Although with the entry into service of the F6F Hellcat and F8F Panda fighters and the continuous improvement of the Zero fighter, the air combat performance of the P47 seems to be a bit behind the times, but there is one thing about the P47 that cannot be replaced by other fighters.
That is its powerful bomb load, its sturdy body and ferocious firepower, which other fighters cannot catch up with.
When the leading six P47s dived down at a 60-degree angle, the anti-aircraft fire on the ground turned their muzzles and fired at them almost frantically.
But it was too late at this time. Amidst the bursts of fire, sixty 127mm rockets rushed to the ground with a whistling sound.
"Boom...boom..."
Huge explosions rang out everywhere in Mandela. The headquarters of the 33rd Army was hit the hardest, with more than 30 rockets landing in every corner of the headquarters.
Before Honda and his party entered the air raid shelter, a rocket flew in his direction with thick white smoke.
"Commander, be careful!"
Before Honda could react, he heard an exclamation from the side, and then Honda was thrown to the ground.
"boom……"
Amidst the explosion that shook the ground, Honda Masakai felt the ground shake, and then a wave of heat passed by him.
After an unknown amount of time, Honda Masakai woke up from his brief coma. He struggled to push away the things that were weighing on him and stood up unsteadily.
He saw a pile of corpses falling next to him. The six guards who were originally crowding around him all fell into a pool of blood. It turned out that it was the six guards who had just thrown themselves on him when the rockets came. They used them
His body blocked the powerful shock wave and deadly shrapnel when the rocket exploded, thus saving his life.
"Sawamoto-kun...Sawamoto-kun..."
Honda Masato shouted the name of his chief of staff loudly.
"Your Excellency, Commander, I'm here!" Rikichiro Sawamoto's voice came from the side.
And the image of the chief of staff at this time was not much better. A stream of blood kept flowing from his forehead, and the military uniform on his body had long become tattered. It was obvious that although the rocket bomb just did not kill him,
, but it also caused him a lot of hardship.
He panted and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, judging from the bombing of the plane just now, the Chinese have already grasped the location of our headquarters, otherwise the bombing just now would not have been so targeted."
"Now is not the time to talk about this. You should immediately organize the air defense forces to fight back. You must drive away the Chinese planes.
No…where did the Chinese plane go?”
At this point, the two of them were shocked. The plane that was wreaking havoc over Mandalay just now suddenly disappeared.
If it weren't for the groaning wounded, corpses and broken walls all over the ground, some people might still think that the attack just now was just a dream.
"Look..."
Suddenly someone pointed to the southwest, and someone with good eyesight suddenly shouted, "That's the direction to the prisoner of war camp."
"Prisoner of war camp?"
Rikichiro Sawamoto and Masato Honda looked at each other, and their expressions changed immediately, "The Mandalay Prisoner of War Camp holds more than 10,000 Allied prisoners. If something happens, the front army might be alerted.
The headquarters or even the base camp.”
"Commander, do you still remember that Major Ryū Kuribayashi, who was in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp, reported to the headquarters two days ago that a China reconnaissance plane conducted a close reconnaissance of the prisoner-of-war camp?"
"Remember." Honda Masato's expression also became solemn, "Ribayashi Hashiryu said that China's reconnaissance planes also strafed the prisoner of war camp, killing and wounding more than ten soldiers.
It's just that these days our attention has been focused on the fighting on the front line, thinking that this was just an accident, but now it seems that I was careless."
"But this is obviously unreasonable."
Rikichiro Sawamoto said puzzledly: "There are more than 12,000 prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp. It is not easy for the Chinese to rescue them all, let alone the fact that Mandalay is hundreds of miles away from the nearest Chinese army."
Many kilometers.
How easy is it to take more than 10,000 prisoners of war to a place more than 100 kilometers away?"
In fact, there is one thing that Rikichiro Sawamoto didn't say. The prisoners in the prison camp today are all sallow, thin, and in very poor physical condition due to long-term malnutrition. It would be difficult for them to escape even a few kilometers, let alone more than a hundred kilometers away.
.
"No matter what, we must pay attention to this matter."
Masato Honda looked at Rikichiro Sawamoto, whose face was covered in blood, and the six guards who were killed in the explosion to protect him, and his expression slowly became ferocious.
"Order Ribayashi Kyoryu to immediately transfer all the prisoners in the prisoner of war camp."
"Transfer? Transfer to where?" Rikichiro Sawamoto asked.
"Shan State!" Honda said a place name.
"hiss……"
Rikichiro Sawamoto took a breath. Shan State is a full three hundred kilometers away from Mandalay. According to the physical fitness of the prisoners of war, it would be good if only half of them could reach their destination if they were transferred on foot.
Although Rikichiro Sawamoto had never cared about the lives of prisoners of war, he couldn't help but ask: "Your Excellency, Commander, is this really appropriate?"
"What's inappropriate?"
Honda Masato's voice sounded like it was erupting from an ice cellar, "The Chinese want my life, so why should I care about the lives of those captives?
Moreover, those prisoners of war are like a time bomb. Once they are in Mandalay, the Chinese people's attention will be focused on us.
Only by sending away those prisoners of war will Mandalay be safe.
Also, don’t the Chinese want to rescue those prisoners of war? We just use these prisoners of war to divert their attention and distract their troops, which can also reduce the pressure on the front line.”
The Japanese army moved very quickly, and the entire prisoner-of-war camp immediately began large-scale transfers that afternoon.
It has to be said that Honda’s move also caught the expeditionary force headquarters off guard.
The autumn wind is howling, and the cold wind is howling across the sky and the earth.
In addition to suffering from injuries and illnesses, the prisoners of war also suffered from hunger and thirst. Their clothes were ragged, their bodies were covered with mud, and all of them looked lifeless.
On both sides of this huge team of prisoners of war, Japanese soldiers holding rifles walked on both sides of the team. From time to time, Japanese soldiers passed by on both sides of the team. If they saw prisoners of war who did not like it or fell behind, they would use long whips.
He pumped it up and let out wanton and wild laughter from time to time.
What’s even more terrifying is that vultures and crows are constantly circling in the air above the team, and even scavenging jackals are following the jungle. These animals already know that by following this team, they can get enough food. This march is very dangerous to scavengers.