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Text 104. Progressive strategy

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    It was a scorching summer day in Malaita Island in December, but at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, one could still feel the chill coming from outside in the cabin.  Qin Haomin, who was wearing a thick flight jacket in the cockpit, gently held the control column and occasionally turned his face to look at the friendly aircraft beside him.  Through the goggles, the entire sky was blue, with white clouds moving slowly beneath my feet like snow peaks. Occasionally, through the gaps in the clouds, I could see a deep blue sea below.

    It only takes a few hours to transfer from the naval base in Lae to the frontline field airport in Suafa Bay. The "Swift" equipped by the naval land-based aviation force can reach a maximum speed of 738 kilometers, which is almost close to the limit of propeller aircraft.  , even flying at cruising speed, is faster than the maximum speed of most fighter jets in the early days of the war.

    "Attention, all planes, the Su'afa base is ahead. Each squadron lowers its altitude and prepares to land one by one!" The voice of Wing Commander Wang Xinjiang came from the earphones. Qin Haomin looked up, and sure enough, he could vaguely see a line of coral sand.  The white coast is composed of mountains, and beyond is the endless green jungle.  After flying in the boring sea for a period of time, seeing the green land appear will always give you a feeling of joy.

    The 43rd Wing of the Ninth Air Force of the Nanyang Fleet Naval Air Force was the first aviation unit to station on Malaita Island. In just one month after the successful landing at Suafa Bay, a large military port and a capable  A field airfield to accommodate an air wing was built on the coast of Suafa Bay.

    The establishment of naval aviation is different from that of army aviation. Wings, groups and squadrons in Hainan aviation are equivalent to aviation divisions, regiments and squadrons in army aviation. However, the number of squadrons in Hainan aviation is not fixed, usually 4.  Flying groups, but the front-line aviation wings are much larger. For example, the 43rd Wing has 8 flying groups and more than 520 combat aircraft.

    Qin Haomin gently pushed the joystick, and the fighter plane passed through the clouds and flew at a low altitude of 800 meters over the bay. On the inside of the blue bay, a large military dock constructed of steel piles, steel beams and large cement caissons appeared in front of him.  Further ahead is a steel structure field airport nearly a kilometer long, similar to the deck of an aircraft ship.  Since the 43rd Air Wing was the first air force to station at Suafa Airport, there were only a dozen fighter planes injured due to missions on Guadalcanal parked on the steel runway.

    Not far from the field airport, a large military concrete airport is under intense construction. Large bulldozers, excavators, road rollers and other heavy machinery were transported ashore after the port was completed.  The H-9 twin-engine bomber equipped by the Republican Army has a range of 3,800 kilometers, and the J-5 "Swift" fighter jet has a range even further than the H-9 after adding auxiliary fuel tanks. In fact, it flies from Lae, Moresby and  The attack range of fighter planes taking off from large military airports in Rabaul and other places is enough to cover the entire Southern Solomon Islands. The Republican Army started to build large military airports in this area in preparation for attacking New Caledonia and New Hebri.  The forward base of the bottom archipelago.

    One after another, the fighter planes of the 43rd Wing landed like swarms on the temporary runway built with steel beams and steel plates. Since there is heavy rainfall almost every two or three days in the tropical rainforest, it  Unlike in the northern region, these runways are installed about 40 centimeters above the ground to facilitate drainage.  The fighter planes landed on the runway, making bursts of noise, which always gave them an uneasy feeling. On the contrary, they felt safer than being on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

    In order to make up for the losses on the aircraft carriers, the pilots of the Naval Land-based Air Force must undergo about half a year of adaptation training on the aircraft carriers so that they can be quickly replenished into the carrier-based air wings during wartime.  For the Navy, the carrier-based air wing is definitely more important than the land-based air wing.

    Qin Haomin landed the fighter plane smoothly on the runway. The wheels made a screeching sound on the steel plate when braking. The speed of the four-blade propeller dropped. Under the guidance of the ground commander's flag, he controlled the fighter plane.  Drive slowly to the designated parking area.  The ground crew member ran over and helped push the fighter plane to the parking position. Qin Haomin took off his helmet, opened the curved hatch, and climbed out. The roar of the Yaotong motor behind him continued to come, and the harsh brakes sounded.  Still lingering for 1 day.  The airport is built among grasslands not far from the coast, but not far away is dense tropical jungle.

    This scene is all too familiar. In the South Pacific, most of HNA¡¯s bases look like this.  Qin Haomin couldn't help but frown when he saw those rainforests, which meant that living here still had to endure the intrusion of countless tropical mosquitoes.  These flying insects in the rainforest are much more poisonous than mosquitoes in the north. If you are bitten, a large red and swollen body will appear, and most of them can spread some tropical infectious diseases. This is what makes some pilots from the north the most.  An unbearable place for them.

    Already completedThe landing pilots lined up in squadrons and walked towards the camp on the north side of the airport. Their combat boots made a clanging sound when they stepped on the steel plate of the runway. The barracks made of plywood were painted in various camouflage colors.  , this is just a kind of psychological comfort. Most of the time, such large barracks cannot deceive the enemy pilots' eyes at all, and they are easily attacked.

    The pilots of the same squadron had already lined up outside the barracks to welcome the arrival of these hard-working colleagues. The initial establishment of the Republican Army was that each fighter plane was equipped with three pilots. However, as the war progressed, the speed of pilot training could not keep up with the pace.  Taking into account the production quantity of aircraft, each squadron's fighter aircraft currently only has two pilots, and some aircraft currently only have one pilot. If there is a war emergency, there will be no rest time at all.

    The ground support troops, air defense and security troops of the 43rd Wing, as well as some pilots, arrived at the Suafa base by boat as early as Qiyao ago. After completing the preparations, the combat troops began to transfer. Relatively speaking, the situation was  It went relatively smoothly.  Under the continuous attacks by the Republican Army for nearly a month, the U.S. air force based on Guadalcanal suffered heavy losses and was rarely able to raid the Suafa base.

    "Our goal will stop at the Southern Solomon Islands. The mission of the Ninth Air Force is very simple. Together with the submarine force, we will implement strangulation tactics on Guadalcanal Island and cut off the enemy's logistics line. In the near future, the war zone is still temporarily  There are no plans to carry out large-scale landings on Guadalcanal, although the combat plan has already been formulated!" In the war room built with wooden houses, Lieutenant General Guan Haiming, commander of the Nanyang Fleet's land-based air force, was assigning combat missions to the 43rd Wing. General Staff Officer  The Ministry is not in a hurry to capture the only remaining islands of Guadalcanal, San Cristobal, Makira and Rennell in the Solomon Islands. The purpose is to attract the attention of the US Pacific Fleet here.  If the Republican Army occupied the entire South Solomon Islands, it would loosen the grip of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Then the Republican Army's fragile island chain defense system of nearly 10,000 nautical miles from south to north in the Central Pacific would be difficult to resist the Grand Fleet.  Surprise attack.

    In the battle for islands, if sea and air control is lost, no island will actually be able to hold on for a long time. Even the Australian mainland will be difficult to hold on for a long time if it is cut off from external assistance.  These are all the consequences of Britain's long-term predatory colonial policy. In the Pacific region, almost all regions lack the heavy industrial system needed to cope with modern wars.

    Even during the war, some domestic companies have begun to organize immigrants to develop in the South Pacific. These tropical areas are rich in forestry resources and have fertile land, which is extremely suitable for agricultural development.

    Britain needs these colonies that are defenseless to consolidate its rule. This is also destined to cause these colonial systems to collapse quickly when attacked by external forces.

    Now, after inheriting the rule of the British, the Republican Army began to consolidate its rule in these areas.  Relatively speaking, the Republic's control is much stronger than that of the British. Its large entrance base makes it easy for the Republic to recruit large numbers of immigrants to these occupied areas.  Due to the scarcity of entrances, the rich resources in the occupied areas are still quite attractive to those who lack land and poor entrances in the country.

    After the occupation of Northwest Australia and East Africa, with the development of mining areas and agriculture, tens of millions of foreign immigrants came to Western Australia and Africa. About half of them were Chinese, and the rest included Vietnamese, Malay, and Myanmar.  and India, with the influx of a large number of foreign imports, Chinese has replaced the original status of English in Western Australia and East Africa and has become the main communication language.

    Different from Germany's quick-decision strategy, the Republican Army relied on its strength and industrial advantages to gradually advance. In addition to quickly conquering large tracts of the collapsed colonial system of the British Empire in the early stages of the war, especially after the United States entered the war,  The Republican Army's strategy has become more cautious, which makes it difficult for the US military to find some loopholes.
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