Although it is known that the possibility that the Germans found themselves in the creeping woods more than seventy meters away from the railway is almost zero. Still, Edmund buried his head down. The hand-cranked railcar slowly faded away with a babbling sound, and Edmund's eyes widened as he stared at the railroad tracks, which glowed in the cold glow of the moonlight, while pricking up his ears to listen to the sounds of the night wind.

A few minutes later, Edmund noticed that a rhythmic "clang, clang" sound seemed to be mixed in with the chirping of crickets. The sound started soft, but soon became louder and louder. In the end, this "clang" sound completely suppressed the surrounding insect chirping. Then, with the help of the moonlight, Edmund saw a dark train bypassing the woods in front of him and appearing in Edmund's field of vision.

The train, which was traveling at a low speed on the railway, did not turn on its lights. However, Edmund's eyes were good, and he could still see that this was definitely a military column belonging to the German ** team. At the front of the train were two flatbed cars, some of which were hard to see, but Edmund knew that they were mostly anti-aircraft artillery. Generally speaking, there will be one or two flatbed trucks on each column with anti-aircraft guns on them to carry out air defense tasks. Behind the two flatbed cars, there was a carriage, which looked like an armored wagon, since on the roof of the compartment faintly there were two bulging things, most likely turrets. Then there was the power locomotive, then several cars, then the power locomotive, then an armored car and two flatbed cars.

"Good fellows! There are four anti-aircraft vehicles, and there must be something important in them. Edmund watched the train go away, and then picked up a microphone from the ground: "The target has been found in the A-1 area, the target is moving towards the A-2 area, the speed is about 30 kilometers per hour, there are four anti-aircraft vehicles, two at the end and two at the end, and one at the end of the armored car section, one for the first ......"

Underneath the microphone was a telephone cord that stretched through the dark woods and eventually into the depths of the woods. Where, several people were gathered around a transmitter.

"Well, we know, keep watching!" A man whispered into the microphone. Then he turned his head and said to the person next to him, "The target has appeared." Send a report immediately, the content is ......"

……

An AC-47 was flying in the dark sky when an order came over the radio: "Snowy Owl 1, go to the A-2 area, search and eliminate the enemy columns." ”

"Raeder! Where is the A-20 region? Captain Matt said.

The navigator Raeder immediately took out the route map, studied it carefully, and replied: "Direction 44, the altitude drops to 1000 meters, the speed is 320, and it will reach the A-2 area in about 5 minutes......"

At the same time that this AC-47 received an order, several other P/A-38 attack aircraft and Mosquito bombers received similar orders.

……

"Captain, the radar has found the target." Chris Cris, a radar officer sitting in the middle, reported to Captain Luthor, who was sitting in the front seat, that "at 11:30 a.m., at a distance of 1.5 kilometers and at an altitude of 1,100 meters, a target was found, which could be an enemy night bomber or a transport plane!" ”

"Okay, keep an eye on the target! We're ready to attack! ”

Luthor made a sideways slide and pointed the nose of the plane toward half past eleven. The BF-110 night fighter flew towards its target in the dark.

The BF-110 was not a success as a heavy fighter, it was too clumsy compared to those single-engine fighters, whether it was rolling, circling, or climbing, it could not compete with those single-engine fighters. During the Battle of Britain, the Germans sent BF-110 fighters to escort their bombers. It turned out that because the BF-110 fighter was too clumsy, in the face of the British fighters, it was not an opponent at all, not to mention protecting the bombers, and even self-protection could not be done, and later, it was actually necessary to have a single-engine BF-109 to escort itself. So much so that the notoriety of escort fighters who needed to escort was left behind.

However, as a night fighter, the BF-110 was quite successful. The BF-110 had a lot of space, especially in the nose, and was able to fit the on-board radar, and the Germans added a seat to it, a radar crew, and an upward-tilting cannon. This allows the BF-110 night fighter to use it to attack from the weakly defended underbelly of the enemy aircraft. Under the cover of darkness, the problem of the BF-110's poor flight ability is masked, but the sufficient airspace and powerful firepower can come in handy in the dark night. As a result, this aircraft turned into a successful night fighter, and even emerged as a super-ace to shoot down hundreds of enemy aircraft.

Moreover, unlike during the day, the Allies did not have the overwhelming air supremacy in the sky as during the day. This was first of all due to the fact that the radar capabilities of night fighters of that era were quite limited. In terms of its detection range, it is far less than the detection distance of the human eye during the day, so in the dark night, the planes of both sides staggered, and it is really not a new thing that the other cannot be detected by each other. Moreover, the airborne radar of that era not only had a short detection distance, but also a small detection angle, and often the enemy plane slipped sideways, flew out of the radar detection area, and then disappeared without a trace. Coupled with the reliability of the airborne radar of that era, it is even more difficult to cry, the average trouble-free operation time is even less than ten hours, flying and flying, it is not uncommon for the radar to suddenly break, even if it is not broken, the target is suddenly lost for no reason, and even the target can be seen with the naked eye in the night sky, and it is common for the radar to find nothing. So, at night, it was impossible for the Allied fighters to expel all the German fighters from the sky as they did during the day. At night, there were still German night fighters in the sky.

……

The distance between the BF-110 night fighter and the enemy aircraft is getting closer and closer, and the distance between the two sides is only about 600 meters. But at this moment, the radar of the BF-110 night fighter suddenly struck.

"Captain, radar malfunction." Chris reported.

"Damn! Can it be fixed? Luthor asked.

"I'm afraid not for the time being," Chris said, "it's probably too hot, I'll turn it off and turn it on again in ten minutes to see if it works." ”

Radar strikes due to high temperatures were also a very common problem at the time. Sometimes, it only takes a little cooling to recover, and sometimes, well, you have to wait until you get back to the airport to solve it. But at least, for ten minutes, they couldn't count on the radar.

Now the distance between the two sides is only 600 meters, but in this case, it is still impossible to see the enemy bombers hidden in the night sky with the naked eye. Luthor lowered the throttle valve, and the sound of the engine began to get quieter. He opened a small opening in the canopy, and a cool night breeze blew in at once. Luthor pressed his ear closer to the small opening, listening carefully to the sounds outside, and at this distance, he might be able to hear the sound of his opponent's engine.

However, the truth disappointed him, and he could not hear anything in his ears except the whirring wind and the muffled sound of his own engine.

Luthor closed that small window in disappointment, and it was very frustrating that he suddenly lost his target just 600 meters away from the enemy plane.

……

"Captain, we should have arrived at our intended position." Navigator Raeder said.

"Okay, let's drop flares and search this section of the railway."

Several flares were thrown. These flares all have parachutes, which ignite after falling some distance and illuminate a large area.

One flare after another burned in the sky, and in the blazing white light of the flares, a railroad was very distinctly visible. It's just that there is no shadow of a military train on the railway.

"Perhaps, we should fly a little further west along the railroad." Raeder said.

……

The flares dropped by the AC-47 not only illuminated the railroad below, but also revealed itself for a short time.

"Look! Captain, enemy planes! Chris shouted.

"I see it." Luthor said.

In the flash of the flares, Luthor saw the shadow of the enemy plane flickering in the distance, and then disappeared into the darkness.

However, Luthor was now confident of shooting down the enemy plane, and a few flares were dropped one after another to point out the direction in which the enemy plane was flying. Moreover, the enemy planes are obviously searching for targets on the railway, they have not found the target now, they will keep dropping flares, and once they attack the target, they will inevitably be exposed, and at that time, he can give the enemy plane a fatal blow.

Therefore, Luthor gently pulled the plane to a higher position, so that on the one hand, he could avoid being illuminated by the flare and expose himself, and on the other hand, he could quickly accelerate by diving, and the enemy plane could approach the target and attack in the short moment when it was illuminated by his own flare.

In this way, Luthor controlled his BF-110 and flew up and climbed in the direction of the railway, while waiting for the enemy plane to reappear.

Sure enough, just as Luthor had predicted, two minutes later, the enemy plane dropped another barrage of flares......

"Captain, find the target!" Co-pilot Lawrence said in surprise.

Just below the front of the AC-47 attack aircraft, the tail of a train emerged in the bright light of flares.

"Get ahead of them, drop flares around the rear, and attack with 40 guns!" Matt said.

……

As early as the time the first flares were dropped on the AC-47, the Germans on the train moving on the railway knew that it would be difficult for them to escape the enemy's search, so all the anti-aircraft guns were put into readiness.

On the penultimate flatbed at the rear of the train there is an 88 mm high shè gun. This is an unusual configuration. Because those that can effectively attack trains are low-altitude targets, and the effectiveness of 88-mm guns against low-altitude targets has always been not very good. However, the Germans put this weapon on the train, and naturally he had his intentions. Now, several soldiers are filling the chamber of the 88-mm high shè gun with some special shells......