Red Moscow

"Comrade Sergeant, take him to the basement." Seeing that the Yak-1 fighter jet had made a forced landing and was gliding towards him, he told the sergeant to keep an eye on Meyer, and he pointed at Katya. He shook his head and said, "Let's go, Katya, let's welcome your lead plane together."

After the enemy plane escaped, the women's flying squadron did not chase after it, but prepared to return. Lilia was worried about Katya's safety, so she said to Raisa through the radio: "Comrade Lieutenant, I can't go back now. I want to land at the factory area to see how Katya is doing. If possible, I would like to take Katya with me." She flew back together."

When Raisa heard Lilia's request, she quickly said to her: "Lilia, don't worry, Katya landed in the factory area. I think she must have been rescued by our soldiers. You don't have to worry about that." Also, even if you see Katya after landing, there is no way to bring her back, don’t forget, the Yak-1 fighter we are flying is a single-seat fighter.”

"Comrade Lieutenant, just let me go." Lilia felt very uncomfortable when she thought of Katya being shot down by an enemy plane in order to save herself. Unreliable."

Seeing Lilia's insistence, Raisa stopped persuading her, but said softly: "Lilia, although there are many open areas in the factory area, there are many bomb craters after being bombed by enemy planes. be safe."

In this way, Lilia, with Raisa's permission, broke away from the flight formation and forcibly landed four or five hundred meters away from the assembly workshop. While the plane was still taxiing, she saw a group of people coming out of the factory building that was still billowing with smoke ahead. She was thinking about asking them if someone had rescued Katya after the plane stopped. But at this moment, she suddenly saw a soldier wearing a pilot uniform rushing out of the crowd, running towards her quickly, waving his hands desperately while running.

"It's Katya." Although she was still more than a hundred meters away, Lilia still saw clearly that the person running towards her was Katya, whom she had been thinking about all the time. Her eye circles turned red, "Katya, she's still alive." .”

Before the plane came to a complete stop, Lilia pushed open the hatch, waved desperately at Katya who was running over, and at the same time shouted loudly: "Katya, Katya!"

After the plane came to a steady stop, Lilia climbed off the plane on both hands and feet, hugged Katya who was flying over, and said excitedly: "Katya, it's great that you're still alive, it's great Already!"

After the two parted, Katya raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, forced a smile and said to Lilia, "Lilia, it was the soldiers from the 73rd Infantry Brigade who rescued me." Kov and the others pouted, "Here, the young officer walking in the front is Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the brigade commander. By the way, he has heard of you before."

"Have you heard of me?" Lilia couldn't help showing a surprised expression when she heard Katya say this, and she thought to herself: I have never known Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, how could he know me? But seeing that Sokov was not far away from him, he didn't care too much about it. He quickly pulled the hem of the flight suit, tidied up his military appearance, trotted in front of Sokov, stood upright, and reported according to the regulations: " Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, Second Lieutenant Lilia of the Women's Squadron of the 437th Flying Regiment would like to report to you that I have just finished a combat mission and specially landed to find my downed wingman pilot."

"Although Katya's plane was shot down by an enemy plane, thank God, she was not injured. You can rest assured about that." Sokov gave a thumbs up to Lilia after briefly introducing Katya's situation: "Second Lieutenant Lilia, you are really amazing. You shot down five enemy planes by yourself. I will report your achievements to my superiors and let them award you a medal."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Lilia was not very interested in awarding honors. She was most concerned about whether Katya was safe and well. Sokov said: "Thank you for saving Katya."

"Comrade Second Lieutenant, you don't have to be so polite, it's just a matter of little effort." Sokov said to Lilia with a smile: "I should thank you, if you didn't drive off the enemy planes, they don't know how long they would bomb over us .”

After the two chatted politely, Sokov suddenly thought of the captured German pilot Meyer, and wanted to meet the Soviet pilot who shot him down, so he tentatively proposed to Lilia: "Second Lieutenant Lilia, we just captured A German pilot was shot down by you, and he wants to meet our pilot who shot him down."

Lilia was about to reject Sokov's request, but she heard Sokov add another sentence: "By the way, I almost forgot, he is the German pilot who shot down your wingman."

Hearing what Sokov said, Lilia immediately changed her mind. She nodded and said, "Okay, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, then I'll go see him and see what he has to say."

Seeing that Lilia agreed, Sokov quickly ordered the soldiers who followed: "You stay here and are responsible for protecting the fighter plane of Second Lieutenant Lilia, understand?"

The soldiers standing behind Sokov were extremely excited when they learned that they would stay to guard Lilia's plane, and immediately shouted in unison: "Understood!"

Sokov brought Lilia to his temporary command post, and introduced Lilia's identity and the results she had achieved to Zinchenko and others.

When Zinchenko and the others saw Sokov bringing in two female pilots, they all frowned in unison, wondering why there were female pilots here. After they listened to Sokov's introduction of Lilia's situation, they were quite surprised. Zinchenko immediately felt guilty for his contempt for Lilia. He hurried forward to hold Lilia's hand, friendly Said: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you are really amazing, you can shoot down so many enemy planes..."

While Zinchenko was talking to Lilia, the commander of the fourth battalion, Briski, walked in excitedly, and he asked Sokov carelessly: "Comrade Brigadier, I heard that we captured a German pilot. Really?"

"That's right, we did capture a German pilot." After confirming Briski's guess, Sokov pointed to Lilia and introduced him: "Comrade Captain, let me introduce you, this is Lily Lieutenant Ya and her wingman pilots, who shot down the plane of the captured pilot and drove the remaining enemy planes away."

Knowing that the female pilot in front of him actually shot down an enemy plane, Briski was immediately in awe of Lilia. Regardless of the opponent's military rank being much lower than his own, he raised his hand and saluted, and said respectfully: "Thank you, Comrade Second Lieutenant, if you hadn't driven off the enemy plane, I'm afraid the troops would have suffered even more serious casualties." .”

Not long after, Meyer was escorted in by two soldiers from the outside. Briski only glanced at him, and asked sharply, "How did you get your two first-class and second-class 'Iron Crosses' and a 'Knight's Iron Cross'?"

When Zinchenko heard Briski finished speaking, he instinctively wanted to translate his words, but as soon as he spoke, Meyer raised his hand to stop him, and said arrogantly in substandard Russian: "No need to translate, I can Understood."

He turned to Briski and said with a sneer, "These two first-class and second-class 'Iron Crosses' were obtained after I shot down your eighth plane." The "Knight's Iron Cross" said triumphantly, "And this medal was obtained by shooting down three of your planes in one day a while ago."

Sokov didn't have much research on the Iron Cross, so he didn't notice this detail at all after he captured Meyer just now. At this moment, when Meyer told himself how many Soviet planes he had shot down, he thought to himself: Lilia is so lucky to be able to shoot down the ace pilot of the German army.

When Briski heard what Meyer said, the veins on his forehead burst out of anger. He slapped the table hard and shouted sharply: "So what if you are an ace pilot, you were shot down by our pilots!"

Briski's words reminded Meyer. He looked at Sokov and asked, "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, didn't you say that you wanted me to meet the pilot who shot me down? I think the pilot who shot me down must be the Your best pilot. Although he and I are enemies, I still want to pay him my respect."

"You want to see the pilot who shot you down." Sokov pouted at Lilia, who was standing beside him, and said, "Here, this is the female air force second lieutenant. She participated in air combat for the first time today, and she shot down the Five planes including your fighter."

Seeing the petite, blond, and beautiful young female pilot standing beside Sokov, Meyer felt that he had been greatly insulted, and he immediately roared: "Mr. I am a prisoner of war, but please give me the treatment that a prisoner of war deserves. I think, I want to meet the enemy pilot who shot me down, this is not an excessive request, please don't humiliate me."

"Corporal," Lilia, who had been silent since Meyer entered the door, suddenly took a step forward and said in fluent German, "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov was not joking, and indeed I shot it down. And the one beside me This companion is my wingman, she was shot down by you during the battle."

When Meyer heard Lilia speak proficient German, he couldn't help being stunned. He never dreamed that he, the ace pilot of the German army, would be defeated by a young female pilot who was on the battlefield for the first time. Listening to Lilia telling some details about the air battle, he confirmed that the female pilot in front of him was really the one who shot him down. He didn't dare to look into Lilia's eyes anymore, but obediently lowered his head and looked down. The arrogance on his face also disappeared without a trace.

Seeing Meyer's distraught look, Sokov ordered someone to take him down, and then said to Lilia, "Second Lieutenant Lilia, you can fly the plane back first. As for your wingman pilot Katya, I will arrange someone as soon as possible." Take her back to the airport."

"Thank you for your kindness, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Lilia rejected Sokov's proposal, "I landed in the factory area just to pick up Katya."

"Comrade Second Lieutenant, please forgive me." Briski couldn't help interjecting when he heard this: "The Jacques-1 fighter is a single-seater fighter. How can it accommodate two people?"

Before Lilia could answer, Sokov recalled a scene he had seen in a movie before. After a pilot of the Normandy regiment was shot down, another Soviet pilot landed next to his plane and took the injured The pilot stuffed himself into his cabin, and the two huddled together into the air. Thinking of this, Sokov raised his hand to stop Briski who wanted to continue talking, and asked Lilia tentatively: "Second Lieutenant Lilia, are you planning to let Katya and you squeeze into the same cabin?"

"That's right, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you guessed right." Seeing that Sokov had guessed her intentions, Lilia replied with a smile, "Both of us are relatively thin, so we shouldn't have any problem squeezing them into the same cabin." .”

"Okay, Second Lieutenant Lilia, since you have already figured out how to go back, let's go quickly." Seeing that Lilia's thoughts coincided with his own, Sokov urged: "If the German fleet Hurry up, if you want to leave, it will not be so easy."

Lilia squeezed into the narrow cabin with Katya, waved goodbye to Sokov and the others, swayed along the open space full of bomb craters for one or two hundred meters, and hobbled up to the sky.

Raisa and Maria were back at the airport while they were still on the road. But after Raisa reported to Khostnikov what they had achieved, the colonel immediately jumped up from his seat: "Impossible, it is absolutely impossible."

Facing Khostnikov's reaction, Raisa said calmly: "Comrade Colonel, I know you look down on us, so you don't believe what we have achieved. If you don't believe it, you can call your superiors and tell them Just check it out."

In order to find out the real results of the women's squadron, Khostnikov called Commander Khryukin, reported the results of the battle reported by Raisa to Khryukin, and finally said: "Comrade Commander , This is the result of the women's squadron, I think for the sake of safety, the superior should verify it."

"Comrade Colonel, there is no need to verify." Khryukin picked up a telegram in front of him, which was forwarded by the Front Army Command, and it was the result of the battle reported by Sokov to Chuikov. Tnikov said: "Second Lieutenant Lilia shot down four bombers and a fighter alone in the air battle. Among them, the German pilot who flew the fighter was Erwin Meyer, the ace pilot of the German army. Comrade Colonel, according to what Lilia Ensign said I plan to award her the title of ace pilot for the results obtained, and you will immediately write a detailed report and send it up."