"Sit down and talk." General Arnold looked up from the pile of documents, signed it, and then handed it to the adjutant, and said to Ron casually.

"Yes, General!" Ron sat down on a chair.

"What do you think of the war situation in Burma?" General Arnold asked directly.

Ron knew that his answer might be crucial, so he thought about it for a moment and then answered:

"General, I think the poor performance of the P-51 has more to do with tactics."

At this point, Ron paused and quietly paid attention to the general's reaction. However, General Arnold had no further reaction, so Ron had no choice but to continue.

"Obviously, in Myanmar, we are using our own weaknesses to compete with Japan's strengths. The P-51 is a high-speed fighter, and its laminar flow wing makes its high-speed performance unparalleled. But there are gains and losses.

, its low-speed segment performance has also been affected by this. But the battles in the battle reports I saw basically took place in the low-speed segment below 250 miles per hour (about 400 kilometers). At this speed, the Japanese

Any kind of aircraft is more outstanding than the P-51. Therefore, the occurrence of this unfavorable situation is not because the P-51 is not good, but because we made a tactical mistake of attacking with a short attack. Our tactics should be

Engage the enemy on the highway."

"But, Ron, our planes are performing escort missions. The transport planes fly very slowly, and the escort fighters cannot fly too fast." General Arnold raised his own question.

This issue was also within the scope of Ron's consideration. Ron knew how General Doolittle used the P-51 correctly in Europe later, thereby defeating the German Air Force in one fell swoop. Doolittle's tactics could just solve this problem. So he

He calmly replied: "General, I have a new idea. Maybe we can do this..."

a week later……

At an airport in Assam, India, the concrete runway glows with dazzling white light under the strong tropical sunlight. Looking at the scenery in the distance, whether it is snow-capped mountains or forests, they seem to be undulating like a layer of water.

"Mmmt, today, I'm afraid it will be more than 100 degrees (Americans are accustomed to using Fahrenheit as a temperature, which is approximately equivalent to 37 degrees Celsius)." Ron stood under a tall palm tree, with his shirt open and holding a hand in one hand.

He held an ice cream cone and grabbed a fan in his other hand. He shook the fan wildly and complained. Big beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He felt like he was like the ice cream cone in his hand.

Same, it will melt soon.

"It's okay, Colonel. The maximum temperature today is 100 degrees. It's not bad. You have to remember that it's only May. In two months, the heat will reach 120 degrees (about 49 degrees Celsius)." One station said

The young officer next to him replied.

"Fortunately, I should have gone back by then." Ron thought in his mind. He turned his head and looked at the young officer who just talked to him. That guy was sent to him by General Bissel of the Tenth Air Force.

The liaison officer is named Brian. I don’t know how long he has been in India. His face is tanned by the sun. Although it is not as bright as an authentic African, it is similar to what African Americans already have.

A comparison.

At this time, the sound of an engine came from the distance - and after a while, a C-47 transport plane appeared in everyone's field of vision.

Through the telescope, Ron clearly saw that the transport plane was in abnormal condition - one engine had obviously stalled, which could be easily seen from the stationary propeller.

As the plane flew closer and closer, more details became more and more clear in the fixed high-power telescope: this plane had obviously been attacked, with many clearly visible bullet holes on the fuselage, and even more on the vertical tail.

It was riddled with holes and was too miserable to be seen.

The plane staggered towards the runway and landed slowly. The wheels jumped on the runway, then quickly stabilized, and finally the plane stopped steadily at the end of the runway.

The cabin door opened, and a man rushed out, shouting something loudly in a language that Ron didn't understand. Then, the ambulance drove over immediately. Ron also jumped on the jeep and said to the driver: "

Go over and take a look.”

When Ron came to the plane, several medical staff were taking a stretcher off the plane. Lying on the stretcher was a Chinese man wearing a flight suit. He had passed out. Ron saw that his thighs were covered in blood.

Soaked.

"He should have been shot in the thigh," Ron thought. "Considering the location of the Japanese base, after being shot, he would have to fly for at least an hour and a half, including mountains and canyons. It's really impressive that he can persevere.

not easy."

Apparently the captain was not the only one injured on the plane. After he was taken out, three more wounded people were taken out one after another - they were all injured by Japanese planes. The last thing taken out was a body -

A 12.7mm machine gun bullet hit him in the chest, killing him on the spot.

After the wounded and bodies were carried away, the passengers on the plane began to come out one after another. Their appearance surprised Ron.

These people were all naked, most of them only wearing a pair of tight-fitting shorts, and a few of them didn't even have shorts! They staggered off the plane, everyone's lips were white and their whole bodies were trembling. There were only about ten meters between them.

Endu could hear the clicking sound of their teeth.

"Holy crap! What's going on! What do these people do?" Ron asked.

"They are all recruits sent from China." The young officer named Brian replied. Probably because he was used to such situations, he seemed nonchalant. Seeing that Ron's face was still full of doubts, he continued

explain:

"When they get here, we will provide all their supplies, including military uniforms, weapons, and training. Their original military uniforms will be replaced when they get here. So 'peanuts' - are theirs

The President, as General Stilwell nicknamed him, stripped them naked just before they got on the plane to save another uniform."

"But it's very cold when flying at high altitudes. The cabin of the C-47 is not pressurized and sealed. When flying to high altitudes, the temperature inside can drop to more than ten degrees below zero. Aren't they afraid of freezing people to death? At least one set should be prepared for them.

Military blanket?" Ron asked, pointing to a guy with white lips and blue face who was shivering under the hot tropical sun.

"We have prepared military blankets for them on the plane, but to be honest, military blankets are not very useful. In addition, this plane is not ours. It belongs to some Chinese airline. This can only be regarded as

These guys are out of luck. But don't worry, most Chinese people just need to bask in the sun and they'll be fine in a while - they're as easy to feed as animals."

The fact is just as Brian said, after a few minutes of basking in the warm Indian sun, the group of animal-like recruits gradually warmed up. At this time, a large Dodge truck drove over, and a man got out of the truck.

The Chinese man in American military uniform said a few words to these people - his dialect was very thick and he spoke very fast. Ron basically didn't understand anything except the word "Ge Laozi"

——Then the recruits climbed into the truck one by one. Then the truck drove away. Ron noticed that from beginning to end, these recruits remained silent, like a group of dumb animals.

In the following period, the airport became very busy, and more than ten C-47s landed here one after another. Each one was scarred, and each one was filled with Chinese recruits who were half-frozen to death.

"The route passes near Myitkyina, where the Japanese have an air force base. The route is under direct threat from enemy aircraft." While Ron was carefully inspecting the landing C-47, Brian said to him from the side.

Explaining, "Fortunately, the Japanese aircraft's firepower is not strong enough. The Ki43 only has two .50 machine guns, and the power is far less than our .50. Otherwise, the losses will be even greater."

"Have you ever tried to use bombers to attack an airport and paralyze the enemy?" Ron asked. Many people think that gaining air supremacy is a matter for fighter jets, but in fact, using bombers to eliminate enemy fighter jets on the ground is often more efficient.

Just like when the Germans launched Plan Barbarossa to raid the Soviet Union, the first step was to use bombers to raid Soviet airports. In that battle, the Soviets lost thousands of aircraft, most of which were

It was blown up at the airport.

"Colonel, we launched two attacks on Myitkyina Airport, but the results were very poor." Brian replied, "Japanese fighter jets have very low requirements for runways. They only need a very simple runway to take off. This kind of runway

, repairing it is faster than blowing it up! Every time our bombers just land on their own runway, the Japanese planes in Myitkyina are already able to take off again. There are dense rainforests near the Myitkyina Airport, and the Japanese aircraft

Planes, oil depots and the like are hidden nearby and cannot be found from the air. The attack has no effect at all and the losses are not small. In addition, Japan itself has the support of local people - just like the 14th Air Force in Yunnan

That way - there were Japanese air defense lookout posts everywhere, and it was difficult for us to achieve the effect of a surprise attack. So later on, we rarely took the initiative to attack Myitkyina Airport."

Ron knew that what Brian said was true. Indeed, if the enemy planes cannot be destroyed, just attacking the runway will not have any long-term effect. The battle situation on Guadalcanal vividly illustrates this point: even if it is attacked by a battleship,

Despite shelling, the airport runway can still be repaired quickly. Guadalcanal also illustrates one point, that is, in the rainforest area, it is how easy to hide several aircraft from reconnaissance planes.

"Brian, go contact General Bissel and give me four P-51s and three veterans. I want to fly to Myitkyina to see for myself."

"Colonel, the general has received orders from General Arnold that you are not allowed to take part in combat flights."

"Did I say I was going to fight the Japanese? I can assure you, general, that if the Japanese don't come to me, I will never fight them... Otherwise? Just say, I need to fly to China.

, one P-51 and three escort P-51s are needed - as far as this route is concerned, I feel that flying a P-51 by myself is much safer than taking a transport aircraft."
Chapter completed!