Chapter 772: 772 new weapons enter the battlefield
Chapter 772 772 New weapons enter the battlefield
Even in a less than ideal battle situation, there is a lot of good news. The anti-aircraft artillery unit of the Dahua Army has performed very well recently.
Their performance has improved visibly, because the performance of their weapons has improved and their combat methods have continued to improve.
The unique shrill and terrifying sound of the Tang Army's dive bombers could no longer scare these anti-aircraft artillerymen who were no longer rookies.
They used the new weapons in their hands to fight more and more bravely, causing huge losses to the Tang Army's dive bomber force.
This is no joke. From the time when the clouds cleared and the air force could participate in the war, until this moment, the Tang Army has shot down more than 200 aircraft of various types and lost more than 170 pilots.
Most of the aircraft were dive bomber pilots, and there were some fighter pilots. On the contrary, it was the Flying Fortresses that performed deep bombing missions that suffered the least losses.
Because there are not many anti-aircraft guns that can hit the flying height of the Flying Fortress bombers, and the Dahua Empire's fighter interception forces can't fly to an altitude of 10,000 meters, the Tang Army's large bombers that perform high-altitude bombing missions are often very safe.
If you draw the range of an anti-aircraft gun, it is basically a small hemisphere. The shooting height is slightly lower and the shooting range is slightly higher. It looks like a big bowl when it is buckled on the ground.
So the higher you go, the smaller the coverage area of anti-aircraft guns, the lower the firepower density, and the worse the air defense effect.
In order to deal with high-altitude bombers, anti-aircraft guns have to be deployed densely to increase the density of high-altitude firepower, which makes the defense area of the unit number of anti-aircraft guns smaller.
As a result, it is difficult for concentrated anti-aircraft artillery to deploy in advance and effectively intercept enemy bombers without the support of detailed intelligence and high mobility. This is the origin of the saying "anti-aircraft defense, anti-aircraft defense, nine out of ten defenses".
But fortunately, the anti-aircraft guns in the Dahua Empire were used for field air defense because their performance was not good enough. Instead, they gave up on deep air defense, which unexpectedly enhanced the field air defense firepower.
In this way, it is very easy to understand that the losses of Stuka dive bombers targeting the Dahua Field Force remained high.
Brutal war makes people progress. No one is a fool. When life and death are at stake, everyone is more willing to use their subjective initiative.
technicians of the Dahua Empire, as well as engineers of the Cyric Consortium, are working hard to develop new, more advanced, and more powerful air defense weapons for the powerful air force of the Tang Kingdom.
During repeated experiments, the Anti-Tang Alliance launched many improvised weapon systems and also came up with newly designed brand-new equipment.
For example, the Dahua Empire temporarily installed four machine guns together to increase the firepower density and increase the possibility of shooting down Tang Army aircraft.
Honestly speaking, this weapon seems to have little technical content, but its effect is better than imagined. Compared with those ideas of using new technologies to seek improvement, this simple and crude method has immediate results.
However, it is easy to use. It is just better than using a single machine gun for air defense before. It does not mean that this weapon is really "invincible".
The biggest problem is that this method of connecting machine guns in parallel to increase firepower density cannot increase the range, and the air defense effect is still unsatisfactory.
Range is too important for anti-aircraft guns. The range of an anti-aircraft gun determines the shooting height, the number of anti-aircraft guns deployed, and the length of the window for firing attacks.
Tang Jun's aircraft are equipped with 20 mm caliber cannons. The range and damage capability of this thing are obviously much better than the Maxim machine gun. It is more than enough to suppress this parallel machine gun.
Hence, the Dahua military urgently needs stronger anti-air firepower to meet the demand in terms of range. In other words, the anti-Tang alliance needs anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of 20 mm or more.
They do not have the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun equipped by the Tang Kingdom, nor the 88mm anti-aircraft gun of the Tang Kingdom. So they could only do their own research and came up with a lot of weird gadgets.
The first is the twin-mounted 25mm anti-aircraft cannon built by the Dahua Empire itself. This kind of anti-aircraft gun emphasizes the density of firepower and increases the range, and its performance is quite good.
But it is not without its shortcomings. The high cost makes the Dahua Army dumbfounded. The production of tanks, artillery, aircraft, etc. has already stretched the funds of the Dahua Military, not to mention the strict requirements of this kind of artillery on craftsmanship.
It can’t be said that in order to produce this expensive anti-aircraft gun, the production lines of other weapons have been stopped, right? Isn't that a joke?
Another problem is its bulkiness: the entire artillery weighs 4 and a half tons, which is only more than 1 ton heavier than an 88mm anti-aircraft gun. Moving it requires a truck with good performance to tow it, and ordinary vehicles do not have enough horsepower.
So the Dahua Empire acquired the 30mm caliber anti-aircraft gun technology from Cyric and began to produce this single-barreled, slightly inferior anti-aircraft weapon.
Although the performance of this 30mm caliber anti-aircraft gun is slightly worse, compared with the old anti-balloon cannons, the improvement is huge. With these high-speed and small-caliber special-purpose anti-aircraft guns, the Dahua Empire's field air defense strength has greatly increased, and it is natural that it has achieved good results.
After purchasing a large number of these small-caliber field anti-aircraft guns, Dahua troops gradually mastered some "new tactics."
They will use these anti-aircraft weapons as temporary anti-tank guns to deal with the armored vehicles of the Tang Dynasty: even if they cannot destroy the No. 4 tank and the Panther tank, the Lion Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle and the 113 Armored Personnel Carrier are still quite useful.
In addition, Dahua has also purchased a number of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns. The 76mm-caliber anti-aircraft guns improved from anti-balloon guns are the most numerous, taking into account both air defense and anti-tank.
Compared with the backward performance of the old predecessor, the performance of the new and improved 76mm caliber anti-aircraft gun has been greatly improved. It is equipped with a special gun mount, which can pitch and rotate faster, and the range has also been improved a lot.
In order to hit the target more easily, the initial velocity of the new 76-gun shell has been nearly doubled, which means that it is almost completely redesigned except for the caliber.
Compared to the arrogant Dahua Air Force, the results of the ground air defense troops were very impressive. In addition, the anti-aircraft artillery troops protected the ground troops, preventing those annoying Stukas from swooping down unscrupulously, which stabilized the morale of the military. Therefore, the anti-aircraft artillery unit of the Great Chinese Army has become a treasure in the eyes of commanders at all levels.
At a Dahua Army anti-aircraft artillery position, the gunner was sitting in the shade covered by camouflage nets to rest. The loaders were busy loading artillery shells into special magazines, because the 30mm anti-aircraft gun they were serving was fed by magazines.
The observer in charge of the alert was searching the sky in the distance with his telescope. The officer commanding the anti-aircraft gun was sitting on a sandbag, overlooking the camp not far away.
This is a small supply and distribution center, otherwise anti-aircraft guns would not be arranged for key protection. Dahua does not have enough anti-aircraft guns to cover all areas.
On the nearby high ground, three anti-aircraft guns were arranged to cover each other. If enemy planes attacked, they could act as horns to drive away those annoying Stuka dive bombers.
In fact, if it can attract Stuka dive bombers to use their precious 500 kilogram bombs to destroy anti-aircraft artillery defense positions, it will be worthwhile.
After all, the ammunition, supplies, medicines and food stored in the camp below are much more valuable than an anti-aircraft gun.
"Enemy plane! Enemy plane!" The alert observer who had been watching the sky vigilantly suddenly shouted nervously.
The officer who was sitting there in a daze immediately looked in the direction pointed by the observer. Sure enough, there were several small black dots there, flying quickly towards this direction.
The officer immediately picked up the whistle hanging around his neck and blew it hard, causing the other two nearby anti-aircraft guns to quickly prepare for battle.
Soon, the responding whistle sounded, and the other two anti-aircraft guns raised their barrels, obviously they were also ready to fight.
The anti-aircraft artillerymen were not allowed to wait too long before the bombers of the Tang Air Force pressed over. As the distance gradually approached, the Dahua anti-aircraft gun commander who had been staring at the Tang aircraft frowned.
“The wings don’t bend...a fighter jet?” The officer murmured doubtfully when he saw that the wings of the incoming aircraft were not of a seagull-shaped design.
"Isn't it a butcher? It doesn't look like it!" The gunner heard his commander's muttering, looked at it through the sight for a while, and became confused.
"Not our plane..." After confirming that the incoming plane was not a common Stuka dive bomber, nor a fighter butcher escorted by the Tang Army, Commander Dahua, whose mind was full of question marks, was a little unsure.
"I've never seen such an aircraft before..." Seeing the four aircraft getting closer and closer, the gunner changed his words before he finished speaking, and exclaimed: "The yellow nose! It's a plane from the Tang Dynasty!"
Bright yellow is the identification color of the Tang Air Force. It is painted on the nose and wing tips to avoid accidental damage by friendly forces. Because the aircraft performance has an overwhelming advantage, the painting of Tang Jun's aircraft has always been very arrogant.
While speaking, he had already stepped on the pedal, and the 30mm anti-aircraft gun beside him had begun to roar: "Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah!"
The expensive tracer bullets rushed towards the fast-flying Tang aircraft one after another. Those Tang aircraft also began to disperse immediately after being attacked and changed their flight paths.
As soon as they dodged, their belly was exposed, and their unique shape became even more obvious. The Tang Dynasty dragon emblem on the wings shone brightly in the sun.
Between the dragon emblem on the wing and the fuselage, there were some extremely slender bombs hanging. These never-before-seen details made Commander Dahua, who was standing next to the anti-aircraft gun, very uneasy.
(End of this chapter)