12dz Chapter 180 The Battle Begins, Air Force Takes the Lead
Chapter 180 The Battle Begins, Air Force Takes the Lead
On November 3, the morning light began to appear in the north of Bago, the sky cleared and the sun was shining brightly.
However, the sunny day after the beautiful rainy season did not bring any joy to the Japanese.
The old devil Terauchi Juichi was even worried, and his worst premonition finally came true - Zhang Chi's army moved.
The prelude to the battle was torn open from the air.
A rumbling sound was heard in the sky north of Pegu, and planes with the circular "Hua" emblem painted on their fuselages and wings cut through the sky like flying swords.
This is the independent aviation team under Zhang Chi.
After three months of comprehensive reorganization, they are now brand new and full of fighting spirit.
As the Japanese launched another attack in the direction of Jiangcheng in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and seemed to be going up the river to attack Shancheng, more than 500 planes of the Flying Tigers were transferred to reinforce the Qianguo battlefield, leaving only Zhang Chi's Air Force to fight alone on the battlefield of Pegu.
As for the John planes of Sindhu, Stevenson estimated that once they took off, they would immediately "accidentally hit" Zhang Chi's troops, so he strictly ordered the John pilots not to take off.
This delicate situation became an excellent opportunity for the Anmin Army Air Force to perform.
At present, with hundreds of novice fighter pilots officially enlisting and more than one hundred new bomber crews starting to fly, the establishment of the Anmin Army Air Force is becoming increasingly large.
The main force of the fighter force consists of the following parts:
P-40E fighter: Stevenson represented White Eagle and provided it free of charge through the Lend-Lease Act. There were 210 of them, which were mainly responsible for tactically flexible medium and low-altitude air control missions.
F4U-4B fighter: an elite fighter plane purchased by Zhang Chi through the system. Its performance far exceeds all propeller aircraft of the same era. It is a combat all-rounder and is flown by elite synthetic pilots. There are 44 of them in total.
P-51C-10 Mustang Fighter: With the development of newly unlocked models, Zhang Chi purchased 60 aircraft from the system at the price of Silver Lion Coins (Oceans), responsible for the high-altitude escort mission for the bomber forces.
F4U-1A early Corsair fighter: also a newly unlocked model. Zhang Chi purchased 100 of them from the system at the price of Silver Lion Coins (Oceans), responsible for the task of gaining air supremacy at high altitudes.
A total of five aviation divisions are composed of these fighter formations, each with about 80 fighters, forming a wide-ranging air power network.
In addition, the bomber force is also not inferior. Their core strengths are:
B-25 medium bomber: Stevenson provided 80 B-25A\C medium bombers (large bombers are used as offensive forces, so White Eagle was stingy in giving them away), so Zhang Chi paid out of his own pocket from the system and purchased an additional 80 improved B-25Js at the price of Silver Lions (oceans).
These improved models were equipped with electrically operated rotating machine gun turrets, and a total of 160 B-25s formed the large 177th and 178th Bomber Divisions.
C-47炮艇机与SB2C-4俯冲轰炸机：此外，13架加装了防弹装甲、40mm博福斯与12.7mm机枪的C-47和36架SB2C-4俯冲轰炸机（图在作者说）被编为了第 919 近空支援团。
Although these aircraft were slow and had limited air defense capabilities, they were renowned for their precision dive bombing and long, on-call air support. Once complete air superiority was achieved, they would become a nightmare for the Japanese ground forces.
-----
With Zhang Chi's order, five fighter divisions launched an all-out attack.
They reorganized themselves in a "veteran-to-new" way, with veteran pilots using their rich combat experience to guide novice pilots. (In World War II, new pilots from various countries took to the skies after more than 100 hours of training, and became veteran pilots after surviving a few battles.)
(The White Eagle bomber unit was even more miserable. It could be retired directly after completing 25 consecutive bombing missions against Hans. Of course, they were usually shot down by 88 guns and BF-109s after flying a maximum of 13 times.)
The sky of Pegu was instantly filled with the roar of fighter planes. The fighter planes of both sides drew silver rays of light in the sunlight, intertwining with each other in a desperate fight.
Since the main forces were transferred to the Pacific battlefield, the aviation force of the Nanyang Devil Army was at an absolute disadvantage in both quantity and performance.
The high-octane fuel directly exchanged in the Zhangchi system is much better than the fuel smelted by the Japanese themselves.
Therefore, facing the fierce offensive of the An Min Army Air Force, the Japanese 5th and 3rd Flying Divisions in Pegu tried to organize an air defense line.
But the two divisions together had only more than 100 fighter jets.
Among them, there are also many old ones equipped with only 7.7mm aircraft machine guns, such as the Type 97 and Type 1 A. The new Type 1 B equipped with 12.7mm aircraft machine guns were mostly lost in the previous battle with Zhang Chi.
Originally, Terauchi Hisaichi was planning to wait for the newer Type 3 'Hiyan' to be mass-produced and directly supplement the 3rd and 5th Flying Divisions.
Unexpectedly, the speed at which the systematic Zhang Chi replenished the aircraft far exceeded his imagination.
So the unfortunate Japanese pilots could only fight in their old planes, and then they were intercepted and beaten by the better-performing Mustang and Corsair fighters.
"I bit him at 6 o'clock," the new pilot flying the F4U-1A whispered to himself.
He was delighted to find that the Japanese fighter planes had turned around in front of him in a panic to avoid the attack of diving friendly planes, so he quickly pressed the launch button, and the six 12.7mm heavy machine guns under the wings spewed out flames.
In an instant, a Japanese fighter plane turned into a fireball and fell from the sky.
On the other side, a group of B-25 bombers, under the cover of P-51C escort fighters, headed straight for the Japanese airport.
Huge explosions rang out one after another, the runway was riddled with holes, and the remaining Japanese planes could no longer take off to provide reinforcements in a short time.
-----
With the advantage in the air, the ground attack can naturally be carried out smoothly.
However, Bamao Town is located to the west of the Irrawaddy River and to the east of the Gaoligong Mountains. Even if Bai Minghui's Eastern Route Army's attacking force has two infantry divisions and an artillery brigade as its main force, it can only send one reinforced battalion at a time to launch an attack in a narrow area along the highway.
Inside the Eastern Route Army headquarters, a tense atmosphere permeated the air.
The battle map occupied the center of the conference table. The commanders around it whispered to each other, pointing at the markings on the map, trying to find a breakthrough.
Bai Minghui stood in front of the table, supporting himself with both hands, scanning all the staff officers with sharp eyes.
"We need to break through Bamao faster." The brave man who dared to lead the defeated soldiers to attack the Japanese at night said with full of energy, "I have given the commander-in-chief a military order to break through Bamao within 72 hours."
"The countdown begins at midnight on the 7th. Everyone, besides a frontal assault, do you have any other options?"
A staff officer pointed at the map and said, "If we want to attack quickly, we need to expand our offensive range and fully utilize our firepower and manpower advantages. To expand our offensive range, I think it would be best to send a special forces unit to launch an attack from the west along the Irrawaddy River."
The staff officer took out the chess piece representing the armored regiment and gestured on the map. "After we control both sides of the river, we will immediately build a pontoon bridge. This will allow the light armored regiment and main force of our infantry division to cross the river directly and attack the Japanese from the west."
"The Japanese have learned their lesson this time. Our aerial reconnaissance shows they're well prepared for our usual amphibious landings." The air force liaison officer, assigned by the aviation team to coordinate, pulled out a stack of aerial photographs and laid them out on the table. "It's going to be a bit difficult to easily cross the river."
"Look, the Japanese have set up bunkers and anti-tank artillery positions in these two flat areas suitable for landing. There might even be some iron locks, mines, and other things in the river."
The Japanese had finally learned their lesson after being attacked so many times by Zhang Chi using amphibious tanks and torpedo boats along the river. However, their habitual searching and searching resulted in the 55th Division deploying only a few artillery pieces along the river, which made several staff officers think that they could still attack from the riverside.
Based on the aerial reconnaissance photos, several staff officers quickly formulated an offensive plan for a pincer attack on the front of Bamao and the western side of the river at the same time. However, since the cross-river landing required the cooperation of the Marine Corps and the Air Force, the plan was submitted to Bai Minghui for review and finally sent to Zhang Chi for his decision.