Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Upon receiving the combat order from Fang Wen, the British bomber pilots immediately adjusted their course and loudly notified the 50 British paratroopers in the cabin to prepare for their airborne landing.

The British paratroopers immediately stood up and lined up, their expressions tense yet filled with anticipation.

After all, this was the first actual combat airborne operation for their newly formed unit.

As the bomber arrived at the designated drop zone, the hatch slowly opened, and a cold draft rushed into the cabin. The British paratroopers jumped out one by one.

However, due to a lack of combat experience and the unstable air currents in the desert, their airdrop went significantly off course. Instead of landing at the designated ambush point on the west side, they landed in a desert depression farther from the target, scattered into several small groups, and are trying to regroup.

Fang Wen's side.

The rear cargo door at the stern of the Taishan-1 was opened.

Forty-five special operations soldiers, dressed in combat uniforms and carrying equipment, ran quickly along the sloping hatch and jumped out.

They were well-trained, flexibly adjusting their parachute attitude in the air and landing precisely in the area east of the ambush point. After landing, they quickly untied their parachutes, packed up their equipment, and rapidly assembled in small groups. Their movements were swift and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

Ten minutes later, all special forces members had assembled, and the captain immediately reported the assembly status to Fang Wen via Taishan walkie-talkie.

Fang Wen, who was piloting the Taishan No. 1 in the sky, had already seen everything on the ground clearly through his supernatural abilities.

The special forces soldiers were assembled in an orderly manner, while the British paratroopers were scattered in the low-lying area and were struggling to regroup.

He understood that plans couldn't keep up with changes, and adjustments needed to be made.

Immediately, orders were issued via radio to the special forces soldiers to approach the landing area of ​​the British paratroopers. At the same time, Major Clark was contacted to inform him of the deviation in the airdrop and to change his original plan, move to the ambush point to the east, and rendezvous with the special forces soldiers as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the German troops hiding under the sand had also spotted the paratroopers in the air.

In this desolate desert, the army would never randomly parachute in; the only possibility is that their hiding place has been discovered.

The German commander's expression changed, and he immediately crawled out from under the sand, issuing a stern order to the soldiers around him: "Immediately remove the camouflage, climb the sand dunes to seize the high ground, build defensive positions, and prepare for battle!"

The German soldiers immediately sprang into action, crawling out from under the sand, grabbing their weapons, and rushing to the top of the dunes. They built makeshift fortifications along the sand ridges, set up their weapons, and stood ready for battle.

Half an hour later, the special operations team of the Taishan Independent Regiment finally reunited with 50 paratroopers from the British 11th Special Air Service Battalion.

The team immediately set off, and under Fang Wen's aerial command, they rapidly advanced toward the German positions in the sand dunes.

Before long, they reached the German defensive perimeter. German soldiers lying prone on the top of the dunes spotted them first, and a gunshot broke the silence. Immediately afterward, the two sides exchanged fire.

A barrage of gunfire erupted instantly, and the two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of fire in the desert.

This operation did not achieve Fang Wen's tactical goal; it failed to launch a pincer attack and a surprise assault. However, this does not mean that the operation was a failure.

Although the Germans used their high ground advantage to put up a fierce resistance, and because they had prisoners in their hands, their bombers were unable to carry out air raids and dared not drop bombs easily, they were simply unable to defend against the weapon advantage of the Taishan Special Forces.

As the confrontation reached a stalemate, the Taishan special forces soldiers immediately took out grenade launchers, quickly attached them to the muzzles of their rifles, installed asphyxiating incendiary grenades, aimed at the high point of the sand dune where the German troops were located, and pulled the trigger.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—" One after another, rifle grenades whistled out and landed on the sand dunes, exploding and instantly covering the entire high ground with a large amount of white smoke. The German gunfire gradually became sparse and even somewhat chaotic.

"Attack!" Fang Wen issued the attack order via walkie-talkie.

Special forces soldiers and British paratroopers immediately launched an assault, rapidly advancing across hundreds of meters of desert and reaching the foot of the dunes.

By this time, many German soldiers, unable to bear the suffocating smoke and disoriented, stumbled out of the smoke and ran right up to them.

These German soldiers, struggling to breathe and with blurred vision, were completely unable to resist. They were quickly subdued and disarmed by special forces and British paratroopers, and then taken aside for guarding.

Subsequently, several British paratroopers, eager to make a name for themselves, rushed into the smoke without orders, hoping to rescue their captured compatriots as quickly as possible.

When the Taishan special forces members saw this, they tried to stop them and remind them that the smoke was poisonous, but before they could speak, the five British soldiers had already rushed into the smoke.

Not long after, the five British soldiers retreated the way they came, each coughing incessantly, pale-faced, and with panicked eyes. They were clearly choked by the smoke and had not been able to find any prisoners in the smoke.

At this moment, the Taishan Special Forces members, who had already put on simple activated carbon masks, rushed into the smoke in an orderly manner under the leadership of their captain.

Inside the smoke, both the German soldiers and the captured British were incapacitated. The German soldiers were struggling to breathe and were weak all over. Even those few who were still conscious were unable to operate their weapons to fight back. The captured British technicians were even weaker and collapsed on the sand.

The special forces soldiers acted swiftly, disarming and taking control of the German soldiers one by one, while quickly locating the captured British technicians and confirming their safety.

Subsequently, one special forces member was sent out of the smoke to relay the situation to the British troops.

The soldier didn't speak English, so he could only give the British soldiers an "OK" sign as agreed beforehand.

Upon seeing this, the British soldiers finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, a gust of wind blew, and the smoke covering the sand dunes gradually dissipated. The British soldiers immediately picked up their weapons and cautiously climbed the dunes, only to find that all the German troops on the dunes had been subdued, and the captured British technicians were also safe and sound. Everyone's face showed joy.

What was expected to be an extremely intense airborne operation was easily resolved by the Taishan Special Forces using asphyxiating incendiary bombs.

But the operation is not over yet; the prisoners and rescued personnel need to be taken back to Benghazi.

By this time, the sun was almost setting below the horizon, dusk was falling, and the temperature in the desert began to drop.

The desert temperature at night can drop to 0-10 degrees Celsius, which is not conducive to marching back with prisoners and weakened technicians. Fang Wen immediately decided to stay here for the night and set off back to Benghazi at dawn.

Immediately afterwards, Fang Wen piloted the Taishan No. 1 back to Benghazi Airport along with the British "Whitley" night bombers, remaining behind Zhao Youming to lead special forces members and British paratroopers to guard the prisoners, set up temporary camps, and arrange for soldiers to take turns keeping watch at night.

The soldiers on night watch vigilantly observed their surroundings as they spent a cold and long night.

After daybreak, Zhao Youming, the special operations commander, reported the situation of the camp to Fang Wen via infantry radio. After confirming that everything was safe, he led the team northward toward Benghazi Airport.

After traveling for about two hours in the vast desert, they suddenly noticed something unusual—hundreds of soldiers appeared in the southwest and were rapidly approaching them.

Major Clark immediately picked up his binoculars and observed carefully. He discovered that the other side was wearing Italian military uniforms and then judged that this unit had been sent from an Italian garrison 60 kilometers to the southwest, and was obviously there to pick up the captured German soldiers.

The situation was extremely difficult: the column had 100 German prisoners and ten frail British technicians. Their marching speed was already slow, and it was almost impossible to continue and shake off the Italian troops.

Zhao Youming, a graduate of Peking University, immediately communicated with Major Clark in English, and the two quickly reached a consensus: to build defensive positions on the spot to resist the Italian army's attack.

They quickly divided the tasks: 80 men (45 special forces soldiers + 35 British paratroopers) were assigned to build defensive positions on nearby sand dune high points, set up weapons on the sand ridges, and prepare for battle; the other dozen or so men were responsible for guarding the German prisoners and British technicians, placing them in a safe area inside the sand valley.

At the same time, Zhao Youming immediately sent a telegram to Benghazi Airport via infantry radio, requesting support.

Benghazi military airport.

Fang Wen, who slept in the cabin of Taishan No. 1 last night, has gotten up. He turned on the onboard radio and adjusted it to the communication frequency agreed upon with the special forces team.

Upon hearing the static, he immediately picked up his headphones to listen and took notes.

After recording the Morse code, he had already translated it into plain text in his mind.

The airborne troops unexpectedly encountered Italian troops!

This was somewhat unexpected, given that the Italian army had consistently demonstrated poor combat capabilities, leading Fang Wen to underestimate them.

Unexpectedly, they dared to send troops deep into the desert to meet the Germans. Regardless of the reason, the airborne troops must be supported as soon as possible to prevent problems from arising.

Immediately afterward, Fang Wen disembarked and found Colonel Hunter to explain the situation.

Upon hearing that the airborne troops had encountered the enemy, Hunter was even more anxious than Fang Wen and immediately summoned the local air force commander to discuss air support.

They quickly finalized a plan: five Tomahawk Mk IIBs that had just arrived at Benghazi military airfield would serve as escort aircraft, forming a bombing formation with the Taishan-1.

The Tomahawk Mk IIB is actually the British name for it; it also has another name: Curtiss P-40c.

That is, the fighter jet that Fang Wen bought for the French when he went to the United States last time.

However, these five Curtiss P-40cs were decorated with external drawings by British pilots.

The nose of the aircraft is painted with shark teeth and eyes, making it look more like a shark than a tomahawk.

With the five aircraft in place, Fang Wen provided each pilot with a walkie-talkie. Due to the tight schedule, the walkie-talkies were set to a fixed channel and only needed to be turned on and off.

They then boarded their respective planes.

Ground personnel came down below Taishan-1 and waved, signaling Fang Wen to take Taishan-1 first.

Taishan-1 taxied out of its parking spot, taxied on the runway, and took off. Subsequently, five P-40Cs also took off one after another.

They formed an escort formation with two aircraft on each side and one in front, centered on Taishan-1.

The aircraft flew south.

Fang Wen also activated the radar target acquisition device to investigate the situation in the nearby airspace.

He discovered that there was feedback from an aircraft in the southeast direction.

Judging from the direction of movement, they should be heading towards the ground combat zone.

The southeastern region is deep within the Italian army's territory, so it must be the Italian Air Force.

While providing their own air support, the Italian Air Force also provided air support.

It seems that an air battle between Britain and Italy is about to take place.

Fang Wen picked up the microphone: "Attention, escort fighters! My onboard radar indicates that we are likely to encounter Italian fighters. Be careful."

"Received," the British pilots replied one after another.

Half an hour later, the aircraft group arrived at the ground combat zone.

To the southeast, Italian fighter jets also appeared.

The enemy has eight fighter jets, giving them a numerical advantage.

However, their models are somewhat outdated.

Besides the Fiat CR.42 "Eagle" biplane fighter that Fang Wen piloted, there was also a monoplane that looked quite awkward.

How to describe it? Although it was a monoplane, it was very clumsy, with a bloated belly and short, thin wings. Overall, it looked very disproportionate.

This is the Fiat G.50 "Arrow," the new low-wing monoplane fighter that the Italian Air Force is preparing to replace the Fiat CR.42 "Eagle." No matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with arrows.

Clearing his mind, Fang Wen picked up the microphone: "Prepare for a counterattack."

The leader of the Royal Air Force squadron replied over the walkie-talkie: "They have eight aircraft, we can't stop them all."

"Don't worry about me, I'll do my best."

"Ok."

Five British P-40C fighters were scrambled and engaged in combat with Italian aircraft.

They towed away four Fiat CR.42s and two Fiat G.50s.

Two other Fiat CR.42s broke through the interception and headed towards Taishan-2.

In response, Fang Wen ordered: "Machine gun positions, await firing command."

The crew members acted quickly, taking their positions at the port and starboard machine gun positions, as well as the fore and aft machine gun positions.

Two minutes later, the enemy aircraft was only 1000 meters away from Taishan-2.

In aerial combat, the advantage of fighter jets against bombers lies in their maneuverability.

Bombers cannot perform maneuvers such as flips and rolls. Therefore, being tailed by enemy fighters would be very dangerous for bombers, who could only rely on their thick armor and machine gun fire to deal with it.

However, generally speaking, it is difficult for bomber machine guns to hit fighters in close combat at close range.

But for Fang Wen, it was a different story.

He unleashed his full power, merging with Mount Tai-1 and gaining complete control over the surrounding airspace.

As the enemy aircraft drew closer and entered attack range, the two CR.42s immediately positioned themselves at the same flight level as the bomber, preparing to tail it.

Fang Wen also gave the order to fire.

"Continuous horizontal sweeping fire from the rear machine gun position."

Upon receiving the order, the crew pulled the trigger, operating the machine gun to sweep left and right, the bullets scattering in a horizontal cross-section.

The bullets narrowly missed the enemy planes, frightening the two CR.42s so much that they dared not attack from the rear and quickly dispersed to the left and right.

Fang Wen then issued new orders: "Left machine gun position, horizontal firing, muzzle pointing at 15, continue firing." "Right machine gun position, horizontal firing, muzzle pointing at 13, continue firing."

Upon receiving the two orders, the crew members swung the bolt so that the muzzle was aligned with the designated mark, and then pulled the trigger.

Two bullets were fired from the left and right, but neither hit any target.

But the next moment, two CR.42s rushed straight past, and bullets immediately hit the fuselage, creating a cross-section from left to right.

Instantly, the two planes disintegrated in mid-air, exploding into a pile of fragments.

Two Italian fighter jets that attacked the bombers were actually shot down!

This greatly surprised the Italian Air Force.

Now that their numerical advantage was gone, and they were no match for the P-40C in one-on-one dogfights, they chose to retreat after losing another fighter.

As the Italian fighter jets departed, Fang Wen used his supernatural abilities to look at the ground, preparing to conduct reconnaissance before the air raid. (End of Chapter)