Morning of February 8, 1941, Wuhan
When the arrogant Japanese naval aviation saw a fighter plane, instead of running away, they pressed on it and were very excited. They pounced on it without any hesitation, but soon they discovered something was wrong. They could not catch their opponent, and Even if they caught one by chance, their weak firepower could not defeat the opponent. In just ten minutes, seven of their fighter jets crashed, one of which disintegrated on its own during a sharp turn.
It must be said that the psychological quality of these old Japanese pilots is really good. After encountering this situation, they did not panic or flinch. Instead, they immediately thought of countermeasures. They began to pounce on the fighting groups around them in twos and twos, no longer fighting with each other. That kind of weird fighter entanglement.
Commander Zhou of the Air Force, who had been directing operations from a transport aircraft on the periphery of the battlefield, immediately ordered the old-fashioned fighters in the fleet to break away from the battle group and form groups on the periphery. The battlefield was all handed over to Dewatina D520 fighter jets and P-39 fighter jets. You must know that it is not only the temporary 68th Division equipped with P-39 fighter jets. The Yamashiro Air Force itself also equipped 40 of them. During this period, losses They lost some, but there are still more than twenty of them, and they are all here at the moment. The number of P-39 fighter jets alone is greater than the latest Japanese fighter jets.
But these are not all the fighter jets of the Japanese. In order to support the air battle in Wuhan, the Japanese continuously dispatched aircraft from the battlefields in North China, East China, and South China to support them. Therefore, even the Shancheng Air Force finally wiped out all 36 Japanese naval aviation aircraft. The Zero fighter jets were not able to gain absolute air supremacy over Wuhan.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the Japanese ground troops arrived outside Hankou, but they did not rush into the city. Instead, under the cover of aviation, they established artillery positions outside the city and bombarded the areas controlled by our army in the city. The artillery joint The team's 36 75mm guns and 12 120mm guns began a large-scale artillery bombardment of the urban area.
Soon, the urban area controlled by Zhang Zhonglin was shrouded in gunpowder smoke. During this period, the Shancheng Air Force tried to send fighter planes to bomb the Japanese artillery positions, but was blocked several times by the Japanese Air Force. They could only watch helplessly. The urban area was ravaged by Japanese artillery fire.
The Japanese ground troops were also slowly advancing towards the city under the cover of artillery fire. However, the temporary barricades built by Zhang Zhonglin and others could not stop the Japanese troops at all. Especially when facing the Japanese bean tanks and armored vehicles, there was a serious lack of counterattack firepower. , and the remaining T-27 tanks in their hands are useless because of exhaustion of ammunition. Moreover, the Soviet 20mm cannons now have no ammunition at all.
The two sides soon fell into fierce street fighting. Although the Japanese advance was greatly slowed down, the casualties of troops and civilians were huge. In order to reduce the losses of the troops, the Japanese troops even began to blow up buildings in an organized manner to provide relief. Their direct fire cleared the perimeter and killed a large number of civilians hiding in their homes.
At this time, representatives of the Japanese army approached the highest authorities. In order to avoid indiscriminate bombardment of the city by the Japanese army, the highest authorities finally reluctantly agreed that Zhang Zhonglin's troops should withdraw from the urban area of Hankou, and the Japanese side also promised that they would strictly order the Sixth Division to withdraw. In the urban area, yes, because of the influence of butterfly wings, the Japanese Sixth Division is now stationed in Hankou instead of the 33rd Division.
If there is a chance, the highest authorities would like to compete with the Sixth Division, but under the current circumstances, it is really impossible. The Japanese small fleet is still desperately heading north for reinforcements. Once entangled, the navy will The last bit of wealth in hand is tantamount to giving up; the situation of the Air Force is not good either. Although the Air Force has been working hard to maintain its local advantage in the Wuhan area, the losses are still huge. The pilots and fighter jets have reached their limits. It is inappropriate to continue to compete with the Japs. After all, the Japs still have strong capital now.
As for Zhang Zhonglin's troops, even though they have expanded to 10,000 people, the equipment and training conditions of these troops are not optimistic, and their command is not smooth. They rely entirely on their blood and courage to persist. Once this momentum is gone, , is absolutely on the verge of collapse, especially the 58th Division commando team, which is exhausted to the limit, not to mention the ammunition is exhausted, and even the fuel in the vehicle is extracted from the Japanese car, and it is impossible to fight.
The retreat process was also full of twists and turns. Some puppet troops refused to retreat anyway, some citizens wanted to evacuate together, and some soldiers refused to give up heavy equipment such as tanks and vehicles.
The Japanese army was also in trouble. There were also problems with the Japanese army's communication system. The order could not be conveyed to the grassroots troops for a while, and some grassroots troops refused to cease fire. Finally, the Japanese army ceased fire, and the expatriate armed forces still continued.
It was not until the evening when the torpedo boats on guard saw the Japanese fleet's advance that Zhang Zhonglin and his team finally completed their retreat. At this time, the fleet deck was already densely packed with soldiers and civilians, and even the aircraft carrier Ding'an was They had to release several Fujian-made seaplanes to free up tonnage to carry people. The small fleet was surprised to pick up a total of 30,000 people from Wuhan, many of whom were ordinary citizens injured in the Japanese counterattack.
During this period, the Sixth Division, which was holding back its evil spirits, also tried to push its 105 cannon to the riverside in order to sneak attack on the Chuguan. However, this action was discovered by the Military Command Bureau in advance, and a Japanese artillery brigade that went too far ahead suffered a surprise attack. In order to retaliate, the top authorities ordered the transport ship Ke'an to approach Hankou Port, and then used the Type 98 320mm heavy mortar on the warship to clear the Japanese shipyard with heavy artillery.
The Type 98 320 heavy mortar is the equipment of the Japanese. Wang Yue naturally cannot buy it, but the fact that he cannot buy it does not mean that he cannot get the blueprint. To put it bluntly, this thing is just an oversized gas tank cannon. The arsenal in Qijiang had been built a long time ago, but Li Yunlong thought it was inconvenient to use, so he kept it in the warehouse to collect dust. Later, Commander Chen of the Navy discovered it and installed some on the Ke'an, saying that they were used for ground fire support. , this is the first time it has been put into actual combat. There is no way, the legs of this thing made by the Japanese are too short, and most of the time it cannot hit the shore when placed on the Ke'an.
But not many people on the Japanese side knew about this kind of artillery. Seeing that the Shancheng Fleet had absolutely superior suppressive firepower, the eager grassroots officers of the Sixth Division finally became honest and stopped making small moves.
After seeing this scene from the warship, the eyes of the highest authorities also lit up. He felt as if another door had opened in his world.
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