Chapter 16: Vacuum Bomb (Minor Revision)
After the capture of "One-armed Great Thief", the fourth group of the staff department at the Air Force Headquarters had formulated a secret plan called "Spring Water Chicken" according to He Juncai's request. The main content was to concentrate China's air force fighter planes, bombers and ground high-altitude anti-aircraft guns, using false intelligence to lure and annihilate enemy bomber groups, striving to shoot down as many enemy planes as possible, making the Japanese "101 Battle Plan" bankrupt.
Air Force Commander-in-Chief Zhou Zhiyou led a group of senior air force officers to the floating air base to coordinate this battle, and the commander of the combat command post, Mao Bangchu, personally commanded. Mao Bangchu brought in the 5th and 3rd Air Force Squadrons from Chengdu and Suining, adding to the 4th Squadron in Chongqing and the Soviet Volunteer Air Corps, making up over a hundred fighter jets, which was almost all of China's air force assets. If they won, there would be one or two months of temporary peace; if they lost, it would mean the destruction of China's entire air force, and the war situation would take a drastic turn for the worse. Everyone at the floating air base put their all into this battle.
These days, Zheng Shaoyu and his fourth large-scale troops have been intensively practicing the "empty bombing" tactics proposed by Yan Lei. Mao Bangchu specially brought out TB-3 Soviet-made heavy bombers from Liangshan Airport to coordinate with this exercise, which had never performed a bombing mission in China since its introduction. After two days of high-density practice, the five SB-2 light bombers temporarily drawn from other units were able to master the height and timing of bomb release under the command of the floating air base radar. Through repeated exercises, it was determined that the SB-2 would carry 6 100kg high-explosive bombs in its belly bomb bay, and two 250kg bombs under its wings, making its flight speed slightly higher than that of Japanese bombers. These bombs were equipped with small parachutes and were released at an altitude of 6000m, 200m ahead of the enemy aircraft formation, and detonated by a timing device.
To distinguish these SB-2 bombers carrying bombs from Chinese bombers, the tail section of these five aircraft were painted with a prominent white waistband.
Time quickly arrived on June 22, and early in the morning, intelligence personnel near Hankou and Yuncheng airports received a telegram that a large number of bombers had taken off. Mao Bangchu immediately ordered the Fourth Squadron stationed at Baishi Airport, the Soviet Volunteer Air Force at Guangyangba Airport, and the Third Squadron, temporarily stationed at Shanhudong, to prepare for takeoff. Five SB-2s used for "air-burst bomb" attacks were also prepared for takeoff.
Xu Kangliang, as the captain of this 5 SB-2s, sat in the cockpit of the lead plane, feeling extremely tense. Through training, he knew that these five SB-2s he led would be the key to this operation, and under radio command, he could already control the altitude and distance of the bombers' flight, but the suitable time for dropping bombs had to be chosen by him as the captain. He closed his eyes, silently recalling the details of the training over the past few days, waiting for the takeoff order.
Mao Bangchu's adventure this time will deploy the 4 ground-to-air high artillery battalions in Chongqing to Liangshan and Fangdoushan, which are on the return route of enemy bombers from Yun Cheng and Hankou bases. Since the maximum range of anti-aircraft guns has been exposed, staying in Chongqing can only be a deterrent effect, it's better to hand over all air defense tasks to fighter planes and let the anti-aircraft artillery pick up the leftovers. In this way, if we win this battle, it will be a great victory.
As the two waves of Japanese bombers entered Sichuan, the main peaks in Chongqing once again hung up two red lanterns, and the mountain city sounded the heart-wrenching alarm. On He Juncai's suggestion, several airports installed loudspeakers, through which the airport tower ordered all aircraft to take off according to the requirements of the Air Force Command, preparing to execute the "Quanshuiji" combat mission.
Xu Kangliang led the 5 SB-2s to take off and rendezvous with the three squadrons of the 4th Large Unit, which escorted them. The 3rd and 5th Large Units advanced to intercept the 87 naval aviation 96-type road attack aircraft formations taking off from Hankou, their mission was not to annihilate the enemy, but to surround the enemy planes, forcing their formation to become more compact and stable. The Soviet Volunteer Air Force attacked the 36 Japanese invasion army aviation 97-type heavy bombers taking off from Yun Cheng, their mission was to delay the arrival of the enemy planes as much as possible, creating time for other fighter squadrons.
The commander of the 3rd Squadron, Yang Mengqing, led the 3rd and 5th Squadrons' more than 50 I-16 and I-152 fighter planes to approach the enemy aircraft from high altitude under the guidance of the Air Command. Since radio communication was only available at the squadron leader level, he ordered each squadron to maintain a formation of three 3-plane teams in a triangular array and dive towards the enemy head-on. The head-on diving attack tactic summarized by Wang Yuanbo had been promoted in the Chinese Air Force, and the first wave of attacks achieved good results, with several enemy planes being hit, one of which was completely destroyed by three I-16s, killing the pilot, and the plane lost control and crashed.
Yamaguchi Taheru commanded the battle from a reconnaissance plane in the rear. Since this raid had almost brought out all the attack planes of the First and Second Naval Aviation Corps, Yamaguchi Taheru did not dare to be careless and personally took command of the air. When he saw Chinese fighter planes swooping down from above, his eyes suddenly widened. "We've been fooled! The Chinese Air Force has so many fighter planes! Damn it. The reconnaissance team, intelligence team, and pilots who deceived me last time are all going to die! This is a trap set by the Chinese Air Force. However, if this is all the Chinese Air Force can do, they will not be able to stop our bombing today." Yamaguchi Taheru immediately ordered the 96-type attack planes to form a dense formation with two layers of stepped arrangement. The old-style 96-type attack plane 21 (G3M2B) had three 7.7mm self-defense machine guns, one forward and one backward on the back, and one backward on the belly. The new-style 96-type attack plane 22 (G3M2C) strengthened the rear-facing machine gun on the back, upgrading it to a bubble-shaped machine gun turret with a caliber of 20mm. In addition, it also added protruding machine gun turrets on both sides of the fuselage, each equipped with a 7.7mm machine gun, so its crew number was increased from 5 to 7, and the threat was even greater. The bullets fired by these more than 80 planes formed a dense network of fire, crossing and covering each other, like a big porcupine, making it difficult for Chinese Air Force fighter planes to get close.
However, the third and fourth squadrons led by Yang Mengqing were not tasked with a fight to the death, so they flew around the "big hedgehog" making attacking motions but always pulling back at the last moment. This pressure forced Lieutenant General Yamada to cautiously command his bomber formation to coordinate their speed and reduce the distance between each other. At this time, he still did not know that it was precisely this decision that ultimately led to the Japanese bombers being almost completely annihilated.
After a while of entanglement, 5 slower SB-2s and the Fourth Squadron escorting them arrived. The five-aircraft formation of SB-2s under the personal command of Colonel Zheng Shaoyou of the Air Command Headquarters changed direction and slowly climbed to an altitude of 6,000 meters.
From the radar screen, more than 80 red dots and 5 special blue dots appeared, showing their relative height and distance. Xu Kangliang adjusted his small team's formation to a wedge-shaped formation, trying to disperse and cover the range of the bombers below. After the adjustment, Xu Kangliang sent the secret phrase "the chicken has been selected, waiting for slaughter" to the commander of the air command center. Mao Bangchu and other observing air force officers let out a sigh of relief, and immediately sent the secret phrase "prepare to dine" to all participating fighter jets. The three squadrons of over 80 aircraft that were entangled quickly separated into three directions and broke contact with the enemy bombers, pulling up to occupy attacking positions.
While Yamaguchi was speculating about the reason for the withdrawal of the Chinese Air Force, he noticed that 5 SB-2 light bombers above had dropped some small black dots. After these small black dots left the bomber, a small parachute popped out. When these small black dots passed through the upper layer of bombers, Yamaguchi finally saw what they were. "Hakka, it's bombs! Avoid them quickly!" However, time was already running out, and 6 seconds flew by in an instant. The 100kg and 250kg bombs descended scattered between the two layers of bombers under the control of the parachutes. Due to the difference in bomb weight and slight differences in parachute manufacturing, the bombs were also layered at different heights.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Under the control of the timing device, the sound of the bombs became a piece, and the dense formation of the 96-style attack aircraft was instantly enveloped in the smoke and flames of the explosion. Some of the bombs successfully detonated the bombs carried by the Japanese bombers, because these bombs were all hung on the external racks of the attack aircraft, and the 96-style attack aircraft did not have a belly bomb bay, causing an even more spectacular chain reaction.
Wang Yuanbo and other fighter pilots, although they had left the explosion point at a certain distance, still felt the shockwave of the explosion. The small formation of SB-2 bombers above was also struggling to control their planes under Xu Kangliang's command. Then he sent out the secret code "Quan Shui Ji Chu Guo, Swift Meal".
Actually, there was no need for him to say that the pilots of all three squadrons had witnessed such a strange sight. The center position of the 96th attack aircraft formation was directly destroyed, and various aircraft fragments were scattered in the air, forming a tragic war painting with smoke and flames. People watching on the ground even saw a rainbow across the sky through the refraction of sunlight by various smokes. The Japanese bomber formation suffered a devastating blow, only two layers of the front and sides of the formation were not directly destroyed, but each plane was severely damaged, some tail, back and belly gunners were killed or injured by shrapnel hitting the bubble-shaped cockpit, resulting in the loss of defensive capability of the 96th attack aircraft.
The Third, Fourth and Fifth Air Force squadrons would not miss such a good opportunity to beat the fallen dog, and they all turned their planes around and dived down to reap their own merits. The evil deeds done by Japanese bombers on China's land will be punished today!
In the air command center of the floating base above Chongqing, reconnaissance planes transmitted back the brutal scenes on the battlefield in real-time. One after another I-16 or I-152 fighter jets formed into small teams of three and launched a frenzied attack on the 96-type attack aircraft that had yet to recover from their shock. The 96-type attack aircraft abandoned their bombing mission, dropping their bombs in the mountains as they attempted to escape back to the Hankou base. The battle continued, with the I-152 ending its pursuit due to speed limitations and turning back under the command of the air command center to support the Soviet Volunteer Air Force. They engaged in a fierce dogfight with a formation of Japanese Army Aviation 97-type heavy bombers that had arrived from Yun Cheng. Five SB-2s, each still carrying two small bombs, accelerated towards them, preparing to replicate the "air blast attack".
The remaining three I-16 squadrons, led by Wang Yuanbo, continued to pursue the enemy planes with their speed advantage, driving them towards the anti-aircraft artillery ambush point at Fangdoushan Mountain from three directions. The 96-type attack aircraft, in order to shake off the attacks of the I-16 formation, had to adopt a tactic of diving and accelerating, then leveling out, which gradually lowered their altitude to around 1,000 meters, using the mountains to evade the I-16's attacks.
Yamaguchi's luck was good, his attack plane had dived early due to the premature discovery of the bomb and suffered less damage. Now he is leading the remnants in a desperate bid for escape, as most of the attack planes were heavily damaged, he has no choice but to take the shortest route. As they flew over Fangdou Mountain, his left eye began to twitch uncontrollably, making him extremely irritable. Before he could figure out what was happening, he suddenly noticed that the annoying flies that had been swarming around the attack plane group seemed to have received some kind of order and turned around and ran away, leaving him startled.
At this moment, a burst of smoke suddenly rose in the air. "Not good, it's anti-aircraft fire!" By the time he decided to pull up, it was too late, and the left engine of the plane was hit, spewing out black smoke. Several planes were shot down in mid-air, and the remaining planes pulled up in an attempt to escape the range of the anti-aircraft guns. Yamaguchi Tahashi pushed aside the pilot who had already been killed by shrapnel and struggled to control the plane, using one engine to maintain its course. Fortunately, his bad luck for today had finally come to an end, and his plane was not hit again. When he landed in Hankou, he sadly discovered that of the 87 Type 96 attack planes that had taken off, only four returned. The entire first and second naval air corps' attack planes were lost.
The Japanese Army was more cautious, and they did not fully believe the intelligence transmitted by the Navy. They still dispatched 36 Ki-51 Sonia attack aircraft from the 60th Sentai of the Army Aviation, with the airborne commander still being the squadron leader, Major Shojiro Ogawa. When he saw the Soviet Volunteer Air Group coming in a fierce manner, he scolded the Navy for not being reliable and had to form a dense formation to cover each other. At the same time, he ordered the bombers to abandon their attack, drop their bombs, and head back to the Liangshan base. Before reaching Liangshan, the 60th Sentai encountered three squadrons of Chinese Air Force, as well as SB-2s flying above with white stripes on their tails.
Xu Kangliang commanded the SB-2 to perfectly replicate a "vacuum bombing" attack, but with only 10 small 100kg bombs and the Japanese planes having already dropped their bombs and flying at high speed, this attack only shot down several bombers at the tail of the formation and damaged over 10 more. This attack also disrupted Ogawa Kojiro's squadron's joint defense tactics, and Ogawa Kojiro did not dare to reassemble his squadron again because those five SB-2s were still up there, who knows if they would come again.
The 97-Shiki heavy bomber formation was surrounded and attacked, and when dozens of I-16s flew in from the front, Ogawa Kojiro had to order a dispersal breakout to save as many planes as possible. The same fate awaited the Japanese when they flew over Liangshan, where they were hit by intense anti-aircraft fire from hidden artillery units at low altitude, shooting down two more planes. In the end, only 13 bombers returned to Yun Cheng base.
