The Rise of the Third Reich

At the same moment, Captain George Herbert Walker Bush’s earphones also heard the low-pitched English of the air commander, Brigadier General Major: “The enemy is at an altitude of 7,500 meters, and their number exceeds 300. There may be ship-borne Fokkers. Aircraft escort. I ordered the first attack group to occupy an altitude of 8,500 meters and prepare to give the enemy a head-on attack..."

The total number of Allied fighter jets that sortied out today exceeded 500. They were commanded by the air combat commander, British (Canadian) Royal Air Force ace Brigadier General Richard Major, who once shot down more than 20 German aircraft in the air battle over England. According to different types of aircraft, Divided into 3 attack groups.

Among them, the First Attack Group consisted of 138 F7F twin-engine fighter-bombers of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, which were responsible for attacking the German large group from the front.

The second attack group is composed of 248 P-47 fighter jets and is responsible for launching the second wave of major offensive. According to estimates from the North American Northeast Aviation Command, the head-on impact of 138 powerful F7Fs can definitely break up a group of 300 F7Fs. A large formation of Me264 bombers. The bomber group whose formation was broken up could not form a "flying fortress"-like formation, nor could they use their machine guns and cannons to cover each other. Scattered large bombers will become the prey of P-47 fighters forming a 4-plane formation.

As for the third attack group, it is composed of 139 "Sky" high-altitude twin-engine fighters of the British (Canadian) Air Force. The "Sky" high-altitude fighter was developed by the British Westland Company before the fall of the British mainland. It first flew on November 1, 1942, and trial production began in early 1943. A small number of Skyscrapers were received by the Royal Air Force before the fall of Britain. These aircraft, along with the production drawings owned by Westland, and the aircraft's designers, were all evacuated to Canada when the British mainland fell.

Because this twin-engine aircraft is a high-altitude, high-speed interceptor designed specifically to counter the Ju288, it was valued by the British King's Government in exile in Canada and the United States, and became one of the few aviation weapons that has been retained and continued to be developed and produced. One of the projects.

In the second half of 1943, the British established a production line for the "Sky" high-altitude fighter in Canada. Started to assemble this fighter aircraft with excellent high-altitude performance using parts and components provided by the United States. So far, the cumulative production has exceeded 1,500 aircraft, becoming the main model of the Royal Air Force (Canada) that can be equal to the Spitfire. The number of equipment (commonly used) is close to 500 aircraft, mainly deployed in eastern Canada, Western and Australia.

Because the Americans dispatched many fighter jets from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to support the Caribbean, the British government in Toronto had no choice but to dispatch "Sky" fighter jets from Western Canada to supplement Newfoundland and the Nova Scotia Peninsula.

Colonel Major, who is responsible for commanding today's air battle, allows these "Sky" fighters, which are very valuable to the United Kingdom (Canada), to assume relatively easy tasks. Hovering at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, waiting for the Me264 that panicked after being attacked to climb up, and then give them the final blow!

…

No matter what the weather is like on the sea or on the ground, it is always cloudless at an altitude of 8,500 meters and has the best visibility during the day.

Captain Bush, who was wearing a heated flight suit and an oxygen mask, was looking intently at the unobstructed front. Looking up, you can see everything as far as the eye can see.

"Captain, I think I saw an enemy plane!" Captain Bush's voice came from the earphones of "Farsighted" Thom. That man was the ace pilot in the squadron led by Bush, and had shot down 12 enemy planes (all Japanese planes). And he also has the best eyesight among pilots. He can see large aircraft 15-20 kilometers away in the sky above the clouds during the day without using a telescope!

"Great!" Bush squinted his eyes and looked forward, but found nothing. "Tom, where are they?"

"Directly ahead, about 10 kilometers away...above us."

"Above? How is this possible?" Bush raised his head and saw nothing except a dark blue. "Tom, are you mistaken? Just now, the early warning plane reported that the German bomber group was at an altitude of about 7,500 meters. Did they climb?"

"No, it's not Me264, it's... Oh, my God, they fly so fast!" Tom, who is farsighted, sounded very panicked, "They are fighter jets, German fighter jets!"

fighter? Captain Bush remained calm, "It may be the escort fighter jet, it should be an Fw190 taking off from the aircraft carrier."

Although the shore-based fighter jets taking off from the Azores cannot reach Newfoundland, they are escorted by the Fw190 and Fokker E264 on the German aircraft carrier, so Captain Bush has long been prepared to fight the Fw190. Moreover, the F7F fighter jets equipped by his squadron are not easy to deal with. They are not afraid of the German Fw190 at very high altitudes.

"Guys, let's fly higher, follow me...circle and raise the altitude to 2,000 meters." Captain Bush ordered.

Air combat in the age of cannons focused on diving and firing from a high position, and the F7F was originally a big twin-engine aircraft. It would definitely not be as good as the single-engine Fw190 when flying in circles (the Fw190 was actually not good at dogfighting, but it was still better than the twin-engine aircraft). Some), so all F7F squadron commanders, including Captain Bush, issued orders to raise the altitude.

At the same time, in the sky about 50 kilometers away, little Hersman, who is also an expert in air combat, was also giving orders to 12 Me262 squadrons in code words.

"Attention everyone, go upstairs, don't meet each other, keep your distance, and move freely above the 9-11th floor."

"Go upstairs" means to move up, "Don't meet" means not to engage in firefights with enemy planes, and "Go to the 9th to 11th floor" means climbing to 9,000 to 11,000 meters. "Freedom of action" means that you can fight however you like... and that's where little Hersman's command ends.

But don’t underestimate this kind of simple command. Through the command of little Hersman, the Me262T jets of 12 squadrons did not blindly close the distance with the Americans, but increased it by circling. In this way, more than 100 American F7Fs were lured to an extremely high altitude of more than 10,000 meters.

Although the F7F has good high-altitude performance, it can also fly to about 10,000 meters. But at this altitude, the F7F's engine performance dropped drastically and it couldn't fly fast at all. The two jet engines used by the Me262T can still perform well at 11,000 meters, so the F7F using a piston engine at this altitude is not a match for the Me262T at all.

Therefore, little Hersman believes that there is no suspense in the decisive battle at an altitude of 10,000 meters!

"Glasses call electric fan..." Little Hersman then called 8 Fokker aircraft squadrons through the radio.

There is no suspense in the battle at extremely high altitudes, but this is not the first time that American piston fighters have fought German jets, so they know how to deal with it.

Under normal circumstances, when American piston aircraft encounter German jets at high altitude, they will immediately choose to dive away. As long as the altitude is lowered to medium and low altitudes, the piston aircraft can use its flexibility to get rid of the pursuers. However, the Germans also have ways to deal with it. One way is to form a high-low double-jet formation - that is, turning a four-jet formation into two two-jet formations one behind the other, with a height difference of 1000-2000 meters.

Another way is to deploy the Fokker 636 at medium and low altitudes, and when the American piston aircraft rush to low altitude, use the German Fokker 636, the king of medium and low altitudes, to deal with it.

"Captain, they are flying very fast...how is that possible at this altitude?"

When little Hersman continued to command the Fokker aircraft to trap the Americans, Thom, who was farsighted, already noticed that something was wrong, and he hurriedly reported to Captain Bush through the communicator.

"Flying very fast?" Bush looked at the altimeter. It was already over 10,000 meters. What kind of plane can fly faster? Could it be...a jet? Although he had never seen a jet, he had heard many scary rumors about them.

Over Buenos Aires, the Germans

"Captain, they're still rising!"

"Captain, they are rushing towards us! They are flying very fast..."

"Captain... they're jets! They don't have propellers, God, they're jets!"

The horrified voices of the far-sighted Tom came one after another, and finally he yelled and reported the bad news of the discovery of the jet!

At this time, Captain Bush's 2.0 eyesight also saw many black spots appearing in the sky, as if there were seventy or eighty of them, approaching at an extremely fast speed. The black spots quickly grew in size, and Captain Bush soon discovered that those things were a twin-engine aircraft that seemed to have no propellers!

"It's Me262!" Captain Bush shouted, "Dive, dive quickly, lower the altitude!"

Seventy or eighty Me262s cannot be defeated. The F7F is extremely slow at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters. Those Me262s can attack from the most advantageous angle. Therefore, more than 100 F7Fs at high altitude chose to dive to escape - this is also a standard tactic for encountering jet aircraft at high altitude.

But just as Captain Bush started to fly the plane into a dive, he heard the scream of Tom, who was farsighted: "There are them down there too! There are Me262s down there too... Damn it, I was bitten by them..."