As night falls, the Cohen Peninsula in western England reigns in flames of war. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info In the two days and one night before, this notorious "meat grinder" had killed nearly 100,000 soldiers on both sides of the war, with an average of 3,000 killed every hour. Today, on a battlefield with a frontal width of less than 10 kilometers, hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers are facing the verdict of death at all times.

Just as the British field artillery and heavy artillery units launched a fierce artillery bombardment of the Allied defensive lines, a agile "blackbird" quietly swept across the night sky and flew towards the hinterland of North Wales. In the cockpit of the Me-50R reconnaissance aircraft, Irish Air Force Sergeant Simon Baker repeatedly examines the luminous compass and calculates his course and bearing against the direction of mountains and rivers - this is very simple during the day, but flying at night is a difficult technical task, and if you are not careful, you can go off.

The light multi-role fighter Me-50 produced in Bavaria, Germany can be said to be a typical representative of "flowers blooming in the wall and fragrant outside the wall", the Luftwaffe is not interested in it, but the Irish Air Force regards it as a treasure, and a large number of equipment is equipped through direct orders and purchase of production licenses, although its reconnaissance type is highly praised by the troops, but as the war is approaching, the Irish military requires local aviation companies to focus on the production of fighters, and when the war broke out, the Me-50R was only 16 in service.

As a professional reconnaissance model, the Me-50R has cut down on the powerful 13mm aviation machine gun, added aerial photography equipment to the lower part of the cockpit, and is equipped with high-frequency radio equipment. In the case of mounting auxiliary fuel tanks, its endurance reaches 1,000 kilometers, although inferior to the He-25 purchased by the Navy, but the maximum speed and maneuverability are stronger than the latter, so the task of aerial reconnaissance in the front-line airspace is handed over to the Me-50R, and the He-25 is mainly used to carry out air defense alert patrol missions.

The war had only been going on for more than thirty hours since Britain declared war on Ireland, and Sergeant Baker had already carried out four aerial reconnaissance missions, providing hundreds of valuable aerial photographs to his staff, but he was tired from the continuous flights. After the afternoon reconnaissance, he squinted only two hours on the marching bed in the duty room, hastily ate dinner, and did not even have time to take a shower before embarking on a new voyage. Before takeoff, technicians tweaked the plane's radio equipment to orient the night bomber group, and a small box of flares was crammed into the cockpit. When your bombers approach the target area, Sergeant Baker will use a flare to indicate the exact location of the British airfield.

Like the standard Me-50, the Me-50R is a single-seater configuration, which should be its biggest shortcoming as a reconnaissance aircraft. The pilot had to wear many hats, and his attention was inevitably a little distracted, and it was this that when Sergeant Baker noticed a biplane flying towards him in front of him, the distance between the two sides was only three or four hundred meters.

The hostility appeared, the sergeant's adrenaline soared, and the rigors of the usual training played a role—for a brief moment, the mind had a full plan. I saw that he used his hands and feet at the same time, driving the fighter plane to roll three-quarters of a circle clockwise, flying towards the lower right like a fancy dive, and the speed advantage of the monoplane was fully revealed. With the current visual conditions, the other pilot must not have a chance to recognize the livery and logo of this aircraft, but since the two met in such an environment, and one of them took the initiative to avoid it, is it necessary for the other party to speculate on the identity of the other party?

The biplane swerved in an attempt to take down the ill-intentioned intruder, but the technical gap was there, and in the blink of an eye, the British pilot lost his target.

Quickly getting rid of the unexpected enemy plane, Sergeant Baker breathed a sigh of relief. After about ten minutes of flying eastward, he found the terrain marker that he had noticed during his reconnaissance mission during the day, a mountain with a quadrangular outline. Two kilometres southeast of the mountain, the British airfield was dotted with farmsteads and large open and flat meadows, and the British removed the fences from the pastures and paved them to create a medium-sized field airfield. In the afternoon, Sergeant Baker observed a number of reconnaissance planes here, and when the night reconnaissance mission came down, his superiors told him that the staff had counted 21 fighters and 46 bombers in the photographs he had taken.

The group of its own bombers would arrive in about half an hour, and Sergeant Baker radioed the tactical phrase "No enemy aircraft in sight in the target airspace" and began to hover in the vicinity. At first, the field under the wings was almost pitch black, and then gradually rows of light spots appeared, presumably to guide the planes to take off and land at night. Sergeant Baker pushed open the canopy, but the roar of the engines completely drowned out the sound from the outside, and it was impossible to detect the movement on the enemy airfield through hearing. He put his head out to look down, and suddenly noticed several dark shadows moving in the low sky.

"The bombers are starting to take off?"

Sergeant Baker speculated in his mind. Because the speed of the bomber is slow, when the bomber is on a mission with the fighter formation, it is usually the bomber that takes off first, assembles the formation in the air, and waits for the fighter group to meet while flying. If the British bombers deployed at this airfield left at this time, their own bomber group would be empty, and even if the airfield facilities were blown to shreds, the enemy bombers could land on other airfields when they returned.

In this era, radar technology was still in its infancy, and clouds and night were the best cover for reconnaissance aircraft. In order to find out what was going on, Sergeant Baker pushed the joystick forward, and the camouflage-painted Me-50R was followed by a beautiful and beautiful "Falcon Rabbit", although the dive angle was not large, the speed of descent was very fast, and the reading on the altimeter was quickly reduced from more than 3,000 to 600, and the black shadow found earlier was indeed a large British bomber with two engines.

Sergeant Baker calmly turned to the communication channel: "This is Nighthawk 9, the enemy has already taken off five bombers, it is recommended that fighters and light bombers come at full speed, I try to hold them off, the fire of the battle will make it easier for you to find the target location, good luck to everyone!" ”

Sergeant Baker took a deep breath after receiving the response of the friendly plane, the outline of a British bomber had been put into the shooting aiming circle by him, the distance between the two sides was getting closer, the crew of the bomber was not aware of the danger and was quietly approaching, perhaps the shooter was ready to fire like Sergeant Baker.

Approaching a position of about 100 meters, Sergeant Baker decisively pressed the firing control button, which was located on the wing of the four 7. The 92-mm machine gun instantly erupted four scarlet tongues of fire. Combat is not the specialty of reconnaissance aircraft pilots, but it does not mean that they do not have qualified combat capabilities. The long shot, which lasted for more than two seconds, poured out nearly 3,000 rounds of bullets, smashing the tail of the British bomber to pieces, and the root of the right wing instantly burst into flames. At the moment when it was about to hit the debris, the Irish fighter plane decisively swung its wings and quickly departed from the tail attack course.

The rapid and dense gunfire was like a stone thrown into the calm water, and suddenly rippled through the layers of ripples, and the hit British bomber dragged a long black smoke to the ground, and the mournful whimper reminded every companion: a wolf has entered the sheepfold!

Sergeant Baker did not chase the other British bombers in the air, but continued to lower his altitude and brazenly flew over the British airfield. As he expected, before turning on the searchlights, the British air defense units on the ground could not see the situation clearly at all, how could they dare to open fire rashly? After a while, two searchlights were turned on, two dazzling pillars of light pierced the sky, and then hurriedly moved back and forth, trying to search for local fighters that broke into the hinterland of Britain at night, the low-flying Me-50R did not go far, but cleverly went around to the other side, with the help of the light of the British searchlights to explore the situation at the airport at close range, at the critical moment, the naked eye was as sharp as an eagle's eye: he clearly saw a British fighter plane in the standby position rapidly turning the propeller, and the grass was diffused with green smoke from the engine, If we extrapolate from the take-off efficiency of aircraft carriers, within a quarter of an hour, dozens of fighters will take off, leaving an empty airfield.

Knowing that flying over the airport again would be extremely risky, and that he might even lose his life at any time, Sergeant Baker decided to become a hero. Take a deep breath, gently pull the joystick, step on the pedal to the end, the safety cover on the shooting control button opens, and stare ahead, when those British fighters neatly arranged on the grass appear on the edge of the aiming circle, they decisively press and hold the shooting button - those people on the ground watched the Irish warhawk fly over the airport at an altitude of less than 100 meters, and a series of bullets rained down. There was an eerie noise, some of the cockpits were smashed, the pilots looked unlucky, and most of the planes that were shot were only scratched the surface and were able to fly as usual. Even so, the surprise attack shocked the British officers and men at the airfield, so much so that the orderly scene quickly became a mess, with anti-aircraft guns and machine guns roaring wildly, and a barrage of bullets and delayed anti-aircraft shells turning the night sky into a colorful ......

As Sergeant Baker wished, the British searchlights and artillery fire provided their fighters with incomparably clear navigation guidance, and several escort fighters and more than a dozen single-engine bombers were the first to arrive, and they mercilessly launched an attack on the British fighters who hurriedly took off into the air, just like the infantry seized the high ground and fought a beautiful blocking battle, suppressing the British fighters taking off at a low altitude, and the exchange of fire between the fighters of the two sides made it even more difficult for the British air defense units on the ground to find the north.

Behind the fierce gunfire, the roar of bombers was getting closer and closer, and more than two dozen tactical bombers with single wings and twin engines flew to the target area under the cover of a small number of fighters. With Sergeant Baker's extraordinary performance, this night bombing mission became a breeze, and the aerial bombs that fell from the sky quickly blew up the British airfield and the fighters that did not take off in time.

At about the same time, more than 400 bombers of 30 squadrons, under the cover of a small number of fighters, carried out night bombing of many airfields in the deep zone of the British army, and most of them found targets and achieved the expected results.

(End of chapter)