Chapter 171: P40 Fighter Jet Shocks All Pilots
At Shanghai Lanqiao Airport, Le Yiqin, once called “Aerial Zhao Yun,” ace pilot Li Guidan who shot down the second Japanese aircraft in the “August 14 Air Combat,” Liu Cuigang who single-handedly shot down 11 enemy planes, Shen Chonghui who crashed his plane into the Japanese flagship “Izumo,” ultimately failing and crashing into the sea to die for his country, and Chen Xichun.
Chen Huaimin, who collided with the Japanese aircraft of Japan’s ace pilot “Red Samurai” Takahashi Kenichi and perished together with him, and elite pilots such as Gao Zhihang, the pilot who shot down the first Japanese airplane, were at this moment also in the lounge at the airport, reading the newspapers about resisting Japanese invaders on the side of Lugou Bridge and Yuanping City.
Most of them came from prestigious families, some were overseas Chinese returning home, some had just been admitted to Tsinghua, each with boundless prospects, backgrounds of wealth and power, of course there was also a small portion from commoner origins, but their average age was only in their twenties.
These pilots, called the proud sons of heaven, could clearly live lives of luxury and fine food, but they resolutely chose the profession of pilot, and later continued to go forward one after another, fearlessly driving their own airplanes to appear on the anti-Japanese battlefield without fearing death.
Willingly becoming human cannonballs, driving airplanes to engage in fierce air combat with Japanese aircraft groups, even if more than 1000 pilots almost all sacrificed, it was something they would not hesitate to do, fighting to the death with the Japanese invaders’ air force!
“Our bodies, airplanes, and bombs shall perish together with the enemy’s warships and positions!”
Their fighting will was just like a passage engraved on the aviation school monument, the aviation school’s school motto, unyieldingly firm.
So after the brutal and ruthless Japanese army, with their edge of the army pointing wherever they went, brazenly launched the Lugou Bridge Incident, causing the entire Northern China land to plunge into warfare overnight, thereby leading to the official outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War.
All the teachers and students of Lanqiao Aviation School who read the newspapers and learned of this news, and all the pilots, were filled with righteous indignation, wishing they could immediately drive their own fighter jets to the north to resist the Japanese invaders’ invasion, comprehensively repel those Japanese invaders who committed arson, killing, looting, and plundering, defend against the enemy on all fronts, drive all these brutal, barbaric, inhuman invaders out of Northern China territory, and safeguard the peaceful and tranquil life and development of the nation’s mountains and rivers.
“These damned Japanese invaders are stirring up trouble on the northern side again, when can we go over there to deal with them?”
Looking at the latest news about Lugou Bridge having fallen, and Yuanping City being surrounded on three sides by the Japanese army,
Some indignant pilots were the first to inquire of their Captain Gao.
“I want to go too, the problem is Commander Zhou and the others won’t approve!”
“Moreover, our airplanes can’t reach such a distant place in a short time to resist the Japanese invaders!”
Captain Gao also shook his head, indicating his own helplessness.
“Are we just going to watch these damned Japanese aircraft groups so rampantly carrying out air strike bombings on our frontline anti-Japanese troops in the north?”
“That’s right! Captain, I heard that the 29th Route Army’s weaponry is quite inferior, even many of them still use cold weapons! So I think it’s definitely not easy for them to deal with those Japanese invaders’ invasion, now even Lugou Bridge has been lost, I’m afraid the battle on the Yuanping City side is not looking good either!”
“How about we all together apply to Commander Zhou to go to the northern side for an air support operation?”
After Captain Gao’s response words fell, all the pilots gathered around him, starting to chatter noisily, heatedly discussing.
Facing the crowd’s eager inquiries,
Captain Gao was momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
“Don’t make such a racket, our airplanes fundamentally can’t fly that far right now, and moreover that side doesn’t seem to have an airport to receive our airplanes for landing, and we don’t have such large fuel tanks to support us flying from Shanghai here to there!”
“Moreover, we will still have opportunities to kill Japanese soldiers, I’ve heard rumors that there might be secret flight missions here in Shanghai for us to execute, anyway there will always be chances to shoot down those damned Japanese pilots!”
“And to carry out air strike bombings on those damned Japanese army troops, even sneak attack bombings on the Japanese fleet we will have opportunities to do, so you all should properly complete your usual flight training, improve your own flight combat skills, that will be even better!”
After seeing Captain Gao surrounded by a crowd of pilots,
Le Yiqin also began to help Captain Gao out of the situation.
After his words fell, the whole scene suddenly quieted down, all the pilots stared at him intently, and some pilots with particularly strong curiosity even wanted to immediately inquire what rumors he had heard.
But at this moment,
“Everyone, quickly go to the airport to see! Something big has happened!”
“Commander Zhou has also come down from the command tower side, hurry!”
A shout broke the liveliness and silence here.
“What big event? It can’t be the Japanese invaders’ air force coming to attack our Lanqiao Airport, can it? Could they also want to start a war with us here in Shanghai?”
“It can’t be that a pilot had an accident during flight training, right!”
“Probably not, everyone’s all here? Who’s still at the airport doing military training flight now?”
“Then what big thing exactly happened? Tell us clearly!”
“Just go out with him to see, won’t we know?”
With this sudden shout ringing out,
It immediately woke up all the pilots in the entire airport lounge, and they also began to discuss animatedly.
But soon, they still followed that pilot who came to report the news, together going to the airport to see what exactly had happened.
Then, they saw one after another P40 fighter jet descending from the sky to their airport, a total of 12 P40 fighter jets.
Seeing this, all the pilots were dumbfounded, stunned.
“Hiss! What model is this? How come I’ve never seen it before?”
“Captain! Aren’t these the new-type fighter jets that Commander Zhou told us about a month ago? Will they be assigned to us for air combat against the Japanese aircraft groups?”
“These airplanes look better than the junk foreigner airplanes we’re using now! I don’t know if their performance is superior too? I really want to have one right away to drive and experience their flight performance!”
“I also want to become a pilot of these new-type airplanes! How can we become ones?”
Then, all the pilots who came back to their senses also once again chattered noisily, directing a series of inquiries at Captain Gao.
“.”
Gao Zhihang.
He himself also didn’t know what had happened, why suddenly there were 12 new-type airplanes he had never seen before, and they were landing here.
