Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 788 North African Operation Ends, TV-Guided Rocket Development

Under Fang Wen's supernatural observation, the battle situation on the ground was laid out before him.

On the sand dunes outside the valley, the defensive positions led by Zhao Youming were already locked in a fierce battle.

Taking advantage of their numerical superiority, the Italian army launched a simultaneous attack from the front and flanks, with dense bullets raining down on the sand dunes.

Several Italian heavy machine guns were mounted on distant sand dunes, firing wildly and suppressing the soldiers in the position so they couldn't raise their heads.

In areas unaffected by machine gun fire, special forces and British paratroopers continued their counterattacks from makeshift shelters built on sand ridges.

The Taishan special forces soldiers used modified rifles with 4x scopes to fire, which had a much higher range and accuracy than the Italian soldiers. Every shot could take the life of an Italian soldier.

This made the advance of the Italian soldiers extremely slow. As soon as they heard the gunfire, they would lie down, take a few slow steps, and then lie down on the sand after the gunfire started again.

Inside the valley, a dozen soldiers and ten British technicians were guarding 100 German prisoners. Some of the prisoners were shot and fell to the ground, clearly having been shot and killed in the chaos.

Major Clark was shot and his forehead was bandaged. Although he was unable to move easily, he still held a pistol in his right hand and kept watch on the prisoners.

Subsequently, Fang Wen saw the unfavorable situation: the Italian army had secretly deployed six Brissia M35 mortars on the west side of the position.

This type of mortar is an Italian battalion-level light mortar, with 18 mortars per infantry battalion. Given the size of the Italian army, it's impossible that they only had this many.

Sure enough, as Fang Wen's perspective shifted, he spotted 10 Brissian M35 mortars on another slope 400 meters away.

Although these small mortars have a small caliber, they pose a considerable threat to makeshift bunkers. Several shells landed near the sand dunes, kicking up clouds of yellow sand. Several British paratroopers were thrown into the air by the shockwaves of the shells, fell to the ground injured, and the defensive pressure increased instantly.

Fang Wen immediately picked up the microphone.

"Zhao Youming, notify all soldiers to retreat to the inner side of the sand valley in 5 minutes. I will launch an airstrike on the Italian positions to avoid being affected."

After the call ended, Fang Wen ordered the crew to put the bombing team into combat preparation mode.

Inside the sand valley position, after receiving the order, Zhao Youming immediately broadcast the command loudly in both Chinese and English: "Attention everyone, retreat to the inner side of the sand valley, take cover and await orders, air support is about to arrive!"

The soldiers immediately sprang into action, dragging their wounded comrades as they quickly retreated towards the inner side of the sand valley, while simultaneously firing intermittently to disrupt the Italian army's offensive rhythm.

Upon seeing this, Major Clark immediately stood up and asked Zhao Youming, "What happened?"

"They're about to bomb us. Let's retreat temporarily to avoid being affected."

The two of them looked up at the sky at the same time.

In the sky, the massive Taishan-1 spacecraft became visible as it descended.

Meanwhile, the Italian commander, looking through his binoculars, noticed that the sand dune position was suddenly deserted.

He assumed the defenders were routed and fleeing, so he immediately issued a stern order for a general offensive: "Charge! Rescue the Germans, and I will approve your applications to return home."

Nothing could excite these war-weary Italians more than having their applications to return home approved.

The Italian soldiers were greatly encouraged and rose from the sand to charge toward the dune positions. Heavy machine guns and mortars continued to fire, providing fire support to the charging troops.

Just as the Italian troops rushed to within 300 meters of the position, Fang Wen gave the order to drop the bombs.

"Deploy cluster bombs immediately!"

The prone bombardier pulled hard on the bomb-launching lever.

A cluster bomb, resembling a shower of petals, fell from the bomb bay. After flying in the air for about ten seconds, the delayed fuse was activated, the disintegration device was activated, and thirty-six small cylindrical bombs scattered like petals, falling towards the dense Italian assault formation.

"Boom—boom—boom—" The sound of explosions rose and fell in succession.

Compared to ordinary aerial bombs, these cluster bombs have a smaller individual yield but a much larger coverage area.

The scattered submunitions exploded, scattering a large amount of shrapnel. Many Italian soldiers were hit, their faces, backs, and limbs struck by the shrapnel, and they fell to the ground, howling in pain.

Although few soldiers were killed directly, many were wounded and rendered unable to fight.

The momentum of the charge was immediately halted.

The Italian soldiers who were not hit by the bombs were terrified and abandoned their weapons, turning around and fleeing, their previous arrogance completely gone.

Immediately afterwards, Fang Wen maneuvered the Taishan-1 to turn and fly towards the Italian army's heavy machine gun and mortar positions, issuing orders in the bombing zone.

Several conventional aerial bombs fell, and explosions rang out in succession. The Italian army's heavy machine gun positions and two mortar positions were all bombarded and immediately fell silent.

Fang Wen picked up the microphone and spoke with both ground and air forces.

"Escort team, please conduct ground attack strikes."

"Zhao Youming, have our men launch a ground offensive."

After the order was given, the air and ground forces immediately sprang into action.

Five British P-40C fighter planes swooped down, their machine guns strafing the scattered Italian troops on the ground.

Bullets rained down like a storm, landing around the fleeing Italian soldiers. Sand flew everywhere as soldiers were hit and fell to the ground. The already chaotic Italian ranks became even more disorganized, with soldiers running in all directions, unable to mount any effective resistance.

On the other side of Shagu, Zhao Youming immediately made arrangements, shouting to the British soldiers beside him, "You stay and hold the position, keep an eye on the prisoners and technicians!"

After saying that, he turned around and gathered 40 uninjured Taishan special forces members, who quickly climbed up the sand dune along the slope, and then launched an attack on the Italian troops who were fleeing below the dune.

By this time, the Italian soldiers were already stunned by cluster bombs and strafing from warplanes, their ears filled with the sounds of explosions, machine gun fire, and the screams of their comrades.

Junior officers and supervising military police were simply unable to regroup the scattered soldiers.

Zhao Youming led his special forces team, following the directions Fang Wen indicated via walkie-talkie, and they were invincible, striking straight at the heart of the enemy's stronghold.

That was where the Italian commander was located.

When this Eastern force charged up the sand dune, the Italian soldiers on the dune were stunned!

However, some reacted quickly, and several Italian officers drew their guns.

Their actions sent them to heaven.

Special forces soldiers, armed with Thompson submachine guns, aimed at the men and pulled the triggers.

The dense hail of bullets instantly turned them into sieves, and the fierce momentum terrified the remaining Italian guards, who dropped their weapons and surrendered with their hands raised.

The Italian commander, hiding behind a table made of ammunition boxes, saw a soldier approaching with a submachine gun. He immediately stood up, raised his hands above his head, and surrendered. The Italian soldiers fleeing nearby, seeing their commander taken prisoner, immediately abandoned any thought of escape. They stopped and, imitating their commander, laid down their weapons, raised their hands, and obediently surrendered.

In just over ten minutes, Zhao Youming led 40 special forces soldiers to not only attack the Italian army command post, but also capture 200 Italian soldiers, and then led the prisoners back to the Shagu position in a grand procession.

Major Clark, who remained behind, was stunned by what he saw, his face filled with disbelief.

Forty men actually chased after hundreds of Italian soldiers and captured 200 of them. The fighting ability of the Taishan Special Forces far exceeded his expectations.

Subsequently, Fang Wen piloted the Taishan-1 to airdrop a batch of supplies in an open area near the sand valley, including drinking water, compressed biscuits, first-aid medicines, and extra weapons and ammunition, to replenish the team's supplies.

The soldiers quickly inventoried and distributed the supplies, while also treating the wounded soldiers' wounds.

With everything prepared, the group of fewer than 100 men, escorting 300 prisoners and 10 rescued British, set off north.

Fang Wen piloted the Taishan-1 and five P-40C fighter jets back to Benghazi military airfield.

Time passed little by little.

The desert sun grew increasingly intense as the team slowly advanced through the yellow sand. Special forces soldiers and British paratroopers took turns guarding prisoners and helping the wounded, remaining vigilant and not daring to slacken their efforts in the slightest.

But after that, they did not encounter any further danger.

After half a day of marching, the British support force finally appeared in the distance. After the two sides met, the British soldiers in the support force took over the guarding of some of the prisoners and headed towards Benghazi Airport together.

In the evening, the team arrived at Benghazi Airport without incident.

Colonel Hunter was delighted to see the team return safely and rushed forward to greet them.

Fang Wenye jumped off Mount Tai No. 1 and, after communicating with Colonel Hunter, immediately ordered his men to move the captured German radio equipment to an empty hangar at the airport for dismantling and inspection.

Inside the empty hangar, Fang Wen carefully disassembled the German army's radio equipment, while Colonel Hunt and the intelligence officer from MI6 North Africa stood by, watching intently.

As the equipment was disassembled piece by piece, its internal structure was gradually revealed.

Five vacuum tubes were crammed inside, connected by simple wiring, making it vastly different from Taishan's semiconductor walkie-talkies.

“Look,” Fang Wen said to Colonel Hunter and the intelligence officer, pointing to the disassembled equipment, “the German design and appearance imitated Taishan’s semiconductor walkie-talkie in many ways, but they did not master the core semiconductor technology and could only use vacuum tube technology instead. This resulted in the equipment being bulky and heavy, with poor communication quality, unable to conduct clear real-time voice communication, and with a very short communication range.”

"How far can it communicate?" Hunter asked.

Fang Wen replied, "I estimate it's about 1 kilometer. We have experimental data on this. I think you are also researching similar devices. If you want a longer communication distance, with this kind of vacuum tube equipment, unless you use high voltage to start it and the vacuum tube needs to increase its power by three to four times, you can't achieve the communication distance of our walkie-talkies."

He spoke with great confidence, which reflects the current reality.

As the war intensifies, countries are researching and deploying practical portable, vehicle-mounted, and airborne wireless voice communication devices.

Apart from Taishan's walkie-talkies, which use semiconductor technology, those from other countries all use vacuum tube technology.

Include

The SCR-536 "Handie-Talkie," which the United States plans to mass-produce this year, has a range of approximately 1.6 kilometers on flat ground and up to 5 kilometers at sea.

As for the SCR-300 "Walkie-Talkie" (backpack FM radio), although its communication range reaches 3 kilometers, it has not yet entered the production stage.

The UK's No. 38 handheld and No. 18 backpack models are still in the laboratory.

The device in front of us is a German-made portable radio for squads and platoons.

Fang Wen's words, however, were a different kind of provocation to the British.

Because the British hadn't even finished developing their battlefield communication equipment, while the Germans had already put their equipment into actual combat.

The MI6 intelligence officer's expression turned serious.

He immediately went out and reported this important intelligence in detail to the British mainland.

Upon learning that Germany was also making every effort to develop battlefield real-time communication devices, and that even though its technology was lagging behind, it had already achieved short-range voice communication capabilities, Britain immediately became anxious and even more eager to acquire Taishan's semiconductor walkie-talkies to equip its troops.

Soon, instructions came from the UK.

Arrange for the 10 captured British technicians to take the recovered ramjet turbine blueprints and radar auxiliary data and board the Taishan-1, piloted by Fang Wen, to return to the British mainland as soon as possible.

The technicians were also asked to further communicate with Fang Wen about cooperation matters during their return journey.

The following morning, Taishan-1 successfully took off from Benghazi Airport and flew towards its base in northern Myanmar.

After a long flight, Taishan-1 finally landed smoothly on the runway at the Taishan Air Base in northern Myanmar.

Staff members who had been waiting by the runway immediately came forward to meet them. Fang Wen arranged for someone to lead 10 British technicians to their accommodation at the base, where they could put down their personal luggage and belongings and rest to relieve the fatigue from desert operations and long-haul flights.

Around noon, Fang Wen prepared a sumptuous meal for the British technicians in the base's canteen.

Eastern food gave the British, who were craving culinary wilderness, a new taste experience.

After lunch and a short rest, Fang Wen led 10 British technicians to the Taishan Research Institute.

Inside the research institute, the researchers from the guidance technology research team were already prepared and waiting at the laboratory entrance.

After the two sides met, Fang Wen gave a brief introduction and immediately got down to business, engaging in in-depth technical exchanges and communication on ram air turbine technology and radar-aided data.

British technicians presented blueprints and documents, explaining in detail the core principles and design concepts of ram air turbine technology, as well as the application scenarios of radar-assisted systems.

Researchers from the Taishan Institute asked how ram air turbine technology could be used to generate electricity for guided weapons.

This is the key reason for purchasing this technology.

In this day and age, batteries exist, but they are too bulky to power rocket guidance systems.

Therefore, ram air turbine technology is needed to convert the airflow generated during the high-speed movement of a rocket into electrical energy, which can then be used for internal guidance and control, as well as radio transmission for television guidance.

At the beginning, the two sides had many different opinions, and the discussion gradually became more intense.

Fang Wen stood aside, listening attentively to the exchange between the two sides. He understood that this process was unavoidable.

However, the process of reaching a consensus can take varying lengths, and Fang Wen was preoccupied with how to unify opinions and implement the technology as quickly as possible. (End of Chapter)