Major Doug gave orders while looking at the instrument panel, and at the same time, he kept scanning the surroundings to observe the enemy's situation.
Fortunately, there were no enemies nearby, only a few small black spots on the left front. Those might be enemy planes patrolling around the airport. After spotting them, they came to intercept them.
What Major Doug didn't know was that a squadron of 12 fighter planes led by Ariga Chiri actually had a chance to intercept it.
The reason why Ariga Chiri gave up this interception opportunity was because when his fleet arrived, he found that the Hawker 81 was about to enter the "friendly fire zone."
The so-called "accidental damage area" is actually the strike range of one's own anti-aircraft firepower.
The two anti-aircraft artillery units, one on the left and one on the right, had loaded their artillery shells and were ready to fire, and the anti-aircraft machine guns were all ready and waiting for the enemy planes to appear.
If Ariga Chiri orders an interception at this time, it may disrupt the overall plan... The enemy's and our fighter planes are fighting together, making the ground air defense force's rat trap ineffective.
In this way, not only will the interception be fruitless, but it may also help the enemy aircraft pass through the fire circle of anti-aircraft artillery and reach the airport.
Therefore, Ariga Chiri made a quick decision and ordered not to intercept, but instead took the squadron directly to the airport.
He planned to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy plane at the moment it broke through the anti-aircraft fire circle.
Therefore, Ariga Chiri's fighter planes were hovering around the airport, waiting for the Hawker 81 to appear.
"Speed up!" Major Doug ordered.
The reason for increasing the speed is to allow the rocket to gain a higher muzzle velocity as much as possible so that it can hit farther.
At the same time, a higher speed means that fighter planes have more initiative on the battlefield... Fast speed means that they can advance, attack, retreat or defend, and they can fight or escape. Low speed means that they cannot be caught up by the enemy.
No fighting.
This is the reason why speed is an important indicator of fighter aircraft combat effectiveness, and also the reason why many maneuvers that look flashy actually have no meaning in actual combat... such as the Cobra maneuver, which looks cool, but it sacrifices speed to gain more for itself.
A shooting opportunity that is almost impossible to hit will lead to a situation where you will be passively beaten because you are not as fast as the opponent.
"Change to launch formation!" Major Doug ordered again.
The launch formation is actually to spread out, and the fighter planes advance in parallel to launch rockets towards the target... The reason for such a formation is because the rockets have a high wind deflection, and the fighter planes are flying in the air surrounded by
Due to the uncertain wind direction, if the battle formation continued as usual, Major Doug was worried that the rockets fired from the rear would directly knock down the friendly aircraft in front.
Facts have proved that this worry is justified, because rockets, especially rockets launched from fighter planes, have no accuracy at all, and some of them actually follow irregular curves after being launched.
Getting closer, getting closer...
Major Doug stared intently at the fire on the ground while constantly adjusting the aircraft to keep it as stable as possible.
Then, the moment the fighter plane passed over the fire, Major Doug ordered: "Let go!"
Almost at the same time, Major Doug pressed the launch button.
Major Doug thought there would be a big noise. After all, those were 107mm rockets, and there were 18 of them.
But what surprised Major Doug was that the launch of the rockets did not seem to be as violent as he imagined. He saw streaks of fire and smoke rising from both sides of the wings, and the rockets followed a long trajectory towards the target one after another.
Fly away.
Major Doug waited for a few seconds...this was due to the delay in launching some rockets.
After confirming that the rockets had been fired, Major Doug ordered: "Turn around and return to the airport!"
"Major!" the subordinate asked, "Why don't you see what the result will be?"
"Go to hell!" Major Doug said: "No matter what the outcome is, we can't change it anymore! The mission has been completed, return to the airport!"
"Yes!" the pilots responded and turned the direction of the plane as soon as they pulled the nose.
The rocket speed is not very fast, the maximum speed is only more than 300 meters per hour...it takes about half a minute to cover a distance of 10 kilometers.
Therefore, the rockets exploded in the rear only when the Huo-81 fleet completed its turn.
Almost all pilots looked back as if reflexively...but in fact they couldn't see anything. The rear view of the Hawk 81 would be blocked by the tail of the aircraft.
Even so, the pilots were caught by the flashes of fire behind them.
The Yingjiang pilots couldn't help but cheer loudly:
"Good job, guys! They exploded!"
"God! This tactic is indeed feasible, and it is quite powerful!"
"Did we blow up the airport?"
"I don't know, but there are fires everywhere, so I guess it's okay if it doesn't blow up!"
…
The Yingjiang pilot guessed correctly. Although most of these rockets missed, they caused a chain explosion and ignited a raging fire at the airport...
The moment the rocket hit the airport, Ariga Chiri felt something was wrong.
Ariga Chiri participated in the Battle of Nomonhan and knew that Mao Xiong had a "cannonball" that was launched in the air for use in air combat. At that time, all the imperial pilots were almost frightened.
This is also the reason why Ariga Chiri admires Hans so much.
The imperial army was beaten to the point of losing all temper by the bear, but Hans was able to beat the bear to the point where it was unable to fight back. In this comparison, Hans was probably much more advanced than the empire.
Because of this experience, when Chiri Ariga saw those rockets flying straight towards him, his first reaction was that these "cannonballs" were targeting their aircraft.
At that moment, Yuga Chiri was frightened.
Is this impossible?
How many kilometers away can the enemy launch artillery shells to knock down their fighter planes?
Is this the kind of cannonball that Mao Xiong has?
If this is the case, the empire's fighter planes will be unable to fight back!
…
But thinking about it, Ariga Chiri immediately ordered: "Maneuver to avoid!"
At the same time, Ariga Chiri piloted the fighter plane and made several sharp turns in the air.
However, what surprised Ariga Chiri was...
The target of those "cannonballs" is not them, but the airport on the ground.
I saw a burst of "boom" explosions, and streaks of flames erupted at the airport and nearby areas.
Of the total 180 rockets, only a dozen hit the airport.
But a dozen hits were enough. When the napalm bombs exploded, sparks shot out, quickly igniting the aircraft parked nearby.
The plane parked on the runway was a fighter jet that had just been refueled and prepared for an emergency takeoff. After being ignited by napalm, it burned more and more vigorously, and soon exploded into a ball of fire with a loud bang.
Even more powerful were the bombers. Some of them didn't even have the time to unload their bombs, so they exploded one after another on the tarmac like dominoes...