The DB-402 in-line 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine running at full capacity made a "hoarse" roar, and the tremor of the fuselage reflected the nervousness of the pilot, and Colonel von Richthofen, who has always been calm and calm, gritted his teeth and frowned, with years of accumulated driving experience, he insisted on letting the Fokker G-51, which has a standard taxiing distance of 420 meters, leave the ground after taxiing about 350 meters, but the most dangerous moment has not passed, and the process of the aircraft just beginning to climb is slow and steady, For well-trained enemy pilots, this is an ideal target for stationary objects -- given the very different state of the fighter plane after full take-off, the fighter plane in take-off is undoubtedly the preferred target for air raiders

Sensing a great threat approaching like a stormy wave, Colonel Richthofen turned his head to see that more than a dozen low-flying enemy planes had entered the airfield through the anti-aircraft fire net, and these monoplanes were so fast that in the blink of an eye they approached the airstrip from the outer edge of the airfield, and one of them seemed to be flying towards him, and within seconds he would open fire. If you force your plane to dodge www.biquge.info you will stall and fall if you are not careful, and if you don't make any changes, you will be shot down by the opponent nine times out of ten......

In this unforeseen desperate situation, von Richthofen was wrapped in an unprecedented helplessness, the whole person seemed to have fallen into a liquid nitrogen bucket, and his limbs froze instantly, but his mind was still struggling to avoid the attack? Survived? The probability is too small and too small!

At the bottom of despair, hope suddenly appeared, and a black shadow suddenly came out from the front. In an instant, Richthofen could not read the number of the friendly plane, could not determine whether it belonged to the 33rd Fighter Wing, and none of that mattered. Taking advantage of the enemy pilot's prey in his mouth, the German fighter plane that swept horizontally delivered him a fatal blow with a precise and fierce short shot!

Watching the enemy fighter plane that almost sent him to hell fall headlong, Richthofen suddenly felt the holy light bathe him, and his fighter plane continued to climb, and the data on the dashboard clearly told him that the eagle had spread its wings and that it was time to teach the dastardly intruder a lesson with its sharp beak and claws!

At this time, the scene over the airport was extremely chaotic, but fortunately radio communication remained open.

"Come on! Guys, Redbeard One lifted off safely! Now our priority is to cover the take-off of our partners on the ground! The enemy rushed from the north and flew at an altitude of less than 400 meters, and we occupied an altitude of 600 meters, using the tactic of quick down and quick return! ”

Richthofen communicated with his subordinates via the on-board radio, expertly adjusting his flight attitude and calmly observing the situation. The good news for him was that the wingman was safe and sound, and that it was the only way to use its tactics to the fullest, but the bad news was that a large number of enemy planes poured into the airfield and the fighters of both sides engaged in a scuffle, which greatly limited the use of the ground air defense forces, and the enemy fighters came prepared, completely overpowering the hastily met Luftwaffe units in momentum.

In the chaos of warfare, conventional means of command were no longer effective, so apart from making tactical arrangements, all Richthofen could do was climb quickly with his wingman. Flying at an altitude of 600 meters, it is equivalent to looking down from the position of two Eiffel Towers superimposed, the huge airport is a mess at this time, full of fire and smoke, bombs exploding, planes burning, the most shocking thing is that the whole row of fighters who have not had time to take off are damaged in batches in the bombing and strafing of enemy fighters, almost every runway can see stubbornly taxiing gray fighters, one after another by the white-painted enemy fighters strafing, only a few lucky to rise into the air, most of them are easily strangled by the enemy......

Seeing his own flight elite being ravaged by his opponents, Richthofen was anxious and angry, he looked at a white fighter plane that was diving down at a small angle on the runway, pushed the control stick just right, and shouted: "Redbeard No. 2, cover my assault!" ”

"Redbeard 2 has arrived, covering your back." The sound of the headphones made Baron Richthofen, who had always been a chivalric man, suppress the throbbing in his heart and concentrate on the battle in front of him. The white fighter was a single-engine, single-wing aircraft, with a spindle-like fuselage and rounded wingtips, and the German pilots knew at first glance that it was a British "Mountain Eagle" - it was supposed to be a naval model. This fighter is currently the most advanced equipment of the British Air Force and is the core force of the British people to defend British airspace.

The "Mountain Eagle" that Richthofen was eyeing was not surprised by the eye-catching ring five stars painted on its wings, which is the emblem of the American army. For a long time, people always felt that the quality of European pilots was better than that of American pilots, but in the war in the Middle East, the American pilots who assisted the Persian armed operations as volunteers performed very well, and through the mouths of captured American volunteer pilots, the German generals realized that the strength of the American air force had improved by leaps and bounds compared with the early days, and it seemed that the Americans not only reaped huge economic benefits in the US-British military alliance, but also rightfully absorbed the military essence of the British Empire.

With the momentum of the dive, the Fokker G-51 is like an off-string arrow, shooting at the target with unerring precision. In order to ensure the effect of a single hit, Colonel Richthofen did not fire until the two planes were sixty or seventy meters apart, and the white fighter plane had been in his aiming ring for several seconds before pressing the firing button - a small detail that showed Colonel Richthofen's mastery of piloting.

The four MG-22 aviation machine guns erupted in flames of revenge, and the dense rain of bullets that poured away tore through the skin of the white fighter, and fragments flew in an instant. The engine that was hit first emitted billowing black smoke, followed by a deflagration, and the terrifying tongue of fire spread rapidly, and the cockpit was enveloped in flames and smoke in the blink of an eye...... The US fighter plane originally flew at an altitude of less than 100 meters, and before the pilot could make an attempt to escape, it crashed to the ground.

Having saved his own fighter in time and incidentally achieving his first record in this war, von Richthofen's first reaction was not to celebrate, but to pull the plane up while nervously watching for the fall of his prey. Unfortunately, it smashed unbiased on a flight runway, the billowing and burning wreckage blocked the German fighter plane trying to taxi and take off, and the pilot did not have time to make any evasive maneuvers, so it crashed head-on, and the lightweight explosion easily destroyed the nose of the plane, broke the main landing gear, and the broken body deflected off the runway, almost falling upside down on the grass.

At a quick glance, Richthofen gasped, and in just a few minutes after the battle began, everything he saw and heard had completely subverted his impression of war. In 1914 and 1915, the German aviation was far stronger than its opponents, and it controlled the air supremacy of the battlefield almost from the beginning to the end, especially in the middle and late stages of the war, German pilots searched for enemy fighters like hunters and foxes. Now, the foxes not only have the fangs and claws of tigers and wolves, but also take the hunters off guard with cunning and unusually cunning.

As far as the eye can see, the few German fighters that took off in a hurry struggled to withstand the onslaught of a large group of American and British fighters. The Spartan warriors at Thermopylae could not escape the fate of total annihilation, and in the situation of being attacked everywhere and passive everywhere, even if the German pilots were all first-class aces, it was difficult to turn the tide. It was with this objective understanding that Richthofen's optimism in the past was gone, and in the process of re-climbing, he relied on tense nerves and sharp reflexes to dodge an enemy plane that pounced on him from the side, and guided the wingman to follow the sneak attacker, and he drove the plane sideways, in turn to cover the wingman. In a fair and equal battle, such a two-plane tactic is both offensive and defensive, but they are involved in a chaotic battle that does not make sense at all. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Richthofen saw a dark shadow, sensed that a huge threat was coming, and hurriedly swung the joystick, trying to evade it with a counterclockwise roll, but in the next second, the crackling sound made his heart instantly hang in the air!

As expected, the Fokker G-51 in flight experienced an abnormal tremor, and the tremor became more and more intense, as if it was about to disintegrate in mid-air. Knowing that his fighter plane had been hit, Richthofen instead put aside distractions and calmly made a series of evasive maneuvers, but his landline became a fierce horse out of control, and all the operations had non-technical deviations, which meant that the airplane had been functionally damaged. Fortunately, the irregular maneuvers prevented him from being shot again.

Richthofen turned his head and glanced at a white-painted biplane passing diagonally behind, its straight-line speed not fast enough to chase the outstretched Fokker G-51, but it might not be inferior if it was to compete in air maneuvering.

At the moment of observing the enemy situation, Richthofen saw the wounds of the landline - there was a row of bullet holes left behind the right wing and the fuselage, and the right flap that swayed up and down with the air flow should be the source of the abnormal tremor and abnormal control of the aircraft...... It would be nice to be able to land such a "lame" plane safely, and the current situation in air combat is so bad that it is frustrating enough to think about it to fight a tiger and wolf opponent with a broken sword.

When Richthofen came back to his senses to look at his wingman, he was caught in the back of the praying mantis catching cicada and yellow finch: the Fokker G-51, which was biting the enemy plane and firing one after another, was almost about to reap the victory, but was targeted by a "mountain eagle" that swooped down from behind the diagonal rear. The latter seized the perfect opportunity and dealt a fatal blow to the sturdy German fighter with a ferocious long shot.

"Redbeard Two...... Skydive! Skydive! ”

Richthofen shouted in vain, and there was no response in the headphones.

Before his grief could dissipate, Richthofen caught a glimpse of another white fighter plane sneaking up on him in the cockpit rearview mirror. Judging from the situation of the first few contacts, the absolute speed of the British "Mountain Eagle" is not inferior to that of the Fokker G-51, and at this time it occupies a double advantage in numbers and situation, so it appears sharp and abnormal.

Knowing that he was lucky this time, Richthofen said to his subordinates in a sonorous tone: "Attention all of you of the 33rd Fighter Wing of the Royal German Air Force, this is Redbeard No. 1, my plane is injured, it is not effective, and it may not last long, but as long as I am alive, I will never bow to the enemy." Life or death, my will is with you, good luck to all! ”

As soon as the words fell, the previous crackling sound struck again, this time the body trembled more than before, and a string of bullets swept from the side of the cockpit, if it were not for the engineer designed a first-class bulletproof cockpit for the Fokker G-51, the future "Red Baron" would have died in the Battle of Texel on May 22, 1933.

(End of chapter)