Chapter 256 Insert the Bomb Into the City Wall!
In Taiyuan City, Iwamatsu Yoshio sighed with extreme disappointment. He watched helplessly as the observation balloon he had placed high hopes on fell from the sky.
At this time, the old devil remembered one thing. The Eighth Route Army not only had an excellent air force, but also had an anti-aircraft artillery regiment comparable to the inner circle anti-aircraft firepower of the Combined Fleet.
When he handed over to Shinozuka Yoshio, the other party had specially reminded him. The tragedy just now even reminded him of the Battle of Nomonhan.
But now that things have come to this, there is no point in regretting.
Iwamatsu Yoshio clenched his fists angrily, and then issued a new stage of orders to the communicator on standby.
"All artillerymen abandon their missions and immediately move to the No. 3 reserve position. No one is allowed to fire without my order."
"Let the Sanada Regiment split into two groups and be ready to reinforce Yingze Gate, Yinghui Gate and Yichun Gate at any time. The Eighth Route Army will definitely launch the main attack from the east and south. The enemy must not be allowed to touch the city wall!"
"Contact the reinforcements and tell them the current situation so that they can rush to the rescue."
After a while, Iwamatsu Yoshio regained his composure.
The current battlefield situation seems to be very unfavorable to the First Army, but the old devils still have a glimmer of hope for defending the city. This courage comes from the solid city walls.
According to the battle report just sent back from the front line, he did not find that the Eighth Route Army had large-caliber heavy artillery of more than 105 mm.
This means that the enemy does not have the ability to blow down the city wall.
If you want to attack the city, you must use the most primitive tactics. In other words, the opponent must use a sufficient amount of explosives for fixed-point blasting, and then they need to carry a ladder to climb up the city wall.
The above series of processes are more beneficial to the defenders.
The Eighth Route Army did have an advantage in firepower, but they could not ignore the casualties of their own soldiers and bombard the city walls indiscriminately.
After a sudden realization, Iwamatsu Yoshio raised the telescope in his hand and continued to observe the situation of the Army Aviation. In the heart of the old devil, he had begun to look forward to the sight of the moat being dyed red.
······
From Wusu Airport to the airspace of the Southern Group, there is only a 23-kilometer flight.
The Spitfire MK9 and Hurricane MK2B can definitely be ranked in the first echelon of fighter jets in the current era. At their speed, even with the time for runway taxiing, they can reach the battlefield within five minutes.
As soon as everyone entered the combat airspace, they saw the gorgeous fireball over Taiyuan City.
"Captain, the devils actually have a trick up their sleeves. It seems that they have not completely given up the counterattack."
"What a pity, I haven't hit the observation balloon yet. I don't know if I will have a chance to encounter it in the future."
Just as everyone was talking, the sudden attack of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment attracted the attention of the pilots.
That was a salvo of 150 Hotchkiss 25mm anti-aircraft guns. Such powerful firepower could not be ignored by anyone, and even one soldier subconsciously wanted to maneuver to evade.
As soon as the gunfire sounded, Captain Wang Hai began to look for enemy planes.
Following the trajectory of the tracer bullet, he quickly locked onto the dive bomber that was trying to break through the anti-aircraft firepower network.
"The mission has changed, and priority is given to supporting the artillery."
"The target is two Type 97 single-light aircraft. We cannot let the enemy drop the bombs."
"Now the enemy is weak and we are strong, everyone dive with me. Try to kill all enemies in the first wave of attack!"
As the first formation to be dispatched, the strength of the other five pilots is not bad.
They have experienced the baptism of the Zhongtiao Mountain air battle, and even everyone has a record of shooting down. Knowing that a surprise attack with a deliberate plan can play a decisive role.
After receiving the order, the five Hurricanes followed the pace of the Spitfire.
All fighters turned sideways and changed their course, using their energy advantage to attack the defenseless Type 97 single-light aircraft.
It seemed that his sixth sense gave him a warning. Ishida Eiichi, who was still diving towards the Eighth Route Army artillery position, looked back involuntarily under the guidance of his intuition.
You don't know until you look, and you'll be shocked.
There were actually several fighters chasing in the sky above us. The leader was the 079 Spitfire, which was famous throughout the entire North China Front Army Aviation.
"Mitani-kun! Back"
Before he finished speaking, Captain Wang Hai had successfully locked and pulled the trigger. The 20mm Western gun hit the target easily like a hot knife cutting butter.
"Boom!"
A few seconds later, the first Type 97 single-light aircraft exploded in the air, and the fuselage was torn into pieces. The exploded aviation gasoline ignited a fire and slowly fell from the air.
Captain Wang Hai pressed the stick and pedaled the rudder, maneuvering the rear side of the fighter to roll to avoid the wreckage of the enemy aircraft. He ignored the other one and flew directly towards the reinforced concrete fortress.
His teammates did not live up to their trust. The other dive bomber had a worse ending and was tortured to death.
There were two Hurricanes targeting Sangu Kangfeng, with 24 7.62mm Browning machine guns directly hitting the top, and the bullets from the small water pipes drilled into the enemy's cockpit as if they had eyes.
The scene was like a fat bug was crushed to death, with red blood and white brains splattered everywhere.
The Type 97 light aircraft lost control and fell away from the battlefield with black smoke.
The support of the First Air Division boosted the morale of the artillery on the ground, and everyone wanted to follow the infantry to charge into battle.
The staff of the battlefield command headquarters could also see the movement in the sky clearly. The battle of the Air Force is so pleasing to the eye no matter how many times you watch it.
"Commander-in-chief, the comrades of the First Air Division have begun to act."
"Do you think we should attack now and cooperate with Captain Wang Hai to carry out siege operations?"
This seemingly reasonable proposal was rejected by the brigade commander.
The current Eighth Route Army has always been famous for field battles and has never tried urban siege warfare.
If the troops want to take Taiyuan with minimal damage and the fastest speed, they cannot do without the help of the Air Force.
After all, close air support is an effective tactical means to severely damage the enemy's high-value targets or destroy enemy fortifications.
It's like the early stage of the Tour de France tank cross-country race, the Stuka dive bomber of the German III greatly increased the advancement speed of the ground armored forces.
The Il-2 and the Cannon Bird on the Eastern Front also beat the opponent's logistics troops to tears.
But this tactic is extremely challenging for the coordination ability of infantry and aircraft. Most of the soldiers of the Air Force 1st Division only have one month of actual combat experience, and the infantry are not completely accustomed to the battlefield with air support.
If either side makes a mistake, the bomb will deviate from the target at the least, and the efficiency of the operation will be greatly reduced. At the worst, the aircraft cannon and bombs will fly directly to the heads of the infantry, leaving the infamy of hitting friendly forces.
After all, reality is not Anton Star, and the enemy's head will not automatically be marked in red and their names will not appear.
Even if a certain country in the future has popularized precision-guided weapons, and there are special guides on the ground to ensure the accuracy of weapons and the safety of friendly forces.
But on the battlefield, there are still cases of warthogs accidentally injuring friendly forces.
For the Eighth Route Army at this stage, before the Weapons Experimental Research Bureau has developed advanced radio technology, the best coordination method is to use fighters as flying artillery.
After the Air Force clears the enemies on the ground, the infantry will clean up the battlefield and end the battle.
This is the coordination plan that maximizes damage and minimizes the possibility of accidental injuries to friendly forces.
Looking at the expectant eyes of the staff. The brigade commander can only temporarily pour a basin of cold water.
"Wait a little longer, let the First Air Division clear the reinforced concrete fortress and blow up the city wall before setting off."
"I applied to the Deputy Chief of Staff for 30 hours of combat time, and now not even one-thirtieth of it has been used up, so we still have plenty of time."
"Let the engineers prepare for battle, and they need to deal with the remaining obstacles and moats."
······
The perspective switches to the outside of Taiyuan City, where a fighter is diving at high speed.
In the era without precision guidance systems, horizontal bombing can only be effective with carpet bombing. If you want to bomb a target accurately, you can only choose dive bombing.
If it is on the European battlefield, when a fighter dives towards the ground, it is definitely a challenge to death. After all, the field air defense strength of those old military powers is very high, and it can even be said that they are flying in anti-aircraft guns.
But the situation is different now. The devils in the reinforced concrete fortress are simply lambs to be slaughtered.
During the dive, Captain Wang Hai was bearing a lot of overload while aiming at the fortifications below.
After reaching a safe position, he pressed the bomb button. A 250-kilogram bomb left the rack.
At the same time, in order to avoid the bomb from contacting the propeller, the nose of the Spitfire fighter suddenly pulled up.
As the pilot with the strongest comprehensive strength in the Air Force 1st Division, Captain Wang Hai's bomb hit the target directly this time. The moment the bomb came into contact with the fortress, there was a huge roar.
The power of this level of bombs is amazing. If we only count the amount of charge, the HE charge of the American 406 and Yamato 460 is not as much as it.
A Tiger King will be completely destroyed if it is hit by a near miss at a distance of 15 meters.
If it is in the city, about one kilometer of glass will be shattered.
Just one dive attack killed the fortress that the M18 cannon could not penetrate with armor-piercing bullets.
Half an hour later, all reinforced concrete fortifications were removed.
Captain Wang Hai is about to return to the battlefield, and the next target is the city wall in front.
Because the city wall of Taiyuan is extremely strong, high and thick, it has strong defense. Even the Japanese army at that time could only use 105 and 150 caliber heavy artillery to blast a gap.
With the current strength of the Eighth Route Army artillery, there is no chance to break through.
Just when the brigade commander was about to design a set of tactics around fixed-point blasting, Captain Wang Hai took the initiative to put forward his own ideas.
Under normal circumstances, after the bomb is thrown on the city wall, there is a high probability that it will be bounced off.
Even the 250-kilogram bomb with the most powerful power of the Air Force First Division has basically no lethality when it explodes more than ten meters away, let alone blow up the city wall.
If steel bars are installed around the bomb, after the bomb is dropped, the steel bars are inserted into the city wall based on the principle of gravitational potential energy to convert energy, which will definitely cause great damage to the city wall.
This statement shocked everyone.
In order to test the feasibility of this plan, Captain Wang Hai even took action personally.
After dozens of experiments, everyone found that it must be dropped at a 45-degree angle so that the metal spikes can have a certain probability of piercing the city wall and fixing the bomb.
To drop the bomb at a 45-degree angle, the plane must fly at a very low altitude. And there are only a handful of people in the First Air Division who have this ability.
This plan has a real case.
When they fought in Tengchong, they blew up the city wall in this way.