Chapter 969 Japanese-Style Waste
Captain Kamei Kaifu, one of the most senior carrier-based pilots in the Japanese Navy, known as one of the "Three Birds of the Phoenix Landing", and Major Shigetaka Egusa, known as the God of Bombs, are among the few remaining "bombers" and "attack aircraft" aces in the Japanese Navy Air Force.
Compared with the pilots of the Zero fighter, the carrier-based bombers and attack aircraft of the Japanese Navy suffered greater losses in the previous fierce battles, often hitting a god-making rate of more than 70%. The reason why Kamei and Egusa survived is not because they are always among 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 58th US Ship Destroying Fleet.
Throughout the second half of 1943, both of them were busy with the implementation of the "Galaxy" bomber, the "world's most powerful" naval land bomber.
The Galaxy bomber is a high-performance long-range universal bomber developed by the Japanese Navy inspired by the sea and air operations in the European battlefield. It not only has a high flying speed and a long range, but can also attack large enemy ships by airdropping torpedoes, horizontal bombing and dive bombing, and can also rely on its own high speed to get rid of the interception of the enemy fighters. In addition, this bomber is also equipped with air combat flaps, which has certain air combat capabilities.
Although such a "universal" fighter has superior performance on paper and can be called the world's first (probably only Germany's Ju288 bomber can compete with the "Galaxy"), the difficulty of research and development is also extremely high. The aircraft was developed in the name of "Fifteen Test Land Destroyer" in 1940, and it was not until the first half of 1943 that it overcame various difficulties and went into mass production (it was able to go into mass production so early because Germany helped solve the heat dissipation problem of the Nakajima "Yu" engine). It began to be installed in the troops in the second half of 1943 to replace the "Type 1 Lighter".
However, the "Galaxy" land-based bomber encountered an unexpected problem in the process of actually equipping the troops-a good aircraft must be equipped with excellent pilots!
Because the "Galaxy" combines the functions of dive bombers, horizontal bombing, torpedo attack aircraft, heavy fighters and other fighters. Therefore, the pilots who fly it must have multiple skills in dive bombing, horizontal bombing, torpedo attack and air combat.
In contrast, the German Ju288 driver is very easy to be. He only needs to fly high to avoid the US fighters and the anti-aircraft guns of surface ships.
Therefore, the Japanese Navy had to draw a group of elites to form the 521st Air Force, which was specially equipped with Galaxy bombers.
By February 1944, when the Second Hawaiian Islands War began. The Navy's 521st Air Force had been equipped with 5 squadrons of "Galaxy", with a total of 106 commonly used "Galaxy" bombers, all deployed to Oahu.
In the afternoon attack on March 4 (Hawaii time), all 106 "Galaxy" were incorporated into the first attack wave. And escorting them were 94 Shiden Kai fighters that also belonged to the 521st Air Force.
The Shiden Kai fighter was not improved on the basis of the Shiden fighter, but like the Shiden, it was improved on the basis of the Qiangfeng seaplane fighter. The development of the Shiden and Shiden Kai aircraft was carried out almost in parallel, so the Shiden Kai and Shiden were put into use at almost the same time.
The code name of the Shiden fighter is Shiden 11, and the code name of the Shiden Kai is Shiden 21.
Unlike the "Galaxy" bomber, which was highly expected from the beginning, the "Shiden" and "Shiden" Kai are actually two emergency models. They are projects that were urgently launched because the performance of the "Raiden" fighter was far below expectations.
However, due to the installation of the powerful Nakajima "Yu" 21 air-cooled engine, and no too harsh requirements were put forward (it was originally an emergency), it did not need to be put on board. Therefore, the development of the two "Shiden" was unexpectedly smooth, and the performance was very satisfactory-in fact, as long as they did not seek perfection, Japanese aircraft designers could still design fighters with good performance.
"Egusa-kun," the voice of Colonel Kaifu Kamei, commander of the 521st Air Force, came from Shigetaro Egusa's headset at this time, "The formation has been completed, you are responsible for leading the team, everything is up to you."
"Hai!"
Shigetaro Egusa looked at Oahu Island below, and planes were still taking off from the airport on the island at this time, and they were all army planes.
I don't know if it's because of the "lessons" of the Christmas Island Battle, now the Japanese Army and Navy fighters no longer cooperate in combat. Instead, they have returned to the state of fighting each other. The Navy's "Galaxy" was escorted by the Navy's "Shiden Kai". The Army dispatched their own ace bombers "Flying Dragon", "Tunlong" and "Wind" fighters.
The Type 4 "Flying Dragon" bomber is also known as the Type 4 heavy bomber. By European and American standards, this "Flying Dragon" is a relatively strange aircraft. It is called "heavy", but the full-load take-off weight is only 13.7 tons, and the bomb load is only a little over 1,000 kilograms. Moreover, its speed and range are not satisfactory, with a maximum level flight speed of only 537 km/h, a maximum range of only 3,800 km, and a ceiling of less than 10,000 meters. It is not "heavy" in any way, except that the crew is relatively large, with 6-8 people.
However, the "Type 4" Hiryu bomber is not completely useless. The armor protection of this aircraft is relatively thick, with strong anti-strike capabilities, and the self-defense firepower is also relatively strong, with a 20mm cannon and 5 12.7mm machine guns.
If it is not equipped with bombs and is modified with a 37mm cannon, it can be used to attack ground armored forces... But this is too big, with a total weight of 13.76 tons, which exceeds that of 2 Il-2s (only more than 6 tons). It is really difficult for such a large aircraft to operate at ultra-low altitude without being hit by dense ground artillery fire.
In the Pacific, the Japanese Army Air Force also had no armored forces to fight, so the whimsical Japanese Army used the 13.76-ton Type 4 "Hiryu" heavy bomber as a torpedo attack aircraft.
On Oahu, the Japanese Army Air Force deployed a total of 260 four-type "Flying Dragon" heavy bombers that can carry aerial torpedoes. They are the main force of the Japanese Army's anti-ship operations. The Japanese Army even has aircraft carriers and submarines, so it is not surprising that they have torpedo attack aircraft.
In addition to the "Flying Dragon", the Japanese Army also placed 220 "Hundred-Type Tunlong" heavy bombers on the Hawaiian Islands, which are not much different from the "Flying Dragon" in performance. I really don't know why the Japanese Army still spends money to develop the "Flying Dragon" after having the "Tunlong"? Can't it be improved on the basis of the "Tunlong"?
And these "Tunlongs" with similar performance to the "Flying Dragon" will form the second attack wave with the "Flying Dragon" heavy bombers in today's attack. Half of them will be equipped with aerial torpedoes, and the other half will be equipped with 4 250 kg bombs for horizontal bombing.
And escorting these 480 "Flying Dragons" and "Tunlongs" are 220 Army "Gas" fighters.
That is to say, the first attack wave launched by the Japanese army today is composed of 200 naval aircraft, and the second attack wave is composed of 700 army aircraft.
The two attack waves will deploy 900 aircraft, which is unprecedented in scale!
However, when Major Shigetaka Egusa, the "God of Explosive Attack", saw a Japanese Army "Flying Dragon" bomber rise into the sky and begin to circle, his original belief in victory somehow fell.
The army's idiots are wasting Japan's already very tight resources! They created two kinds of nonsense aircraft, "Swallow Dragon" and "Flying Dragon", and used them to fight against ships. But these two big aircraft cannot be used as dive bombers, and there are only two options: horizontal bombing and torpedo attack. The former is basically ineffective against surface ships in action, and the latter is completely brainless and dead!
If the anti-aircraft firepower on the US Navy ships is not very strong at the beginning of the war, the tactic of using both sides (three-engine) bombers to drop torpedoes is still relatively effective. But today, the firepower of US surface ships is already very strong. The carrier-based torpedo attack aircraft flying at low altitude and low speed have been beaten to pieces. What good results can such a big guy weighing more than ten tons have? Even if it is relatively strong, it can't withstand the 40mm anti-aircraft gun.
And... can the pilots of the Army Air Force really play torpedo attacks?
Jiangcao Shigetaka thought: If the resources (including pilots) for manufacturing and using "Flying Dragon" can be given to the Navy to build "Galaxy", then today's first attack wave will be able to use 366 "Galaxy" for dive bombing.
With the high speed and good dive performance of "Galaxy", the US fleet will suffer heavy losses!
But the national conditions of Great Japan are like this. Not to mention that a major like Jiangcao Shigetaka can't do anything, even if the emperor comes, there is no way.
"Guys, I'll say it again, our current mission is to intercept, so don't get entangled with the Japanese fighters, just shoot their bombers, understand?"
The voice of Captain Thomas, the squadron leader, came from the headset of Lieutenant George Bush, who was flying the F4U fighter.
The other 11 F4Us in the flight squadron of the escort aircraft carrier "San Jacinto" where Lieutenant Bush was now appearing on the battlefield as interceptors - the concept of interceptors first appeared on the European battlefield. The German Fw-190 is a perfect interceptor that can use the "assassin tactics" of one-shot to deal a heavy blow to the invading enemy aircraft.
The Americans, who suffered a lot from the Ju288, spared no effort to develop interceptors and improve interception tactics. In addition to the "one-time Spitfire", the US Navy's F4U and the Army's P47 have extended interceptor models.
At the same time, the "interceptor tactics" of guiding interceptors into advantageous positions by radars on surface ships or ground radar stations and then launching dive attacks has also been increasingly used by the US military.
Therefore, in the air battle on the afternoon of March 4, the US Navy Air Force no longer carried out the so-called "high-low coordination", but adopted a new way of fighting in different areas with "interceptors" and "air superiority fighters". The first batch of fighters to attack the Japanese aircraft will be more than 100 F4Us.