Summoning Japan: Flights of the Fancy

Chapter 7 - Glory and Setbacks of the Gra Valkas Empire Naval Air Force

The carrier-based fighters of the Gra Valkas Empire's Naval Air Force, the Antares, unilaterally annihilated Mirishial's Elpacio 3 air superiority fighters. Its appearance, if repainted, is indistinguishable from the A6M5 Zero Model 52 carrier-based fighter (performance is similar to the A6M2b Zero Model 21).

Following them are the Sirius bombers, which, when repainted, closely resemble the D3A carrier dive bomber (currently believed to have performance between the D3A and the D4Y Suisei).

And finally, waiting in reserve are the Rigel torpedo bombers, which are, of course, identical to the B5N carrier attack bomber (except for the fixed machine gun in the front, with nearly identical performance).

Their target is the fleet of the World United Forces floating in the Cartalpas Bay. The ones intercepting them were the JMSDF's Escort Flotilla 0. It was truly a reenactment drama that swaps the roles of offense and defense in the old world's attack on Pearl Harbor. Therefore, the Japanese people call this naval battle "Pearl Harbor Interception."

Now, let's confirm the glory and setbacks of them—the Gra Valkas Empire's Naval Air Force.

. . .

"It's a bit better than what we fought at Magdola, I suppose," the Antares squadron leader murmured in confirmation. His wingmen had already reformed their formation, with five planes on each side of him. Other squadrons had also reassembled, following his lead.

He contemplated the next enemy.

The ones who brought aircraft carriers were Mu and Japan (he had ignored the wyvern carrier from the beginning). Mu's aircraft, biplanes with a name like "Marin," could sometimes be seen when flying over the Leifor region. However, the sight of biplanes urgently scrambling was laughable. The planes that belonged to his grandfather's generation were considered state-of-the-art in Mu. Watching Mu's grandpas laboriously ascend, one could even feel a sense of pathos. While flying over the Leifor district, they are allowed to make some provocation but not engagement. But this time, they could pluck them out of the sky without hesitation. Grandpas of Mu, it's not your fault. The blame lies with the politicians of the countries that refuse to surrender. If you want to resent someone in the afterlife, it should be your own leaders, not us.

His attitude, thinking about such things, could be called arrogant, and he would soon receive the consequences for it.

He spotted something ahead. At that moment, he made two judgment errors.

One was thinking it was much farther away than reality. He assumed the thing he discovered was a manned aircraft or a wyvern. If so, the diameter of the fuselage should be over 1,5 meters. The other error was underestimating its movement speed by far from reality. The manned aircraft he knew had a speed of about 230 km/h, even the slowest wyvern, and his Antares had a speed of about 550 km/h. He estimated the movement speed of the discovered object to fit within that range. However, what he discovered was an SM-2 ship-to-air missile, with a diameter of 34 centimeters and a final speed exceeding Mach 3 (over 3.670 km/h).

He tried to approach it to confirm its identity, but he didn't have the time he thought he had. Pilots of the same squadron also noticed the "something" in front of them. However, since the squadron leader did not take evasive action, they didn't judge for themselves and followed the leader's decision.

The result was brutal. All eleven of them became prey to the SM-2s launched by the Atago. They didn't even understand what had happened to them. The only consolation was that they all died instantly. They were spared the terrifying experience of being trapped in an uncontrollable aircraft, tormented by intense pain, witnessing the process of crashing into the ground. Compared to them, the trailing formation had some time. As soon as the leader of the formation noticed the first formation being shot down, he began evasive maneuvers to avoid the "something." At the same time, he gave instructions to his subordinates.