Gao Jianwu's invitation did not receive a positive response from Major General Smith, but Gao Jianwu didn't care. After eating up the little Japanese he encountered, he continued to take Smith southward.
He didn't do anything deliberately, but the powerful strength he showed inadvertently now convinced Major General Smith.
Returning to the Allied Southeast Asia Theater Command, Major General Smith made a detailed report to General Steven. Soon, General Steven made a direct report to his superiors and the President.
The content of the report is very simple. The main purpose is to tell the above that the conditions for using Wanwan Island as a base to attack Xiaoli's homeland are now fully met!
Soon, the top Allied forces made a decision to use Taibei as a central base and began to prepare for a memorable attack on the Xiaori homeland.
Before that, the Allied forces will conduct a sweep of the Xiaori Air Force Base from Wanwan Island to Kyushu!
This task will be handed over to Major General Smith and a new Major General named Li Mei. He brought the 21st Allied Bomber Unit. Major General Smith will be responsible for air cover and combat, and the bombing task will be handed over to Major General Li Mei!
"Gao, this is General Li Mei." As a landlord, Gao Jianwu quickly met General Li Mei.
Major General Smith and General Li Mei came to visit, and they also coordinated the use of the base.
"General Li Mei, this is Gao Jianwu, commander-in-chief of the Southeast Task Force."
"Welcome General Li Mei to Taibei. I hope General Li Mei can have a pleasant stay here." Gao Jianwu smiled and greeted General Li Mei in accordance with military custom.
General Li Mei, who had silver-gray hair, returned the salute seriously, "Commander Gao, nice to meet you!"
Without saying a word after that, Gao Jianwu invited them both to sit down in the office.
"Would General Li Mei want tea or coffee?" Gao Jianwu asked. As for Major General Smith, he already knew it very well and there was no need to ask.
"Tea, thank you!" General Li Mei said.
When he met General Li Mei for the first time, Gao Jianwu felt that he was a very different person from Major General Smith. He cherished words when communicating with others. He sat upright on the sofa and had a serious face, which gave him a cold and cold demeanor. Aura.
After a while, Gao Jianwu's orderly brought tea and coffee.
"John, this is your coffee; General Li Mei, this is our specialty tea oolong tea from Wanwan Island. Do you like it?"
General Li Mei picked up the tea cup and took a sip. A refreshing fragrance came out.
"Good tea! I like it very much." General Li Mei finished speaking and put down the tea cup.
"As long as you like it, you two generals are here together today. What can I do to help these two generals?" Gao Jianwu did not hesitate and got into the topic directly.
He was used to being straightforward when dealing with these serious soldiers from the beautiful country.
"Gao, we came here today mainly because we want to solve a few things." Major General Smith was familiar with Gao Jianwu and was not polite.
"First thing, I hope that a dedicated transportation team can be responsible for the transfer of oil and ammunition from the port to the airport. This bombing lasted for a long time and was large-scale, and the amount of oil and ammunition transfer involved It is relatively large and requires high safety and quantity of transfer manpower.”
"Understood, John, I will personally supervise this matter, organize a transportation team with clear members' backgrounds, and give me the specific data on the weight and volume that need to be transported every day, and I will organize enough transportation capacity to solve this problem."
Gao Jianwu replied without hesitation.
"The second thing is, Gao, we are using a large number of fighter planes this time. The peak number of bombers may reach 400. In terms of airport and camp support, we hope to solve it in advance. Our crew may be as high as more than 2,000 people. Coupled with ground support, I hope to get a camp of about 6,000 people."
"No problem. Now we can directly provide camps for 5,000 people around several airports in the north! It has been built according to Allied standards, and it is an apartment-style camp with four people per room and a separate bathroom." Gao Jianwu replied simply. He communicated these matters with Major General Smith in advance, and there was basically no mistake.
However, General Li Mei was here today, especially because his bomber crews were large in number and had high requirements, so Major General Smith asked Gao Jianwu to confirm with General Li Mei in person.
"The third thing is that our bomber fleet is large, but currently there are not enough fighter jets deployed for escort. We hope to get assistance from the Southeast Task Force Air Force to participate in combat escort when performing missions." Major General Smith continued.
"No problem." Gao Jianwu said happily, "But the Allies have to bear the battle damage and consumption of materials and ammunition."
"Of course, General Li Mei, if you need anything else, you can ask Gao now."
"Commander Gao, I would like to know if our bombers return and are too late to fly back to Taibei, do you have a spare place for us to land?" General Li Mei asked.
Although General Li Mei was asking, in fact, he had already understood some things before coming. He wanted to know Gao Jianwu's views on this matter and Gao Jianwu's status within the Eighth Route Army.
"Of course, we still have two areas that can provide backup for Allied bombers." Gao Jianwu took out a map and pointed at the two different areas on it.
"On this peninsula, we have controlled this place. We have built a large field airport here, which can support the landing of at least hundreds of fighter planes. It is about 1,500 kilometers away from Jingjing. There is no doubt that this is the largest bomber group. Good backup airport.
We can also expand new field airfields in this area if needed. "
"In addition, we have also built a large field airport here, which is about 1,600 kilometers away from Tongjing. We have deployed a fleet of about 40 fighter jets to provide security for these two airspaces. It is our solid base."
Hearing what Gao Jianwu said, General Li Mei's eyes lit up. What he actually wanted was to have a safe landing zone on the peninsula and coastal areas. Gao Jianwu immediately said it to his heart.
This is convenient when talking to smart people.
"When can we conduct an on-site inspection?" General Li Mei then asked.
"General Li Mei is welcome to inspect at any time." Gao Jianwu responded, obviously full of confidence in these places.
Gao Jianwu's decision was a surprise to General Li Mei. He did not expect that one of the two big problems he had been worried about would be solved so quickly by Gao Jianwu.
Although he has not actually seen the field airport that Gao Jianwu mentioned, it goes without saying that if he dares to promise to inspect it at any time, he is well prepared.
Although General Li Mei did not have much idea of the situation on the other side of the mainland, he still had a certain understanding of Gao Jianwu and the Eighth Route Army through Major General Smith.
Judging from what he saw on Wanwan Island, Gao Jianwu was at least not a casual talker.
"Commander Gao, if we launch a bombing on Thrush Capital, what would be the most effective method?" General Li Mei couldn't help but ask the second question of concern.
"Of course it's nighttime low-altitude bombing!" Gao Jianwu blurted out, as if he already knew the answer.
"Why?" General Li Mei frowned. Gao Jianwu answered too quickly, which made it appear that he had not thought about it.
Gao Jianwu was stunned, wasn't this a ruthless job done by yourself? Why is the answer wrong?
However, Gao Jianwu then thought about it. The bombing of Beijing has not started yet, and General Li Mei may not have the answer himself.
"Low-altitude bombing at night can ensure the accuracy of bombing, and if incendiary bombs are used in night bombing, the bombing damage effect will be maximized!
Because many of the houses in the book are wooden buildings, it is obvious that the destructive power of conventionally used high-explosive bombs on wooden buildings is far less than the destructive power on masonry buildings. But incendiary bombs can have a fatal effect on these wooden buildings. "Gao Jianwu gave the answer directly.
This answer caused General Li Mei to fall into a brief period of thought, "Night incendiary bombing?" General Li Mei thought carefully about Gao Jianwu's idea for a while.
】
Major General Smith next to him took a breath of cold air. This Gao Jianwu was really a ruthless person who didn't talk much.
Night bombings are still incendiary bombs that damage large areas. If Gao Jianwu said that the small buildings are mainly made of wood, then if this bombing continues, there will be almost no larger cities, even big cities like Tongjing. , I’m afraid it won’t be able to withstand a few bombings before it will be overdone again!
The more General Li Mei thought about it, the more he felt that what Gao Jianwu said made sense, and he felt suddenly enlightened.
As the leader of a bomber unit, what he wants to do is to maximize the effect of bombing, and other considerations are secondary.
Gao Jianwu's words suddenly solved the problem that had been bothering him recently.
During the daytime bombing, the high-altitude mode must be adopted, otherwise the dense anti-aircraft fire of the little devils would be too lethal to the huge bombers.
The biggest problem with high-altitude bombing is the loss of bombing accuracy. Bombers have been organized to attack Tongjing before, but the result is clear to General Li Mei. The local weather does not support high-altitude precision bombing, and only 10% of the bombs hit. Target, the effect of large-scale bombing is not ideal.
If low-altitude bombing at night is used, and incendiary bombs are used as area-killing weapons, then there is no need to doubt the accuracy of the bombing. As long as they are thrown where the lights can be seen, there is nothing wrong!
"Commander Gao, you have solved another big problem for us." The unsmiling General Li Mei said to Gao Jianwu excitedly.
"No wonder General Smith admires you so much. Commander-in-Chief Gao is indeed a war wizard. He can think of places that no one can think of."
"General Li Mei, you're welcome. I have stayed in Xiaobenzi for a while, so I still have some understanding of some of their situations." Gao Jianwu said politely.
"For people like Xiao Benzi, you have to really convince them before they give in. Before that, they won't listen to you properly. Nowadays, all the little devils are still dreaming. I hope we can be in their dreams." Only by setting fire to them and truly shattering their illusions will the war end."
General Li Mei and Major General Smith nodded after listening to Gao Jianwu's words. They had seen Gao Jianwu again.
...
Radio waves transmitted Gao Jianwu's opinions to the headquarters, and soon from the headquarters back to Gao Jianwu, and General Li Mei's inspection trip was quickly completed.
After the initial wave of great development, Mr. Chen from the Lianghuai base area and Mr. Luo from the Qilu base area carried out large-scale field airport construction in accordance with Gao Jianwu's suggestions in several key areas in the area.
At first they didn't understand what Gao Jianwu was going to do, but Gao Jianwu impressed them so much that the two bosses did it without asking any questions!
After the airport was built, it was not just left on the shelf. The new Hubei-Henan-Anhui Military Region Air Force was stationed to provide large-scale air support to their local strategy.
This gave the two bosses a preliminary understanding of air-ground coordinated operations. With the mass production of Mustang fighter jets at the Jinyang Arsenal, and the seizure of some fighter reconnaissance aircraft left behind by the Japs during the battle, these two base areas also established their own flight operations. Brigade, leading a new life that was unimaginable in the past.
...
At Sheyang Airport, as four Mustang fighter jets arrived first, a B-29 Super Flying Fortress bomber appeared in the sight of a group of special visitors.
"Mr. Chen, they are here!" Beside the tallest body in the crowd, a communications staff officer came in a hurry and said to the tall and tall body.
"The air defense battalion is ordered to continue to be on alert, and all fighter planes of the Air Force continue to patrol the air. We must ensure the safety of our guests!" the tall and tall man known as Mr. Chen said loudly.
According to the headquarters, the special guests who came today must do their best to ensure their safety.
"Yes!" The communications staff officer hurried away.
"Mr. Chen, who are we going to welcome today? Why is there such a big battle!" A division commander who stayed here asked curiously.
"Old Huang, speaking of which, the person who came today is someone you need to thank." Mr. Chen replied with a smile.
"It's him!" Mr. Huang was shocked and immediately connected with someone in his mind. "Isn't he visiting that island? How come he has time to come to us? But I really have to thank him!"
"Not only him, there is another guest who is also a great person. This time he is the one who personally accompanied the guest to inspect."
...
In this life, Gao Jianwu was picked up at the airport for the first time, and his mood was really hard to describe.
"General Li Mei, here are some leaders from our base area who are greeting us. They have no other intention than to simply welcome us." Gao Jianwu turned to General Li Mei and said, taking a plane over, Gao Jianwu more or less figured out this. Uncle Nian has the temperament of a true professional soldier.
Not good at talking, but also very principled.
"It's okay, Gao. I just hope that there won't be a large group of people following me during the inspection. I can just watch by myself." General Li Mei said.
"No problem, General Li Mei, let's go down."
"Warmly welcome Commander Gao and General Li Mei to Sheyang." Seeing Gao Jianwu and General Li Mei get off the plane, Mr. Chen came over and greeted them warmly.
"Thank you, Mr. Chen. This is General Li Mei of the Allied Forces," Gao Jianwu saw this familiar figure and responded with a smile, "This is Mr. Chen, the commander of our base in Central China."
"Thank you, Commander Chen. Next, I want to see the specific situation of the airport first. It would be better if there are engineers who built the airport. I can ask about some specific conditions of the airport, but it doesn't matter if there is not one. I will look at it myself. "General Li Mei is not here for fun. After shaking hands with Mr. Chen, he wants to start work.
After General Li Mei's words were translated to Mr. Chen, General Gao Jian said with a smile, "Mr. Chen, this is the style of the Allied Forces. Do the work first and then talk about other things. I think our welcome ceremony is over, and we will leave it later. Just leave some engineering and technical personnel and security personnel, and the other leading comrades will not be used as companions. After I accompanied General Li Mei to inspect the alternate airport, I had to rush to the peninsula to see the next one. This matter is very important to the alliance. It’s very important to the military, so they have to come and see it with their own eyes to feel reassured.”
"Well, come to my place, you have to have a bite of food before leaving. Commander Gao, thanks to your support to our department some time ago, we are now comrades and brothers. We don't speak the same language as one family. If you have any requests, just ask Tell me, don’t just do it if you have the conditions to do it, but if you don’t have the conditions to do it now, you should also find ways to do it if you have the conditions!"
Mr. Chen is also a straightforward person. When he heard what Gao Jianwu said, he didn't say much and expressed his position directly.
"Mr. Chen's words are serious. There are no major issues now. We have the shipping of the Huaihe River basically in our hands at present. We hope to find more shipping and engineering experts in the country to carry out some management of the Huaihe River. On the one hand, it is to reduce flooding, and on the other hand, it is to improve shipping as soon as possible. In the future, our raw materials in Nanyang will have to be sent to Shanxi-Suiyuan, Hubei, Henan and Anhui through this major channel."
Gao Jianwu really didn't have time, so he hurriedly told Mr. Chen what he was concerned about. After speaking, he followed General Li Mei and began to conduct on-site inspections along the airport.
In this newly built field airport, there are naturally no modern things like the concrete runway that Gao Jianwu is familiar with. The land is simply leveled and compacted with huge stones so that it can withstand the huge pressure of transport aircraft taking off and landing.
General LeMay followed the track, testing it with a hammer from time to time along the way.
The road surface is very clean and compacted. It is obvious that engineering experts participated in the construction of this airport and were very responsible. It is difficult for General Le Mei to imagine how this airport could be accomplished without the help of modern construction machinery.
As he finished inspecting a complete track, his originally serious face began to relax.
"Gao, you are really amazing. This is one of the best field airports I have ever seen. I admire you for building such a high-quality field airport." General Li Mei said with a thumbs up.
"Thank you for your recognition, General Li Mei. I think the biggest weakness here is that there is no cover. When the Allied bombers land in large numbers, they cannot avoid the eyes and ears of the small book, so we need more escort fighters to guard the surroundings. Otherwise, the bombers we land here will easily become targets for small books. You know we have no air defense facilities and are very short of anti-aircraft artillery fire."
"Other than that, as long as we can fix it, we don't have a problem."
Gao Jianwu told the truth. This place is too close to the East China occupation area of the Japs. Without a strong air force to protect it, it is indeed easy to be attacked by the Japs.
"They won't have such a chance. Before bombing Tokyo, we will conduct a powerful bombing on the line from Ryukyu to Kyushu and the main aviation bases in the East China Xiaobenzi occupied area. Then I will apply for at least 3 squadrons of Mustang fighters to be stationed. The escort near this airport may be undertaken by the Flying Tigers or General Smith's Allied Flying Forces."
General LeMay was not worried about this. He checked along the second runway and observed the wind direction.
The runway is oriented to the southeast, facing the easy southeast wind, which will make the takeoff faster. It can be seen that the designers have considered the details of takeoff and landing in advance.
Every few steps General Li Mei knocked on the ground as hard as stone. A few hours passed by. After eating a simple lunch, General Gao Jianwu and General Li Mei completed their work and flew directly to the easternmost field of Qilu Peninsula. Airport.
There, General Li Mei also saw a high-quality field airport. At the end of the airport, he also saw huge stone mills that were as tall as a man and used to build the airport. It was very difficult for General Li Mei to understand how these things could be used. It was transported here without mechanized support, and then how to drive them to build the airport.
But none of this is important now. What is important is that Gao Jianwu did not lie. In the base area, they really have several field airports that can take off and land large-scale B-29 bombers.
General Le Mei not only personally flew planes to land at these places, but also conducted detailed inspection and acceptance of the runways.
It proves that there is really no problem in taking off and landing the Super Sky Fortress in these places.
For a large bomber with extremely high requirements for take-off and landing, the field airports on the Qilu Peninsula and Sheyang are nothing to worry about. When General Li Mei landed, not even an obvious trace was left on it. It can be seen that its road surface It is indeed as hard as a rock.
In addition, the surrounding area is surrounded by solid bases controlled by the Eighth Route Army or the New Fourth Army. The ground does not worry about the small Japanese troops breaking in, and security is also greatly guaranteed.
In addition, it is close to the seaside and is convenient for supplies. For General Li Mei, there is nothing more ideal than these two bases.
Seven days later, the Allied Air Force first carried out a round of devastating bombing on the Little Japanese Air Force Base in Shanghai, directly destroying more than 20 fighter planes of various types left by the Little Japanese at the base. Then the Little Japanese commanded by the Japanese near the airport Buildings, military camps, etc. were razed to the ground by heavy bombs.
At the same time, the Xiaogui Airport in the Ryukyu-Kyushu area also began to suffer disaster. Most of the fighter jets were wiped out at the airport. The fighter jets that were lucky enough to lose control last time could only survive for a day or two at most, and the swarms of fighters came over. The Mustang fighter group blocked the sky so densely that the little Japanese officers who wanted to desperately exchange bombers could not find any chance to break into the restricted area set up by the Mustang fighter jets.
In this one-sided bombing, the little devil had almost no ability to resist.
