This is actually Wang Xuexin's "defense instead of offense".
Since Wang Xuexin has estimated that the Japanese are likely to have new air combat tactics to deal with the Eighth Route Army’s
Seizing air supremacy with the Japanese was in the Japanese's favour, because after winning a battle, the Japanese no longer had to worry about threats from the air.
On the contrary, Wang Xuexin's "stopping with silence" made the Japanese very uncomfortable.
Wang Xuexin analyzed this at the meeting:
"One of the main tactics of 'Blitzkrieg' flexibility is to divide the troops."
As he spoke, Wang Xuexin pointed to the map and said: "For example, the Japanese could set multiple targets at the beginning, including three stores, Wangxing Airport, Wanxian Airport, 'high fire' deployment area, arsenal, etc. This makes it difficult for our army to take care of everything.
When our army deploys its troops to focus on defense at a few points, weak points will inevitably appear. At that time, the Japanese mechanized troops can rely on their speed advantage to suddenly join forces and launch a surprise attack on our weak points!"
The chief nodded with a heavy expression.
He had learned about international war cases and knew that this was what Hans did in his "blitzkrieg".
So when Hans attacked, his troops seemed disorganized and scattered everywhere.
But it was precisely because of this disorganization that the enemy did not know what Hans' real goal was.
In other words, Hans has no "real goal" at all, they are just waiting for the enemy to cause chaos.
When the enemy deployed their troops to what they considered to be the so-called "key strategic locations" for defense, Hans suddenly turned his troops and attacked the opponent's weak points...
The chief of staff was a little strange after hearing Wang Xuexin's words. He asked: "Can we still prevent the Japanese from dividing their troops?"
This is indeed somewhat unimaginable, because whether to divide the troops is entirely at the enemy's subjective will, and the Eighth Route Army cannot decide.
But Wang Xuexin doesn’t think so.
"The point is that these mechanized troops of the Japanese require air cover!" Wang Xuexin analyzed: "If there is no air cover, these mechanized troops will become the targets of our military fighter planes. No matter how fast they are, they cannot be faster than fighter planes!"
"That's right!" The leader nodded and said: "If the mechanized troops have to be divided, the Japanese fighter planes have to be divided to cover them! Although the fighter planes are fast, our fighters are faster, and there are two airports in Wanxian and Wangxing.
, this can be put to good use!”
"Chief!" the chief of staff said with some worry: "But over at Wanxian Airport...can Major Doug cooperate with us in the battle?"
The leader replied without thinking: "We did not let them directly participate in the battle. We just asked them to take off to respond when necessary and scare the Japanese. If they cannot do this, they can return home!"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
This is not to say that the leader imposes difficulties on others, but that the battlefield is different and there is no zero risk at any time.
As an instructor, Major Doug taught the Eighth Route Army pilots not only flight and combat skills, but also the courage to face danger.
And if Major Doug and other Eagle pilots don’t have such courage, how can they teach excellent pilots?
However, Major Doug and others were indeed not such cowards. They readily agreed after receiving the order from their leader.
After all, this is not a dangerous mission. All they have to do is take off when necessary to put pressure on the Japanese. Once they find that the Japanese plane is approaching, they only need to leave the battlefield at high speed.
As a result, the battlefield formed invisible pressure on Kono Shinta, and this invisible pressure was so strong that he could not breathe.
The Empire only has 48 "Zero Fighters", while the Eighth Route Army initially estimated that it has at least more than a hundred "Hawker 81s", half of which are at Wangxing Airport and the other half at Wanxian Airport.
How can the limited fighter planes of the Imperial Air Force suppress two airports at the same time with just a few?
Divide troops?
Once the troops are divided, there are only 24 aircraft left in each direction. The enemy fighters have more than doubled the number, and they are also equipped with x1. Is the Imperial Air Force sure to defeat them?
Not dividing the troops means that you can take care of one end but not the other.
What's more serious is... this also means that mechanized troops cannot be divided.
Because the mechanized troops were divided without air supremacy, the mechanized troops could easily be defeated by the Eighth Route Army's aviation forces, and the so-called "blitzkrieg" turned into a blitzkrieg defeat.
There are also problems if mechanized troops are not divided into troops.
The first is the issue of air cover for fighter planes. "Zero War" has to fly from an airport 200 kilometers away to the front line... Although this is nothing to the "Zero War"'s range, "Zero War" has to travel back and forth and is exhausted.
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Secondly and more importantly, it lost a large part of the flexibility of "Blitzkrieg"... The Eighth Route Army could easily determine the direction of the main force of the undivided mechanized troops and make preparations in advance for the purpose of the imperial army.
So, is this still a "blitzkrieg"?
You have to travel thousands of miles and spend a lot of time to jump into the enemy's encirclement!
Thinking of this, Kono Shinta felt that he could not continue like this, otherwise the meaning of the interlude would be lost.
"We should force the enemy's air force out!" Kono Shinta said: "I wonder if the General has any good ideas?"
Okamura Neiji hesitated for a moment and then asked: "What if we implement a comprehensive suppression of the enemy's airport? Will the Eighth Route Army Air Force have to respond?"
What Neji Okamura said is correct.
The so-called "comprehensive suppression" means keeping fighter planes over the enemy's airport at all times.
Because there are fighter planes over the enemy's airport, and the Eighth Route Army airport lacks necessary air defense equipment, such as anti-aircraft guns.
This will prevent Eighth Route Army aircraft from taking off... As soon as Eighth Route Army fighters appear on the runway or even at the airport, they will become targets for Imperial fighter planes.
"But..." Kono Shinta said puzzledly: "Do we have the ability to fully suppress it? The enemy's fighter planes are three hundred kilometers away from our military airport!"
Comprehensive suppression requires more fighters. 48 "zero combat" aircraft alone are far from enough. Type 96 fighters and Type 97 bombers must be included.
However, the longest range of these fighters is only 1,200 kilometers, and they cover 600 kilometers in one round trip. They can only continue to cruise over the enemy's airport for one hour at most.
It couldn't even be reached within an hour, because at this time, if the Eighth Route Army had all the moves, they would not dare to make too many combat moves.
Okamura Neiji replied calmly: "Kono-kun, I am ready! I have opened two temporary airports on the Yuncheng defense line, which means... the enemy airport is only more than 100 kilometers away from our army!