On the southern outskirts of Boguchar, the 206th Fighter Aviation Division of the Eighth Army of the Soviet Air Force was stationed, and the silence of dawn was broken by the mournful sirens.

In dormitory No. 4, Captain Leonid Khrushchev, who was originally lying flat on the bed, Marshal Timoshenko's good partner and the son of Khrushchev, the political commissar of the Western Front, was sleeping soundly wrapped in a blanket, but his body bounced off the bed as if he had been loaded with a spring and sat upright on the bed.

Suddenly opening his eyes, Captain Khrushchev frowned slightly, listened carefully to the sirens outside, and then grabbed his military uniform and jumped off the upper bunk, with clothes on his hands, and hurried out of the bedroom with a pair of long legs.

In the dormitory, the other five pilots also rushed out of the bedroom.

As soon as they stepped out of the bedroom, the six of them got dressed and ran on the empty airport with their legs spread out, heading straight for the plane parking.

Captain Khrushchev rushed into the hangar and hurriedly climbed into the cockpit of his own Yak-9 fighter.

The propeller in the nose of the aircraft "····· Tutu Tu" Spun and kick up a trail of dust, the plane burst out of the hangar and carved a distance on the flat runway into the blue sky.

Immediately after putting away the landing gear, Captain Khrushchev contacted the pilot of the long plane, Captain Zamorin, by radio.

"Where is the enemy? What is our mission? ”

It was a while before Captain Zamorin's voice came over the radio.

"Directly to the west, a group of German bombers is approaching Boguchar, comrades on combat readiness duty are engaged with them, and we are going to support them."

Captain Khrushchev piloted the Yak-9 fighter jet, followed Captain Zamorin's plane, and flew straight to the west.

"What kind of plane is the enemy? Stuka dive bomber? ME-110 ground attack aircraft? Or those planes that don't have propellers? ”

"It seems to be a medium bomber, I don't know if it's a JU-88 or a HE-111, they're above us, we've got to get up," said Captain Zamorin. ”

Captain Khrushchev followed Captain Zamorin and piloted the plane to climb to a higher altitude, and dense black dots could already be seen in the sky in the distance.

Most of the black spots in the line of sight were lined up in a neat formation, and some were like flies, circling and flying in the sky next to the formation, chasing each other.

Armed with bomber groups in a neat formation, surrounded by escort fighters and friendly fighters coming to intercept them, Captain Khrushchev quickly came to his conclusion.

More and more voices came over the radio, and Captain Khrushchev soon learned more and more battlefield intelligence.

"The enemy's bombers are HE-111, escort ME-109, G and F are available, we go above them and attack them from above."

Captain Zamorin made a very experienced judgment and immediately adopted the tactics that were most suitable for his aircraft.

The Yak-9 fighter is the latest new fighter jet to be put into service by the Soviet Air Force in 1943, and is an improved version of the Yak-7 fighter.

The aircraft has been replaced with metal wings, and the rear of the cockpit has been replaced with 75 mm thick bulletproof glass instead of the original 8 mm thick bulletproof back seat, so that the pilot can have a better view. The aircraft's engines have also been strengthened, with the new M-105PF engine, which allows the aircraft to reach a maximum speed of 672 kilometers per hour, nearly 100 kilometers faster than the Yak-7 fighter.

However, the two major drawbacks of the Yak-7 exist in the Yak-9 at the same time.

One is the short range, but this battle is a defensive battle, and the range problem is not obvious, and the other problem has always plagued the Yak series aircraft.

That is, at the beginning of the design of the Yak series of fighters, it was defined as a medium and low altitude air superiority fighter, mainly to cooperate with the "scraping" bombing of the Il-2 attack aircraft, with an optimal combat altitude of less than 4,000 meters.

After exceeding this altitude, as the altitude rises, the maneuverability of the aircraft decreases sharply, especially the climbing performance.

Following Captain Zamorin all the way up, Captain Khrushchev saw that the altimeter showed an altitude of 5,500 meters, and his plane seemed to be flying at the same altitude as the German bomber group in the distance.

"These German bombers flew so high······ Are they not afraid to drop bombs on alien planets? ”

Captain Khrushchev followed Captain Zamorin to continue to climb to altitude, which soon exceeded 6,000 meters.

Captain Zamorin's voice came over the radio: "Let's pull up a little more, and then rush down from above to finish them off." ”

In the flight squadron commanded by Captain Zamorin, the pilots replied one after another, and Captain Khrushchev was no exception.

"I'll follow you when I get the order."

Captain Khrushchev had just said his reply when out of the corner of his eye suddenly saw several black dots appear in the sky above the right.

Squinting at the black dots, Khrushchev immediately recognized the identity of the other party.

It was a swarm, and there was a swarm of fighters swooping down from a higher height and rushing into the formation in which they were.

Captain Khrushchev immediately shouted into the radio: "There are people above us, there are people above us, damn it, they are down, they are down·····"

When Captain Khrushchev shouted, his eyes were fixed on the group of planes that had swooped down from a high altitude.

Damn, it turned out to be an airplane without a propeller, and now it's troublesome.

"Dispersed, the crews are dispersed to meet the battle, the enemy is the jets of the Germans, the crews are dispersed to meet the battle."

Captain Zamorin's voice came, and the squadron of fighters, which had been about to climb to a high altitude and prepare to dive to attack the German bomber group, were scattered, and turned into a two-plane formation, each fleeing.

Captain Khrushchev was no exception, the enemy's jets swooped down from a high altitude, occupying an absolute advantage in speed, and he could not foolishly compete with the enemy for speed, but must first evade.

Immediately following Captain Zamorin, Captain Khrushchev no longer climbed in height, turned around and went down, rushing towards the Luftwaffe bomber group.

Captain Zamorin shouted: "Leonid, you follow me, we rush to the German bomber group and use those bombers as cover." ”

"Let's try it, I'm right behind you."

After speaking, Captain Khrushchev looked back behind him and saw that the two planes turned their noses and were rushing towards him, and immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

The enemy's jets were already faster than their own, and they were diving down from a high altitude to gain acceleration, and whether they could escape or not depended on luck and Captain Zamorin's tactics.

The Germans were so vicious that there was an ambush at high altitude.

The two Yak-9 fighters one after the other, with the two ME-262 fighters behind them, dived diagonally and flew straight towards the bomber group in the airspace below.

Behind them, in the cockpit of a ME-262 fighter jet in front, Captain Hans Joachim Marseilleu, squadron leader of the 7th Squadron of the Luftwaffe EK-262 Flying Group, stared at the two planes in front of him, with a playful smile on his handsome face.

"Those two Russians went at the bomber group, and they thought they would be able to evade our pursuit, and they were so naïve, naïve to the point of loveliness."