Shadow Spy

Chapter 320 The possibility of establishing a land aviation

On Monday, July 7, at the Jinliyuan Pier on the Bund of the Concession, Li Junhao once again visited the squadron commander, Major General Grant Galli. The two boarded the bridge of the flagship USS Savannah, drank coffee, and chatted for a while. The war in Europe...

From the bridge, you can see a seaplane on the river outside preparing to take off. Several speedboats in front have cleared a waterway of more than 100 meters. As the sound of the engine is heard on the bridge, the lower part of the seaplane can be seen. The strange-looking boat-like fuselage slid forward on the water for about [-] meters before smoothly taking off and flying along the Huangpu River towards the seaport...

Li Junhao asked with great interest: "General Gary, how is the performance of this seaplane?"

Major General Gary smiled and said: "Why, Commander Panson is also interested in it? This is the PBY-1 seaplane produced by United Aircraft Company. It is the best seaplane in the world now! When it was exported to the UK, the British gave him It’s a nice name, ‘Katrina’.”

As a naval general with a professional background, he had a good understanding of the equipment of the squadron, and then he introduced it in detail to Li Junhao.

The Catalina PBY-1 seaplane adopts a ship-type fuselage, an umbrella-type cantilever upper single wing, a wingspan of 31.7 meters, a length of 19.47 meters, a height of 6.5 meters, an empty weight of 9.5 tons, and a maximum take-off weight of 16 tons;
Two Pratt & Whitney R-1830-64 propeller engines are installed in the upper middle of the wing, with a power of 900 horsepower, a maximum flight speed of 275 kilometers/hour, a minimum speed of 93 kilometers/hour, a maximum range of more than 4000 kilometers, and a crew of 2-6 people. .

The PBY-1's self-defense weapons are four 4mm aviation machine guns, including one in the nose machine gun turret, two in the waist machine gun station, and one in the belly cabin. The belly machine gun has 7.62 rounds of ammunition, and the other machine guns have 500 rounds. hair;
攻击武器包括4枚147公斤深水炸弹和4枚225公斤炸弹、或4枚454公斤炸弹，或两枚646公斤MarkXIII鱼雷。

Li Junhao didn't know much about seaplanes. After hearing Major General Gary's introduction, he felt that this kind of aircraft was too slow. Other technical indicators were still good. In particular, he felt that there was a lot of room for modification!But he had other purposes for coming here this time.

"General, I can fly a plane, but I have never flown a seaplane like this." Li Junhao said, "If possible, can you let me get on the plane and try it?"

Um?Galli was stunned when he heard this. This request was something he had not expected. PBY is a multi-person aircraft, and there is no problem with adding one person to it. However, Pan Sen is the commander of the Shanghai-Haihai Joint Command and asked him to board the plane. If something happens, he can't explain it!

Seeing that he remained silent for a while, Li Junhao certainly knew his concerns, so he waved his hand and said: "Haha, I just said it casually, general, don't take it seriously! However, I have an idea and want to ask the general for help."

"Oh? Tell me." Gary breathed a sigh of relief: As long as you don't think about heaven, everything else is easy!

Li Junhao said: "Speaking of which, the concession is now in our hands. We have the army, navy, and marines. We have armored vehicles and heavy artillery on the land. We have your squadron on the river and the sea. Now we also have the five seaplanes brought by you. , it’s all done by sea, land and air, but I think it’s not enough!
"The main thing is that these five aircraft are all aimed at surface combat. I think we still need real land-based fighters. I can order aircraft, but it is difficult to solve the problem of pilots.

"So, I was thinking, General, if you can help me train a group of pilots, about ten people will be enough... Well, how about letting them get on your seaplane and learn directly?" This request also did not occur to Gali. , but he felt that it was much better than Commander Panson getting on the plane in person, and what the other party said made sense. If you want to defend the concession, the army and navy alone are not enough, and the 5 squadrons brought A seaplane cannot fight in an air battle and cannot deal with Japanese fighter jets.

So he said: "This is no problem, you can arrange for someone to come over at any time."

"Thank you so much!" Li Junhao laughed, "In this way, I will be responsible for the fuel for the training flight. If you need any more supplies, general, just ask."

Gary also smiled and waved his hands: "Forget it, I have a lot of oil here. It's enough to help us get some cigarettes, beer and so on!"

"No problem!" Li Junhao said.
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The next day, 10 team members with a high school education or above selected from the Wolf Warrior Brigade and the Golden Shield Brigade, led by a staff officer, arrived at the Jinliyuan Military Pier by car and began to learn to fly.

This is what Li Junhao and Yang Shixiong came up with after discussing it. They would use the seaplanes of the naval squadron to train a group of basic pilots, and then use the wartime airstrip in Jiaozhou Park for advanced training...

Of course, Li Junhao needed to solve the problem of fighter jets. Although this was not a big deal for him, for the sake of safety, he decided to order it from China, and he had to report it first and obtain the approval of the Navy Department or the Army Department.Well, just do it...

Speaking of which, Li Junhao was very lucky. When his telegrams requesting instructions were sent to the Ministry of Navy and the Ministry of War respectively, it was when the two newly appointed ministers began to pay attention to the Far East that they actually saw his telegram directly...
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On July 7, Li Junhao received two telegrams from Washington. Both the Navy Department and the Army Department responded, and the contents were surprisingly similar. They both recognized his point of view and approved the establishment of an aviation detachment in the Shanghai garrison. ideas and pledge to provide corresponding support.

The navy is supporting a squadron of 6 latest carrier-based aircraft F4F, and the army is supporting a squadron of 6 P-38s. Both sides have sent professional instructors and ground maintenance personnel, who will go to Shanghai together on sea ships.

When Li Junhao was upgrading and manufacturing Lingyun fighter jets, he had a detailed understanding of the development history of propeller aircraft in the US military. He knew that these two aircraft were the latest equipment during this period, and even the famous code names for later generations had not yet been given. Unexpectedly, the two major military services The Ministry was so helpful that they directly gave him two squadrons, and also provided instructors and ground staff!

Wow!Here comes the problem, he needs to prepare the airport!The Jiaozhou Park is now paved with a wartime runway. Although it can meet the needs of fighter planes taking off and landing, the supporting facilities such as command, fuel, ground support, ammunition, etc. are not complete. I haven’t mentioned it yet. Let’s repair it quickly, right?

In addition, these planes are transported by ocean ship, but after being unloaded at the dock, how are they transported to the center of the city?I'm going to have a headache now... No, I have to find a way!

(End of this chapter)