The P-51 completely changed the situation, and under the attack of the P-51, which had the superiority in numbers and altitude, the BF-109 and FW-190, which had just taken off, immediately fell into trouble. With the help of P-51, the four P-81s of the U.S. military were able to devote themselves to the attack. In just a few minutes, 8 German planes were shot down (the pilots of only 3 of them were able to parachute safely), while the US military had one P-51 shot down and another wounded.

The remaining German fighters fled to low altitudes and escaped under the protection of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns on the ground.

……

Throughout the day, for 12 hours, wave after wave of P-51 fighters came and went. They travel from airport to airport. There are a certain number of patrol fighters over each airfield, and their total number is not much less than that of American fighters, but the number of patrol fighters over any one airfield is at an absolute disadvantage compared to those P-51s. This directly led to the fact that the exchange ratio of each air battle was clearly favorable to the Allies.

It was not unthinkable for the Germans to concentrate these fighters so that they would not suffer a loss in the battle with the American P-51s, but in this way, the skies over other airfields would be completely empty, and the P-81s operating in smaller groups would be given the opportunity.

On this day, the Germans again suffered huge losses. Since the number of Luftwaffe sorties on this day = one = book ~ read = novel = YBDU was much higher than the previous day, the losses were also heavier. As the sun went down, there was a temporary silence over Europe, and the number of bombers the British could use for night bombing declined due to the concentration of their efforts on bombing suspected V1 missile sites and the rail, road, and bridge hubs leading to them. So at night, the Germans could lick their wounds relatively undisturbed.

During this day, the Luftwaffe lost a total of 118 fighters, of which 58 were of the BF-109 family and 6 of the FXSTXTE-262 family. Almost all of these planes were shot down in battles near airfields. If this situation continues, the Germans will absolutely not be able to afford it.

……

"We must divert the attention of the Americans from this damn safari!" Marshal Catherine said this to herself.

But what else can be done to divert the attention of Americans? Obviously, the American commanders had been fixing their eyes on how to consume the Luftwaffe pilots. What could he distract?

"We used V1 to divert the attention of the British. So what do we have to divert the attention of the Americans? ”

Field Marshal Catherine has not been able to find a good way, but the fact that the Luftwaffe has no good way does not mean that the Germans have no way, a fledgling team, but gave Marshal Catherine unexpected help.

……

"The Führer formed our Party Guard Air Force in order to stop the enemy from indiscriminately bombing over our heads. We must take this responsibility up to it - no matter how difficult it may be! We are not afraid of any danger, yes we Germans have nothing to fear except God! So, don't tell me about danger, don't tell me that many pilots will die, we are different from the Air Force, we don't have many treasures who have flown hundreds or thousands of hours, we only have hot-blooded young people who love Germany and love the Führer! After we take to the skies, we don't plan to come back! So, Doctor, reliability, safety, and so on are not a problem! The only thing you need to guarantee is that this thing will shoot down enemy bombers! SS Colonel Thomas was yelling at an engineer.

Thomas came from the Waffen-SS Viking Division and was originally an army commander. During one battle, a shell from an 82-mm mortar hit the trench where he was located, blowing off one of his legs. But he remained in position and continued to command until this Soviet attack was repulsed. In the hospital, he had another trumpet leg cut off because of a severe infection. After recovering from his injuries, he was allowed to return home to visit his family, but when he returned to Hamburg, he found that his home had become a large pond. During the bombing of Hamburg by the British, a heavy bomb hit his home, and his wife and children all died. But it didn't break him, it just made him crazier.

Later, at the will of the Führer, Field Marshal Goering began to form the SS air force. The team's big shelves were quickly erected, but there were big problems with personnel. This newly created team is short of people everywhere! The first is the lack of commanders. This would not have been a problem. As the commander of the Air Force, Goering had a way to bring in a group of Air Force officers. But this plan was opposed by the Führer. The Führer was concerned that the evacuation of the Air Force command at this time would adversely affect the counterattack plan, and secondly, he did not want to see too many of the Wehrmacht system infiltrate the SS. As a result, most of the commanders of this contingent were drawn from the ground forces of the Waffen-SS. It was at this time that Thomas was drawn into the SS air force as commander.

In fact, what is more lacking than officers are pilots. Goering originally thought that in his capacity as commander of the Air Force, he could easily get a group of experienced pilots to join the SS air force on their own initiative. However, the truth slapped him in the face. With the exception of Rudel, most of the aces showed no interest in joining the SS. Therefore, most of the pilots in this unit are rookies who have been quick into aviation schools and have no more than 100 flight hours.

With such a rookie, what kind of battle can be fought? Although Thomas didn't know much about air warfare, he also knew that in land warfare, if there were no veterans in a team, all of them were supplementary soldiers who had not yet grown beards, and the combat effectiveness would only be discounted compared with the troops with many veterans with comparable equipment. Under certain conditions, it may even be necessary to make a discount. This kind of troops is purely cannon fodder.

Since the people in their hands are cannon fodder, it is not too great to have an accident loss caused by poor equipment reliability, because anyway, even if the rookie cannon fodder uses reliable equipment, there will be a high accident rate.

As a result, a particularly unreliable interceptor came into the field of vision of the SS aviation.

This aircraft is the BA349 rocket-powered interceptor. Back in June 1939, Vilner?? Feng?? Dr. Braun proposed a plan for a vertically launched rocket-propelled aircraft, which was rejected by the Technical Division of the Department of Aviation on the grounds that it was impractical. However, in the face of the increasing air pressure of the Allies, the Germans remembered a plan, so this plan was hastily launched, and in less than a month, a prototype of this kind of thing was built.

In the first experiment, the thing set off fireworks directly in the air. In subsequent experiments, the incident rate was more than 1/4. However, this thing is still in service. It became the exclusive weapon of the SS air force. (Air Force said, don't kill it)

The fuselage of this thing is cylindrical, and there are no control surfaces on the short, straight wings, all of which are on the cross-shaped tail. It uses a liquid-fueled rocket engine with fuel tanks located in the middle of the fuselage: T fuel tank (hydrogen peroxide and stabilizer) and C fuel tank (hydrazine/methane hydrate), which will spontaneously ignite once mixed and are highly corrosive, so care must be taken. To increase take-off speed, the BA349 also uses 4 solid booster rockets, which allows the BA349 to reach an altitude of 11,000 meters in 60 seconds. In terms of weapons, it was originally planned to be equipped with two 30mm MK108 guns, but it was clear that they were all cheap cannon fodder, and they did not have the skills to use weapons like the MK-108 for precision attacks, so in the end, the SS decided not to install the cannon at all (and save money) and only equipped it with powerful rockets in order to deal with the Allied bombers more effectively.

The way this thing takes off and lands is also very distinctive. First of all, it is not a take-off, but a vertical launch. A 24-metre-high launch stand is erected before launch, and its wingtips and ventrals are fixed to rails to control the launch attitude. The aircraft's control systems and maneuverable surfaces will be locked at launch until 10 seconds later the booster rocket burns out and is blown off the fuselage by the explosive bolts. At this time, the control system is turned on, and the ground is radio-controlled to control the aircraft to climb, and of course the pilot can take over control at any time. When the BA349 climbed close to 10,000 meters, the pilot controlled the aircraft to descend and approach the enemy bomber formation (the U.S. military generally approached the bombing target at an altitude of 6,200 to 9,400 meters), and when it was 1.6 to 3.2 kilometers away from the bomber, the pilot threw out the nose cone and fired a salvo of 24 anti-aircraft rockets. Then, as the fuel is running out, the BA349 descends directly to an altitude of 1,400 meters, at which the pilot uses explosive bolts to blow the plane off the connection in the middle of the fuselage, and the rear fuselage with the engine lands safely on the ground through a self-opening parachute, so that the most valuable engine can be reused. The pilot, on the other hand, had to wait a while to climb out of the cockpit so as not to be hit by the tail, the pilot opened his parachute, and the front fuselage was abandoned. (A large number of parts in this part are wooden and worthless)

Such a complex landing method is very demanding for pilots, and rookies will mess up if they are not careful. But that's not a problem. Because rookies aren't worth much.

Today, 20 of these planes were delivered to the 1st SS Air Force, and tomorrow a flock of rookies will fly them to attack the American bomber swarm.