Arc of Gunfire

August 15, United Kingdom mainland, Eighth Air Force Headquarters, United States Army Air Force.

As soon as Lieutenant Colonel Miles sat down, Major Jonny next to him came over and asked, "Did you hear that?"

The lieutenant colonel looked puzzled: "What did you hear?"

"The new commander wants us to bomb the Prosun homeland without escort."

Lieutenant Colonel Miles: "What did I think it was? Before the auxiliary fuel tanks were put into use, we had been bombing the mainland of Prossen without escort, weren't we?"

Major Jonny: "I still have ten bombings before I can go home. I don't want to spend the next ten bombings dancing on the edge of a knife!"

"Look at Fang Kilmer over there. He has four more days before he can go home. Among the pilots who have not yet returned home, he is the one who is closest to returning home. He is the first to give advice." Miles explain.

Johnny wanted to say something else, but a command came from the door: "Everyone stand up!"

Although the pilots are relatively undisciplined, they still have basic military qualities. When they hear the command, they reflexively stand up at attention and hold their heads high.

The new commander of the aviation force, Lieutenant General Doolittle, walked into the room, threw the documents in his hand on the lecture table, and looked at the people in the audience: "I think you already know me. When I bombed the capital of the Fuso Empire, , made headlines.”

Major Jonny raised his hand.

Lieutenant General Doolittle: "Please wait a moment, Major. Let me finish. In order to fly the B25 from the aircraft carrier, we removed all the excess weight. We removed a lot of self-defense machine guns, along with the machine guns The shooter is gone too.

"In the end, we successfully completed the mission. If the Fuso Empire hadn't discovered the fleet in advance and scared the cowards of the navy, our voyage would have been enough to fly to Siris.

"But the cowards in the Navy made us take off two hundred kilometers early, so many good guys made an emergency landing in the sea. In the entire operation, not a single plane was shot down by a Fuso Imperial fighter jet."

Major Jonny: "Are you trying to say that you won't provide us with escort just because of this?"

Lieutenant General Doolittle: “What I’m trying to say is, I’ve flown near-death missions in bombers! I know what those missions are like.

"You may already know that in the next bombing mission, the fighter units will no longer stick to you like nannies. This way, they will no longer block the firing range of your machine gunners!"

Many pilots laughed, even though it was a hell of a joke.

Major Johnny pursed his lips: "General, although it is true that the machine gunner hesitated to fire because he was afraid of hitting our fighter jets, but..."

"But!" Lieutenant General Doolittle interrupted Johnny, "Fighter pilots will enter the Prothen Empire airspace before the bomber group, and they will attack the Prothen fighter jets that are forming and climbing above the airport!"

During the Prosen air defense operation, after the fighter jets take off, they need to complete the combat formation first, assemble into a group, and then approach the bomber group under guidance from the ground.

On the other hand, as long as the Allied fighter jets arrive at the airport first, they will have a high probability of catching the Prosen fighter jets being formed.

Lieutenant Colonel Myers raised his hand: "How do we determine when the enemy planes will form? What should we do if we arrive at the airport but no enemy planes are found? Although the Proscenians are famous for their punctuality, we cannot bet the battle on the enemy's punctuality. Come on?"

Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle: "They will definitely find the enemy planes. The enemy planes still on the ground are also enemy planes, and strafing those enemy planes can also prevent them from taking off.

"In addition, the guys in the fighter force also have to carry rockets and bombs. If they encounter an enemy plane, that's good. Just drop the rockets, bombs and auxiliary fuel tanks together, and then you can go into battle lightly and tangle with the enemy.

"If you don't encounter enemy planes, you can throw rockets, bombs and auxiliary fuel tanks on the enemy's airport. In short, the future mission of the fighter force is to show off with the enemy's fighter jets and bleed the enemy's air force fighter force."

Doolittle paused and scanned the briefing room.

"Your initial casualties will be huge. All I can say is, I'm sorry. In time, this bloodletting policy will definitely work. That's what Marshal Rokossov of Ant said!"

The pilots immediately became noisy.

Lieutenant Colonel Fang Kilmer, whom Lieutenant Colonel Myers had just said, stood up immediately: "Marshal Ant fought very well in land warfare, but did he shoot down an enemy plane? Did he bomb the city of Plosen once?"

Lieutenant General Doolittle: "He doesn't, but he understands war and the nature of war. In short, this new regulation has been approved by the President and must be implemented, and it will be implemented from the next bombing! You have one day Write a suicide note to your family.”

The pilots were noisy just now, but now they are silent.

Lieutenant Colonel Miles slammed the table hard: "It's just like returning to the way it was before! Without fighter escort, we will still blow up Proson's factory!"

After that, he stood up and left the briefing room.

The other pilots did not speak, but stood up and followed Miles out of the briefing room.

————

Aug. 16, Plossen Air Force German-Meyer Air Force Base.

As usual, at 10 o'clock sharp, the Focke-Wulf fighter jets of the JG52 Hunter-Anihilation Group stationed at the base began to warm up and prepare to take off to meet the enemy.

Erich, the team's top ace, was the last to arrive at the briefing tent. He saw the empty seats in the tent and asked, "Walter and Otto haven't come back?"

"Yes, no one saw them being hit. It may be that the plane malfunctioned and made an emergency landing far away from the base." Erich's wingman Gunter said.

Erich: "Damn it Meyer, since his order was issued, our casualty rate has increased by thirty percent!"

Only the air force pilots dared to criticize Grand Duke Meyer like this.

Air Force Commander Archduke Meyer ordered the fighter units to shoot down Allied bombers at all costs. The order even publicly required the pilots to ram the Allied bombers after firing the bullets from the fighter planes.

Of course, the pilots are more lively. At present, except for a few die-hard loyalists of His Majesty the Emperor, no one has actually hit the aircraft. They know that loading ammunition after landing can achieve more results.

However, the order "attack bombers at all costs" itself will greatly increase the death rate of fighter pilots, because it means that they must not seize altitude or gain energy advantages when there are enemy fighter escorts, and forcefully Attack bombers.

Even if the bomber can be shot down, the pilots will be at a disadvantage in the subsequent fighter fight.

It can be said that the orders of the top air force generals on both sides were inconsistent. On the one hand, the fighter jets were unable to gain speed along with the slow bombers, and on the other hand, the fighter jets were unable to seize the opportunity.

Erich: "What about today's air situation report? Have the radar stations and surveillance posts seen any enemy planes?"

"It's a bit strange." Wingman Gunter handed the thing on his map board to Erich. "The earliest report said that he saw a large number of individual track clouds gathered together densely. It looked like a large number of fighter jets. Entered Imperial airspace and then reported seeing the bomber's composite track cloud."

Erich checked the report and saw the words "A large number of chaff interfering with detection" above the radar detection column.

"The enemy dropped chaff, which means they have a big operation today. But what does it mean to let the battle enter first?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a piercing alarm sounded.

The messenger rushed into the tent: "Arau! The radar saw the enemy plane attacking the airport! It's going very fast! Emergency takeoff!"

Erich pushed the map board back to Gunter, picked up his flight hat and rushed out of the tent, running towards his fighter jet.

His ground crew leader ran directly towards him: "Full of fuel and ammunition, in good condition, Your Majesty Major!"

"Got it!" As he answered, Erich ran towards the fighter jet.

At this time the anti-aircraft guns began to fire.

In addition to a small number of 88mm anti-aircraft guns near the airport, there are mainly 25mm and 37mm machine guns.

Erich's ears were filled with the crackle of anti-aircraft guns.

As soon as he reached the side of the plane and was about to climb the gangway, the ground crew leader threw him to the ground from behind.

Erich yelled: "What are you doing? I'm going to take off!"

Before he could finish his words, the shooting started.

The bullet made a BIUBIU sound when it hit the ground, and it made a clang sound when it hit the plane.

Erich raised his head, just in time to see the shot plane burning, and the fire directly engulfed half of the kill mark next to his canopy.

It turned out that the ground crew leader was trying to save him.

"Thank you, Cruise!" Erich turned around to thank the ground crew leader, but only saw his dilated pupils.

"Cruise?"

Erich pushed away the old ground attendant who had been waiting on his landline and found that his military uniform was stained red with blood.

"Fuck!" He closed the team leader's eyes and stood up to look for aircraft that could still be dispatched. He saw a FW190 preparing to take off forcibly, but was strafed by enemy planes swooping down from the sky and turned into a ball of fire.

Erich shouted: "The enemy's fighter jets entered the country first to disrupt our air defense operations! They changed their escort strategy!"

Another ground crew swooped over and pinned him to the ground.

Then the shooting came again, and the bullets hit the ground with a loud bang.

There was an explosion in the distance.

Erich looked up and saw a P47 with a red tail paint passing overhead. There was actually a black man in the cockpit!

"Damn it, I saw a black man flying a plane!" Erich shouted.

The ground crew member who had just rescued him said, "It's okay. I was transferred back from the Eastern Front. A pilot said he saw a woman flying the plane. You two must be crazy!"

Erich: "I have to find a plane to take off!"

"Stop dreaming. Planes in take-off status will be towed out of the hangar and lined up on the tarmac. You know, do you think there are still planes without holes in them?"

Erich turned his head, and at that moment another P47 passed over the tarmac and shot at the rows of FW190s, leaving more holes in them.

Erich: "Fuck!"