The reason why Okamura Neiji insisted on retaining aviation fuel at Tatsumi Airport was not because the empire was short of fuel... although the empire was indeed short of fuel.
His main goal is to ensure the smooth operation of the airport.
Because when Longxi Airport was occupied by the empire, the problem immediately faced was the problem of transport planes bringing supplies to the troops.
There are two aspects of supply, one is the fuel supply and ammunition at the airport, and the other is the supply of the troops, especially the supply of the mechanized troops, to ensure that they can continue to fight.
Longxi Airport is only a small airport. If a large number of transport planes land there, it will occupy the "zero war" space. This is obviously not a wise move.
Therefore, Okamura Neiji believes that he can only send out a few dozen transport planes at most, either to transport supplies to the former, that is, the airport, or to transport supplies to the troops.
If you want to have the best of both worlds, the only way is to seize the aviation fuel and ammunition at Long Si Airport.
Among them, aviation fuel is especially important... Aviation fuel is the big one. The ammunition needed for "zero war" only needs one or two transport planes to transport it. Even if it is not seized, it does not matter.
This is the reason why Okamura Neiji uncharacteristically did not choose to launch the missile attack in the early morning. He chose to let the missiles cooperate with ground troops to launch a final, rapid, and fatal attack on Longshu Airport.
Just as Okamura Neiji was thinking about this, the staff officer ran up to Okamura Neiji and reported: "Your Excellency, all missiles are ready!"
Okamura Neji nodded and ordered: "Launch!"
"emission!"
…
With a roar and a puff of acrid smoke, the missiles were thrown into the air one after another and flew towards Longxi Airport.
Wang Xuexin on the other side received a report that the Japanese were speeding up their attack.
The information was brought by Chen Songyong. Chen Songyong placed a flag on the sand table and said anxiously: "Commander, the Japs have begun to divide their troops. They are divided into two groups from near Changyuan Peak, and they go to Longyuan along Highway 21 and Highway 23 respectively.
They marched towards the airport. In addition, they deployed two additional artillery units to provide artillery cover for the two units. Once they encountered our army, they used artillery fire to suppress it and then quickly broke through! Our army suffered hundreds of casualties under the enemy's artillery fire.
people!"
Wang Xuexin's heart trembled. It seemed that the Japanese were hoping to capture Longxi Airport before dawn.
Needless to say what its purpose is, of course it is to prevent the Eighth Route Army's aviation, especially the artillery, from suppressing it after dawn.
The Japanese artillery is a very difficult problem.
Under normal circumstances, aviation can suppress artillery... No matter how fast artillery can be transferred, aircraft cannot move faster. As long as the Eighth Route Army roughly knows the location of the enemy's artillery positions, and then rocket fighters fly in that direction, they can basically catch the artillery.
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The problem is that fighter planes have basically no combat effectiveness at night. At this time, the Japanese artillery can unscrupulously dominate in front of the Eighth Route Army.
If there is anything the Eighth Route Army can suppress its artillery, it is rocket launchers.
However, the disadvantage of rocket artillery is that it lacks accuracy. To suppress enemy artillery, groups of rocket artillery vehicles must fire a huge number of rockets to cover the enemy's artillery positions in a similar "saturation attack" to be effective.
Artillery shells of this magnitude were obviously not something the Eighth Route Army could bear at this time, nor could they be used on the battlefield to attack the enemy at every turn.
Wang Xuexin thought, this is one of the shortcomings of the Eighth Route Army. When should we make up for it? Otherwise, not just now, the Eighth Route Army will definitely encounter trouble when it marches into Northeast China in the future, and it may be a big trouble.
Just as Wang Xuexin was thinking, Zhang Zongping reported again: "Captain, according to the information from the headquarters, the enemy launched a large number of 'missiles' in three directions. It is estimated that they bombed the Steel Factory Airport, Longxi Airport and Datong Airport!"
The intelligence personnel of the Eighth Route Army are commanded by the headquarters, so the intelligence needs to be transferred from Zhang Zongping.
Wang Xuexin immediately ordered: "Let the planes at the three airports be ready for transfer!"
"yes!"
Wang Xuexin has already arranged the transfer method:
The thirty fighter planes at the Steel Plant Airport are responsible for themselves, that is, they take off in time before enemy missiles attack and circle in the air to protect the airport. Depending on the situation, if they can intercept the enemy missiles, they will intercept them. If they can't intercept them, don't force them.
Later it was discovered that some of them could actually be intercepted. This was mainly because the enemy's missiles were too dense. Hundreds of missiles flew together to fly to the target. Another point was that the flames ejected from the tail engine were very obvious in the dark... In fact, the tail alone was
The engine flames cannot knock it down.
If only a bright spot is seen in the dark without other reference objects, the pilot cannot judge the distance of the target and cannot shoot.
This is similar to the reason why tanks have no night fighting capabilities in the dark.
There is a bright spot one kilometer away, and there is also a bright spot one hundred meters away. The difference is that the bright spot one kilometer away is smaller and the bright spot one hundred meters away is bigger.
So now, if a bright spot appears in front of the pilot, how does the pilot know whether it is a smaller bright spot, a larger bright spot, or a bright spot in between?
The reason why we were able to intercept a batch of Japanese missiles was due to the aviation team captain Yu Ping.
He ordered the pilots: "What you have to do is not to chase the missile and judge the distance. What you have to do is to overtake the missile from above. Then you will know the distance between yourself and the target!"
The pilot followed Yu Ping's method and found the target as expected...
One is that at the moment when the fighter plane passes the missile, the nozzle tail flame changes greatly. At this time, the pilot knows that he is directly above the missile.
The other is that the enemy's missiles are also flying forward one after another. When the pilot looks down from directly above the missile group, he will see his figure blocked by the missiles' tail flames.
Needless to say what to do next, slow down and then swoop down and give it a good beating.
Datong Airport is similar. The fifty fighter planes deployed there also look after themselves.
Only the thirty fighter planes at Longxi Airport were completely abandoned and transferred to Datong Airport.
The reason for moving to Datong Airport is because Datong Airport is larger than the Steel Factory Airport and can accommodate more fighter planes.
On the other hand, Datong Airport needs more fighter planes for defense... If there are not enough fighter planes in the direction of the steel plant, support can be obtained from sources. However, if there are not enough fighter planes at Datong Airport, it is likely that reinforcements will not be able to be separated by the Japanese "zero battle".
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After the fighter plane took off, Wang Xuexin asked: "Is the Sherman ready?"
"Ready!" the signal soldier shouted back.
Wang Xuexin nodded. As the saying goes, it is up to people to make things happen. Now he can only wait for the result.