Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 60: Gladiator

Push the throttle, take the stick, and push the left rudder, the nose starts to rise, the angled barrel rolls half a circle, the push stick goes down and leveled. Baidu search Geli Literature Network (.u first issue) Royal Air Force Second Lieutenant Leiden made a dazzling half-roll side slip in one second. In a huge moment, G Li tried to throw him to the right side of the cabin, but the safety belt tightened. He was tied to the aluminum flight seat, the parachute was under his waist and legs, and his body slid slightly. The ensign slammed his legs, his neck tightened, and his hands firmly grasped the Spitfire's joystick ring handle.

The plane leveled off, and Leiden began to vigorously turned his head back and looked upwards. The Spitfire had dropped two hundred meters in just a moment. With his air combat experience, the German plane had no time to react to this set of actions.

"No?" The German plane did not show up where Leiden expected.

"On the right?" Leiden quickly turned his head and looked to the other side. Five hundred meters away, a Spitfire was rotating its body and climbing upwards, followed by two immediately. . . . No, three BF109s. Leiden could clearly see the white smoke drawn from the air by the tracer of the German machine gun at a glance.

"Damn!" Faced with the desperate comrades, Leiden was completely powerless. He is still fighting for his own survival, and he has no power to help his comrades. Things changed so fast, so fast that Leiden felt like he was dreaming, a nightmare that would never wake up.

The Royal Air Force has been driven crazy by the almost endless wave offensive of the Luftwaffe. The Germans’ aircraft seem to be endless. They can gather up a huge fleet of aircrafts that are so large that the back of the Fighter Command can cool off each time, and then attack the southern defense zone of the Eleventh Air Force from several directions at the same time.

What's even more depressing is that two-thirds of them were feints. The Royal Air Force took off and intercepted frequently, and the results often returned without success. Pilots are on standby for more than fifteen hours a day, and take off eight to ten sorties a day. The Spitfire does not have hydraulic power and can only rely on the pilot's manpower to control the wing surface. Each take-off and landing will consume a lot of physical energy, and the long standby time also consumes the remaining energy of the pilot. Especially when the Luftwaffe's BF110 began to continuously infiltrate at low altitudes to carry out night harassment attacks on British airports, it was even worse for the British Air Force.

The fatigue of the first-line pilots has reached a dangerous situation, and this situation has begun to spread to the reserve pilots. You can see pilots and ground crews lying on the ground and sleeping like a dead man everywhere in the airport. When the alarm went off, the officers could only wake up these tired poor guys with their sleepy eyes and kicks and beats. Then put them on a parachute and board the plane.

Similarly, the state of aircraft maintenance has also begun to deteriorate sharply. Mechanical fatigue and metal wear have caused hundreds of accidents. Mechanical failures and man-made accidents caused aircraft losses and casualties even exceeded the Germans' results. .

When these problems are added together, we encounter the remaining third of the Luftwaffe's real attack.

Everything eventually formed a nightmare that the Royal Air Force could not escape.

The number of German **** fighters far exceeds the needs of normal escorts. The original RAF defense plan of the group wave blocking defense tactic has become a group wave refueling and killing tactics. The British fighters taking off in a squadron always They were onlookers by German fighters far more numerous than them.

When British Air Force fighters arrived in the interception airspace, only Messerschmitt of the brigade was left in front of them. German bombers often suddenly turned to escape a few minutes before contacting British fighters, or turned directly to return, or turned to attack the coast. Ground target on the side.

And when the exhausted British Air Force squadron was maimed by energetic German pilots, the second wave of Luftwaffe bombers would follow with clock-like precision and bomb the base airport that had basically lost its resistance. In ruins, another group of German fighters took over. Attacked the British flying squadron that came to support.

Every time such an assault, the British Royal Air Force will suffer heavy casualties. Although the German Army has also lost some fighters, it is not proportional to the loss of the British Royal Air Force.

Facts have proved that the Luftwaffe is relying on its huge number of advantages, making multiple attacks, consuming the Royal Air Force’s forces, dragging down the physical strength and energy of the British pilots, and then looking for opportunities to quickly assault and destroy the scattered interception squadrons and squads. . The bombers kept up and destroyed the airport and ground command post, cleared a piece of airspace within a certain period of time, and then randomly hit the ground targets they wanted to hit.

Every time the German army can concentrate its superior forces to hit the Royal Air Force head-on, the use of refueling tactics is obviously a murder of British pilots. Some British fighter forces have already begun to show passive avoidance and false air reports. The loss of aircrews has exceeded the replenishment rate, and the strong morale is quickly disappearing in the troops.

In the end, Dowding was desperate by this bad situation. Instead of being crushed and smashed, he might as well die vigorously. The Royal Air Force began to look for opportunities and concentrated its superior forces to fight the Luftwaffe.

This time is the opportunity that the fighter command thought. When the radar network reported that this huge German fleet consisted of a large number of bombers. The **** fighter jets had only one brigade and did not feint, while the air defense observation posts on the coastline reported that they had visually observed a large German fleet that was advancing inland across the coast. The entire command system of the British fighter command was in turmoil. It seems that the victories over the past few days have dazzled the Germans. God bless the British Empire, the group of arrogant Germans finally revealed their flaws.

This is a good opportunity to revive the reputation of the Royal Air Force and re-enhance the morale of the British people. The British Fighter Command immediately ordered that the Eleventh Air Force and all the base squadrons within the effective range of the 12th Air Force took off immediately, then merged and formed in the air, and gathered to fight the German army. He also particularly urged that the first target was the German bombers. As long as a part of them was destroyed, even one-third, it would be enough to restore the low morale of the air force at this stage, and it would also leave an unforgettable lesson to the Luftwaffe. Let them know that the Royal Air Force cannot be overwhelmed by despicable enemies.

So, the Eleventh Air Force and the Twelfth Air Force pieced together and called out ten Spitfire squadrons and two Hurricane squadrons at the bottom of the pressure box. Although they were seriously missing, the total number finally reached 82. According to the theory, it is enough to break through the defense line of the German **** aircraft. These fighters are already all the elites that the southern air defense zone can gather for a while. All pilots are veterans. If they are prepared, they can actually mobilize more. Now other troops are either too far away or are patrolling the north. Unable to reach the interception point in time.

When the British fleet reached the intercept point, the German aircraft arrived as expected. As the team leader, Leiden was in the front of the formation. The British fleet quickly climbed to a superior height in the voice of the air commander "", and then launched a strong assault in accordance with the established attack tactics. Lieutenant Ayton followed the command squadron of the squadron leader and led his three-plane squad to the German fleet.

"God! This is a trap! They are all 109!"

"Delphinium Squadron, slow down, slow down immediately! Turn around, regroup!"

"Grey Swallow Squadron, speed up with me, rush up, and fight against them!"

When the two parties reached a distance where they could see the other's model clearly, the radio communication was instantly filled with various exclamations.

When I realized that I was facing a German fighter that was several times as large as my own, the idiot knew that this was a sinister trap, and I became the prey of the trap. Under shock. The various flight squadrons completely lost their unified command, and all issued orders according to their own judgments. The entire fleet was torn apart at once. The Spitfire and the hurricane were in small groups or even single planes. The formations were scattered and chaotic in the air. group.

Next, forty BF109s formed in a tightly formed formation rushed into the British fleet. In the first wave of attack, a dozen hurricanes instantly turned into fireballs. With the addition of the German army's subsequent large fleet, the positive airspace was shrouded in gunpowder and bullet chains. Fighters flying up and down everywhere. The blue-gray camouflage BF109 and the green-brown camouflage Spitfire were strangled into a ball. Every second was shot by the plane, and every minute the plane dragged the smoke, or burst into a ball of fire.

Leiden's team was broken up in the first hedge. Since then, he has never seen his two wingmen again. After avoiding three waves of frontal assaults by the German fleet, he turned his head and intends to find his squadron colleagues for formation, which can increase the survivability of some battlefields.

But then he was desperate. The Royal Air Force had completely lost its formation and all the aircraft were fighting separately. Occasionally there will be two Spitfires forming a two-aircraft formation, but a dozen BF109 will be adorned on the back of the butt.

British fighters are fighting hard to resist. At this time, it has become an extravagant hope to leave the battlefield. The number of enemy troops far exceeds one's own. Putting the buttocks on the enemy is equivalent to inviting the enemy's outskirt hunting squad to tear itself to pieces.

After turning around and rushing back to the melee area, Leiden did everything he could to avoid being involved in the melee. The range of these German planes is limited. Crossing the strait has already taken too much time for German planes to stay in the air. , Maybe fifteen minutes, the Germans will definitely leave the battlefield and return on their own. If they are lucky, they may be able to follow behind and find a chance to bite the German defender's plane.

However, the question is, can I last for so long? Ayton feels a bit unsure.

After getting rid of the raid of two BF109s, two powerful guys finally approached him, and he was bitten tightly. The experienced Ayton continuously used several tricks to try to get rid of it, but it seems that the situation is not optimistic.

"Are you behind?" Leiden looked up at the rectangular rear-view mirror erected on the cockpit windshield bracket, then turned his rudder to turn, running straight in the melee in search of death.

At this time, a dull percussion sounded in the ear, like a person using an ice chisel to percussion a biscuit bucket, and then there were two clear metal percussions, Leiden passed through a thick life jacket I could feel the shock from the seat back, and the cockpit cover above the headrest was broken in the next second, and the high-speed flying plexiglass shards hit Leiden's flight cap and shoulder.

"Shot! Damn it!" Leiden reacted instantly. He slammed the control stick to the right and back and stepped on the left rudder. The aircraft first raised its nose to the upper left, and then turned over with its belly facing After maintaining the original altitude for half a second, the aircraft entered a dive after pressing the bow.

The whole action was completed almost instantaneously. This is the experience Leiden gained after dozens of fights against the Luftwaffe in the French battlefield. It is the skill that allowed him to survive numerous terrifying aerial fires and to the present. He has already practiced extremely proficiently.

The cold wind poured into the cabin from the hole in the hatch. Leiden quickly buckled the oxygen mask hung around the ear of the flight cap, then rolled the fuselage left and right, turning his head and looking behind the tail.

"Oh! Shit!" A blue-gray plane followed him steadily, and then he saw the second one.

"Come and try this trick." Leiden steadied the fuselage, suddenly rolled 90 degrees, and then struggling to hold the pole, Spitfire violently left the dive axis and pulled to one side to climb.

The 1030-horsepower Rolls-Royce Merlin engine roared frantically, Leiden was crushed on the seat by gravity, and he could even hear the metal beams of the fuselage.

"Oh, bad! Don't." Leiden realized that his field of vision was getting narrower, and the surrounding light began to dim. After a second, he fell into black vision.

When the airplane suddenly performs a large overload maneuver, the human blood will move in the direction of gravity due to the centrifugal force. If it is a positive G maneuver, it will flow to the legs. The brain will temporarily lose eyesight due to instant ischemia. In severe cases, you may lose consciousness. On the contrary, when performing a large overload maneuver with a negative G force, blood is filled into the brain instantly, the blood vessels in the eyeball will swell and rupture, and the pilot will fall into red vision, which is worse than black vision. Once trapped, he basically loses his driving ability, and he also has There are serious sequelae, more deadly than black vision. Of course, for fire-breathing airplanes that use float-type carburetors, this kind of danger does not exist, because in general, the fire-breathing will not have time to enter the red vision in the future, and the Merlin engine has already stopped fueling.

This time Leiden actually made a low-level mistake. When he did a large G-force maneuver, he should be stepping on the fire-breathing superior pedal, but because of being too nervous, or perhaps too tired, his thinking was produced. Confusion, he forgot this. The Spitfire’s rudder pedal has two upper and lower rudder pedals. When maneuvering with high G force, the pilot steps on a higher pedal so that the legs can be raised, which can effectively delay the time of entering black vision.

"Ah!" Leiden tried hard to sway the joystick and sway the fuselage, intending to make sighting difficulties for the enemy plane before regaining his vision. But all his efforts were of no avail. The dark Lieutenant Leiden heard continuous dull sound of cannons in his ears, and then he felt that the fuselage was shaking violently, and he even felt the cannon shells hit the fuselage and wings. With every eruption, at the last moment, a few scorching heat pierced his waist and back. In the end, Leiden couldn't insist on recovering his eyesight, and finally took a look at the world.

The cockpit and the Spitfire with one wing torn into rotten aluminum continued to climb more than ten meters~IndoMTL.com~Then the head tilted to one side, and it began to spin down like a fallen leaf, the body shrouded In a jet of black smoke from the burning of engine oil.

"The second one!" Lieutenant Allen stretched out his fist and tapped the leather protection cushion under the scope. Then, looking to the left, the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang, nodded at him.

This is Allen's fifth victory since joining the army. Starting today, he can enter the ranks of ace pilots.

"Thank you very much, sir." The young trump card was grateful for the alliance technical officer who gave him several attack opportunities.

"This is your birthday present, boy." Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang gave Allen a thumbs up in the cockpit.

Allen smiled and returned a military salute to the technical officer. He turned his head and looked at the war zone. Crowds of German fighter jets swept back and forth at the last few Spitfires that were desperately circling, on the clouds below the battlefield. Black and gray plumes of smoke stood densely, and the sky seemed to be lit. (To be continued.)

...