Munitions Empire-Chapter 1037 - 959 New Air Combat

Chapter 1037: 959 New Air Combat

“Ooo… Ooo… Ooo…” The incessant sound of the alarm echoed over the border city in Shu Country, and the civilians of Shu Country looked up into the sky, seeing a lineup of slender-shaped planes flying over their heads.

It was not that the air raid alarm was sounded too late; rather, these commoners in Shu Territory genuinely did not know what they should do amidst the sounds of the air raid alarm.

In fact, modern people lacking wartime training also do not know much about what they should do during an air raid alarm.

Run for cover? Don’t be silly, besides places like subways, young people who know the nearest civil defense constructions nearby are really few.

Although many underground garages and subways in modern cities are converted from air raid facilities, they have ultimately lost many of their original functions and can actually no longer serve as sufficient shelters. Shu Country in this world, let alone air raid facilities, doesn’t even have decent underground garages and subway stations.

Due to the technological influence of the Great Tang Empire, the urban construction pace in almost all countries in the world is actually reverse—they develop in a non-conventional manner.

Air raid shelters, sewage and drainage systems, and things like electricity—all these were developed later.

In other words, everyone first builds houses, constructs factories, creates railways. They first get industrial development going, then facilities for living follow afterwards.

When the population increases, when the factories are established, when there are railways and airfields and large buildings, then they start to consider things like sewage systems, then they plan for bigger power plants, then they think about the missing supporting facilities.

Taking Dahua Empire’s Fengjiang City as an example, apart from the urban core area built by the engineering team from Tang Empire, which has complete supporting facilities, the surrounding systems are actually incomplete.

Sewage systems need annual repairs, the electrical system also needs to be replaced every year. You expect such a city’s condition to have air raid shelters? What a joke.

Moreover, this world itself lacks a proper concept of air defense; the common people have only feared the air force for perhaps seven or eight years at most. What good habits could they have formed?

So, when the air raid alarm sounded, the common people in Shu Territory did not know what they should do. Some smart wealthy people drove their cars towards the suburbs, while others went back home to be with their families.

Everyone was clueless about what was happening, so more common people still stood at street corners, blankly staring at the enemy planes in the sky.

Above the sky, the Qin Country pilots on a bombing mission, through the special, greenhouse-like cockpit glass windows, looked down at the densely packed buildings below, feeling immensely tense as well.

This was their first time executing a bombing mission on a city, and it was also their first time preparing to drop bombs on such a seemingly vast city.

“Open the bomb bay!” The bombardier, looking through the bombsight produced by the Tang Empire, saw the rooftops of the buildings in the city and shouted amidst the noisy inside of the plane.

With his shout, alongside the continuous drone of the engine, the bomb bay of the DO-17 bomber slowly opened up, exposing the bombs hanging inside to sunlight.

“I’ve taken aim! Starting to bomb!” The bombardier used the crosshair in the bombing sight to aim at the city below, then loudly declared.

Almost simultaneously, he forcefully pressed the button on the bomber, and a bomb detached from its rack, falling through the sky, followed by a second and then a third bomb.

With slight shakes, the bomber’s frame trembled as the bombs, each weighing 50 kilograms, broke free from the restraints of the aircraft, falling towards the ground below.

This method of bombing was also learned by Qin Country from the carpet bombing technique of the Tang Empire. Although their number of planes was far fewer than that of the Tang Empire, they indeed mimicked it rather closely.

Following this bomber, another bomber also dropped its bombs, and yet more bombers continued the same behind them.

This is the allure of carpet bombing and also demonstrates the power of carpet bombing: 40 DO-17 bombers dropping bombs simultaneously, the destructive power was indeed quite astonishing.

Admittedly, the bomb load of the DO-17 bombers sold by the Tang Empire to Qin Country is only a pitiful 1 ton, comparatively very little, but this bomb load, compared to previous biplane bombers, had improved quite a lot.

40 DO-17 bombers could carry 40 tons of bombs; these bombs, once they fell on the city, immediately stirred up a bloody storm.

The first bomb directly hit the roof of a house, smashing a huge hole in the rooftop. The delayed fuse, originated from the Tang Empire, ensured the bomb did not explode immediately after piercing through the roof, but would wait a moment.

This was done to ensure that the bomb would explode inside the building, thus enabling it to unleash maximum destructive power at the time of explosion.

Several seconds later, the bomb that fell into the house exploded violently, destroying the walls around the building and instantly blowing off the roof of the house.

Following immediately, a second bomb exploded, raising a cloud of black smoke directly on the street. The nearby Shu Country civilians who had been watching were knocked over by the shockwave, and the locals hit by the bomb screamed in terror, while those standing dumbfounded immediately scattered like birds and beasts.

A third bomb exploded not far away, followed by a fourth and a fifth. As the bombs continuously extended towards another block, the people of Shu Territory finally realized that the war seemed to have truly erupted.

“Help! People are dead!” A woman, seeing the corpses lying haphazardly next to a bomb crater nearby, couldn’t help but scream in horror.

Honestly speaking, as a medium-range bomber that can only carry a load of bombs once and has weak self-defense capabilities, the performance of the DO-17 bomber was not very good.

The bombs it dropped were very small, and if large, the quantity it could carry was very limited, which severely restricted its combat effectiveness.

However, when the people of Shu Territory witnessed modern bombing for the first time, they were indeed frightened.

It was their first time seeing an enemy from the sky, and also the first time they desperately realized that their city was so vulnerable to attacks.

Originally, they thought their city was more than two hundred kilometers away from the border and was an absolutely safe place. Even if war broke out, they could still flee inland in time.

Unfortunately, now, reality harshly slapped their faces: even being more than 200 kilometers away from the border, enemy planes could still bomb the city into ruins on the same day.

“People! Help put out the fire!” Not far away, as walls collapsed due to bomb explosions, wooden houses caught fire, and someone cried out in terror.

Since there were many wooden buildings, fire had always been the disaster most feared by the civilians of Shu Territory. Once a fire started, it could potentially spread to the entire block, causing enormous losses.

In the skies above, the Shu Country, having bought technology from the Great Tang Empire and assembled their own, called the C200 model Fighter Jets locally as 200 model fighter jets, were circling.

Its performance was roughly comparable to that of the Hurricane Fighter Jet, and although it was indeed inferior to the “Butcher”, there wasn’t a huge gap.

Pilots of Shu Country flying more than a dozen such planes had already arrived at the battlefield, seeing their own city being attacked and black smoke rising from within.

“Get closer! Get closer! Cut in from the edge! Bite down on the opponent!” The leading Shu Country Air Force Commander issued an order through the intercom.

Accompanied by the roar of engines, these Shu Country fighter jets began to enter the battlefield, with one instantly biting onto a slender flying pencil that had just completed its bombing mission.

“Rat-a-tat-tat!” The 200 model fighter jet only had two 12.7mm caliber aircraft machine guns installed, and its firepower was relatively weak, making it quite strenuous to attack bombers.

But the DO-17 bomber itself had really crappy defensive capabilities, being very vulnerable with its thin skin and large filling, so the two sides were evenly matched on another level.

The Shu Country pilot bit into that Qin Country bomber, facing tracer bullets shot from the defensive machine gun on the opponent’s plane, he fired from a very close distance, unleashing a burst of bullets.

“Die!” In the cramped cockpit, the Shu Country pilot squeezed out a curse through clenched teeth, and with his curse, the tracer bullets he fired punched a row of holes in the body of the opponent’s plane.

Bullets hit the engine of the flying pencil DO-17 bomber, and then thick smoke spilled from the engine cover, with the hit flying pencil starting to lose altitude uncontrollably.

At that moment, two other 200 model fighter jets also found their targets, chasing behind that flying pencil, they fired bursts of tracer bullets until the flying pencil began to plummet with thick smoke trailing behind.

In the blink of an eye, two bombers were shot down, which alarmed the Qin Country’s Air Force escort fighter jets squadron. They plunged into the battlefield and began to engage their Shu Country counterparts.

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For a time, the battlefield sky was filled with the roaring of engines, and on the ground, seeing their nation’s planes engaging enemy aircraft, the people of Shu Country could no longer contain their emotions and raised their arms, cheering loudly.

“Enemy planes! Enemy planes!” Amidst the chaotic airspace, the Shu Country Commander, while dodging the Qin Country fighter jets hunting him, reminded his comrades: “Watch out for the enemy’s escort fighters!”

“Sir, hang in there! Hang in there! I’ve got him! Circle around! Circle around!” Through the headset, the voice of a comrade was frantic and tense.

“Watch your altitude! Watch your altitude! Be careful with fuel consumption! Don’t linger in battle!” On the other side, Qin Country’s fighter pilots were also intensely maneuvering their planes, and through the headset, came similarly busy and excited shouts.