Su Feiyang was flying his own fw-190 "Mockingbird" fighter,

When we head to the air battle battlefield of the Battle of Songhu,

His mind is also recalling his past life.

Some information about the battle records of the Songhu Air Battle that I have searched on Baidu,

He remembered that it seemed that on the morning of August 13, 1937, the third battalion of the Japanese Marine Corps suddenly crossed the border and occupied the Bazi Bridge, attacking the post of the 88th Division of the Chinese defender. The two armies immediately had a small-scale post battle. The Battle of Songhu was called the "August 13" in history. In fact, the war did not start on August 13, but the Chinese and Japanese armies had a small-scale military conflict. But in any case, this was the official engagement between the Chinese and Japanese armies in the regular troops of the Songhu area. The "August 13 Battle of Songhu" in history broke out since then.

However, neither China nor Japan expected that the formal combat of the two armies in the Songhu area of ​​China would actually begin with air combat.

According to the combat plan formulated by the Japanese side, the mission of the Japanese Navy Air Force was to launch a large-scale emergency attack on the Chinese Air Force on the first day of the war, striving to achieve a preemptive effect. At midnight on the 13th, Hasegawa Kiyoshi issued a combat order to the naval air force he commanded on the 14th morning: the Second Air Force raided Nanjing, Guangde, and Hangzhou Airport; the First United Airlines raided Nanchang Airport; the Eighth, Tenth Team and the First Mines raided Shanghai Hongqiao Airport; the First Air Force and the Kiritsujin Airlines raided as reserves.

At dawn on the 14th, a huge low-pressure airflow was moving on the sea surface of the southeastern coast of China. The sky was windy and rainy, and the wind speed reached 22 meters per second. Due to the harsh meteorological conditions, at 5:30 a.m., Hasegawa Kiyoshi ordered: Wait for the weather to improve before taking off for combat.

Although the Japanese side has learned that the Chinese Air Force has urgently transferred most of the combat aircraft to the southeast coastal areas, at least in the local airspace of Songhu, the Chinese and Japanese armies have no obvious advantages and disadvantages, but the Japanese army still did not take the Chinese Air Force seriously. They generally believe that the Chinese Air Force aircraft are old and have limited numbers, so they are reluctant to take it out to fight. Moreover, the Chinese Air Force pilots lack combat experience and do not have the courage to fight with the Japanese army in real guns and live ammunition. As long as the Chinese Air Force's combat aircraft are destroyed in the hangars or runways of several airports in the southeast coastal coastal areas by means of rapid attacks, the Chinese Air Force will basically be eliminated.

However, this time the Japanese were wrong.

On the 13th, a small-scale conflict between the Japanese Marine Corps and the 88th Division of the Chinese Army broke out. At 2 pm, Zhou Zhirou, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Air Force, issued the No. 1 Air Force combat order, requiring the troops to make all preparations for dispatch before the dusk of the 14th.

At 7:00 a.m. on the 14th, at Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport, five Curtis BT-32 bombers of the 35th Independence Team of the Chinese Air Force took off. The wind and rain were severe, and the clouds were 300 meters high. Under harsh weather conditions, the Japanese army was waiting for the weather to improve, but the Chinese Air Force decisively took off. The five bombers formed wedge formations, and at a height of 1,500 meters, braved the dense ground anti-aircraft artillery of the Japanese army, and rushed to the Japanese positions and armory of the Gongda Spinning Mill. After hitting the target, they all returned safely, and some aircraft fuselages were densely covered with bullet holes.

At 8:40, Sun Tonggang, deputy captain of the Second Battalion, led 21 Northrop-2e light bombers, carrying fourteen 250 kilogram bombs and seventy 50 kilogram bombs from Guangde Airport. The troops were divided into two groups to bomb the Japanese Gongda Airport, Huishan Wharf and Japanese warships on the sea surface of Wusongkou. The planes that bombed the airport and dock dropped bombs 800 meters, all hitting the target. The bombers that bombed the Japanese warships at Wusongkou were of poor visibility and unknown effect after the bomb drop, but the bombed Japanese ships had already begun to flee to the estuary of the Yangtze River. When they returned, six of the twenty-one bombers forced landing in other airports due to bad weather, and all returned to the team two hours later.

At 9:20, the captain of the Fifth Brigade, Ding Jixu, piloted a Hawk-style destroyer, carried a 500-pound bomb, took off from Yangzhou Airport, searched for Japanese ships along the Yangtze River, and found a Japanese destroyer on the river near Nantong. After diving and dropping the bomb, the Japanese ship was shot at the stern and then sank.

Hasegawa Kiyoshi did not expect that the Chinese Air Force would take the lead despite the harsh weather conditions. When the flagship "Izumo" of the third fleet, which was anchored outside Wusongkou, was attacked, he decided to order the air force to attack immediately regardless of whether the weather was better.

In the afternoon, in the new round of bombing, the planes of the Fifth Battalion, the Second Battalion and the Thirty-fifth Team of the Chinese Air Force bombed the Shanghai Japanese Marine Corps Command, the Japanese Base Gongda Airport, Huishan Wharf and other places. The Japanese army obviously strengthened its air defense firepower, and the Fifth Battalion was shot down one deportation aircraft and injured two; the bombers of the Second Battalion were injured.

The Chinese Air Force was hiding the barrage of Japanese anti-aircraft artillery over the Huangpu River, and was unrelentless in fighting to bomb Japanese ground targets and warships, which made Shanghai citizens enter an indescribable excitement. They ran to the Bund, climbed the roofs of various buildings to watch the battle, and cheers resounded throughout the city.

The Japanese Marine Corps suffered heavy casualties during large-scale bombings, so they kept calling the Air Force to request assistance. However, most of the air combat aircraft of the Third Fleet were ship-based aircraft. Due to the strong wind and waves, the carrier-based aircraft could not take off and land safely on the warships. Hasegawa Kiyo had to order the Kaya Air Force stationed in Taipei to take off, intercept the Chinese Air Force bombers, and destroy the main airports of the Chinese Air Force around Shanghai.

Jianqiao Airport is the location of the Chinese Aviation School and the main base of the Chinese Air Force in Shanghai, so it became the first choice target for the Japanese Nakaya Air Force to launch an attack.

Over Hangzhou, ****.

The Fourth Battalion of the Chinese Air Force, originally scheduled for North China operations, had arrived at Zhoujiakou Airport on August 4th, but on the 13th, the whole team transferred to Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport. On the 14th, in heavy rain, some of the 32 aircraft in the team could not take off, and some had accidents because the runway was too muddy, and only twenty-seven fighter jets flew to Jianqiao safely. As soon as they landed, the battle alarm of enemy planes near the airport sounded. The captain Gao Zhihang ordered the whole team to refuel urgently. Before all the aircraft were refueled, nine aircraft of the Luwu Air Force had entered the Hangzhou airspace. These Japanese biplane bombers were in the wind.

In the rain, they tried hard to maintain their formation and finally found Jianqiao Airport through the gaps of the rain clouds. Suddenly, they saw the Chinese Air Force plane coming towards them. The first one to take off urgently was the captain Gao Zhihang and the captain of the 21st team, Tan Wen, who immediately shot down a Japanese plane. The Japanese plane found that the Chinese Air Force was prepared here and quickly lifted into the clouds to avoid it, but the planes that took off from the Fourth Battalion had already been chasing. Zheng Shaoyu, captain of the 22nd team, caught up with a Japanese plane over the Cao'e River and shot down it. Li Guidan, captain of the 21st team, Liu Zhesheng, and Wang Wenzi, also worked together to shoot down a Japanese plane.

The result of the initial battle of the Air Force surprised the Japanese.
Chapter completed!