New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

The next day, the 305th Bomber Group was preparing to attack a submarine base in Brest, France.This location is not far from the United Kingdom, and it is within the range of the Royal Air Force's Spitfire escort almost the entire time.But the enemy's defense against this target is also extremely tight.

In November and December 1942, the German submarine force's attack on the Allied merchant fleet was at its peak.Due to the success of the wolf pack tactics, the tonnage of merchant ships sunk by the German army has significantly exceeded the production volume of the Allied forces.The materials that can be transported to the UK are constantly decreasing. Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare and wolf pack tactics are like a noose that is firmly around the neck of the British and is gradually tightening, making the United Kingdom feel suffocated to death Prime Minister Churchill later said that the most dangerous time in the war was not the Battle of Britain when the German bombers were like black clouds overwhelming the city, but the period of 11 years of unlimited submarine warfare. "For the first time they made me doubt the prospect of war, and feel the danger of failure." ("Churchill Memoirs")

Precisely because the threat posed by submarines is so great, the Allied forces are now focusing almost all their strike forces on how to deal with submarines.Submarine bases, submarine manufacturing plants, and other related factories and facilities have become the focus of the bomber force's targets.Brest was one of Nazi Germany's most important submarine bases in the Atlantic Ocean.The blow to it is even more important.

The bomber unit will set off in the afternoon to ensure that it arrives at the German submarine base at around 5:7000 pm local time.This is a carefully chosen time.At this time, the sun has been tilted to the west, but the light is still relatively strong, especially at an altitude of [-] meters without any obstruction.Enemies who attempt to launch a head-on attack will find that they will have to face the sun to attack, and the strong light of the sun will interfere with their line of sight and reduce their attack precision.

下午3点钟，罗恩登上了一架b-17“空中堡垒”重型轰炸机。而李梅则在另一架飞机上坐镇。整个305轰炸机大队几乎倾巢而出，24架轰炸机组成2个箱型编队开始浩浩荡荡的飞向目标。半个小时后，303轰炸机大队的20架b-17也出现在视野内。就是不知道克拉克盖博是不是也在这次出击的机群之中。

Ten minutes later, the fleet expanded again, and 10 B-306s from the 12 Bomber Group also joined in.

When approaching the English Channel, a new callsign came from Ron's earphone:

"We are the 52nd Fighter Group, RAF. Nice to meet you guys. We will escort you. Good luck!"

Looking out the window, it was not long before a group of RAF Spitfires appeared in front of the formation.Looking from the window, you can see the unique elliptical wings of those graceful fighter jets fluttering slightly in the wind.

The English Channel is not wide, only about 40 kilometers at its narrowest point near Calais.But now the fleet does not cross the strait directly from west to east, the target is southeast of the UK, the fleet will first fly south for a while, and then turn east.To make sure the sun is directly behind them when they lunge at the target.

Three and ten minutes later, the fleet began to turn east.At this moment, a message from the escorting Spitfire came from Ron's earphones:

"German fighter jets are found ahead! We will try our best to protect you, good luck!"

Ron understood that the German radar had discovered them long ago, and the purpose of this team of fighter jets that came to intercept them might not be to shoot down bombers, but to consume flame-breathing fuel.

Spitfire series fighters are an immortal legend.This extremely graceful fighter was continuously improved throughout the war, with dozens of modifications.It was the pride of the Royal Air Force from the first day of the war, until the end of the war, it was one of the most outstanding fighter jets.It can be said that at almost any moment in World War II, the Spitfire could gain an advantage over any opponent in a certain performance. Those who are faster than it can climb, those that can climb faster than it can turn, and those that can climb faster than it can turn, and those that are faster than it can turn. It turns not as fast as it does.No matter who it faces, it can always find a corresponding countermeasure.

However, the fire-breathing is not perfect. It has two problems that have not been changed. These two problems are: thin skin and short legs.

The so-called thin skin refers to poor resistance to blows.Of course, it also depends on who you are comparing with, compared with the products of those steel factories in the United States, such as p-47 thunderbolt, p-38 lightning, even the old-fashioned p-40, and the navy's f4f and f4u, etc. Or compared with the German fw-190a8 and other heavily loaded buddies, this guy is definitely thin-skinned and stuffed, but compared with those Japanese planes, the fire-breathing defense is not bad.

But short legs are really too short, this guy is an airport fence protector.Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying it's a Strait Defender.Its combat radius is pitifully small, and at most it can go around the English Channel.The current route is already at the limit of their range. If they get entangled with the German planes (the fuel consumption will be surprisingly high in air combat), there is absolutely no way to escort them all the way to Brest.

Sure enough, the German fighters retreated a few minutes later, and the Spitfire escorted them for a few more minutes, then said sorry on the radio, waved their wings, and flew away.Alas, the setting sun is infinitely good, and the fire-breathing ran away.The road ahead must depend on the bomber itself.

"Keep in formation, no matter what happens, don't dodge!" Li Mei's calm voice came from the earphone.

Ahead, the vast European continent gradually appeared in the eyes of the pilots.At the same time there was a large group of German fighters.

William Green is a fw190 fighter pilot who has been serving on the Eastern Front. In combat, he has achieved one victory after another with his extraordinary skills, and has quickly grown into a super ace.In a certain battle, he even shot down 7 Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft at a time, creating a miracle.Because he killed 7 at once, plus his name happened to be the same as one of the Brothers Grimm who edited "Grimm's Fairy Tales".The teammates immediately thought of the little tailor who "killed seven with one slap" in the Grimm's fairy tale.So he has two nicknames, one is "Slap" and the other is "Little Tailor".

After arriving on the Western Front, "Slap" discovered that there are some aircraft in the world that are stronger than the il-2.When he attacked the b-17 for the first time, he almost shot out the shells before severely wounding a b-17.And he himself was accidentally bitten by .50 twice.

Fortunately, the head-on attack method that was implemented later brought a turning point to the interception.This attack method minimizes the attack on the intercepting fighter jets and minimizes the exposure time to the self-defense fire of the bombers.More importantly: this way of rushing head-on puts even more pressure on the bomber pilots. Facing the enemy plane that hits head-on, many pilots will deliberately dodge. In this way, the formation of the bomber plane may be blocked destroy it.

But this time, the formation of the bombers on the opposite side seems to have changed from the previous few times.It seems to be divided into several layers, and it looks like a big box.But now there is no time to care about these things, according to the original plan, I rushed forward.

As the distance between the two sides approached, "Slap" immediately felt the power of the new formation.When attacking head-on before.He would only be shot by the forward machine gun turret on the opposite bomber, but now, the two planes above the bomber's side also started shooting at him with their belly turrets.

Relying on the excellent roll of fw190, he easily dodged these attacks with a slap, but this dodge action also seriously interfered with his aiming. He barely fired a string of shells, but most of these 20mm shells They are all empty.Maybe one or two shots can hit the enemy plane, but apart from leaving one or two small holes in the enemy's huge fuselage, the damage to the enemy plane is almost negligible.

He missed a hit, and with a slight pull of the lever, "Slap" and the bomber crossed each other, and his fw190 rushed into the box formation of the bomber.It only took a few seconds to go through the formation of these bombers, but in those few seconds, at least four turrets and more than eight .8 machine guns were firing at him simultaneously from different angles.Fortunately, Slap does seem to have a special talent in flying, especially in dodging the enemy's attack. Sometimes he can even dodge the enemy's sneak attack by instinctive movements without noticing the enemy at all.

This time, he still found a gap in the enemy plane's firepower net and rushed out.Although he was besieged by more than twenty .50 machine guns successively, "Slap" remained unscathed.

However, the other planes that launched the attack with "Slap" may not have such luck. At least, the situation of "Slap"'s wingman is not so good.His plane was hit by a dozen rounds of .50 machine gun rounds.The engine was damaged, oil was sprayed out, and the front windshield was completely covered.Moreover, the aileron was also damaged. It seemed that he had to retreat.The plane was so badly damaged that it was hard to say whether it would be possible to fly back to the airport, but at least it was possible to parachute.

In this first round of attacks, except for one of the 305 bombers of the 20th Bomber Group that had a problem, the rest were basically intact. However, the fw190a and bf109g that launched the assault suffered even more. Two fw190a were damaged and withdrew from the battle , and another bf109g was also hit, and its damage was more serious. It is estimated... Well, the pilot has parachuted.

However, the bomber that was in trouble happened to be the one that Ron was on, and a 109mm machine gun fired by a bf13g that rushed straight over killed the captain, and the co-pilot was also seriously injured.Now it is Ron, who was originally an observer, who is manipulating this plane.

"Ron, are you okay?" Li Mei's voice came from the earphone.

"It's okay, I can barely fly this kind of plane, although I'm not used to the steering wheel." Ron picked up the microphone and replied.The gust of wind blowing through the large holes in the windshield immediately blew his voice away.

"What are you talking about? I can't hear you! Just remember! No matter how the enemy attacks, never dodge, never!"

If a b-17 flying in the sky is a flying fortress, then the b-17 fleet forming a box formation is a flying bastion. As long as the formation is not chaotic, it has no shooting dead ends. Wherever an attack is launched, it will be attacked intensively by self-defense machine guns on multiple aircraft.

After the first head-on attack, it would take a lot of time to go around to the head-on position. There is not so much time to waste on the battlefield, so the interceptor fleet had to attack from the side.In this way, they are exposed to the fire net of self-defense machine guns for a longer period of time.In this round of attacks, several bombers were shot again, but they were basically fine with their thick skin and thick flesh.Instead, the attacker suffered losses again.Among the enemy planes attacking the box-shaped formation of the 305th Bomber Group, three fighters were shot down, including one FW3A, and the other was injured and withdrawn from the battle.

However, the Germans who were attacking the bomber fleets of other bomber units took advantage of it. The 303 fleet had several bombers damaged in the first round of head-on attacks by the German army, and the formation was also chaotic.In this way, almost all German fighter jets stared at the past like leeches that saw blood.Now 303 is naturally miserable, but the pressure on Li Mei's 305 is greatly reduced.After two rounds of attacks, it seemed that no enemy plane was willing to attack them anymore.

At this time, the fleet has also entered the firing zone of anti-aircraft guns.Li Mei's calm voice came from Ron's earphone again:

"Stay in formation, don't dodge! We can hold it!"

A round of large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery shells exploded near the fleet, and the sky was filled with black clouds left by the shells in an instant.Like black roses that symbolize death.Ron held the steering wheel tightly with both hands, and kept thinking:

"Keep the course, keep the course, keep the course!"

All the enemy fighter jets have retreated, they dare not chase here, the anti-aircraft artillery has no eyes, if the anti-aircraft artillery of one's own people hits it, it will be a tragedy.

A 127mm shell exploded just in front of Ron, and the shock wave shook the plane like a boat in a stormy sea.But the plane still flew forward firmly, directly passing through the death rose formed by the smoke of the explosion, without dodging, and kept moving forward!

"Close to the target! The lower bomber speeds up! Prepare to drop the bomb!"

Following Li Mei's order, the B-17's magazine was opened, and bombs roared down. After a while, a series of fireballs suddenly appeared on the ground, followed by rising smoke.

"Complete coverage of target area! Well done guys! Keep in formation, climb, return!"

Seen from a high altitude, a large river composed of bomber fleets with long silver trails turned a corner over Brest and began to fly northwest...

On the way home, he was attacked by German fighter jets again, but in the face of the unbreakable box formation of the 305th Bomber Brigade, the Germans who had seen its power could only retreat sadly in the end.

Twenty minutes later, the bombers met with the Spitfires of the Royal Air Force who came to meet them.When the lights first came on, the bomber formation finally returned safely to the airport.

In this battle, the U.S. military dispatched a total of 56 bombers. In the interception of the enemy planes, the 303 bomber brigade lost 3 bombers and seriously injured 3 planes, shot down 2 enemy planes, and damaged 1 plane; the 306 bomber brigade lost 1 bomber plane and seriously injured 2 planes. , shot down 0 enemy planes and damaged 3 planes; while the bombers of Li Mei's 305 Bomber Brigade not only suffered no losses or serious injuries, but also shot down 4 enemy planes and damaged 3 planes in air combat.The power of the box formation is fully revealed.