On this day, the bomber unit successively performed the synthesis and deployment of the box formation in front of Kotin. A day later, another high-altitude bombing exercise was carried on board the Soviets. Then, as agreed by both sides, a week later, Soviet pilots would fly fighter planes and conduct a confrontation drill with bomber units.

To tell the truth, the Soviets attached great importance to this confrontation drill with the bomber force, even more than to the confrontation drill with the ace of American fighters. The reason for this may not need to be too detailed. After all, at least for now, everyone is still an ally.

To say that Kotin is really a talent, as soon as he returned to his station, he immediately went into his office and got busy, and he didn't even eat dinner. When the lights were on, a tired Kejing walked out, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Instead of going to rest, he called the Soviet pilots to a meeting.

"Let's talk about what you think of American bombers." Seeing that everyone had arrived, Cotin spoke first.

"The bomb load and range are good, and the strike power is great. Awesome! ”

"The self-defense firepower is very strong, and there are almost no shooting dead spots." It was Alvin who spoke, "I've been in a few machine gun towers. The machine gun was well placed, and the lethality of the 12.7 machine gun was also reliable. I think you have to be careful when you get close to this thing. ”

"I carefully observed some of the structure of this aircraft, the girder is very strong, and the distance between the engines ~one~Ben~Read~Small~Say~ybdu is also good, it is difficult to break two at once. I don't think even if you use a 37mm gun and hit one or two shots, you won't necessarily be able to knock it down. Valia said that the first time she found out, even the firepower of the 37 guns would also be insufficient.

"yes, that thing is really strong, I think, let alone hit a few shells, even if a plane hits it, as long as it doesn't hit a fatal place, it may not be able to knock it down." It was Kovzan who said this.

"Also, their formation is troublesome. Their kind of box-shaped formation has very strong self-defense firepower, and if the number of fighters is a little less, it is easy to suffer a loss when rushing over. Valia added, "If you want to attack, you must choose a good angle." ”

"Comrade Valia is right." "The formation of the Americans is really good, and to defeat these bombers, you must first know what the weakness of their formation is," Kotin said. I researched it, you can take a look. ”

Cotin said as he placed a piece of paper on the table.

"What is this?" Skomorokhov took the paper and looked at it carefully.

"Comrade Kotin, you used to study mathematics, right, but you actually built a mathematical model for the American bomber formation?" Popkov, who was watching with his neck stretched out to the side, shouted.

"I've built a mathematical model, I'll take a look." Valia jumped over the table with his hands on it, snatching the paper from Skomorokhov's hand.

Looking at it, Valia gradually frowned: "The idea is good, and the conclusion is correct. But Comrade Kojing, you've been thinking about this question for a long time, right? How can you come up with such a cumbersome algorithm? Wouldn't you ......" Valya simply flipped the piece of paper over and placed it on the table, then pulled out a pencil, "Look like this...... Again...... Such...... Doesn't it come out? You're ......."

Kotin walked over, picked up the piece of paper, and looked at Valia's calculations. Then he had to admit that this woman's algorithm was indeed better than his.

"The final data is right." Kojing was a little unhappy, "You see, if the time comes, we can enter the attack from this angle, so that we can get the least hit. If you are looking for maximum efficiency, then this angle of this front is good. ”

"It's so troublesome there, but I actually have a more effective way. It will definitely be able to break this flying Spanish phalanx. Valia said.

"What's the solution? Tell me about it? ”

"It's simple, each plane carries 8 to 10 rockets and fires a salvo head-on, which is guaranteed to solve the problem."

"It's a good idea, we'll use it next time to give the Yankees a little color!"

"No! This plan must be kept secret! Kejing stood up and gave everyone a serious look, "Before returning home, don't discuss this plan anymore." As if Comrade Valia never mentioned it. ”

……

A week later, the confrontation began as scheduled.

Because the confrontation took place at an altitude of 7,000 meters, Soviet pilots no longer flew the P-39 and F6F, which they were more familiar with. Both aircraft lack turbo and can cause heart attacks at high altitudes. Taking into account the self-defense firepower of the bombers, all were replaced with a more robust P-47.

Valia had also switched to a P-47, and she was now looking around, searching for a target. However, bombers are much easier to find than fighters, especially those flying at high altitudes. At high altitudes, the cold causes water vapor to condense on small particles of exhaust gases from aircraft engines, which then leave a long trail in the sky. The four engines of each bomber pulled out four tracks, more than 40 bombers, leaving a trail that looked like a silver glittering river from a distance.

So far away, Valya found the target. So she began to approach with the P-47 fleet.

At high altitude, just as a group of fighters can spot bombers from a great distance, bombers can spot groups of fighters at a great distance, because they also have a long trail trail behind them.

So just as Valia's fleet of P-47s approached, the bombers were ready.

"Attention, reiterate discipline, under no circumstances are you allowed to deviate from the intended course, and no evasive maneuvers are allowed! Maintain formation, machine gunners get ready! ”

Valya also gave the order: "We hit the assault from the front, and try to break them up in one shot!" ”

Skimming from the four corners, the risk of attacking the bombers on the four corners was minimal. It's just that this method will be very slow to work, and when dealing with really large formations, the effect is quite limited. Therefore, the most direct way is to hit head-on.

The group of bombers in front of Valia formed a box formation of 4 floors up and down. Valia set her sights on the top layer. This is because, after such an attack is completed, a direct climb can leave the killing range of the self-defense fire of the American bombers. Even by doing a simple follow-up maneuver, you can re-enter the attack route.

Valia led the group to dive down from a height of 8,000 meters, and the speed of the fighters climbed all the way to 800 kilometers per hour. It's not a speed that's good for accurate shooting, but the ultra-high proximity rate of such a speed will put a lot of pressure on those rookie bomber pilots. This feeling of being hit right away makes it easy for those rookies to dodge some moves. These dodge actions will force other bombers to dodge as well, and then cause a chain reaction, which will eventually lead to the collapse of the entire box formation.

Although the rookies have been warned before, they are not allowed to dodge at any time. And they also understand that people don't really come head-on. But when I saw a plane swooping down at a very high speed, I was still very nervous. Some guys instinctively want to dodge.

In fact, the chances of a fighter hitting a bomber are not high. The fighters are veterans, and they all know when to pull up the plane to avoid a collision. On the contrary, the bombers dodge on their own and can easily cause collisions between bombers. Therefore, in training, each rookie captain is accompanied by an instructor. One of their important roles is to stop the rookies when they can't resist the pressure and want to dodge.

At this time, the instructors worked, and they decisively stopped the irrational actions of those rookies. This meant that it was impossible for Valia to actually cause the bomber formation to collapse.

That's all the Soviets knew. However, according to the agreement, during the assault, the instructor of any bomber intervened, and the bomber was automatically determined to have been shot down. The instructor will temporarily take over the bomber and will control it to fly away from the formation.

Valia drove the P-47 until he could see the pale face of the rookie pilot inside the bomber, then he pulled up the plane and swept over the bomber.

"These hairy people are really crazy." In this bomber, Instructor Haig scolded while holding down the hand of the rookie who was screaming!

After the first round of raids, 6 aircraft automatically broke out of formation. This shows that in the attack just now, the pilots of these six planes all tried to change course and evade. If it weren't for the instructors holding them back, maybe the entire bomber fleet would be in chaos by now.

However, Valya's impact is not without a price. In such an attack they would also have received a lot of machine-gun fire. I'm afraid I took a lot of bullets. It's just that the situation of being shot will not be judged until the photos in the camera gun are washed out.

The Soviets launched several more assaults, but the results of the next few were far less effective than the first. After the attack, there were no more planes that voluntarily broke away from the formation.

A day later, the interpretation of the photograph of the photograph was also completed. After the first round of attacks, 12 more B-24s were judged injured, four of which were judged to have been shot down. And the 16 P-47s of the Soviets, except for the one of Skomorokhov, were all damaged (Skomorokhov, the Soviet ace who shot down 46 enemy planes in history, and what's more, this guy's plane was never hit in the entire war), and the fighters of Valia and two other pilots were considered shot down. It can be seen that even a rookie bomber is not to be underestimated.

Just after this confrontation ended, Ron received another assignment. General Arnold informed him that Li May was in trouble. He asked Ron to go on a trip to Europe by name.