Gunfire and artillery soon rang out, and a fierce air battle once again unfolded at the "crossroads of death". Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Miller soon realized that he had made a mistake in his judgment, as the "gannets" nimbly interspersed with German fighters, and occasionally shot down German fighters into the sea.

This surprised Miller, and he hurriedly swooped down with his assistant to join the warband.

Miller made sense to do this, because most of the fighters used by the German army at this time were BF109, which was the main force of the German fighters, and it was also a multi-purpose fighter, because it could carry bombs to carry bombing missions, and there was once a record of a British cruiser being sunk by BF fighters.

Imagine that a fighter can be used as both a fighter and a bomber, and it is often possible to deploy a relatively small number of fighters in an airport to complete a task that would otherwise require a larger number of fighters...... For example, in the North African theater, the number of German bombers was often insufficient, because the "Stukka" had to bomb the island of Malta and block the route from Alexandria to Malta, and on the other hand, it had to support Rommel's Afrika Korps.

At this time, the bombing function of the BF fighter was reflected, and it was often used as a bomber, but the BF fighter with the bomb mounted on it would be very cumbersome and unable to fight with the fighter in the air.

In addition, the performance of the BF fighter is not as good as the "Hellcat" of the US military.

This is mainly reflected in its range...... The range of the BF fighter is only 700 km, which is less than half of the range of the Hellcat's 1500 meters.

On the surface, it seems that the range does not have much impact on the fighters who are fighting in the air, but in fact it plays a key role in it.

For example, a considerable part of the fighters temporarily transferred by Miller have been in the air for a period of time, and the amount of fuel left is not much, and the psychological pressure of entering air combat at this time is quite large, because the pilots have to calculate how long they can still fight, and whether they have enough fuel to fly back to the base if they continue to fight like this.

Therefore, although Miller put in more than 100 fighters almost immediately, and the total number of fighters in the Third Air Group was more than 300 fighters, in fact, more than 100 fighters participated in the battle at the same time...... In the course of the battle, although there were constantly fighters replenishing them, there were also fighters who had to withdraw from the battlefield due to lack of fuel.

To make matters worse, Miller saw that these "gannets" were more difficult to deal with than he thought, so he estimated that the Germans were likely to lose if they continued to fight.

Miller's landline is a more advanced FW fighter than the BF fighter, nicknamed the "butcher bird", it still has the disadvantage of insufficient range, the maximum range is only 837 kilometers, but its speed reaches an astonishing 760 kilometers, which is a lot faster than the "Hellcat", obviously, this gives it an advantage in air combat.

Sure enough, as soon as the group of "butcher birds" led by Colonel Miller joined the battle group, the situation in the air gradually tilted in the direction of the German army.

But at this moment, Miller received a report from his subordinates: "The 3rd Flying Squadron was intercepted by British fighters on the way to reinforcements!" ”

Miller, who was piloting the fighter, had just destroyed a target in front of him, and before he could cheer for his victory, he was poured a basin of cold water......

At the end of the day, Miller lamented in his heart that if the 3rd Flying Squadron could not arrive in time for reinforcements, it would mean that the German fighters on the battlefield would soon be numerically weak...... Because there will inevitably be some fighters who will withdraw from the battle due to lack of fuel, and even their own landlines can only hold out for ten minutes.

In this way, the little advantage that the Germans had just gained will soon be lost.

And if it's just a loss of advantage, it's a good thing, it's even worse...... Miller knew that the Gannets had twice the range of German fighters, which meant that they could even chase them after them, and Miller didn't know how many of his fleet would make it back to base alive.

After thinking about it, Miller gave an order that shocked everyone: "All fighters withdraw from the battle and return to base, and the first patrol is responsible for cover!" ”

This was originally nothing strange, but the First Patrol ...... It's Miller's patrol.

Miller gave this order for a reason, because twelve of the eighteen fighters of the First Patrol were "butcher bird" fighters, and only this more advanced fighter could hold off the enemy for a while.

"Colonel!" At this time, one of the subordinates objected: "Our fighters are almost out of fuel, and if they take on a cover mission, they will not be able to return to the base!" ”

Miller was silent for a while, then said, "We're not going back to base!" ”

Everyone was silent, because they all knew what "not going back to base" meant to the pilots who flew the fighters.

But Miller gave the order again without question: "Execute the order, except for the first patrol, all of them are out of battle!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

……

The German fighters soon withdrew in batches, and more than a dozen "butcher birds" continued to fight the enemy in the air, and even relied on their speed advantage to intercept enemy planes trying to catch up with the German planes.

Soon, more than a dozen "butcher birds" were shot down one after another...... Although it has excellent performance and the pilots are experienced veterans, it is still outnumbered.

Colonel Gale, who was in high command of the US Air Force, could not help but look at the figure of the German aircraft group gradually moving away, this operation was an ambush carefully arranged by Britain and the United States, and even the anti-aircraft radar on the destroyer cooperated together, I wanted to wipe out the German Third Air Force, but I didn't expect to let them escape at the critical moment.

Colonel Gale had thought about pursuit, but he also knew that the Hellcat was only a little faster than the Bf fighters, and that the pursuit would be meaningless after being delayed for a while.

Colonel Gale then turned his gaze to the last of the destroyed "butcher birds" that burst into flames in the air...... The Germans were indeed an adversarial opponent, and they possessed similar qualities to the Japanese, that is, they were able to fight valiantly on the battlefield.

This is rare compared to European countries, such as Italy, France, and even the United Kingdom.

At the same time, the Germans still had something that Japan did not have, that is, greater industrial and scientific capabilities, which can be seen in the performance of their fighters.

So Colonel Gale believes there is still a long way to go.