The Rise of the Third Reich

One of the oldest carrier-based aircraft pilots in the Japanese Navy, Colonel Kaio Kamei, known as one of the "Hosho Three Toba", and Major Shigetaka Egusa, who is known as the God of Explosive Strikes, are the only remaining carrier-based aircraft pilots of the Japanese Navy. One of the few "critical strike aircraft" and "attack aircraft" aces.

Compared with Zero fighter pilots, the Japanese Navy's carrier-based critical strike aircraft and attack aircraft suffered greater losses in previous series of fierce battles, often achieving a success rate of more than 70%. The reason why Kamei and Egusa survived was not because they always belonged to the 30% of pilots who did not become gods, but because they did not participate in the Battle of Christmas Island and the subsequent battle to pursue the US 58th Breaking Fleet.

Throughout the second half of 1943, both of them were busy with the implementation of the "Galaxy" critical strike aircraft, "the most powerful" naval land-based strike aircraft.

The Galaxy bomber is a high-performance long-range universal bomber developed by the Japanese Navy inspired by sea and air combat in the European battlefield. Not only does it fly at a high speed and has a long range, it can not only attack large enemy ships by aerial torpedoes, horizontal bombing and dive bombing, but also rely on its own high speed to get rid of the interception of the opponent's fighter jets. In addition, this bomber is also equipped with air combat flaps, which has It has a certain air combat capability.

Although such a "universal" fighter has superior performance on paper and is ranked first in the world (probably only Germany's Ju288 bomber can compete with the "Galaxy"), the difficulty of research and development is also extremely high. The aircraft began to be developed in 1940 in the name of the "Fifteenth Test Land Explosive Attack Aircraft". It was not until the first half of 1943 that it overcame various difficulties and was put into mass production (the reason why it could be mass-produced so early was because Germany helped solve the problem of Nakajima "Yu" engine heat dissipation problem). In the second half of 1943, troops began to be installed to replace the "one-type lighter".

However, the "Galaxy" land-based bombardment aircraft encountered another unexpected problem in the process of actually equipping the troops - a good aircraft must be equipped with an excellent pilot!

Because the "Galaxy" has the functions of a variety of fighter aircraft such as dive bombers, level bombers, torpedo attack aircraft, and heavy fighter aircraft. Therefore, it is also required that the pilot flying it must have multiple skills in dive bombing, level bombing, torpedo attack and air combat.

In contrast, the German Ju288 driver is very easy to be a driver. You only need to fly high to avoid the US military fighter jets and surface ship anti-aircraft guns, and everything will be fine.

Therefore, the Japanese Navy had to mobilize a group of elites and form the 521st Air Force, which was specially equipped with Galaxy critical strike aircraft.

By February 1944, the Second Hawaiian Islands War began. The 521st Air Force of the Navy has been equipped with 5 squadrons of "Galaxy", with a total of 106 commonly used "Galaxy" bombers, all of which have been deployed to Oahu.

In the attack operation on the afternoon of March 4 (Hawaii time), all 106 "Galaxies" were included in the first attack wave. Escorting them are 94 purple-density modified fighter jets that also belong to the 521st Air Force.

The Zidian modified fighter is not improved on the basis of the Zidian fighter, but like the Zidian, it is improved on the basis of the strong wind water fighter. The development of Zidian and Zidian Kai aircraft were carried out almost in parallel, so Zidian Kai and Zidian were put into use almost at the same time.

The codename of the Zidian fighter is Zidian 11, while the codename of the Zidian modified fighter is Zidian 21.

Unlike the "Galaxy" critical attack aircraft, which had high hopes from the beginning, the "Purple Lightning" and "Purple Lightning" modifications are actually two emergency models. They were projects launched urgently because the performance of the "Thunder Lightning" fighter was far less than expected. .

However, due to the installation of a powerful Nakajima "Yu" 21 air-cooled engine, and there are no too stringent requirements (it is originally emergency), there is no need to board the ship. Therefore, the development of the two "Zidian" aircraft was unexpectedly smooth, and their performance was very satisfactory - in fact, as long as they do not seek perfection, Japanese aircraft designers can still design fighter jets with good performance.

"Egusa-kun," the voice of Colonel Kaio Kamei, commander of the 521st Air Force, came from Shitaro Egusa's earphones, "The formation has been completed, and you will be responsible for leading it. I'll take care of everything."

"Hai!"

Shitaro Egusa glanced at the island of Oahu below. There were still planes taking off from the island's airport at this time, and those were all army planes.

I don’t know if it is because of the “lessons” learned in the Battle of Christmas Island that the Japanese army and navy fighter planes no longer cooperate in combat. Instead, the army and navy returned to the state of fighting independently. The "Galaxy" dispatched by the navy was escorted by the navy's "Zidian Kai". The Army dispatched their own ace critical strike aircraft "Flying Dragon", "Swallowing Dragon" and "Hast" fighter jets.

The Type 4 "Flying Dragon" critical strike aircraft is also known as the Type 4 heavy critical strike aircraft. By European and American standards, this "Flying Dragon" is a rather strange aircraft. It is called "heavy", but its fully loaded take-off weight is only 13.7 tons, and its bomb load is only just over 1,000 kilograms. Moreover, the speed and range are not satisfactory. The maximum level flight speed is only 537 kilometers per hour, the ultimate range is only 3,800 kilometers, and the ceiling is less than 10,000 meters. No matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with "heavy-duty", except that there are more crew members, 6-8 people.

However, the "Type 4" Flying Dragon blaster is not without its merits. This aircraft has thick armor protection, strong anti-strike capabilities, and relatively powerful self-defense firepower. It has a 20mm cannon and five 12.7mm machine guns.

If you don't install bombs but modify the 37mm gun, it can be used to attack armored troops on the ground... But this one is a bit too big. The total weight of 13.76 tons exceeds 2 Il-2s (just over 6 tons). . For such a large aircraft operating at ultra-low altitude, it is really difficult not to be beaten down by intensive ground artillery fire.

In the Pacific, the Japanese Army Aviation had no armored forces to fight with, so the whimsical Japanese Army used the 13.76-ton Type 4 "Flying Dragon" heavy bomber as a torpedo attack aircraft.

On Oahu, the Japanese Army Air Force has deployed a total of 260 four "Flying Dragon" Heavy Explosive Type 1 aircraft that can carry aviation torpedoes. They are the main force of the Japanese Army's anti-ship operations - the Japanese Army even has aircraft carriers and submarines. , it is not surprising to have a torpedo attack aircraft.

In addition to the "Flying Dragon", the Japanese Army also placed 220 "Flying Dragon" heavy explosions on the Hawaiian Islands with performance not much different from the "Flying Dragon" - I really don't know why the Japanese Army still has the "Flying Dragon" after having the "Flying Dragon" Spend money to develop "Flying Dragon"? Can't we make improvements on the basis of "Swallowing the Dragon"?

These "Swallowing Dragons", which have similar performance to the "Flying Dragon", will form the second attack wave together with the "Flying Dragon" heavy explosion in today's attack. Half of them will be equipped with aviation torpedoes, and the other half will be equipped with 4 torpedoes. 250 kg bombs for horizontal bombing.

Escorting these 480 "Flying Dragons" and "Swallowing Dragons" are 220 Army "Wind" fighter jets.

In other words, the first attack wave launched by the Japanese army today was composed of 200 naval aircraft, while the second attack wave was composed of 700 army aircraft.

The two attack waves will involve 900 aircraft, and the scale is unprecedented!

However, when Major Shigetaka Egusa, the "God of Explosive Strikes," saw a Japanese Army's "Hiryu" explosive strike aircraft rising into the sky and starting to circle, his original belief in victory fell for some reason.

The Army's Red Deer are wasting Japan's already very tight resources! They built two nonsense planes, the "Swallowing Dragon" and the "Flying Dragon", and also used them for anti-ship warfare. However, these two large aircraft cannot be used as dive bombers. They only have two options: horizontal bombing and torpedo attack. The former is basically ineffective against surface ships in action, while the latter is a completely brainless death!

If in the early stages of the war, when the anti-aircraft firepower on U.S. Navy ships is not very strong, the tactic of using bombers from both sides (three-engine) to drop torpedoes is still more effective. But today, the firepower of American surface ships is already very powerful. Carrier-based torpedo attack aircraft flying horizontally at low altitude and low speed have been beaten to pieces. What good results can such big guys of more than ten tons have? Even if it is relatively strong, it cannot withstand the beating of a 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

And...do Army Air Corps pilots really know how to perform torpedo attacks?

Egusa Shigetaka thought: If the resources for manufacturing and using the "Flying Dragon" (including pilots) can be given to the Navy to build the "Galaxy", then today's first attack wave will be able to invest 366 "Galaxies" for dive bombing.

With the "Galaxy's" high speed and good dive performance, the U.S. fleet will surely suffer heavy losses!

But Japan has its own national conditions. Not to mention that a major like Egusa Nobutaka is helpless, even if the emperor comes, there is nothing he can do.

"Guys, let me say it again, our mission now is to intercept, so don't fight with the Japanese fighters, just fight their bombers, do you understand?"

The voice of squadron leader Captain Thomas also came from the earphones of Second Lieutenant George Bush, who was flying the F4U fighter jet.

The other 11 F4Us in the flight wing of the "San Jacinto" escort aircraft carrier where Lieutenant Bush belongs are now on the battlefield as interceptor aircraft - the concept of interceptor aircraft first appeared on the European battlefield, the German Fw- The 190 is a perfect interceptor aircraft that can deal a major blow to invading enemy aircraft with the "assassin tactics" that can leave in one hit.

The Americans, who had suffered greatly from the Ju288, spared no effort to develop interceptor aircraft and improve interception tactics. In addition to the "disposable Spitfire", the U.S. Navy's F4U and the Army's P47 have both extended interceptor models.

At the same time, the "interception tactic" of using radars on surface ships or ground radar stations to guide interceptor aircraft into favorable positions and then launching dive attacks has been increasingly used by the US military.

Therefore, in the aviation battle on the afternoon of March 4, the U.S. Naval Aviation no longer carried out the so-called "high-low coordination", but adopted a new strategy of "interceptor aircraft" and "air superiority fighters" operating in separate areas. The first batch It will be more than 100 F4Us that attack the Japanese fighter planes.