Colonel Yeginny looked down at the ground, and saw that in the originally brightly lit city of Berlin, the lights were extinguished one by one, and almost in the blink of an eye, the ground became pitch black, as if the original scene of thousands of lights had never appeared.

In place of the lights of thousands of homes were the columns of searchlight that rose into the sky, which swept across the night sky and quickly locked on to the position of the Yekinny group, and tracer bullets dragged a bright trail and went straight to the Soviet group.

The roar of anti-aircraft artillery fire and the shrill roar of anti-aircraft sirens hung over the city of Berlin and also penetrated the ears of Colonel Yeginny, who laughed and shouted: "Let the Germans taste the horrors of war, drop bombs, drop bombs, preferably kill Hitler, and the war will end." ”

The hatch in the belly of the PE-8 bomber was wide open, and black bombs rained down on the ground, and the other crews were not far behind and threw their bombs at Berlin.

Twelve planes dropped a total of nine tons of bombs, and countless dazzling fires erupted on the ground.

Throwing away the bomb and completing the mission, Captain Yekinny let out a long breath of evil, and after rejoicing, he frowned and began to think about the danger that the group was in now.

On the ground, there are countless thick pillars of light pointing straight to the sky, following the movements of their own group, and the chain of tracer bullets flies towards the group as if they have long eyes.

Whether it is front and back, left and right, or above and below the aircraft group, there are flames of anti-aircraft shell explosions everywhere, and the fuselage of the fighter planes is shaking with air waves, as if they are about to fall apart at any time.

"U-turn, U-turn, turn around, we're going to go back the way we came." Yekinny shouted to Alafutsov.

The two worked together to maneuver the plane, and the fuselage of the PE-8 strategic bomber, which was nearly forty meters wide, turned its nose and turned to the northeast.

The moment the plane turned around, Yekinny and Alafuzov's eyes pointed to the right front of the nose, and a PE-8 strategic bomber was wrapped in raging flames and quickly slid to the ground. In the escape door of the engine room, four figures jumped out one after another.

As the four figures disappeared from his field of vision, Colonel Yekinny saw a white parachute floating in the sky.

"Unlucky fellow, he must have been destroyed by the explosion of German anti-aircraft shells at close range, and only four of the eleven escaped, not even half. It's so unfortunate. Colonel Yeginny said.

"Those four people made the jump, should we congratulate them?" Alafutsov said.

Colonel Yekinny was silent, and the four comrades-in-arms parachuted into the vicinity of Berlin, or fell directly into the city of Berlin, and the possibility of escape was basically zero.

The Germans were bombed in their capital, and in a fit of rage they were captured, and it was not known what kind of means would be used to deal with them.

"Don't think about it so much, we should be thinking about how we can get back to Auxer airport safely." Colonel Yekinny said.

His voice was drowned out by an unprecedented explosion, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see a huge fireball explode from the right side of the plane. Almost clinging to the plane.

Yekinny felt his body jolt violently with the fuselage, and he was about to crush the speeding car to a stone.

The turbulence quickly disappeared, the plane returned to its steady, Colonel Yekiny carefully felt the flight of the plane, there was no engine strike, no part of the fuselage was hit by shrapnel, at least no other crew members in the cabin sent reports of damage.

"It's a miracle that the bomb was so close to us. Didn't even kill us. Major Alafuzov said excitedly.

"For that cannonball, we should have celebrated with a bottle of vodka when we landed." Colonel Yekinny said.

Major Alafutsov's answer was slow to appear. Yekinny looked at him suspiciously, only to realize that he was staring at the dashboard.

Following Alafutsov's line of sight, Colonel Yekiny saw that the needle of the fuel gauge was turning rapidly to the left, and the speed of the rotation was significantly faster than the normal rate of consumption.

"It could be that the fuel tank under the right wing was hit and our fuel is leaking." Alafutsov said.

Colonel Yekinny looked at the rapidly turning fuel gauge, and the wrinkles in his head were almost twisted into a pimple.

Wait for the pointer to stop. Yekinny and Alafutsov exchanged a look, and both saw the nervousness and anxiety in each other's eyes.

"The fuel left is only enough for us to fly for less than three hours, which will not allow us to return the same way, and we have to change the route home." Alafutsov said.

"We can no longer take the sea route, the shortest straight line between two points. We flew directly to the east. Colonel Yeginny said.

After explaining the situation with the rest of the crew, Colonel Yekinny soon received a series of blessings.

"Good luck, Comrade Colonel."

"Have a safe journey, Comrade Colonel."

"We'll see you back home, Comrade Colonel."

The remaining eleven bombers parted ways in the air, ten planes formed a group and flew through the Baltic Sea to the Oser airfield, and the plane piloted by Colonel Yekinny flew alone due east.

After an hour of flight, Alafutsov shuddered and said: "Are we in the wrong place?" Why is it so cold? ”

Colonel Yekinny kept rubbing his numb hands, and then pointed to the white window grilles on the cabin glass and said: "I think the clouds we just broke into are low-pressure clouds, do you see these ice crystals?" We're in big trouble and it's best to be able to fly out of this cloud before the ice envelops us. ”

The temperature in the cabin was getting colder and colder, the two of them were freezing their teeth, and the ice crystal windows on the cabin glass were getting thicker and thicker.

What frightened the two the most was that the altimeter pointer on the aircraft's dashboard was also slowly sliding, indicating that the plane's altitude was slowly decreasing.

2500 meters, 2400 meters until the altitude of the aircraft is reduced to 2000 meters, and the altimeter returns to level.

"I think our plane must have turned into a big ice cube by now, and we will be the first crew to fly on the ice." Alafutsov said tremblingly.

"How long are we from entering our borders?" Colonel Yekinny asked the navigator with his arms folded and trembling.

"Soon, there is still a distance of about 80 km, and we will be able to enter the territory of the USSR, but I don't know, where the battle line on the ground advances? So, we have to fly as far east as we can, as far as possible. The navigator said.

"I know. We must not fall into the hands of the Germans. Yekini said.

However, it backfired, and ten minutes later, Alafutsov's terrified roar rang out.

"Damn, the engine on the right wing is stalled."

"Calm down, the right wing is just an engine stall, we still have two engines to use. Enough for us to fly home. Colonel Yeginny said.

"I'm going to bite this damn diesel engine with my teeth! The engine is a guarantee of getting the job done, but it's disgusting that using such a damn diesel engine will only cost us. ”

Yekiny's complaint to Alafutsov was a headache, but he was powerless to refute it, because he heard Alafutsov let out a scream.

"The other engine on the right wing also stalled, and we were in big trouble."

"Don't panic, let the plane dive and see if we can get the engine running again?" Yekinny shouted.

"Are you sure you want to do this? We are only 2000 meters above the ground. Alafutsov asked.

"I'm sure we've got to be calm, damn it, why is this happening. This son of a bitch's engine. Colonel Yekinny suddenly cursed hysterically.

"How did you get a production license for a shit-like engine? The fuel had not yet run out, and the engines had stopped. Alafuzov also scolded.

At the critical moment, the only remaining diesel engine under the left wing also stopped turning, and the PE-8 bomber completely lost power, and its huge fuselage was like a bat, silently streaking across the night sky and swooping down on the endless earth.

"Steady, steady. See the forest ahead? We made a crash landing there. Colonel Yeginny said.

"Slow down, slow down. Angle a little smaller, my dear darling" Alafutsov said something as he maneuvered the plane.

The hands of the altimeter turned rapidly, and the altitude of the plane dropped sharply, and it was already less than three hundred meters above the ground.

"Steady, steady. Ready for impact," Colonel Yekinny shouted hoarsely.

In the midst of the huge shock, Colonel Yekinny's body rose and fell with the beating of the fuselage, and if it weren't for the seat belt binding his body, he felt that he would rise into the air at any moment.

The huge weight and rapid speed of the PE-8 bomber brought powerful inertia and destructive power under the fuselage. Countless branches and trunks were broken, and the fuselage crashed into a new path in the woods.

When the fuselage was stable and no longer shaking, Yekinny let out a sigh of relief, unbuckled his seat belt, and shouted and walked towards the hatch: "Everyone evacuate immediately, everyone evacuate immediately." ”

Five or six minutes later, Colonel Yekinny counted his comrades in front of him, eleven people, no less than one, all of them were safely evacuated, and only two were slightly injured in the shock of the forced landing.

About two hours later, on the side of a road on the south side of the forest, Colonel Yekinny and his men stopped a column of trucks heading west.

The commander of the truck column, a lieutenant colonel, after listening to Yekinny's account of their heroic deeds, generously rowed out a Gaz truck to return them to the rear, to the city of Minsk.

Soon after arriving in Minsk, Colonel Yeginny and his subordinates received the exciting news that they would be flown to Moscow, where General Secretary Comrade Stalin was going to receive them.

In the midst of excitement and unease, Colonel Yekinny and his men waited for dawn and were taken to the airport

In the heart of Berlin, in the Chancellery at No. 4 Vossstraße, as soon as the sky lit up, Goering rushed into the hall in military uniform.

Less than two minutes later, Hitler walked into the living room in his pajamas, slippers, sleepy-eyed, sat down on the couch, yawned and asked, "How is it?" How much damage did this air strike cause? ”

"The losses were minor, most of the Russians dropped bombs on the outskirts of the northeast, seventeen people were wounded, no one died."

Hitler rubbed his eyes and said: "I can understand Stalin's approach, he wants to tell us that the Soviet Air Force still exists, and can still attack our large rear, and that the symbolism of this operation is greater than the military significance." ”

"We caught four Soviet pilots who had parachuted off from a small island called Osser, near Tallinn Bay."

"Then let Army Group North speed up its offensive and occupy this small island as soon as possible, we can't be frightened in vain, we must retaliate."

"I have already planned, I will send a bomber formation to attack the Oser airfield, destroy the Russian planes on the ground, and then arrange a retaliatory air attack on Moscow." Goering said.

"Yes, we also want to make the nightmares in Moscow as well."

Goering rolled his eyes, restrained the smile on his face, and sighed: "Unfortunately, due to insufficient production capacity, the Air Force's strategic bomber unit currently has less than fifty aircraft that can be used, and it is necessary to count the training aircraft used to train pilots. Even an air attack on Moscow would only give them some fright, as the Russians did today, and would not play a decisive role in the military front. ”

"It is necessary for us to produce more strategic bombers, which will be used not only for the bombing of Moscow, but also for the bombing of the Ural industrial region." Hitler said.

Goering took advantage of the situation and complained to Hitler.

"Most of the production capacity is going to be used to produce fighters and dive bombers, as well as medium bombers, not only the Air Force, but also the Naval Aviation, the Waffen-SS, alas, everywhere competing with the Air Force for production capacity. After tonight's lesson, we still have to speed up the development and production of night fighters, and we also have to speed up the research of night fighter airborne radars, and we really can't allocate more production capacity to strategic bombers."

"What exactly do you want to say?" Hitler asked.

"I mean, with our current production capacity, we can no longer meet the needs of the war, not only in the Air Force, but also in the Army and Navy. In the army, due to production capacity problems, the production of powerful E-40 tanks has been delayed, and there are only three heavily armored battalions that can be used, and the army is very dissatisfied with this. On the Navy's side, the production of the new Sickert-class aircraft carriers and Hindenburg-class battleships was also dragged down because of the lack of steel. So, I mean, we have to have a general mobilization, and only a general mobilization can meet our military production needs as quickly as possible. ”

"Mobilize, you come with me."

Hitler took Goering into his office, and he picked up a table on his desk and studied it carefully, Goering standing beside him, his head sticking out, staring at a series of numbers on the table.

"Heinz reminded me of the need for a general mobilization after the war with the Soviet Union, but not only against the Soviet Union, but also for the unpredictable situation of the future. This table is my report on the investigation of the war potential of the United States. The report shows that the whole of the United States has entered a state of war and has carried out a general mobilization. It is estimated that the Americans can produce more than 20,000 tanks and more than 50,000 aircraft a year, which is not their maximum production, and these numbers will increase as the war drags on. ”

"Whether the Americans will be our enemies or friends is impossible to predict, and we must prepare in advance. We produced less than 4,000 tanks and less than 20,000 planes last year, and I believe that we will have to carry out a general mobilization to ensure an effective defeat of the Soviet Union and to deal with the pressure from the United States. ”

"You're right, we can't afford to waste any more time. We are fighting a war to unite Europe, and there can be no carelessness. You go and prepare, I'm going to hold a meeting at the Capitol tomorrow and give a general mobilization order. (To be continued......)