New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

( ) George E. Brody was not the first pilot to report to the Inverse Cross.Just this afternoon, five people had rushed to report ahead of him.In the next two days, more and more people came to report.By the third day, all newly recruited pilots had reported to Inverse Cross.

Along with the arrival of the new pilots are more support staff and new aircraft. 24 A-20 attack aircraft and 24 B-25 bombers also flew to the base successively.

"Well, in this way, two new squadrons can also start to be established." Standing at the window, watching a b-25 land on the runway, Ron said so.In fact, b-25 didn't quite satisfy Ron. When the b-25 performs tasks such as battlefield isolation, it is still good, but when it is used to attack targets such as bridges and anti-tank support points, its strike accuracy is not enough.In fact, it is not that the United States does not have fighters suitable for this task. The Navy's dreadnought dive bombers are very suitable for this type of task.In addition, the f4u fighter jets of the Marine Corps can also perform such tasks quite well.However, for the army, it is no problem to use a few navy or marine corps aircraft to simulate enemy aircraft, such as using f4u to simulate fw-190.But it is not so difficult for the Army to obtain equipment to equip the aircraft of the Navy and Marine Corps.Although the relationship between the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps is not as bad as that of the Japanese Army and Navy.But to say that their relationship is close is definitely deceiving.

In fact, with so much money in the military budget, the navy gets more and the army gets less.In the peaceful years before the war, the navy scooped up most of the military budget, and the leftovers left to the army were only enough for the army to barely maintain a third-rate country whose number was not as good as that of Europe, and the level of equipment was not as good as The military presence of the Gangs of New York.At that time, when the guys in the navy saw the army, they always had their nostrils upturned; as for the army, they naturally didn't look good to the navy.

After the war broke out, the army realized the leap from slave to general, successfully grabbed the bulk of the military expenditure, and the army generals also successfully mastered the power of the army.So it was the Navy's turn to be dissatisfied.

Anyway, even for the sake of face, the Army will not purchase weapons for the Navy and Marine Corps on a large scale.Of course, it is also good to develop a new aircraft, but the problem is that we don't know if there is enough time.For example, in the original history, the Army developed an A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft. This guy has superior performance. Not only does it have powerful armor, but it can also hang bombs weighing up to 7 tons. Equivalent to its own weight - to carry out the attack mission!It can not only dive and bomb at a large angle of 85 degrees like a dive bomber, but also fly close to the ground like an il-2 attack plane, attacking ground targets with rockets and cannons.Under the technical conditions at that time, it was almost the most perfect direct fire support attack aircraft for the needs of the United States.However, this kind of aircraft entered service a little too late, and the war ended as soon as it was delivered to the army.

The pilots of the b-25 squadron are also the most experienced pilots selected from the combat force.In order to make this team take shape as soon as possible, Ron transferred a group of pilots who performed well in ground attack from the fighter force to enrich the team.

Is this an attack aircraft or is it a question.The Americans actually don't have any particularly good attack aircraft, not even a decent professional attack aircraft. Although the A-20 attack aircraft bears the brand of an attack aircraft, it is actually more like a bomber if you count it seriously.It is not very good for direct ground fire support.Therefore, after research, everyone felt that it would be better to change a fighter jet into a ground attack version like the Germans did.Of course, the ground attack performance of this thing cannot be as good as the newly designed professional attack aircraft like the a-1, but the difficulty of development is very low. A prototype can be produced in a few months at most, and it is estimated that it will be ready by next summer. Large-scale equipment troops.Moreover, these aircraft are modified from fighter jets that pilots are familiar with. It is easy for pilots to learn and quickly form combat effectiveness.Ron felt that this should be the best way to solve the attack aircraft problem for the US Army Aviation.

This opinion was reported to General Arnold, who received a reply a few days later.General Arnold agreed with them.Now, several companies have received development tasks.

The new training outline is also being gradually improved.Information about the combat methods of the German and Japanese air defense forces from the Office of Strategic Intelligence, various detailed examples of ground attacks from the Army Aviation Command, and even detailed examples of naval battles obtained through some channels, They were all sent to the "Reverse Cross" combat research center.Ron and a group of staff spent almost fifteen or six hours a day studying these materials, analyzing the enemy's defense methods, and the gains and losses when the US military launched an attack in each case.

This work is almost the most boring and tiring work that Ron has done since he crossed. He constantly summed up the data with the staff, constantly reviewed the documents and charts made by the staff, and then continued to discuss some issues. Discuss with his tactical expert team composed of pilots and combat staff officers, conduct sand table exercises, and even arrange actual confrontations for testing.

After more than a month, Ron felt that he was so tired that his whole body shrank.At this time, the new outline is basically completed.The rest depends on the daily confrontation training and the feedback from the graduates on the battlefield to improve it step by step.

At this time, the ground-modified versions of some fighter jets have also completed preliminary test flights, and their trial production models have also been sent to the "Inverse Cross". In this way, the last attack aircraft squadron can finally take shape.

The modified fighter jets shipped this time have two models, one is a modified version of the p-47 for ground attack.This type of p-47 has its pressurization system removed - anyway, it is not expected to go up to the sky, and the remaining weight is used to further strengthen the armor. The armor of some key components is already enough to withstand the attack of 20mm shells. The pylon Also strengthened enough to carry more bombs and rockets.In order to enhance the performance at low altitude and low speed, its wings have been lengthened.The Republic company also removed 47 of the original 6 20-guns on the p-4 and replaced them with two 37mm guns. As long as this thing is used properly, it can even be used to dismantle German tanks.

Of course, the price paid for such a modification is not small.First of all, the p-47, which was already cumbersome, has become even more cumbersome. Now the take-off weight of this aircraft has exceeded nine tons. Coupled with the external bombs and rockets, the various flight performances of the aircraft have declined. The take-off and landing performance of the p-47 is not good. After such a modification, although the lengthened wings increase the wing area, this will help the take-off and landing performance.However, due to the excessive weight gain, the take-off and landing performance was further reduced.According to the test pilots, this is the fighter with the worst take-off and landing performance in the history of the United States, and novices will have more accidents with this than the original version.However, considering that most of the pilots who fly this thing in the future will be the original P-47 pilots, Ron thinks this will not be a big problem.

In addition to the decline in take-off and landing performance, other flight performances also declined significantly.Due to the increase in weight and the extension of the wings, the maximum speed has dropped from 690 kilometers per hour to 610 kilometers per hour, especially the speed at low altitudes has dropped directly to the level of zero combat.Of course, as an attack aircraft, this speed is still very fast.

Because of the extended wings, the low-speed stability and hovering performance of the aircraft improved a little, but because of the added weight, these improvements were not obvious. On the other hand, the extended wings made the p-47's original excellent Rolling has also become sluggish. Although it has not been reduced to the level of p-38, it is no longer comparable to p-51.

The cancellation of the supercharger made this original high-altitude overlord suddenly become a high-altitude disabled.Although the ceiling of this guy is still 10000 meters, everyone knows how this data came out. It took four to 10 minutes to barely climb up without any weapons and half of the fuel. of.This result is not even as good as the high-altitude waste p-39.

Still, Ron was relatively happy with the modification.Although its flight performance has dropped a lot, it is still sufficient as an attack aircraft, and the p-47, which was originally unbelievably strong, has become even stronger after improvement, and it can be called a flying tank.

The second type of aircraft that Ron liked was an improved version of the P-38. The p-38 already has the advantage of having a large bomb load. Just looking at the maximum bomb load, its bomb load is equivalent to that of a four-shot b-17 bomber.The new variant switched to a new Merlin engine, and the power was increased again.In the past, the p-38 had a weakness, that is, although as a twin-engine aircraft, in theory, when one engine was hit and stopped, the p-38 could continue to fly only with the remaining engine; After the side engine is hit, the probability of igniting and burning is quite high, which often causes the loss of the aircraft.The new ground modification has strengthened the armor of the engine and redesigned the oil circuit.Greatly reduces the chance of the engine catching fire after being hit.But this is not the biggest change, the biggest change is in the cockpit.

The cockpit was lengthened from a single to a two-man tandem cockpit, a rear-facing machine gunner and a .50 caliber self-defense machine gun were added.

In terms of ground-to-ground firepower, although adding armor and changing the structure of the cockpit has increased a lot of weight, the ammunition load it was originally proud of has not dropped much.It can still carry up to 7 tons of bombs.Lockheed replaced the massive six-barreled 6mm Gatling in its nose with a 20mm gun and two 37mm rotary-bore guns.Although this makes its firepower density and range much smaller, the 20 guns are more lethal to hard targets.In order to strengthen the ground firepower, two 37 guns or 37 rockets can be added to the inside of its wings.

Compared with the previous p-47 modification, although this aircraft is slightly inferior in survivability, it has better take-off and landing performance, larger ammunition load and more flexible firepower scheme.More importantly, it has a longer standby time in the air and can attack new targets at any time.

Ron believed that these two types of aircraft would surely become the backbone of Army Aviation's direct ground fire support for the rest of the war.