New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

The B-29 "Super Fortress" bomber was the largest, most advanced, and most powerful bomber in the world at the time, and it was also the most comfortable bomber in the world. The cockpit of the b-29 is a closed pressurized cockpit, so sitting in it feels similar to flying in a passenger plane. There is no need to wear an oxygen mask at all, and the cold high-altitude atmosphere outside cannot enter, so the cabin is quite warm.In addition, self-defense cannons are all remote-controlled, and the safety and comfort of operators of self-defense weapons have been greatly improved.

After taking off from Saipan, the b-29 bomber gradually climbed while flying north, until it reached an altitude of 6000 meters.Then the plane remained at this altitude and continued to fly north. The speed of the b-29 bomber is very fast, with a maximum speed of 570 kilometers per hour. This speed is already comparable to that of the Japanese Zero fighter. At a higher altitude, the Zero fighter will definitely not be able to catch up with the B-29 bomber. If it is higher, even a fighter known for its "high speed" like the "Gallery" may not be able to catch up with the B-29 bomber.

In contrast, the b-17 air fortress bomber, the main force on the European battlefield, has a top speed of only 480 kilometers per hour, 29 kilometers slower than the b-90, and a cruising speed of only 270 kilometers per hour, compared to the b-29's 350 kilometers per hour. The hour is also 80 kilometers slower.This cruising speed also makes the b-29 much faster to reach the target at the same distance.

These factors combine to make pilots less prone to fatigue from long flights.This actually further enhances the combat capability of this aircraft.

"General, we are already approaching the Ryukyu Islands ahead, and the radars deployed by the Japanese may have spotted us. We are going to prepare to climb further." Captain Toms explained to Ron who was sitting nearby.

"Oh," Ron, who was drowsy from the long and boring flight, lifted his spirits, and looked outside through the huge front window.

There is still a vast expanse of sea and sky outside, and there are still a few small clouds under the plane. It is already October, and the season is already autumn, and the weather is always exceptionally sunny.Occasionally, one or two small uninhabited islands will appear on the sea. They slowly move towards the plane, and then move towards the back of the plane.

The Japanese have airports in the Ryukyu Islands.However, fighter jets taking off from these airports are absolutely too late to intercept the b-29.Now the b-29 is 6000 meters high, and it is still accelerating its climb. A Japanese fighter, even the best Japanese fighter, will take about 7 minutes to climb to such a height.At this time, the b-29 had climbed to a higher altitude and flew a long way.And if it is taken into account that after receiving the radar signal, it needs to be interpreted and the troops need to be notified of the response time, then the Japanese fighter jets taking off from Okinawa will not have time to intercept the B-29 bomber.

Since it is impossible to successfully intercept, and Japan has been short of fuel.Although the Japanese occupied many oil fields in Southeast Asia, their oil refining capacity could not be improved all at once.Although the Japanese worked hard to improve their oil refining capabilities, the fuel consumption during the war was astonishingly large.In addition, the Allied submarine forces were very active. They continued to attack the Japanese sea transportation lines, causing Japanese transportation ships to be sunk continuously, which further exacerbated the fuel shortage.

Compared with the United States, Japan's national strength is inherently insufficient.If you don't put all your industrial capacity into the production of weapons, the front line will be unable to sustain it immediately, but if you do, you will not be able to use the power to expand oil refining capacity, increase the production of transport ships, and escort formations for anti-submarine quantity.The hard-pressed Japanese have little to do with this dilemma.

Under such circumstances, of course, if you can save fuel, you have to save fuel.Knowing that it cannot be intercepted, the Japanese fighter jets deployed in Okinawa will certainly not waste fuel to intercept it.So, until the bomber group crossed the Ryukyu Islands, Ron didn't see a single Japanese plane.

However, it is not necessarily the case when flying further forward. The Japanese fighter jets there have been given a longer warning time, and they have more time to take off and climb, and they are likely to appear in front of the fleet.At this time, the coastline of Kyushu Island had appeared in Ron's eyes, and the b-29 bomber had climbed to an altitude of 8000 meters.

"Attention, Japanese fighter jets are found below 12 o'clock!" The voice of the pilot flying on the leading pilot plane came over the radio.

Ron looked in the direction pointed by the radio, and sure enough, he saw 8 small black dots approaching rapidly at the position directly ahead and the first point.Ron quickly judged that these planes were Japanese "Type II Zhong Kui" interceptors.This kind of aircraft climbs quite well among Japanese fighter jets, and it only takes 5 minutes to climb to a height of 5000 meters.However, at the height after that, its climbing speed dropped significantly.Due to defects in engine boosting technology, the performance of Japanese aircraft engines degrades severely at high altitudes.Causing their planes to climb horribly slower at higher altitudes.For example, in Zero War, you can climb 6 meters in a little more than 5000 minutes, but if you want to climb to 10000 meters, you need an exaggerated hour and a half.Some rookies may not even be able to climb to this height.

Now there is an altitude difference of nearly a thousand meters between these Japanese fighter jets and the b-29, so they still cannot threaten the b-29 fleet where Ron is.The fleet flew directly over the heads of these "Zhong Kui" interceptors. Ron noticed that these Japanese planes also turned a corner and followed behind relentlessly.

But now the b-29 has increased its horsepower, and the speed of the plane has reached more than 400 kilometers per hour.The initial speed of these "Zhong Kui" interceptors following behind is not high, only less than 29 kilometers per hour. If they continue to climb, they will definitely not be able to keep up with the speed of the b-29. If they want to keep up with the b-29 -[-], they have to give up climbing, and even need to dive down a little bit to gain enough speed to keep up with the b-[-] fleet.

These "Zhong Kui" interceptors really gave up the climb, made a shallow dive as Ron imagined, and then continued to follow the b-29 bomber group, which seemed to be escorting the b-29 bomber group.But Ron knew what they were up to.With them following, the b-29 cannot descend, and can only drop bombs from a height of 8000 meters.Dropping bombs at such a height, if there is a little wind, the dropped bombs may be deflected by more than a kilometer.

"What a nuisance those tails are," said Ron.

"Yes. They follow, and it will be difficult for us to lower the altitude. Otherwise, they will directly hit us." Captain Thomas replied, "Ah, general, the target is ahead."

At this time, the aircraft fleet was already close to their target - the Yawata Iron Works.Looking down from a height of 8000 meters, you can still see the thick smoke from the factory's blast furnaces and chimneys.

The bomber fleet began to change formation and entered the bombing route.At this time, the Japanese anti-aircraft guns began to fire, and several large-caliber anti-aircraft gun shells exploded in the air.

Japan's Type 88 75mm anti-aircraft guns and Type 4 75mm anti-aircraft guns can hit the shells to the height of the B-29 bomber.In particular, the Type 4 75mm anti-aircraft gun has even better performance. Even if it is placed in the world, it is also a very advanced anti-aircraft gun.But compared to Germany's anti-aircraft firepower, the Japanese's anti-aircraft firepower is much sparser.Ron followed Li Mei and flew a b-17 bomber over Europe to carry out bombing missions. At that time, the shells fired by the German anti-aircraft guns filled the sky.But now, the Japanese have been making a fuss for a long time before they can hit a few shells.In terms of the density of shells, Ron estimated that the number of anti-aircraft guns below was no more than a dozen.

It's not that the Japanese don't pay attention to the protection of such an important target as the Yawata Iron Works, but because Japan's cannon production is too low.During the entire war, Japan produced only 75 anti-aircraft guns above 3306mm.Among them, there are 11 Type 75 anti-aircraft guns in 44, 14 Type 105 anti-aircraft guns in 70, 88 Type 75 2000 anti-aircraft guns, 99 Type 88 anti-aircraft guns in 1000, 3 Type 120 anti-aircraft guns in Type 120, 4 Type 75 anti-aircraft guns in Type 70, and 5 Type 150 anti-aircraft guns in Type 2. Door.The largest number of them is the 88-type 75 anti-aircraft gun with the oldest technology and long behind the times.There are only so few things in total, how much can a single target, even a key protection target, get?

In contrast, during the war, the Germans produced 88 13125mm anti-aircraft guns alone.Plus 105mm and 128mm anti-aircraft guns.The Germans produced as many as 18235 large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.So in the view of Ron, who has seen the firepower of the German antiaircraft artillery, the firepower density of the Japanese antiaircraft artillery is, well, symbolic.

Therefore, the b-29 bomber fleet remained unmoved at all and continued to fly along the established route.Those anti-aircraft shells that exploded around from time to time seemed like fireworks to welcome them.

"Enter the bombing route... Attention, prepare to drop the bomb! 1, 2, 3, drop the bomb!" Bomber Allen aimed the bombsight at the most obvious target—a blast furnace emitting white smoke, and then pressed the button to drop the bomb. button. The magazine of the b-29 bomber was opened, and a series of bombs swayed and fell from it.The bomber continued to fly forward, and Ron stared at the bombs with wide eyes as they became smaller and smaller, and finally he couldn't see anything.

After a while, Ron saw some sparse flowers blooming on the ground—the bombs dropped by the bombers were exploding.Ron looked at the location of the explosion and couldn't help shaking his head.The areas where the bombs hit were at least a kilometer and a half away from the target identified during the strike.Most of the bombs never made it to the factory, and those that accidentally landed on the factory floor were far from important targets like blast furnaces.This is the consequence of dropping bombs at too high a height.Just like the b-29 fleet can almost ignore the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery fire.The Japanese below can almost ignore the bombs dropped by the Americans.

In fact, this result was also expected by the pilots.

"Alan, you're not lucky today!" Co-pilot Klaus laughed, and there was no sense of loss in his voice.It seems that they are very used to this result.

"Okay, the cargo has been delivered, we should go back." Captain Thomas said.

After the bomb was dropped, the plane lightened a lot, and the fleet began to climb, accelerate, and turn rapidly.In addition to those "Zhong Kui" interceptors that followed, the Japanese may have launched other aircraft to intercept.The planes were probably already high up by now, waiting to intercept the b-29s on their way home.And those "Zhong Kui" following them may be constantly reporting their positions to other planes so that they can intercept themselves.

"Accelerate the climb, get rid of those little Japanese! Prepare to climb to 10000 meters!" The order to lead the captain came from the radio.The fleet began to climb towards a higher altitude.The Japanese "Zhong Kui" naturally also followed up hard. Compared with other Japanese fighter jets, "Zhong Kui" has better high-altitude performance.So after a period of following just now, he accumulated some speed, and barely followed up.

The b-29 fleet made a big turn and began to fly southeast.Every time the b-29 bomber retreats, the route is different.This can also greatly increase the difficulty of enemy interception.When the fleet had already flown to the deep blue sea, an alarm came from the radio: "At 9 o'clock, enemy planes are found! The number is 20, the distance is 6 kilometers, and the aircraft type may be 'nick'!"

"They can't catch up," Captain Thomas said.

"Nick" is the name given by American pilots to Japan's "ki-45 two-seater fighter", which is a two-seater, two-engine fighter, somewhat similar to the German bf-110.The Japanese gave it a very majestic nickname called "Slaying the Dragon", but in terms of performance, this kind of aircraft with the majestic nickname is actually not very good.Not even the bf-110, which is notorious for its "escort fighter in need of escort".Its fastest speed is only 540 kilometers per hour, which is not as good as the target it is trying to intercept now. As long as it is not in a head-on position, it has no possibility of firing at the b-29 that has dropped the bomb and is lightly loaded.

The fleet turned slightly in one direction, making it impossible for these "nicks" to catch up.But the eight "Zhong Kui" that followed finally caught up.They even chased from the 8 o'clock direction to the distance where they could immediately open fire on the American bombers.

But the b-29 fleet has never been afraid of fighter jets from the 6 o'clock direction.The approach rate of fighter jets coming from this direction cannot be high no matter what, and there will be plenty of time left for self-defense firepower to shoot.Moreover, because the approach rate is low and the relative speed is small, even if the enemy plane collides with it, the damage caused is much smaller.As for the use of machine guns to shoot at each other, with 12 .50 machine guns and a 1mm rotary gun at the rear, plus an extremely strong mechanism."Zhong Kui", which has only four 20mm machine guns, is not an opponent at all.

Ron came to the tail of the plane and looked back.He saw that several B-29s behind him were already firing.The Japanese "Zhong Kui" tried hard to get closer against the gunfire.At this time, sparks emanated from the right wing of a "Zhong Kui", apparently it was shot.This "Zhong Kui" made a barrel roll, avoided the American fire, and swooped down with black smoke-apparently, it had given up on this interception.

The other "Zhong Kui" also failed to take advantage of it. After a while, another "Zhong Kui" was hit and a fire ignited.The pilot had to parachute in the vast sea.The rest of the planes saw that they couldn't get anything good, or maybe they were running out of fuel, so they also turned their heads and flew towards the land.