The next day it was cloudy for most of the European continent, with high fish scale clouds and small patches of clouds at an altitude of 6000-8000 meters. This is not a good thing for bombing, because it is at this altitude that bombers usually fly. Flying in such clouds, the probability of a vicious (river crab) accident in a dense box formation will increase dramatically; At the same time, if you drop a bomb in this environment, the accuracy of the bomb will also be greatly affected.

Therefore, on this day, the bomber group that came to bomb had to drop its flight altitude below 6000 meters. At this altitude, the American P-51 no longer has an overwhelming advantage in performance over the most common German fighters, and if it had been some time ago, the Luftwaffe would have seized this rare opportunity to organize a large-scale interception operation. But now, because of the attrition of the previous battles, the Luftwaffe no longer has the strength to organize such an operation. So the American bomber group still swaggered out.

However, the decrease in flight altitude caused the loss rate to begin to rise - the effectiveness of ground-based anti-aircraft guns increased significantly. From the moment they crossed the English Channel, the bomber group was constantly subjected to anti-aircraft artillery fire. There was a noticeable increase in the density of anti-aircraft artillery on the ground. In 43-44, the German military industry began to enter a **. Under Speer's organization, Germany transferred most of the production of civilian goods to factories in France and other occupied areas, while almost all of its local factories were converted to munitions. In this way, the efficiency of arms production has been greatly increased. Despite the strategic bombardment of Britain and the United States, the Germans' arms production increased considerably. Not to mention anything else, in terms of barreled artillery with a caliber of more than 75 mm, Germany's production even greatly exceeded that of the Soviet Union, which had always liked to play with artillery.

However, the German soldiers on the Eastern Front did not feel this change, and in their senses, the Soviet artillery still had an overwhelming advantage. Many soldiers and army generals wrote letters from their families and even in their memoirs that later wrote about the devastating shelling of the Soviets over and over again.

Their feelings are not wrong, although some generals always like to exaggerate the strength of the enemy when writing their memoirs, but fortunately they have won battles to show how superb their command art is, or when they themselves have lost battles, they use it to show that it is not that I am incompetent, but that there are too many enemies. For example, the famous German general Man Buqun wrote a memoir called "Everything is Blamed on the Mustache" after the war. There, Man Buqun often depicted his battles with the Soviets in a manner like this: I only have six divisions in my hands, and all of them are not fully manned. And on the opposite side of me, the Soviets had up to 12 divisions. But he won't take the initiative to tell you that the Soviet divisions were much smaller than the Germans in terms of formation. A German division had nearly 10,000 men, while a Soviet division had only 5,000 to 6,000 men.

However, when it came to asserting the overwhelming superiority of the Soviet army in suppressing artillery, Man Buqun was quite honest. Although the German production of large-caliber artillery was higher, on the front of the Eastern Front, the Soviets did have much more suppressed artillery. This is not only because of the Soviet Union's superiority in the number of mortars, but also because a considerable part of the large-caliber artillery produced by Germany is anti-aircraft guns, and these guns are left on the Western Front to deal with American and British bombers, so the German Army can really get to the front line with more large-caliber artillery than the Soviet Union.

The Soviets, of course, would like to see such a distribution, but the Americans do not. Recently, the threat of anti-aircraft artillery to bomber groups has grown. Now, as the Luftwaffe became more and more ineffective in interception, anti-aircraft guns had become the biggest threat to Allied bombers.

However, the effectiveness of anti-aircraft guns is always not comparable with that of interceptors. Therefore, although the losses caused by anti-aircraft guns are gradually rising, because of the defeat of the Luftwaffe's interceptor group, the losses of the bomber unit are still significantly lower than before.

Under the fire of anti-aircraft guns, the bomber group continued to advance. The mountain area in front of you is the Ardennes, and after flying over, you will find Germany.

……

Rookie pilot Ensign Frank is now being strapped to his plane seat with a seat belt in a strange gesture. His legs were pointing upwards, and the weight of his whole body was pressed against his back.

In fact, it was the first time Frank had flown such an eccentric plane. Before that, he had only experienced a few ground drills. This made him very nervous.

Fortunately, the take-off of such an aircraft does not require pilot intervention. Because such an aircraft does not take off by taxiing on the runway, it is launched and taken off, like a rocket, or like a cupola.

Around him was the lush forest of the Ardennes, where the launcher of the BA349 rocket-powered interceptor was erected. The tall trees around it provide a very good concealment.

The enemy bomber group was getting closer and closer, and Frank heard Chief Thomas shouting in his headphones: "Boys, the time has come to die for Germany, for the Führer, and I command you to destroy the enemies of the Reich at all costs!" Now, take off! ”

As soon as he gave the order, Frank felt the entire plane vibrate, and then a cloud of red and black smoke rose from all around, and then the plane rose from the ground and soared into the sky.

At this time, the huge overload makes Frank feel as if there is an elephant sitting on his chest, leaving him completely out of breath. I don't know how long it took, but there was a "bang" in his ears. Frank knew it was the sound of a booster rocket being blown off by an exploding bolt after it had burned out.

With the booster rocket dropped, the plane's acceleration dropped significantly, and Frank could now gasp for air, albeit only for 10 seconds, but the excessive tension still gave him a feeling of suffocation.

At this time, the control surfaces of the aircraft have been unlocked. The pilot can already take over the maneuvering of the aircraft. However, before takeoff, instructors and factory representatives advised that pilots should not take over at this time. Let the plane climb to 10,000 meters in one breath under the control of the ground radio, and then it is not too late to take over. On the one hand, the decision was made to facilitate the formation of a dense formation, but the main reason was that they were worried that these rookies would cause problems if they climbed on their own.

……

Clarke?? Gable sat bored in the machine gun tower and looked around. His work has been much more leisurely lately. In the past, as soon as their bombers went out, a large number of German fighters would swarm around them. It was like when he used to go out on the street and forget to put on his sunglasses, and a horde of crazy fans could immediately keep him busy. It's just that fans are much more elegant than Germans, at least they don't shoot bullets at themselves.

However, in recent times, it has been much more leisurely, and it is rare to see German fighters. Flying in the sky were either Allied bombers or Allied fighters. And those things painted with iron crosses are as rare as bison on the Great Plains of North America. (Before the westward expansion, tens of millions of bison were inhabited on the plains of North America, but they were slaughtered by humans and nearly extinct.)

There are always a lot of air leaks in the machine gun tower, so this place is always very cold. Clarke?? Gable let go of the handle of the machine gun and began to rub his hands vigorously as he gasped. It was at this moment that he suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound. He looked up and saw that just ahead, dozens of things were spewing flames and smoke and were soaring into the sky at an alarming speed.

"Oh my God, what is this?" Clarke?? Gable looked up as the things flew higher and higher into the cloud of fish scales overhead, grabbing his machine gun and getting ready.

……

In the sharp climb, Frank sees the Yankee's bomber swarm, which is even more spectacular than he imagined.

"This is a group of bombers, it's spectacular, they're so beautiful." Frank thought silently, "Yes, the bomber fleet is beautiful anyway, and how even and rhythmic their ranks are." You can imagine what an elegant and charming symphony it must have been when they dropped bombs on the ground, intertwined with the roar of the engines and the roar of the bombs. ”

While he was thinking, his BA349 had already crossed the height of the bomber and burrowed headlong into the clouds. So his eyes were milky white, and he couldn't see anything.

At an altitude of 10,000 meters, Frank, like other rookies, began to take over the plane, and then, an extremely troublesome thing appeared - where is the enemy plane, where is the enemy plane?

Due to the interference of the clouds, the rookies lost their way. They only knew roughly that the enemy plane should be below them, so they each began to dive downward. According to the original rules, they were supposed to be grouped together to ensure the density of fire when they attacked a moment later, and then after passing through two clouds during the dive, the rookies were completely dispersed.

Finally, when Frank emerges from a cloud, he sees a huge group of bombers again. He also saw that his comrades had scattered and were rushing towards the enemy swarm. A lot of people have already opened fire on enemy aircraft.

Rookies always like to follow the crowd, and as soon as they see someone firing, everyone starts firing rockets, but completely forgets to care about whether the launch distance is reasonable. As a result, most people launched a little early. One guy was so excited when he launched that he didn't notice that there was a friendly plane more than 800 meters in front of him, so he opened fire directly. As a result, the enemy plane did not hit, but bombed the friendly plane.

The rocket attack was not very effective, and the rockets fired by 20 BA349s (originally 24, 4 of which were wrecked during takeoff) shot down only two bombers.

The rookies have shot all the rockets, but that doesn't mean the attack is over. A straight down BA349 crashed into a B-17, knocking him in two.

"Well done!" Frank watched the feat and was thrilled. He suddenly remembered his school again. It was a very ordinary liberal arts school, and just as he was leaving, there was a memorial to the fallen soldiers in the school, "There is a larger golden iron cross on the top of the monument, decorated with a larger laurel wreath stone carving, how many people's names should be written, and maybe my name: Frank, from school to battlefield, for ...... And the ...... killed"

Before he had time to think about it, Frank aimed at an American bomber and rammed it......