Compared with the PA-38 attack aircraft, the PA-47's dive and pull-up performance is better. In fact, this difference is inherited from their prototypes. In terms of performance that is generally useful for attack aircraft

, the pa-38 attack aircraft has an extremely obvious advantage over the pa-47 attack aircraft in terms of performance, that is, the pa-38 attack aircraft

38 has a much longer range. Although compared to the original P-38 fighter, the weight of the aircraft has increased significantly due to the addition of armor and pylons, which has resulted in a significant decrease in range, but its range is still higher than the original P-38 fighter.

The 47 fighter is much larger, not to mention that the range of the PA-47 attack aircraft is also reduced compared to the P-47 fighter.

This is a huge advantage, which means that the same number of PA-38 attack aircraft can control a much larger area than the PA-47 attack aircraft; or it means that the same number of PA-38 attack aircraft can have a longer

Battlefield cruising time. This is very important for providing direct fire support to the enemy. In addition, for rear

Think carefully, the simpler the type of aircraft, the easier it is to maintain. There are a lot of P-47s, and there is absolutely no shortage of materials for modification, but the Army Aviation also has a lot of P-38s. If the PA-47 attack aircraft is not as good in performance

If there is anything special that exceeds the PA-38 attack aircraft, then the U.S. Army Air Force will never purchase such an aircraft.

The first obvious advantage of the PA-47 is its dive pull-up performance. This allows it to dive and drop bombs at a large angle like a dive bomber. Compared with horizontal bombing, the attack accuracy of large-angle dive bombing is much higher. For example, the famous

The Stuka dive bomber, capable of

It uses a 90-degree vertical dive to release bombs. Its bomb delivery accuracy can be controlled at about 15-20 meters; while the bomb release accuracy of horizontal bombers is quite tragic. Taking the B-25 medium bomber as an example, even for low-altitude bombing, the bomb delivery accuracy is still 300-300 meters.

It's over 400 meters.

When the PA-47 attack aircraft doubles as a dive bomber, the bomb delivery accuracy is still not comparable to that of genuine dive bombers, such as Stuka or Dreadnought, but compared with the PA-38, which can only deliver bombs in a horizontal or shallow dive, that

The accuracy is extremely high. There will always be times when the U.S. Army Air Forces need to attack fixed, solid point targets. At this time, the irreplaceable advantages of the PA-47 are revealed.

Therefore, when Ron obtained the first airport on the European continent, he reported to his superiors and requested to obtain several PA-47 attack aircraft, so that they could be used when he needed to attack solid targets.

Today, to perform the task of blocking traffic, it is indispensable to attack bridges. And for this job, at least for now, there is no aircraft more suitable than the PA-47.

Yesterday, bombers of the Eighth Air Force launched another air raid on a railway bridge in France. Although the bombing caused some damage to the bridge, the most critical component of the bridge - the piers - was still intact. For a large industrial country, railways

The steel frame of the bridge was blown off, and it was too easy to repair it. In Ron's original time and space, the time to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea was

At that time, in order to encircle and annihilate the 1st Marine Division, the Chinese People's Volunteers sent commandos to conduct a sneak attack and blew up the only railway bridge on the road where the 1st Marine Division retreated. They thought that the 1st Marine Division would be captured without any help. Who knew the Americans

The damaged steel parts on the railway bridge were directly transported by transport plane. The railway bridge was repaired in a very short time and the 1st Marine Division was rescued.

If you want to make it difficult for the enemy to repair it in a short time, you must destroy the bridge piers. But the bridge piers are very, very solid targets and cannot be destroyed casually. Obviously, heavy bombers are not suitable for attacking such targets, so

, the task of destroying this target was handed over to Ron's 21st Attack Aircraft Wing.

"The enemy's air defense situation in the target area is roughly like this." Ron's adjutant Scott was in the war room, pointing at the map and explaining combat tasks to other officers.

"Bombers of the Eighth Air Force have launched several attacks on the target. The enemy has also deployed a large number of air defense forces near the target. According to the intelligence provided by the Eighth Air Force and the French underground resistance organization, the enemy is here, here, and also

There are 88mm anti-aircraft artillery units deployed here. As for the small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery units, they are in the Eighth Air Force.

It was not used during the air raid, so we also lack intelligence in this area. But what is certain is that small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns are absolutely indispensable around this bridge. We only have six PA-47 attack aircraft. If we force a breakthrough,

, may not be a good approach. So we formulated such a plan." Scott paused for a moment and continued to explain:

"Tomorrow around 11 a.m., bombers from the Eighth Air Force will bomb the target again. They will enter in two batches from an altitude of 4,000 meters and drop bombs. Our attack planes will pretend to be the first batch.

bomber escort p

The -47 fighter jet appears at a slightly higher position than the heavy bomber. The PA-47 attack aircraft has never appeared in Europe before, and the enemy cannot tell the difference between it and the authentic P-47 fighter jet." At this point

,Scott didn't realize it

He smiled a little and said, "To be honest, at such a distance, even we ourselves probably can't tell the difference between a PA-47 attack aircraft and a P-47 fighter jet. When the Eighth Air Force's bombers completed dropping bombs, the enemy's attention

The force will definitely be transferred to the second batch of bombers that will soon enter the bombing route. At that time, our PA-47 will dive down and launch a lightning attack on the target... This is our plan.

Let’s see if there’s anything else you need to add?”

"The bombs dropped by the bombers will produce a lot of smoke, which will interfere with our dive bombing." Squadron Leader Malone said. He will lead the team tomorrow's operation, so he is very attentive to such details.

"According to the intelligence, the wind strength tomorrow will be level three to level four, so the smoke will be blown away quickly. The impact on the line of sight should not be too great. However, Major Malone, you need to consider the issue of windage when dropping bombs.

I have detailed information about tomorrow's weather here, you can take it and study it." Scott replied, taking out a document from the folder and handing it to him.

"Can you let those authentic P-47s performing escort missions also have bombs or auxiliary fuel tanks? When we dive, let them also make a dive towards several other bridge piers. Their dive speed is higher than ours, any

All anti-aircraft gunners will instinctively shoot him

We use them as targets. Let them dive to a height of about a thousand meters and level off. It is difficult for small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns to hit such high-speed targets. The enemy's small- and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns will definitely be attracted by them. In this way, our bombs will be

More confident." Boynton interjected.

"Well, Dad! Your conscience is greatly broken!" Ron immediately praised him, and then said to Scott, "Scott, I will send this request to General Doolittle later."

"Of course, you will learn whatever you follow! How can you not be affected by being with a guy like you who has no conscience at all?" Boyington immediately launched a counterattack.

…

Squadron leader Major Malone took 6 PA-47s, followed by about 24 B-17 bombers of the Eighth Air Force, and flew towards the target. Beside him, there were many other units performing escort missions.

p-47 fighter jets. These

There is a large auxiliary fuel tank hanging under the belly of the aircraft. From a distance, it looks a bit like the 1,600-pound heavy aerial bomb hanging under the belly of his own aircraft. And about 3,000 meters behind him

There is another bomber formation.

The earth slowly spread out in front of Major Malone, and a winding river still appeared in his field of vision - it was almost there! Sure enough, a few minutes later, a majestic railway bridge appeared in Malone's field of vision.

Black roses bloomed in the sky one after another. This was the German 88mm anti-aircraft artillery unit on the ground that was shooting at the bomber group. The artillery fire was quite intensive, but the threat to Major Malone was not great. Because there was no one

You fool, at this time, you would let the bombers go and attack the fighters first.

In accordance with the rules established by Le Mei, the B-17 fleet flew directly over the bombing route without making any evasive action under the gunfire, and then began to drop bombs. Strings of bombs poured down towards the railway bridge. The smoke from the explosion instantly covered it.

The bridge was hit. One of the bombers in the bomber group was hit, and its engine burst into flames.

Just as the weather forecast said, the wind below was strong, but after a while, the smoke below was blown away. At this time, Ma Long's formation also happened to fly over the railway bridge.

The anti-aircraft guns below did not fire at Ma Long and the others. Firstly, the efficiency of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns in attacking targets such as fighter jets was very low. Secondly, there was another group of bombers approaching not far behind, so all the 88mm anti-aircraft guns were

He was busy turning his guns towards the bombers that were about to fly over.

"Follow me! Attack!" Ma Long shouted. At the same time, he pushed the rudder to roll, pulled the lever and dived towards the target bridge pier at a large angle of 80 degrees. The other P-47s with auxiliary fuel tanks also dived after him.

Go down.

The dive flaps of the genuine P-47 fighter jets are smaller than those of the PA-47 attack aircraft. They accelerate faster in the dive. So these genuine P-47s quickly surpassed Malone's PA-47 attack aircraft and flew

Arrive at the front.

At this time, some small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns by the bridge began to fire at the swooping aircraft group. However, most of their firepower was aimed at the P-47s rushing in front. And those P-47s immediately threw away their auxiliary fuel tanks and began to

It made various evasive movements, then quickly leveled up, and relied on the high speed brought by the dive to quickly fly in other directions.

The speed of these P-47s was so fast that it even exceeded the angular speed of the barrels of the German small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns. Therefore, the shells fired by the Germans fell behind them. Malone's PA-47 was almost ignored.

, until now, no anti-aircraft gun has fired a shell at them. In fact, it is impossible for the Germans to attack them, because time has not allowed them to turn their guns.
Chapter completed!