Volume 1: Entering the War of Resistance Chapter 30: The Zero Fighter Has Arrived (Part 1)
"Yoshi!" Commander-in-Chief of the Second Combined Air Squadron, Lieutenant General Taichi Narasaki, exclaimed as he gazed at the two Zero fighters that had successfully landed on the runway. After Lieutenant General Toshizo Nishio's death, Narasaki took over as commander of the Joint Air Strike Command. The tactics of scattered attacks and quick withdrawals he devised achieved good results in the battle on July 31st. Although the results were not obvious for the next dozen or so days, the Japanese naval aviation had already achieved its tactical goals, thoroughly understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese air force. The distribution of airports, anti-aircraft positions, military facilities, and important civilian facilities were all marked on the Japanese maps. The Soviet-made fighters of the Chinese air force could not catch up with the Japanese reconnaissance planes, and Narasaki was puzzled as to why the mysterious new-type fighter of the Chinese air force, which had been reported several times before, did not appear in recent days, making the reconnaissance mission unusually smooth.
Having obtained the results of the reconnaissance, the next attack can be launched. The 101st campaign plan has entered a crucial stage, and in the next period, the empire's attention will shift to Indochina, a colony that has already surrendered to the suzerain state, where there are food, oil, and rubber resources urgently needed for the empire to continue fighting, and not much time is left for Taishi.
The new "A6M2 Zero 11 type" has already had 13 aircraft delivered to Hankou, and handed over to the 12th Naval Aviation Squadron. Kondo Mitsuo and others have been working hard for more than a month to get familiar with the characteristics of the new plane. According to his report, this plane is extremely agile in control, almost as soon as you move the joystick, the plane will react. The performance of this aircraft far surpasses that of the original Navy's 96-type carrier-based fighter, with excellent turning and climbing capabilities, speed and range also far exceeding existing fighters. Nishizawa Takuma felt very satisfied, not thinking that high speed and high maneuverability, two originally conflicting performance indicators, could be well combined on this aircraft, the Empire will surely win in this war.
Captain Kondō reported yesterday that the Zero fighter is ready for actual combat, and the 12th Naval Aviation Corps is prepared to make a name for itself. Based on this information, Lieutenant General Taichi decided to launch a large-scale raid on Chongqing in the near future. He came today to inspect the Zero fighters. Judging from his pleasant smile, today's inspection was satisfactory. The staff of the Joint Air Raid Command presented him with an already prepared air raid plan.
This air raid will be completed independently by the Navy, and Wuhan and Hankou will take off Zero fighters, 96 land-based attack aircraft and a small number of reconnaissance command planes to bomb Chongqing. In order to ensure sufficient loitering time, after this bombing, the Zero fighter will land at the newly occupied Yichang Airport, refuel and fly back to Hankou. Taizi Tadashi was very satisfied with the plan and immediately signed his name. The attack time was set on August 20th.
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On August 20, the Chinese Air Force's Fourth Flying Group received a message from the Intelligence Division of the General Staff early in the morning. According to intelligence radio reports: At 8:10, 18 enemy planes took off from Wuchang and headed west. At 8:24, 13 enemy planes took off from Wuchang and headed west. At 8:25, 27 enemy planes took off from Hankou and headed west.
He Juncai's heart tightened when he heard the news. The Zero had arrived. Because if it was an enemy bomber formation, they wouldn't take off with 13 aircraft, only numbers that could form a tight formation like 18, 27, 36, or 45. He Juncai immediately ordered Zheng Shaoyu to prepare for air defense.
Actually, Zheng Shaoyu's usable troops are not many now. The 3rd, 4th and 5th large teams each have only one I-16 squadron available, while the others have not yet been replaced or trained. In addition to this, there are only 24 J-1 aircraft available at the floating air base of the 11th large team, but that requires taking the risk of lowering the altitude of the floating air base to 5,000 to 3,000 meters. Zheng Shaoyu did not hesitate and first ordered the Air Command to send out reconnaissance planes to approach the borders of Sichuan, then ordered the three I-16 squadrons stationed in Chongqing, Chengdu and Suining to prepare for takeoff.
Two reconnaissance planes soon captured the enemy's shadow in the high sky and transmitted the information back to the floating base. At 9:50, 27 Japanese 96-style land-based attack aircraft had arrived at Guanzhankou, passed through Xiaoguan at 10:09, and flew over Changshou at 10:57. Another 13 new fighter planes (Zero) flew westward over Longjuba at 10:41. The battle broke out immediately!
Zheng Shaoyu had already judged from the route of the Japanese planes that their target was indeed Chongqing, so he hastily ordered the 26th squadron of the 5th large unit stationed in Chengdu and the 28th squadron of the 3rd large unit stationed in Suining to rush towards Chongqing. After refueling at Baishiyi Airport, they joined forces with the 21st squadron of the 4th large unit to drive away the enemy planes. Huang Xinrui and Yang Mengqing, the two squadron leaders, personally led their teams from other places to Chongqing, without even having time to greet each other. After emergency refueling by ground personnel, they took off again. The three I-16 squadrons flew at an altitude of 6,000 meters, rushing towards the urban area of Chongqing.
Under the guidance of the Air Command, Chinese fighter jets encountered Japanese bombers head-on. The captain of the 21st squadron of the 4th air group, Zhou Zhi-kai, saw the neatly arranged formation of Japanese 96 land-based attack aircraft and excitedly shouted: "Great! Just changed to large-caliber machine guns, the Japanese came to deliver their deaths, this time we can make a big move!" Several people echoed in the wireless radio at once. Due to the new wireless equipment not yet arriving, except for the installation of lightweight digital wireless radios provided by the floating airbase on the aircraft of the squadron leader and captain, other planes only had receiving devices but no transmitting devices. Otherwise, more people would have echoed Zhou Zhi-kai's words. The air force has won several victories in the past two months, and everyone's morale is high. However, today's situation seems not to be so smooth.
"Attention, there are several new-type fighters at an altitude of 1,000 meters above the enemy bomber formation. These fighters may be the 'Zero' we discussed before. Everyone must pay attention and avoid dogfighting, follow our original strategy!" Zheng Shaoyu anxiously called out through the earpiece.
But it was too late, the commander of the 4th squadron, Wang Yuanbo, suddenly discovered a white dot in the sky rushing towards the Chinese Air Force fighter jet at a terrible speed. Almost instantly, the plane flying in front of the commander of the 3rd squadron, Yang Mengqing, burst into flames and crashed. There are Japanese planes sneaking up!
Just as the Chinese Air Force pilots were shocked, several more Zero fighters dived down, their two 20mm cannons on the wings firing fiercely. Several I-16s were hit and fell to the ground. Wang Yuanbo saw this situation and was anxious, throwing away the regulation not to engage in dogfighting with the Zero. He seized the opportunity, cut into the inner circle, bit onto one of them, and pulled the trigger. However, almost at the same time, a stream of bullets came from behind and shot into the cockpit, shattering the instrument panel. Fortunately, there was a steel plate protecting the vital parts, but his abdomen and legs were hit, and a shell fragment entered his left foot through the soleplate. In the midst of great pain, Wang Guangying remained conscious, but he suddenly discovered that the left wing of his plane had been hit by a cannonball! The left wing broke off, and the plane immediately entered a spin. With the help of centrifugal force, Wang Guangying was thrown out of the cockpit as soon as he released his seatbelt. Fortunately, the parachute opened smoothly, and he floated in mid-air, slowly descending. Japanese fighter planes saw this and immediately rushed over to strafe, firing their guns and cannons, trying to kill the Chinese Air Force pilots completely. This atrocity had been repeated many times in the three years of anti-Japanese air warfare! Wang Guangying watched as the enemy plane re-entered firing range, then pretended to be dead, dodging the enemy's attack. When it entered for the third time, he stopped attacking and simply circled around the parachute, observing. Wang Guangying remained still, suspended in mid-air. Unable to control his parachute, he landed in a forest, and the Japanese plane flew away. Only then did Wang Guangying unfasten his parachute buckle and fall to the ground, shouting for help.
At the beginning of the war, two Chinese Air Force squadron leaders were killed and injured, which led to the disorder of subsequent battles. The wireless earphones were filled with various cries for help and scolding voices, making it difficult for Zheng Shaoyu to command effectively.
"Commander Zheng, don't hesitate! Order the 11th squadron to drive off the enemy planes!" He Juncai was extremely anxious upon seeing this situation. Was the tragedy of the 913 Bishan air battle going to be reenacted here ahead of time?
The 11th squadron, led by Liu Zhe-sheng, had long been ready to strike. After the floating base quickly descended to an altitude of 5,000 meters, they took off rapidly and headed towards the battlefield. Due to the fact that the floating base had avoided being discovered by Japanese aircraft by diverting southwest for a distance, it would now take Liu Zhe-sheng's squadron 15 minutes to rush to the combat location at full speed. During this time, only the third, fourth, and fifth squadrons' three medium-sized teams could resist the Zero fighters on their own. By this time, 13 of the Zero fighters were still almost intact, with only Taemu, Fujiwara, Takao, and Sanjo's aircraft being hit but still able to continue fighting.
The battle in the sky above Chongqing has entered a fierce stage, with enemy and friendly forces indistinguishable. Dozens of planes are darting back and forth, engaging in intense combat, with the sounds of cannons, machine guns, and explosions filling the air. People can be seen parachuting down from the sky, while broken wings and debris from damaged planes float down like falling leaves. The speedy and agile "Zero" fighters have disrupted the formation of the I-16s, catching them off guard. The Chinese Air Force planes are fighting individually, unable to coordinate with each other for support. They can only use sharp turns to evade the Japanese planes' pursuit, but this also results in loss of energy, leading to a loss of altitude and leaving little room for maneuvering.
After another 5-6 minutes, Lieutenant Xu Jihong, the pilot of the 4th squadron still in the air, suddenly found that his oil tank had ruptured and oil was splashing onto the windshield, obscuring his vision. Xu Jihong could only stick his head out of the cockpit to look around, but unfortunately, the flying goggles were also covered with oil, so he had to take them off and squint his eyes while sticking his head out of the cockpit, struggling to control the plane. In the dogfight, Xu Jihong found that his plane was inferior to the Japanese plane in terms of climbing, rolling, diving, and accelerating, and only the turning radius could be slightly higher than the enemy plane. Although he had grasped the opportunity to bite onto the Japanese plane several times, the trigger of his machine gun was adjusted too tightly, and every time he fired, it was always a fraction of a second late, unable to seize the fleeting moment.
In the battle, Xu Jixun's plane was repeatedly bitten by the Japanese Zero fighter, suffering more than a dozen attacks, and had been beaten to pieces. The enemy planes fired densely, and even the thin wires between the wings of Xu Jixun's plane were rolled up. Xu Jixun felt that the bulletproof steel plates around him were ringing with bullets, fortunately, he hadn't been hit yet. Finally, his I-16 engine ran out of oil and stopped in mid-air over Bishan. Xu Jixun quickly judged the situation and decided not to parachute, for fear of being shot by the brutal Japanese planes while parachuting. He dodged the enemy's attack and miraculously made an emergency landing in a rice field, with the plane crashing into pieces. Fortunately, both fuel and oil were exhausted, so the plane didn't catch fire. Xu Jixun cleverly hid inside the wreckage of his plane, waiting for the two Japanese planes circling above to leave before crawling out of the completely damaged plane.
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