Tyulenev's concern lies in the air force; since the German troops entered the Middle East in early January, the reconnaissance activities of German planes have begun to increase substantially, some from the direction of Turkey, some from the direction of Persia, and the scope of reconnaissance is very extensive, including Baku and the main defense areas of Transcaucasia are within the reconnaissance range of the Germans, and he has to look at a large number of intelligence summaries on German reconnaissance every day to guess the target of the German army's next move.

On more than one occasion, he asked the Air Force to send more forces to shoot down the German reconnaissance planes concerned, but the fatal thing was that the Air Force had no way to deal with the German reconnaissance planes. The Caucasian Front had almost no radars, all air defense required visual alert, and when opening up to the General Staff, it was proposed that Moscow should be asked to support some radars, but Tyulenev refused after careful consideration - not that he did not know the benefits of radar, nor that he did not want new things, but that he knew very well how valuable these things were to the current Red Army, and it was likely that he would not be able to open his mouth. Finally, with the exception of a few radar stations in the direction of the Baku oil field, which are better than nothing, air defense in the rest of the directions needs to be guided by the ground after visual inspection.

The best fighters used by the Caucasian Front for interception were the Yak-1 or MiG-3, with only a few La-5s, which had great difficulty in forming a reconnaissance combination with the German Bf-219 and FW-190. The German army is usually modified by the Bf-219 after reconnaissance by senior pilots to carry out the mission, they swagger at low altitude to take pictures and reconnaissance, it is not difficult to find, the problem lies in the volley - whether the Yak-1, MiG-3 or La-3 are not the opponent of the Bf-219 when they are one-on-one at low altitude, if two to one, or even many to one, the Bf-219 slipped away quickly, only the La-5 barely kept up, once the other aircraft were thrown away only the La-5, Either the Bf-219 turned around and ate the La-5, or the FW-190, hovering overhead, took advantage of the situation to pounce and eliminate the La-5. In the reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance operations that you have been going back and forth for more than half a month, Germany not only completed the reconnaissance mission as scheduled, but also shot down 14 Soviet planes with ease, and its own losses were only 3.

Tyulenev did not blame the air force too much, he knew that they did their best, but he asked for a detailed record of the German reconnaissance situation and reported it daily, according to what he had learned, in modern warfare, the area with relatively high frequency and density of enemy aircraft reconnaissance is generally the direction in which the enemy is about to launch the main attack, he paid close attention to the movements of the German planes, but after looking at them for a long time, he still felt that he did not understand the essentials -- the German planes were also here and there, and they seemed to be very interested in everywhere, and he could not see what the area of focus was at once. For this reason, he can only ask the following to be more vigilant.

One thing that is even more strange is that although German planes often come to reconnoitre, they did not bomb the Transcaucasian region and the Baku oil fields, and he can understand that they do not bomb the oil fields -- the Germans still want to keep them for their own use, but he really can't figure out whether they should bomb other places. Now the number of bombers is insufficient, and it is difficult to achieve results in the face of German volleys, and there is no way to get a bargain except for vain losses. On the other hand, if the oil field complex had been destroyed so easily, the Proshtina oil field in Romania would have been flattened by the Red Army many times. As a result, in Transcaucasia, there was a very peculiar situation in which the Soviet-German air force "had nothing to do", and the German bombers were only dedicated to bombing the British and Indians in Persia.

But the new German aircraft were always the biggest threat to the head of the Caucasian Front, and as far as Tyulenev knew, the situation encountered by the Caucasian Front was far from an isolated one, and the Red Army pilots encountered more and more Bf-219s on various battlefields, which were slightly slower than the Bf-109 commonly used by the Germans, but very good maneuverability and maneuverability at low altitudes, and no Soviet aircraft (whether Yak-1, MiG-3 or La-3) were their opponents, and the British Hurricane performance was even worse, The newly entered service La-5 is also slightly inferior. The Bf-219 had to be a little more careful with the P-39 - because the U.S.-aided aircraft were not only sturdy but also operated by veterans of the Soviet Air Force, but unfortunately the P-39 was too poorly equipped, and with the FW-190A partner, he was sure that he had a good grasp of various other Red Army aircraft. This aircraft was so sought-after that most of the Bf-109 pilots of the Eastern Front were willing to wait in line for the replacement of this new aircraft.

The Russians, of course, also discovered that the Bf-219 did not have this advantage once it entered the medium and high altitudes, and the problem was that except for a few novices with hot heads, the others simply refused to keep up with it - there was still the FW-190 waiting on it, which made it difficult for the Red Army pilots to deal with. What made the Red Army even more hated was that this kind of aircraft could reach 1,500 kilometers without auxiliary fuel tanks, which was almost twice that of the Bf-109, and was much surpassing the Red Army's short-legged aircraft, so the Red Army's bombers or attack planes, whether Pe-2, SB-2 or Il-2, could not escape being shot down as long as they were bitten by the Bf-219.

So Bf-219 and the Tiger tank, has become the Russians are currently the most unwilling to face the target, although the Bf-219 out of exchange than the Tiger so terrifying, but the aircraft is easier than the tank, the Tiger began production in October, to January the monthly output is only more than 170 units, Bf-219 formal mass production is already in early December, just over a month, the output of 400 at once, is expected to break through 800 by March, if it is not for the demand of HNA to give priority to guarantee, There will be more Bf-219s on the Eastern Front.

The challenges posed by the BF-219 are a profound reflection of the crisis faced by the Red Army's air power in recent months, which is the result of a combination of factors:

One is that the aid from Britain and the United States has not arrived. Since November, the Soviet Union's cumulative demand for more than 50,000 tons of aluminum ingots has not been obtained, and the reality of the lack of metal materials has directly restricted the production of aircraft, forcing the Russians to make planes out of wood, which is certainly not enough to build good aircraft. It's just that they never expected that the Americans actually sent out all the aluminum ingots, but unfortunately these materials either sank in the Indian Ocean, or became the trophies of the Germans in the docks and warehouses in Egypt, and the total number of aluminum ingots of nearly 30,000 tons is currently being intensively transported to Germany, and in a few months it will be turned into planes to meet the Russians again.

Second, Germany has invested in new models. The new aircraft, represented by the Bf-219, thoroughly exerted the advantages of long range, outstanding low-altitude performance, and high level of dogfight on the Eastern Front, and caused the Red Army to suffer unspeakably. In addition, the new aircraft also includes the He-218, which is more of a headache than the Bf-219, in the past, Stuka was slow to drop bombs and then fly back slowly, there was enough time for the Red Army fighters to hit targets, the Germans could only rely on a solid body to carry it, now the new dive bomber almost "brushed" the bomb to drop, and then "swished" away, the slower interceptor pilot could not even see what the opposite side looked like, So much so that the version that first circulated within the Red Army was that the Germans had developed a new type of fighter - a fighter with dive bombing capabilities. The He-218 was enthusiastically sought after by Stuka pilots - the bomber was of course as strong as the Stuka, but it would be better if there was a bomber that the enemy couldn't touch, and some people called it the real "lightning bomber", and the former blitzkrieg Stuka was so squeezed that he could only serve as a ground attack aircraft.

Unbeknownst to the Russians, the first modification of the He-218, the He-50C with MW-218 (Methanol and Water Mixed Injection), which could provide an additional 200 hp to the engine in an emergency, had appeared. At this time, the He-218 can fly at a high speed of 632 km/h (the carrier-based aircraft is slightly heavier, and the speed can only reach 619 km/h), which is faster than the Bf-219, but the duration is only 15 minutes, and the engine is damaged after repeated use.

At the same time, due to Hoffman's vigorous guidance and the successful use of the Bf-219 and FW-190A high and low matching, coupled with the fact that Daimler-Benz technicians finally got the hang of it, no longer trying to make an engine fully take into account the performance of high, medium and low airspace, so the DB605D (DB605 is an upgraded version of the DB601 series) engine was installed with a one-stage two-speed supercharger soon matured and put into mass production (mainly taking care of the performance at low and medium altitudes), the engine horsepower reached 1700 horsepower, Slightly larger in diameter than the DB601E series currently in use and weighing almost 200 kilograms, Heinkel technicians are working on a new engine to restructure the body and adjust the distribution of the center of gravity. According to their optimistic estimates, after the successful installation of such an engine, the He-218 will be able to fly to more than 615 km / h even without "taking drugs", and the take-off and landing performance at low speeds will become better.

Another commendable progress is that due to Hoffmann and Speer's collection of a large number of rare metals, German researchers no longer worry about material shortages, and with reference to the design details of the British Merlin engine and the Japanese side's technical exploration of superalloys, they have made rapid progress in related fields. After taking control of the Middle East oil fields, according to Hoffmann's approval, German aviation no longer used coal-to-oil fuel - they could finally use No. 96 C3 fuel with financial confidence, and companies such as Farben began to vigorously study the fuel standards and additives above No. 110, so that these experts would not be bothered to take care of the low-grade fuel of No. 87, so the matter of installing a two-stage three-speed turbocharger (with a focus on high-altitude performance) in the DB603AA series engines finally came to an eyebrow. The figure obtained in the lab is 1,850 hp, but it will take a little time before it is practical. (To be continued.) )