Since Henry and his brothers swept the toilets, the rookies' enthusiasm for learning has never been higher. In particular, the lewd stream that Ron used to deal with Henry at that time was desperately imitated by a group of guys led by Henry. Throughout the day, both during and between classes, someone will come to ask questions such as:

"Sir, when climbing with others, how far should I keep it?"

"This should be determined according to the energy state of the other party." Ron is a tireless teacher.

"Sir, why did I confront Instructor Bunge, and I was still beaten down after using that trick?"

"Dizzy," Ron suddenly had black lines all over his head when he heard this question. Who is Bunge? One of the best fighter pilots in the US Army Aviation is Ron who goes up (of course, if the initial conditions are still 7000 meters, Ron feels that he has a better chance of superiority), and he may not be able to win, and if he doesn't do it well, he may be beaten down. A rookie, who has just learned a little trick, wants to use it to deal with the ace of an ace? There are too many tricks for people to deal with a rookie. Do you really think that in the ever-changing air combat, what else can be an absolute trick that kills with one hit? As long as you learn this trick, you can be invincible in the world? What's more, even if this trick is it, he may not really learn it well.

"Instructor Bunge is a very good pilot and his mastery of energy is excellent. And you are likely to be wrong when judging his energy. Also, my trick doesn't work all the time. Ron thought for a moment and added, "Remember, when you encounter an opponent in air combat that you feel you can't deal with, don't hit him hard, either cooperate with your teammates to deal with him, or run away decisively." Stay in the green mountains and don't be afraid of no firewood! ”

"Oh, I see, if you can't win, run. But instructor, how can you make sure you can run? ”

This is another problem that can make an old bird faint, oh my God, flying the world's strongest, best dive fighter jet, and not knowing how to escape?

"Dive, dive all the way to 520 mph, and if people are still following you, make a barrel roll and let him rush to the front. What the? Are you worried that he will do a barrel roll too? If he does, you won't have to worry about anything, because his wings will definitely break. ”

After more than a week of heads-up training, the real key project -- the group fight drill -- is about to begin. The so-called group brawl refers to the melee of large aircraft groups. Unlike the Pacific Ocean, in the vast Pacific Ocean, there are more confrontations in small formations, while in Europe, a large melee of hundreds or even thousands of planes is simply commonplace, while the battle of a large group of aircraft and the battle of a small group of aircraft are completely different things.

"In air battles in Europe, our P-47 will naturally have a high superiority over the enemy's assault formations. Because we generally choose to fly a little higher than the bomber. And the enemy aircraft that launch a head-on attack on the bombers will generally not be much higher than the bombers in height. Otherwise, too much relative velocity will also make it more difficult to attack. When the Germans attacked the bomber group, they divided the fighters into two groups, one was the assault formation, they had heavy armor and strong firepower, and of course, their flight performance was terrible. Their main task was to launch an attack on the bomber group. The rest are escort formations, all of which are lighter and better flying fighters, and their firepower and armor are not very good, and they are not very effective in attacking bomber groups, so in air combat, we just need to knock out or even disrupt those assault formations. Of course, the German convoy formation would not have allowed us to succeed so easily. Plus under the guidance of radar, they will even have a high degree of superiority over us. They are our most dangerous opponents......"

In the theory classroom of large group operations, Ron is explaining the main points to the rookies.

"In a large swarm, the chances of everyone shooting someone else, and being shot by someone else, go up dramatically. So you have to learn to look at the eight ways and protect each other between the captain and the wingman......"

Then there are a lot of pictures and calculation formulas below, which can be said to be extremely boring, but every rookie is taking the record very seriously, because these things are a matter of life and death.

Just practicing is not a stupid style, and just saying that not practicing is a fake style. In the end, all this will depend on large-scale air drills to solve the problem.

It was another sunny morning, and Ron and the pilots of the "Reverse Cross" took off with their total of 45 fighters. They were going to simulate the Germans and attack a bomber formation consisting of 43 B-47s escorted by 24 P-17s. This will be the first time that the "Reverse Cross" has conducted an air combat exercise of such a scale with fighters.

The "Reverse Cross" divided the group into two teams, one was a convoy formation of 26 Spitfire simulated BF109s led by Ron, and the other was an assault formation composed of 19 F4U imitation FW190s led by Daddy. Among them, the escort formation flew at an altitude of 8,300 meters and flew 2,500 meters in front of the assault formation. The assault formation flew at an altitude of 7100 meters, which was slightly higher than the enemy bomber formation provided by the radar. Since the "reverse cross" plays the role of the interceptor, they can be guided by ground-based radar, and the clever use of this will be the key to the success of the interception operation. According to the information provided by the radar, the P-47 on the rookie side flew at an altitude of about 7,600 meters, and 1,000 meters behind them was a group of bombers flying at an altitude of 7,000 meters.

According to the plan, Ron's escort formation will first take the initiative to attack the rookie P-47s, dragging them down, consuming them, and covering the assault formation to launch an attack.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the two groups of planes encountered. The "Reverse Cross" escort formation, which had a high superiority, immediately launched a dive attack on the rookie P-47s.

Compared to the bulky P-47, both the Spitfire and the BF109 it imitated, it is much more agile in comparison. Although the engine of the BF109 is very weak at such altitudes. But since they swooped down from a greater height. So at least, for now, they still have an energy advantage. It's just that if the time of the air battle is dragged out a little longer, then in the battle, the energy advantage they originally have will be constantly consumed. At this time, the disadvantage of the engine's high-altitude performance will become more and more fatal. Therefore, the pilots of the "reverse cross" must fight a blitzkrieg and achieve as many results as possible in the shortest possible time.

To achieve this, one relies on individual skills, and the other relies on team cooperation. In the previous heads-up training, the instructors have shown the rookies time and time again how to use those seemingly ordinary technical moves to knock out opponents, and their skill level has been admired by all the students. This time, they will show the trainees the power of teamwork.

"In air combat, tactics are sometimes more important than technology. If you choose the wrong tactic, such as using the P-47 to run to a low altitude and hovering at a low speed compared to zero, or to climb at a low altitude to a BF 109, no matter how good your skills are, as long as the opponent has completed formal training, you will most likely end in tragedy. And if the tactics are right, such as using a plunder to deal with Zero, even if the guy driving it is a super ace, then there is nothing you can do. The tactics of the team are more than the tactics of the individual. In the case of equal energy, F4F has almost no way to deal with a zero fight, but using the team tactic of 'cross scissors', it can achieve a comparable exchange ratio. This is what Ron told the students in class, and now he needs to prove it to the students.

Now he shows the rookies a trick called "group turns". The so-called BZ is generally a move in which the side with a height advantage uses a high-speed dive attack, then quickly pulls up to maintain the height advantage, and then launches the next round of dive attacks. However, the BZ of a single aircraft is sometimes easily dodged by some enemy aircraft with superior angular performance. A group of BZs that take turns against a target is easier to shoot down enemy planes or force them to dodge with a large overload move, causing them to quickly drain energy.

Considering the current level of the rookies, Ron decided that one enemy aircraft should be enough for every two planes to take turns BZ.

Now Ron, who dived down at high speed, locked on the highest position among the escorted P-47s, and it was the basic principle of this group BZ to start from the highest position (the highest energy).

The P-47 had already spotted Ron coming down - a feature of high-altitude combat, as the planes would pull out a long snow-white trail, making it much more difficult to sneak attack. He immediately made a sharp turn, trying to dodge Ron's shot. But the air was thin at high altitudes, and the efficiency of the steering gear and ailerons decreased, which made his maneuvers far more sluggish than at low altitudes. For the effect of dodging, he must pull out a larger overdrive. But just as he was glad he had dodged Ron's first blow, the second blow followed.

"Ron, I assure you, I hit him in the right place!" Ron, who was rapidly climbing, heard the wingman's shout in his headset. Ron smiled, in fact, it didn't matter whether he hit the enemy plane or not, because in order to avoid the second blow, the guy flying the P-47 made another sharp turn, and as a result, he may have overlooked that at high altitude, the plane's stall (the lift generated by the airflow through the plane's wing surface is less than the plane's own gravity) is much higher than the sea level. As a result - he stalled. So the plane went down head-on. It is estimated that when he climbs up again, the daylilies will be cold. A similar scene was repeated on other planes. With just one hit, the rookies lost at least 8 fighters (all of which stalled, because it depends on the photos whether they were shot down or not). At the same time, there were several P-47s that desperately climbed to support their teammates, but not only failed to bite the opponent who was climbing at high speed, but instead allowed their speed to drop rapidly, and by the time of the second round of BZ, they had almost no power to dodge.

After the third round of BZ, the rookie side lost an estimated 20 fighters, and there were as many as 17 fighters that stalled alone, while the "reverse cross" did not damage a single one. The rookies' original numerical advantage was wiped out almost instantly.