The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 300: Rain of Fire Burns the City (Part 2)

"Old Wu! Nine o'clock! The Japanese planes are flying high!"

In the spherical electric turret on the belly of the aircraft (the author mentioned the picture at the end of the chapter), the machine gunner curled up like a curled-up shrimp, operating the twin 12.7mm machine guns to fire wildly while shouting at the top of his lungs into the intercom.

In his field of vision, two red tongues of fire formed by tracer bullet chains were closely chasing the Japanese Zero-type fighter planes. The bullets were like a swarm of angry bees, and finally bit the wingtip of one of the Zero-type fighter planes.

The Zero instantly became like a punctured balloon, its aerodynamic shape destroyed, and it immediately fell into a death spiral, rolling and plummeting from the sky.

But the other Zero was very clever. It seized the opportunity and took advantage of the gap when the self-defense machine gun was chasing the wingman to quickly sneak into the blind spot of the belly machine gunner's vision.

The firing range of the B-17's belly-mounted spherical electric turret only covered the entire lower hemisphere of the aircraft. The Zero turned over like a harrier and flew as lightly as a gliding swallow to a higher position than the Albatross-03, occupying an attacking position.

The Albatross-03 was currently at the outermost edge of the entire box formation. The fleet, having recently been refitted, had clearly made a mistake. The widened gap between the aircraft meant the Albatross-03 lacked firepower from friendly aircraft, giving the Zero an opportunity to exploit.

However, this Zero also made a mistake. The Japanese pilot who was operating it was too impatient.

Aerial combat is all about energy conversion. As he climbed higher than the Albatross-03, his kinetic energy was being converted into gravitational potential energy, and the reduction in kinetic energy naturally meant that the Zero's speed was decreasing.

After hearing his teammates' shouts, Lao Wu quickly took aim and locked the slowed-down, "deadly" Zero in the sight.

As he pressed the trigger, the M2 heavy machine gun in the rear turret immediately spewed out flames, and the 12.7mm armor-piercing incendiary bullets weaved a red fire net in the air.

The fuel tank of the Zero fighter that was flying high in the air and trying to dive to attack was instantly blown up. The Japanese pilot immediately put on his parachute pack, pushed open the hatch and tried to parachute out.

But he didn't notice at all that the aluminum-magnesium alloy fuselage of the Zero fighter had already been ignited, and the flames, like a group of naughty elves, instantly jumped onto his parachute bag.

When he finally jumped out of the fuselage, the parachute bag had been burned beyond recognition by flames.

The moment he opened the parachute, the flames climbed up his body and the silk parachute was burned to ashes.

The unfortunate Japanese pilot instantly became the brightest torch in the sky, a free-falling "torch." As the machine gunner in the electric turret watched, the flying Japanese drew a strange arc in the air, dancing and plummeting towards the earth.

The few Zero fighters that climbed up sporadically were like a group of annoying flies. They failed to achieve any effective results and were quickly wiped out by the fleet's self-defense firepower.

Only one unlucky B-17 had its engine blown out, and the other planes only had a few small holes on their fuselage skin, just like a few mosquito bites, not painful at all.

（B-17、B-29这样的大飞机即便是安装30mm土豆发射器的ME-262都得连续命中几炮才有机会直接打碎，否则就得把4个引擎中的3个全打坏，或者主打驾驶舱，击杀飞行员。）

Fortunately, the B-17 was tough and could continue flying even if one engine was blown out, so this plane was the first to return home, dragging the damaged engine with thick smoke billowing out.

The remaining planes continued to drop bombs under the guidance of the lead plane.

"Try the upgraded version of Laozi Shancheng Hotpot." Bombardier Lao Wang pressed the button and dropped the last batch of incendiary bombs.

This time the target was the Japanese communication center and ammunition depot in Bukit Timah.

A communications soldier who was sending a message was horrified to find that the tall metal antenna was melting due to the intense burning. At the same time, the temperature in the communications room was getting higher and higher, and the flowing flames seemed like they could flow into the room through the crack in the door at any time.

Without bothering to continue sending messages, the Japanese signalmen had to evacuate urgently with their radios and other equipment.

The Japanese throughout Lion City, whether it was the army, navy, or industrial equipment related to the war, all suffered heavy bombing. When the B-17 fleet began to climb and return, the Japanese defense capabilities in Lion City had been greatly weakened.

Of course, due to the large number of Chinese immigrants in the Lion City area, the entire fleet was very restrained and basically only bombed targets far away from densely populated areas.

Thirty-seven B-17Gs dropped a total of nearly 200 tons of napalm bombs. Due to the long distance of the route, the B-17s dispatched this time did not carry the maximum capacity of bombs, but instead carried some additional barrels of fuel for supplementation.

However, even so, the bombing effect was surprisingly good.

Fire tornadoes are forming on the ground, death vortexes created by heat convection from different burning areas.

In the burning palm grove, countless charred monkey corpses fell from the treetops.

The sea water in the harbor was boiling and rolling, filled with cooked fish and shrimps and half-cooked Japanese soldier's limbs.

The most ironic thing is the Dinga Airport Control Tower - the concrete building disguised as a clock tower. The copper bell on top is now burned red and keeps ringing like a death knell.

The crew of Albatross-03 was unusually quiet at this time.

They stared out the porthole at the horde they had created, until the bombardier, Old Wang, broke the silence: "We need to get the higher-ups to clean the sights when we get back—this scene is going to give you nightmares if you see it too often."

-----

The triumphant B-17 fleet received a warm welcome after landing.

At the airport, the crowd cheered and flags fluttered, as if they were celebrating a grand festival.

The successful completion of this operation means that the firepower projection range of the Anmin Army has been greatly expanded. This is not only a military victory, but also a major strategic breakthrough.

The faces of the crowd were filled with pride and joy, as if they saw hope for the future.

The rich aroma of spices wafted from the flight attendant cafeteria near Yangon Airport, as plates of chicken topped with white noodles were brought to the tables.

The red soup is shiny with oil, and large pieces of chicken are faintly visible in the soup. Coupled with the wide noodles hand-rolled from fine flour, it looks particularly tempting.

The cafeteria was filled with laughter and the crew members sat together with a look of relaxation and satisfaction on their faces.

Although there were some White Eagle instructors in the early days of the Anmin Army Air Force, the teaching force was mainly composed of synthetic pilots exchanged by Zhang Chi from the system and other Chinese veteran pilots.

Therefore, their eating habits do not contain much Western food.

Zhang Chi has always felt that home-cooked food is more palatable. Compared to those exquisite but slightly monotonous steaks and champagne, he prefers this steaming, home-cooked food.

"Heroes! Today I am here to celebrate for you!" Zhang Chi stood up, raised his glass and gestured to everyone.

His voice was loud and powerful, and the pilots in the audience were looking at him with admiration and excitement.