Rise From Eight Hundred

Captain Shindo Saburo, as an air commander who was highly expected by the air wing commander, certainly would not go all out as soon as the prey appeared.

The characteristics of the I-15 biplane were too obvious. The Japanese naval air commander, eager for revenge, did not take this backward old aircraft seriously. He only led an air squadron to break away from the bomber group and meet it.

The diving I-15 group wanted to kill the huge bomber group, so they had to kill through the defense line set up by 12 Zero fighters in the air.

With more against fewer, based on Captain Shindo Saburo's understanding of the Chinese Air Force pilots, the Chinese fighter group would definitely rush over without hesitation, and he and his subordinates would use the Zero fighter's maneuverability far exceeding that of the opponent to kill the opponent one by one in this airspace.

Who knew that when the two groups were still about 3,000 meters away, and it was only a dozen seconds before they could reach the distance of mutual shooting, the Chinese group turned around one after another in an unusual way.

In normal times, Shindo Saburo would definitely take it as his responsibility to protect the bomber group. As long as the Chinese fighters did not come, he would protect the bomber group to return smoothly. However, the Japanese naval aviation captain who had experienced the Yiling air battle and the fierce artillery fire over the mountain city not long ago needed the blood of the enemy most at this moment. Only these bright reds could extinguish the anger in his heart.

Through the rearview mirror in the cabin, you can see that the bomber group is accelerating away from the battlefield under the protection of 12 Zero fighters. After thinking for a few seconds, Shindo Saburo finally issued a pursuit order.

He believed that even if this was a Chinese strategy to lure the enemy, the remaining 12 fighters would be able to hold on until he killed these old Chinese fighters and returned.

At an altitude of less than 3,000 meters, the maximum speed of the Zero fighter exceeded 500 kilometers per hour, which was far beyond the speed of a biplane with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

Captain Shindo Saburo's tactical thinking was completely correct in a way.

According to the comparison of the combat power of the Japanese Zero fighters and the Chinese I-series fighters after the war, it was a complete one-sided crushing. If China wanted to break the defense line of 12 Zero fighters, it would have to dispatch at least 3 to 4 times the number of fighters.

But with 24 fighters already dispatched, dispatching another 40 or so I-series fighters is almost an impossible task for the current Chinese Air Force.

Because the maximum range of the I-series fighters is only 500 kilometers, it does not support the fighters distributed in airports across Sichuan Province to travel such a long distance to arrive here for air combat, and then fly back to their respective airports.

At the beginning of the battlefield, just as Shinto Saburo expected, 5 minutes later, 12 aggressive Zero fighters were in the 28-kilometer area away from the location where the Chinese fighters appeared, biting the "embarrassed escape" Chinese aircraft group. Seeing that they could no longer get rid of the pursuit of the Japanese aircraft by speed, the 24 Chinese fighters could only leave some fighters to entangle with the Japanese aircraft, and the other dozen fighters dived and turned to gain a favorable position to fight the Japanese aircraft.

Then, the Chinese people watching the battle on the ground saw an extremely tragic scene.

Whether it was the turning radius, maneuvering speed or firepower, the plane with the blood-red sun painted on the tail was far superior to the plane painted with the blue sky and white sun flag.

The 8 Chinese fighter planes left to block the enemy, whether they dived to get rid of or climbed desperately, could not escape the pursuit of the Japanese planes. The clumsiness of the biplanes in front of the monoplanes was obvious to even a three-year-old child.

In just 2 minutes, 8 Chinese fighter planes were either shot down or injured and billowing thick smoke. The fighter planes had to choose to make an emergency landing in the farmland with smoke columns, but there was only a chance for 3 white flowers to bloom in the sky!

As for the only fighter plane that made a successful emergency landing, when the villagers rushed to the plane to rescue the pilot at the risk of being shot by the Japanese plane, they found that the windshield had been shattered long ago, the pilot was shot in the chest, and the blood had already dyed the entire cockpit blood red.

Before the villagers could lift him out of the cockpit, the young pilot gently exhaled his last breath of his life.

God knows what kind of perseverance he had. At the moment before his life was about to end, he not only smoothly controlled the damaged fighter plane to rush into the low altitude, but also parked the plane steadily in the rice field full of mud and water.

No one knows how he accomplished this miracle, but the fighter plane that was saved by the villagers using local materials, mud and rice in the rice field to put out the fire, was finally transported back to Jiulongpo Airport.

Although this old and severely damaged fighter plane has no chance to take to the sky again because of the service of new fighter planes, it has been preserved in the Chinese Military Museum. The bullet holes on its fuselage have not been repaired, and the blood stains in its cockpit have not been cleaned.

The old antique from the 1930s, in an inconspicuous position in the Chinese Military Museum, shows all visitors the glory of blood and sacrifice!

Sometimes, it is not only victory that is glorious, but also failure and sacrifice.

It was these best young Chinese who used their lives to slow down the pace of the Japanese army and win a breathing space for the entire nation.

Just like this doomed battle, before they boarded the plane, they knew that they were just bait and consumables, and the risk was far greater than those comrades who were circling at an altitude of nearly 7,000 meters looking for fighter planes.

Moreover, as a commander, Zheng Shaoyu gave them the opportunity to withdraw. If there were not enough people willing to serve as this "cannon fodder", he would revise the tactics and fight the Japanese escort aircraft and bomber groups in a hard-to-hard way.

But these young people from elite families chose to face death!

There is a choice on the battlefield called living towards death. Only by fighting hard can you have a chance to survive, and they are called dying towards death, using their lives in exchange for the chance of others to survive.

In the end, just as the people of Bishan County were looking forward to it, 24 Chinese fighters were defeated!

The battle loss ratio was extremely frustrating at 0 to 18! Less than 4 of the 18 Chinese fighters were able to make a successful forced landing, and 14 fighters were shot down in the fields between the mountains. Only 7 Chinese pilots were able to parachute and survive.

On the Japanese side, only 2 fighters had white smoke coming out of the tail, but judging from their posture and speed in the air, they should have only suffered minor injuries.

If we only look at this battle, the Chinese side is already a complete loser in this mountain city air defense battle. Not only was the city still bombed, but 18 fighters were shot down and damaged.

But this is just the first wave in this air battle!

The Japanese planes that won the air battle did not hover in the air as in the past, and wait for an opportunity to attack the Chinese fighter planes that successfully landed on the ground. They were leaving at high speed.

To be more precise, they left at full speed, including the two slightly injured Japanese fighter planes.

The roar of the 900-horsepower engines of the 11 Zero fighters was clearly heard by the Chinese people on the ground more than 2,000 meters away. The Chinese who witnessed the defeat of their own fleet and were shrouded in great sadness did not understand why the victorious Japanese left the battlefield like their butts were on fire.

Captain Shindo Saburo, who won the victory, was not as happy as he imagined. He didn't even care about the last 6 remaining Chinese fighter planes to chase him, and his face was full of anger and fear.

Because 70 kilometers away from his battlefield, the bomber group returning at high speed was ambushed by the Chinese group from high altitude.

He was not afraid of dozens of them, and he was not afraid of all the latest fighters. What really frightened Shindo Saburo was that the Chinese were so patient that they waited for a full 10 minutes before launching the attack.

Don't they know that the I-series fighters are not the opponents of the Empire's latest fighters? As a captain of the Japanese Navy Air Force who had fought with the Chinese Air Force over Yiling, he knew very well that his opponent knew very well that even if it was 24 against 11, the Chinese I-series fighters had no chance.

But the Chinese still did it. Dozens of fighters followed the bomber group at an altitude of 7,000 meters, just waiting for him to lead the Empire fighters to shoot down 18 Chinese fighters, like a golden eagle in the sky, waiting for the best time to prey.

This tactic was really too cruel, so cruel that even Shindo Saburo, as the enemy, felt cold all over!

Because he knew what this group of cruel enemies were waiting for, waiting for their comrades to spend 10 minutes with their lives, waiting for the bomber group to get farther and farther away from the battlefield.

For humans, 70 kilometers is a long way. Even the most tenacious troops need more than 15 hours to advance lightly. But for fighter planes, especially the Zero fighters with a maximum speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, it takes less than 10 minutes. If you push the throttle lever to the bottom and turn on the afterburner, you may arrive in seven or eight minutes.

But can 25 bombers and 12 escorting Zero fighters hold up until he leads the team to arrive?

Shindo Saburo didn't know the result, but he knew that if the Chinese succeeded in sneak attacking the bomber formation, let alone shooting down only 18, even if all 24 Chinese fighters were destroyed, the Imperial Navy would also lose a big loss in this air battle.

"Everyone, return home immediately! The bomber formation is being attacked by the Chinese. Everyone return home as quickly as possible. There is no need to save fuel!" Captain Shindo Saburo, who tried his best to stay calm, said this in the radio communicator and pushed the throttle lever to the bottom.

In fact, the Chinese were not as calm as Shindo Saburo imagined.

The hearts of the young Chinese pilots at an altitude of 6,800 meters covered by clouds were also suffering.

The radio performance of the Mao Bears' I-15 fighters was really poor. Many times, they could not communicate with the ground at all, resulting in errors. Even the most advanced I-16 fighters assisted by the Mao Bears had intermittent air signals.

Therefore, when Tang Dao and Zheng Shaoyu formulated the tactic that someone must "fly into the fire", the country immediately hired the US maintenance pilots at the airport to upgrade the radio of the I-16. In fact, 10 sets of wildcat fighter radio systems were installed on the I-16. This was to facilitate the main fleet to communicate with them and notify them at any time to leave the battlefield at a more appropriate time.

There were 5 I-16 aircraft in each of the two I-series fleets responsible for the "fly into the fire".

Even if there were still dozens of kilometers between them, the main force could receive the voice of the decoy fleet.

In the cockpits of the young Chinese pilots, the most common sound was the rustling of electronic signals after entering the signal blind zone. Occasionally, there were intermittent voices from comrades, but they were constant farewells.

"Meng Qing's No. 16 plane caught fire. He wanted to enter a low-altitude forced landing, but failed. No. 16 plane has crashed! It's too low, there is no chance to parachute!"

"Guangzhong parachuted, and the damn devils wanted to shoot him with machine guns. I went to block it!"

"I was shot and I don't have the strength to climb out of the cockpit. Brothers, goodbye!"

"We have suffered most of the losses in the battle. We can't do it anymore. The rest, please brothers!"

. . . . . . . . .

The constant bad news made the young Chinese pilots burst into tears, in the sky with the roaring engines.

"Captain, launch the attack! If you don't launch the attack, Captain Wang and the others will be finished!" The young Chinese pilots kept making requests to Zheng Shaoyu, the highest commander of the Bishan airspace, in agony.

"The distance is not enough, wait!" Zheng Shaoyu's order couldn't be shorter, and his tone was as firm as before, and no one could hear his emotional changes.

But perhaps only the wingman pilots who were less than 20 meters away from him could see that the face of the resolute major captain in the cockpit was flashing with tears.

His brothers had already died under his orders, so what he had to do now was not to let them die in vain.

"Dive attack! The 17th and 18th squadrons will attack the enemy bombers first, and the rest of you will follow me to entangle and kill the escorting Japanese Zero aircraft group!" It was not until a full 10 minutes later that Zheng Shaoyu, who had been staring at his watch, finally roared and issued an attack order.

48 Wildcat fighters flying at high altitude roared down and dived towards the Japanese bomber group flying at an altitude of 3,200 meters 3,000 meters away.

The Japanese bomber group was composed of 97 heavy bomber series, some of which were early models and some were later modified models, but the main difference was the anti-aircraft weapons. The earliest KI-21 model had only 4 machine guns, and the 39-year modified kI-21 II had 6 machine guns. In addition, the vertical tail was enlarged, and the speed could reach 430 kilometers per hour in full-speed flight.

This was considered a medium level among bombers at the time, and even faster than the Chinese I-series fighters. Many times when facing the interception of I-series fighters, the 97 heavy bombers could step on the throttle and fly away.

But this time their opponent was a Wildcat fighter with a maximum speed of 550 kilometers per hour. The distance of 3,000 meters was only two or three minutes for a speed difference of more than 100 kilometers per hour.

The 12 Zero fighters had tried very hard. When the bomber group was trying to flee forward, they turned in the air with a quarter of the opponent's force and rushed head-on to the powerful opponent.

But how could the Chinese group with an absolute advantage in numbers be stopped by 12 Zero fighters? About 20 Wildcat fighters, led by Zheng Shaoyu, fought with the 12 Zero fighters in the air, and the other 28 were determined to kill the Japanese bomber group.

The 97 heavy bombers were naturally unwilling to be captured, and the onboard machine guns fired desperately at the approaching Wildcat fighters.

But the Wildcat fighter with a length of only 7 meters was as light as a falcon encountering a vulture for the 97 heavy bomber with a total length of more than 16 meters. It kept flying up and down and cut into the battlefield from the shooting blind spot of the bomber.

Describing the Wildcat fighter as a falcon is to describe their agility, but in terms of lethality, the lethality of the 97 heavy bomber is not as great as that of the Wildcat fighter.

One of the tactical purposes of the birth of the Wildcat fighter was to intercept the opponent's bombers, so all machine guns used 7mm heavy machine guns, and later modified models were even equipped with 20mm machine guns and 23mm guns.

The thick warhead can easily tear the skin of the Type 97 heavy bomber and cause damage to the fuselage!

In less than 5 minutes, 19 of the 25 Japanese bombers were shot down, and two Chinese Wildcat fighters were hit by heavy machine guns and crashed. Fortunately, the pilots were able to parachute successfully. Another 5 Wildcat fighters were damaged, and 2 of them were ordered to return at low altitude because of billowing smoke.

Compared with the one-sided battlefield on Shindo Saburo's side, the Japanese bomber group actually broke the record of zero, and its performance could be said to be 30 points.

But as more Wildcat fighters that destroyed their own targets were put into the battlefield, it was only a matter of time before the remaining 6 Type 97 heavy bombers were destroyed.

The 12 Zero fighters could still rely on their superior mobility and the 20 Chinese fighters that outnumbered them from the beginning, but as nearly 10 Wildcat fighters finished dealing with their opponents and returned from more than 10 kilometers away, the Japanese planes fell into a completely passive position.

Because they were heartbroken to watch their comrades risk their lives to fight for a chance for themselves, many young Chinese pilots adopted the "hurt one thousand enemies and destroyed eight hundred of their own" tactic of losing both sides, risking being hit by the machine guns of Japanese planes, and leaving a few holes in the Japanese planes with machine guns.

You have a large number and targeted tactics, but you still want to use this tactic, who can withstand it?

What's more terrible is that the Wildcat fighters have much more protection for the fuel tanks and the pilot's cockpit than the Zero fighters. At least six Wildcat fighters have dozens of bullet holes on them, but they are still jumping up and down vigorously.

As long as the Zero fighters are hit by more than a dozen 7mm caliber bullets, almost no one will not smoke.

It's a good thing to have green smoke coming out of the ancestral graves, but if you smoke, you will be burned.

By the time Shindo Saburo rushed to the air battle scene, the air battle was basically over. There was black smoke everywhere on the ground. You didn't need to look closely to know that it was the wreckage of the crashed plane.

There were still nearly 40 Chinese fighter planes painted with the blue sky and white sun flag circling in the sky.

The Chinese fleet that shot down all the bombers and killed 9 Zero fighters and won a great victory was not circling to demonstrate their own achievements. They were waiting in this airspace for the enemy planes that killed their comrades to return.

"Kill!"

Two identical orders were issued from the mouths of the Chinese and Japanese commanders.

Like two groups of bulls with red eyes, 37 Wildcat fighters and 11 Zero fighters confronted each other without dodging.

For the pilots of the two groups, any language was enough to express their anger and sadness, only the blood of the enemy could.

The 11 Zero fighters that had lost all their sanity finally had no chance to return.

In the sky, 32 Wildcat fighters circled three times on their own battlefield and flew to the most tragic and brilliant battlefield. They circled there for more than 10 minutes.

Looking from the ground, it was like a flock of geese that had lost their companions. Although there was no cry, there was sadness.

Finally, they raised their noses and flew away.

Those were our fighters, but were they too late? The people on the ground with tears on their faces did not know the news of the great victory.

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