Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty One HNA with Heavy Losses
Bai Chongxi is not rigid in fighting. His biggest characteristic is that he likes to use surprise troops, and his playing style is very flexible, which gives his opponents a headache. Although he is very happy to win against the Air Force now, he can still maintain the form.
A clear understanding is that this is not an easy task. From this point of view, it is no fluke that Bai Chongxi has been able to stand firm in the ever-changing Chinese political arena for many years.
Thinking of this, Bai Jingran swallowed back some of the words of advice he was about to say, and changed his words and asked: "Sir Bai, will we continue to send the air force to bomb the Japanese army?"
Who is Bai Chongxi? Naturally, he could see through Bai Jingran's inner calculation at a glance. He glanced at Bai Jingran and asked with a smile: "What? Are you worried that I will put too much pressure on the Air Force?"
Bai Jingran nodded honestly: "Yes, sir, although our air force looks good at first glance, it is still too small after all. We only have two divisions at the moment. The 1st Air Force Division will be stationed in Guangdong, and the 2nd Air Force Division remains.
There is a regiment in Jiangxi and a little more in Fujian, but there are only two regiments. If the air force is used excessively, I am afraid that the pilots will be too tired, and something will happen easily. After all, the air force is not as good as the infantry on the ground.
In an air combat, if there is even a one-second operational error due to fatigue, the aircraft will be destroyed and lives will be lost!"
"Oh, there is such a thing?" Bai Chongxi couldn't help but be a little stunned. He was born in the Army and didn't know that the Air Force had such specialties. In his opinion, it doesn't matter if you are tired as a soldier, otherwise, what kind of soldier would you be?
, it’s good to be a young master at home.
Seeing Bai Chongxi's surprised look, Bai Jingran knew that Bai Chongxi still knew too little about the Air Force, so he had to explain: "Sir Bai, the Air Force is a highly technical branch. For our Army, a battle can only last three or two.
Ten days or even ten days and a month and a half is too common, but for the Air Force, a real air battle usually lasts only about ten minutes, and half an hour is considered a very long time. Because in an air battle, pilots need to spend a lot of time
The energy and strength are far greater than those in land battles. In such fierce battles, as long as the pilots fail to do one action or respond in time, death is waiting for them. Therefore, the physical consumption of the pilots after a battle is
It’s very amazing. If a pilot can dispatch twice a day, it’s good. If it’s more, the pilot won’t be able to bear it.”
"There is such a thing about relationships. My eyes were really opened today!" Bai Chongxi's eyes were opened today. He nodded with sudden realization: "Originally, I thought that we had nearly two hundred fighter planes, which was quite a lot. Now,
It seems that our aircraft still has some shortcomings."
After saying that, he rolled his eyes and wondered whether he should send another telegram to Su Rui and ask him to send more fighter planes. Bai Jingran saw Bai Chongxi's expression and didn't understand what Chief Bai was thinking.
What, he said quickly: "Sir Bai, don't think twice about the First Air Division. The First Air Division is going to guard Guangdong. All our belongings are there. If there is any loss in Guangdong, we can
It’s become duckweed for every root!”
Seeing Bai Jingran's anxious look, Bai Chongxi laughed. He pointed at Bai Jingran and said, "Don't worry, I know the powerful connections here, and I won't let the First Division's fighter planes go blank. Now I'm thinking,
There should be bombers in Guangdong, can you send a few more squadrons here so that we can increase the intensity of bombing against the Japanese army?"
Hearing that Bai Chongxi was not trying to defeat the First Division, Bai Jingran breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's okay, but I don't know much about the Air Force department. Commander Zheng has the most say in this area."
"You mean Zheng Shaoyu." A trace of nostalgia appeared on Bai Chongxi's face, "I heard that this boy was just a major before joining Brother Zhongxin. I didn't expect that he has become the commander-in-chief of the Air Force now. In this world,
Things are just amazing!”
Bai Jingran on the side also felt the same way about Bai Chongxi's words. He thought that during the Battle of Nanjing, wasn't he just a lieutenant colonel? Now three years later, he has been promoted three levels in a row and became a dignified member of the army.
It seems that in China, if you want to be promoted, in addition to having real skills, the most important thing is to work with the right people, otherwise you will just have a hard life even if you work hard all your life.
Whatever he wanted to do, Bai Chongxi quickly asked the communications staff to send a telegram to Su Rui requesting more bombers. Half an hour later, the Guangdong Command called back, saying that two squadrons of Stuka dive bombers would fly to Fujian Airport in the afternoon.
, and dispatched a flying regiment from the 1st Air Division to reinforce Fujian.
Bai Chongxi was overjoyed after receiving the telegram. Although he didn't know why Su Rui was so generous, but with confidence in his heart, he immediately issued an order to the air force stationed in Fujian to continue a full-scale bombing of the Japanese positions. Under Bai Chongxi's strict order, Fujian
Qing Dynasty and Nanping ushered in another fierce air battle...
The afterglow of the setting sun gently swayed on the sea, turning the originally turquoise water into a dark blue. Several seagulls hovered in the low altitude more than ten meters above the sea, making several loud calls from time to time.
A fleet slowly came over. It was a mixed fleet, with two aircraft carriers in the middle. They were slowly adjusting their direction under the escort of more than a dozen warships, and finally turned into the wind. Soon,
Many small black dots appeared in the sky. Soon these small black dots became larger and flew towards the direction of the fleet. Until then, people could already clearly see the appearance of the small black dots in the sky.
They are more than twenty Zero fighters and a dozen Type 97 carrier-based attack aircraft.
Looking at the slowly approaching aircraft, the ground staff on the aircraft carrier did not cheer as loudly as when they set off. Instead, many people lowered their heads, because the number of these fighter planes was obviously much smaller than when they set off.
"One, two, three, four, five...thirty-three, thirty-four." A ground service officer slowly counted the number of returning fighters. As he counted, his heart slowly sank.
There were fifty-seven fighter planes when we set out an hour ago, but now there are only thirty-four. After a simple calculation, we know that another twenty-three fighter planes have been shot down by the Chinese.
"Your Excellency, Commander, we can no longer send aircraft to reinforce the army. We have lost nearly fifty aircraft in the air battles in the past few days. If we continue to send fighter planes to reinforce, I am afraid that even our own safety will become a problem!
"
In the conference room of the Akagi aircraft carrier, the captain of the Akagi aircraft carrier, Colonel Yamada Yoshi, begged the commander of the escort taskforce, Lieutenant General Ueno Keizo, "Your Excellency, commander, the mission of our escort taskforce is only to escort those mud-legged soldiers from the Army."
When Toyota came to Fujian, the base camp didn’t ask us to fight with them.”
There are two aircraft carriers in this escort formation, namely Akagi and Soryu. Together, the two aircraft carriers can only carry about 150 fighter planes. Now they have lost more than 40 aircraft, which means that their
The battle loss ratio has almost reached one-third. This battle loss ratio is very astonishing.
In particular, the loss of pilots made Yamada feel distressed. The training of aviation, especially naval aviation, is not easy. It can be said that the training of naval aviation is far more complicated than the training of army aviation. They not only have to learn the skills of army aviation pilots
You need to learn everything you need to know, and you also need to learn how to take off and land on a narrow deck, especially the skills of taking off and landing in complex weather conditions. Otherwise, you cannot be called a qualified maritime pilot at all.
However, less than five days had passed and they had lost 30% of their pilots. Such a loss was unacceptable to Yamada's definition.
Seeing that Ueno Keizo was still hesitant, Yamada Shii became anxious and said urgently: "Your Excellency, Commander, the empire's naval aviation power is very valuable. They should compete with the fleets of the United States, Britain or Soviet Russia on the vast sea.
Air supremacy, instead of fighting for positions the size of pieces of tofu with the enemy on land, that is what people in the Army Aviation should do!"
Ueno Keizo sighed and said, "Yamada-kun, you know that the base camp gave us orders to assist the army and the Chinese in fighting for air supremacy in the coastal areas. But now it seems that the Chinese people's air power far exceeds ours.
But you have to know that if we retreat without permission, that fellow Okamura Neji will definitely report us to the base camp."
"Then let him sue!" Yamada Shiji said angrily: "We have already paid the lives of nearly fifty imperial warriors for this, what else does he want? Do we want to destroy all the precious fleets of the empire?
Will he just give up after suffering this loss?"
Ueno Keizo closed his eyes and pondered for a while and then asked: "Yamada-kun, sometimes I really can't figure out where the Chinese got so many advanced fighters, and these fighters are all new types we have never seen before.
Fighter planes. Sometimes I wonder if that person can conjure up a huge fleet overnight to fight us in a decisive battle."
Yamada shook his head and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, I think the Chinese fighter planes will never fall out of thin air. And judging from the pilot's description, the Chinese fighter planes have a strong American style. I guess the Chinese fighters must be
They have the secret support of the US government, otherwise where would they get such a steady stream of fighter jets?"
"Huh, Americans!" Ueno Keizo snorted coldly: "One day we will have to settle this account with the Americans. But now..." After thinking for a while, he said: "Yamada-kun, you
Immediately send a report to the commander of Dagang Village, saying that due to the heavy losses of our fighter planes, we need to return home for rest and replenishment. As for the task of competing for air supremacy with the Chinese, it can only be completed by the people of the Army Aviation."
"Hai!"
After hearing that Ueno Keizo finally agreed to evacuate this place, Yamada Shiji finally breathed a sigh of relief and left quickly to prepare to send a report... (To be continued.)