly became clear, although he was conceited and intelligent, but in the command of the campaign, he was far inferior to General Ito, in the intricate and rapidly changing battlefield, he could keenly grasp the fighter that could be used and achieve the best results, General Ito, worthy of being a famous general of the Imperial Army, Major General Kawashima's gaze, undisguised admiration and admiration!

Admiral Ito enjoyed this feeling very much, but pretended to be deep and said: "Kawashima-kun, all my deployments are based on the Imperial Army Air Force, which can destroy American aircraft, as for the final result, it depends on the expression of our Imperial Air Warriors!" ”

At about 5:30 a.m. on 13 August, in front of the US planes covering the US infantry counterattack, a formation of Japanese fighters composed of several small planes appeared.

Colonel Rijkaard, commander of the air formation of the US First Air Force, immediately dispatched a considerable number of fighters from his own fleet to meet him, and dozens of US and Japanese fighters began to wrestle up and down in the pre-dawn sky.

In terms of the performance of fighters. The fighters prepared by the Japanese Air Force are basically the same as those equipped by the US Air Force, but the biggest gap lies in the morale of the pilots and their actual combat experience.

For fighters of other cover of the US military. The machine gun bullets that were constantly being fired turned a blind eye, and under such a desperate fighting style, the same number of American fighters were no match for the Japanese fighters at all. In less than ten minutes of fighting, there were five U.S. fighter jets. Shot down by Japanese fighters. The one that was full of fire rushed to the ground, and a fireball exploded, and the Japanese fighters only lost one!

In addition, there were Japanese fighters who broke through the blockade of American fighters. Rushing into the formation of US bombers, there was a burst of frenzied fire, and several US bombers were beaten to the point of smoke. Drifting crookedly to the distant sea, even if you think about it with the back of your head, those bombers may not be able to escape their doom, but seven or eight Japanese fighters will rush into the formation of the bomber group of US troops supporting the ground counterattack.

Colonel Rijkaard was so angry that he scolded Commander Whiteman in his heart, "It's really a fucking blind command, the fighter was originally used for air combat, but that guy ordered a ground attack, and a layman, it would not be reasonable, if there was no order from Commander Whiteman, all the fighters would be used, but only sixty or so Japanese fighters would be able to make dumplings for the Japanese immediately!" ”

After another ten minutes, the small group of Japanese planes became more and more rampant, which had already affected the group of planes to cover the infantry counterattack, and Colonel Rijkaard felt that he could not go on like this, and that he should first kill the troublesome Japanese fighters, and he was about to pass through the commander of the air formation of the Second Air Force, Colonel Frasis.

"Colonel Frasis, I have a plan to surround and kill more than 60 Japanese fighters with all the fighters of our First Air Force, and all the fighters of your Second Air Force will continue to support the counterattack of the ground forces, what is your opinion?" Colonel Frasis said in a consultative tone.

Colonel Vlasis was also upset by the Japanese fighters, he and Colonel Rijkaard had similar ideas, they both scoffed at Commander Whiteman's orders, what is going on, take the fighter plane of air combat, use it as a ground attack aircraft, that Whiteman understands it or not, but the order of the headquarters, and does not dare to disobey, belongs to the support by pinching his nose, hearing Colonel Frasis's advice, he immediately agreed.

"Colonel Rijkaard, I very much agree with your proposal, for God's sake, your First Air Force, send those mischievous yellow-skinned Japanese monkeys to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, I have been very troubled by them! It's just, don't you want to report on that Major General Whiteman first? Colonel Frasis reminded with some humor.

Colonel Rijkaard said contemptuously: "Report to him, waste time, does he understand what air combat is?" "More than 280 fighters of the US First Air Force immediately withdrew from the airspace of the battlefield, and under the command of Colonel Rijkaard, they divided into two groups and outflanked more than 60 Japanese fighters on the left and right with great momentum.

Seeing more than 200 U.S. fighter planes rushing over, the Japanese fighters seemed to be a little confused, and they didn't care about forming a formation, so they immediately withdrew from the battle and retreated in the direction of the Babuyan Strait. ”

Yamazaki Shaosa, commander of the Japanese fighter air formation, looked back at the US fighter group that was in black pressure and was in hot pursuit, with a hideous sneer on his face, and turned on the intercom, "Commander Kashima, I am Yamazaki Shaosa, the commander of the decoy group, and I report to you that the US fighter group, about 200 fighters, is chasing us, I have already commanded the aircraft group, retreat to the ambush airspace, and the report is over!" ”

Major General Kashima, commander of the Kashima Air Force of the Japanese Army, said excitedly: "If you want to go west, Yamazaki Shaosa, you have to play realistically, don't let the commander of the US aircraft group see the flaws, you can lure the US aircraft group to the ambush area of our air force, you are a great achievement!" ”

At this time, the ground battle has also undergone a reversal of the nature of the change, overhead, there are hundreds of aircraft supported by the American soldiers, seem to have forgotten the fear of the past, burst out with great courage, Commander Whiteman's counter-assault, fought extremely smoothly, he kept receiving reports, "Commander, I counterattack the troops, have broken the encirclement of the Japanese army, and joined the troops of the first line of defense, and now, we are continuing to expand the results of the battle and regain the position!" ”

He really didn't expect that the second-line troops, only more than 24,000 people, launched a counterattack against more than 90,000 Japanese troops, and achieved such results, plus the existing troops on the front line, it would not exceed 50,000 people. Could it be that there is some Japanese conspiracy in it?

But even if Commander Whiteman wanted to break his head, he couldn't figure out where the conspiracy was, and in the end, he attributed the reason why the counterattack was so smooth to the hundreds of planes of the two air fleets, and only such fierce aerial firepower could achieve the current effect.

After the fighter group of the US First Air Force caught up with the Japanese fighters, less than 10 minutes later, a small group of Japanese fighters appeared in the sky, but this time there seemed to be more of them, about 80 planes.

Colonel Frasis felt the distress of Colonel Rijkaard, he almost divided half of his fighters to meet the Japanese fighters, but he could not completely stop the Japanese fighters from attacking his bomber group, seeing more than a dozen bombers being beaten by the Japanese fighters with smoke and fire, and fell to the ground and turned into a ball of fire, he could no longer control his feelings.

Ordered all the fighters to immediately surround the Japanese fighters, and as before, the Japanese fighters did not love to fight, and after taking advantage, they turned around and ran, but the direction of running was the waters of Lingayan Bay, Colonel Vlasis gritted his teeth, ordered the bomber group, continued to carry out the task of supporting the ground forces to attack, and commanded more than 300 fighters himself, like a gust of wind, and pursued closely, at the same time, the commander of the Japanese Araki Air Force, Major General Araki, also received a report of successfully luring the US fighter group to pursue.

After receiving the reports of Major General Kashima and Major General Araki, Admiral Ito said to the chief of staff, Major General Kawashima: "Kawashima-kun, our victory is in sight, and I order the Kuroda Air Force to divide into three routes, two of which will participate in the air battle of the US fighters, and shoot down all the US bombers all the way to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. ”

As a result of the pursuit, the two US fighter groups were ambushed by Japanese fighters twice as large as their own in the airspace over the Babuyan Strait, which is more than 100 kilometers away from Luzon Island, and in the airspace over Lingayan Bay, which is more than 80 kilometers away.

On the battlefield in the Calais Mountains, the US bomber group, which continued to support the counterattack of the ground troops, was suddenly attacked by Japanese fighters, and an hour later, the US bomber group, which had lost its fighter escort, was completely annihilated.

(To be continued) (To be continued.) )