Every time we go to war, this tragic atmosphere increases, because there are fewer and fewer familiar faces around everyone, and there are fewer and fewer fighters that can perform missions.
After these ten days of fighting, everyone vaguely knows that one day, they will leave here forever and never come back. Their final destination is the blue sky.
This is inevitable.
China's aircraft only have this little wealth, and those are the only pilots who can take to the skies.
If they don’t come, who will?
The only way before them is to fight to the end. Just as the chief instructor said, "Fighting is glory! Living in idiocy is a shame that will affect all the family members for a lifetime."
So every time I came back from an expedition, there were fewer and fewer people around me, and the tragic atmosphere became more and more intense.
At this moment, an intelligence officer hurried in and handed a piece of information to Mao Bangchu.
In just a few seconds, Mao Bangchu read the information.
This is the telegram sent to him by Wang Jingjiu, commander of the 87th Division: Two thousand soldiers will enter Wusongkou in an hour, and fortifications can be built before dawn. I hope that my brother Xincheng will send fighter planes to assist at dawn.
Wang Jingjiu, commander of the 87th Division, was the commander-in-chief of the siege of the Japanese Marine Corps at the beginning of the Songhu Battle. The first three divisions to enter Shanghai included the 88th Division and the 20th Independent Brigade were all under his command.
Just as the Chinese Air Force was intensively deploying, at one o'clock in the morning, Wang Jingjiu was also dispatching troops. More than 2,000 soldiers from the 88th Division, 87th Division, and 20th Independent Brigade gathered secretly and took advantage of the darkness. , setting off towards Wusongkou, everyone marched silently along the way. Everyone had a white towel tied on their left arm to identify each other.
Even though it was nighttime, there were still constant gunshots and cannons all over Shanghai, and the fighting was fierce. There were flames shooting into the sky from time to time, just like it was daytime, and ruins and broken walls could be seen everywhere.
An hour later, 2,000 Chinese soldiers marched to Wusongkou and began to build simple fortifications.
On August 21st, Japan's [Nagato] and [Mutsu] battleships formed a large fleet to transport about 10,000 Japanese troops from the vanguard of the Shanghai Expeditionary Force. They arrived at the Ma'an Islands on the evening of the 22nd, and then transferred to light ships. After the cruisers and destroyers, they rushed to the landing beaches in Chuansha Town, Wusongkou, Shizilin, and Zhanghuabang to quickly support them.
Faced with the increase in Japanese troops, the Chinese side urgently ordered Chen Cheng, deputy minister of the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs, to be the commander-in-chief of the 15th Group Army, commanding the 98th Division, the 11th Division, the 67th Division, and the 14th Division to rush to these four places to block the Japanese landings.
Obviously, the well-trained Japanese army, known as the world's largest army, got ahead of the inconsistent Chinese army and reached these four landing points first.
During the war, not only the Chinese army knew the movements of the Japanese army, but the Japanese army also knew the mobilization of the Chinese army. Special higher education courses were everywhere in China, and there were many traitors and Japanese soldiers. Whenever there was a large-scale mobilization of the Chinese army, the Japanese army would Bian will know immediately.
The Japanese carried out the order resolutely and decisively. They also competed for time. The Japanese arrived at least several hours earlier than the Chinese army who were closer.
Therefore, now these two thousand Chinese soldiers have to fight desperately and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
This is also a last-ditch battle.
Wang Jingjiu knew that the 40,000 troops had not taken down the 5,000 Marines stationed in Shanghai, and now expecting these 2,000 men to withstand the all-out attack of 10,000 Japanese troops for a long time was undoubtedly an attempt to kill a stone with an egg.
The Japanese army knew that the Chinese army was also rapidly increasing its troops, so they had to rush ashore before the Chinese reinforcements arrived, and then give a head-on attack to the Chinese army that was galloping in from hundreds of miles away.
In this battle, the Japanese troops rushing to the beach could not afford to lose anything, while the 2,000 Chinese soldiers guarding the stalls could only fight to the death, waiting for reinforcements.
The Japanese army had powerful fleet artillery support for the landing, and they also had aviation support for the operation. It was simply impossible to rely on these more than 2,000 Chinese soldiers to defend the Japanese beach. Therefore, the commander of the theater, General Zhang Zhizhong, sent an urgent telegram to Nanjing, requesting the air force support.
Although General Zhang Zhi is the commander-in-chief of this Shanghai battle, the Air Force has always been under the direct line of the principal and is the top priority in the military. Therefore, if he wants to mobilize all the assets of the Air Force, General Zhang Zhi must also ask the principal for instructions.
At present, the air force is too important to China. Once there is no air support, Japanese aircraft will kill the Chinese army at will.
After reading the telegram sent by Wang Jingjiu, Mao Bangchu asked all the pilots to take a rest immediately. At four o'clock, the first five aircraft took off first, and half an hour later, all the remaining fighters took off.
Just when everyone was about to leave and go back to sleep, Zhou Zhihan suddenly said: "Everyone, please wait a moment. I will delay everyone for ten minutes. I want to discuss with you the safety risks of this large aircraft formation."
After hearing what the chief instructor of the Air Force said, all the pilots sat down again. Everyone knew that since the chief instructor said this, there must be a way to change the hidden dangers.
Zhou Zhihan said directly: "Our bomber and interceptor flight formations are currently using formation tactics from the late World War I, and the formation tactics used by the air forces of various countries are already a bit outdated.
After the First World War, the rapid development of air combat technology of various military powers can be described as rapid changes. Whether it is the performance and speed of aircraft, or the tactics of flight formations, there has been a qualitative leap.
Facing the Japanese high-performance fighter jets such as Type 95 and Type 96, we still use the flight formations from World War I. This has considerable loopholes. Once the loopholes are discovered and seized by Japanese fighter planes, we will The army will suffer heavy losses.
If the Japanese fighter planes quietly appeared at low altitudes at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock on both sides behind the rear of our aircraft group, and launched a sudden attack after approaching, our aircraft group would be suddenly attacked by enemy planes because they were flying in a dense formation, and the formation would be too crowded. Without the ability to carry out tactical maneuvers and avoidance, chaos will inevitably occur, and there may even be a collision between two aircraft. "
All the pilots looked at Zhou Zhihan in silence. If the chief instructor hadn't mentioned it, they still wouldn't have known that the flying formation they had practiced for several years was still the same technology as during World War I, and that it still had such great capabilities. loopholes.
Not all foreign flight instructors who spend a lot of money to hire are dedicated!
Hearing Zhou Zhihan's analysis, Mao Bangchu immediately became a little nervous and listened attentively along with all the pilots.
Zhou Zhihan continued: "Now, it is impossible to fly in a new formation. It takes time to train to become proficient.
In order to solve this hidden danger, I suggest that we place three "Weavers" at the rear of our large fleet flight formation to be prepared. "
"Weaver?"
No one knew what "weaver" meant, Zhang Mufei asked.
Zhou Zhihan smiled hoarsely.
"Weaver means rearguard, that is to say, add one rearguard fighter plane on each side and in the middle behind our large fleet to accompany the flight at an altitude of 100 meters above the fleet, and these three fighters will rotate The tactics are to perform a 180-degree roll maneuver every five minutes and observe the enemy situation behind them. In this way, the three aircraft can eliminate all dangers behind the entire aircraft group."
"Okay!" Mao Bangchu decided on the spot, "Follow the plan given by Major Zhou and send three more defenders behind the large formation, just in case."
