The bombing of Boston was bold and sudden, but at the same time, it was a severe test for Luo Yunchong and the Imperial Strategic Air Force under his command.

First, there is a problem of navigation. In the past, when bombers flew on ground 6, they could use iconic objects on the ground, such as mountains, artificial buildings, etc. to determine whether the route of the bomber group was correct. As long as the navigator did not make low-level mistakes, the route accuracy of the bomber group when flying over ground 6 was quite high. This time, the bomber group had to fly 25oo kilometers at sea, and after leaving the waters of the Bahamas, they had to fly at least 18oo kilometers. What is this concept? If the course deviation was a certain degree, it would eventually deviate from the target by about 30 kilometers. The maximum width from east to west in the Boston city was within 10 kilometers. The bomber group arrived at around 6 o'clock, and the sky was darker, which was likely to cause the bomber group to miss the target. The more serious problem is that the accuracy of the navigation system at that time was far from the requirements, and the direction accuracy of the gyroscope navigation instrument would definitely not meet the requirements.

In addition to allowing the crew with the best navigators to lead the flight, the triangular positioning method must also be used to determine the location of the bomber group. That is, after the bomber group arrived in the western waters of the Bermuda Islands, it emitted a short, special electromagnetic wave signal. After this signal was intercepted by the radio monitoring stations on Bermuda Island and the Grand Bahamas, it quickly calculated the approximate location of the bomber at that time, and then gave the message to the leader, and the navigator compared the location determined on the navigation device, and then made comprehensive corrections to improve navigation accuracy.

The entry time, direction, and arrangement of bombing targets of each aircraft group are also a problem. Boston is one of the largest cities in the northeastern United States. It has a small urban area of ​​more than 30 square kilometers, and the urban areas in the concentrated population are relatively scattered. In addition, more than 1ooo bombers cannot arrive at the same time, nor can they drop bombs at the same time, and they must arrive in batches to bomb different targets. The mission arrangement is easy, but the aircraft group can accurately reach the target above the target. Can the captain accurately identify the targets they bombed?

Looking down at the city from a high altitude, if there are no particularly tall landmark buildings, it is almost the same. The focus of this bombing is residential areas. The residential areas in the United States are mainly low bungalows. Looking down from a high altitude, there is no difference. When arranging tasks, the staff found iconic buildings for the pilot aircraft as much as possible, such as factory chimneys, relatively high buildings, open wastelands, etc. But the problem is that after the first few batches of bombers dropped bombs, thick smoke would be densely spread over the city. And some landmark buildings would definitely be covered by thick smoke or had been destroyed. So can the bomber group arrived later find the target without repeated bombings?

Because in the evening of the Boston area, the wind blows from the sea to the ground, that is, the southeast wind, the staff took this factor into consideration and made special arrangements for the entry of the bomber group. That is, bombing the lost bomber group in the northwest is the first to enter and drop bombs first, so that the smoke from the ground generated by the incendiary bombs will be blown to the suburbs without affecting the bomber group behind. At the same time, bomb the outer city area first, and then the core city area.

This also brings up a problem. The first bomber group that entered first had to risk breaking through the U.S. anti-aircraft artillery positions located around the city. The combat damage rate would definitely not be very low. When returning, you must fly over the sea first to avoid encountering the bomber group behind. If the captain at that time took the wrong path, the sky over Boston would definitely be in chaos, and it would even cause the later bomber group that entered could not reach the target.

At that time, in order to solve these problems, the staff was very meticulous in arranging bombing tactics, which limited the role of the frontline commander, but there was no way. At that time, the bomber pilots were most concerned about whether they could reach the sky above Boston and whether they could find the target to drop bombs, but whether the escort fighter that accompanied the flight could accompany the bomber group to complete the bombing, and then cover the bomber group to return.

In previous operations, the number of escort fighters and bombers was generally 1 to 1. This is also a relatively reasonable configuration proved through actual combat. Too few, escort fighters are difficult to effectively cover bombers. Too many, it is equivalent to wasting power and making interception operations more complicated. However, this time, there are only 5 squadrons escort fighters, and the number of books on bombers is 1 to 6, which is half the number of escort fighters needed.

The number is not a big problem. The main reason is that Boston is on the limit combat radius of escort fighters. To be clear, it is that after the escort fighter arrives over Boston, at most, only the air combat oil used by Panzhong. Generally, bomber groups will be intercepted multiple times, and the air combat time of escort fighters will definitely be more than 5 minutes. If they are intercepted by US air defense fighters halfway, many escort fighters will not be able to accompany the bomber groups to Boston, and they even have to return early. Then the bomber groups will not be able to get the cover of the fighter when they return, and the consequences are unimaginable.

In order to solve this problem, the return route moved about 15o nautical miles to the outer sea, which would cause the bomber to fly about 3o nautical miles more, while the escort fighter only needs to return to the Bermuda Islands, which actually only flew 5o nautical miles more. In addition, after removing some equipment and reducing the weight, the air combat time of the escort fighter was 5 minutes longer, which can ensure that the escort fighter participated in three air combats. This bombing operation was also kept to the maximum extent, striving to avoid being intercepted when entering, and at the same time, it was necessary to avoid being intercepted when returning.

The pilot's suspicion is suspicious, but the bombing operation must be carried out. Luo Yunchong did not change his decision. Sooner or later, the strategic bomber troops will deal with big cities in the northeastern United States. Sooner or later, he will face such challenges. The sooner the troops adapt to the war, the faster they can defeat the enemy. It is definitely not a solution to drag them down.

The actual situation is much better than Luo Yunchong and the pilots expected.

At that time, the US intelligence agencies had known that the Tang Empire strategic aviation had gathered a large number of heavy bombers in Cuba, but they could not determine which city the bombers were going to bomb. Before this, big cities in the northeastern United States had never been bombed. Therefore, the US intelligence agencies did not expect that the place where they were about to suffer was Boston, the northmost part of the core city circle. Instead, they believed that Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia were likely to be targets. On the 24th, the day before the bombing, the US military specially strengthened the air defense forces of Washington and Philadelphia and deployed more fighter jets at airports in southern Washington.

The navigation problem of the bomber group was also solved. After using the two sets of navigation data, the course deviation was within the allowable range. When the group flew over the eastern waters of Long Island, it also received a signal from the US radio station. More importantly, on the first day, most American workers received a rare opportunity to take leave. In addition, most of the US military stationed in the northeastern region were on vacation, and some even went home to celebrate Christmas with their relatives. At that time, no one would have thought that Boston would be hit by a devastating blow.

The bomber group joined forces with the escort combat opportunity at around 4:30 pm. At this time, the first formation that flew in the front was about 7 oo kilometers away from Boston. The aircraft group was located over the ocean in eastern North Carolina. It took about an hour and a half. The aircraft group could reach Boston.

At half past five, less than 250 kilometers away from Boston, the crew received a broadcast from the American radio station. At that time, it was still a piece of light music. There was no doubt that the Americans did not prepare at all, and the captain who led the captain was relieved.

At 5:50, the bomber group entered the US land at an altitude of 8 ooo meters and then began to lower the altitude. At this time, the group was less than 1 kilometer away from Boston.

At five o'clock, the first formation arrived over Boston at a height of 2ooo meters. The fleet quickly turned and flew towards the Medford area northeast of the city. This was the second formation, about 2o kilometers behind, and it would reach over Boston within 5 minutes.

At this time, the US military discovered a group of bombers that suddenly arrived. At that time, the US military's radar was almost all deployed in the eastern coastal areas. Because the US military has always believed that the enemy's carrier-based bombers were the biggest threat, the key defense direction was east. No one expected that the heavy bomber group would come directly from the sixth ground in the south.

After 6:8:00, when the US anti-aircraft guns began to fire blindly, the 1st formation arrived above the target. The navigator on the captain plane first determined the landmarks, and the bomber was handed over to the bomb dropper to control. Two minutes later, the captain plane dropped the stewed incendiary bombs hanging in the bomb bay, and the other 119 bombers from the 10 squadron immediately following the climate also quickly dropped the incendiary bombs.

When the 1st formation turned east and was preparing to retreat from the sea, the 2nd formation also reached the target and dropped nearly 1,000 tons of incendiary bombs over the Arlington area. Other formations also arrived 6 times. The bombing began at 6 o'clock after 6 o'clock and until 8:35, when the bombing was over, the bombing was over after the bombers of the 7 squadrons of the 10th formation dropped the incendiary bombs.

The entire bombing lasted for two hours and twenty-five minutes. 1o41 bombers dropped a total of 8,328 tons of incendiary bombs over Boston. At that time, the Tang Empire claimed that it had dropped a total of 10,000 tons of incendiary bombs. Of course, this was just a little exaggerated, and the shocking effect of 10,000 tons of incendiary bombs was definitely much stronger than the Arabic numeral 8,328.

During the entire bombing operation, only three bombers were hit by anti-aircraft artillery before dropping the bomb, and there was no time to drop the bomb. In addition, four bombers were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery after dropping the bomb, five bombers were seriously damaged, and they were unable to return to Cuba's airport. They all landed within 30 a nautical miles of the Bermuda Islands. Most of the crew members were rescued by long-range water patrol aircraft.

At 8:40, the captain of the 10th formation, which flew over the ocean, came out of the bombing and obtained a red signal of complete success. At this time, the 10th formation, which had already returned two and a half hours ago, was intercepted by US night fighters outside the coast of Virginia.

The bomber group did not return smoothly. Although the escort fighter jets, which only had day-time combat capabilities, did not retreat in advance, but bravely resisted the US night interceptor under the guidance of the command plane, the interception effect of the escort fighter jets at night was surprisingly poor. During the first round of interception, eight bombers were lost, which was more than the total number of bombers shot down over Boston.

The US military organized two large-scale interceptions and dispatched at least 25o night interceptors. If it weren't for moving the return route eastward for 15o nautical miles, it would have been intercepted twice. It was not until midnight that when the bomber group 6 continued to return to Cuba, Luo Yunchong received the loss report.

When returning, six formations were intercepted, and a total of 14 bombers were shot down. The pilot reported himself that at least 30 US night interceptors had been shot down, most of which were killed by the bomber's self-defense artillery. Among the 14 aircraft that were shot down, there were actually only 16 bombers, and the other 4 were command aircraft made by Luo Yunchong. The first formation that provided support for the first formation also suffered the greatest losses, and 5 bombers were shot down. There were 17 bombers who did not return to Cuba, but made an emergency landing in the waters near the Bermuda Islands. The pilots received orders before leaving that if they were unable to return to Cuba, they should go to the nearest Bermuda Islands, try to get close to the islands, and wait for rescue after the emergency landing at sea.

Relatively speaking, the combat loss rate is actually not large. There are only 19 bombers that were shot down on the spot by the US military, with a combat loss rate of less than 2. Including the 19 bombers that were forced to land at sea, the combat loss rate is less than 4. Compared with the achievements achieved by this bombing, this combat loss rate is even less worth mentioning.

The fire in Boston was missing for three days and three nights, and it was not extinguished in the end, but was naturally extinguished. Two-thirds of the city were burned to ruins. At that time, most citizens were having dinner at home or preparing for dinner, and there was no time to evacuate. At least 180,000 people were burned to death, more than 30,000 people were missing, more than 30,000 were burned, and nearly 80,000 citizens became war refugees. After any previous bombing, even the total casualties of three bombings in Coventry
Chapter completed!