Bright Sword: Construction starts from southeastern Shanxi

He didn't expect that the domestic headquarters would attach so much importance to the Eighth Route Army in North China this time.

His previous plan was just to hope that the Kwantung Army would send one or two divisions south to help them open up the Shotai Line.

Unexpectedly, the country directly modified the combat plan and dispatched five divisions plus a tank regiment at one time to support their North China Front Army.

You know, the Kwantung Army is now expanding, but the current troops are still quite cautious when facing the north.

To this end, the headquarters even deployed most of the permanent divisions to the Northeast.

This time, the country actually directly dispatched one-third of the Kwantung Army's field divisions to the south, which shows how much the headquarters values ​​the Eighth Route Army in North China.

Seeing this situation, Tada Shun couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It seems that the battle reports I sent back home finally caught the attention of those noble gentlemen.

Thinking of this, Tada Shun couldn't help but sneer.

Now I know I'm anxious. What were you doing before?

Suddenly, there was a noise outside the door.

The Chief of Staff of the North China Front Army, Yukio Kasahara, walked in quickly with a hint of anxiety on his face.

"Commander, urgent message from the First Army!"

Seeing the chief of staff's anxious look, Tada Shun was a little surprised. He took the telegram and started reading it immediately.

After reading the contents of the telegram, Tada Shun's face showed a solemn expression.

Then he stood up and said to Kasahara Yukio:

Let the air force at Shijiazhuang Airport immediately obey Yoshio Shinozuka's orders!

"

"Hi!"

Yukio Kasahara nodded immediately, then quickly walked out of the room and went to the communications office to send the order.

Early morning of July 28th.

The airport in Taiyuan was bustling with activity.

The 3rd and 5th Flight Squadrons at Taiyuan Airport quickly entered combat readiness.

The 90th Flying Squadron at Shijiazhuang Airport also received orders and immediately began pre-war preparations.

At the same time, aircraft from the 10th Flying Squadron Reconnaissance Wing at Taiyuan Airport were also preparing for exploration.

Throughout the second half of the night, the lights at the airport remained on all night, mechanics stepped up maintenance on fighter planes, and ammunition trucks drove into the airport one after another to load ammunition for the bombers about to take off.

On the apron, Type 97 heavy bombers were neatly arranged, with 250-kilogram aerial bombs mounted under their fuselages.

Some fighter jets are even equipped with additional 500 kg armor-piercing bombs specifically for tanks and fortifications.

"Fuel refueling complete!"

"Machine gun turret inspection complete!"

"Radio debugging complete!"

The mechanics loudly reported the crew's situation amid the roar of the engines, while the crew members were busy checking the equipment to ensure stability during flight.

At the same time, the fighter planes of the 3rd Flying Squadron - the Type 1 "Falcon" fighter planes were ready. Their mission was to clear the Eighth Route Army's air defense positions and escort the bombers.

Since the base of the 389th Division of the Eighth Route Army was equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft firepower networks, in order to deal with the emerging Eighth Route Army air defense firepower networks.

This time, the 10th Squadron served as the vanguard reconnaissance wing, with the main purpose of probing the 389th Division's air defense positions so that the fighters of the 3rd Squadron could destroy the exposed air defense positions of the Eighth Route Army.

The pilots put on their flight helmets, shook hands with each other, then climbed into the fighter plane, adjusted the instruments, and waited for the take-off signal.

Compared with the tense atmosphere at Taiyuan Airport, the situation at Shijiazhuang Airport is more urgent.

Taiyuan Airport had started preparations as early as the daytime, but the order from Shijiazhuang Airport was not conveyed until the evening. Many pilots were urgently woken up after just resting and prepared their fighter planes overnight.

The main force here is the 90th Flying Squadron, which is equipped with the latest Type 99 twin-engine light bomber.

Although the bomb load of a single aircraft is not as large as that of the Type 97 bomber, it has the advantage of strong maneuverability and is suitable for low-altitude bombing missions.

In order to increase the effectiveness of tactical strikes, some fighter planes also carried napalm bombs, attempting to completely destroy the armored forces of the 389th Division with fire attacks.

A young pilot was checking the bomb racks and muttered:

"How could the Eighth Route Army have five tank brigades?

Could the intelligence be wrong?"

The captain in front slapped him hard:

"The intelligence has been verified. Stop talking nonsense and do your job."

"Hi!"

The pilot quickly stood at attention and saluted without saying anything more.

eight o'clock in the morning,

As all preparations were completed, the ground crew quickly evacuated the runway, and the tower commander held up the signal flag and waved it vigorously.

"The first echelon takes off!"

Accompanied by a huge roar, dozens of Japanese fighter planes from Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang airports took off and rushed towards Yangquan.

As the sun just jumped out of the horizon, Japanese fighter planes, bombers and reconnaissance planes began to take off one after another.

The flight wing at Taiyuan Airport was commanded by Major Shigeru Kondo, and the flight wing at Shijiazhuang Airport was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hideo Ando.

此次行动调动了两地共计153架飞机，其中包括42架九七式重型轰炸机、32架九九式俯冲轰炸机，以及25架九七式战斗机、27架一式战斗机“隼”、作为护航编队。

In addition, there were 47 Type 98 light reconnaissance aircraft serving as early air defense fire reconnaissance units.

The Japanese army planned to use a combination of high-altitude bombing and dive bombing to launch a devastating attack on the armored base in Yangquan.

At the same time, in order to prevent the 389th Division from transferring its armored units, the reconnaissance troops first scouted out the firepower points along the way, and twenty minutes later the fighter formation was responsible for clearing these anti-aircraft firepower points.

Half an hour later, a formation of bombers arrived and completely destroyed all facilities around Yangquan.

According to Yoshio Shinozuka's idea, as long as these armored units were destroyed, the 389th Division's mobile combat capability would be greatly weakened, and the 389th Division's plan to attack Taiyuan would be shelved.

Before the Japanese bombers arrived, Changzhi soon received news that Japanese planes were taking off and about to launch an air raid.

Ever since Zeng Jiwen and others inspected Room 076 last year, and Wang Ning, who was in charge of radar research, built the first radar prototype, the Huangyadong Military Factory began to secretly build radar monitoring stations in various places in southeastern Shanxi.

Including this year's research, the monitoring distance of each radar station has now reached a range of one hundred kilometers.

In the southeastern Shanxi base area closest to Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang airports, Japanese planes were detected by radar monitoring stations after taking off.

At the same time, in addition to radio stations, various monitoring stations in southeastern Shanxi, a base that has been recovered for several years, began laying communication facilities since the middle of last year.

The monitoring station's soft and hard lines can now be directly connected to the military district headquarters in Changzhi.

In the command post of the 389th Division in Changzhi, Zeng Jiwen, Zhou Shi, Wang Zhuo and others stood in front of the battle map with frowns on their faces.

"Has the radar site been confirmed?" Zeng Jiwen asked seriously.

"Confirmed!" Wang Zhuo nodded.

"Last night our scouts discovered that the Japanese airfield was operating all night, and from 5 a.m. this morning we saw signs of fighter planes taking off from Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang.

In addition, the monitoring stations on the Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang fronts just called and said that the Japanese planes have taken off, and judging by their trajectory, their target is indeed Yangquan."

When Zeng Jiwen heard this, a smile flashed in his eyes.

"It seems that they have noticed our "armored forces." Zeng Jiwen said with some relief.