What Wang Xuexin thought was not what Major Doug said.
It is true that traveling to Linfen Airport at the fastest speed will indeed cause problems like what Major Doug is worried about, that is, the launch point that has been surveyed cannot be found, so the height, direction, etc. cannot be grasped.
But this problem can actually be solved.
To put it simply, Major Doug's aircraft fleet does not need to rush to Linfen, but can go directly to the launch point.
The coordinates of the launch points have been informed to the pilots long ago, and fires will be lit at the launch points after receiving notification. With Major Doug's flying experience, it is not difficult to change the route and find these launch points in advance.
Wang Xuexin thinks so:
If Linfen Airport receives a warning from a reconnaissance plane, it will definitely send fighter planes to intercept it immediately.
Linfen Airport is more than 200 kilometers away from Wanxian Airport, and the whole journey takes about 20 minutes.
With the quality of the Japanese pilots and the four runways at Linfen Airport, it would only take a few minutes to take off two squadrons...
What will these Japanese fighter planes do after they take off?
It must be a direct flight to Wanxian Airport.
If the Eighth Route Army's Hawker 81 fleet launches an attack at this time in order to reach the destination as soon as possible, it means that the Hawker 81 will also fly directly to Linfen Airport.
The enemy and we are both flying straight and heading towards each other, so there is a high probability of a head-on collision.
The two Japanese squadrons have 24 fighter planes, while the Hawker 81 only has 10 fighter planes.
Moreover, the Hawker 81 is still equipped with rockets, and two of them are piloted by Li Dongcheng and Zhou Yuankai... It is even the first time for them to fly this type of fighter. It will be good if they can fly stably without any accidents. I hope they will follow suit.
Well-trained Japanese pilots in air combat?
Therefore, Wang Xuexin believed that this could not be allowed to happen.
The solution is to let the Hawker 81 fly along the original route, first heading east and then north along the Luliang Mountains.
Therefore, the Japanese fighter planes took the hypotenuse of the triangle, while the Hawker 81 took the two right-angled sides of the triangle. In addition, it was still dark at this time, so there was almost no possibility that the enemy and our aircraft groups would meet and discover each other.
Wang Xuexin's guess was correct. The plane the Japanese scrambled to intercept was Major Chiri Ariga. He was an experienced pilot who had served on the Imperial Akagi aircraft carrier.
Originally, the Imperial Navy would not easily give up a carrier-based pilot like Chiri Kagome... The Imperial Navy and the Army had deep conflicts. They had their own systems for equipment research and development and were unwilling to share technology, let alone pilots.
However, Ariga Chiri was injured in her leg during a battle, which caused a dull pain when it was rainy or in humid areas.
Such an injury is obviously not suitable for continuing to fight in the Pacific battlefield... The Pacific battlefield is very humid, whether on the island or on the aircraft carrier.
In addition, the Navy has retired a batch of carrier-based aircraft (replacing Type 96 with "Zero"). According to the order, these retired carrier-based aircraft must be transferred to the army in China for use. This requires pilots who are familiar with Type 96 ship warfare to serve as instructors.
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So Ariga Chiri was sent to the Chinese battlefield.
Ariga Chiri didn't need to personally lead the team, but he panicked as soon as he heard that the Eighth Route Army's Hawk 81 took off.
"Those are not the Eighth Route Army!" Ariga Chiri said to the adjutant: "They are well-trained Eagle pilots, we must not let them bomb Linfen Airport, otherwise we will suffer heavy losses!"
Therefore, without saying anything, Yujia Zhili put down the map in his hand, climbed into the plane with other pilots, and took off in an emergency.
The sky was pitch black and nothing could be seen. Ariga Chiri could only lead the fleet towards the Eighth Route Army's Wanxian Airport.
After a few minutes, Ariga Chiri felt something was wrong.
It took ten minutes for the Imperial fleet to take off and form its formation, and now it has been flying in the air for several more minutes. If the Eighth Route Army fleet was on this route, they should have met by now.
But Chiri Ariga couldn't see anything, not even a shadow of the enemy plane.
Why is this happening?
Ariga Chiri thought to herself:
Could it be that the Eighth Route Army fighter planes were too slow?
Probably not. The Hawk 81's speed reaches more than 500 kilometers per hour, which is faster than the Empire's 96 Ship Battle.
Did the Eighth Route Army turn back?
No, air combat is often about shooting without looking back.
For example, this time, ten fighter planes of the Eighth Route Army were discovered by the empire. If they did not give it a try, they would probably be blown up at the airport by imperial bombers.
So……
It’s them who changed the course!
Thinking about it, Ariga Chiri ordered: "Captain Takashima, take your people, spread out the two wings and search forward!"
"Yes!" Captain Takashima immediately dispersed his fighter planes to search for the target.
If it is during the day, it will probably not take long to find the target if you do this, because the sky is cloudless and only a few small black dots can be seen from a long distance.
But it is the night before dawn, especially when some fish belly white appears in the east... It is often at this time that the visibility is the worst, because the line of sight will be attracted by the fish belly white, and the eyes will adapt to a certain brightness, resulting in even worse visibility.
, this is what people often call the darkness before dawn.
Therefore, Ariga Chiri's fleet searched the sky for a long time but came up with no results.
Ariga Chiri flew the plane upside down to see if the target was flying at low altitude, but still found nothing.
At this moment, the light of fire entered Ariga Chiri's sight.
It’s not surprising to see a few fires at night. It’s winter now, and many Chinese people will light fires to keep warm, especially those homeless refugees.
But these fires were so regular that they were piled up several miles apart, forming a long and winding snake that extended all the way to the north.
Ariga Chiri was confused for a while. While holding the plane steady, he took out a map and checked the direction of the fire. Then he understood that this was the route of the enemy plane... They were advancing along the Luliang Mountains and then suddenly crossed the Luliang Mountains.
Appeared over Linfen Airport.
Ariga Chiri made a quick decision and ordered: "All units, return to the airport immediately. Repeat, return to the airport immediately!"
The reason Ariga Chiri issued this order was because he judged that the enemy's planes had already crossed the Luliang Mountains and the empire had lost the chance to intercept them.
All we can do now is hope to give them a fatal blow as they fly over the airport.
When returning to the airport with the fleet, Ariga Chiri also used radio to contact Colonel Ishii who was in command at the airport.
"Your Majesty Osaka!" Ariga Chiri said: "They changed their route to avoid our interception. I estimate that they will appear over the airport from the due west direction, so that the air defense forces will pay attention to this direction!"
After hearing the report, Colonel Ishii did not dare to neglect, and immediately ordered the adjutant: "Order the air defense troops to pay attention due west, they will cross the Luliang Mountains!"