“So I don’t know where the enemy I attacked was from. At that time, I had separated from my wingman and single-handedly attacked the enemy.”
Wang Zhong, “Was the enemy preparing to attack a small town with a water tower and a church?”
The pilot spread his hands, “Every small town has a water tower and a church.”
…that seemed reasonable!
Suddenly, Wang Zhong remembered that the tactical number of the Il-2 that had been with Peniye was 401, and this lieutenant colonel was from the fourth assault aviation regiment, which meant that its tactical number could start with a 4.
Wang Zhong, “Is your plane’s tactical number 401?”
“Yeah. How do you know?”
Wang Zhong burst out laughing, “When you attacked the enemy alone on June 28th, I was down below.”
After saying this, Wang Zhong realized it sounded a bit strange and corrected himself, “I mean, I was on the ground.”
The pilot immediately changed his previous attitude, “Really? No, that’s not right, I remember the enemy I attacked wasn’t very large and neither was the group of our men resisting; that doesn’t like the headquarters of a major general.”
Wang Zhong, “That’s because at that time I was a lieutenant colonel.”
“Hahaha, you’re boasting now, there’s only one Rokossovsky who went from lieutenant colonel to major general in half a year… uh…” The lieutenant colonel pilot stopped laughing, sizing up Wang Zhong and glancing behind him at the empty corridor.
“Not many attendants…” he muttered, then turned and picked up the Ye Fort Daily from the newspaper rack beside the bench.
These newspapers were there for people waiting on the bench to kill time, after all, there were no smartphones back then.
They typically grouped one week’s worth of the same newspaper in one clip and arranged different newspapers on the shelf.
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The pilot quickly found the edition that printed Wang Zhong’s full-body photo on the front page.
“My God!” he exclaimed, “You really are the Rokossovsky who knows about planes that Harlamov talked about!”
Huh? The Rokossovsky who knows about planes? Is that what the Air Force calls me?
The lieutenant colonel put down the newspaper, approached Wang Zhong, straightened his uniform, correctly positioned his hat, and snapped to attention, saluting, “Salute to you, General Rokossovsky!”
Wang Zhong returned the salute and added, “Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”
Lieutenant Colonel, “I am the commander of the fourth assault aviation regiment, Delachenko Grigoyevich, here to report problems with the Il-2 assault plane!”
Wang Zhong, “I am Major General Rokossovsky, chairman of the Special Review Committee for Military Equipment. All new equipment and modifications to old equipment must pass our review. Additionally, our committee will establish a dedicated front-line feedback collection agency. But since that agency isn’t established yet, you can start by telling me.”
Delachenko immediately stood at attention, “Yes! The problem that I want to report is…”
Wang Zhong, “At ease, relax a bit, take your time.”
The lieutenant colonel relaxed his posture, but his tone was still urgent, “I can’t take it slowly! The Il-2 has serious defects. Besides its carried ammunition, its most effective weapon is the machine gun, because the two cannons don’t aim accurately!”
Wang Zhong, “Because of defective sights?”
“For the machine gun and the cannons, the sights are still usable. What’s trash are the bombing and rocket-firing sights; it’s better to rely on experience than to use them. And there’s a problem with our way of operating; the Il-2, if it dives at an angle greater than 40 degrees, it shakes terribly and you can’t aim at all.”
The pilot had just finished speaking when the designer said, “The design concept of this airplane is to act as a flying tank at low-altitude level flight. Diving capability is not necessary.”
Wang Zhong glanced at the designer.
His understanding of the IL-2 came from a game “IL-2 Defend the Eagle”, a single-player flight simulation game. This development team later went on to create the renowned military vehicle combat online game “War Thunder”.
In “Defend the Eagle”, indeed, the IL-2’s diving ability was extremely poor, and it could basically only perform low-altitude level flight as a flying tank.
The concept was not incorrect, just too ahead of its time; it was later that the Sidewinder armed helicopter assumed this role. Continue your saga on m|v-l’e -NovelFull.net
However, through the game, Wang Zhong did not experience problems with the inaccuracy of the cannons.
So, he gestured for the designer to be quiet and let the pilot continue.
Delachenko: “Apart from not being able to dive and having poor sights, the IL-2’s weapon installation is also impractical!”
Delachenko raised both hands, each sticking out the index finger, he first put the two fingers together: “This is how the IL-2’s machine guns were arranged.”
Then he separated his two index fingers, setting them about half a meter apart: “This is how the two cannons were arranged.”
Wang Zhong: “The cannons are on the wings?”
“Right!”
Engineer: “Firstly, this is for balance, and secondly, the cannons have a slow rate of fire, and it’s challenging to design a synchronizer with the propeller.”
The pilot immediately became incensed, “Then you put two cannons on the wings, and as a result, they vibrate as soon as they fire, making them utterly inaccurate! Moreover, this vibration also causes the normally accurate machine guns to lose their precision! As a result, many times we prefer to use machine guns for precision attacks and don’t even fire the cannons.”
Wang Zhong remembered that there were indeed memoirs stating that the IL-2’s individual attack accuracy was so poor that the pilots preferred to fly in formations of eight or even groups of more than twenty, forming a line like a cavalry wall, flying and firing indiscriminately, relying on the volume of fire to compensate for the lack of precision.
Wang Zhong looked at the engineer: “I don’t care whether you change the weapons’ mounting positions or use other methods, just make the aircraft’s weapons accurate!”
At this time, the ground attack aircraft regiment commander said, “General, to be honest, compared to the IL-2, the neighboring squadron’s Pe-2 has a more noticeable attack effect. I’ve flown the Pe-2; it’s much faster than our IL-2, and it’s more nimble. It can also perform dive attacks!
“The Pe-2 can go to high altitude for reconnaissance and has better target acquisition. Once it finds a target, it can dive bomb and then retreat using its speed and maneuverability. Its self-defense firepower is also stronger than our IL-2!”
Wang Zhong: “Do you think the Pe-2 is better?”
“Of course!”
Wang Zhong: “Then how long do you think it would take for all the ground attack regiments to switch to the Pe-2 light bombers for retraining?”
“A few months is enough!” Delachenko’s voice was not very confident. That’s because the Pe-2 is a twin-engine light bomber, quite different from the IL-2, a single-engine ground attack aircraft.
Wang Zhong patted Delachenko on the shoulder: “Don’t worry, fly the IL-2 for now. When the Federation’s aid arrives, we’ll hook you up with something impressive.”
Like the P-47 Thunderbolt, nicknamed “Jug” due to its shape.
It has excellent dive capabilities and, if one masters the art of energy fighting, it becomes a formidable fighter.
At the same time, like all good American fighters, it can carry a lot of ground munitions.
After bombing the ground, it’s still capable of air-to-air combat. Crucially, for the pilots, it’s a single-engine aircraft, so the transition training time is shortened.
But Delachenko had no way of knowing this yet, so he could only look at Wang Zhong with a mixture of belief and doubt: “Alright, I believe you.”