USSR 1941

In fact, the Soviet army sent much more fighter planes than the German army imagined. They almost sent out all the fighter planes of the two aviation divisions.

I say "almost" because there is only one brigade of 10 fighter planes left as a reserve.

Alexei objected to Shulka's suggestion.

"One of our fighter pilots, Comrade Shulka!" Alexey said, "The fighter pilot doesn't have much advantage in the air. In fact... it usually can only be beaten passively!"

Originally, the attack aircraft was mainly used for ground attack, and the Soviet pilots lacked combat experience, so it was indeed only used for "passive beating" in air combat.

but……

"This time is different, Alexei!" Shulka said: "The Germans are targeting our tanks and ground troops, so they will send more attack aircraft, that is, their fleet is mainly attack aircraft, Supplemented by fighter planes for cover! If possible, I also hope that we can ambush the enemy with fighter planes of two aviation divisions, but now we only have one fighter plane division and one attack plane division. If we only send one fighter plane division, we will not be able to deal with the The enemy fighter force has formed an absolute numerical advantage!"

"You mean..." said Alexey, "we use attack planes against enemy attack planes, and fighter planes against enemy fighter planes?"

"Yes!" replied Shulka, "and both have an absolute numerical advantage over the enemy!"

Alexei was silent for a while, then agreed to Shulka's plan and reported it to the higher authorities.

Major General Samlov, the commander of the 2nd Air Corps, was also surprised when he heard about this plan. What he didn't expect was that Shulka would come out in full force in the first battle.

One aviation division of the Soviet Army had about 60 fighters, and two aviation divisions had 120 fighters. After deducting a brigade as a reserve team, there were 110 fighters. This scale is a big battle. (Note: The Soviet Air Force has a smaller establishment than the German Army, and an air brigade has only 10 aircraft instead of 30)

"If..." Major General Samlov asked with some concern: "The Germans use more fighter planes than we imagined, then these two aviation divisions may never return!"

"We are on the side of the ambush, Comrade General!" Shulka replied: "We can know the number of enemy planes from the radar, or if we know that the strength of the enemy planes is beyond our control, we can choose to retreat!"

Radar was unreliable during this period,

Especially in rainy weather, this is one of the reasons why it is difficult for the German army to find the ambushes of Soviet fighter planes.

Major General Samlov did not speak. He was a little worried that this was the wrong move of Shulka, who did not understand air combat... because air combat is not as simple as outsiders imagined. The sky sent some fighters to lure the enemy out of ambush, while the other group waited in the clouds.

If the Soviet fighter planes come out in full force, the German fighter planes waiting in the dark will immediately join the battle group.

At that time, it will be too late for the Soviet fighter planes to withdraw.

In this situation, if there is any way to save it, it is to prepare enough reserves to invest or cover the retreat of the main force, but Shulka only used a large group of fighters as the reserve team.

What can a brigade and 10 fighter planes do?

"I have only one question, Comrade Shulka!" Major General Samlov asked: "How are you going to use your reserves?"

"Actually, they're not even a reserve, Comrade General!" Shulka replied: "I use them to pursue scattered enemy fighters!"

Samlov was speechless for a while, this Shulka did not consider the situation of defeat at all, but only the situation of victory.

"Why are you so confident!" Samlov asked, "I mean, are you sure the Germans will be fooled?"

"I'm not sure, Comrade General!" Shulka replied: "I'm just trying my luck!"

Samlov almost fainted when he heard the words, more than a hundred planes, luck?

Samlov did not support Shulka's approach, but because of Khrushchev's order, he finally chose to follow Shulka's plan.

Khrushchev's order was very simple: "Either you give the order, or I let someone else give the order!"

Of course Samlov knows what this means... You must know that his 2nd Aviation Army has two aviation divisions, and each aviation division has a set of command systems. It is enough to just promote one of the division commanders to commander to replace him .

In fact, Shulka is not entirely hit and miss.

On the one hand, Shulka believes that the German fighter planes have been weak since the battle, at least there will be problems in terms of numbers... The number of German fighter planes has actually never been dominant.

On the other hand, it was Shulka who knew that this was the time when Goering was preparing to use airlifts to meet the supply needs of the trapped German Sixth Group.

Therefore, Goering needs a large number of transport planes, as well as saving a large amount of aviation fuel, and at the same time needs to organize a large number of fighter planes... transport planes need the protection of fighter planes.

Shulka even knew that because of the serious shortage of transport planes, Goering even ordered the use of bombers as transport planes to transport supplies for the Sixth Army.

Then, under such circumstances, it is unlikely that the German army would send a group of fighter planes as bait as Samlov worried, and hide a large number of fighter planes in the dark waiting for the Soviet army to take the bait.

Of course, the battlefield has never been able to determine what the enemy is like, so there is still an element of luck.

Shulka won the bet, because the German army did not have such a "plan in the middle". In addition to the lack of German fighter planes, another reason is to underestimate the enemy... The German army believes that a large group of fighter planes is fully capable of repelling any incoming invaders The enemy, after all, enemy pilots are "tender cabbages".

But this is not the case.

A fighter aviation division of the Soviet army swooped down on the German fighter brigade... 70 vs. 30, more than twice the number advantage, the air was immediately filled with the roar of aircraft engines and the roar of machine guns like torn cloth. Then, a fighter plane fell from the sky with black smoke.

On the other hand, the German "Henschel" fleet followed the order and turned around.

To a certain extent, the fighter group commanded by William did not abandon the attack group, but used itself to drag the enemy fighter group so that the B group could escape.

The idea is good, but the reality is cruel.

Before the German B fleet had flown far, they swooped down from the air and one after another fighter planes rushed into the German fleet... It was another fighter plane of an aviation division. Although it was an attack plane of the Soviet army, it was also superior in number with 80 vs. 60 .

What's more important is to be prepared and not to be prepared. A dive down immediately knocked down more than a dozen German attack planes.