Chapter 1507 Those Who Succeed Need to Pay a Price!

The Japanese army also got dozens of tons of food in the fight for the Chinese airdrops, but there were poisonous things mixed in it. They dared not eat it boldly, and they had to find a place to store it. They also lost 200 people and consumed a lot of medicine.

It was a big loss. How could the Japanese, who like to calculate the most, be willing to suffer this loss?

If this aspect doesn't work, then make up for it in other aspects.

Although the Japanese army basically lost air supremacy, under the strict order of Tian Junliu, the 5th Air Corps, which was replenished with dozens of fighters and bombers from the Kwantung Army in ten days, started to work again.

The Japanese army has basically figured out the rules of the Chinese and American air force fighters, especially the American ones, which basically appear in the sky at 9 am and 5 pm.

They can't win the fight, so the Japanese army took a detour. You will come at 8 or 9 o'clock, so I will arrive before 8 o'clock.

Early in the morning of June 30, just as the sun was rising, a large group of Japanese aircraft came to the sky in large numbers, first bombing Hengyang City, then flying to the south of the city, dive-bombing the high ground in turn.

The Sihang Regiment Air Defense Battalion, which had been hidden for a long time, finally had a place to use its skills!

As soon as Cheng Tieshou sounded the air defense alarm in Hengyang City, he ordered the anti-aircraft artillery squads hidden in the artificial caves around Yanhui Peak to pull the 40mm anti-aircraft guns and quadruple 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns and specially reinforced 20mm machine guns to the gun positions.

Since the Hengyang war started on June 1, the air defense battalion, except for occasionally using 20mm machine guns to support the front line, did not fire a single shot, whether it was the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun or the quadruple heavy machine gun.

In Tang Dao's words, "The battlefield is not a gambling table, but to win, you must not only fight for the spirit of daring to die, but also fight for wisdom and patience. A good trump card may not be enough to win the final victory, but it may also become an important cornerstone of victory."

So, most of the officers and soldiers of the air defense battalion just watched the bloody fight between the enemy and us in the sky without being able to help at all. Fortunately, the Chinese Air Force gradually gained the upper hand, otherwise this would definitely be an extremely painful psychological torment for the officers and soldiers of the Four-line Regiment who attached great importance to friendly forces.

This patience lasted for a whole month, until this day the Japanese army used a full 24 Zero fighters and 12 Type 97 bombers to play with the time difference to bomb Hengyang and Chengnan positions.

As an old opponent, Yokoyama Yong actually knew that the Four-line Regiment had anti-aircraft guns. From the military orders he issued to various divisions, at least ten times mentioned "Be sure to be vigilant against China's surface-to-air defense, and if you find its trace, do your best to destroy it! ', we can know how deep the shadow of the defeat of the Battle of Shipai was for Hengshan Yong.

But whether it was Hengshan Yong, the Fifth Air Corps or the 116th Division in the south of the city, after a month of hard fighting, they had never seen the appearance of Chinese surface-to-air equipment, and subconsciously finally forgot this terrible force that had caused them great harm.

There is an old Chinese saying called "the scar has healed and the pain has been forgotten", which refers to this psychological state!

The Fifth Air Corps has actually taken most of the details into consideration. They considered the fastest dispatch time of Chinese fighters, how many fighters China could send to participate in the war at one time, and why Chinese fighters could arrive at the battlefield in time for many consecutive times. It must be that China deployed observation stations along the way and issued warnings.

So this time, the fleet departed from Jiangxia Airport at 6 o'clock, deliberately made a big circle, flew at least 300 kilometers more, and maintained an altitude above 5,000 meters, successfully avoiding the three early warning points deployed by the 10th Army in the mountains 100 kilometers outside Hengyang City.

How meticulous was the Major General? In order to ensure that this round of bombing was foolproof, he even took the terrible "legend" into consideration and did not let Major Sasaki, the "star of fate", fight in case of bad luck.

This was also considered one of the wisest choices made by the Major General after the war!

But the Fifth Air Corps ignored the powerful ground-to-air force of the Fourth Regiment.

In fact, no one could have imagined that someone would be so cowardly. The two sides had been fighting for a month, and there were bloody scenes everywhere, and there were still people hiding.

Then, this strange thing happened to the Japanese.

Hengyang City was not actually the focus of the Japanese bombing. The focus of the Japanese aircraft group's bombing was the positions in the south of the city.

Therefore, the incendiary bombs dropped in Hengyang City were basically mounted under the wings of the Zero fighters. Most of the 12 bombers carried 500-pound bombs, which were specially prepared for the Chinese positions in the south of the city.

20 of the 24 Zero fighters were hovering at 2,500 meters to guard the bomber group, and only 4 Zero fighters accompanied by 12 bombers dived into low altitude to drop bombs on the target.

Such deployment shows that all the alert focus of Japanese aircraft is in the air rather than on the ground.

Cheng Tieshou on the ground looked at the Zero fighter group still hovering in the sky through a telescope, and a trace of ferocity appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Since the dog-days don't take our ground seriously, today I will let you feel what it feels like to suddenly explode Juhua!

Although Cheng Heimian, who has been promoted to lieutenant colonel in the army, still has a hot temper sometimes, the 7-year-old war experience has already trained this 33-year-old middle-aged man into a real piece of steel.

He is calm and almost cruel!

Even though he watched the Japanese bombers shaking their wings and dropping heavy bombs, turning Zhangjiashan, Tiger Nest and other Chinese positions into a sea of ​​fire, he remained unmoved and did not issue an attack order on the walkie-talkie.

"Battalion commander, open fire! The damn thing rushed towards Huangchaling!"

"Yes! The explosion power of a 500-pound bomb is too terrible. We can't let the devils do this."

The anxious requests for battle came from the walkie-talkies.

In their telescopes, the flames of the bombs dropped by the Japanese planes were more than 40 meters high. You can imagine what kind of hell is on the ground!

"Shut up!" Cheng Tieshou roared coldly, and the communication channel suddenly became quiet, with only the rumbling of dull explosions.

Cheng Tieshou was still waiting. The Japanese Type 97 bomber was still a little high, a full 1,000 meters. At this altitude, it could easily escape the range of the 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

The 36 quadruple 12.7mm heavy machine guns carefully deployed on 12 positions in the air defense battalion will form an airtight firepower network at a low altitude of 600 to 1000 meters. For the 12 Japanese bombers entering the low altitude, it will be more deadly than the 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun.

As the commander of the air defense battalion, Cheng Tieshou did not lead his troops to participate in the war, but it does not mean that he was playing happily in the past 30 days.

This army lieutenant colonel, whose combat experience and command ability can be ranked in the top ten in the four-line regiment, observes the sky every day. He found that the number of bombers dispatched by the Japanese army was constantly decreasing, and then one day it would increase again, but never more than 20.

This means that the Japanese war potential has long been weakened. At least for the Japanese Army Aviation in China, replenishment can never catch up with consumption. The sudden increase means that it has just been replenished, and the replenishment cycle is getting longer and longer.

For example, the 12 bombers dispatched by the Japanese army today should be the most on the battlefield in the past half month, which means that this is another replenishment for the Japanese army.

As long as these 12 bombers can be shot down at one time, the Japanese will not be able to expect more bombers to arrive at the battlefield within a period of at least 10 days, which is of great help to the entire battle situation in Hengyang.

Cheng Tieshou's judgment is quite accurate. These 12 Type 97 bombers were supported by the Kwantung Army for the sake of the headquarters. Otherwise, in terms of level, the Kwantung Army directly under the headquarters also belongs to the front army and can ignore the Chinese Expeditionary Army.

If these 12 bombers were shot down, no matter how thick-skinned Tian Junliu was, he would not be embarrassed to ask the Kwantung Army for help again. If he had to transfer planes from Japan, according to the current Japanese national strength, all strategic focuses are on the Pacific and Southeast Asian battlefields, it is unknown when it will take.

Tang Dao's patience and Cheng Tieshou's tenacity at the last moment will eventually yield fruitful results. From the strategic significance of the Battle of Hengyang, it is much greater than shooting down 12 bombers.

Because, since June 30, no matter how bloody and bloody the Battle of Hengyang was like hell on earth, no Japanese bomber appeared over Hengyang.

"Yoshi! After this battle, the 11th Army should be much more relaxed!" A Japanese Army major in the air felt the slight vibration of the plane and the black smoke rising from the belly of the plane, and smiled involuntarily.

As the commander of the 6th Flight Regiment under the 5th Air Corps, Major Shichiro Yamashita actually had a very glorious past.

This Japanese Army Major was actually a naval aviation officer before, and he had a record of shooting down five Chinese fighter planes. He was an ace pilot, but his luck was really bad. In the Battle of Nanjing, he was still a lieutenant in the naval aviation army and led 12 fighter planes to fight. As a result, he was chased and intercepted by the most luxurious lineup of the Chinese Air Force at that time over Nanjing.

Three of the four aces of the Chinese Air Force attacked together and fought fiercely with the elite formation led by Yamashita Shichiro over Purple Mountain. It is conceivable that the Japanese naval aviation lieutenant was helpless at that time. As expected, the fighter plane was damaged and had to make an emergency landing outside Nanjing, and was caught by the defenders.

When Nanjing retreated, the unlucky child was taken all the way to Jiangxia and then to the mountain city. He stayed there for a full 6 years. It was not until last year that he was exchanged back by the Japanese side with a large sum of money and captured Chinese pilots and intelligence personnel.

There was no way back to the naval aviation, so Yamashita Shichiro could only stay in the China Expeditionary Force and was promoted to major, serving as the commander of a flight regiment of the newly established 5th Air Corps.

Only six years had passed, and Major Yamashita Shichiro, who had returned to the blue sky, was surprised to find that the current Chinese Air Force was no longer a Wuxia Amon, and the performance of the fighter planes equipped was completely above the Empire. It was extremely difficult for him to shoot down five planes as before, even one.

After spending half a year, the former Japanese naval aviation ace pilot finally accepted the reality and became a flight combat commander honestly, not just having the dream of an ace pilot.

But today's relatively smooth bombing rekindled the fighting spirit of the Japanese Army Major, whose ambition had been eliminated a lot.

"All fighters, follow me, and clear the obstacles for the Imperial Infantry!" The Japanese Army Aviation Major, whose brain was constantly secreting dopamine, was obviously a little excited. After issuing the military order, he pushed the rudder and pressed the nose of his Zero fighter down to a low altitude of 600 meters.

He planned to use the six heavy machine guns mounted on the wings and nose of the Type 97 bomber to strafe the Chinese positions. Only in this way could he live up to the expectations of the Corps Commander.

The dense rain of bullets from the 12 Type 97 bombers would surely sweep the Chinese soldiers who had escaped the bombing in the trenches to pieces.

This point would not change even after several years.

The Japanese ace pilot who had been in a Chinese prison for almost six years had obviously returned to his past glory under the stimulation of victory.

The commander had spoken, how dare the bomber group disobey the command?

So one bomber after another lowered its nose, entered the battlefield from the northeast, roared into a low altitude of 600 meters, and prepared to strafe the Chinese positions still covered in thick smoke.

If the ambitious Yamashita Shichiro could see through the jungle those "stick-like objects" that were already thirsty and raised high, he would definitely regret his impulsive behavior.

It was like a group of young women breaking into a gathering place of bachelors who had been trapped on a deserted island for more than ten years. The feeling of the Japanese pilots was that their hair stood at attention.

The only parachuted second lieutenant Yamamoto San said: At that moment, I felt that the blood in my body had solidified, and I didn't know how to control the fighter plane at all.

In fact, facing this huge anti-aircraft firepower position with three quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns every 400 meters, no matter how skilled the control was, it was difficult to escape the fate of being hit.

It was almost equivalent to a salvo of 108 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, but this was not the final form of the firepower network laid by the anti-aircraft battalion of the Fourth Regiment.

In addition, there were 24 20mm anti-aircraft guns that had been sealed and hit!

The 20mm anti-aircraft guns were abandoned by the Four-line Regiment because they were too heavy, and the firepower output and transportation and use of manpower costs were too high. However, the Battle of Hengyang was too dangerous, so Tang Dao finally chose to transport the machine guns that were sealed in the North China battlefield to Hengshan half a year ago.

This thing was the equipment of the Four-line Regiment Anti-aircraft Battalion. The veterans were very skilled in operating it. As long as three veterans were used as gunners and a dozen recruits were trained for three months, a machine gun squad with sufficient combat effectiveness could be formed immediately!

All 24 20mm machine guns used shrapnel shells, blocking the airspace from 1,000 to 1,800 meters. Any Japanese planes that fled into this airspace from a low altitude below a thousand meters would be their prey.

And above 1,800 meters, it was naturally the world of 40mm anti-aircraft guns!

However, the main purpose of these 12 40mm Bofors mountain guns was not to deal with the 12 Japanese bombers and 4 Zero fighters that had entered the low altitude, but the 20 Zero fighters that were circling at high altitude.

Its role was not to completely shoot them down, but more to drive these small and more maneuverable fighters out of this airspace.

After all, if 20 Zero fighters rushed down to the low altitude to machine gun, the anti-aircraft gun positions that had been completely exposed would also pay a price.

Sure enough, when the anti-aircraft machine gun positions below opened fire fiercely and directly stunned the 16 Japanese fighters that entered the low altitude, the white fog that suddenly bloomed in the sky also stunned the 20 Zero fighters.

The Chinese anti-aircraft anti-aircraft guns are also powerful!

The Japanese high-altitude aircraft groups instinctively scattered, accelerating to higher altitudes and leaving the anti-aircraft anti-aircraft gun firing area at high speed.

This is also the quality that any excellent pilot should have. If you don't save yourself first, how can you consider the group?

The Japanese pilots' control level is indeed awesome. The 12 40mm anti-aircraft guns that can almost dominate the 3,000-meter altitude fired a wave of shells with all their might, firing at least 800 shells, only shooting down one and damaging one. Most of the Japanese planes escaped the airspace full of shrapnel safely.

But the Japanese aircraft group that entered the low altitude was not so lucky.

Yamashita Shichiro, the air commander, was the first to bear the brunt, mainly because the Zero fighter flew the fastest, so his leading fighter was targeted by at least 3 positions, which were 9 quadruple 12.7mm machine guns.

Instantly, hundreds of bullets were sprayed towards the Zero fighter that dived down at high speed, enough to form a barrage.

Yamashita Shichiro was very unfortunate and ran into this barrage!

The 12.7mm thick bullet effortlessly tore open the fragile aluminum alloy fuselage of the Zero fighter, making holes the size of eggs.

Not only the nose and wings, but even several bullets penetrated through the belly of the aircraft and went straight to the cockpit, and one of them directly hit Yamashita Shichiro's right leg.

Before he could feel the pain, a cloud of blood mist exploded in the cockpit. Only then did Yamashita Shichiro discover in horror that his right leg had already been bloodied.

The heart-wrenching scream had just come to mind, and another bullet passed through the side of the fuselage and shot into the right rib of the unfortunate child, and then left a blood hole the size of a bowl on the body of the commander Yamashita Shichiro and then penetrated the fragile fuselage.

The wind rushed from the gap to the Japanese air commander, whose consciousness was already a little blurred due to extreme pain, which made Yamashita Shichiro seem to wake up at that moment.

Looking down with unwilling eyes, in the thick smoke, all he could see was brilliant fire.

It was a scene of countless anti-aircraft machine guns firing at the same time!

"Withdraw" Shichiro Yamamoto, who still did not forget his duty as commander at the last moment of his life, shouted the last word of his life and hung his head slumped.

The Zero fighter that lost control was like a bird with broken wings. It suddenly turned downward and hit the hillside behind Zhangjiashan. The shock caused by the huge explosion also frightened the Chinese officers and soldiers who were still hiding in the tunnel to avoid the bombing. The balls shrank sharply.

Dodging bombs depends on your fate, right?

But Major Shichiro Yamashita was by no means the only victim of this ground-to-air ambush. The Zero fighter had a speed of more than 500 kilometers per hour, let alone the Type 97 bomber, which had a speed of only 400 kilometers per hour.

In the face of the crazy rain of bullets, the three Zero fighters could still move at high speed like sparrows in a net and struggle desperately. The 12 97 bombers were like stumbling old ladies. Apart from suffering damage, the only option was to pull Li accelerates upward.

But obviously, you can only be beaten passively!

If the Type 97 bomber hadn't been so large and capable of resisting, it would probably have been doomed long ago, but when it comes to fighting, those who have been passively beaten will eventually be knocked down.

After being beaten, 8 of the 12 bombers finally fled to an altitude of 1,200 meters with scars, but what greeted them was a barrage of 20mm machine guns.

The bombers, which had already begun to smoke and slowed down, couldn't hold on any longer. Three more bombers were shot down on the spot. The other five managed to escape from the range of the 20mm anti-aircraft cannon with thick smoke, but unfortunately they were shot at a height of 6,000 meters. 40mm anti-aircraft guns.

Finally, only two of the 12 97 bombers escaped victoriously! After flying 30 kilometers in the air in one breath, the Japanese pilots breathed a sigh of relief.

The story could have ended here, leaving two seedlings for the 5th Air Corps. Unfortunately, the two bombers were riddled with bullet holes, their fuel tanks were penetrated, and their fuel was completely exhausted. The six crew members The members had to abandon the plane and parachute under the painful eyes of the 19 Zero fighter pilots who were escorting the return.

Unfortunately, because the Japanese fleet had to avoid being pursued by anti-aircraft guns, they chose the simplest straight line to escape, heading east. The area where the Japanese pilots parachuted was in the Chinese-controlled area.

Five of the six Japanese bomber crew members successfully fell to the ground, and only one fell to death because his parachute did not open. However, three of the five who fell to the ground were shot to death with sticks by the surrounding Chinese villagers on the spot, and only two were killed. He was captured by the local security team.

These two people also became the only survivors of the bomber group of the 5th Air Corps that played time lag and played tricks.

Of course, even if they lived, they didn't live long. After the war, the two unlucky guys were tried for war crimes because they bombed the south of Hengyang City, causing casualties on the Chinese side, and were eventually shot in the mountain city.

So far, this round of assault bombing led by Japan's China Expeditionary Forces Command has had successes and failures. It successfully dropped incendiary bombs on Hengyang City and also dropped heavy aerial bombs on positions south of the city, but at the cost of 12 bombers. and 5 Zero fighter jets were shot down, and 39 people including Major Shichiro Yamashita were killed on the spot.

This price left everyone in the 5th Aviation Corps stunned.

"Tiansha Lone Star" Major Sasaki patted his chest and was extremely glad that he did not go out in the battle. Otherwise, the 19 Zero fighter jets might not be able to come back if they were not repaired.