New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

In a place like Hawaii, days always go by very fast.In a blink of an eye, it was already late August.Since the last test match, the whole alliance has fallen in love with the p-38. No more complaints about the p-38 being too ugly.Even if someone still mentions the appearance of the p-38, they will only say: "This aircraft, um, looks really creative." In the last week, the intensity of flight training has suddenly increased, and it has also increased. A lot of subjects on sea and ground attacks were taught.This made everyone faintly feel that the peaceful days might be about to pass.

Ron has now been promoted to vice-captain.Although he is not an old man in this team, this appointment has been supported by everyone.After all, his strength can be recognized by everyone.Especially the last time he used the spiral climbing tactic he proposed, he ravaged the navy happily.It also helped him get rid of the suspicion of "Litong Navy".

However, the higher the rank, the greater the responsibility.When the level is not enough to have a staff group and a full-time secretary, it also means that there will be more things and people will be busier.Ron is in such a state now.Leading the team to practice during the day, but at night, they have to prepare the training plan for the next day.These days are really full and painful.

The training plan for this morning is to attack the sea. The p-38 is a multifunctional fighter that can be used for bombing as well as air combat.Even, the maximum ammunition load of this aircraft is actually close to that of the four-round B-17.Of course, if you really let it hang so many bombs, don't expect it to fly high or far.So not only Ron, but many people felt that it would be a waste for the p-38 not to practice bombing.However, what everyone practiced a lot at that time was ground-level bombing.

But a week ago, Major Braun and Ron received an order: to strengthen the attack training on the sea, and be ready to go to Guadalcanal at any time.

It is said that the current situation in Guadalcanal is not very good, and Japan's own navy is still strong.The transport fleet is often disturbed by them, and they cannot safely send materials and personnel to the island. In addition, the handling capacity of the temporary dock on the island is very limited, and the materials are quite tight.Fortunately, the airport on the island has been built. This airport may help the U.S. military gain control of the sea in the Guadalcanal waters during the day, thereby bringing a safe unloading environment for the transport fleet.

Japanese planes often take off from Rabaul to bomb Guadalcanal.Of course, such a long-distance raid is quite detrimental to Ri himself.But this also means that Guadalcanal needs the protection of fighter jets.But to carry out the mission of controlling the sea, Guadalcanal needs bombers very much.However, the handling capacity of Guadalcanal Terminal does not allow the airport to have too many planes.At this time, the p-38, which can not only fight in the air, but also drop bombs, has become the best choice.In order to carry out the task of controlling the sea, training in attacking the sea is essential.

However, the p-38 is not suitable for this type of attack mission. Although it can hang a large number of bombs, it cannot conduct dive bombing. The precision of the attack on the ship is a big problem.It would be nice if the p-38 had a torpedo variant, but unfortunately it doesn't exist now.So how does the p-38 perform attacks on ships at sea?

Ron's solution: Ricochet.When an aircraft drops bombs at a certain speed at a fairly close altitude to the sea, these dropped bombs will not sink after touching the water surface, but will be like tiles used when floating in water. Jumping forward on the sea like a piece.In this way, it is possible to use the ricochet to play a torpedo-like effect.Of course, compared with torpedoes, ricochets have a shorter range, which means that the carrier aircraft must brave enemy fire to advance to a closer distance.This greatly increases the risk of being shot down, but the speed of the ricochet is also much higher than that of the torpedo.This means that once the ricochet is thrown, the hit rate will be higher than that of the torpedo.It would be suicide to attack the heavily fortified aircraft carrier formation in this way.But it is really a good way to deal with Japan's own transport fleet in this way.This trick once again attracted Ron's attention.But in fact, this trick is still a copycat.In Europe, the British used this trick to blow up many dams owned by the Germans. In the Pacific Ocean, the five-star general Gray Wolf also used this trick to win the Solomon Sea.Who is Big Gray Wolf?Just think of his most classic line.

Training this morning went well and the lads are getting better and better.The hit rate of their training bombs against the towed target ship has reached an astonishing 70.00%.Of course, this has something to do with the fact that the target ship has no evasion and no self-defense firepower.It's really an enemy ship, it's not bad to have half of the hits.

On this afternoon, I got a formal order: Tomorrow, that is, on August 8th, I will transfer to Guadalcanal Island.

Guadalcanal is the second largest island in the Solon Islands, and its strategic location is very important. On June 1942, 6, Japan sent about 16 engineers from the 11th Engineering Corps to land on Guadalcanal and began to build the airport. On July 2000st, Major Okamura was sent to the island with about 7 engineers from the 1th Engineering Corps to strengthen the construction force, and the construction was ordered to be completed before August 13th.After intensive construction, by the beginning of August, the Guadalcanal Island Airport has been basically completed, and the auxiliary facilities have also been basically completed.At this time, Guadalcanal had 700 Japanese engineers and 8 garrison troops, a total of about 5.However, the members of these so-called engineering units are mainly laborers recruited from South Korea, and they have no desire to fight at all.

On July 7th of this year, the U.S. reconnaissance plane discovered that the Japanese army had already built an airport on Guadalcanal Island. If the Guadalcanal Island airport was completed, the Japanese army's planes from this airport would be able to reach Espiritu Santo and Efate Island and New Caledonia, seriously threatening the sea line of communication between the United States and Australia.In order to eliminate this threat, the US military landed on Guadalcanal and nearby Tulagi Island on August 4. The Japanese army was unprepared, and the U.S. military easily occupied these two islands, and took the almost built airport in Japan into their pockets.

The reacted Japanese army naturally could not tolerate such a result. On August 8th, the Japanese navy under the leadership of Mikawa attacked Guadalcanal at night, and sank 8 US cruisers, damaged 4 cruiser, and 1 destroyers at a negligible price. .And forced the US fleet to withdraw from the Guadalcanal waters.Since then, the Japanese army has always held the command of the sea in the Guadalcanal waters at night.Guadalcanal's safety now rests entirely with the Air Force.

After a long transition flight, it was only in the afternoon that the green figure of Guadalcanal appeared in Ron's field of vision.Looking down from a height of 6000 meters, it looks like a green gem inlaid in a huge blue crystal plate.As the altitude gradually decreased, the appearance of Guadalcanal became more and more clear.The southern part of the island is rolling hills covered with dense virgin jungle.Just in the northern part of the island, there is a small flood plain where Henderson Airport in Guadalcanal is located.

The plane began to circle at low altitude near the airport, preparing to land.At this time, the altitude of the plane was already very low, no more than 500 meters.From the above, you can clearly see the fortifications built by the US Army on several hills near the airport.This is probably to expand the she world. The trees on these small hills have all been cut down, and the dark red soil is exposed bare. I don't know if it is the nature of the soil here or the Japanese Ichiki detachment. dirty blood.In many places, we can still see the grass that has been blackened by the flames of war, seemingly silently witnessing the cruelty of the battle.

As soon as the plane landed, the pilots jumped out of the cockpit, shouting: "Is there any water? I'm thirsty!" Alas, that's not cute about the p-38.The only river on Guadalcanal flows not far from the airport.Fresh water is not a problem, but for safety and hygiene, the water must be boiled.

While the pilots were busy drinking water, Ron was busy contacting the friendly troops at the airport.There are really all kinds of teams at the airport now, from all over the place.Among them are 223 F19F "Wildcat" fighters from the 4rd Squadron of the Marine Corps Air Corps, 232 SBD "Dreadnought" bombers from the 12nd Squadron, and 67 P-15 "Flying Snake" fighter jets from the 39th Squadron of the Army Aviation Corps.These fighter jets were originally destined for Burma, but they were diverted to the South Pacific because of the fall of Burma, and then these unloved planes were thrown here.It was originally planned to send another batch of bombers over, but after inspecting the P-38's sea attack training, these planes were saved-there are too many planes, and it is useless to run out of fuel.

According to the instructions of his superiors, Ron took command of the fighter unit in this motley army.

But now was not the time for Ron to issue orders to his new underlings.Instead, it was time for these people to educate Ron.

"Sir, we came a few days earlier than you, and there are some situations that we should remind you of." Lawrence, a fighter pilot of the Marine Corps, said, "Guadalcanal Island is really not a good place, the weather is extremely hot, and it is not the same as Hawaii at all. There are a lot of mosquitoes, and it is easy to get malaria if you are bitten. Three of our squadrons have been laid down. Now we use those weeds to smoke mosquitoes at night."

"Also, don't leave the range of the airport casually, especially don't go to the river casually. Although the Japanese attack was repelled last time, there are still many Japanese snipers in the jungle." Another very young pilot said. .

According to Ron, the clothes he was wearing should be from Lu Hang. He has a baby face and a big head of at least 1.8 meters that doesn't match the baby face.

"What's your name?" Ron asked.

"My name is Suk, sir."

"Sook the plane?" thought Ron. "I wonder if there's a beta that drives the tank."

"Anything else?" Ron asked.

"Before you go to bed, check the mattress to see if there are any poisonous snakes and centipedes and spiders in there. There have been snake bites on the Marine Corps infantry side."

"And hide the plane before dark, maybe the Tokyo Express will come back and bombard the airport."

"and also,……"

"Sir, in short, this place is a green hell, you will know after staying for a few days."

These are not words to scare people. Early the next morning, something happened in the aviation team.

Rooney, the ground crew member, got up early in the morning and just put his foot in the boot when he let out a scream.At the same time, he kicked his boots a few meters away from the door.The boot flew all the way to Ron who just got up and went out.Ron saw with his own eyes that a large red and black centipede that was almost a foot long crawled out of the boot leisurely.Ron couldn't help but sweat coldly at the thought of putting his feet into the boots casually in the morning.It seems that the most urgent task is to introduce a detailed safety regulation immediately to avoid such non-combat attrition.