northernbook Chapter 1150 Air Defense Matrix
Chapter 1150 Air Defense Matrix
The Japanese flight captain's mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts, but when a shell exploded nearby, it instantly brought him back to reality. This was not the time to be distracted; if he continued to be so absent-minded, he would definitely be the next one to be shot down.
Half of his dozen or so planes had already been shot down, and a chill ran through him. During the earlier attack, spies had already informed them that the air defenses in Hankou were now significantly stronger than before, having been reinforced by at least two times.
When the news was relayed back, many air division operations staff hoped that they could suspend the bombing of Hankou and then formulate a new bombing strategy, or wait until the ground personnel had investigated the air defense equipment.
But these proud pilots rejected this strategy. In their view, China was merely a backward country, its understanding of modern air defense existing only in its head, with no idea how to implement tiered defenses. Now they understood: their air defense technology was far superior; just look at the number of their fallen comrades.
"All aircraft, drop your bombs immediately and return to base! Return to base immediately!!!"
In that instant of hesitation, two more planes were hit. At this moment, there were still six planes in the sky, four of which had not yet dropped their bombs. Even those planes that had dropped their bombs did not fly over their targets; they merely dropped their bombs hastily, with most landing on farmland outside the city or on the river.
In fact, when ground-based air defense forces cannot hit the aircraft, they often force them to fly over some worthless targets. Seeing the anti-aircraft guns exploding all around, these pilots are also panicked. In order to speed up the aircraft's evasive maneuvers, they can only throw off the explosives on their bodies first, so that they can increase their speed.
As for whether they can hit any valuable targets, these people are no longer considering that. Didn't they see how fierce the ground firepower was? Let alone a dozen or so planes, even dozens or hundreds of planes probably wouldn't gain much advantage over Hankou today.
The captain has already given this order, so what else can the remaining planes say? They need to quickly jettison their bombs, even the auxiliary fuel tanks. The most important thing now is to speed things up and escape from Hankou as soon as possible.
This city used to be where they made their mark, but now it looks like their graveyard. From the moment they entered until now, there's been no joy in their achievements, only worry about the shells and bullets coming from all sides. The area ahead looks very quiet, but as soon as you fly over, you're instantly controlled by a fire matrix.
They had clearly witnessed how those pilots died. Once controlled by the fire matrix, no matter how much you tumbled, the surrounding aircraft would always suffer some damage. This firepower might not blow you up in mid-air, but under these circumstances, as long as you were damaged, given the quality of Japanese aircraft, you would absolutely not be able to take off.
Although the Japanese claimed that their aircraft were among the most advanced in the world, everyone knew that among the major empires, Japan's military equipment was actually the least advanced. Their planes also had many wooden structures; how could such things possibly withstand bullets? Let alone large-caliber bullets, they would struggle to stop even 7.9mm bullets.
When the Japanese plane spotted the anti-aircraft positions, it attempted a strafing salvo, just like the new pilot had done. He thought a strafing salvo would inflict significant damage on the ground-based air defenses. However, just as he adjusted his angle, over a dozen machine guns on the ground opened fire simultaneously, and his plane was the only one destroyed in mid-air.
From that moment on, the other Japanese pilots lost all fighting spirit. They circled in the sky, searching for targets, waiting for their captain's order to retreat. Now, they finally received the order, and regardless of the situation below, they quickly dropped their bombs and retreated.
Without aiming and in such a rush, these bombs are unlikely to achieve any results. And your retreat won't be so easy either. By the time these planes have adjusted their angles and are retreating, our air defense command has already used radar to calculate their retreat direction.
At Li Shaoyi's command, more than 20 temporary air defense vehicles immediately drove out from the headquarters to set up another air defense matrix in the direction of their retreat, and finally cut off another layer of their skin.
The Japanese planes, having made a full-scale retreat, were somewhat relaxed. They believed that as long as we didn't cause trouble, escaping wouldn't be a problem. Just as they saw the edge of the city in the distance, many of their faces broke into smiles.
But the smile didn't last more than two seconds before that familiar feeling returned immediately. Every pore on their body tightened, as if they were being watched by a wild beast. They were now being targeted by anti-aircraft fire from the ground.
The flight captain suddenly climbed sharply, managing to evade the surrounding air defense array. However, the others were not so lucky. He saw that his few remaining men below had all been hit, and were seriously wounded, with no chance of parachuting.
Of course, while this guy dodged the first wave of attacks, he didn't escape the second. About 40 meters in front of him, an 88mm anti-aircraft shell exploded, and shrapnel directly destroyed his cockpit. One piece of shrapnel hit his left eye, leaving him looking like a one-eyed man.
The Japanese flight captain screamed, his blood splattering across the sky above Hankou. He knew he wouldn't make it back; he had to do better than the others, he had to find a suitable target to crash into. Just then, he saw a tall building in the distance, machine guns constantly firing from it—this was his target.
"Concentrate your firepower and fire!"
The ground-based air defense commander saw through his intentions. "With so many anti-aircraft weapons concentrated here, if we let you crash into us, then we've all been here for nothing." Commander Li didn't care about the loss of shells; "Do you think we'll let you land?"