Munitions Empire

Chapter 576: 535 forgot

"What the hell… We’ve been bombing all day, deployed over a thousand sorties of airplanes… and now you’re telling me we forgot such an important target?” Tang Army Commander Ibrahim grimaced as he tapped the document in his hand, glaring at his subordinates.

A colonel, red in the face with restraint, finally couldn’t help but speak up in explanation, “General, every one of our pilots has flown at least two sorties. There are just too many targets on the ground; we simply can’t hit them all

"I understand, but your eagerness to achieve is also a fact,” Ibrahim interrupted his subordinate, fully aware of how things worked. “Everyone knows that as soon as they drop bombs, they get credit, so they all prefer to attack targets close to the border to return quickly, then rearm with bombs and strike again!”

"But how could key targets be overlooked? Hm? If this delays His Majesty’s plans, what use is chopping off your heads in apology?” He paced back and forth in front of his officers with his hands behind his back.

It was only after organizing the day’s attack targets that they realized a serious oversight. The Qi Army’s airship base, which had long been marked by ground reconnaissance, had not been hit by any troops…

This was obviously a bit too much. The main forces of the Air Force bombing units, the main ground attack forces, were all deployed on the western front, with strategic bombers targeting King City in Qi Country,

The forces executing the bombings on the Qi Country troops in the central front, where the First Prince was stationed, were actually the fighter squadrons of Tang Country. These squadrons were equipped with FW-190 fighters, which had a limited bomb load and were assigned quite vague missions.

The orders given to these fighter pilots were to disrupt the First Prince’s potential reinforcements moving west. Thus, these pilots also focused their attacks on the Qi Army’s front line positions.

They merrily strafed and dropped bombs as if there was no one to stop them, achieving significant successes. However, since they were not specialized enemy attack units, some oversights were inevitable.

It wasn’t until now, as the light faded, that these fighter squadron leaders noticed, while compiling their attack reports, that they had missed a very important target.

Indeed, that target was the Qi Country Air Force’s most important airship base, located behind the defensive line overseen by the First Prince.

The base housed more than 40 airships and could be considered the most significant offensive airship base at the front, storing massive amounts of gas as well as some bombs.

An attack here would amount to the destruction of Qi Country’s Air Force—or at least it could be said to have destroyed more than half of Qi Country’s bombing airship units.

And now everyone had just realized there was such an important target that they hadn’t attacked!

This was freaking embarrassing…

"Notify the ground troops to be on guard… Have them deploy the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Troops for interception as soon as possible,” Ibrahim sighed and instructed the officers in front of him, “First thing tomorrow morning, destroy that base! Send out at least 30 planes!”

"Yes, sir!” All the officers stood at attention and saluted, promising loudly.

…

"I knew these winged bastards couldn’t be trusted!” grumbled a ground anti-aircraft troop commander, coated in dust and dirt, as he received the orders.

Next to him, a six-wheeled heavy truck was parked beside the road, with soldiers frantically unloading ammunition from the truck.

In a clearing further away, there stood a Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun already deployed for action. This weapon was now considered the most advanced and formidable anti-aircraft gun in the world.

Featuring a more stable and efficient ammunition feed design and a maximum range exceeding 3,000 meters, it could easily threaten the fragile bodies of airships.

What was more frightening was that, due to its not-so-large caliber, it had a faster firing rate and could quickly adjust both firing angle and height, making it capable of intercepting faster aircraft in the future.

Tang Mo did not believe that committing to an 88mm caliber ‘do everything’ anti-aircraft gun was worth it at this point, given the weapon’s excessively high maximum range which seemed unnecessary for shooting down balloons.

Moreover, to call the 88mm caliber anti-aircraft gun a ‘do everything’ gun seemed a bit of a stretch, as it was mostly used as a battle defense gun.

In other words, it would be more accurate to consider the 88mm caliber anti-aircraft gun not as a dedicated anti-aircraft weapon, but rather as a tank and battle defense gun that could also perform as an anti-aircraft gun if needed.

Down the line, the German Army even began using the 88mm guns for indirect fire support of infantry. The majority of the 88mm anti-aircraft guns produced didn’t even come equipped with anti-aircraft sights or computing devices.

Qi Country didn’t have strategic bombers or even airplanes, so investing in large-caliber anti-aircraft guns was a complete waste of time.

Just like with the choice of fighter aircraft: good weapons are forged through combat. Germany, badly bruised by the British and American air forces, and the United States Navy, harried by Japanese kamikaze attacks, naturally had more impressive anti-aircraft guns.

After much consideration, betting on German half-track vehicles and playing with globe sphere lightning was too expensive. It was simpler and more straightforward to produce the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun.

Tang Mo had no intention of strengthening his ground anti-aircraft defense forces. In his view, anti-aircraft operations were better left to the Air Force.

The idea of firing twenty thousand anti-aircraft shells to bring down a single enemy aircraft was something Tang Mo simply couldn’t do—he wasn’t that foolish. Therefore, he prepared to faithfully follow the route taken by American tycoons.

That’s right, use the Air Force to take down the enemy’s Air Force, and the ground troops wouldn’t need to prepare anti-aircraft guns, right? Heh, it saves money, no problem!

The gunners operating the anti-aircraft guns were cranking handles, causing the muzzles of the anti-aircraft guns to rise rapidly—these were professional anti-aircraft gun mounts, far more advanced than the 76mm caliber anti-aircraft gun mounts previously sold by the Great Tang Group.

"Get ready! Nightfall is approaching!” the lead anti-aircraft gun commander glanced again at the truck on the other side and continued to shout, feeling downcast.

On that truck, soldiers were connecting generators with searchlights from a third vehicle.

As equipment essential for night-time anti-air operations, searchlights could be considered the eyes of the anti-aircraft guns. Without these, the anti-aircraft guns would be incapable of combat in the dark.

Night-time Anti-Aircraft Artillery Troops were always organized in complementary groups, with one searchlight guiding four anti-aircraft guns in combat. The four anti-aircraft guns were positioned around the searchlight, and if the searchlight spotted a target, they would commence the attack.

Of course, relying solely on searchlights seemed utterly inadequate to cover the entire skies over the war zone. Mainly, they depended on another set of equipment to spot airships.

Having ample experience with airship use, Tang Mo naturally wouldn’t fail to equip his anti-aircraft troops with sound ranging devices.

This apparatus was like a large gramophone, with several horns aimed at the pitch-black sky.

With this device, vigilant soldiers just had to press their ears against it to hear the approaching engines of airships.

Once they confirmed the approach of an airship, they could command nearby searchlights to turn on, illuminating and searching for the target.

Once a target was found, the anti-aircraft guns were able to open fire in the night, bringing down those large Hardshell Airships.

The nights of this era were still pitch dark, and the silent darkness wasn’t necessarily the best camouflage for military operations. The Tang Army was not the only one reluctant to launch large-scale military operations at night—the Qi Army was also unwilling to deploy troops for major counterattacks in the darkness.

The primary reason was the constraints of the command system. Once the troops were dispersed, they couldn’t even locate themselves—what’s the point of fighting then?

The Tang side was also distressed; Tang Mo knew the potency of night infiltration because he had seen the mightiest light infantry in action.

The problem was that the Tang Army wasn’t composed of light infantry, but of an Armored Corps built upon weaponry and equipment. Such troops had lost the ability to conduct large-scale night operations, so Tang Mo was reluctantly forced to give up the sweet spot of night warfare.

After night fell, the Qi Army began to launch their airships, preparing for a night counteroffensive—but unlike what the Tang Army expected, the Qi Army’s targets were not the Tang’s frontline airfields or munitions depots.

In fact, the Qi Army didn’t even know the exact locations of these Tang military facilities; the Tang had concealed them too well for the Qi to start an attack.

Under these circumstances, the Qi Army’s battle plan appeared very interesting: the assembling airship forces aimed to bomb the city of Anpu in the northern part of Tang Country.

This could be considered an important strategic node for the Tang Army too, after all, since it had railways, roads, and some vital industrial facilities.

However, its importance wasn’t as high as the frontline airfields constructed by the Tang or the hidden fuel and ammunition depots.

Unfortunately, the Qi Army lacked detailed intelligence, so they could only fly blind toward what they believed to be the most important direction, approaching Anpu step by step.

Around ten at night, an alert sentry from the Tang front lines clearly heard a buzzing sound coming from the distance through the sound locator.

At first, he didn’t pay attention, but as the sound of the engines became clearer, he suddenly realized it was the noise of enemy airships.

Hurriedly, he pulled the nearby air raid alarm, cranking its handle and making the circular siren wail, the sound startling everyone who heard it.

Everyone nearby looked up at the sky, and through the dim moonlight, they all saw those huge, dark shapes floating in the air.

"Airships! Enemy airships!” a soldier yelled nervously, and as his cry rang out, a beam of light suddenly lit up, as if trying to pierce the entire sky.

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