Although Umezu Yoshijiro was very dissatisfied with Inoguchi Minpei's performance, he had no choice but to prepare the fighter plane according to Inoguchi Minpei's wishes.
After all, this battle is likely to be related to the life and death of the Kwantung Army. It is particularly painful for the Kwantung Army but has little bearing on the Combined Fleet.
The reason why I say "very likely" here is because Umezu Yoshijiro believed that even if Port Arthur was occupied by the Eighth Route Army, the Kwantung Army would not be surrounded to the point of being completely exhausted.
The reason is that the Kwantung Army still has a transportation channel leading to Bangzi, and no matter what happens, it can withdraw to Bangzi territory and try to make a comeback.
But the latter is almost impossible!
How could the Imperial Army be defeated by a mere Eighth Route Army?
The current Kwantung Army is just unable to recover for a while because of "internal and external troubles"!
What Inoguchi Toshipei didn't know was that in principle, it was precisely because of his pride or his contempt for the Army that he missed an opportunity...
At this time, the Dalian Coast Defense Regiment of the Eighth Route Army was not well prepared. To be precise, it was due to the lack of naval battle experience and preparation time, which resulted in a lack of early warning and intelligence.
Wang Xuexin himself was not commanding in Dalian, and at the same time, Wang Xuexin himself had no experience in naval warfare, so he could only leave the coastal defense regiment to the command of Xu Huandong.
After the coastal defense regiment is established, it is common sense that it should establish contact with the aviation force as soon as possible and coordinate and share intelligence.
This has already reached a consensus during World War II, because the most important thing in naval warfare is air superiority, and fighter planes have many benefits.
For example, fighter planes are fast and have a wide field of view.
Because warships are limited by the curvature of the earth, even the most advanced radar or high-powered telescopes cannot see sea targets forty kilometers away... Warships forty kilometers away will be obscured by the sea level and cannot be seen by radar or eyesight.
of.
But the plane is different. It flies into the air. As the saying goes, you can see far when you stand high. No matter how backward an aircraft is, even a seaplane can play a reconnaissance role and intelligence gathering capability much faster and further than a warship.
many.
This is also the main reason why aircraft carriers became so popular during this period. Even if there were no aircraft carriers, cruisers and battleships would bring their own seaplanes for reconnaissance.
And Xu Huandong was from the Northeast Fleet during the Republic of China. The Northeast Fleet at that time had neither seaplanes nor aerial reconnaissance... China did not have carrier-based seaplanes and no ejection technology.
In fact, let’s not talk about this. The Northeast Fleet does not even have a basic awareness of sea and air coordination.
At this time, Xu Huandong was busy refitting warships, so he did not consider the reconnaissance and intelligence issues of the fleet.
However, this is not accurate. Xu Huandong actually arranged personnel for reconnaissance, but he still sent fishing boats with radio reconnaissance according to the previous combat thinking. However, the scope of this reconnaissance is very close, only a few dozen kilometers, and by the time the information is returned, it will be almost gone.
Entering the range of enemy naval guns.
This is obviously very dangerous.
The first to bear the brunt is the Dalian Coast Defense Regiment... The five warships are being refitted and improved in the shipyard day and night. If the Japanese warships suddenly appear in front of them and bombard them, the missiles on these five warships will not only fail to work, but may even be killed.
Turned into explosives that blew up warships and shipyards.
Then there are the supplies at the port. The Japanese warships will then attack these things.
Then, or while bombing the port, the Japanese warships would launch a fierce bombardment from the rear on the defense line of the independent regiment stationed in Jinzhou.
If the intelligence the Japanese have is sufficient, they will immediately bomb the airport in Zhoushuizi...
At that time, the entire Dalian Company will fall into chaos, and even if the Eighth Route Army has anti-ship missiles, it will be unable to enter the battle due to lack of preparation and lack of fighter guidance.
All this is very likely to happen.
Because the Eighth Route Army, including the headquarters, knew nothing about the intelligence of the Japanese fleet.
This is mainly because the Japanese fleet set out from Wugang, the homeland. The Eighth Route Army had very few intelligence personnel in the Japanese homeland, and the target was Wugang, which was heavily guarded by the Japanese. Therefore, the headquarters also took a dark look and had no idea about the Japanese fleet.
When did you set off?
However, because Zhuguchi Minping did not release the Eighth Route Army,
Therefore, he did not bring an aircraft carrier, and he did not contact Umezu Yoshijiro in advance, which resulted in Umezu Yoshijiro having less than one day to prepare.
So a large number of fighter planes kept flying towards the stick like mosquitoes.
Wang Xuexin received the news immediately.
The intelligence was reported by Zhang Zongping. He excitedly handed over the telegram and said: "Commander, the Japanese seem to be showing signs of escaping! They have sent fighter planes in the direction of Bangzi! There are at least sixty of them!"
"Send in the direction of Bangzi?" Wang Xuexin couldn't help but wonder, what kind of trick did the Japanese do this?
Looking at the map, Wang Xuexin was shocked... The Bangzi coastline is only more than 300 kilometers away from the Dalian coastline, which is completely within the combat radius of the Japanese fighter planes.
On the other hand, the Japanese Kwantung Army will definitely have worries about the transportation of fuel and parts because the port is blocked by the Eighth Route Army.
Therefore, it would be uneconomical for them to locate the airport used for combat in China, because all the fuel, parts, and ammunition have to be transported from Bangzi.
But if the fighter planes are transferred to Bangzi and take off from Bangzi's airport to launch an attack, wouldn't it be possible to save a lot of things and not have to worry about supply issues?
However, the Japanese fighter planes cannot compete with the "La 5" for air supremacy. What are they going to do?
Could it be that...the Japanese know how to use radio to interfere with the Eighth Route Army's air-to-air missiles?
Unlikely!
If the Japanese knew this, they would probably immediately take off all their fighter planes and attack them directly at the Eighth Route Army airport, because this would catch the Eighth Route Army by surprise and kill a large number of the Eighth Route Army's aviation forces.
That's...
Then Wang Xuexin quickly thought of the reason: Navy, Japanese joint fleet!
"This is not the Japanese retreating!" Wang Xuexin said: "The Japanese fleet is coming, and these fighter planes are ready to cooperate with the Japanese warships!"
"Warship?" Zhang Zongping's expression changed and he said, "But we don't have any information..."
"That's the problem!" Wang Xuexin ordered: "Send power to the coastal defense regiment immediately and get them ready for battle!"
"yes!"
Zhang Zongping was about to turn around to deliver the order but was stopped by Wang Xuexin. He added: "Order Zhoushuizi Airport to increase the patrol batch and patrol distance, and at the same time, the missile force is ready for battle!"
"yes!"
This is the weakness of the Eighth Route Army's "La 5" fighter aircraft.
Because the "La 5" has a short range problem, its patrol distance cannot be far...the patrol radius will be much shorter than the combat radius of the fighter plane, because the patrol requires flying in circles in the air to detect a sector or even a circular surface.
Its flight time is very long.
If you want to increase the patrol distance, you can only reduce the patrol sector and try your luck by flying directly in a certain direction to conduct exploratory reconnaissance.