Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 230 Air Lighter

Inside a radar station disguised as an ordinary hill, west of Wutai County, Shanxi Province.

A piercing buzzing sound shattered the silence of the command room. A young radar operator stared intently at the dark green fluorescent screen, his pupils contracting in shock. To the northeast of the screen, a vast swarm of green dots, like a locust colony, was moving at an alarming speed toward the main battlefield in Xinxian County.

"Large number of targets detected! Bearing 0-4-5, distance 120 kilometers, number... incalculable! At least over one hundred!"

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately grabbed the red telephone on the table, which was connected to the frontline air defense command post, and shouted with all his might, "Eagle Eye calling Eagle Nest! Eagle Eye calling Eagle Nest! Large numbers of enemy planes are attacking! Repeat! Large numbers of enemy planes are attacking!"

Almost simultaneously, a shrill, piercing, and heart-stopping air raid siren was sounded from a simple hand-cranked siren, echoing like the wail of death across the entire front line of Xinxian and Guoxian counties, stretching for dozens of kilometers.

"Woo...Woo...Woo..."

The Shanxi militia infantrymen, who were fighting fiercely, subconsciously raised their heads and looked at the sky that was stained gray-yellow by the smoke of gunpowder.

On the eastern horizon, tiny black dots, like gnats, appeared. These dots quickly grew larger, gradually revealing the outline of an airplane, with an ominous red sun symbol flashing beneath its wings.

It's a Japanese aircraft formation!

A massive formation of aircraft, personally led by Colonel Tetsuji Iga, commander of the 60th Squadron of the Army Air Force, and consisting of Type 97 heavy bombers, Type 99 twin-engine light bombers, and escorting Zero fighters, arrived like a dark cloud, carrying an aura of annihilation.

The remaining Japanese troops on the ground cheered as if they had survived a catastrophe, while the militia soldiers all turned pale. From the day airplanes were invented, they were destined to be the nemesis of infantry.

Colonel Tetsuji Iga sat in his Zero cockpit, looking down at the chaotic battlefield, a cruel yet confident smile on his face.

He was preparing to issue orders for the bomber squadrons to conduct a carpet bombing of the Chinese positions that dared to resist.

However, just a second before he pressed the call button.

A sudden change occurred!

Above the Japanese aircraft formation, from the seemingly calm, high-hanging clouds, countless ghosts suddenly burst forth!
One after another, the P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighter jets with their robust fuselages, wide wingspans, and shark-mouth paint schemes, along with another batch of F4U "Corsair" fighter jets with their iconic gull-wing folding wings, resembling fierce seabirds, descended from the sky like raptors, tearing through the camouflage of the clouds!

Those were hunters from the Thunder Squad and the Pirate Squad, who had been lying in ambush in the high clouds for a long time under Doolittle's orders!

More than a hundred American fighter planes, which had already gained a height advantage and were powerful in performance, launched a deadly dive attack on the unsuspecting Japanese aircraft below!

"Totsugeki! (Assault!)"

Doolittle's excited roar came through the radio.

The sunlight was fragmented and shattered by the countless high-speed diving aircraft.

The shrill sound of the air being torn apart instantly drowned out the gunfire from the battlefield below.

Tetsuji Iga's smile froze on his face, replaced by utter shock! He never dreamed that he would encounter such a large and tactically sophisticated enemy air force here!
"Attack! Attack! Scatter!" he roared hoarsely into the radio.

But it was too late.

After watching the documentary that Su Yaoyang showed everyone, which dissected almost all the weaknesses of the Zero fighter, Doolittle, Cheng Rufeng, and other pilots immediately developed a series of tactical exercises targeting the Zero fighter's fragile airframe and poor dive performance. Today is the graduation ceremony for these tactics!
A P-47 Thunderbolt, like a whistling hammer, hurtled down from an altitude of 8,000 meters at an almost vertical angle toward a Type 97 heavy bomber that was preparing to drop its bomb.

The eight 12.7mm Browning heavy machine guns at the wing roots of the P-47 roared simultaneously, and eight blazing tracer bullet belts, like the scythe of death, instantly tore the cumbersome bomber apart from wing to tail!
"boom……"

The massive bomber exploded in mid-air, turning into a huge orange-red fireball, with countless burning fragments falling to the ground like celestial flowers.

Meanwhile, on the other side, two F4U Corsair fighter jets were performing a textbook "Sach Cross" tactic.

A highly skilled Japanese Zero ace was locked on a Corsair. However, just as he was about to fire, another Corsair made a sharp turn from the side and cut into his firing line.

The Zero pilot was forced to abandon the attack and pursue a new target. But in the instant he turned, the Corsair that had initially been pursued had already completed a cross maneuver and turned to chase him at six o'clock!

"Da da da da..."

The six heavy machine guns on the wings of the "Corsair" spewed deadly flames, and a dense hail of bullets instantly enveloped the Zero.

The Zero fighter's fragile fuselage was like paper in the face of the .50 caliber armor-piercing incendiary bomb. The cockpit glass was shattered instantly, the pilot's body was turned into a cloud of blood mist, and the entire aircraft, trailing black smoke, spun out of control and crashed to the ground.

A high-speed dive, a swift escape!
The entire airspace turned into a one-sided massacre.

American fighter planes, with their absolute power and structural advantages, simply did not engage in close combat with the Zero.

They use their altitude advantage to dive at high speed, unleash a devastating burst of fire, and then use their immense kinetic energy to roar back up into the sky to find their next target.

The Zero fighter, despite its superior horizontal maneuverability, was simply no match for these hit-and-run "rogues." Their fragile airframes couldn't even withstand a single short burst of fire.

Within minutes, the sky was filled with countless black plumes of smoke.

White parachutes bloomed in the sky, but more numerous were Japanese planes, trailing flames and thick smoke, falling like birds with broken wings.

Colonel Iga Tetsuji watched helplessly as his men, the Empire's most elite pilots, were shot down and crashed in droves, like harvested wheat.

He frantically piloted the plane, trying to organize an effective counterattack, but his orders were already drowned out by the roar of the explosions and the screams of his comrades before they died.

The sky, spanning over a hundred kilometers, has been transformed into a grand aerial slaughterhouse belonging to lightning and pirates.

As Colonel Tetsuji Iga watched the dazzling flowers of death blooming in the sky, one after another, transformed from Imperial fighter jets, and the wreckage trailing long plumes of black smoke, falling helplessly like birds with pierced wings, his blood froze instantly.

This was not an evenly matched air battle.

This is a conspiracy! A meticulously planned, bloody massacre targeting his 60th team!

"Retreat! All troops retreat! Disengage from the battle! Quickly!"

He finally snapped out of his utter shock, grabbed the radio transmitter, and, in a hoarse, distorted voice, issued the most humiliating and powerless command of his life.

Unfortunately, it's too late.

In the face of the "Thunder" and "Pirate," which possess absolute advantages in height, performance, and firepower, issuing a retreat order would be tantamount to exposing one's back completely to bloodthirsty beasts.

The massacre lasted only a little over ten minutes.

But those ten minutes felt like an eternity for the Japanese pilots of the 60th Squadron.

Their prized Zero fighters were like fragile kites in the face of those tough, powerful monsters.

They desperately performed various maneuvers, trying to use their superb skills to entangle the enemy and buy time for the cumbersome bomber group to escape.

However, the other side simply wouldn't engage in a prolonged, drawn-out struggle with them.

A P-47 roared overhead, ignoring the Zero fighters firing in vain beside it, and precisely rained down a devastating barrage of bullets on the wing roots of a Type 97 Heavy Burst fighter that was frantically turning around.

With a dull thud, the entire wing of the heavily damaged aircraft was ripped off, and the plane immediately lost its balance, tumbling and disintegrating like an out-of-control top before crashing to the ground.

The seven crew members inside the cabin were torn to pieces during the violent tumbling without even having a chance to parachute.

On the other side, a Zero pilot mustered his last bit of courage and attempted to crash into an F4U Corsair that was chasing his comrade.

However, the "Corsair" pilot simply pushed the control stick dismissively, and the plane smoothly rolled halfway, easily dodging the Zero's kamikaze attack. At the same time, the six machine guns under the wings opened fire, and the dense bullets turned the Zero's cockpit into a sieve. The pilot's blood and brains instantly smeared the canopy.

The order to retreat only hastened the collapse.

The entire Japanese aircraft group completely lost its organization, turning into a disorganized mess, like a flock of sheep being chased by wolves and panicking.

Colonel Iga Tetsuji's eyes were bulging with tears. All he could do was futilely pilot his plane, frantically trying to escape through the gaps in the hail of bullets.

He saw his wingman, in order to cover him, be shot down by three P-47s and turned into a dazzling firework in the air.

He watched as the empire's finest pilots, whom he had personally trained, along with their beloved fighter planes, crashed one after another on the cold, hard land of Shanxi, like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

Finally, when the pack of broken wolves finally escaped that deadly airspace, Tetsuji Giga had the opportunity to take stock of his losses.

He led a massive fleet consisting of fifty-three Type 97 heavy bombers and attack aircraft, and more than sixty Zero fighters, arriving in a grand procession. Now…

Only forty-odd planes remain!

In just over ten minutes, they left behind the wreckage of more than sixty bombers and Zero fighters in the aerial graveyard named "Xinxian"!

A third of the losses? No! More than half! This was a complete, utter, and humiliating defeat!

Yi Echeji slumped in the cockpit, his body ice-cold. He knew that what awaited him was a military court trial and a disgrace more unbearable than death.

(End of this chapter)