The next day, the 305th Bomber Group prepared to launch an attack on a submarine base in Brest, France. The site was not far from the UK, and was within range of the Royal Air Force's Spitfire almost the entire time. But the enemy is also extremely well defended against this target.

In November and December 1942, the attacks of German submarine forces on the Allied merchant fleet were at their most glorious period. Due to the success of the wolf pack tactics, the merchant ships sunk by the Germans have significantly exceeded the production of the Allies in terms of tonnage. The supplies that could be transported to Britain were dwindling, and Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare and wolf pack tactics were like a noose firmly around the neck of the British and gradually tightening, making the United Kingdom feel the danger of suffocation, and Prime Minister Churchill later said that the most dangerous time in the war was not the battle of Britain with German bombers like black clouds, but the period of 42 years of unrestricted submarine warfare. "For the first time, they made me doubt the prospect of war and feel the danger of defeat." (Churchill's Memoirs)

It is precisely because the threat posed by submarines is so great that the Allies are now focusing almost all their striking forces on how to deal with submarines. Submarine bases, submarine manufacturing plants, and related other factories and facilities have become the focus of bomber forces. Brest was one of the most important submarine bases of Nazi Germany in the Atlantic. The blow to it is even more of a priority.

The bomber unit was to depart in the afternoon, with the aim of ensuring that the arrival time of the German submarine base was around 5:30 p.m. local time. It's a well-chosen time. At this time, the sun is already tilted to the west, but the light is still strong, especially at an unobstructed altitude of 7,000 meters. Enemies attempting to launch a head-on attack will find that they will have to attack the sun, and the sun's intense light will interfere with their vision, making their attacks less accurate.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Ron boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. And Li Mei was on the other plane. The entire 305 bomber group almost poured out of the nest, and 24 bombers formed 2 box formations and began to fly mightily towards the target. Half an hour later, 303 B-20 of the 17 bomber group also appeared in view. I just don't know if Clark Gable is also in the group of planes that attacked this time.

Ten minutes later, the fleet expanded again, and it was joined by 306 B-12 from the 17 bomber group,

As he approached the English Channel, a new call sign sounded through Ron's headphones:

"We are the 52nd Fighter Group of the RAF, lads, it's a pleasure to see you. We will escort you all and wish you all the best! ”

Looking out of the window, it wasn't long before a group of Royal Air Force Spitfires appeared above the front of the formation. Looking through the window, you can see the characteristic oval wings of those graceful fighters fluttering slightly in the wind.

The English Channel is not wide, only about 40 kilometers at its narrowest point near Calais. However, the fleet is not directly crossing the Channel from west to east, the target is southeast of the United Kingdom, and the fleet will fly south for a while before turning east. To make sure the sun is directly behind them when they pounce on the target.

Thirty minutes later, the fleet began to turn to the east. At this moment, a message came from the escorting Spitfire in Ron's headset:

"German fighters have been spotted ahead! We will do our best to protect you, good luck! ”

Ron understood that the Germans' radar had already spotted them, and that the purpose of the group of fighters that had come to intercept them might not be to shoot down the bombers, but to consume the fuel for the Spitfire.

The Spitfire series fighter is an immortal legend. This extremely graceful fighter has been continuously improved throughout the war, with dozens of modifications. It was the pride of the Royal Air Force from the first day of the war, and until the end of the war, it was one of the most powerful fighters. It can be said that at almost any point in World War II, the Spitfire was able to gain an advantage over any opponent in some kind of performance, faster than it could climb, faster than it could climb, faster than it could turn, faster than it could turn. No matter who it opposes, it will always find a corresponding countermeasure.

However, Spitfire is not perfect, it has two problems that have not been changed, these two problems are: thin skin and short legs.

The so-called thin skin refers to poor resistance to blows. Of course, it also depends on who you compare it with, compared with the products of those steel factories in the United States, such as the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-38 Lightning, and even the old-fashioned P-40, as well as the Navy's F4F, F4U, etc., or compared with the Germans' FW-190A8 and other heavily armed buddies, this guy is definitely thin-skinned, but compared with those Japanese planes, the Spitfire's defense is also good.

But short legs are really too short, and this guy is an airport wall protector. Well, that's an exaggeration, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying it's a Defender of the Strait. Its combat radius is pitiful, and at most it can go around the English Channel. Now this route is already at the limit of their range, and if they are entangled with the German planes any longer, (in air battles, the fuel consumption will be amazingly high) there is absolutely no way to escort them all the way to Brest.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the German fighters retreated, and the Spitfire escorted them for a few more minutes, then said sorry on the radio, then flapped its wings and flew away. Alas, the sunset is infinitely better, and the fire is gone. The road ahead will have to rely on the bombers themselves.

"Stay in formation, no matter what happens, don't dodge!" Li Mei's calm voice came from the headphones.

Ahead, the vast European continent gradually appeared in the eyes of the pilots. At the same time, a large group of German fighters appeared.

William?? Green is an FW190 fighter pilot who has previously served on the Eastern Front, and in battle, he has achieved one victory after another with his extraordinary skills, and quickly developed into a super ace. In one battle, he shot down 7 Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft at once, creating a miracle. Because he killed 7 of them at once, plus his name is exactly the same as one of the Grimm brothers who edited "Grimm's Fairy Tales". The teammates immediately remembered the little tailor in Grimm's fairy tale who "killed seven with one slap". So he had two nicknames, one called "Slap" and the other called "Little Tailor".

After arriving on the Western Front, the "slap" found out that there are more robust aircraft in the world than the IL-2. The first time he attacked the B-17, he almost ran out of shells before seriously wounding a B-17. And he himself was careless, and was bitten twice by .50.

Fortunately, the head-on attack method that began to be implemented later brought about a turnaround in the interception. This type of attack made it possible for the fighter on the interception mission to receive the least attack and the shortest exposure to the bomber's self-defense fire. What's more: this way of rushing head-on puts more pressure on the bomber pilots, and in the face of head-on enemy planes, many pilots will deliberately dodge, so that the formation of the bombers may be destroyed.

This time, however, the formation of the bombers on the opposite side seemed to have changed from the previous ones. It seems to be divided into several layers, and it looks like a large box. But there's no time to worry about that now, so let's pounce head-on as planned.

As the distance between the two sides approached, "Slap" immediately felt the power of the new formation. Before, when it was a head-on attack. He would only be fired at by the forward machine gun tower on the opposite bomber, but now, the two planes above the side of this bomber also began to shoot at him with their belly turrets.

Relying on the FW190's excellent roll, the slap easily dodged these attacks, but this dodge also seriously interfered with his aiming, and he barely fired a bunch of shells, but most of these 20mm shells were empty. One or two shots may hit an enemy plane, but apart from leaving a small hole or two in the enemy's massive fuselage, the damage to the enemy aircraft is almost negligible.

With a miss, with a slight pull of the lever, the "slap" and the bomber staggered, and his FW190 rushed into the bomber's box formation. It took only a few seconds to pass through the formations of these bombers, but in those few seconds there were at least four turrets, more than 8 .50 machine guns firing at him at the same time from different angles. Fortunately, Slap does seem to have a special talent for flying, especially in dodging enemy attacks, and he can sometimes even dodge enemy sneak attacks with instinctive movements without spotting the enemy at all.

This time, he still found a gap in the fire net of the enemy plane and rushed out. Although it was besieged by more than 20 .50 machine guns, the "slap" remained unscathed.

However, the other planes that launched the attack together with the "slap" did not necessarily have such luck, at least, the wingman of the "slap" was not in a good situation. His plane was hit by a dozen .50 machine gun shells. The engine was damaged, the oil was sprayed out, and the front windshield was completely obscured. And the ailerons were also broken, and it seemed that he had to retreat. The plane was badly damaged, and it is difficult to say whether it would be able to fly back to the airport, but at least it would be possible to parachute.

In this first round of attacks, the 305 bombers of the 20 bomber group were basically intact except for one that had some problems, but those FW190A and BF109G who launched the assault suffered greater losses, two FW190A were damaged and withdrew from the battle, and one BF109G was also hit, and its damage was more serious, it is estimated that ...... Well, the pilot has already parachuted.

However, the bomber that was in trouble happened to be the one that Ron was, and a 13mm machine gun bullet fired from a Bf109G that was rushing straight at killed the captain and seriously injured the co-pilot. Now the plane is operated by Ron, who was originally an observer.

"Ron, are you okay?" Li Mei's voice came from the headphones.

"It's okay, I can barely fly this kind of plane, although I'm not used to the steering wheel." Ron picked up the microphone and replied. The wind that blew in through the large holes in the windshield immediately blew his voice away.

"Say what? I can't hear you! You just remember! No matter how the enemy attacks, never dodge, never! ”

If a B-17 flying in the sky is a flying fortress, then the B-17 group that forms a box formation is a flying bastion, as long as the formation is not chaotic, it has no shooting blind spots, and no matter where the attacker attacks from, it will be attacked by the self-defense machine guns on multiple aircraft.

After the first head-on attack, it takes a lot of time to get around the head-on position, and there is not so much time to squander on the battlefield, so the interceptor group has to attack from the side. As a result, they were exposed to the net of fire of self-defense machine guns for a longer time. In this round of attacks, several more bombers were shot, but they were basically fine with their thick skin. Instead, the attackers suffered another loss. Of the enemy aircraft attacking the box-type formation of the 305 bomber group, 3 fighters were shot down, including one FW190A, and one wounded was withdrawn from the battle.

However, the Germans, who were attacking the bomber group of other bomber units, took advantage of it, and several bombers of the 303 group were damaged in the first round of German head-on attacks, and the formation was also disorganized. As a result, almost all the German fighters stared at them like bloody locusts. Now the 303 side is naturally miserable, and Li Mei's 305 side is under great pressure. After two rounds of attacks, it seemed that no enemy planes were willing to attack them.

At this time, the aircraft group had also entered the firing zone of the anti-aircraft guns. Ron's headphones came again with Lee's calm voice:

"Stay in formation, don't dodge! We can withstand it! ”

Large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery shells exploded near the group, and the sky was instantly filled with black clouds left behind by the explosion of the shells. It's like a black rose, symbolizing death. Ron gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands, and kept muttering in his heart:

"Keep the course, keep the course, keep the course!"

All the enemy fighters retreated, they didn't dare to chase here, the anti-aircraft artillery didn't have eyes, and it would be a tragedy if their own anti-aircraft artillery hit.

A 127mm shell exploded in front of Ron, and the shock wave shook the plane like a boat in the middle of a stormy sea. But the plane still flew firmly ahead, directly through the death rose formed by the smoke of the explosion, without dodging, all the way forward!

"Get close to the goal! Lower bombers accelerate! Get ready to drop the bomb! ”

With Li Mei's order, the B-17's magazine opened, and bombs whistled down, and after a while, strings of fireballs suddenly rose on the ground, and then there was rising gunsmoke.

"Complete coverage of the target area! Well done boys! Keep in formation, climb, and return! ”

From above, a large river of bombers dragging a long silver track turned around over Brest and began to fly in a northwesterly direction......

On the way back, he was attacked again by German fighters, but in the face of the impregnable box formation of the 305th Bomber Group, the Germans, who had already seen its formidability, could only retreat in disgrace.

Twenty minutes later, the bomber group met with the Royal Air Force Spitfire group. When the lights were on, the bomber formation finally returned safely to the airfield.

In this battle, the US military dispatched a total of 56 bombers, and in the interception of enemy aircraft, the 303 Bomber Group lost 3 bombers, seriously damaged 3 bombers, shot down 2 enemy planes, and damaged 1 aircraft; The 306 Bomber Group lost 1 bomber, seriously damaged 2, shot down 0 enemy aircraft, damaged 3; The bombers of Li Mei's 305 Bomber Group not only suffered no losses or serious injuries themselves, but also shot down 4 enemy planes and damaged 3 in air battles. The power of the box-shaped formation is fully revealed.