Chapter 3101 Let’s Watch the Mushroom Cloud Together

Guided by the explosion of the aerial bombs dropped by the bomber formation in Figure 2S, the following Pe-8M bomber formation successfully found the target they needed to focus on.

500 kg aerial bombs are enough to blow up the Japanese planes that were neatly stacked on the airport like targets.

But to completely destroy the aviation operation capabilities of the Japanese airport runway, taxiway, parking space, hangar and other systems, 500 kg of destructive power is not enough.

At least in the eyes of Vatutin, who personally applied for the transfer of Pe-8M, this is not enough.

"The target is the Japanese runway, release the rack safety, bombardier ready."

Accompanied by the captain's order, the bombardier who was already lying in front of the bomb sight has begun to work.

Although there are two bombs, there is only one chance to drop them.

Because the fuselage balance must be in a stable state, the Pe-8M, which has a 5-ton gas tank under the wing root of each wing, must drop two bombs at the same time. Instead of dropping one bomb at a time, they carried out two bombings.

Otherwise, the weight of one wing root suddenly increased by 5 tons more than the other side, resulting in a serious imbalance of counterweight, which was enough to make the flight posture of a large bomber like the Pe-8M unstable in an instant, and it was not impossible to cause it to crash out of control.

So this is why most bombers prefer to carry bombs along the central axis of the fuselage, because at least they don't have to consider the counterweight balance problem on the left and right sides of the fuselage, and they can have the maximum number of bomb drops for multiple bombings.

But the problem with the Pe-8M is that the oversized 5-ton gas tank is too big.

Putting one bomb in the built-in bomb bay on the belly is so big that even the belly bomb bay door can't be closed. It's better to remove the bomb bay door directly to reduce weight and resistance and improve flight performance.

The belly bomb bay can only hold a 5-ton gas tank at most, which is a legacy of the early design of the Pe-8.

It's not that it can't be modified, but it's too big and troublesome to modify it. In order to modify a Pe 8 with two gas tanks in the belly bomb bay, it's more efficient to start from scratch and redesign a heavy bomber.

So the Pe 8M is a patchwork model that serves as a transitional model for technology verification and design demonstration before the birth of the Tu-4. It is quite good and sufficient to have such a strong combat power now. There is no need to expect too much.

After the rack safety is released, the bombardier has the right to drop bombs. The captain who controls the flight attitude in the main driving seat only needs to keep the fuselage stable and create a suitable enough bombing environment for the bombardier.

"Okay, it's done! It's you, go!"

Click--

With the bombardier's final aiming successfully completed, the moment the crosshairs are accurately aligned with the target, the bombardier presses the bomb button.

The two 5-ton gas tanks under the wing roots on both sides of the fuselage were detached from the racks at the same time. The flight weight of the Pe-8M, which was instantly reduced by more than 10 tons, immediately shook its fuselage, and the flight altitude instantly rose several meters, and the speed increased significantly.

"Damn Suka! This extreme mounting scheme is like sitting on a trampoline every time I drop bombs. I feel like my butt almost flew up just now."

The co-pilot in the back row cursed and complained, and the captain in the front seat, who was already used to this feeling of dropping bombs, couldn't help but laugh and speak.

"Okay, it's not the first time. Think about the time when we were on the Seelow Heights outside Berlin. Didn't it feel the same at that time? Just relax, it's no big deal."

The newly formed strategic bomber division has a considerable number of personnel and technical equipment, all of which were drawn from the original bomber units on the Berlin front, including the Pe-8M crew that participated in the bombing of the Seelow Heights.

Two heavyweight bombs made a sharp and shrill whistle in the air, and fell straight down to the Japanese airport runway on the ground, which was already burning fiercely, at the same speed, in the same posture, and with a short interval between them.

The wreckage of various Japanese fighter planes destroyed by 500 kg aerial bombs was still spewing flames. The 500 kg aerial bomb crater, which was already quite large, was flowing with burning aviation fuel, burning more and more vigorously like a volcanic vent.

It was under such circumstances that two terrifying mushroom clouds followed and rose from the ground and rushed into the sky.

Boom--

The two 5-ton gas tanks exploded almost at the same time when they landed, and the explosions were connected and indistinguishable.

The huge fireball instantly expanded to a width that was enough to completely block the entire runway, followed by the contraction and dissipation of the flames at a speed so fast that it could be seen by the naked eye, and finally turned into a dark mushroom cloud that stood in place in a very short time.

The mushroom cloud that shot straight into the sky had instantly reached a height of more than 30 meters, and with the evaporation of smoke and dust, it rose and spread further, and the height was still rising.

The destructive power generated was even more exaggerated.

The final impact of the two 5-ton gas tanks falling at the same time was that several consecutive craters on the runway that were opened by 500-kilogram bombs were directly connected into one, and became even bigger.

When the mushroom cloud gradually dissipated to the extent that the crater could be seen clearly, it was seen that a super-giant crater with a diameter of at least 50 meters had been opened in the center of the airport runway.

The shape of the crater was peculiar, deep on both sides and shallow in the middle. The reason for this peculiar phenomenon was of course due to the different landing points of the two 5-ton gas tanks.

The explosion was most powerful and deep at the center of the explosion, and the depth became shallower as it moved toward the edge, eventually merging with the large crater created by another gas tank not far away.

All the craters left by 500 kg bombs within the crater's coverage radius were also swallowed up and merged into one.

The "design flaw" of the 8M, which was originally unsatisfactory, with only one bombing opportunity and two 5-ton gas tanks at the same time, has now become an excellent help in destroying the runway of the Japanese airport.

The integrated crater created by the simultaneous explosion of two 5-ton gas tanks on the same horizontal axis is more than just a large crater in the middle of the runway of the Japanese airport.

This is not only a super-large crater that completely divides the entire runway into two, but also the grass next to the runway is affected and a large crater is created.

The wreckage of the Japanese fighter planes that had been destroyed and were burning were even worse. The wreckage that was originally intact was torn into pieces and thrown into the sky. It rose into the air with the shock wave of the explosion and then fell down, and finally fell into a rain of debris and garbage.

It was also because the noise of the explosion was so loud that the La-7 fighters that had just completed a low-altitude dive attack and were in the final clearance and preparing to climb also felt a strong shock.

The violent shock wave came directly from the air at high speed, shaking the La-7 fighter, which was originally light and emphasized maneuverability, up and down, as if every part and screw were trembling and shaking back and forth.

"Damn, this thing is still too powerful! Fortunately, we hid in time."

"Stop talking nonsense, keep climbing, hurry up! More Pe8Ms are coming, if you don't want to be blown down from the sky, stay away!"

It may sound a bit horrifying, but in the face of the huge power of two gas tanks exploding at the same time, the fighter plane being blown down from the sky is really no joke.

If you fly too low and too close, you will really fall to the ground and serve as fuel with the Japanese devils' scrap metal.

The Red Army pilots who dared not neglect immediately took the opportunity to leave.

Once the bombing began, they were responsible for continuously suppressing the airport's aviation operations and covering the bombers' bombing missions, which was naturally completed.

Regardless of whether there were still Japanese planes trying to take off below, it was impossible to fly in the face of such a devastating bombing, and there was no chance of escape.

In an open airport without any shelter or terrain, even if the Japanese pilots abandoned their planes and escaped, they would have no other possible fate except being hit by the shock wave and being torn apart by the shock wave on the ground without any shelter.

More Pe 8Ms that arrived at the bombing position began to drop bombs one after another.

One after another, 5-ton gas tanks rushed to the runway, taxiway, hangar and other targets on the airport in pairs.

Some Japanese ground crews who saw that the situation was not right and were originally scrambling to push some planes that were worth saving and possible to be saved into the hangar before the bombs fell also gave up this last effort and began to flee for their lives.

But it was too late to run at this time.

The Japanese ground crews who only knew that the super bombs used by the Russians were terrifyingly powerful, but had no clear understanding of how powerful they were, were about to experience it firsthand.

Boom--

A 5-ton gas tank fell down and smashed through the hangar roof on the spot.

The steel-concrete bunker that could barely withstand the bombing of small bombs was almost no different from a piece of newspaper in front of the gravitational potential energy of the 5-ton gas tank.

After smashing through the roof of the hangar, the 5-ton gas tank continued to smash down, smashing a brand-new land attack aircraft that had just been pushed into the hangar into pieces, like being torn apart by five horses, with the nose here, the wings there, and the tail more than ten meters away in a completely different direction.

"Explosive bomb! The Russian evil ghost explosive bomb! Run away, run away!!!"

The super bomb in front of them was completely frightened.

Seeing that this thing was so big that it was not known whether it was a dud or a delayed fuze, in short, it did not explode on the spot.

The Japanese ground crew had neither the time to guess nor the courage to think, and they just ran away with their short legs on the spot.

Unfortunately, good luck did not favor these Japanese ground crews. The answer was a delayed fuze rather than a dud.

The several Pe 8Ms that came to bomb the reinforced hangars and fuel depots were pre-assigned and assigned corresponding combat missions.

The strategic bomber aviation force, which had made sufficient pre-war preparations, preset the Japanese army's underground fuel depots at a fairly high level of defense, highlighting that even if it is overestimated, it must not underestimate the enemy or be improperly prepared.

The corresponding combat plan is to determine that bombing the surface is ineffective, and it is necessary to allow the 5-ton bombs to penetrate the surface defense as much as possible, and explode after exhausting the impact potential energy brought by gravity acceleration, in order to achieve a more ideal destructive effect.

Using a delayed fuse to detonate the bomb is a natural choice.

The setting of the fuse at the tail of the bomb instead of the warhead does not worry about the delay fuse failure due to the excessive impact potential energy when the 5-ton bomb lands, at least the failure probability is low to an acceptable range.

So there was a scene where the Japanese ground crew had just run out of the hangar screaming and terrified, and then they were directly crushed to ashes and blown away by the wind in a huge explosion that shot up into the sky.

In the face of such a huge destructive force, a mortal body is no different from a rag doll in a gas station explosion.

Several figures running desperately in the airport covered with smoke were vaporized in an instant, disappearing in the tsunami-like waves of flames behind them, and disappeared in an instant.

The reinforced hangar with a big hole in the top of the head was blown to pieces in the huge explosion.

Countless cement slag and debris were directly flown to more than 50 meters in the air by the mushroom cloud, and continued to rush upwards like a rocket.

Another one landed not far away, and did not hit the hangar directly, but fell on the 5-ton gas tank not far away from the hangar. It exploded almost at the same time, adding fuel to the fire.

The already fragmented hangar was blown to the point that almost no broken walls were left, leaving only countless debris flying in the air and falling like a rainstorm.

After the bombing, there were almost no high-value targets left on the Japanese airport.

The only target that was clearly listed in the battle plan and had not yet been bombed was the fuel depot left for the last minute.

The two Pe-8Ms carrying 5-ton bombs with delayed fuses came to perform this final finishing process.

The destructive power of four gas tanks falling in succession was enough to blow up the entire fuel depot.

According to the Red Army's strategic bombing aviation's pre-conceived idea, even if the Japanese fuel depot was located 10 meters below the ground and protected by a concrete layer, the gravity potential energy of the bombs brought by the high-altitude horizontal bombing and the explosive power of the downward penetration were enough to completely blow it up.

But the result was that the Red Army overestimated its opponent.

The fuel depot on the Japanese airport was actually only protected by a 1-meter concrete layer and a 4-meter thick soil layer, not to mention the 10-meter concrete layer.

When the airport was designed earlier, it was based on the Kwantung Army's idea at the time. The Chinese army, the enemy, could not possibly have bombs capable of penetrating such defenses, so it would be a waste to lay more building materials on it. It would be better to move them to places where they were more needed and save them.

But how could the Kwantung Army at that time have expected the scene today? They never thought that one day it would be the Russians' giant bird carrying a 5-ton gas tank to blow up the oil depot.

Woo-woo-

With a shrill scream, the 5-ton gas tank rushed out at high speed and fell straight down, hitting the surface just above the oil depot that had been bombed once by Figure 2S and served as a mark, and deeply poured into it, directly penetrating the concrete layer and getting stuck in the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a scene like a volcanic eruption suddenly rose from the ground.

Sorry brothers, I fell asleep while typing, it's outrageous. I woke up and quickly clicked publish and went back to sleep.