During the bombing, Nakajima Aircraft Company's Nagoya aircraft factory, the largest aircraft manufacturer in the Japanese Army, was completely destroyed. In the entire factory area, there is not even a single complete column left. Also implicated was the Japanese Navy's Mitsubishi Aircraft Factory, also in Nagoya, which also suffered serious damage. The entire aircraft manufacturing industry in Nagoya was paralyzed.

In order to restore and re-establish these aircraft factories, the Japanese had to transfer all the equipment and workers left behind the bombing in Nagoya to Hokkaido and South Kyushu to avoid the almost endless bombing of the Anti-Japanese Union.

Nagoya, a historic city, was completely razed to the ground after five intensive bombardments of the same scale. Not a single intact building has been found in the city, and all wired communications, as well as water and electricity have been cut off. All industrial and agricultural production was halted, and hundreds of thousands of surviving residents were left homeless.

The city, as an industrial area, has lost all its production capacity. If it weren't for the ruins all over the ground, it would have been hard to see that this was once a thriving industrial city. All the prosperity has become a bunch of bubbles like the great ambition of the Japanese.

After Nagoya was razed to the ground, Yang Zhen's gaze turned to Kobe again. Compared to Nagoya, which is famous for its machining, Kobe is not only home to a considerable part of Japan's aircraft manufacturing base, but also an important base for Japan's steelmaking, metallurgy, and chemical industries. Its heavy industry manufacturing capacity is far superior to Nagoya's.

After getting eighty American B-24 bombers at the beginning of November, a hundred newly arrived Stirling bombers, fifty Wilytt bombers were replenished. The Anti-Japanese Union concentrated almost all the bomber groups that could be concentrated, and launched large-scale air raids on Kobe and the surrounding industrial areas.

At 3 p.m. on 21 October, the Anti-Japanese Union concentrated all the 240 Stirling bombers, 100 Wilytt bombers, 120 B24 bombers, 50 B17 bombers, and all the Ye-2 bombers, Il-4, DB-3, and Wellington bombers that could take off, forming an unprecedentedly large bomber group.

They took off from the four bases of Hunchun, Jiamusi, Mudanjiang, and Hulin, and crossed the interception line of the Japanese army on the Korean Peninsula under the escort of all the P40 fighters who concentrated all the anti-Japanese fighters. Under the cover of sixteen electronic warfare and navigation aircraft, they arrived in two groups over Kobe, Japan, at midnight.

Eighteen napalm bombs dropped by six Wellington bombers as pilot aircraft, ignited a raging fire as a guide on the ground. One hundred Whalet bombers, as well as twenty B-XVII bombers, were the first to drop 200-ton high-explosive bombs.

Subsequently, 420 heavy bombers, carrying thousands of tons of napalm, adopted the tactic of dropping bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters at the same time. The nearly 1,000 tons of napalm were all dropped on the city of Kobe. 1,000 tons of napalm and 200 tons of high-explosive bombs wiped one of Japan's most important industrial cities from the face of the earth in one fell swoop.

At the same time that the heavy bombers bombed the city, 20 Il-4 and DB-3 bombers, which were dispatched in coordination to suppress the anti-aircraft artillery, and 50 Wellington bombers, all of which were dispatched, completely bombed the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery positions around Kobe.

These DB III and Il-IV bombers, which were designed to suppress anti-aircraft fire, were specially modified. On the wings and nose of the aircraft, a total of seven Soviet-made 20-mm cannons were installed from the Lag-3 fighters and the Hurricane-2 fighters, and ten 50-kilogram small bombs were carried.

It was specially used to suppress the Japanese ground anti-aircraft artillery fire and reduce the losses of heavy bombers. This batch of bombers dedicated to dealing with Japanese anti-aircraft artillery fire was after a large number of bomber groups entered the Japanese mainland. As long as there is an anti-aircraft artillery position on the ground that is firing, immediately dive down to solve it.

In order to address the threat of ground fire to the bomber group, the most rugged Wellington bombers did not have enough range. It was partially modified by the Anti-Union and installed armored fuel tanks in the bomb bay. It nearly doubled its range to a full 3,000 km, while increasing the number of onboard machine guns on board to nine.

Although the conversion of the bomb bay into a fuel tank seems somewhat risky. But the aircraft is exceptionally sturdy, and the increased fuel tanks are protected by armor, as long as the aircraft itself is not in trouble. The possibility of the fuel tank being hit and detonated, almost non-existent.

The vast majority of Japanese fighters were armed with two 12-mm machine guns with very poor performance, which could not penetrate the body that could be described as strong. When suppressing ground fire, anti-aircraft machine gun hits were just as useless. As for the various anti-aircraft guns of the Japanese army, it was useless because they were low-flying large-caliber ones. Small and medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns, which can be directly skipped by using speed and a sturdy body.

Compared with the Il-4 and DB-3, which have weaker armor protection, this Wellington bomber, which can be said to be made of pig iron, has almost become the main force of ground suppression. For the anti-aircraft artillery position, nine 12-mm machine guns on the fuselage were first used to strafe them, and then the DB 3 threw 50 kg of bombs in the mode of dive bombing, so as to completely weaken the ground anti-aircraft fire.

Based on the experience summed up by the Nagoya air raid, the Anti-Japanese Union formulated this tactic can be described as quite brilliant. Take a heavy bomber like Wellington and use it as a ground attack aircraft. In conjunction with the DB-3 and IL-4, which were used as dive bombers, they played a considerable role in the bombing of Kobe.

The number of bombers dispatched by the Anti-Union in this war was the highest in 42 years. But not a single bomber was shot down by the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery group. On the contrary, the ground air defense positions deployed by the Japanese army around Kobe were basically destroyed as soon as they opened fire. Only nine bombers were bombed this time, and they were shot down by Japanese fighters on their way back.

Without the threat of ground firepower, the lowest flying Stirling bomber was thick-skinned. Two twelve-mm machine guns on the Japanese fighters did not play much against him. And the self-defense firepower of the Stirling bombers was not weak, and eight 12-mm machine guns were enough to make all the intercepted Japanese planes uncomfortable.

As for the B-17 and B-24 bombers, their strong self-defense firepower and survivability allowed the intercepting Japanese fighters to be shot down quite a bit. The Japanese were still quite primitive at this time, and they still had enough hardships to deal with the tactics of the Chinese's original old-fashioned self-defense bombers with weak firepower, and to deal with these bombers that were like fire hedgehogs.

Of the nine bombers shot down, only one was a Stirling bomber. The remaining eight were all old-fashioned, weak self-defense firepower Wheelett bombers. The B-17 and B-24 bombers not only did not shoot down, but even shot down five Japanese Type II fighters in air battles.

Dealing with Japanese pilots who had a heavy bomber with strong self-defense firepower and were obviously inexperienced. When intercepting in the air, it can be said that it has suffered enough. Attacking from either direction will have to face the dense self-defense fire of the bomber group. Instead of playing the role it should have, it was shot down quite a bit.

In this battle, the Anti-Union coordinated for the first time, and the Katarina seaplane was specially used to rescue the pilot. On the west coast of Japan, most of the pilots who were also shot down were rescued. The only regret was that on the way back to landing, five Stirling bombers broke their fragile landing gear.

Yang Zhen's tactics of drawing salaries from the bottom of the kettle, although the losses are not light. However, the effect was also quite obvious, after the war, with the Nakajima Aircraft Company, which was responsible for the main aircraft production of the Japanese Army, several of the largest factories were bombed into ruins, and the Japanese Army Air Force was unusually slow to replenish aircraft for a long time.

Half a month after the completion of the bombing of Kobe, the Anti-Japanese Union once again concentrated 42 B-24 bombers, all of which carried high-explosive bombs with the maximum bomb load. After careful planning, a carpet bombing of Okuno Island, located in the waters of Takehara City, Hiroshima Prefecture, in the Seto Inland Sea, was carried out.

Although Okuno Island is not famous, it is home to the largest poison gas factory in the entire Japanese Army. It is the most important chemical weapons raw material production plant and research base since the Japanese army conducted chemical warfare research. The poison gas produced by this chemical weapon throughout World War II could destroy the whole of Japan.

Since the 77 Incident, 80 percent of the poison gas that Japan has put into the battlefield in China has been produced by this factory. If this island can be completely destroyed, the Japanese army's chemical warfare capability will be reduced to a minimum from the root, and the damage caused to the Chinese by the large-scale poison gas warfare carried out by the Japanese army will be reduced to the greatest extent at least in a short time.

The poison gas of the Japanese, the Chinese are their only targets for use. For countries like the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union, where the chemical industry and the ability to develop poison gas far exceed those of the Japanese, the Japanese, who are always worried about retaliation, will not dare to use poison gas under any circumstances.

In fact, throughout World War II, the only targets of chemical warfare waged by the Japanese were the Chinese, who had basically no ability to retaliate, and all the Chinese military. Poison gas has become a trump card used by the Japanese army when the offensive is unfavorable and passive defense. The tens of thousands of Chinese killed and wounded under the Japanese poison gas bombs were few.

Most of the raw materials used by the Japanese against China, such as poison gas shells, smoke canisters, and chemical warfare agents, were produced on this island and then transported to the Sagami Arsenal for loading. If the poison gas factory on this island were wiped out, it would be equivalent to cutting off the Japanese army's food source for chemical weapons.

Blowing up the factory would not stop the Japanese army, which had already stockpiled a large amount of chemical weapons, from continuing to use poison gas on the battlefield in China. But at least for a considerable period of time, the Japanese will not be able to afford to produce and manufacture new chemical weapons. Let them in a short period of time, powerless to expand their already large chemical weapons arsenal. To a certain extent, to alleviate the harm suffered by the Chinese.

For this island, which can be called Alcatraz Island at the moment, as well as the demon processing factory on the island, Yang Zhen included the first batch of Il-4 bombers that could carry out long-range bombing, and when they arrived in the northeast, they were included in the first batch of targets for air strikes against Japan. And the level of inclusion is definitely one that must be destroyed.

In other words, this small island definitely ranks no more than the top three among the targets of Yang Zhen's air raid on Japan. You can even talk about the small island and the buildings on the island, as well as the Sagami Arsenal, which was finally reloaded and made into a finished product. In the order of bombing listed by Yang Zhen, this island is the top priority.

The importance far exceeds that of aircraft manufacturing companies such as Nakajima, Kawanishi, and Mitsubishi, as well as a series of Japanese military production bases such as the Osaka Artillery Factory and the Ogura Arsenal. Yang Zhen did not have an atomic bomb in his hand, and if he had, he would not hesitate to give one to this island.