The Russians, thinking with their ass, can also come to the conclusion that the direction of the German summer offensive is Moscow.

The gathering of elite troops in the direction of Moscow and the defense of the great capital is something that no one can doubt, and the only thing that makes one uneasy is which direction will the Germans take as the main direction of attack, northwest, west or south?

The Germans, thinking with the back of their heads, can also conclude that the Russians know that we are going to attack Moscow, but they do not know that we are using the south as the main battlefield.

In order to ensure that the troops could gain an overwhelming advantage in the main battlefield in the south, the German high command did not hesitate to transfer elite troops and advanced weapons to the south, including the only official jet fighter of the Luftwaffe, the ME-262.

Even in the war years, when every second counts, a newly developed weapon must be carefully arranged to enter service, and the same is true for the ME-262 jet fighter.

In order to make the new weapons combat effective as soon as possible, the Luftwaffe adopted a combination of the old and the new to form the EK-262 group, which means the ME-262 fighter test group.

The pilots of the EK-262 brigade are a mix of elite pilots drawn from the front line and novices who have just graduated from aviation schools.

The leader of the EK-262 group, Major Walter Novotny, was an elite pilot who had been drawn from the front and had fought more than 100 enemy aircraft, wearing a knight's Iron Cross with silver oak leaves around his neck.

As a fellow Führer, Major Novotny from Austria has a high nose, big eyes, big white teeth when he smiles, and a big back comb, looking like a very sunny big boy, and it is difficult to associate him with the word killer in the air.

However, Major Novotny and his men, after joining the EK-262 group, all they wanted to do was how to make the ME-262 jet fighters combat ready as soon as possible, so that they could return to the Eastern Front to slaughter the Russian Air Force.

Major Novotny and his men paved the way for the ME-262 jet fighter to take to the battlefield through a series of efforts, countless sweats, and the sacrifice of up to six pilots, including two ace pilots.

Because the speed of the aircraft is particularly fast, the impact force that occurs when landing and on the ground is significantly increased, the problem that the landing gear will break when landing, and the problem that tires are prone to puncture are found to be solved one by one.

The MK-108 30mm guns equipped with the aircraft have poor ballistics and are not easy to hit small targets, and the pilots have also found out, and after coordination, the weapons of the ME-262 jet fighter have been changed from the original four MK-108 30mm guns to two MK-108 mm 30mm main guns, with two MK-151 20mm secondary guns.

The MK-108, which has high power but poor ballistic performance, can be paired with the MK-151, which has relatively small power but good ballistic performance, and can take into account both large and small targets.

Whether it is facing a thick-skinned bomber, especially the ubiquitous Il-2, or a less defensive, but more agile fighter, the ME-262 jet fighter can have enough firepower and accuracy to deal with it.

What's more, the MK-151 20mm cannon is less powerful, just compared to the MK-108 30mm gun, the fighter used to slaughter the Russian Air Force is still ruthless, and four or five shells can make the other side kiss the earth.

A series of problems were fed back to the Messerschmidt company, and after a series of improvements, the first production version of the ME-262 jet fighter received the final designation, the ME-262A-1a, and received a nice nickname, the Swallow.

As the summer offensive approached, the EK-262 group, which was gradually forming its combat effectiveness, was pulled out en masse, 92 ME-262A-1a jet fighters, and 92 "Swallows" were transferred to the Eastern Front and joined the Fourth Air Force in the southern part of the battlefield to fight side by side with Army Group B under the command of Marshal Rundstedt.

After a long wait, the summer offensive finally began in mid-June.

Towards the end of mid-June, the EK-262 Brigade finally received the order to attack, and was personally named by General Heinz von Rosen to cooperate with the "Imperial Marshal" Panzer Division to provide air cover for the division.

Chen Dao, who was born as the commander of the air defense battalion, has always put the safety of the armored division of the "Imperial Marshal" in the first place out of professional habits.

To explain in Chen Dao's own words, you all think that I am a "big tankist" with strong armor and sharp artillery, and that is the most serious misunderstanding of me, and "big air force doctrine" is the goal that I have pursued all my life.

On the night of 17 June, Major Novotny received a task transferred from his superiors, and after dawn tomorrow, he rushed to the operational area of the "Imperial Marshal" Panzer Division, seized local air supremacy, and provided air cover for the "Imperial Marshal" Panzer Division.

Before three o'clock in the morning of the next day, Major Novotny woke up early, before dawn.

There were two reasons for getting up early, one was the excitement of the upcoming sortie, and the other was the call from the front-line "Imperial Marshal" armored division.

The "Reich Marshal" Panzer Division was named after the military rank of Marshal Goering, commander of the Luftwaffe, and was built by the famous "Your Excellency Brother-in-law", which was the ace unit that shocked the German military circles.

No one in the Luftwaffe dared to take lightly the call from this force, not to mention that now that the summer offensive had begun, the Panzer Division of the "Reich Marshal" was definitely in the fiercest area of fighting.

If the battle of the Panzer Division of the "Reich Marshal" was caused by its sluggishness, no one in the Luftwaffe could withstand the wrath of Field Marshal Goering and the "Brother-in-law".

In summer, the morning dawns early.

In order to ensure that the Panzer Division of the "Imperial Marshal" could fly over the battlefield "as soon as dawn" after dawn, at 3:20 a.m., Major Novotny and his men had breakfast and ran to their respective fighters.

After arriving on the Eastern Front, the EK-262 brigade was reinforced twice, with a total of twelve squadrons.

Of the twelve squadrons, the first seven squadrons are equipped with ME-262A-1a fighters, the three squadrons are equipped with ME-109G fighters, and the last two squadrons are equipped with ME-262A-2a "Storm Bird" ground attack aircraft.

The first to take off from the runway were the 8th and 9th squadrons, two squadrons of twenty-four ME-109G fighters rushed off the runway and flew to the east to carry out the mission.

Fifteen minutes later, the 1st and 2nd squadrons, also numbering twenty-four ME-262A-1a "Swallow" jet fighters stationed at another airfield, burst out of the concrete-ground runway tailor-made for them, converged in the sky into two groups, and flew mightily to the east.

Major Novotny personally piloted a fighter jet and accompanied the 1st Squadron by wingman.

When the group arrived over the battlefield, it was already close to four o'clock in the morning, which can be said to be the first time after dawn that appeared on the white belly of the fish in the east, which met the requirements of the armored division of the "Imperial Marshal".

The fighters of the four squadrons were scattered into twin formations, cruising at different altitudes.

The mixed piston fighters in the jet fighter group were purely forced out of the performance of the ME-262 jet fighters and the main combat mode of the Russian Air Force on the Eastern Front.

Most of the time, the Russian Air Force's Il-2 strike machine enters the battlefield at an altitude of about 2,000 meters above the ground and then strikes at an altitude close to the treetops.

The same is true of the fighters escorting them, and the air combat mode on the Eastern Front is destined to be dominated by "dog fighting" at medium and low altitudes.

The ME-262A-1a fighter is extremely fast, reaching speeds of more than 800 kilometers per hour.

The firepower of the four guns can also be said to be far superior to that of ordinary fighters, but its biggest disadvantage is that it has poor circling ability, and if it ventures into a low-altitude "dog fight" with Soviet fighters, it will die in a nest and lose its greatest advantage of being extremely fast.

In addition to the Il-2 attack aircraft, another bomber with a high appearance rate in the Russian Air Force is the PE-2 dive bomber, which likes to scrape the ground, and the PE-2 dive bomber likes to enter the battlefield from an altitude of more than 4,000 meters.

After all, as a dive bomber, if it is close to the ground, the PE-2 is likely to plunge headlong into the ground during dive bombing.

In view of the different altitudes of the Il-2 and PE-2, the ME-262A-1a and ME-109G fighters performed their respective duties.

The ME-109G conducts combat patrols mainly at altitudes below 4000 meters, targeting the Il-2 attack aircraft of the Russians.

The altitude above 4,000 meters is the responsibility of the ME-262A-1a fighters, and everyone performs their own duties to provide multi-level and three-dimensional protection for the "Imperial Marshal" armored division.

If there is a need in battle, both groups can call each other for support at any time.

After the group dispersed, Major Novotny and wingman Ensign Schnoel flew the planes and conducted combat patrols at an altitude of 5500 meters, looking for everything that could be found.

Radio waves were sent from the command of the Fourth Air Force to communicate with Major Novotny and confirm the safety of the skies over the battlefield.

After receiving an affirmative answer, a huge formation of transport planes flew over the battlefield just as the morning sun was just peeking out of the eastern horizon.

The transport aircraft formation consisted of 40 JU-90 strategic transport aircraft, surrounded by 12 escort ME-109 fighters.

The large fleet soon attracted the attention of Major Novotny, who had already known about the arrival of the fleet in advance, but still couldn't help but want to take a look.

The huge formation of the group flew through the sky, and figures emerged from the cabin, and they bravely jumped off the plane, dragging white parachutes and floating in the sky.

In a matter of minutes, the blue sky was filled with white parachutes.

Under the call of Major General Schumacher, commander of the "Reich Marshal" Panzer Division, the German paratroopers descended on the vast land on the south bank of the Kalitva River as the first reinforcements, under the guidance of the ground navigation troops that accompanied the "Reich Marshal" Panzer Division.

The paratroopers safely landed in the area already controlled by the "Imperial Marshal" Panzer Division, retracted their parachutes, and then each looked for their own units, and under the guidance of the "Imperial Marshal" Panzer Division, they advanced north in the direction of the Kalitva River, and then stationed in the town of Olikhovatka, where the headquarters of the "Imperial Marshal" Panzer Division was located, so that the reconnaissance battalion stationed in the town regained freedom of movement.

Major Novotny had no intention of observing the movements of his comrades on the ground, and his targets all shifted to the lower right sky of the plane.

"That guy has only one person, it should be a Russian reconnaissance plane, let's go down and catch him." Major Novotny shouted to Ensign Schnoor.

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