"Does anyone see what we're going to meet?" Northwest of Verdun, a mixed wing of four squadrons of Ha-1J and half of the 3rd Fighter Wing's Me-5F-1 looked out at the sky at an altitude of 3,000 meters, but did not appear as friendly forces as they did.

"There's nothing in the sky, did those guys mistake the confluence coordinates?"

"You can't make such a low-level mistake, right? Maybe it's a yaw, right? ”

"I heard that I flew directly from Frankfurt, so I should be late for such a long distance, right?"

"Either they left us and flew away first."

"Then do we want to continue our mission?"

There was a lively discussion on the radio station in the formation, and everyone expressed their opinions on the failure of friendly forces to appear.

"I don't want to go around in circles with something that heavy." Major Wrighthaupt, the operational commander of this improvised mixed wing, was also muttering there. The Ha-1J, which he was piloting, was now in a state of extreme loading, and it was very bulky to fly and very slow to operate, which made him very uncomfortable.

Ha-1J is the number of the CL-1 after the official batch equipment, when performing ground attack missions, it is generally mounted as 3 25 kg bombs or 1 50 kg bomb, and the aircraft can still have this good maneuverability and maneuverability under the condition of a certain load margin, but today, all CL-1J in the entire wing are hung with 1 50 kg bomb and 2 25 kg bombs, which makes Wrighthaupt feel that he is now a target who can only fly slowly.

And because they were worried that the large group of planes would be intercepted by the French if they assembled over Verdun, the Germans chose to meet around the Verdun area, which increased the flight distance, greatly consumed fuel, and waited too long in circles. Wrighthaupt was also worried about the lack of fuel.

Just as Wrighthaupt was about to ask if the friendly forces that had come to join the Eagle's Nest had run away, an unfamiliar voice appeared on the radio channel: "Call Trebuchet 1, this is Climber 1, call Trebuchet 1, this is Climber 1, we have seen your formation." Request a convergence. Repeat, we have seen your formations, asking for convergence. ”

Trebuchet 1 was Wrighthaupt's call sign, and he immediately looked around, but did not find any friendly troops in his field of vision, so he shouted: "This is Trebuchet 1, Climber 1, where are you?" ”

"This is Ascender 1, and we're above you."

"Above?" Wrighthaupt looked up in confusion. Then I saw a formation at an altitude of about 5,000 meters above my head and behind me slowly approaching: "These guys can fly so high?!" ”

Although the V-type airship has a maximum ceiling of 6,000 meters, it generally flies at an altitude of 3,000 meters under the load situation, and it is very difficult for its Ha-1J to continue to climb up with 100 kg of bombs. The Me-5F-1 escorted on the side could fly up further, but it was definitely not those small fighters that appeared in his field of vision.

"Eagle 1, let your people go up and have a look." Although he knew that it was friendly forces, Wrighthaupt decided to ask the escort fighters to go up and make sure. Soon, a two-plane formation broke away from the formation. Start climbing.

"Oh my God, this is a plane?! I thought it was other than an airship. Nothing that can fly is too big! ”

"This thing has 4 engines?! So how many bombs can it carry? ”

The exclamations of the two pilots rang out over the radio.

No wonder they were surprised, what appeared in front of them was a behemoth with a wingspan of 45 meters, although the size was far inferior to that of an airship, but the huge formation of more than 100 planes still brought an amazing visual impact.

It was His Majesty the Emperor who ordered the support of the 6th Army, and the KG1 and KG2 bomber wings directly under the General Staff of the Army, which were directly under the General Staff of the Army, were equipped with the latest ZS-3B heavy bombers.

This bomber, produced by Zeppelin-Stark, was also produced by Ferdinand? Feng? Hand of Count Zeppelin. Since since the V-type airship. At the same time, the German navy and army stopped the purchase of airships, while the purchase of aircraft continued to rise. Realizing that airships could no longer expand the number of equipment in the army, Zeppelin, as the most experienced designer of giant aircraft in Germany, decided to make a difference in the field of aircraft.

After establishing a separate Zeppelin-Stark aircraft manufacturing company from the airship factory, and seeking technical support from the Bavarian aircraft factory that designed the Bf-1 bomber, Zeppelin began working on the design of large military aircraft.

The Bf-1 is a hardly satisfactory aircraft for the Army. Even after the replacement of the 270-horsepower engine and the improvement of the Bf-1B-2, it was still not outstanding, and at that time the Navy and the Army had their own twin-engine torpedo / attack aircraft research programs, this kind of aircraft was even more cold-received, and the Army General Staff even said that if there were no better bombers to use, the KG wing simply switched to FFA and went to use twin-engine attack aircraft.

Having learned the lessons of the Bavarian aircraft factory, Zeppelin decided to build another masterpiece like his own airship, the V-shaped airship, and Zeppelin installed four engines for his new aircraft! After Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin once again created a Sky Behemoth.

For the study of the 4-engine heavy bomber, it has also been valued by His Majesty the Emperor, so the heavy bomber with the R-3 test code was also modified many times in the design according to the emperor's suggestion, and the previous 4 engines 2-2 series and 2 engine compartments drove 4 propellers to pull forward and push back were changed to a simpler 4 engine compartments to drive 4 propellers towed drive mode, which greatly reduced the probability of transmission failure. Since Count Zeppelin has a lot of experience using aluminum alloy frames on airships, the oval fuselage frame of the ZS-3B also uses aluminum alloy.

The four 270 hp engines give the ZS-3B surging power, and the huge wingspan also gives the aircraft great lift, the only flaw may be that the biplane design has quite a lot of support columns between the upper and lower wings, which further increases the drag and reduces the flight speed.

However, the ZS-3B did exactly what Zeppelin had originally set out, a large aircraft comparable to a V-shaped airship. THE MAXIMUM BOMB LOAD IS 2 TONS, THE MAXIMUM FLIGHT SPEED IS 140KM/H, AND THE MAXIMUM CEILING IS 6,000 METERS.

However, due to the use of aluminum alloy frames and such a huge size, the cost of the ZS-3B is very staggering, and the cost of the two wings in front of Wrighthaupt, a total of 128 aircraft, is close to the cost of a single ship of the Navy's latest large cruiser.

Such a high price makes the guys in the Army General Staff all regard the two KG wings equipped with ZS-3B as treasures, and they are reluctant to send out all the wings for training in peacetime, and they are all pulled out by one squadron and one squadron.

The exclamation of the fighter pilot also aroused the curiosity of the pilots below, and the headset was very orderly, and you and I asked the two people who had just flown up what they saw.

Reithaupt looked at the plane flying above him and felt a little Alexander: "This is trebuchet 1, call Climber 1, don't you go down altitude?" Just stay at that altitude and bomb? ”

"This is Ascender 1, and the mission briefing says that there are large-caliber anti-aircraft guns at the target location, and if we fly too low, we will be targeted, and we don't need to make accurate bomb drops."

"Oh, okay." Wrighthaupt thought for a moment, then gave an order: "This is trebuchet No. 1, call all FFA4, wait for the next bombing mission, leave your 25 kg bombs first, and if you find any French anti-aircraft guns, drop your bombs over their heads!" ”

"Understood!" The boys replied in unison.

"Thank you very much! Trebuchet No. 1" listened to the thanks in the headphones, and Wrighthaupt teased: "This is also something that cannot be helped, you are directly subordinate to the General Staff, and listening to the description, I feel that your plane will not be cheap, and when the time comes, it will be lost, and it will not be good if the General Staff is too distressed to hold me accountable." ”

"Haha, if there's a chance to meet you on the ground, I'll treat you to a drink."

"I remember, you owe me a drink, and we may meet in Berlin."

"I would also like to see each other in Berlin."

As a front-line pilot, returning to the rear and going to Berlin, there is only one possibility, to go back and receive a medal, and the rank of the medal is not too low. Such a statement immediately made the pilots of FFA4 coax.

"The major is so cunning! I want to get a medal and I want someone to treat me! ”

"That's it! We're not going to Berlin either, Major, and remember to treat all of us to a drink before you go to Berlin! ”

Hearing the noise in the headphones, Wrighthaupt shook his head with a smile: "Don't wait for me to go to Berlin, if you are capable and beautiful today, I will treat you when you go back!" Eagle No. 1, the people of your squadron are also called. ”

"In this way, in addition to escorting you, we also have to do a little more to contribute." The leader of the escort fighter from KEK3, who was called by Wrighthaupt, also smiled and agreed.

Soon the formation had already flown to the target of their trip, and two groups of 208 planes, like a dark cloud, loomed over Baledique, the distribution center of the French men and materials behind Verdun. (To be continued.) )