The 2nd Flying Regiment has a total of 1310 combat aircraft. The army transferred four flight brigades, the 7th, 9th, 12th, and 15th, and concentrated 18 squadrons of fighters, 12 squadrons of light bombers, 16 squadrons of heavy bombers, and 12 squadrons of reconnaissance planes. In addition to a small number of fighters and reconnaissance planes left at the field airfield, 178 were equipped at Baihuacheng and 141 at Alan Mountain, making a posture of flanking Chinese planes.

When the Northeast Army learned that the main force of the Siberian Air Force had arrived at Baihua City, on 22 August, it dispatched 350 planes to attack the assembly area and field airfield of the Tianlongmiao Army. The military also dispatched 320 planes to respond to the battle. From the 22nd to the 24th, the two sides fought for three days in the skies over the Sangye River area, and both sides lost a total of 170 aircraft. Since then, Chinese aircraft have been fighting more and more, and new types of fighters have appeared. At the beginning, the plane had an advantage, but a few days later, due to the lack of support, the pilots were constantly eroding their old roots, and the pilots took off frequently, were exhausted, and gradually lost the initiative in the air and were in a position of being passively beaten.

In order to salvage the decline of the Air Force, Lieutenant General Toru Saga proposed; Surprise attacks were carried out on the flight bases of the Northeast Army in Tahar and other places, and the living forces of the Chinese Air Force were eliminated by sudden means.

The Siberian Garrison Command believes that since the air raids on Danoktu, Alan Mountain, and Tianlong Temple have been carried out, the army can go to bomb other areas in retaliation. Moreover, it was considered that this was within the authority of the commander of the Siberian garrison, and that it was an attack on the air base near Takhar and the destruction of all enemy aircraft.

For the sake of secrecy, this order was not given by telegram or telephone, but was written and handed over to Lieutenant General Toru Saga, commander of the 2nd Flying Corps, directly to the White Birch Castle by the operational staff of the Siberian garrison.

From the date of the planned bombing of Takhar to the evening of 26 July, the commander of the 2nd Flying Corps knew that there were four field airfields near Takhar, 11 large aircraft, 12 medium aircraft, 18 small and medium-sized aircraft, and 123 small aircraft. There are two airports near Tangra with a fleet of 132 small and medium-sized aircraft. Two airfields near Kailin: 13 large aircraft, 93 small and medium-sized aircraft, and 115 small aircraft. There are a total of 517 combat aircraft at 3 bases.

On the evening of 26 August, at an operational meeting attended by Major General Otozaburo Losto, deputy chief of staff of the Siberian Garrison Headquarters, the commander of the 2nd Flying Corps ordered a cross-border air raid in the early morning of 27 August to destroy all the planes at the Northeast Army's flight base. Major General Baokuji, commander of the 7th Flying Brigade, led 120 "I" Type 100 heavy bombers; Major General Shimono, commander of the 9th Flying Brigade, led 127 heavy bombers and 110 light bombers; The commander of the 12th Flying Brigade, Major General Dong, led 180 fighters. A total of 537 aircraft took part in the unprecedented air raid. The commander of the 15th Flying Regiment was on alert at the base.

At 4 o'clock in the morning of August 27, at the Baihuacheng Airport before dawn, the engines of more than 100 planes were humming, and the gray-white fuselage was dimly visible. Major General Baobaoji, the commander of the 7th Flying Regiment, wearing a flight suit, got into the cabin of the "I" Type 100 heavy bomber, and after inspecting the state of the bombardier, he took the lead and flew up, and the rest of the planes took off one after another, and it took 30 minutes for the group to take off and form in the air over White Birch City. At the front of the first group was a group of fighters, then the second group was a group of heavy bombers, the third group was a group of light bombers, and finally the fourth group was still a group of fighters, the formation was diamond-shaped, and it covered the sky of White Birch City. The pilots were very excited, and in the history of world air warfare, this can also be said to be a large-scale air raid operation, and of course it will go down in history.

The plane flew west at an altitude of 3000 meters. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the pilot saw Hung Yen Lake with white waves under the wings. At 6:20, it reached the airfield over Gelukmutu and other places.

Air raid sirens were sounding at the airport, and countless Chinese planes were flying one after another, some of them in a hurry at the same time. Looking from the air, it looked like a fish coming out of a net, and the fighter immediately pounced.

When the fighters were entangled with the Chinese planes, a formation of heavy bombers led by Rear Admiral Treasure Temple flew over the airfield, then turned 180 degrees and returned to the airfield to order the group to drop bombs. Hundreds of bombers dropped all the bombs at the same time, and the rows of black dots began to descend in parallel and then slanted into the airfield ground. The airport was suddenly covered in black smoke from the explosion, and the explosions flashed with strong light, and the smoke billowed up like a whirlpool. The Chinese plane, which took off in a hurry in the smoke, mingled with the plane in the air like a flock of birds. Some black smoke erupted from the tail of the plane and fell into the grassland; Some of them were like fireballs thrown into the Hung Yen Lake, and there were smoking Chinese fighter planes in the air desperately chasing after the Yuben fighters, trying to die together.

After a brief silence, anti-aircraft guns rang out around the airfield. Anti-aircraft shells bloomed like firecrackers in the front, back, left, right, and up and down of the plane's formation. In an instant, the sky seemed to be hung with thousands of cannonballs like cotton peaches. One after another, the planes flashed in the air, and immediately became thousands of fragments, falling like snowflakes. The Chinese anti-aircraft guns became more and more fierce, and the shells formed a barrage barrier at an altitude of 3,000 meters, and exploded around the fuselage. The air wave shook the planes, causing the formation to gather and disperse, thus greatly affecting the hit rate of the bombs.

In order to evade anti-aircraft artillery fire, the formation of the planes raised its flight altitude and crossed the barrage. At this time, Major General Treasure Temple, who led the plane, sent out a radio signal: "Torah (Tiger)!" Torah (Tiger)! Torah (Tiger)! ”

At 7:40 a.m., the formation of this plane returned to Baihua City and reported to the Siberian garrison headquarters that 99 Chinese planes were shot down and 45 Chinese planes were destroyed on the ground, a total of 144 (36 of which were unconfirmed).

Major General Takakuji, commander of the 7th Flying Brigade, believes that because the antiaircraft artillery units of the Northeast Army formed a barrage barrier to intercept at an altitude of 3,000 meters and the Northeast Army's fighter planes stubbornly resisted, forcing more than half of the bombers' bombs to drop on the periphery of the airfield, the Northeast Army's ground losses were not large. Moreover, the number of enemy planes shot down and destroyed, compared with the number of Chinese planes parked on the ground that my colleagues first detected, is obviously exaggerated.

In the battle report of the Northeast Army, it was mentioned that in the air battle from August 22 to August 24, the Chinese Air Force shot down 66 planes and lost 154 of them.

The success of the bombing of Grukmutu made the Siberian garrison command ecstatic. The scale of the air raid was unprecedented, the results were brilliant, and the Siberian garrison command believed that the battle had saved face and seized air supremacy.

The massive bombing carried out by the Japanese army inflicted heavy losses on the Northeast Army and exposed the Achilles' heel of the Chinese air force in the Far East. After this air raid, the army has gained a certain degree of air supremacy, and all signs indicate that a large-scale ground offensive is about to begin. The war situation in the Northeast was suddenly in a critical situation.

The Northeast Army urgently increased its troops in Danoketu and prepared to meet the attack of the Japanese army.

Zhong Liwei sent an urgent telegram to the Chinese government, asking for urgent support for the air force to regain air supremacy, and to send more mechanized troops and artillery. The Supreme Command of the Chinese Political Axe ordered urgent support for the Eastern Siberian battlefield.

Major General Bao Yunsheng, acting commander of the Northeast Army's Air Force, arrived in Noktu. With his arrival, the number of front-line fighters increased to 851 and the number of bombers to 716. When Lieutenant General Xie Xun, commander of the artillery of the Northeast Army, arrived in Noktu, he brought with him a large number of field artillery regiments, mountain artillery regiments, mortar regiments, howitzer regiments, cannon heavy artillery regiments, and rocket artillery regiments. Behind the commander of the Northeast Army's armored corps, Lieutenant General Xiao Yi, came the 6th and 11th Tank Brigades, the 7th, 8th, and 9th Mechanized Infantry Brigades, forming two armored groups. Several motorized rifle brigades also arrived.

In order to launch a new offensive, the army is also increasing its troops in large numbers. The artillery joint defense, engineer wing, baggage wing, rapid-fire artillery wing, and cavalry wing of the 23rd Division and the 7th Division headed for Danoktu. The 1st Tank Division, the East Siberian Cavalry Division, and the Northern Siberian Garrison all drove over. So far, the army has 136,000 soldiers, 782 tanks, 451 armored vehicles, 1,112 artillery pieces, and 1,400 automobiles in Danoktu. And has 2 combat aircraft, including 1180th Flying Corps. Border garrisons and other reserve forces are also readily available.

After the preparations for the offensive troops of the Chinese army were completed, Lieutenant General Komatsubara, commander-in-chief of the Danoktu front of the Chinese army, drew up an operational plan for the cross-strait attack on the Northeast Army. The plan was to use the 26th and 28th Infantry Wings of the 7th Division of the Chinese Army as the main force, cross the river from the upper reaches of the Sangye River, enter the Tet Barral Mountain on the west bank, annihilate the artillery positions of the Northeast Army, and then condescendingly bombard the positions of the Northeast Army on the east bank with artillery fire; With the 23rd Division and the 1st Tank Division of Tianlongmiao and the East Siberian Cavalry Division, they attacked the Northeast Army on the east bank of the Sangye River from the front, forming a flank attack on both sides of the river and completely annihilating the Northeast Army.

On September 1, 1942, Major General Kobayashi led 15,000 troops to cross the Sangye River and pounce on the Northeast Army.

The 6th Mongolian Cavalry Division of the Northeast Army, which was located on the front line of the battlefield, stubbornly resisted and engaged in short-handed combat. The 6th Regiment of the 15th Cavalry Division fought bloodily against an enemy force ten times larger than itself. Some positions fought to the last man, and some squadrons were all killed. Sa Tianxiong, a heavy machine gunner of the 3rd Squadron, in order to cover the breakthrough of the troops, held his position alone, killed and wounded a large number of soldiers, and finally died heroically. Squadron Leader Tuenke led his soldiers in hand-to-hand combat with the Yue army, and because they were outnumbered, all the squadron was killed.

In this bloody battle, more than 400 people were killed in the 15th Regiment of the Northeast Army, and almost all the survivors were wounded. However, they gained two precious hours for the battle situation, so that the main force of the 6th Cavalry Division arrived and deployed the second line of defense, so that Zhong Liwei could organize forces to encircle and suppress the Yue army.

More than 10,000 troops successfully smuggled in, the two sides exchanged fire, and the 6th Mongolian Cavalry Division lost its troops, making Komatsuba get carried away; Tank expert Zhong Liwei is nothing more than that, he did not enter the Army University, and he also came to study and command the Great Battle. In the battle of World War I, it was just to command a few tanks, Zhong Liwei was not good at strategy, and he was not his opponent at all.

However, Komatsubara's joy was too early.

After Zhong Liwei, commander of the 37th Armored Army, received the report from the front, he immediately judged the tactics of the army, which ostensibly gave the Northeast Army the impression that it was carrying out the main attack in the center of the battle line, but in fact, he secretly crossed the Sangye River at night and carried out a flanking attack on both sides of the Northeast Army.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, Zhong Liwei had already organized 750 tanks, 615 armored vehicles, 820 artillery pieces and 696 aircraft, plus 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, to reinforce the 6th cavalry division and encircle and annihilate the main force of the invading army.

The Komatsubara's troops, full of spring breeze, soon fell into the three-sided encirclement of Zhongliwei. Bombs, shells, grenades, and guns rained down on the army, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored vehicles rampaged through the cavalry, and the encirclement became smaller and smaller, and thousands of dead soldiers and killed horses were scattered all over the wilderness. The Siberian garrison desperately fled, and many officers and soldiers drowned in the Mulberry River.

In this battle, the attacking army was completely defeated, losing more than 9,000 soldiers and horses, 100 officers below Major General Ouchi were killed in battle, and the grassland was full of burning chariots, dead horses and corpses were scattered across the field.

In this battle, the Siberian garrison experienced the combined operation of infantry, artillery, tanks, and aircraft of the Northeast Army. Whether it is the art of command, or weapons and equipment, the [***] team of Yuan Shikai's era is no longer comparable with the [***] team of today.

Zhong Liwei was really extraordinary, and the first battle caused the "flower of the empire", the elite Siberian garrison army, to flee.

Komatsubara's troops were defeated, but the Siberian garrison did not stop fighting. On September 3, 1942, the 1st Tank Division of the Chinese Army launched an attack on the east bank of the Sangye River, and the armored units of the Northeast Army bravely met it. Thus, the largest tank battle in the history of the Asian war began.

Lieutenant General Yasuoka, commander of the 1st Tank Division, led 687 medium tanks, light tanks, and 537 armored vehicles, with the cooperation of the infantry wing and engineer wing of the 23rd Division, to launch an attack on the left and right fronts.

After 30 minutes of artillery bombardment, Lieutenant General Yasuoka's two-line tank cluster pounced on the positions of the Northeast Army. The two infantry defense lines of the Northeast Army were quickly broken through, but the third line of defense was blocked by the artillery of the Northeast Army, and the tank and infantry wings were divided.

Zhong Liwei, an expert in tank warfare, began to show his skills. He used the 1st Tank Brigade and the 7th Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Northeast Army in a decisive battle against Lieutenant General Yasuoka's tank division. At noon on 4 September, the Chinese tank unit encountered the front of the Aitbar Heights. On the 7-kilometer-wide battlefield, 750 "Walker" flamethrower tanks and more than 300 infantry fighting vehicles and armored vehicles of the Northeast Army, with the cooperation of the 5th Infantry Brigade, surrounded 687 tanks and 537 armored vehicles of the Angang Tank Division. The air forces of both sides also fought in the skies above the tank battle.

The "Walker" tank of the Northeast Army has a tonnage of 43 tons, thick armor, a large radius of action, and the 85-mm gun on the tank has a long range and fast rate of fire. Compared with the "four" medium tank of the Yue Army, the tonnage is only 30 tons, which is relatively small, the armor is thin, the radius of action is small, and the 75 mm guns equipped on the tank are also relatively backward, and the "97" light tank cannot be compared with the tanks of the Northeast Army. From the high ground, two tank armies faced each other, as if a huge herd of cattle was fighting a large herd of sheep. At the same time, all the artillery of the Northeast Army roared in unison, and all the shells smashed into the infantry and artillery behind the tanks, so that Yasuoka lost the support of artillery fire and infantry "meat bullets", and had to fight hard against tanks.

On the battlefield for several kilometers, more than 2,000 chariots were fighting, and suddenly the cannon roared, the flames rose, the smoke column soared into the sky, and the entire grassland began to tremble.

The tanks of the Northeast Army rushed left and right between the sand dunes and grasslands without any scruples, while the tanks of the Northeast Army took advantage of each sand dune to appear and disappear from time to time and shoot skillfully. At the beginning of the battle, the leading tank of the Japanese army was hit, and the commander of the 3rd Tank Wing, Kiyoshi Maru Kiyotake, was destroyed. In a short time, more than 400 tanks and 537 armored vehicles were all hit and caught fire by the Northeast Army. The Northeast Army's "Walker" flamethrower tank fired at the light tank of the Yue Army at a short distance of 30 meters, and the blazing flames shot out of the muzzle of the gun surrounded the "97" light tank of the Yue Army, and the temperature was as high as more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. The tank rumbled and overturned, and explosions rang out inside the tank. The tank, which was burning in the flames, spewed fire from its muzzle and lookout, and the tracks and armored compartments of the tank were burned crooked or distorted, and then they overturned. The occupants of the car could not escape, and they were crushed to pieces by the explosion of ammunition in the car.

In this face-to-face battle with a huge disparity in strength, the Angang Tank Division lost more than half of its tanks and all its armored vehicles. The remnants of the tanks fled back to the General's Temple.

After the Northeast Army recovered all the positions on the east bank of the Sangye River, it was estimated that the 23rd Division and the 7th Division would join forces to attack after joining up with Yasuoka, so they stopped the attack, cleaned up the battlefield, and strengthened the mutual operation of positions. The artillery fire turned to support the 8th Mongolian Cavalry Division of the Northeast Army against the attack of the 6th Garrison Division of Eastern Siberia. On August 31, Lieutenant General Yasuoka ordered the 6th Division to fight in coordination with the army's tank troops. At dawn on September 3, the 6th Garrison Division began to attack the 8th Division of the Northeast Army, and once occupied the forward position of the 8th Division.

After the defeat of Lieutenant General Yasuoka's tank division, more than 20,000 infantry and more than 200 tanks of the Northeast Army cooperated with the 8th Division to counterattack the Northeast Army. On September 6, the army suffered heavy losses, was already crushed, and was almost completely annihilated, and then under the response of more than 13,000 infantry of the 23rd Division sent by Lieutenant General Komatsubara, the remnants of the defeated army survived. The attack of the tank units and garrison divisions ended in the defeat of the army.

(To be continued)