Chapter 58: Blood-soaked Lonely City - Broken Wings of Sai Bei
Captain Hasegawa was feeling extremely depressed at this moment, as he and his comrades had flown over this detestable Chinese county town for the sixth time in nearly two days. However, each time they were thwarted by thick smoke or heavy fog that obscured their view, causing their battle plans to fail, and even when they managed to drop a few bombs, the effect was unknown.
After receiving the order from headquarters to attack today, he and his comrades immediately boarded the plane again and flew to this county town located at 112 degrees east longitude and 38 degrees north latitude.
As usual, the place was still shrouded in thick smoke, with the entire county town enveloped in a haze that made it impossible to see clearly from the flight altitude of a J-6 fighter jet.
Captain Nagaya thought that this time, as in the previous few times, the plane would circle over the county seat, drop a few symbolic navigation bombs, and then return to Zhangjiakou Airport. After all, they had done the same thing five times before, and doing it again was reasonable.
But soon the voice of Commander Matsushita came through the intercom: "All fighters, descend immediately and dive-bomb through the smoke at ultra-low altitude."
"First Aviation Squadron Received!"
"Second Aviation Squadron received!"
"Third Aviation Squadron received!"
"4th Aviation Regiment received!"
Ultra-low-altitude flight, Captain Longguo was not unfamiliar. Although the Imperial Japanese Army did not have an independent air force, the Imperial Aviation Corps with a history of nearly ten years in Asia was still the most powerful. Although ultra-low-altitude flight has some risks, after all, if you fly at ultra-low altitude, the light machine guns of the Chinese troops may pose a threat to the warplane.
The huge roar of the plane's engine made the soldiers of the 222nd Division's guard regiment and anti-aircraft regiment very nervous, after all, this big guy was still unfamiliar to them, including the anti-aircraft warriors who were not confident in taking down these "big birds".
"The little devil's plane is about to come down, let the brothers of the air defense brigade get ready!" Chen Feng personally called Viktor, the commander of the air defense brigade.
This is the sixth time that the little devils have bombed Xinghe, and according to Yang Yi and Yelena's opinions, since the anti-aircraft regiment's high-altitude machine guns are capable of destroying these Japanese planes in the air, they should eliminate the smoke and directly shoot down those bastards.
But Chen Feng thought that this could indeed shoot down some planes, but it would also alert more Japanese planes and they wouldn't be able to annihilate the enemy's air force. So the troops had to endure and wait until those bastards couldn't resist flying over, then hundreds of anti-aircraft guns would open fire together, with the excellent performance of the 75-style anti-aircraft gun, it would be like a game to shoot down Japanese planes that were half a century behind.
It's like the Han people on the grassland who are boiling eagles, whichever side can't hold back first will be the one to lose. Of course, for the 222nd Division, it doesn't matter whether they win or lose, it only concerns the size of their gains.
Victor is a Russian, born of the staff, graduated from the Imperial Military Academy. After the overthrow of the Russian Empire, Victor followed Yelena's father to wander in the East and became a professional bandit from a regular soldier.
Victor was willing to spend the rest of his life as a bandit who died in a foreign land with a not-so-glorious reputation. But he didn't expect that one day he would become a regular army officer, and even a mid-level commander in the regular army of the Chinese government.
During his tenure in Tsarist Russia, Viktor's military position was Chief of Staff of the Royal Cavalry Division, and he also participated in World War I. Compared to seeing him, he himself admitted that he was much stronger than most officers of the 222nd Division, but since being captured by Chen Feng, he had never understood that Chinese officer who was both a gentleman and an official.
Not to mention his character, the endless new-style weapons and equipment alone made this old Russian officer feel surprised. Especially after becoming the commander of the air defense regiment, he was shocked to discover that his air defense regiment used a kind of anti-aircraft machine gun that he had never seen before. After witnessing the enormous power of the twin-barreled anti-aircraft machine gun, Victor's heart was stirred up with shock and astonishment.
"Order, the whole battalion to enter combat status immediately, remove all camouflage, load bullets, and prepare for battle according to the original plan!" Victor had been in China for over a decade, not only could he speak fluent Chinese, but also fluent Mongolian, so although he was a Russian, commanding these Chinese soldiers was effortless.
Yes
As Victor's orders were relayed, many semi-enclosed bunkers and large camouflage nets in Xinghe County were quickly removed, revealing the dark muzzles underneath.
The 75th-style anti-aircraft machine gun is divided into single and double types. Due to the lack of anti-aircraft artillery in the troops, Chen Feng ordered the ordnance factory to produce these two types of anti-aircraft machine guns at a ratio of 1:2. So far, under the full production of the ordnance factory, the output of the 75th-style anti-aircraft machine gun has stabilized at 50 single-type and 20 double-type anti-aircraft machine guns per day. This output is already very impressive, knowing that even Taiyuan Ordnance Factory, the largest in North China, cannot reach the production level of Daqingshan Base's anti-aircraft machine guns.
Victor's anti-aircraft regiment had three battalions equipped with 115 heavy machine guns. According to the pre-war deployment, the three high-altitude battalions of the anti-aircraft regiment were deployed in an equilateral triangle around the city defense headquarters. No matter where the Japanese planes dropped bombs, the anti-aircraft regiment could form a crossfire network above Xinghe County.
Compared to other troops, the anti-aircraft regiment is a new type of troop in the 222nd Division, with a formation time of no more than ten days and an even shorter training time. Although the anti-aircraft regiment has been exploring and training every day for nearly a week, neither Viktor nor Chen Feng are confident about the effect.
The huge airflow emitted by the "humming" propellers of the planes blew the thick smoke in the sky above the city into a chaotic flight. In the midst of the excited and tense waiting of the anti-aircraft troops, one after another Japanese plane broke through the clouds and smoke, diving down towards the county town.
Before Viktor gave the order, tense machine gunners opened fire. Unlike the "da-da-da" sound of light and heavy machine guns, the 75-style anti-aircraft machine gun made a "bang-bang-bang" sound, somewhat similar to a mortar, but much lighter than the sound of a mortar.
Seeing someone open fire, more than a hundred high-powered machine guns in the city quickly opened fire, making Victor, who was about to give orders, look helpless and think that these new recruits were mostly composed of cultured students, including university students. However, as soldiers, they were still very green. After this battle, he would have to train them well, as they couldn't even follow basic orders, let alone be elite troops.
Although they didn't achieve unified firepower, these gunners weren't shooting randomly either. More than 30 Japanese planes were hit fatally as soon as they emerged from the smoke, thanks to pre-war training, so despite it being their first battle, the anti-aircraft troops performed quite well, with eleven planes disintegrating in mid-air after the first round of fire, and another fourteen damaged, leaving the remaining Japanese planes unable to comprehend what was happening before they had to pull up and evade the anti-aircraft troops' attacks.
The commander of the 1st Squadron, 3rd Air Group, 5th Air Division, North China Front Army, Matsushita Takeo, watched in dismay as his planes disintegrated one by one in mid-air, while many more flew away from the battlefield with black smoke billowing out.
He didn't see very clearly just now, and he didn't see what kind of weapon the Chinese were using. He saw with his own eyes that the plane of Lieutenant Colonel Yamashita, the captain of the first flight squadron, was shot down and disintegrated in mid-air, but it wasn't anti-aircraft fire that hit Lieutenant Colonel Yamashita's plane, it looked more like machine gun fire.
However, he knew the power of machine guns. Not to mention ordinary light and heavy machine guns, even anti-aircraft machine guns wouldn't have such great power. What kind of weapon were the Chinese using that could pose such a huge threat to the Empire's Sky Warriors?
"Cancel ultra-low altitude flight command, safe height free fall bombing, bomb, throw all the cruise missiles down!" Commander Matsushita shouted crazily.
But Matsudaira was clearly underestimating the anti-aircraft corps, or underestimating the performance of the 75mm high-speed machine gun. An altitude of 3000 meters is indeed a safe height for the high-speed machine guns of this era, but for the 75mm high-speed machine gun, even at an altitude of 5000 meters, it is still within its attack range and is also a highly accurate effective shooting distance.
Moreover, the Type 75 anti-aircraft machine gun was developed as an anti-aircraft killer against more advanced jet aircraft than old-fashioned airplanes. For the Japanese army's outdated biplane, it's like a heavy machine gun hitting a wooden shield, and the effect is self-evident.
As the Japanese planes prepared to dive, Victor ordered the smoke-laying troops to extinguish the smoke immediately. By the time Matsushita was ready to drop his bombs at a safe altitude, the thick smoke over Xinghe County had become very thin and faint.
"Bang bang bang"
More than 100 high-altitude machine guns fired simultaneously, forming a crossfire of death in the sky above Xinghe. The remaining eleven Japanese aircraft were quickly shot down at what they thought was a safe altitude. Thus, the 222nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment completed its debut performance, annihilating an entire squadron of invading Japanese airborne troops with only 82 casualties and two damaged high-altitude machine guns. Of the 37 Japanese planes, three barely returned to Zhangjiakou Airport, while 34 were shot down, including 22 that were shot down on the spot, and the remaining 12 crashed while returning due to damage.
