Canteen System Assistance Notes

However, the interception formation came up empty-handed: the Japanese plane did not fly along the Yellow River, but went straight to Fushe - its route seemed quite strange, often flying straight to the northwest, occasionally turning to the southwest-northeast direction, and then circling back, just like drawing a triangle.

This seems to be doing "radio positioning".

Fortunately, the Eighth Route Army's planes were all modified with radios. After receiving intelligence from the Yellow River Defense Command, the interception team, awakened from their dreams, hurried south and took advantage of the long distance of low-altitude upward visual search to successfully shoot down the "97 Si Ren" in the area south of Hukou.

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"Chief of Staff Chang, this is Comrade Sakaki Saburo of the Anti-War Alliance. Comrade Sakaki, this is Comrade Chang Tiandi, Chief of Staff of the Air Force." "Hello, Chief of Staff."

"Hello, Comrade Sakaki. You can just call me Chang Tiandi."

A transport aircraft, a de Havilland DHC-3 water interceptor, arrived at the alternate runway in the Hejin Triangle. This short takeoff and landing general-purpose aircraft, manufactured by the China Resources Ford joint venture, Stout Aviation, had already received orders from the US Navy and the British Army, and had been given the code name J3R. This also helped the Eighth Route Army to squeeze in and secure a significant quota for newly manufactured aircraft.

This general-purpose transport aircraft, which can carry 1050 kg of supplies and fly 1500 kilometers, is sturdy and reliable. Now, together with its younger brother, the J2R "Beaver", it has begun to gradually replace the Eighth Route Army's "Anson" and L[14 Super Electra" to fly infiltration routes between bases.

Comrade Xuewen and Saburo Sakaki jumped out of the plane. They shook hands and exchanged friendly greetings with Chang Tiandi, Chief of Staff of the Eighth Route Army Air Force, and then got on a tricycle and drove towards a corner of the airport.

Comrade Sakaki, after we shot it down, the pilot parachuted but failed to deploy. Instead, the plane made an emergency landing in a sunflower field. However, the plane was still severely damaged. Will that affect your identification? "Don't worry, Comrade Chang Tiandi. I've seen the photos and have a preliminary idea of ​​the plane's identity."

Not wanting to dwell on the minutiae, they began discussing the specifics of their mission in the car. Sakaki Saburo pulled a few photos from his messenger bag and pointed out a few details. "Although it's almost shattered, its details are still discernible—this is a Type 97 reconnaissance aircraft manufactured by Mitsubishi, often used by group army headquarters for reconnaissance and occasionally for ground bombing and other light explosive operations."

"The only problem is probably its paint job."

Although they both have lower monoplanes, fixed landing gear and basically the same structure, the "97 Sizhen" of the Japanese Army Air Force in China is usually painted in a light color with "Hinomaru" and red identification stripes, while the assembled aircraft fragments in front have a uniform color - dark green paint.

"Even the Kwantung Army in the Northeast had yellow-green paint, and the Japanese troops in the interior were almost all painted in light colors."

Saburo Sakaki had learned Chinese very well. He pointed at the destroyed cockpit and asked, "We also intercepted the external radio waves, right?" "Yes."

Chang Tiandi replied, "The call sign used is very strange, and the code is not a common army code. The call sign also does not match the current flight group inside the border. At present, it has not been completely deciphered."

"Then the situation should be very clear." Sakaki Saburo nodded to Mr. Xuewen and expressed his judgment, "This should be a navy plane - a navy plane.

98 land reconnaissance aircraft, they should be from the Japanese base area in Hankou

This is the Navy. When I was interrogating the flight sergeants who had been to the Wangjiadun base in Hankou, I heard them say that there were naval red deer stationed in Hankou, and this plane must have been sent by the Navy.

Chang Tian nodded in agreement with Sakaki Saburo's conclusion and began to think. This former Japanese Army Aviation pilot had undergone numerous political trials and tests and was trustworthy. But why was the Japanese Navy trying to join in the fun? Were they planning to launch warships on the Yan River? As Chang Tiandi pondered, he remembered the joint Japanese Navy and Army bombing of the mountain city.

Previously, because the army's bombing of the mountain city was not very efficient, the Japanese headquarters coordinated the Japanese navy to carry out an air strike on the mountain city, causing heavy losses to the mountain city.

The Japanese Army Air Force had suffered enough in the Hejin area, having lost over a dozen planes and was afraid to launch further air raids. Therefore, the Japanese military headquarters had turned to the navy in the Hankou area for action—a perfectly reasonable assumption, Chang Tiandi concluded. While relations between the Japanese Army and Navy were certainly poor, they wouldn't mess around in matters involving operational tactics. So, next, we should study the Japanese Navy Air Force.

"I see. Thank you very much, Comrade Sakaki."

-―-―-—-—

After reporting the relevant situation, the Eighth Route Army's aviation system quickly began to study the Japanese Navy's combat style and conduct further reconnaissance of the enemy situation. If the Japanese Navy wanted to launch an attack, what kind of aircraft would it use? How large would the fleet be? What would be the type of aircraft? What would be the composition ratio?

Thanks to the wealth of later materials, the increasingly skilled air force was not completely blind to the unfamiliar Japanese naval aviation. A large number of historical battle examples and data allowed them to carry out targeted preparations and learning: the "Zero Fighter" that was famous in the early days of World War II, the "96 Land Attack" that worked hard and made great contributions... and the huge scale of nearly 100 various aircraft that could be deployed at a time, all determined that this would be a "big test" for the Eighth Route Army Air Force and the border area air defense system.

Of course, it would be better if you could "highlight the key points" before the exam.

Comrade Liu Helian, who was still in the border area, volunteered: he planned to use the "future electric donkey" in his hand, which could change models freely, to conduct an "offensive reconnaissance" against the Japanese army's Hankou base.

Chapter 352 Shuangliu Reconnaissance

In the days of the airplane, aircraft, suspended from wooden frames and cloth and steel wire, were tasked with aerial reconnaissance. Pilots romantically flew unarmed aircraft, using handheld cameras to snap photos of enemy formations below, then brought them back to base for development and intelligence. Occasionally, they'd encounter enemy reconnaissance planes mid-air, and all they could do was wave, give the middle finger, or utter a few curse words.

Such happy days in Zaun did not last long. Soon, fighter planes were equipped with machine guns and ground troops erected anti-aircraft guns. Both sides of the war tried to erect a high wall above their own positions to block those hateful reconnaissance planes that loved to give the middle finger and take secret photos, so as to prevent them from taking any explosive news that could be used for blackmail.

But how could the paparazzi's gossip be easily extinguished? After World War I, the struggle between aerial reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance did not continue the false peace, but instead began an arms race. Even in the Far East battlefield, where the level of war equipment and technology was relatively backward, this spiral of internal competition, which had been suspended due to the poor performance of preserved fruits, was brought back to life by the Eighth Route Army, and it was intensifying.

Interceptors equipped with anti-aircraft rockets, Anson and Texan aircraft equipped with reconnaissance equipment, and the "Night Ghost" aircraft, which was only heard but not seen, became a lingering shadow over the Japanese Army Air Force. They had to repeatedly urge the Nakajima Company in Japan to quickly complete the new aircraft that could replace the "Type 97 Fighter".

But what do these things have to do with our navy? Isn't the Zero fighter the best in the world?

November 1940 was almost the golden age of the Zero in China. In the Bishan air battle, the Navy defeated the enemy with fewer troops and shot down 25 Kuomintang fighter planes without any damage. During the Chengdu air raid, the Navy landed at Taiping Temple Airport, set fire to Kuomintang planes and headquarters, and then took off and returned safely... The Navy's record was extremely glorious, which was much better than the Army's record of being defeated all the way in North China and being shot down by the Eighth Route Red Army one after another.

This stark contrast made the Navy's noses soar, they were filled with pride, and they even disdained to study their upcoming opponents. Even if the Red Army defeated the Army's horse shit, weren't they equipped with outdated aircraft provided by the Red Army and the British, the Americans, and the British, they still couldn't be a match for the Imperial Sea Eagles!

With such confidence, the extremely arrogant navy did not deploy any decent air defense patrol forces around its Jiangcheng base, and had no communication with the army's air crew. There were only a dozen available Zero fighters and Type 96 land attack aircraft, which were the main force for bombing the mountain city, parked carelessly on three large airports.

But what they didn't know was that, because of the former Jiangcheng Eighth Office, there were still underground workers of our party stationed in Hankou. After the Battle of Jiangcheng, during the Japanese occupation, the evacuated Eighth Office left behind a complete underground work system, maintaining a continuous presence in this area.

As the "crossroads of five provinces" in central China, Jiangcheng's population flow remained high even after the Japanese occupation, making it a natural environment for espionage operations. Even maintaining the operation of "heavy bombers" by Japanese standards required a significant investment of resources. Even with the Japanese Navy's relatively independent support system and security forces, even sourcing and shipping food from Shanghai and Nanjing, they could not completely isolate the Chinese from maintaining their fleet operations. Perhaps they were right next to the pilots' quarters, on a small hill outside Jiangcheng, or even among the dock workers delivering supplies to the base—they were all keeping a close eye on them.

Backed by the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Anti-Japanese Base Area, the underground workers of the Communist Party of China, relying on a cautious work system, strict organizational discipline and advanced radio equipment, despite the pressure of the Military Control Commission stations being uncovered by the Japanese army and the Kuomintang leaders surrendering to the enemy, gradually extended the intelligence network to the three major bases of the Japanese Navy in Wangjiadun, Nanhu and Xujiapeng, and roughly found out the composition of their fleet. Ironically, these three airports were all Kuomintang airports built during the Soviet aid period, and were used to bomb the mountain city after being expanded by the Japanese army.

Comrade Liu Helian from the future will conduct reconnaissance on these three airports from another angle and height.

During World War II, when surface-to-air missiles were far from mature, altitude and speed were essential for reconnaissance aircraft to penetrate enemy defenses, aside from darkness. Facing the Japanese Navy's Zero-type wall in Jiangcheng, Liu Helian's response was simple and clear.

"Configuration selected, F-15."

Oh, this isn't the jet-powered F-15 Eagle, but rather the F-15 Reporter, a reconnaissance aircraft derived from the Black Widow P61 night fighter. Due to some strange limitations, eMule seems unable to currently choose a jet-powered aircraft, nor can it generate various airborne weapons for ground attack. However, for the "offensive reconnaissance" mission against the Hankou Naval Airfield, this reconnaissance aircraft from the late WWII era was already a "super-killer."

Leveraging the powerful power of two virtual R2800 engines, Liu Helian and his longtime partner, Hu Zikun, quickly took off from Fushe and ascended, heading straight for Hankou. This "F-15 reporter" flew at breakneck speed, covering over 800 kilometers in less than two hours, reaching their destination at an altitude of 12000 meters at a speed of approximately 700 kilometers per hour.

"Prepare to enter the reconnaissance route, scouts, please prepare."

"receive."

Liu Helian gently operated the aircraft, trying to maintain flight stability as much as possible, while his old partner Hu Zikun followed the operating manual to put the F-15 into automatic mapping mode. The original "F-15" was not armed, but was equipped with high-altitude reconnaissance equipment with 6 photographic windows. It could take a series of high-precision black-and-white reconnaissance photos along the route and carry out aerial photography and mapping missions.

They filmed recklessly in the high-altitude restricted zone, beyond the reach of any Japanese air force, consuming roll after roll of precious silver film. On these negatives, the shadows and sounds of over twenty aircraft were captured. Nearly one hundred Type 96 land attack aircraft lined up in neat rows in the morning light; the remaining reconnaissance, light bomber, and light combat aircraft lined up on both sides of the runway, seemingly ready to take off at any moment... And the Zero fighters, the demons of air combat with countless victories, were only a few, quietly hidden among the vast fleet.

"Commissioner Liu, why are there so few of those Zero fighters you mentioned? Are they parked in the hangar?"

Hu Zikun observed the ground through the camera's eyepiece. He had heard the Zero fighter's fame many times in Liu Helian and Guo Su's battle reports. "It could shoot down over 20 Nationalist fighters in a row without suffering any losses itself. It's unlikely there were only a dozen or so operational... Is it really that powerful?"

"It's definitely formidable, at least much more so than the Type 97, but it's not completely invincible. Its strengths and weaknesses are very clear. Given the right tactics, the L-16 can hold its own. The Guosi's shaved head was more due to poor tactical choices and poor pilot quality."

Liu Helian replied that he had long since demystified the Zero fighter myth, allowing him to view this extreme fighter more rationally. "What's more, these Zeros aren't fully finalized yet. They're still in a testing phase, plagued by various glitches. Of the twenty or thirty Zeros we have, I estimate more than half are in the hangar for maintenance, leaving only about ten operational."

He recalled several historical battles in which the Japanese army had deployed Zero fighters, and pulled the joystick to make the plane leave the reconnaissance route and start returning.

"Hey! Don't worry. The number of planes the Japanese can deploy at one time is limited. If we hadn't been unable to launch ground attacks, we would have already gone down and shot down the Japanese planes!" "Comrade Hua Kun, let's go!"

Chapter 353 Open Book Examination

The approximate size and aircraft configuration of the enemy forces were basically clear, the intention of the attack became increasingly obvious, and even the general route of advance was confirmed. On the same day that Liu Helian conducted high-altitude reconnaissance, the Taihang Military Sub-district received a letter on a magnetic tape with three chicken feathers stuck in it. The tape recorded a phone call between the Navy's Jiangcheng Wangjiadun Airport and the Army's Yuncheng Zhangxiao Airport.

On the phone, the two sides greeted each other with friendly courtesies, and then sent warm regards to each other's relatives with even friendlier greetings. The sentence "Baga! Shameless navy bastards, don't even think about stealing the Imperial Army's airport!" not only destroyed the navy's possibility of using the army airport for refueling during combat, but also made the Taihang Military Sub-district's intention to build an artificial water gate at Yuncheng Airport fail, and incidentally exposed its approximate flight route.

The newly born Eighth Route Army Air Force was able to experience this major test since its establishment in the form of an "open-book exam".

以12架战斗机为一个中队，2-4个中队为一个大队编制的八路航空兵，现在可以抽出2个半的作战大队来进行这次战役。一个36机的飓风大队，一个48机的16大队，以及一个尚在组建、仅有12机可战的“野猫"大队构成了本次作战的主要力量。

These combat units, which came with their own maintenance, ground crew, medical and communications units, took off from Huinong, Wuzhong, Jingbian, Yanchuan and other stations in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and were concentratedly transferred to Yanchang, Yichuan, Hancheng, Chengcheng and other stations in the southern part of the border region, ready for battle.

At the same time, the purchased 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, M2 anti-aircraft machine guns, and 75mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns transferred from the Soviet Union began to be transferred to key landmarks such as Fushi, Liangshui'an on the Yanhe River, and Yumenkou, deploying in a key air defense formation. The border region's internal transport brigade also mobilized several transport units and began to transfer ammunition, fuel, spare parts, and various supplies from warehouses to provide material support for the Air Force's combat readiness.

One day, two days, three days... When the Eighth Route Army Air Force was on high alert and maintained a high level of combat readiness for a few days, on November 14, 19404, when Coventry in England was destroyed by the German Nazi bombing due to "confidentiality factors", the underground radio station in Jiangcheng also sent several strings of digitally encrypted codes. The decoder used the exclusive decoding key and quickly obtained two key messages.

"Hankou Nanhu, 12th Air Force, 12 Zeros take off, heading 345!"

"Jiangcheng Wangjiadun, 1st Air Force Luwu and Kaohsiung Air Force, 96 land attack aircraft 36 take off and are forming!"

coming!

Even if you have made all possible preparations, maintained the fighter planes, moved the anti-aircraft guns into position, and held exercises for the masses, when the boot finally landed heavily on the floor, the Eighth Route Army would be like a student walking into the college entrance examination hall, with their hearts hanging in the air.

Thirty-six Type 96 land attack aircraft and twelve Zero fighters—this combination was a common pattern for large-scale bombing raids by the Japanese Navy, and it was completely incomparable to the later US battlefield bombing raids. However, if it were applied to other Chinese cities at this time, it would have meant a devastating catastrophe from the sky—explosions, fire, poison gas, piles of corpses, burning cities, and countless disasters and nightmares that followed.

The Central Committee would never want such a tragedy to happen over the base area, and the People's Army would never want such a tragedy to befall the people.

"Yingshan District! Multiple single-engine fighters observed, number difficult to accurately determine, heading 350, altitude exceeding 5000 meters, over!" "Twin-engine bombers observed in Yuzhou—27 Type 96 land attack aircraft, heading due north, altitude 4500!"

"Report from Luohe sentry post..."

Clouds drifted, planes appeared and disappeared. As the alarm sounded, air intelligence relays, a combination of human and radio waves, spread northward from Jiangcheng to Hong'an, all the way to Xinyang and Luohe. Starting from the pre-arranged headquarters of the New Fourth Army's Fifth Division, they continued northward along the Pinghan Railway, delicately hopping on the underground Party's antennas in Kuomintang-controlled areas. Like a slender but unbreakable river of information, it channeled human-generated air situational intelligence northward.

Although the messages sent by the various sentry posts were not yet clear and consistent in format, and although this intelligence might have come from a professional air defense sentry equipped with a compass and wingspan altimeter, it could also have come from a handheld telescope used by an observer in the county town...

But there is no doubt that when this information surges like a tide, along the air situation network that has been built for several years, and is summarized in the Fushe Air Defense Command Center covered with wires, projections and radios, it will become broken lines on acrylic boards and chess pieces moving on the air situation sand table, bringing this country without a radar network a command information flow similar to the British domestic air defense network, as well as the luxurious 3-hour air defense warning time.

The Japanese Army could not understand the people's war, so the Japanese Navy naturally could not understand it and would never understand it.

-----——-

"The Zhengxian air defense post observed a Japanese Zero fighter at an altitude of 4700, turning to 290. We determined that the enemy aircraft had passed the turning point and entered the 90-minute warning zone!"

While the Japanese Army relied almost entirely on landmarks for navigation, the Navy was significantly more proficient in radio navigation. After arriving in Zhengxian County along the Pinghan Railway, the Navy's bomber formations executed a remarkable retraction and turn, using the Fushi People's Radio Station on Phoenix Mountain as a beacon to navigate toward their targets.

Even if the Japanese Army refused to allow them to use Yuncheng Airport as a transit point, the Navy was still able to complete the bombing mission on its own - the Zero fighters, which were known for their long range, even had the ability to carry external fuel tanks, which was enough for these aerial demons to take off from Hankou and reach Fushe, fight an air battle, and then fly back.

Perhaps in the eyes of these arrogant sea eagles, bombing a narrow city nestled in the river valley of the Loess Plateau is just an action like daily training.

In addition to adding luster to one's own record, there is no other way.

Of course, it would be even better if we could encounter some resistance and accumulate some kills.

The red line representing the Japanese aircraft passed through Zhengxian County, crossed the northern edge of the Zhongtiao Mountains, and headed straight for the heart of the border region. At a cruising speed of around 300 kilometers per hour, the 96-ton bomber would only need a little over an hour and a half to enter the final bombing route and drop bombs on Fushe.

Listening to the conical alarm sounding outside the window, the Eighth Route Army Air Force Commander Nie Heting took a deep breath and put his hand on the large round table of the air defense command center - this table seemed to have been used for dining before, and there was a groove on it for fixing the rotating dish.

He shook his head to get rid of this strange divergent thought, closed his eyes, pressed the transmitter button in his hand, and calmly issued an order: "Fighter Squadron 3, check the mounts, use interceptor mounts on the bombers, and begin takeoff.

"Fighter Squadron One, Fighter Squadron Two, check your loadouts, intercept air superiority loadouts, final check, and be ready for takeoff."

Suddenly, the engines of the Hancheng Airport, the closest to the battlefield, exploded. Twelve F4F "Wildcats" that had just completed their modification training and came across the ocean were grouped in groups of four.

These aircraft with foldable wings are now

They were currently carrying centerline auxiliary fuel tanks and slowly climbing in a long-range takeoff mode that was quite a dream for carrier-based aircraft. Under their wings, the modified interceptor rockets gleamed coldly.

Chapter 354: Will Use New Feathers to Defeat the Sea Eagle

The core point of interception was to shoot down the bombers, thwarting the enemy's tactical bombing objectives. Escorting fighters acted as obstacles hindering the interceptors' ability to achieve their objectives. While the Japanese Army lacked the habit of escorting and the ability to provide long-range escorts, the Japanese Navy, owing to years of training in ship-to-ship and surface-to-surface attacks, had a well-established bombing escort system.

Unlike the US sweeping escort, the UK's double-altitude beating escort, and the German eye-catching escort, the LN's escort tactic was a method known as "front escort" - by deploying a fighter group at a visual range of about 510 kilometers in front of the bomber group, intercepting enemy interceptors, thereby covering the bomber group at medium altitude in the rear to penetrate.

The advantage of this tactic is that it allows the fighter planes with superior performance to break through, attracting a large amount of enemy interception fire, and leaving the bomber group in the rear to find a gap in the defense.

The opportunity to adjust the formation and increase the success rate of bombing. But the disadvantage is

That is, such an attack relies heavily on suddenness and concealment. Once the enemy has made preparations in advance, or deployed multiple interception echelons to entangle the fighter group; or launched attacks from multiple directions, the entire bomber group will face a devastating disaster.

The weather in southern Shanxi was fine today. Aside from a few drifting stratus clouds at low altitude, the airspace was remarkably clear. Based on the experience gained in the Bishan and Chengdu air battles, First Class Air Sergeant Matsuo Hanekiri, having taken off from Hankou Air Base, cruised leisurely at an altitude of 700 meters in the cockpit of his Type 11 Zero fighter. They had to account for the slower-flying Kanoya and Kaohsiung air groups behind them. Those Type 11 Land Attack Forces were underpowered and slow, and if the Zeros continued their flight recklessly, they would undoubtedly be completely outclassed.

He turned his head and gestured to the sergeant Lang of Dongshan City Air Force, then pulled the joystick and rolled the plane to observe: about 5 kilometers behind him, the land attack aircraft formed a formation of three aircraft in a group, flying slowly at a slightly lower speed, like a group of dark green geese.

Well, everything's normal. No enemy planes in the sky, no anti-aircraft guns on the ground. It's a perfect day for flying, completely different from Shancheng and Rongcheng. Perhaps the Communist planes are all escaping the alarm. Matsuo Hanekiri clamped the control stick between his knees and pulled out a small blackboard from the cockpit. He wrote "Formation Safe" on it and prepared to show it to Sergeant Higashiyama, who was standing nearby.

However, just as he raised the blackboard, he saw a red flare at the edge of his vision - it was coming from the bomber group behind him.

Green means the bombing has begun, while red means an enemy attack.

Enemy attack? Enemy attack!

How did they get around to the back?

Matsuo Hagiri was startled. He had no idea their route was being monitored by the Eighth Route Army, and even less so that the Wildcats, also capable of carrying auxiliary fuel tanks, had already taken off tens of minutes earlier, circling from the north of the bomber formation and attacking the bulky Type 96 land attack aircraft. As he watched, a group of unidentified black dots gracefully rolled half a circle, swooping down from a higher altitude and slashing towards the land attack aircraft formation.

Immediately afterwards, dense explosions broke out in the land attack aircraft group.

Over southern Shanxi, a howling wind and thunderous explosions filled the skies. Matsuo Hanekiri, a veteran of aerial combat, considered himself a seasoned and knowledgeable elite, was met with a scene he found unbelievable. A dozen or so enemy fighters, in a single dive, had instantly shot down four land attack aircraft. These aircraft, with broken wings and tails, plummeted unhindered, emitting billowing smoke as they plummeted, leaving behind a trail of flames that ultimately transformed into aluminum flakes scattered between heaven and earth.

In addition, several land attack aircraft were severely damaged, with thick smoke and flames emitting, and could only barely hold on.

What the hell is this!

The UJN pilots had never seen the Soviet and Eighth Route Army's RS82 interceptor rocket barrages, as the JA pilots had, nor had they seen the Eighth Route Army's "Hangjian 82 - High-Frequency Induction Proximity Destroyer with Four-Rail Rocket Pods." A single salvo of 12 Wildcats, a "show of force" attack, nearly destroyed one-sixth of the land attack force, forcing these heavily bombed aircraft to disband their formation.

"Damn it! A sneak attack is a mean act! Why don't you dare to fight me in a fair and square battle?"

"Hagiri Matsuo said angrily. But the culprits didn't stop. After firing their missiles and completing a round of strafing, the fighters with blue and white identification strips didn't stop for a moment, using their diving speed advantage to quickly dive into the distance and break contact.

The 12th Air Force's 12 Zero fighters reversed course, began to descend, and accelerated in pursuit. However, performing speed-up maneuvers at an altitude of 7000 meters was a bit slow for the Zero fighters, which still had various structural, control, and aerodynamic defects. Before they could catch up very far, more Eighth Route Army fighters began to emerge from above the Zero fighters, nearly 80 meters away, and swooped down on them in formations of four planes in a group and two planes in a group.

It's the British "Hurricane"!

The main force of the Red Army Air Force finally appeared. Matsuo Hanekiri no longer had time to care about the unidentified fighter planes that were "escaping". He began to rush for his own survival.

Although they had no radios or ultra-shortwave equipment for voice communication, the four Zero fighters of the 3rd Squadron of the 12th Air Force still demonstrated a strong level of technical and tactical skills: relying solely on the tacit understanding developed through long-term training, the four Zeros began to roll sideways and quickly reversed their fuselages, followed by a combination of downward dives and pulling the stick - the Zero fighters with excellent short dive capabilities, in such an unfavorable altitude and unfavorable situation, actually successfully used the conversion of speed and altitude to quickly reverse their direction and avoid the first round of hurricane attacks. Only one Zero was unable to dodge and was hit continuously, suffering serious damage.

A vein popped out of Matsuo Hanekiri's forehead. With the Zero fighter accelerating at a dive, performing an S-shaped maneuver was incredibly strenuous. He practically used all his strength to pull it off.

The formation had already disbanded, and both sides began to engage in close combat. As soon as he thought of this, Hanekiri Matsuo calmed down - from then on, as long as the battlefield continued to guide the battlefield to low altitude and enter circling maneuvers, then it would be the world of Zero fighters.

But what if the enemy doesn't fight you?