"Red No. 2, Red No. 2, here is the captain of the red team, keep the formation in formation."

Rick. Captain Demo clutched the intercom in his throat, his eyes staring coldly at the wingman to his left. Perhaps the pilot felt the cold eyes of the captain or heard the dissatisfaction in the captain's words, and the wingman immediately reduced his speed and slowly retreated to his position in the formation.

"Where did this guy come from, Stewin." Captain Demo released the throat intercom and turned it into a conversation with Hank, a communications and machine gunner sitting behind him. Sergeant Steven asked loudly.

"Oh? Do you mean the red number 2? I don't know, but I heard that it was a hamburger. Stewyn was looking down at the communication frequency meter, and when he heard Demo's question, he quickly raised his head and replied loudly.

"Hamburg? I thought this guy was from Bavaria, and he was as disobedient as a wild boar. The regimental commander must still be holding a grudge against me for stealing his wine last time, so he transferred such an unruly rookie to my squadron. This guy has been playing tricks since he took off, and I'm going to make sure he is grounded after this fight. It's nice to be energetic, but I don't need such an idiot who is so active that he defies discipline in battle. ”

Demo hated the discipline of the newly transferred subordinate, and if he hadn't been on a mission, he would have wanted the guy who had repeatedly violated the discipline of the formation to get back to the base, and then wash his ass and wait for him to kick it hard.

"Haha, Rick, don't be angry about this little thing, after all, that kid just graduated from aviation school. It's normal to have some impulses, young people. You remember that when you first came to the regiment, you were not on a rampage like him. At that time, the head of the regiment was not half angry with you. At that time, you were like a runaway locomotive, running everywhere it was chaos. Stewyn said with a smile.

"Those were two things, I was too young and inexperienced, and I was still ......," Demo quickly distinguished.

"It's not the same with this kid, he's two years younger than you came in. Maybe he'll be the second one you might know, but we have time to teach him and he'll mature in battle, just like you. Stewyn interrupted Demo's plea, and he spoke unhurriedly.

"Maybe, maybe I should really give this kid a little time. This is his first combat mission, and I'll pay attention to how he performs in battle, and if he really has the fighting qualities, I'll consider giving him a chance to grow. But now...... This little bastard. Demo quickly pressed the throat intercom and shouted: "Red No. 2, Red No. 2, you have flown out of the formation, quickly lean back for me." Sergeant Ralph, this is the last time I tell you. If you break formation discipline again, I swear I'll shove your cāo pole in your asshole and hang you on my bomb rack and throw you into your backyard from a height of five thousand meters, I say I'll do it. Do you understand? ”

"Understood, sir......," Ralph replied loudly, though to Demo's ears he seemed a little unhappy. Red 2 swung its wings twice, then staggered back into formation, the soft laughter of the other pilots in the headset.

"You too, keep the communication open." Demo shouted angrily.

"Asshole? I said, Captain, how dare you say that. Stewyn sat back and shook his head.

"What's this, remember the last time we ......"

"Wait a minute......" Stevens interrupted Demo, his hand tightly covering his headphones.

"Got something." Demo glanced at the meter, then looked up at his partner in the rearview mirror and asked suspiciously.

"Emergency call, it's the base command station. I got your communicator. Stewyn said solemnly, and then he turned on the communication switch, and a burst of eager calls entered Demo's headset.

"This is the Dragon's Lair, this is the Dragon's Lair, call the Red Dragon, please answer when you hear it. Call the Red Dragon. If you hear it, please answer. ”

"I'm the Red Dragon, I'm the Red Dragon, the voice is clear, the voice is clear." Demo replied loudly.

"Red Dragon, the goal has changed, the original mission has been canceled, you now have a new mission, please reply when you hear it. Repeat again, the goal changes, the original mission is canceled, and you will perform a new mission. ”

"Red Dragon understands that the original mission has been canceled and requests new instructions."

"Close air support, located in the village of Itna, you are going to clear the ground obstacles for the vanguard of General Guderian, who have met stubborn resistance from the French troops."

"Order received."

"Now you turn to 210, and the target area is 90 kilometers away from you. The opposing side has light anti-aircraft fire, and you will be guided by the ground guidance detachment, and that's it, good luck. ”

"The red dragon understands, turn to 210."

Demo tapped the communicator lightly, and Stewin hurriedly adjusted the communication frequency to the formation communication.

"Listen, all personnel, the scheduled mission has been canceled, and we are now going to carry out a close air support mission to clear the way forward for General Guderian. Now everyone is following me. Pay attention to maintaining formation. ”

Demo let go of the throat communicator and then gently pressed the cāo longitudinal rod, the plane tilted its wings and slowly began to turn, and the whole formation turned its head and slowly flew towards the target area under the leadership of the long plane.

The bulky Stuka was moving slowly at an altitude of five thousand meters, and the dark green paint looked a little blue in the sunlight. This powerful killing machine was perhaps the ugliest of all its ugly companions, with its huge, thick inverted seagull-shaped wings, equally massive fixed landing gear and wheel fairings, towering cockpit and tall vertical tail, and especially the massive engine radiator that looked like a bathtub on the outside, each of which was a nightmare for aerodynamicists, a monstrous piece that subverted almost all the rules of aircraft design. To be able to take such a monstrous plane into the sky, German aircraft designers did have extraordinary courage and perseverance.

This terrifying monster bird has a pitiful 880 horsepower Ju Mo 211DR engine, which is too small for this six-ton monster, and it constantly reminds the pilot of this with its stupid takeoffs, and hits the pilot's confidence.

For a professional dive bomber, flight speed and altitude are not particularly important performance, longitudinal stability during dive and the rigidity of the fuselage are the issues that must be concerned. The aircraft gave the designer a satisfactory answer to this question, and its surprisingly high stability during the dive was made possible by the two huge fixed landing gears and the huge dive brakes under the wings, the so-called "pneumatic brakes". But this also raises another problem, the Stuka's longitudinal stability is a little too good, so good that it becomes very difficult to make a sudden maneuver that is a little larger, and this type of maneuver is often the most common way to dodge an enemy fighter's attack.

The Stuka's sturdy fuselage allows it to withstand the unimaginable torsion of other aircraft, allowing it to change to a dive state immediately after a high-speed dive, in which the fuselage has to withstand at least six gs of pressure, and a normal fighter may have been shattered before it reaches half of the dive process.

These remarkable performances made this dive bomber the best ground support force in the early days of World War II, and its emergence fundamentally changed the German Army's combat model, and some of the old methods of warfare in the past were abandoned, and new close air support tactics were developed on the basis of the use of this aircraft. By the time the war began, the Luftwaffe, created in collaboration with the Army, had developed this tactic far ahead of their European counterparts. Especially in Britain, when the Germans first created this tactic, there were people in the British Army who put forward similar theories, but they obtained diametrically opposite results to the Germans, because of the opposition of those old-fashioned and stubborn British officers, and later even the troops would be ruthlessly reprimanded for this tactic, and the British paid a heavy price for their short-sightedness.

Stuka's superior dive performance allows it to accurately drop bombs on the target's head in combat with an error of less than 30 meters, which can be reduced in the hands of an experienced pilot, and some can even reduce the error to a range of five meters, at which no target can avoid the damage caused by a bomb explosion.

But this performance of the Stuka also caused some problems for the pilot's operation, and in stark contrast to the excellent dive performance it possessed, its maneuverability went to the other extreme. The Stuka is so maneuverable that the huge ailerons can get it out of high-speed dives, but the resulting sluggishness makes pilots sometimes go crazy about it.

When attacked by enemy fighters, the pilot's cāo was unable to get a timely reaction in these two ailerons, and each movement would be delayed for a second or two to get a response, and a second or two was enough time for those light fighters to drill dozens of holes in Stuka's body. The Stukka's longitudinal stability prevents it from maneuvering in a large amount in time, and even the sluggishest fighter is more nimble than it. Although the sturdy fuselage makes it more durable than a fighter, it only allows it to survive a little longer, and it is only a matter of time before it is shot down.

This, combined with its staggering speed, less than 200 kilometers per hour when fully bombed, makes it an ideal prey for enemy fighters, especially when it dives, and any bit of outside interference can cause it to lose control, at which point a light blow from the fighter is enough to turn it into a flaming mass of metal on the ground.

Its properties make it an unquestionably excellent weapon and an irrefutable excellent target on the battlefield, and this is the Stuka, a weapon full of contradictions.

The Luftwaffe pilots were already aware of the vulnerability of such aircraft to interception by enemy fighters, and a battle on 12 May reinforced their judgment. At that time, a Stuka formation was on its way back after an attack mission, and there were no fighters to escort them. They encountered a whole formation of French fighters, the French were flying old Kodishawk 75s, and the result of the battle surprised everyone, all twelve Stukas were shot down, and the French did not lose a single aircraft in this one-sided battle. This incident was a bell-wafer for all Stuka pilots, reminding them that their planes were in danger at any time without fighter escort. But to their dismay, the battle did not touch the air force command in any way, and they did not react as if it had never happened, and Stuka's pilots were still sent out alone on the mission, continuing to fly alone in enemy airspace without escort.

"We're here, do you see what's going on?"

Demo looked through the window at the burning French positions below. He led his stud group over the battlefield and began to circle. Now they are at an altitude of 4,500 meters, and the clouds here give them very good cover, through the gaps in the clouds, they can clearly observe the situation on the battlefield, but the enemy can hardly notice these black spots drilled in and out of the clouds.

"Attention all crews, ready to enter the battle." Captain Demo gave a serious order, and then he said to Stewin, who was sitting back, "Have you contacted the guidance detachment?" ”

"I'll get in touch, I'll pick it up for you." Stewwin replied loudly.

"This is the Red Dragon, and we have reached your skies. You can show us where to go. ”

"Red Dragon, this is a greyhound, it's a pleasure to see you. I'll show you where to go now. ”

The answer of the ground guidance detachment was clear and loud. Demo saw that a red column of smoke had risen on the ground, which was a smoke canister lit by the ground troops, and each beam of smoke represented a German unit there, and this simple way of identifying could effectively avoid the tragedy of bombing one's own people. A huge German flag was unfurled, and the troops on the ground also laid out a huge arrow with white powder in front of the flag, which indicated the enemy's position.

In fact, they didn't have to, Demo had clearly seen the enemy's position in the air, two ring-shaped howling trenches around a small village, and he could even distinguish a large number of trucks parked on the roads in the village, and figures running back and forth. Five German tanks burned between the two trenches, billowing black smoke billowing over the positions. In front of the trench, Demo saw the three burning armored vehicles, and between the wreckage he could vaguely see the corpses of German soldiers and various guns scattered around.

"Red Dragon, do you know where your target is now?"

"Clear, we're going on the offensive immediately." Under the direction of the ground guidance detachment, Demo and his men knew the exact location of each target that needed to be bombed.

"Everyone knows where they're going to attack. The teams will go into attacking positions in turn, and let the French get a taste of our bombs. Group 1, follow me. Demo shouted loudly, and then led his three-plane formation to rush over the French position.

In the cabin, Demo was doing the final preparations before the dive bombing, he put the flaps in the cruising position, adjusted the elevator and rudder, and adjusted the pitch of the propellers to the cruising position. Then he turned on the power switch of the altimeter and set the bomb altitude, which is an important instrument to ensure that he can get out of the dive before entering the dangerous altitude, it can calculate when the plane should drop the bomb and pull it up, Demo set the bomb drop altitude on the altimeter is 500 meters, which is the limit altitude at which the plane can safely get out of the dive, and it will be difficult for the plane to ensure that it does not hit the ground before pulling it up.

Demo turned the supercharger switch to automatic and turned the throttle to a minimum, then he turned off the air inlet in the cooler.

"Red 2, Red 3, are you ready?"

"Red 2 ready."

"Red 3 is ready."

The wingmen replied loudly.

"Very well, now let's start to get on, let the enemy tremble under our wings, follow me."

Demo let go of the dive brake, and at that moment, the nose of the plane slammed down, and Stuka automatically went into a dive. The flight safety control system is activated by the linkage mechanism, the dive demobilization system is now activated, and two small red marking rods protrude from the upper surface of the wing, which is a hydraulic auxiliary mechanism, which will start working at the moment when the aircraft drops the bomb, it can limit the angle of the aircraft when pulling up, and avoid the overload gravity that the body cannot bear due to the steep pulling up causes damage to the body or leaves permanent damage.

Demo steadily pushed the cāo longitudinal bar, his eyes scanned the windshield in front of the right, the glass was carved with a series of lines, which is an effective tool to help the pilot judge the dive angle, each line represents a dive angle, starting from 30 degrees to 90 degrees, because the dive angle of the pilot's psychological feeling during the dive is much steeper than the actual dive angle, and the accuracy of the hit is often affected because the dive angle is not enough. Now, just look at which line is parallel to the ground to know at which angle Stuka is diving.

Demo is ready to do a high-angle dive of 80 degrees, which can ensure the accuracy of the bomb's hit. And he also wanted to know the skill level of his two new wingman pilots, because this dive was a piece of cake for an experienced veteran like him, but for the two newbies behind it was a test of skill and courage, and Demo thought that only pilots who passed this test were qualified to fly his wingman.

"Very good."

Demo found the shadow of his wingman in the rearview mirror, and the two Stukas followed closely behind Demo as if they were tied to ropes, and the three Stukas swooped down like an iron triangle towards the French positions on the ground. The pneumatic bagpipes mounted on the landing gear began to emit a terrible whistling, indicating that the speed was now exceeding the top speed in level flight, and this terrible howling sound was terrifying, and it exerted even more psychological pressure on the enemy than the bombs hanging on the plane.

Stuka swooped down with a scream, like a strange bird from hell falling from the sky. The ground rushed towards the cockpit, and Demo's spirit became more and more excited as the ground approached, and his body began to secrete a large amount of adrenal hormones, which made his reaction almost double as usual. Demo focused all of his attention on his target, focusing only a small amount of light on the readings on the dashboard. The plane continued to dive, the speed had reached 560 kilometers, and now the plane was only more than 1,300 meters above the ground, and Demo could clearly see the panicked French soldiers running on the ground and the strings of bright machine gun tracer rounds fired at him. The elevator had become so heavy that it took a lot of effort for Demo to carry it, and he began to use the differential movement of the ailerons to adjust and maintain his aiming point, and he fixed the nose of the plane on a trench command bunker, waiting for the moment to drop the bomb.

Two strings of machine-gun bullets grazed the roof of the cockpit, followed by two more machine-gun bullets whizzing and hitting the engine's armored casing, the bullets failed to penetrate the 8 mm thick layer of armor, and with a spark it bounced off the armor and then hit the cockpit's windshield.

The bullet passed a few centimeters above Demo's head, and a furious air stream whistled into the cockpit through the bullet holes in the windshield, and it screamed even more than Stuka's sharp whistle. Demo gritted his teeth and stared at his target, this accident was nothing to him, he had been in a worse situation before, and he didn't want to stop his current job unless the bullet hit him in the head.

The plane had dropped below a thousand meters, and its speed had reached the upper limit of 600 kilometers, and the solid ground was like a wall, and Stuka made the final sprint in the frenzied rain of bullets of the French soldiers. At this time, the indicator light on the altimeter finally lit up, which indicated that the plane had reached the bomb drop altitude, and Demo pressed the bomb drop button on the cāo longitudinal rod fiercely, and a 250 kg bomb hanging under the belly and four 50 kg bombs hanging on the wings immediately broke away from the plane, and then rushed towards the target as if it was attracted by the ground.

Demo pressed the automatic leveling control button on the Cāo longitudinal bar, and the nose of the plane began to rise rapidly, and the gravity of the six Gs pressed him into his seat, and the plane changed its dive at a speed of ten degrees per second. As soon as the nose of the plane returned to a level state, Demo immediately retracted the dive brake, adjusted the propeller pitch to the take-off position, opened the cooler baffle and pushed the throttle full, and the engine roared loudly under the maximum supercharger of nine kilograms, dragging Stuka's bulky body towards the air.

After leaving the range of the opponent's ground fire, Demo sighed softly, and he began to spiral upward, he wanted to observe the results of the bombs thrown in front of him and the battle situation of his subordinates. The result made him very satisfied, his bomb hit the target accurately, not only blowing up the command bunker but also completely destroying a trench about fifty meters away, and the billowing smoke was rising from the ruins. The results of their two wingmen were also good, and the trenches they were responsible for destroying also completely collapsed, and the huge crater was a mess.

The rest of the Stuka have largely completed their missions, with a large part of them leveling out from the dive. At this time, the last group of Stukas was entering the final sprint, as several black dots fell from under the wings of the three Stukas, more than a dozen brilliant fireballs exploded on the French position, and the bodies of the mud and soldiers flew in the air, and the Stuka swept over those objects and then pulled up the nose of the plane and began to climb slowly.

The French position had completely changed its appearance, the trenches and bunkers that could be clearly distinguished before were gone, and all that remained was a series of huge craters and corpse wreckage, and billowing smoke hung over the entire position, like an apocalyptic scene.

"Each crew reports their own situation, is there any loss?"

Demo cāo hovered in the air with his own plane, and after throwing away the four hundred and fifty kilograms of load, the plane cāo became much more brisk. The three-plane formations climbed upwards from all directions, and they began to slowly move closer to Demo's formation and assemble.

After listening to the reports of his subordinates, Demo breathed a sigh of relief that his group did not lose a single aircraft in this attack, but two of them were shot through the wings by French anti-aircraft machine guns, but it did not affect them to continue flying.

"Greyhound, this is the Red Dragon, we have completed the attack, and the opponent's first line of defense has been completely destroyed. We've dropped all the bombs, and we're going to go home. "Demo took his formation and circled over the German units.

"Red Dragon, this is the Greyhound, well done, your mission is done. The next formation is on its way here, and they will take over from you. You can return home, and the general is very satisfied with your work, and he wants me to convey his thanks to you. ”

"This is our duty, please show the general our respect for him, goodbye."

Demo led his Stuka formation around the French position again, and then slowly flew in the direction of the forward base.

Through the thick bulletproof glass on the front of the cockpit, Demo saw in the distance a group of planes as large as his was emerging from the clouds, slowly flying in his direction, the wings of the inverted seagull glittering in the sunlight.

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