Eva and I were assigned to the aviation rocket attack formation, which was very different from the flight plan given to us yesterday. Our Jacques also had emergency rocket launch slots installed under its wings last night.
For this reason, I raised objections to Ivan N. Kozhidub, the captain of the 4th Aerial Hunting Group, and the reply I received was: "Anyway, rocket attacks are just about diving and attacking the enemy's heavy aircraft formations or aviation battleships.
, it’s just the process of pulling up again, you don’t need to use rune power in the whole process, and the dive rockets are usually finished, so you can just do us a favor!"
I couldn't find any reason to object, so I had no choice but to agree to the change.
Before taking off, according to the practice of the Confederate Air Force, pilots must check the status of the aircraft and then go to the ground crew leader in charge of their aircraft to sign for confirmation.
While I was signing, the Cossack sergeant lowered his voice and apologized to me again: "I'm sorry, Comrade Major. I was too excited yesterday, and I have such a hot temper..."
I smiled and patted his shoulder, telling him not to worry about it.
When boarding the plane, I purposely stuck my head through Eva's side of the cockpit to check the condition of her ejection lever, which made Eva's boss unhappy.
"I will do what I promised you, Grisha, you don't believe me!"
I just shrugged at her protests, got into my seat, and then pushed the lever to close the canopy.
After a while we left the ground and were flying in the vast blue sky.
I controlled the aircraft to circle around the base while climbing, waiting for the friendly aircraft to take off. There were several fighter planes in the sky circling the base like me, and new companions were constantly joining us.
The cloudiness on this day was moderate, and the field of view after liftoff was very wide. You could even vaguely see the city of Laer in the distance from above the base.
The green fields extend from under the wing to the distance, and the white clouds in the sky cast black spots one after another on the fields. The black spots move, reminding me of animals running in groups.
"We just crossed this field..." Eva's murmur came from the earphones. Judging from her tone, she must be talking to herself - maybe she simply forgot that her words would be transmitted through the internal line.
This is my thing.
"What we are crossing is its neighbor, the Don River Plain."
"They're all connected anyway!" Eva responded immediately to my words, so fluently that I couldn't help but doubt my judgment just now - could it be that she was talking to me from the beginning, not herself?
Talking to yourself?
While talking back to me, Eva also bent her slender fingers and tapped the glass between the cockpits with her protruding knuckles. Her words continued to come from the earphones: "Not to mention the 'Don River Plain'.
, the 'Caucasus Plain', are all divisions imposed on nature by human beings on their own initiative. Grisha, it would be better if you don't stick to these. Really, I have been holding Turgenev's "Hunter's Notes" all day long, and the result is
Things are still so rigid..."
I really wanted to ask her if there was anything to do with watching "Hunter's Notes" all day long and being rigid in her work, but at this time, the command from the ground command center sounded in the earphones, and we both stopped talking at the same time.
An Axis heavy bomber group escorted by four air cruisers has crossed our front and is heading towards Lar.
The enemy's actions seemed to be deliberately echoing our large-scale attack.
You must know that one of the biggest differences between air combat and land warfare is that the endurance time of aircraft is much shorter than that of tanks and armored vehicles, let alone infantry units that can continue to fight as long as they have food and fighting will. So in the battle for
In a battle for air supremacy, unless it is to protect our bomber force and aviation fleet and attack the enemy's ground facilities, an action like this one in which the entire base's aircraft come out will generally not happen...
Usually the process of an air battle is like this. The defender will take off fighter planes at different times to ensure that there are fighter planes patrolling in the air at all times. After discovering the attacker's large fleet, the aircraft in the air will drag the enemy, and the fighters on standby on the ground will take off to fight.
, because of this, in the battle for air supremacy, the attacker always has an advantage over the defender.
Of course, there will be "exceptions" to all "usual situations". For example, the defender learns of the attacker's large-scale actions in advance through some means. In that case, the defender can take off a large fleet of aircraft in advance to seize advantageous heights and altitudes in the air.
Position, waiting for work at ease, waiting for the enemy to crash into the snare.
The reason why the commanders of the 4th Aerial Hunting Group temporarily changed today's routine patrol plan last night and included Eva and I, who had not yet gotten along, into today's attack formation was probably because they had already learned about it.
Today the Axis Congress will launch a large-scale air raid against Lal.
The first flight happened into a large-scale air battle. I felt that Eva and I were really unlucky.
I took a deep breath, wiped my right hand that was sweating again on my flight jacket, and then gripped the joystick again.
At this time, the entire Fourth Group had finished taking off. The eight Rune aircraft belonging to the group formed a wild goose feather formation at an altitude of 8,000 meters. They took the lead in leaving the airfield and rushed towards the direction where the enemy planes were expected to attack by the ground command, followed closely.
Followed by the 60 piston-powered engines in the brigade, they formed several wild goose feather formations in squadron units at an altitude of about 7,000 meters. The heights of the squadrons were slightly staggered, which made the entire formation appear hierarchical.
.
I was still hovering over the airport, waiting for the 12th Anti-Tank Attack Aircraft Group to complete its takeoff - it is the tradition of the Confederate Army to use anti-tank attack aircraft to attack heavy air targets, because we do not have specialized aircraft like the Axis Powers.
The number of "big heads" designed to implement the "dive attack-one-shot escape" tactic was too small, so they had to be used by attack aircraft.
Looking at the retreating fighter formation, I suddenly thought of the cavalry attacking the enemy. The formation of wild goose feathers formed by the fighter planes was so similar to the wedge formation of the cavalry. The wings of the aircraft reflected the sun, just like the shining light of the knights on the horse.
The silver armor, the wing clouds raised by the fighter planes are like the billowing dust clouds raised by the hoofs of horses.
It was like God's cavalry, God's warriors riding flying horses across the blue sky.
I squinted my eyes and was immersed in my imagination.
It turns out that every time I attack, I am in such an imposing formation. Why haven’t I noticed it before?
At this moment, a call from the captain of the 12th Anti-Tank Group rang in my earphones.
"Hey, that lone eagle, welcome to join the sparrows."
Only then did I realize that the anti-tank attack aircraft of the 12th Group had already taken off and were being organized in the air at a height slightly lower than where I was. I pushed the control stick and lightly blended into the left wing of the first Yan Ling.
"I feel sorry for you. We masters can't fly that fast, so you just have to give in."
I only stayed at Lahr Base for three days, and the 4th and 12th Groups used two different pilot clubs, so I never met the captain of the 12th Group, but by the voice and tone on the radio
From the looks of it, he should be a cheerful and likable guy - at least much easier to get along with than Kozhidub, the captain of the Fourth Battalion.
The 12th Anti-Tank Group is equipped with sixty-four Il-2 anti-tank attack aircraft. The Il-2 is a very heavy fighter aircraft from the inside out. It has terrible weight, poor maneuverability, and stoutness.
Due to its bulky appearance, fighter pilots gave the Il-2 the nickname "Fat Sparrow"....
My Jacques stands out among this group of IL2s like a turkey among ducks.
If Il-2 is compared to a strong peasant woman, my Jacques is like a well-dressed aristocratic lady - the rune modules hanging on the rear part of the fuselage and wings are the lady's gorgeous clothes, and the runes engraved on the modules are
Text is like gold lace on a dress.
Looking at the Il-2s surrounding me through the thick glass of the cockpit, even though I was a little disrespectful to my comrades who were about to fight alongside me, I still swore in my heart that I would never drive like that stupid duck.
s things.
"I definitely don't want to sit on that thing, it's too ugly."
It seems that Eva feels the same way as me.
We followed the IL-2 formation and flew at an altitude of 6,000 meters. In order to avoid collision during dive, the entire fleet was arranged in a stepped formation from front to back, from low to high.
We couldn't see any trace of the fighter formation that set off first. There was only a clearly visible horizon in front of the formation.
There were gradually more clouds under the wings of the plane, and the ground was squeezed into a narrow strip by the clouds.
I kept turning my head, searching the sky around me. Suddenly, a light hit my face, forcing me to raise my free left hand to block it in front of me. I looked through the gap between my fingers and found that the light came from
Il 2 in front of me on the right: The rear seat gunner of the Il 2 numbered 9971 is holding a mirror or something else, reflecting sunlight towards my cockpit.
"Grisha, swing down the wings." Eva suddenly said to me.
I shook the operating lever as instructed, and the Il-2 machine gunner put down the reflective object and waved to us instead.
"Yesterday afternoon, when I was looking for Sergeant Mishayevich, I accidentally ran to the wrong place and entered the hangar of the 12th Group. Then a kind man sent me to the right place. When we parted, he told me
I, myself, am the machine gunner of Unit 9971."
"Really?" I responded calmly, "What I find strange is how could you accidentally run into the wrong hangar!"
"Then...that's because they all look the same!"
I laughed subconsciously, but my laughter probably didn't reach Eva.
Because the radio, which had been filled with only rustling static, suddenly heard a scream.
"Me! I'm shot! Mom!"
Then messy battle communications entered my ears one after another.
I quickly craned my neck to look around, but there was no sign of fighting in my field of vision.
I pushed the joystick and flipped the plane horizontally to the right. Within a few seconds, when the axis of the wings was perpendicular to the horizon, I quickly scanned the lower right side of the formation. Then I flipped the plane to the left, and repeated it on the left.
Perform the same action again.
There was no sign of battle within a 360-degree range.
"The response is very fast, Eagle, and the technology is also very good." The voice he heard at the beginning of the departure rang in the earphones again, covering up other noises, "I'm afraid this is the battle communication of the fourth brigade. It seems that we
We are not far from the battle area. The task of finding the enemy is left to you, Eagle!"
I shook my wings in response.
"Don't just flutter your wings! What are you waiting for? If you fly with fat sparrows like us, your eagle's eyes will become dull!"
I feel more and more that I like the personality of the captain of the 12th Brigade. It will probably be a pleasure to work with him!
I pushed the throttle forward with my left hand, and the Jacques' engine roared. The counter-rotating twin propellers in front of the nose stirred up huge airflow. The acceleration g-force pressed my shoulders heavily against the leather cushion of the driver's seat.
The surrounding El was suddenly left behind. I was flying at full speed in the blue sky. The slight bumps caused by acceleration made me feel unusually comfortable...
Finally, the first spark exploded in the blue sky around me.
The drunken painter waved his shaky brush, leaving a crooked black stain on the blue canvas of the sky.
The screams once again drowned out other sounds in the headphones.
I operated the fighter plane to turn into a large arc loop route, trying to keep myself in a backlit position, and continued to approach the combat airspace that I had deduced in my mind.
More and more black smoke entered my field of vision, and the shotgun shells fired by the battleship's large-caliber anti-aircraft guns exploded into rows of black fireworks in the air.
The battleships and bomber groups could not be seen yet. All that could be seen was the reflection of sunlight on the flying fighter planes, the staggered trajectories left by tracer bullets, and the final glow of the aircraft when it was hit.
The undulating sound of weapons fire penetrated the thick glass of the cockpit, overwhelmed the messy radio conversations in the earphones, and hit my eardrums.
Finally, I saw the first Axis air cruiser.
Seen from above, the Axis warship looks like a banana flying across the sky, but the surface of this banana is covered with gun barrels. These murderous weapons are constantly spitting tongues of fire and hot steel into the air.
The woven barrage protected the heavy bomber formation flying behind the battleship.
Finally flying directly above the combat airspace, I still tried my best to keep myself in the direction of backlight, and at the same time began to report the situation to the IL aircraft group that I had left behind.
"There are no less than four air battleships. It seems that the rocket attack of La5 by the fourth group did not work. The bomber group is surrounded by four air battleships. There is no way for the four groups to cause enough damage to them..."
"Is there no good news, Eagle?"
"Of course there is, that is, the enemy's escort fighter force is entangled with the Fourth Brigade."
"Got it, please wait."
After the call ended, I continued to fly the plane over the war zone. Since all frequency bands were filled with screams and wails at this time, I was not at all worried that my radio communication would be noticed by the enemy.
I can already foresee how this enemy force will be severely damaged - it will be attacked by sixty-four ILs without any defense. That is no joke! The rockets mounted on the ILs
, and the 23mm machine cannons mounted on its fat and bloated wings were enough to give Nazi pilots a drink.
Suddenly, Eva's voice came from my headphones: "Hey, Grisha, is it really okay for us to just watch here?"
"If you go down now, you will alert the enemy."
"but……"
"Don't worry, they are coming soon. Look over there!" As I said that, I turned back, knocked on the partition between the cockpits, and then gestured to Eva with my finger.
Eva turned her head and looked in the direction I pointed out.
"That is……"
"Like us, they made a circle and came from the direction against the light in order to stay hidden, so they waited for so long."
As soon as I finished speaking, a loud shout came from the earphones:
"Damn Nazis! Here we come! Ulla!"
I was startled by the sudden shouting.
Following this shout, the "leader" of the huge Il formation took the lead and dived towards the fierce fighting airspace below.
The fighter planes flying behind it followed closely, diving downward one after another. Their dive movements were so closely connected that the entire aerial formation looked like a living giant beast. It bent its body,
Baring his fangs, he roared and lunged toward the Axis air formation below with murderous intent.
The deafening sound of URA drowned out all the sounds in the earphones, and even the sharp roar caused by the dive completely disappeared in the cry of killing...
All this happened so suddenly and quickly that I had no time to react. When I pushed the control stick and started to dive, I only caught up with the tail of the formation.
Among the Confederate fighter planes, no aircraft could catch up with the diving IL, not even my Yak.
I pushed the accelerator to the top, and wild sparks spurted out from the engine exhaust port in front of the canopy. The joystick in my hand was shaking like an epileptic patient, and the altimeter pointer on the instrument panel was going crazy.
It was vibrating left and right, but even so, I could only watch the buttocks of the IL fleet in front of me gradually move away.
Finally, we discovered that our Axis aviation warships had no time to turn the muzzles of their heavy artillery, but machine gun bullets were still attacking us overwhelmingly.
The cerebral congestion caused by the dive made my vision gradually turn red, and my head began to feel heavy.
Suddenly, a piece of debris bearing the Black Cross emblem of the Axis Powers slipped from my sight, and then a large piece of burning debris rolled past my cockpit.
Just as I was about to look back to see what was going on, another light filled my field of vision.
That was the light from the rocket launch. The smoke generated by the burning gunpowder made me, who was at the rear of the formation, completely blind. It was like I was flying in a thick fog. I could only vaguely see something outside the cockpit after being hit.
The fire exploded.
I heard the sound of Il's 23mm cannon firing. The stormy sound was really exciting. I had no doubt that the Axis fleet had been severely damaged.
The next moment I finally broke through the smoke left by the rocket, an Axis air cruiser suddenly flashed in front of my eyes. The distance between me and it was so close that I could clearly see the bright blue engraved around its floating mechanism.
Runes of color and light!
And I suddenly discovered that my course was pointed directly at the center of its hull!
I gently pulled the joystick, slightly raised the nose of the aircraft, and pressed the button to launch the rocket.
I felt a slight tremor through the control column and rudder, but I didn't see the rocket being fired. However, when I passed by the enemy ship's head, the explosion fire illuminated everything in my cockpit.
I turned around and saw the enemy ship slowly tilting to one side while spitting out tongues of explosive flames. The originally straight course gradually twisted to one side. The billowing smoke was like gushing blood, which was constantly flowing from its body.
gush out.
As I pulled up the plane and started to climb, the air cruiser I hit seemed to have finally exhausted its last strength and plunged into the gap in the clouds below. Behind it, blossoming flowers soon bloomed.
White umbrella flower.
"Well done, Eagle!" The voice of the captain of the 12th Brigade came again from the earphones, "Will you continue hunting here next, or will you return with us?"
The first adaptive flight was mainly for the goblins to experience the driving style of their new partner. From this point of view alone, our mission was accomplished today, and we also sunk an aviation cruiser, so I was inclined to return home.
The problem was Eva, but she remained silent - she should have heard what the captain of the 12th Brigade said.
I was about to ask Eva for her opinion when my gut screamed at me.
I raised my head suddenly and looked in the direction of the sun first.
There are four black dots, and they are four black dots with blue trails.
"Red sun!"
At the same time that I called out this customary warning, my Jacques's rune system suddenly activated.
The next fifteen minutes were like a nightmare to me, and I vomited on my dashboard for the first time - a humiliation for a pilot.
My Jacques seemed to have turned into an untamed fierce horse. As long as I touched the control stick lightly, the aircraft would give me a very violent reaction. Several times I thought that my aircraft was going to be twisted by the torque generated by it.
into two sections. And when I shouted to Eva to reduce the output power, the output of the entire rune system suddenly dropped to the minimum. As a result, it kept chasing behind the two of us, but it was unable to do so because of our violent maneuvers.
The two enemy planes who found the opportunity to attack immediately pursued them...
The 12.7mm machine gun bullet tore off both of our canopies and pierced my altimeter. The mercury leaking from under the dashboard almost dripped into my eyes.
Stimulated by the bullets, the output of the rune system was suddenly raised to the highest level, and the strong wind caused by the acceleration grabbed my face desperately. At that time, I was very sure that as long as this situation continued for one more minute, my face would look like
Like a snake shedding a layer of skin.
More importantly, the strong wind made it difficult for me to breathe, and the tightness in my chest and my five senses gradually left me. I knew this was a precursor to hypoxic coma...
My cockpit was equipped with an oxygen tank and a mask, but I used all my strength just to fly this frightened aircraft. I couldn't free my hands to pick up the mask on the fixed frame next to the cockpit, nor could I turn on the oxygen.
Barrel valve.
There is only one way, and that is to abandon the rune module. Otherwise, there are only two possibilities for our future. The difference between them is who suffocates to death first, Eva or I.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
But if we throw away the rune module immediately, we will definitely become the meat in the mouths of the two enemy planes chasing us.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
I must strive for favorable conditions against the opponent.
So I pulled the joystick back fiercely, and my car immediately gave me a response that was ten times what I expected. I quickly climbed up and rushed towards the sun.
Because the altimeter was broken, I didn't know my own height. I just planned to gain as much height advantage as possible before I couldn't hold on any longer. When my body was about to reach its limit, I pulled the emergency bolt that abandoned the rune module.
The g-force pressing on my body disappeared in an instant, making my whole body feel relaxed.
Then an unexpected light lit up behind me. I turned around and saw one of the two enemy planes chasing me exploded. The Axis pilot was so unlucky that he actually hit me and abandoned me.
Rune module!
The wingman who was following the lead aircraft that was knocked apart had to climb out and roll to avoid the incoming debris.
This action made it lose a lot of height all of a sudden, and its butt was exposed to me defenselessly.
I immediately changed the plane into a dive. Before discarding the rune module, my Yak had a very high speed. Now with the bonus of the dive, I easily bit the enemy plane.
Only then did I realize that the plane chasing me was the same as the one that sent me to the Bird Fleet. It was a new model that had not yet been equipped with a large number of equipment. It adopted a completely different twin-engine design from the Mei 109. No wonder these two
The aircraft can hold on tight to the Jacques, which has a performance that far exceeds the design standards.
I shot twice, but the bullets flew close to the enemy plane. The only effect of my bullets was to make the enemy plane's rune system brighter, and it began to pull away from me bit by bit.
distance between.
If this continues, it will eventually run away.
But I still have a chance.
It is dangerous to maintain the course for a long time when someone bites the tail, especially the pilots of the Axis powers. According to my previous experience with them, they will not be satisfied with relying on shaking left and right to avoid shooting. They will definitely
will turn.
The Messerster 109, the main rune machine of the Axis Powers, has a characteristic. Its performance of circling to the right is much better than that of circling to the left (of course, its circling performance to the left or to the right is lower than that of the Jacques).
). This is because in order to make the fuselage lighter and increase the speed, it does not adopt a coaxial reverse twin rotor design like the Rune aircraft of the Confederacy and Western Union. When the propeller rotates, in addition to providing thrust to the aircraft
In addition, another force will be exerted on the fuselage, which will cause the fuselage to have a tendency to roll along the axis. Fighters using coaxial reverse twin rotors will not have this problem because the forces of the two propellers cancel each other out.
Axial rolling tendency. However, the Messerster 109, which only uses one propeller, cannot do this. This rolling tendency limits its maneuverability and makes it unsuitable for left-hand circling....
Therefore, in most cases, Axis pilots would always circle to the right.
Now the Axis Powers' new aircraft adopts a twin-engine and twin-propeller structure. Its designers must have considered the issue of hovering performance, and its pilots should also know this. However, habits are hard to change.
I bet on this habit.
Just as I pushed the joystick to the right, my target tilted the fuselage to the right, improving the right hover.
I slid it firmly into my aiming aperture.
The bullet hit its left engine, and it rushed to the ground dragging thick smoke, but exploded halfway in the air and scattered into a pile of fragments.
I brought the plane back to level, clamped the control column with my knees, then pulled the oxygen mask from the side of the cockpit, unscrewed the valve of the oxygen bottle and inhaled hard.
If an enemy plane comes over at this time, I will accept my fate.
After I regained my composure, I finally remembered to check on Eva's condition. I turned around and saw the girl in the back seat holding an oxygen mask and sucking it non-stop like me.
"Are you okay?" I asked her through the intercom.
"The braids... huff, huff... the wind pulled my braids, and it hurts..."
I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
At this time, I suddenly discovered that the palm of my hand and my forehead were actually very dry. Before I could express my surprise, I discovered that there was a layer of white crystals forming on the back of my hand.
It turns out that the dry feeling is just because my sweat has been dried.
I let out a long sigh.
The return order from the ground command came through the earphones, and the Confederate air force taking over this airspace also appeared on the western horizon.
I looked back at Eva, who was still holding the oxygen mask and huffing and puffing, and gave her a thumbs up.