Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

#378 - Prelude to the War

"New jet fighters of the rogue eagle discovered over the peninsula?" Ren Zhong received the news immediately.

However, he wasn't too panicked. In his opinion, the rogue eagle's fighter jet technology hadn't yet reached the level of missile warfare, so there was no need to worry too much.

Ren Zhong retrieved all the models and performance data of the rogue eagle's jet fighters from this period, which he had researched in the main world. After analyzing them for a while, he sent the results to Staff Officer Ye.

In the air, Air Regiment 1 didn't suspect anything despite the enemy's changes. They went up to meet the enemy, following the tactical arrangements for fighting jet fighters. This time, they were going to bite the enemy's tail. The engine heat source of jet fighters basically radiates towards the rear. A tail-chasing attack, with infrared-guided air-to-air missiles, would have an almost 100% hit rate since there were virtually no countermeasures available.

Air Regiment 1 was not discouraged by encountering a strong enemy. Instead, they divided into groups of two and began their hunt.

For them, these newly appeared jet fighters were undoubtedly a huge threat to our army's P51D Mustang fighters, so they couldn't let these new fighters enter the airspace above the Hancheng defense line.

Behind them, our army still had about one-third of its propeller fighters. In the current situation, they still had to quickly eliminate the threats on the battlefield and then rush to the main battlefield to help our other brother units.

The rogue eagle's F9F Panther and Banshee fighters were indeed new aircraft. Piloted by the rogue eagle's elite pilots, their maneuverability was on a completely different level compared to propeller fighters.

Although Air Regiment 1 had better maneuverability and dogfighting weapons, if they engaged in close-quarters dogfights, this advantage wouldn't be able to fully exploit the technical advantage. Therefore, Air Regiment 1 would strike and leave, trying their best to widen the distance from the rogue eagle's fighters. Even in some local situations where the rogue eagle's fighters had a numerical advantage of four aircraft chasing Air Regiment 1's J-5A, the J-5A could quickly separate the rogue eagle's fighters by using its fire control radar to detect the presence of enemy aircraft in advance.

A huge battlefield formed in the air, but now the rogue eagle's jet fighters also had radar. Although the accuracy was a generation behind the J-5A, it wasn't enough to completely lose track of the rogue eagle's fighters.

After widening the distance, the Air Regiment 1's combat teams began to cross-cover and form attack formations, leaving one aircraft in front to draw the enemy, while the other circled around to the rear of the target aircraft.

Soon, Air Regiment 1 began to achieve results.

One after another, the rogue eagle's F9F Panther and Banshee fighters began to be shot down, with rogue eagle pilots parachuting from the sky like scattered stars.

For tail-chasing attacks, the pilot's survival rate was relatively higher. After the tail was blown off, the pilot might still have a chance to parachute.

Over the Hancheng defense line, densely packed rogue eagle fighters descended, mixed with the rogue eagle's bombers that took off. However, current radar couldn't distinguish between fighters and bombers.

This close-quarters combat allowed many of the rogue eagle's bombers to slip through the interception. One after another, dive bombers plunged down, dropping one after another of aerial bombs onto the positions.

Although some anti-aircraft guns were deployed on the positions, the number was not enough to cover the entire front line. Moreover, the hit rate of anti-aircraft guns against aircraft was also extremely poor. Although surface-to-air missiles had now appeared, the number was even smaller, and they were generally installed in important places such as army and division headquarters for defense, resulting in even smaller coverage.

After the front-line positions were bombarded by one aerial bomb after another, plumes of smoke rose up. If it weren't for the construction of complex tunnel-style positions, this wave of bombardment by dozens of rogue eagle bombers would have caused heavy losses to the front-line positions.

But even so, thousands of volunteer soldiers were directly sacrificed under the aerial bombs that landed nearby.

These large aerial bombs were not like the 105mm bombs in terms of power. Ordinary anti-artillery caves couldn't stop them at all. Even the shockwave would cause the internal organs of soldiers within a radius of dozens of meters to bleed!

Watching the positions shrouded in smoke, the front-line battalion and regimental commanders were extremely anxious.

They had almost no other way to deal with this kind of bombing, only relying on probability to survive.

The cruelty of war was finally beginning to manifest.

General Matthew sat in the command post, watching the constantly updated progress of both sides on the huge sandbox, his expression unchanged.

"General, our bomber formations have completed the first round of bombing, and approximately 90% of the bombers have successfully returned. According to front-line observation, the vast majority of bombs have been dropped on the enemy's positions. The front line is now assessing the effectiveness," the operations staff constantly reported back.

"The Navy's four jet fighter squadrons encountered the enemy's jet fighter interception during the operation. Currently, the combat attrition is as high as 50%. It has been confirmed that the enemy is using a new type of rocket-like weapon that can accurately track our fighters. The carrier air wing believes that this is the biggest reason why the enemy is ahead of us."

"The Air Force combat wing also reported that the loss of aircraft exceeded 60%. They also believe that the enemy's jet fighters are significantly ahead of us in terms of weapons, possessing the ability to attack us from several kilometers away. The Air Force's new F-86 Sabre jet fighters cannot compete with their most elite jet fighters."

"The artillery reported that the first round of probing shelling against the enemy's positions triggered the enemy's counterattack. On the artillery side, it has been basically confirmed that the enemy has a system that can quickly calculate and locate us based on our trajectory. The front-line commander suggests that our artillery must be used in a decentralized manner. According to the pre-confirmed Plan B, we will strike according to decentralized independent artillery groups. Among them, the artillery groups in the first round of shelling will mainly consist of fast-moving mountain guns and field guns. According to our front-line observation, the enemy's reaction time is approximately 2 minutes. We must ensure that we can transfer positions within one minute after firing a round."

"The tank unit's attack preparations have been completed and they have entered the designated positions. This time, we will invest more than 300 heavy tanks, more than 800 M4 Sherman medium tanks, and more than 500 M3 light tanks, preparing to launch a full-scale offensive with tanks as the vanguard according to the plan."

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"Begin, order the Air Force to focus on containment, the Air Force should not engage in head-on confrontation with the enemy, order the Army to launch a full-scale offensive!" After assessing the overall situation, General Matthew felt that the advantage was still on their side. Although they couldn't gain control of the air, they wouldn't be dominated by the enemy's bombers either.

This time, the Army had an absolutely advantageous tank force. Even in tank duels, the enemy's main tank, the Dragon tank, was better than the M26 and M46, but the numbers were vastly different. The enemy's T-34 tanks and M-3 tanks had no advantage over the M26 and M46, after all, their 75mm tank guns posed much less of a threat to heavy tanks.

And now, the number of M4 Sherman and M3 light tanks in the attacking force was something the enemy completely lacked.

This time, the rogue eagle's main strategy was to use armored forces to break through the enemy's positions.