At this time, neither side of the war has ground-based radar guidance, and can only rely on the pilot's visual search for targets. The weather conditions in the operational airspace that day were good, with a southerly wind of three degrees and sparse puffy clouds at low altitude.

The German mixed fleet was flying at an altitude of only 1,500 meters, mainly to take care of the JU87, which was already heavily overloaded, flying over the heavy mountains of the Alps from the direction of Austria, at this time the bombers had already consumed a third of their fuel, and they did not carry auxiliary fuel tanks in order to carry more ammunition, and they had to return the same way after the bombing.

Although the army has occupied several Italian airfields, there are no professional ground crews or spare parts and supplies at the moment, and these places can only be used for forced landings for the time being until the air force transfers the supporting personnel and materials.

The ME109 had a good frontal view, but the CR.42 was the same, the Italian had an open cockpit, and if the pilot wanted to, he could even lean out and look around, but because of the biplane, there were many more blind spots than the 109.

The German and Italian air forces discovered each other almost at the same time, and because of the distance, the Germans could not confirm each other's identities for a while, because the number of Luftwaffe and Army Air Corps planes that day was too large, so it may have been a group of friendly troops returning home.

It was different on the side of the Italians, and the commander who led the team immediately judged that it was the Luftwaffe group that was encountered, because at this moment the friendly forces flying in this airspace were only the twenty-third group of the same wing, and that group had only eighteen planes left, less than half of the number of arrivals.

The Italian Air Force had the upper hand at the start of the battle, with a swarm of biplanes swinging their wings and climbing rapidly upwards in order to gain altitude superiority before the Germans could react.

The German side was not slow to react, and Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang saw from the opponent's climbing maneuver that the enemy was not good, so he immediately ordered the formation to also start climbing altitude, and at the same time issued a dodge warning to the Stuka formation.

"It's CR42, the Air Force of the Kingdom of Italy." Approaching the distance of being able to identify the aircraft, the German pilots recognized the identity of the enemy at a glance, and although the biplane was not very good, it was a common star in various newspapers and magazines at the time.

"Green Elves, get out of this airspace now, we'll pester them, good luck to you." Wolfgang looked back from the cabin at the Stuka group that was slowly turning sideways.

"Thank you very much, Firefox, and good luck to you." The Squadron Commander of Stuka replied, sounding very calm.

According to the current German combat doctrine, the commander had the right to make the decision to abandon the mission in the event that the dive bomber group was intercepted. After throwing away the load, Stuka's survivability is okay, and not far away is the Veneto Plain, if you really encounter an accident, you can find a place to make a forced landing, and you don't have to worry about being captured at this time, because soon the Germans will occupy this whole place.

"Red Three, a total of twenty enemy aircraft, should belong to the Third Fighter Wing mentioned in the intelligence." Lieutenant Ludwik, the original squadron leader of the second squadron, was the commander of the second squadron at this time, and he reported to his superiors on the radio.

Wolfgang is the technical adjutant of the wing, the proper third-in-command, and this time he personally went down to the grassroots level to carry out the task, obviously paving the way for the promotion of his position, maybe in a few days he should be called Mr. Colonel, the arrival of this technical officer caused a lot of psychological pressure on the officers at all levels in the second squadron of the first brigade.

"The 3rd Italian Fighter Wing? There are a lot of old friends in it, I don't know if they are still there, the French beat them badly a while ago. Keep your speed up and don't get into a fight with them, as many of these Italian pilots are masters. Wolfgang pushed the accelerator forward as the roar of the Daimler-Benz engine became even louder.

At this time, the Fiat fighters had also climbed to an altitude of 2,700 meters, and they could actually climb up for a while, but the speed would be greatly lost.

The Germans had already reacted, apparently recognizing themselves, and at this point the German group split into two teams, one turning around and evading, and the other pounced on it head-on. The conditions for the Italian air force to plunder were no longer valid, and the only thing they had now was a slight advantage in altitude, and it looked like it would soon be lost.

"It's 109, it's too fast!" Mario. Colonel Ubar frowned, this was not an opponent that CR.42 could deal with.

Ubaldo, who had fought in the Spanish Civil War and fought alongside the German Condors, knew the performance of these German aircraft, as well as the fighting styles and habits of the Germans. When he learned of the declaration of war between Germany and Italy, he had a premonition that sooner or later he would fight these old friends to the death.

"Squadrons, keep in mind what I taught you earlier, and try to keep fighting them as much as possible, not to climb or dive at will, and try not to fly in a straight line for too long. May God bless you and long live the Kingdom of Italy! Ubaldo raised his hand from the cockpit and waved, then pressed the nose of the plane, and with his wingman, began to dive towards the German fighter group.

The CR.42 is a semi-monocoque structure, except for the engine and pilot's cockpit, which is a dura aluminum (duralumin) shell on the outside, and the rear half of the fuselage is a steel tube skeleton covered with canvas skin. The cockpit was completely open, and the pilot's only frontal protection was a fireproof sheet behind the engine. The windshield is made of plexiglas, the seats are made of aluminum alloy, and there are two fuel tanks with a combined capacity of 4,000 liters between the engine and the cockpit, and only two machine-gun ammunition boxes in between.

There were only a few long planes in the whole group with radio stations, and the wingmen could only judge the content of the communication from the gestures of the long planes, and after receiving the order of the group leader, the squadron commanders waved their wings, and then led their respective squads, following the group leader to charge the Germans.

Through the thick bulletproof windshield, the German pilots stared at the oncoming enemy planes, selected targets according to their respective positions, and the pilots steadily controlled their landlines, putting the targets into the white halo of the VER112 reflex sight.

"This is the Red Three, and after the hedge, a small team will go to the left, and the others will go to the right, as planned on the ground, gentlemen, remember what I reminded you." Turning on the cutout switch of the onboard weapon, Wolfgang first fired a short burst with the cannon, the white tracer bullet was as dazzling as the sun, and the twenty-millimeter warhead dragged a long cigarette tail, pulling straight bullet marks in the air.

The Italians then pulled the trigger as well, and the two 12.7mm machine guns mounted on the nose of the CR42 spat out long flames, and the weapons of both sides were about the same in effective range, but the Germans had the absolute upper hand in terms of power.

Immediately, an Italian fighter was hit head-on, the shell destroyed the cylinder of the Fiat air-cooled engine, the shrapnel tore through the complex internal pipes, and the gushing oil and gasoline began to burn as soon as they touched the hot engine shell, and the billowing black smoke suddenly obscured the vision of the pilot in the cockpit.

Colonel Ubaldo dodged a shot from a 109, but his wingman was clearly not so lucky, several shells from the 109 destroyed the internal structure of the upper wing of his plane, and when he changed out of the dive, the upper wing on the right side fell off entirely, and the plane immediately entered a spiral dive, and the veteran pilot who had followed Ubaldo for five years could not get out of the high-speed rotating plane until he hit the ground.

In the first leg, the Germans led 4-0, and the Italians had fewer troops left than the Luftwaffe. The two sides regrouped their formations and began a fierce struggle at an altitude of 2,500 meters.

The Germans used their usual tactics, relying on their superiority in speed and climb, and in small formations, they took turns attacking the Italian fighters from both sides.

The Italian pilots used all their might, even using their own bait to lure the Germans into the dogfight. It is a pity that after the influence of British air battles, these Germans have long changed their style, and immediately fled away after missing a blow, relying on their strong horsepower and speed, they easily climbed back into the air, and then turned around and attacked again.

The Italian CR42 soon fell into a bitter battle, the German planes attacked from all directions, the Italian pilots could only rely on strong horizontal maneuverability to roll and dodge, the continuous high-G maneuvers made the plane's speed drop rapidly, and the airframe control became more and more sluggish, the Italian pilots were already exhausted, and the speed disadvantage made it impossible for them to escape from the battlefield at all.

The air battle lasted only twenty minutes, and the glorious 18th Fighter Group was already history. By the last moment, the desperate Italian pilots had given up their resistance, and they slowly circled in the air like target planes, waiting for the German fighters to pounce on them and shoot them down.

Colonel Ubardo captured the only victory of the Italian Air Force in this battle before being killed, and the officer kept his oath and defended the dignity of the 3rd Wing with his life.

The 12.7 mm machine gun equipped with Italy was not very fast, but it was quite powerful, the victim was a wingman of the third squad, the engine was hit head-on, and soon billowing black smoke came out of the front of the fuselage, the pilot tried to save his plane, but there was nothing he could do at the moment, and after barely climbing a certain height, the German pilot opened the hatch and jumped out of his plane.

In the bright Italian sun, the German second lieutenant hung on his parachute and began to worry about his safety, because there were several white parachutes in the sky around him, and all of them were Italian Air Force.

PS: Sorry it's a little late today, I'll see if I can code a chapter before midnight after dinner.

Special thanks to luoluo198218, Book Friend 160722005509685, Eerroouu, Imperial Knight Felicia, Tiger 126, Book Friend 150814222627938, and Crazy Girl Oh Book Friend for their 500 tips, as well as Demon Dragon Battle Ghost, luoluo198218, Wei Dao Book Friend for their 200 tips, and also thanks to Sponge War Bracket, TZyh_99, TZyh98, Imperial Infinity, Wolf Dog Defending Slaves, and Eastern Frontier, Rice at home, Qihe Qihe, Chengbei U Sang, backup59, book friend n24694420dtdbFK, book friend 160707005326031, another novice, who preemptively registered my name, tigertank repair lamp and other book friends' 100 tips.

Thank you all for your support. (To be continued.) )