afterglow

Chapter 589: The strategic stalemate is over; interception! interception!

"The United States must become the great arsenal of democracy...Arms production is as important as the war itself...We must respond to this war with determination, urgency, and patriotism." - "Fireside Chat"

As autumn goes and winter comes, it is the coldest time of the year again.

Eleven months passed in the blink of an eye. After the initial fierce fighting, the surface ships of both sides were resting and accumulating strength, but the air force continued to fight.

During these more than 300 days and nights, there were no large-scale mobilizations of the fleets of both sides in the Pacific, and submarines and aircraft played the leading role.

The submarine force of the Ming Navy sunk a total of 121 million tons of merchant ships in the Pacific Ocean and the Indus Ocean, and lost 20 submarines.

As the British and American anti-submarine systems continued to improve, submarine losses increased and most of the results were concentrated in the first half of the year.

For more than half a year, the Hawaiian air war of attrition never stopped. The Ming Air Force lost a total of 5822 aircraft of various types, and the U.S. Army and Navy Aviation also lost 5510 aircraft of various types.

This is just the situation on one front.

The exchange looked better than in the early days, but it declined steadily in the last two months as the US military began to invest in "Mustangs" and "Corsairs".

In the Lanai air battle on November 11, nine cutting-edge Type 4 J-9s spotted six enemy planes flying in a V-formation south of Lanai. The Ming pilots mistakenly thought they were P-6Es and took the initiative to fight them, but five of them were shot down and they only achieved victory with one, and they were almost shaved bald.

It was later confirmed that their opponent that day was the P-51A.

Two years ago, North American claimed to the British that they could provide a better fighter than the existing models, so they came up with a prototype in just four months. The satisfied British called it "Mustang".

The Mustang has a more traditional layout, but it uses an advanced laminar wing shape, has a simple fuselage, a reasonable equipment layout, and surprisingly good low-altitude maneuverability and controllability. Overall, it is the result of system engineering.

The P-51A can reach a top speed of 3000 km/h at an altitude of 667 m, which is both fast and flexible, but it only has a single-stage, single-speed supercharger, and its high-altitude performance is poor. However, most air battles in the Pacific battlefield took place at medium and low altitudes, so this shortcoming was not obvious.

The Mustang crisis began.

【Picture】

The early winter of the first year of the Jinghe reign was no different from any other time in the past. The plane trees lining the streets of Yingtianfu in the capital were shedding their leaves, but the banyan trees remained evergreen.

In the early morning, when the chill began to set in, large numbers of cyclists rushing to work appeared on the streets of the city as usual.

It was no longer possible for middle-class and petty-bourgeois women to compete with each other in terms of appearance as they had done before or at the beginning of the war. Not to mention stockings, even new clothes made of satin were no longer common because they were used to make parachutes.

Under the rationing system, what women are now more worried about is how to make more delicious dishes using the ingredients that are limited to purchase with coupons.

The buses, trucks and cars on the road also have many differences from before - there is a strange cylindrical device behind or beside their bodies.

This is a gas generator that can produce carbon monoxide as a power source from charcoal or coal. It can be directly adapted and installed on existing cars.

The advantage is that it does not consume gasoline and can burn cheap coal. The disadvantage is that the power is reduced, by about one-fifth.

【Picture】

The Ming Dynasty's oil supply was originally sufficient, with an annual domestic oil production of more than four million tons.

Moreover, the airborne operations at the beginning of the war were very successful. The Dutch-Indian army did not cause much damage to the Old Port and Balikpapan oil fields, and production was initially resumed within a few months. Within a year, the annual output returned to the level of more than 7 million tons. Although it was not as high as the pre-war peak, it was also considerable.

However, starting from July this year, the US and Australian air forces began to carry out strategic bombing on the Old Port and Balikpapan oil fields with Hedland in western Australia as their departure base.

So far, there have been six large-scale air strikes, with a total of 747 sorties and 1007 tons of bombs dropped, causing considerable damage to the two major oil fields and cutting production by one-third.

Ming army pilots and anti-aircraft artillery fought hard against the invading enemy, shooting down a total of 40 B-17 and 67 B-24 heavy bombers.

The oil gap of more than two million tons caused chaos in the imperial court, which had no choice but to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, reducing its own consumption while importing from Baku.

If the people of the Ming Dynasty were not controlled and allowed to run wild, they would actually consume about 13 million tons of oil every year.

According to the Basic War Preparation Act passed in the 37th year of Zhichang, the imperial court and government increased macro-control of strategic resources, reduced costs and increased efficiency, reduced waste, and reduced private oil consumption to about 10 million tons.

But this is not enough, we need to continue compressing.

The imperial court then issued instructions, requiring all major provincial governments to begin modifying private cars and installing gas generators.

In the morning, at the Grand Marshal's Mansion.

In an office on the second floor of the General Staff Office, Zhou Changfeng was browsing through several newspapers with an expressionless face.

At this moment, the phone on the table rang. The ding-ding sound interrupted his reading, which was really annoying.

"Hello? Is this Mr. Zhou? His Majesty has summoned you."

"Okay, I'll come right away."

He hung up the phone, quickly read the remaining few paragraphs, then picked up his pen to approve it, and finally picked up the seal and stamped it.

More than half a year passed quickly and the overall situation was still okay, but he knew that such "peaceful" days were coming to an end and it would not be long before the naval and air wars began again.

In the direction of the South Asian subcontinent, the Ming army learned from last year's lessons and chose to launch a large-scale offensive against British India in February this year, which was quickly concluded in mid-March, avoiding the terrible summer heat season.

The battle line advanced to Bihar. In this battle, the Ming army suffered 1.7 casualties, the Japanese and Annan vassal troops suffered 2.5 casualties, and 0.9 British troops and 6 British-Indian troops were annihilated.

In this battle, a large number of weapons and equipment were seized, and considerable quantities of iron ore, copper ore, mica ore and gold ore were obtained from the mineral-rich state of Bihar.

In the direction of the Australian continent, the Ming army maintained a strategic defense.

The US-Australia coalition also did not make any major moves because Marshal MacArthur had wasted too much supplies in the last offensive. The limited supplies were given priority to the aviation forces for strategic bombing of oil fields.

There was no heating outside, so Zhou Changfeng put on his winter clothes and left the Grand Marshal's Office.

Cheng Han, the former director of the General Staff, resigned in April. He had been in this position for six years and it was time for him to leave. So he took the initiative to resign after the victory of the Battle of Bihar and retired from his post.

Zhu Lingjing originally hoped that Zhou would take over the position, but the latter refused.

The position of Chief of General Staff was too busy, with numerous military affairs, and it was far from being as happy as it is now, where I have to have a say in everything and have free time to travel around the country, inspecting here and providing guidance there.

"Here we go? The fight is about to start, what do you think?"

Zhu Lingjing, who was wearing a beige dress, was standing and looking at some reports hanging on the wall panels, and asked casually.

"No problem, follow the plan." Zhou Changfeng said: "This time we are not as rushed as last time, and we have learned our lessons. We should be able to finish it within half a month."

Zhu Lingjing smiled and turned to look at him, "Then I'll lend you my good wishes."

Zhou Changfeng was somewhat helpless, "Your Majesty, this is just my subjective judgment..."

A full year had passed since the Battle of Molokai ended in failure, and the standoff in the Hawaiian Islands continued for another year. Neither the Ming nor the American armies were defeated in the long and fierce air battle, and the outcome was difficult to determine.

Now the Ming army decided to take the initiative again, but gave up Molokai Island and chose the smaller Lanai Island.

The overall strategic concept is three steps: Lanai → Maui → Big Island.

Of course, some people have proposed a bolder idea of ​​going straight to the heart of the matter - skipping the other islands and attacking the big island directly, but it was rejected.

"That's fine. We can test the results of this year and know whether they are good or bad." Zhu Lingjing pondered and said, "So you want to go over and take charge?"

Zhou Changfeng nodded and said, "The first battle after the stalemate phase is very important. I must go."

"Okay, I hope it will be successful."

"Your Majesty, don't worry."

The importance of air supremacy is self-evident. The thousands of shore-based aircraft on the Hawaiian Islands are extremely powerful, and neither fleet dares to approach.

The year-long war of attrition has yet to yield a clear winner. How can we break the deadlock with the help of shore-based aviation?

The Ming Air Force believed that penetration was not difficult, and the key was to destroy the enemy's airport's take-off and landing capabilities.

The U.S. Army's engineering corps possessed a large number of engineering machines, and they were able to repair the runway at an astonishingly fast speed. Especially when the U.S. military began to manufacture Marston pads using prefabricated perforated steel plates similar to those of the Ming Army, the repair speed became even faster. Often an air raid would only interrupt the airport for a few hours.

Therefore, the Ming Air Force has been committed to developing special ammunition that can paralyze airports for a long time. The result today is the Yuannian aviation delay bomb, also known as the anti-runway aerial bomb.

This is a cluster bomb, the main warhead is a 500kg armor-piercing blasting bomb, and the bullet head is one hundred 1.5kg butterfly bombs. The butterfly bomb uses a unique high-sensitivity anti-disassembly fuse. Once the fuse is activated, any slight touch may cause it to detonate.

This type of aerial delayed bomb will disintegrate at a set altitude, and the mother warhead will drill deep into the ground and detonate, creating a deep and large crater, with a large number of bullets that will explode at the slightest touch scattered nearby.

After testing, the Ming Air Force estimated that using this ammunition in actual combat could slow down the US military's runway repair speed by three times.

Another weapon that is considered a powerful weapon is interference foil.

In order to offset and weaken the U.S. military's radar technology advantage, the Ming army mass-produced this strictly confidential device.

As early as when radar technology first appeared, some people proposed countermeasures based on the principle - by spreading a large number of metal dipoles (half the wavelength of radar electromagnetic waves), radar echoes can be interfered with.

During the Battle of Oahu, Zhou Changfeng hastily ordered the manufacture of corner reflectors using local materials and the use of parachutes to drop them to mislead the US military. This example later aroused great enthusiasm among some engineers.

Now the jamming chaff has been developed. Based on the commonly used frequencies of captured US military radars, 220 tons of chaff in five specifications have been manufactured, totaling about 6 million pieces.

In fact, the British had the same technology at the same time, but they regarded chaff as a secret weapon and prohibited its use, and it is still hidden to this day.

Although the Mustang crisis is continuing to spread, the Ming Air Force is full of confidence with its special aviation delay bombs and jamming foil strips.

They believed that with the help of these two magic weapons, they could continue to suppress the US Air Force in Hawaii.

Zhou Changfeng went back home before leaving.

Xia Xiaoshi's wish came true. The baby was a perfect son, and she had no worries anymore.

As he packed his personal belongings, he sighed, "After such a long time, I have to go on a long trip again."

"Didn't we just go to Qiongya last month?" Xia Xiaoshi took out another set of spare summer clothes from the closet.

"For me, going to Qiongya can be considered a long journey?" Zhou Changfeng turned his head and looked at her and asked with a smile.

"Well, that's true."

"Take care of yourself at home and don't worry about me."

Xia Xiaoshi laughed dumbly and pouted, "Shouldn't I be the one to remind you to take care of yourself?"

The two hugged each other tightly, and Zhou Changfeng left home carrying his sword and suitcase.

At 12:4 in the morning on December 5, the early winter sky was still dark, not even a glimmer of dawn had been seen.

Zhou Changfeng drove to Gyeonggi Airport No. 1 and sat in the back seat of a Type 38 heavy fighter.

There was also a wingman next to this plane, conducting the final check before takeoff.

Since last year, Zhou Changfeng has rarely traveled by passenger or transport planes. He thinks large planes fly too slowly, and fighter jets are more convenient and faster.

A quarter of an hour later, the two planes took off on time.

The route was the same as before - first to Shuri in the Ryukyu Kingdom, then to Guam, then to Wake Island, and finally to Midway Island.

December 12th morning, Maui.

There are 13 P-38F twin-engine fighters parked at the end of Runway at Kahului Army Airport. This model has a groove under the engine to accommodate additional auxiliary fuel tanks.

The team commander, Major David Bob, read out the battle situation briefing, and then everyone dispersed and ran towards their respective aircraft.

The pilots were all elites selected from several squadrons, but everyone only knew that the mission this time was to intercept the plane of a senior enemy general, but who it was was a secret.

A moment later, more than a dozen heavy fighters with auxiliary fuel tanks roared into the air one after another from Kahului Airport, maintaining radio silence, first flying at an ultra-low altitude to the northwest, then turning to the southwest and climbing to a high altitude with less air resistance...

At 15:35 in the afternoon, at an altitude of 970m over the sea area 4000km east of Midway Island, there was no cloud in the sky.

Two Type 38 heavy fighter jets with blue ocean-going paint were flying steadily.

"We need more interceptors in the Old Harbor area. Machine guns are more effective against tough bombers, like this one, with twin engines, two cannons and four guns."

"How did you feel before?" Zhou Changfeng asked.

"It's OK. Those American bombers have too many machine guns, and they like to huddle together like fire hedgehogs. It's best to be brave enough to approach from below, wait for the right opportunity, and attack the belly of the plane from above, then..."

Suddenly, the pilot stopped talking before he finished speaking because he saw a series of small black dots appearing in the distant blue sky at ten o'clock.

He immediately informed his wingman, who said he had also seen it but was not sure if it was his.

The two planes maintained their course and altitude, and the pilots kept a close eye on the unidentified targets approaching at high speed from the ten-minute direction.

"Hello? There's no response on the radio. Something feels wrong. Maybe those people in the navy forgot..." said the wingman pilot.

The pilot in the front seat of Zhou Changfeng suddenly said in a deep voice: "It's an enemy plane! Avoid it!"

(End of this chapter)