Battle of the Third Reich

"Red No. 2, Red No. 2, here is the Red Team Captain, keep the formation formation."

Rick. Captain Dermo clutched his throat talker and stared coldly at the wingman on his left. Perhaps the pilot felt the captain's cold eyes or heard the dissatisfaction in the captain's words, and the wingman immediately reduced the speed and slowly returned to his position in the formation.

"Where did this guy come from, Steve." Captain Dermo released his throat talker, and he pointed to Hank, the communications and machine gunner who was sitting behind him. Sergeant Steve asked loudly.

"Oh? Are you talking about the red number 2? I don't know. I heard it looks like a burger." Steve was looking at the communication frequency table with his head down, and he quickly raised his head and answered loudly when he heard Demor's question To.

"Hamburg? I thought this guy was from Bavaria. This guy was like a wild boar who was not disciplined. The leader must still remember that I stole his wine last time, so I transferred such an unruly rookie to my Coming to the squadron. This guy has been doing tricks from the beginning of take-off until now. I must ground him after the battle. Energetic is good, but I don’t need this kind of idiot who is active to ignore discipline in the battle."

De Mo hated the newly-disciplined violations of discipline. If he wasn’t on a mission, he now wanted the guy who repeatedly violated the discipline of the formation to roll back to the base, then wash his **** and wait for him to kick on it. .

"Haha, Rick, don't be angry about this little thing. After all, the kid has just graduated from aviation school. Some impulses are normal, young people. You remember that when you first came to the regiment, it was not like He was rampant like that. The commander wasn't mad at you then. At that time, you were like a runaway locomotive, and wherever you ran there was chaos." Stevin said with a smile.

"That was two things. At that time, I was too young and inexperienced. Also..." De Mo quickly recognized.

"Then this kid is not the same, he is two years younger than when you came in. Maybe he will be the second one. You may be, anyway, we have time to teach him, he will mature in battle, just Like you." Stevin interrupted Dermo's defense, he said unhurriedly.

"Maybe, maybe I should give this kid some time. This is his first time to perform a combat mission. Wait a moment, I will pay attention to his performance in combat. If he really has combat qualities, I will consider giving him. Opportunity to grow. But now... this little bastard." De Mo quickly shouted and shouted while holding the throat talker: "Red No. 2, Red No. 2, you have flown out of the formation, come back to me quickly Sergeant Ralph, this is the last time I sue you. If you violate the formation discipline again, I swear I will put your cāo vertical rod into your **** and hang you in my bomb The rack was thrown into your backyard from a height of five kilometers. I said it. Do you understand?"

"Understood, sir..." Ralph replied loudly, but it sounded a little unpleasant to Demo's ears. Red No. 2 swung the wings twice, then leaned back to the formation, and the other pilots' soft laughter came from the headset.

"You too, keep the communication smooth." De Mo shouted angrily.

"Asshole? I said Captain, you really dare to say." Stevin shook his head with a smile in the back seat.

"What's the matter, remember our last time..."

"Wait a minute..." Steve interrupted Dermo's words, and he held the headphones tightly with his hands.

"What did you receive." De Mo glanced at the meter and then raised his head and looked at his partner in the rearview mirror, asking questioningly.

"The emergency call is the base command station. I received it from your communicator." Steve said solemnly, and then he turned on the communication switch, and a burst of eager calls came to Demo's headset.

"Here is the Dragon's Cave, here is the Dragon's Cave, call Red Dragon, please answer when you hear. Call Red Dragon. Please answer when you hear."

"I am Red Dragon, I am Red Dragon, the voice is very clear, the voice is very clear." De Mo replied loudly.

"Red Dragon, the goal is changed, the original mission is cancelled, you now have a new mission, please reply after hearing it. Repeat once, the goal is changed, the original mission is canceled, you will perform the new mission."

"Red Dragon understood that the original mission was cancelled and requested new instructions."

"Close air support, located in the village of Itna, you are going to clear the ground obstacles for General Guderian's vanguard, they have met the resistance of the French forces."

"Command received."

"Now you turn to 210, the target area is 90 kilometers away from you. The other party has light anti-aircraft firepower, and you will be guided by the ground guidance unit. That's it. Good luck."

"Red Dragon understands and turns to 210."

Demo tapped the communicator lightly, and Steve quickly adjusted the communication frequency to formation communication.

"All personnel, listen, the original mission was cancelled. We are now going to perform the close air support mission to clear the way for General Goodrian. Now everyone follows me. Turn to the formation."

Demo loosened the throat communicator and then gently pressed the vertical bar. The aircraft tilted its wings and slowly began to turn. The entire formation turned under the leadership of the aircraft and slowly flew towards the target area.

The bulky Stuka moved slowly at an altitude of five kilometers, and the dark green paint appeared a little bluish under the sunlight. This mighty killer machine is perhaps the ugliest of all its ugly companions, huge and thick inverted seagull-shaped wings, the same huge fixed landing gear and wheel fairing, towering cockpit and tall The vertical tail, especially the huge engine radiator that looks like a bathtub, each of these designs is a nightmare for aerodynamic experts. This is a terrible subversion of almost all aircraft design rules. works. Being able to fly this monster-like plane into the sky, German aircraft designers do have extraordinary courage and perseverance.

This horrible strange bird has a poor 880-horsepower jumo 211dr engine, which is too small for this six-ton ​​monster. It takes off with stupid benzene. Reminded the pilot of this, and hit the pilot's confidence.

For a professional dive bomber, flight speed and altitude are not particularly important performances. The longitudinal stability during the dive and the solidity of the fuselage are the issues that must be concerned. This aircraft gave the designer a satisfactory answer to this question. Its stability during the dive was surprisingly high, thanks to the two huge fixed landing gears and the huge dive decelerator under the wings. It is the so-called "pneumatic brake" effect. The huge landing gear is equivalent to two vertical stabilizers when diving, and the dive deceleration plate makes this effect more remarkable. But this also caused another problem. The vertical stability of Stuka is really too good. It is so good that it suddenly becomes difficult to make a slightly larger maneuver, and this type of Actions are often the most common method of evading opponent fighter attacks.

Stuka’s rugged fuselage allows it to withstand the unprecedented torsion of other aircraft, enabling it to immediately change out of the dive state after high-speed dive. During this process, the body must withstand at least six g of pressure. Ordinary fighters may be crushed before they reach half of the dive process.

These remarkable performances made this dive bomber well deserved to become the best ground support force in the early days of World War II. Its emergence caused a fundamental change in the German Army's combat mode. Some old combat methods in the past were abandoned. Based on the aircraft's use plan, a new close air support tactic was formulated. When the war began, the development of this tactic created by the German Air Force and the Army was far ahead of their European counterparts. Especially in the United Kingdom, when the Germans just created this tactic, some people in the British Army had proposed similar theories, but they obtained diametrically opposite results from the Germans. Due to the opposition of the old-fashioned British officials, Later, even the troops will be relentlessly reprimanded for this tactic, and the British paid a heavy price for their shortsightedness.

The excellent dive performance of Stucana allows it to accurately throw the bomb over the target in combat with an error of less than 30 meters. If the error is reduced in the hands of an experienced pilot, some people Even the error can be reduced to a range of five meters, and any target within this distance cannot avoid the damage caused by the bomb explosion.

However, this performance of Stuka also brought some trouble to the pilot's combat, and it was in sharp contrast with the excellent dive performance it possessed, and its maneuverability went to the other extreme. The mobility of Stuka can be described as bad. Although the huge aileron can make it free from the high-speed dive, the resulting sluggishness makes the pilot sometimes crazy.

When encountering an enemy fighter attack, the pilot's cāo could not get a timely response on these two ailerons. Every action would be delayed for a second or two to get a response, and one or two seconds is enough time for those light The fighter had drilled dozens of holes in Stuka. And Stuka's longitudinal stability prevents it from making large maneuvers in time, even the slowest fighter is more flexible than it. Although the sturdy fuselage makes it more able to withstand the damage than the fighter, it can only make it survive a little longer, and it is a matter of being shot down sooner or later.

Coupled with its staggering speed, when it is full of bombs, the speed of less than 200 kilometers per hour makes it the most ideal prey for enemy fighters, especially when it is diving, any little outside interference will make it out of control At that time, the fighter just gave it a light blow, which was enough to turn it into a burning piece of metal on the ground.

Its performance makes it an undisputed excellent weapon and an irrefutable excellent target on the battlefield. This is Stukka, a weapon full of contradictions.

The Luftwaffe pilots were aware of the vulnerability of the aircraft when it encountered the interception of enemy fighters. A battle on May 12 confirmed their judgment. At that time, a Stuka formation completed its attack mission and was on its way back, and there was no fighter aircraft to **** them. They met a whole formation of French fighters. The French drove the old Curtis Hawk 75. The result of the battle surprised everyone. None of the twelve Stuttgarts were shot down. The French No plane was lost in this one-sided battle. This incident sounded a fine bell for all Stuttgart pilots, which reminded them that the aircraft they were driving was in danger at any time without the **** of fighter jets. But what made them depressed was that the battle did not make the Air Force commander feel touched. They did not react in any way. As if this had not happened, the pilots of Stuka were still sent out to carry out their missions. Continue to fly alone in the enemy's airspace without escort.

"We're here, have you seen the following?"

De Mo looked through the window at the burning French position below. He led his Stukka group to hover over the battlefield. Now they are at an altitude of 4,500 meters. The clouds here give them a very good cover. Through the gaps in the clouds, they can clearly observe the situation on the battlefield, but the enemy can hardly notice these drilling in the clouds. Black spots in and out.

"All crews pay attention and are ready to enter the battle." Captain Dermo gave a serious order, and then he said to Stevin, who was sitting behind, "Is there a contact to guide the unit?"

"Contacted, I'll pick it up for you." Stevin replied loudly.

"Here is the Red Dragon. We have reached your sky. You can show us the target."

"Red Dragon, here is the Greyhound. I'm very happy to see you. Now I will show you the target direction."

The ground guidance unit's answer was clear and loud. De Mo saw that a bunch of red smoke columns had risen on the ground. That was a smoking can lit by the ground forces. Each beam of smoke represented a German force there. This simple identification method can be effectively avoided The tragedy of bombing one's own by oneself happened. A huge German flag was spread out, and the troops on the ground also spread a huge arrow with white powder in front of the flag. This arrow indicated the enemy's direction.

In fact, they don’t have to do this. De Mo has clearly seen the position of the enemy in the air. Two ring-shaped howling positions surround a small village. He can even distinguish the large number of trucks parked on the road in the village. And the silhouette running back and forth. Five German tanks were burning between the two trenches, and the black smoke filled the sky above the position. In front of the trench, De Mo saw the three burning armored vehicles. Between these wreckage, he could still see the bodies of German soldiers and various guns scattered around.

"Red Dragon, do you know the target position now?"

"It's clear, we immediately attack." Under the guidance of the ground guidance unit, De Mo and his men knew the exact location of each target to be bombed.

"Everyone knows where they want to attack. The teams enter the attack position in turn, let those Frenchmen taste the taste of our bombs. The first group, come with me." De Mo shouted loudly, and then led With his three-machine formation, he rushed over the French position.

Dermo did the final preparations before dive bombing in the cabin. He put the **** in the cruise position, adjusted the elevator and rudder, and adjusted the pitch of the propeller to the cruise position. Then he turned on the power switch of the altimeter and set the bombing height. This is an important instrument to ensure that he can get out of the dive before entering the dangerous altitude. It can calculate when the plane should drop the bomb and pull it up. Demo sets it on the altimeter The bombing height of the aircraft is 500 meters, which is the extreme height at which the aircraft can safely escape the dive. If it is lower, it will be difficult to ensure that the aircraft will not hit the ground before being pulled up.

Dermore switched the engine booster switch to automatic and then reduced the throttle to the minimum. Then he closed the air inlet of the cooler.

"Red 2 and Red 3, are you ready?"

"Red 2 is ready."

"Red 3 is ready."

The wingmen replied loudly.

"Very good, now let's get on, let the enemy tremble under our wings and follow me."

De Mo released the dive speed brake, and at that moment, the nose of the plane sank sharply, and Stuka automatically entered the dive state. The flight safety control system was activated by the linkage mechanism. The dive demobilization system is now activated. Two small red marking rods protrude from the upper wing surface of the wing. This is a hydraulic auxiliary mechanism that will drop bombs on the aircraft. It starts working at that moment, it can limit the angle of the aircraft when it is pulled up, to avoid the overload of the aircraft body due to the steepness of the pulling, which can cause damage to the aircraft body or leave permanent damage.

De Mo pushed the vertical bar steadily. The afterglow of his eyes scanned the windshield in front of the right. A series of lines were engraved on the piece of glass. This is an effective tool to help the pilot judge the dive angle. Each line is It indicates a dive angle, starting from 30 degrees to 90 degrees, because the dive angle of the pilot's psychological feeling during the dive is much steeper than the actual dive angle. In the past, the accuracy of the hit was often affected by the insufficient dive angle, Now just look at which line is parallel to the ground to know at what angle Stuka is currently diving.

De Mo is ready to do a large angle dive of 80 degrees, which can ensure the accuracy of the bomb hit. And he also wants to know the skill level of these two new wingman pilots, because this dive is just a piece of cake for his experienced veteran, but for the latter two novices. The test of skill and courage, De Mo believes that only pilots who pass this test are qualified to fly his wingman.

"not bad."

De Mo found the shadow of his wingman in the rearview mirror. The two Stukkas were tied tightly with the ropes on both sides of De Mo’s tail. The three Stukkas were like one. The cast iron triangle pounced towards the French position on the ground. The pneumatic bagpipes mounted on the landing gear began to bleep, indicating that the current speed has exceeded the maximum speed in flat flight. This terrible whistle is shocking, and it even exceeds the psychological pressure on the enemy. A bomb hanging on the plane.

Stuka dived screaming, like a strange bird in **** descending from the sky. Facing towards the cockpit, De Mo's spirit became more and more excited as the ground approached, his body began to secrete a large amount of adrenal hormones, which made his reaction almost doubled than usual . Dermo focused all his attention on the target, focusing on the reading on the dashboard with a small amount of afterglow. The aircraft continued to dive, the speed has reached 560 kilometers, and now the aircraft is only more than 1,300 meters from the ground, De Mo can clearly see the panicked French soldiers and running panic on the ground A series of bright machine gun tracers shot at me. The elevator has become very heavy. De Mo needs a lot of strength to control it. He began to use the aileron differential to adjust and maintain his aiming point. He fixed the nose to a trench command. On the bunker, waiting for the moment of bombing.

Two strings of machine gun bullets swept across the top of the cockpit, and then two more machine gun bullets whistled and hit the engine's armor shell. The bullet did not penetrate the 8 mm thick armor. The armor bounced off and then hit the windshield of the cockpit.

The bullet passed through a few centimeters above Demor's head, and the violent airflow whistled from the bullet hole in the windshield into the cockpit. Its screams even exceeded the sharp air whistle of Stuttgart. . De Mo bit his teeth and stared at his target. This accident was nothing to him at all. He had encountered a worse situation than this, unless the bullet hit his head. Don't want him to stop his current job.

The plane had dropped below one kilometer, and the speed had reached the upper limit of 600 kilometers. The solid ground rushed like a wall, and Stuka sprinted in the mad rain of French soldiers. At this time, the precision indicator light on the altimeter finally lighted up, which indicates that the aircraft has reached the height of the bomb drop. Demo pressed the bomb drop button on the vertical bar of the cāo, and a two hundred hanged under the belly The fifty-kilogram bomb and the four fifty-kilogram bombs suspended on the wing immediately separated from the plane, and then flew towards the target as fast as they were attracted to the ground.

Demo pressed the automatic leveling control button on the vertical bar of the cāo, the nose of the aircraft began to lift up quickly, and the gravity of six g pressed him into the seat, and the aircraft was at ten degrees per second. The speed has changed the dive. When the plane's nose had just returned to level, De Mo immediately retracted the dive speed brake, he adjusted the propeller pitch to the take-off position, opened the cooler baffle and then pushed the throttle fully, the engine issued under the maximum boost of 9 kg A huge roar dragged Stukka's bulky body slowly towards the sky.

After leaving the range of the opponent's ground fire, De Moh sighed softly. He began to circle and rise. He wanted to observe the results of the bombs in front of him and the fighting situation of his men. As a result, he was very satisfied. His bomb hit the target accurately. Not only did he explode the command bunker but also completely destroyed a trench of about 50 meters, the billowing smoke was rising in the ruins. The results of his two wingmen were also good, and the trenches that they were responsible for destroying completely collapsed, and there was a lot of wolf by the huge crater.

The other Stukas have basically completed their respective tasks, and a large part of them are being leveled from the dive. At this time, the last group of Stuka was entering the final sprint. As a few black spots fell from the wings of the three Stuka, dozens of gorgeous fireballs, mud branches and soldiers burst on the French position. 'S body flew in the air, and Stuka passed over those objects and then pulled up the nose to slowly climb.

The French position has completely changed its appearance. The trenches and bunkers that could be clearly distinguished before have disappeared. All that remains is a series of huge craters and corpses all over the place. Rolling smoke covers the entire position. The sky above is as miserable as the end of the world.

"All crews report their own conditions, are there any losses?"

De Mo cāo hovered in the air on his own plane, and after throwing away a load of 450 kilograms, the plane became much lighter. The three-machine formations climbed up from all directions, and they slowly began to gather closer to De Mo's formation.

After listening to the reports of his subordinates, De Mo breathed a sigh of relief. His fleet did not lose a plane during this attack, only two of them were shot through the wing by French anti-aircraft machine guns, but it did not affect their continuation. flight.

"Greyhound, here is the Red Dragon. We have completed the attack mission. The first defense line of the other party has been completely destroyed. We have dropped all the bombs and we are going back." De Mo took his formation in the German troops. Circled over the sky.

"Red Dragon, here is the Greyhound, well done, your mission has been completed. The next formation is on the way to here, they will take over from you to complete the latter mission. You can return to the sea, the general is very satisfied with your work , He wants me to convey his thanks to you."

"This is our responsibility, please show our respect to the general, goodbye."

Dermo led his Stuka formation once again around the French position, and then flew away slowly towards the direction of the base.

Through the thick bulletproof glass on the front of the cockpit, De Mo saw a group of aircraft as large as him in the distance was drilling out of the clouds. They were slowly flying in their own direction, and the inverted seagull-shaped wings were A little golden light shone under the sunlight.

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