Chapter 374: One Thousand Pilots and French Fries
Time goes back to an hour and a half ago, Taiyuan Chengbei Airport.
This is the first airport built by Egg Dancer in Shanxi. It originally had only a simple earthen one-way runway, which was used by the Jinsui Army to train its own aviation fleet.
At the end of November, considering the growing number of fighter planes and the frequency of high-intensity missions, the headquarters simply dispatched a professional engineering team to expand the north of the city into a permanent airport with a cement runway.
The Second Kong Division is seated here.
"Team Wang, Squadron, General Lin telegraphed, the frontline requires us to arrive at the battlefield in half an hour."
Hearing this, Fang Ziyi looked at his watch and said with some surprise:
"The enemy's speed is quite fast, dozens of minutes earlier than I expected. I immediately called back to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region and said that the Second Air Division promised to complete the mission."
After the correspondent left, the Eighth Route Army's first local ace pilot raised his eyebrows and issued a challenge application to Captain Wang Hai, who was both a teacher and a friend.
"Team King, we haven't been on a mission together for a while since the Second Division was established. Do you want to compete today to see who has a higher offensive efficiency?"
"According to intelligence, there are still many armored units left in the cavalry group, and there are even one or two hidden 105 heavy artillery positions, which is barely a good sandbag."
"How about it, are you interested in having a competition?"
Although this operation was mainly focused on bombing the ground. However, considering safety issues, the First Air Division still sent some crews to escort.
After all, the North China Front still has some fighters, so we can't treat the Japanese as human beings.
Since there were many novices among this group of soldiers, and even a few who were on the battlefield for the first time, Captain Wang Hai decided to lead the team himself after thinking about it.
They arrived at the station of the brothers' troops in advance, and as soon as they received the order, they would take off and rush to the battlefield together.
Faced with the sudden challenge, Team Wang took it without any hesitation.
"Okay, if the enemy plane doesn't show up, let's have a test, and I'll personally check your current level."
"Old rules, the artillery positions of the cavalry group are left to you. To be fair, my aerial bombs will be used to bomb the enemy's infantry. As for the final result, the winner will be determined by the number of tanks and armored vehicles destroyed."
"Machine cannons and rocket launchers are your strengths, so there's no problem."
As soon as these words came out, Fang Ziyi immediately showed an excited expression. Although he is already the commander of division-level troops, he is still essentially a 24-year-old young man.
There are not many opportunities to compete with your teacher, so now my heart is naturally full of excitement and expectation.
As for whether rockets and cannons can destroy the Type 97 medium tank, it is completely outside the scope of their thinking.
After all, even a 20mm Western gun has a penetration depth of 26mm after being replaced with a ground-piercing armor-piercing belt.
If the angle is right or you are lucky, you can even directly penetrate the 25mm frontal armor of the Type 97 medium tank. The relatively thin sides and top are not difficult.
In a sense, fighters equipped with Hispano cannons are not much different from Cannonbirds and IL-2s on the Asian battlefield. This is the advantage of the regional matching mechanism.
As for leaving the artillery position to Fang Ziyi, this has become an unspoken understanding between the master and the disciple.
There is no way, who let the industrial strength of this book be relatively low, the 105mm barrel gun is only equipped at the division level. If you want to achieve the achievement of destroying 150 artillery positions, you can only make concessions internally.
Hey, this damn desire to win.
After a while, Fang Ziyi waved his fist and said excitedly:
"Okay, it's a deal!"
"Today I want to show my comrades what fishing for French fries means!"
Captain Wang Hai shook his head helplessly when he heard the word "fishing for French fries".
The Japanese army ranks during World War II, the logos for Warrant Officer and below are really similar to the icons of Battlefield Five, and they can barely be regarded as a kind of French fries.
But even so, suddenly hearing such words that did not belong to the current era still made Team Wang a little uncomfortable.
After a moment, he pretended to be serious and said:
"You can always come up with some new tricks for me. From now on, stop learning those messy things from Director Huang. If you have the time, you might as well lead more new recruits!"
"Besides, have you ever eaten French fries? Just kill the enemy, don't lead the new recruits astray!"
"okay!"
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While they were talking, the master and apprentice had already arrived at the scheduled meeting point. Looking at the faces in front of him with an average age of only 20 years old, Fang Ziyi smiled from the bottom of his heart.
A year ago, he and his comrades had just returned to the border area from the border. There are more than fifty of them, and they officially opened the Air Force for the army.
Just when Fang Ziyi was filled with emotion, Captain Wang patted him on the shoulder, then pointed to the podium in front and said:
"Go ahead, you will host today's swearing-in mobilization meeting. Choose your words well to inspire the fighting spirit of the comrades, and at the same time eliminate the nervousness and fear in the recruits' hearts."
Encouraged by his teacher, the current youngest division-level cadre in the Eighth Route Army stepped forward and spoke slowly to his comrades.
"I know that this is the first time for many of you to fly a fighter plane into battle to kill the enemy, and you will feel a little nervous and uneasy. I understand your current state."
"Actually, a year ago, my performance was even worse than yours."
"On the day we set out from the border, we were still worried about whether there were any planes in the border area. Where to get fuel and whether there were enough ammunition. These were the issues we discussed on the way."
"In the air battle at Zhongtiao Mountain, if there hadn't been the desperate cover of the wingman, I would have even died in the first battle."
At this point, some comrades from the border aviation school couldn't help but laugh out loud. In this cheerful atmosphere, the recruits also relaxed a lot.
Looking back, it seems like a lifetime ago.
Even if a few combat heroes were counted, the entire Eighth Route Army Air Force had less than 60 people, including ground crews and maintenance technicians.
But in the statistics of the entire army last month, the number of formal pilots with combat qualifications has approached 600, and a maximum of more than 500 aircraft can be taken off at a time.
If the senior students of the border aviation school are counted, the number has reached 1,000.
Among them, there are also 17 ace pilots.
According to Huang He, the current Eighth Route Army has officially entered the stage of equipment and people. It will only take the next year to exceed the book.
Calculating the time, it has only been one year since the army was officially established.
Perhaps compared with Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain, and the Ugly Country, this training speed is nothing, and it is even a bit slow.
But the above countries either had a civilian pilot training program before the war, which could quickly select a large number of people with a flying foundation when the war broke out.
Or they already had professional aviation schools and trained a large number of elites through early accumulation.
Of course, there is also a more evil system like Britain, which can mobilize most of the Commonwealth's forces at a critical moment and quickly train tens of thousands of pilots in Canada.
But what does the Eighth Route Army have?
To put it bluntly, the Eighth Route Army has no foundation at all. Except for a small number of elites who were arranged by their superiors to study in advance, there are only blind people who seem to be endless.
It is a feat to train a thousand pilots in one year!
After all, looking at the Republic of China in 1941, apart from the entire united front of TG, whether it can gather a thousand combat-capable official pilots is an unknown.
Of course, we can't just see the surface brilliance, and the conviction behind it can't be ignored or forgotten.
In the hands of the army's morale wizard and the deputy commander, each has a list of comrades who died in the past year. Those densely packed names are the price.
The difficulty of pilot training is far beyond that of the general army.
Infantry may suffer various injuries during training. But as long as they don't kill themselves, there will be almost no life-threatening danger.
Even for armored soldiers with higher difficulty, it is difficult to cause casualties when driving a cicada tank into a ditch during training, most of them are just broken bones or something.
But the Air Force.
As long as the students have an accident, it means that one foot has stepped into the gate of hell.
In the middle of World War II, the ejection seat was still in its infancy. And comrades who want to parachute while driving a British fighter plane must first jump out of the cockpit.
This is not a simple technical action, and many students don't even grasp the correct time to practice parachuting.
Just take a look at the flight trainees in the Commonwealth. For all the training aircraft in the schools, a major accident occurred every 900 hours of flight on average.
In just one year from October 1942 to 1943, 6,000 people died in various flight schools.
So, it is definitely a feat that the Eighth Route Army was able to train nearly a thousand pilots with a solid foundation in one year with minimal casualties.
This number will grow exponentially in the future.
What's more, the comrades not only learned driving skills, but also learned aircraft-related disciplines and technologies. They are still young, and their learning ability has not reached its limit.
Even at the end of the war, when the Eighth Route Army's air force mastered the technology of jet fighters, they could quickly get started through learning.
Seeing the happy soldiers in the audience, Fang Ziyi cleared his eyes and continued:
"What I want to say is that there is no need to be afraid or uneasy."
"For the escorting First Division, our aircraft are more advanced and our numbers are greater than theirs. Even if there is a gap in technology, it is difficult for the devils to shoot down the Spitfire."
"Comrades of the Second Division, there is only one thing you need to think about, that is, how to snatch a piece of meat from your teammates. As for the anti-aircraft guns?"
Speaking of this, Fang Ziyi pretended to pause, and then put his ear close to the crowd.
"Twist and you can dodge! The Japanese army's field air defense system, the Bodhisattva Navy of Germany III would shake their heads when they see it."
"Hahaha!"
The shouts of the veterans of the Second Air Division completely cleared the uneasiness in the hearts of the recruits. However, there was one person with a dark face at the scene, and that was Captain Wang Hai.
"Go, go, stop making trouble. What do you mean you can get away by twisting your body? Don't listen to your captain's nonsense."
"If the escort crew encounters a tough opponent, they must call nearby comrades. If they encounter force majeure, they can evacuate the battlefield first after getting my approval."
"Second Division, I know that most of you are elites. The field air defense of the North China Front is indeed very ordinary, but you must never develop the habit of underestimating the enemy."
"We will have to face the Kwantung Army in the future, and some comrades may have to board ships to face the Combined Fleet in the future. The task of bombing our homeland is also yours. If you don't face the enemy, something will happen sooner or later."
Obviously, the old captain's words were very useful.
The soldiers no longer underestimated the enemy, and each of them secretly made up his mind. Even our North China Eagle lowered his head in embarrassment.
After a while, Captain Wang Hai looked at his watch, and then ordered everyone: "Let's go! This battle! Let's take back North China!"
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Half an hour later, ninety-three Typhoon fighter jets took off one after another. The obvious palatal air intake perfectly explains what rugged aesthetics is.
Surrounding the close support aircraft were twenty-four elegant Spitfires.
Although they are said to be escorts, in fact, the mission of these fighter jets is very easy. They are just to prevent the possible appearance of Japanese Army aviation from disturbing the fraternal troops licking the ground.
After all, with the performance of the Typhoon and the technology of the Second Air Division, it is completely possible to eliminate the Type 97, Type 1 Fighting Falcon and Type 2 Zhong Kui while bombing the cavalry group.
As for the reason for taking early action, it was also very simple. Although the Chengbei Airport was only more than 180 kilometers away from the left-wing battlefield in Dai County, it could be reached in about 20 minutes.
But at night, it is not easy to dispatch and take off hundreds of fighter planes at once, not to mention that flying in the early morning is much more difficult than during the day.
Fortunately, the headquarters and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region had already made preparations and temporarily built a large number of indicator lighthouses between Taiyuan and Xinkou. As long as you fly along the lights, you will never get lost or yaw. (End of chapter)