The b-29 "Super Fortress" bomber was the largest, most advanced, and most powerful bomber in the world at that time, and it was also the most comfortable bomber in the world. The cockpit of the b-29 was a closed pressurized cockpit, so sitting in it,

It feels similar to flying on a passenger plane. There is no need to put on an oxygen mask at all, and the cold high-altitude atmosphere from outside cannot enter, so the cabin is quite warm. In addition, the self-defense cannons and other things are controlled by remote control, and the operation of self-defense weapons

The safety and comfort of the hand are greatly improved.

After taking off from Saipan, the B-29 bomber gradually climbed while flying towards the north, until it climbed to an altitude of 6,000 meters. Then the aircraft remained at this altitude and continued to fly north. The B-29 bomber

It is very fast, with a maximum speed of 570 kilometers per hour. This speed is already comparable to the Japanese Zero fighter. Considering the miserable high-altitude performance of the Zero fighter's engine without supercharging equipment, at a higher altitude

, the Zero fighter will never be able to catch up with the B-29 bomber. If it is higher, then even a fighter jet known for its "high speed" like the "Hast" may not be able to catch up with the B-29 bomber.

In comparison, the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, the main force on the European battlefield, has a top speed of only 480 kilometers per hour, 90 kilometers slower than the B-29, and a cruising speed of only 270 kilometers per hour, compared with the B-29's 350 kilometers per hour.

It is also 80 kilometers slower per hour. This cruising speed also makes it much faster for the b-29 to reach targets at the same distance.

The combination of these factors makes pilots less likely to feel fatigued due to long-distance flights. This actually further enhances the combat capabilities of this aircraft.

"General, we are approaching the Ryukyu Islands ahead. The Japanese radar deployed there may have spotted us. We need to prepare to climb further." Captain Thomas explained to Ron who was sitting nearby.

"Oh," Ron, who was originally a little drowsy due to the long and boring flight, cheered up and looked outside through the huge window in front.

There is still a vast sea and sky outside, and there are a few small clouds under the plane. It is already October, which means it is already autumn, and the weather is always exceptionally clear. Occasionally, one or two will appear on the sea.

On the uninhabited island, they slowly moved towards the plane, and then moved behind the plane.

The Japanese have airports in the Ryukyu Islands. However, fighter jets taking off from these airports will never be able to intercept the B-29. Now the B-29 is already 6,000 meters high and is still accelerating. Even a Japanese fighter

It is the best climbing Japanese fighter, and it takes about 7 minutes to climb to such an altitude. At this time, the b-29 has climbed to a higher altitude and has flown far away. And if you consider that after receiving the radar signal

, it still needs to be interpreted, and the troops need to be notified of this type of response time, so the Japanese fighter jets taking off from Okinawa would not have time to intercept the B-29 bomber.

Since it is impossible to successfully intercept, and Japan has been short of fuel. Although the Japanese occupy many oil fields in Southeast Asia, their refining capabilities cannot be improved all at once. Although the Japanese work hard to improve themselves

Although the oil refining capacity was high, the fuel consumption during the war was also staggering. In addition, the Allied submarine force was very active. They constantly attacked the Japanese sea transportation lines, causing Japanese transport ships to be sunk continuously.

This further aggravates the fuel shortage situation.

Compared with the United States, Japan's national strength is inherently insufficient. If it does not devote all its industrial capabilities to the production of weapons, the front line will be unable to support it immediately. However, if it does so, it will not be able to use the power to expand its oil refining capacity and increase transportation.

The production of ships and the number of escort formations used for anti-submarine warfare. The stretched Japanese had almost no solution to this dilemma.

Under such circumstances, of course, you have to save fuel if you can. Knowing that they cannot intercept, the Japanese fighter jets deployed in Okinawa will certainly not waste fuel to intercept. Therefore, until the bomber group crossed the Ryukyu Islands, Ron also

Didn't see a single Japanese plane.

But it's not necessarily true if you fly further forward. The Japanese fighter jets there will get a longer warning, and they will have more time to take off and climb. They are likely to appear in front of the fleet. At this time, the coastline of Kyushu Island has already appeared.

In Ron's eyes, the B-29 bomber had also climbed to an altitude of 8,000 meters.

"Attention, Japanese fighter jets have been spotted below 12 o'clock!" The voice of the pilot flying on the leading aircraft came over the radio.

Ron looked over in the direction indicated by the radio, and sure enough, he saw eight small black dots approaching quickly from the first point directly ahead. Ron quickly judged that these planes were from Japan.

People's "Type 2 Zhongkui" interceptor aircraft. This aircraft climbs very well among Japanese fighter jets. It only takes 5 minutes to climb to an altitude of 5,000 meters. However, at subsequent altitudes, its climbing speed drops significantly.

Due to defects in engine supercharging technology, the performance of Japanese aircraft engines dropped drastically at high altitudes. As a result, the climb of their aircraft at higher altitudes was extremely slow. For example, the zero battle took more than 6 minutes.

You can climb to 5,000 meters in a single step, but if you want to climb to 10,000 meters, it will take an exaggerated amount of more than an hour and a half. Some novices may even not be able to climb to this height.

There is still an altitude difference of nearly a kilometer between these Japanese fighter jets and the b-29s, so they still cannot threaten the b-29 fleet where Ron is located. The fleet flew directly over the heads of these "Zhongkui" interceptors, Ron

I noticed that these Japanese planes also turned around and followed them relentlessly.

But now the b-29 has increased its horsepower, and the speed of the aircraft has reached more than 500 kilometers per hour. The initial speed of these "Zhongkui" interceptors following behind was not high, only less than 400 kilometers per hour.

If they continue to climb, they will definitely not be able to keep up with the speed of the B-29s. If they want to keep up with the B-29s, they will have to give up climbing, and even need to dive down a little to get enough air to keep up with the B-29 fleet.

speed.

As expected, these "Zhongkui" interceptors gave up climbing, made a shallow dive as Ron imagined, and then continued to follow the B-29 bomber group. It looked like they were escorting the B-29 bomber group.

But Ron knew their intentions. With them following, the B-29 could not descend and could only drop bombs from an altitude of 8,000 meters. Dropping bombs at such a height, if there was a little more wind, the dropped bombs might

More than a kilometer off.

"Those tails are so annoying," said Ron.

"Yes. If they follow us, it will be difficult for us to lower our altitude. Otherwise, they will hit us directly." Captain Thomas replied, "Ah, General, the target is right ahead."

At this time, the fleet was close to their target, the Yawata Iron Works. Looking down from a height of 8,000 meters, one could still see the thick smoke coming from the blast furnaces and chimneys of the factory.

The bomber group began to change formation and enter the bombing route. At this time, the Japanese anti-aircraft guns began to fire, and several rounds of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns exploded in the air.

Japan's Type 88 75mm anti-aircraft gun and Type 4 75mm anti-aircraft gun can both hit the shells to the height of the B-29 bomber. Especially the Type 4 75mm anti-aircraft gun, its performance is even better, and it is very advanced even in the world.

anti-aircraft guns. However, compared with the German anti-aircraft firepower, the Japanese anti-aircraft firepower was much sparse. Ron once followed Li Mei and flew over Europe in a B-17 bomber to perform bombing missions. At that time, the German

The sky was filled with shells fired by anti-aircraft guns. But now, the Japanese had been fussing for a long time before they fired a few shells. Based on the density of the shells, Ron estimated that the number of anti-aircraft guns below was only a dozen at most.

It’s not that the Japanese don’t pay attention to the protection of important targets like the Yawat Iron Works, but because Japan’s artillery production is too low. During the entire war, Japan’s production of anti-aircraft guns above 75 mm was only 3,306. Among them

44 Type 75 anti-aircraft guns in 2014, 70 Type 105 anti-aircraft guns in 2014, 2000 Type 75 anti-aircraft guns in Type 88, 1000 anti-aircraft guns in Type 88 in 99, 120 Type 3 120 anti-aircraft guns, 70 Type 4 75 anti-aircraft guns, and 2 Type 5 150 anti-aircraft guns.

The largest number here is the 88-type 75 anti-aircraft gun, which has the oldest technology and has long been behind the times. There are only so many things in total. How much can be divided into a single target, even if it is a key protection target?

In contrast, during the war, the Germans produced 13,125 88mm anti-aircraft guns alone. Including 105mm and 128mm anti-aircraft guns, the Germans produced 18,235 large-caliber anti-aircraft guns alone. So after seeing

From Ron's point of view, the density of Japanese anti-aircraft artillery firepower is, well, simply symbolic.

Therefore, the B-29 bombers remained unmoved at all and continued to fly along the established route. The anti-aircraft shells that exploded around them from time to time seemed like fireworks to welcome them.

"Enter the bombing route... Attention, prepare to drop the bomb! 1, 2, 3, drop the bomb!" Bomber Allen aimed the bombsight at the most obvious target - a blast furnace emitting white smoke, and then pressed the button to drop the bomb.

Button. The magazine of the B-29 bomber opened, and a series of bombs swung down from there. The bomber continued to fly forward, and Ron stared at the bombs with wide eyes as they became smaller and smaller, and finally saw nothing.

Not here anymore.

After a while, Ron saw some sparse flowers blooming on the ground - those were bombs dropped by bombers exploding. Ron looked at the location of the explosion and couldn't help but shook his head. These bombs hit

The area was at least one and a half kilometers away from the target identified during the strike. Most of the bombs did not fall into the factory at all, and those bombs that accidentally fell into the factory were also far away from important targets such as blast furnaces. The bombers dropped the bombs.

This is the consequence of being too high. Just like the B-29 fleet can almost ignore the Japanese anti-aircraft fire, the Japanese below can almost ignore the bombs dropped by the Americans.

In fact, this result was also expected by the pilots.

"Alan, you're not very lucky today!" said the first officer, Klaus, with a smile, and there was no sense of disappointment in his voice. It seems that they are very used to this result.

"Okay, the cargo has been delivered, we should go back." Captain Thomas said.

After dropping the bombs, the aircraft became much lighter, and the fleet began to climb, accelerate, and turn rapidly. In addition to the "Zhongkui" interceptors following behind, the Japanese may have also taken off other aircraft to intercept them. These aircraft are now

Most of them have climbed very high and are waiting to intercept the b-29 fleet on their way home. And the "Zhongkui" following them may be constantly reporting their positions to other aircraft.

So that they can intercept you.

"Accelerate the climb and get rid of those little Japanese! Prepare to climb to 10,000 meters!" The command of the leader aircraft came over the radio. The fleet began to climb towards a higher altitude. The Japanese "Zhong Kui" naturally followed hard.

, compared with other Japanese fighter jets, the high-altitude performance of the "Zhongkui" is a little better. So after following for a while, I accumulated some speed and managed to catch up.

The b-29 fleet made a big turn and began to fly toward the southeast. Each time the b-29 bombers retreated, their route was different. This would also greatly increase the difficulty of enemy interception. When the fleet had already flown to Deep Blue

While on the sea, an alarm sound came from the radio: "At 9 o'clock, enemy planes were spotted! Number 20, distance 6 kilometers, model may be 'Nick'!"

"They can't catch up," Captain Thomas said.

"Nick" is the name given by American pilots to Japan's "Ki-45 two-seat double-seat fighter". This is a two-seat, two-engine fighter, somewhat similar to the German BF-110. The Japanese named it

A very majestic nickname is "Slaying the Dragon", but in terms of performance, this aircraft with the majestic nickname is actually very inferior. It is not even as good as the infamous "escort fighter that needs escort"

bf-110. Its top speed is only 540 kilometers per hour, which is not as good as the target it is currently intercepting. As long as it is not in a head-on position, it has no possibility of firing at the b-29 that has dropped its bombs and is lightly armed.

The fleet turned slightly, and these "nicks" completely lost the possibility of catching up. However, the eight "Zhongkui" following behind finally caught up. They even caught up from the 6 o'clock direction and were immediately heading towards

American bombers opened fire at range.

However, the B-29 fleet has never been afraid of fighters coming from the 6 o'clock direction. The approach rate of fighters coming from this direction cannot be high in any case, leaving plenty of time for self-defense firepower. And because the approach rate is low, the relative speed is small

, even if an enemy plane collides with it, the damage caused will be much less. As for the use of machine guns to fire, it relies on 12 .50 machine guns and a 20mm rotary cannon at the tail, coupled with an extremely strong mechanism.

The "Zhongkui" with only four 12.7mm machine guns is no match at all.

Ron came to the tail of the plane and looked back. He saw that several B-29s behind him had opened fire. The Japanese "Zhong Kui" tried hard to get closer despite the gunfire. At this time, a "Zhong Kui" came to the right

Sparks erupted from the wing, and it was obvious that it had been shot. The "Zhongkui" made a barrel roll, avoided the American fire, and dived downwards with black smoke - obviously, it had given up.

This time the interception.

The other "Zhong Kui" couldn't take advantage of it. Soon another "Zhong Kui" was hit and burst into flames. The pilot had no choice but to parachute on the vast sea. The remaining planes were not in good shape.
Chapter completed!