At 4 o'clock in the morning, at a certain German airfield, the first batch of fighters was preparing to take off. This is a batch of the latest BF-109 fighters that have just appeared, and this is a BF-109 with a new engine. With the new DB-605 engines, the BF-109 can fly at an altitude of 7,500 meters, and it can even fly at speeds of up to 715 kilometers per hour. Such a speed has even surpassed that of the American P-51D, and its high-altitude Xìng ability has also been significantly improved. Because of such improvements, this new BF-109 was also given a new designation: BF-109K4.

Lindbergh, however, knew that this did not mean that the aircraft in his possession had regained its technological superiority for the Empire. Not to mention that compared to the American P-51, its range is still too short. It also has the highest wing load in the BF-109 family. The 231.70kg/m wing load also makes this aircraft the most clumsy of all the BF-109s Lindbergh has flown over. At the same time, the material shortage of the Third Reich was also manifested in the latest BF-109, in order to save aluminum, many parts of this aircraft, such as the tail, began to be made of wood.

Fortunately, the biggest advantage of the BF-109 series has been inherited and carried forward. It has the best rate of climb and speed of the BF-109 series, and in the hands of veterans, it is definitely a terrible aircraft, but there are too few veterans like Lindbergh these days.

Lindbergh started the engine, and the plane taxied down the dark runway. In order not to attract the US military's safari fighters, when the first batch of BF-109K4 took off, the runway was not lit, only at the end of the runway, some ground crew turned on two flashlights to show that the runway was exhausted. When the veterans have gone to the sky and obtained a good energy situation, at that time, the sky should almost be bright, and at this time, the rookies BF-109G and FW-190A can also take off.

It was pitch black outside the window, and Lindbergh couldn't see the runway at all, so he could only stare at the two points of light in front of him to maintain his bearings. The speed of the plane continued to increase, and finally it was time to take off, Lindbergh carefully pulled the cāo as a lever, the nose of the plane was gently raised, and then the main wheels began to leave the runway......

One after another BF-109K4 fighters completed takeoffs in turn. It was still daylight, and unless the lights were turned on on the runway, Allied fighters would not be able to play safaris near the airfield. That's why Lindbergh took off at 4 o'clock. Although the attack did not begin until after dawn, if the German fighters were to take off after dawn, they would probably have been beaten to pieces by the American safari fighters on the runway.

Of course, considering the short legs of the BF-109 series fighters, taking off at this time almost means that when the attack is launched, they need to go down and refuel. So, according to the plan, around 7 o'clock in the morning, when the rookies have mostly finished taking off, another group of rookies who are a little older in the FW-190D will pick them up and provide protection for the airfield, and they will need to land on the airfield to refuel, and then take off again to participate in the battle.

Lindbergh began a rapid climb with five other BF-109K4s. One of the pilots of the six planes, including him, was the only six remaining old birds in his group who had flown more than 500 hours. The number of flying hours is 500 hours, which is a year ago, and it can only be regarded as just getting out of the ranks of rookies. At that time, in the brigade, only those who had flown 1,000 hours could be regarded as old birds, and the current captain Lindbergh could not even rank in the top 20 in terms of flight time and number of shots downed in the brigade at that time. But now he was the pilot with the longest flight hours and the largest number of enemy planes shot down in the entire group.

It didn't take long for Lindbergh's BF-109K4 to fly out of the shadow of the earth, and the golden sun shone into his cockpit. Behind him, five BF-109K4 aircraft, in a loose formation, followed him flank. Such a formation allows each aircraft to make more impressive movements and increases the visibility of each aircraft. This used to be a classic formation of German fighters, but now there are not many Luftwaffe units capable of using such formations. Because now, the old birds are basically dead, and as for those rookies, if the formation is too dense, they will collide; And to maintain such a loose formation, they will fall behind, and they don't even need to be attacked by enemy planes, as long as they turn around the sky twice, they will have a situation where the long plane cannot find the wingman, and the wingman cannot find the long plane.

Now, the sun is about to rise, and it's almost time for those American safari fighters to arrive. Lindbergh's eyes widened and he looked around. Just as he expected, an airplane appeared in his sight.

It was a British Mosquito reconnaissance bomber, which flew high and pulled out a long track. Lindbergh knew that the plane's role was to monitor the airport. If it is allowed to stay there, as soon as the planes on the airfield are dispatched, a large group of American and British fighters will be summoned. So Lindbergh left four BF-109K4s to continue at an altitude of four thousand meters, and he himself took his wingman and began to accelerate the climb to chase away the Mosquito reconnaissance bomber.

Lindbergh pushed the throttle to the end, the engine roared, and the BF-109K4 began to climb upwards at an impressive rate of climb.

On the Mosquito reconnaissance bomber, the RAF pilot Captain Thatcher had already observed those 6 BF-109 fighters.

"There are six planes in total, and it's rare to see so many fighters patrolling an airfield at one airport. It seems that the Germans are really going to do something. Thatcher said to co-pilot Blair, "Report to the command center in the enemy...... Six BF-109 fighters were spotted patrolling the airfield. There are signs of sortie by enemy aircraft. ”

Blair immediately began to send reports to headquarters. At this time, Captain Thatcher noticed that two BF-109s had broken out of formation and began to climb rapidly upwards - it seemed that they were planning to expel themselves.

For the BF-109 fighters of the Germans, Thatcher was not too worried. Mosquito reconnaissance bombers are not so easy to deal with. Although it has no firepower for self-defense, it has a top speed of more than 640 kilometers that many fighters struggle to achieve. In addition, the flight altitude of his Mosquito reconnaissance bomber is as high as 7,500 meters, and the altitude of the two BF-109 is only four thousand meters, and there is an altitude difference of a full three thousand meters in the middle, although the climb rate of the BF-109 is good, although the top speed of the new BF-109G series is slightly higher than that of the Mosquito, but it is impossible for any aircraft to climb with a large climb rate while maintaining a high speed. Therefore, if you turn around and leave, these two BF-109s will not be able to catch up with you in any way. As a matter of fact, unless the interceptor fighters received information in advance and climbed to a sufficient height, or if they had an overwhelming advantage over the reconnaissance planes in terms of climb rate and speed, they would certainly not be able to catch up with the reconnaissance planes.

Some fans of later generations often like to scoop a certain time Grumman's F6F fighter did not catch up with Rì's own "Caiyun" reconnaissance plane to prove that although the nominal speed of this aircraft is lower than that of American aircraft, the actual speed is faster. Soon these guys with defective IQs discovered that the "Colorful Cloud" was nominally faster than Grumman's F6F, and that "there was no Grumman behind him" did not mean anything, so they cleverly replaced Grumman F6F with a faster P-51. Then the P-51, which claimed a maximum speed of more than 700 km / h, could not catch up with the "colorful clouds" with a maximum speed of 610 km / h. But they don't know that it is naturally difficult for a low-altitude aircraft to catch up with a high-altitude aircraft. What if you don't have a height advantage? Well, the last enemy aircraft shot down by the F51U, which was inferior to the P-4U, in World War II was the "Colorful Cloud".

Now, Lindbergh's BF-109K4 is trying to get closer, but it's not so easy to catch up. Seeing that the BF-109 was getting closer, Thatcher began to push the throttle valve to accelerate.

At this time, Lindbergh slammed on the engine afterburner system, which began to spray shèmw-50 additives into the cylinders. The DB605DC engine skyrocketed to 2,000 horsepower, and the speed of the plane suddenly accelerated.

The sudden acceleration of the Germans exceeded Thatcher's estimates, and the BF-109 caught up with it at incredible speed, climbing as it tried. Although the Mosquito reconnaissance bombers were already accelerating, the distance between the two sides was still getting closer, and it seemed that the enemy planes were about to approach the striking distance. The Mosquito reconnaissance bombers had no self-defense weapons, and in fact, relying on their high speed, all the Mosquito planes had no self-defense weapons, which meant that if the enemy could catch up, they could fire at six o'clock without any scruples.

However, the distance did not continue to close. The mosquito is getting faster and faster, and with Lindbergh, the BF-109K4's engine is overheating and the light is already on. Although the use of MW-50 additives can greatly increase the power output of the engine, it can also overheat the engine. Even the MW-50 additive itself contains substances that are harmful to the engine cylinders, and in fact, the use of this stuff is very harmful to the body, just like doping on the sports field. And this kind of thing on the plane can only last 5 minutes. Now, the MW-50 additive has also been largely depleted.

Lindbergh reluctantly reduced the throttle valve and opened the radiator at the same time. The speed of the BF-109K4 quickly decreased, so he could only watch as the Mosquito reconnaissance bomber, which was still about 600 meters higher than himself, increased its horsepower and gradually moved away.

And at this time his wingman shouted: "One o'clock direction, enemy fighters are spotted!" ”