Petersburg Air Base.

"What, hasn't my fighter been repaired yet?" In the maintenance hangar, Kararixin asked anxiously as he watched several maintenance crews busy on his plane.

"Ensign, you are in a hurry, we are also in a hurry, but look at it, your belly has been wiped out, we must replace it with a new one, otherwise you will fly in the air with a maneuver, and the plane will disintegrate, this MiG-3, how did it pass the finalization, there are a lot of failures, this landing gear can't be put down, it's not the first time."

As he spoke, the maintenance squad leader pushed the wooden board in front of him with a planer, and the shavings came out of the planer, which looked very good.

In this era, the advanced fighters of many countries have long been made of metal materials, but the excellent production of aviation aluminum in the Soviet Union is far from enough to meet the consumption of aviation troops, so the MiG-3, like many other aircraft, still uses wooden structures.

Its fuselage structure is made of wood, with three layers of 1 mm thick plywood in the middle wing and two layers of 1 mm thick plywood in the tail fins, which greatly simplifies the production process.

At the same time, it is also convenient to repair, in the maintenance team, there must be a qualified carpenter, where it is broken, it is good to repair it directly, anyway, the Soviets are full of forests, and there is no shortage of wood.

Coming out of the hangar, Kararixin had anxiety on his face, and now, the news from the front has arrived, the German bomber force in Berlin, which had taken off an hour ago, and they will soon fly over Petersburg to bomb, this is a great battle for the defense of Petersburg, this is the cradle of the October Revolution, and it must not be ravaged by the Germans.

He wanted to take off to defend the airspace, but his plane was unusable, which made him anxious.

Coming out of the maintenance hangar, Kararixin ran towards the combat readiness duty room, trying to figure out where to go.

"Rechkalov, let's go, let's go on a combat cruise." Carrying his flight cap, Pokryshkin said to his wingman.

According to the Germans' range, it was not possible to reach Petersburg for the time being, but now they were about to take off and cruise, ready to meet the enemy, and at the same time, when the enemy reached their own defense radius, they called a large number of fighters to the rear to take off to meet the enemy.

Fighting would break out over the Baltic Sea, trying to keep the German aviation west of Petersburg and preventing the Germans from bombing their own cities.

Early warning is important, and Pokryshkin took on such a task.

"Yes." Rechkalov picked up his flight cap and wanted to walk out with Pokryshkin, but at this moment, his body shook.

At this time, Karariksin happened to walk to his side, held him just right, and his hand ran through Rechkalov's head, and he was immediately surprised: "Comrade Rechkalov, you have a fever!"

"It's okay, I'm totally fine." Rechkalov broke free from Kararyksin and wanted to follow Pokryshkin on.

Damn, yesterday I should have listened to Pokryshkin.

When Rechkalov flew over yesterday, he didn't buckle his cockpit canopy, which was almost a habit of his, and he couldn't change it, but he didn't expect that he got a cold yesterday and actually had a fever.

He has always insisted, for fear of being discovered by others, and he will not be able to fly the fighter plane if he is sick, so that he will not be able to take to the air to fight, and he does not want to miss such a battle.

Hearing Karariksin's words, Pokryshkin turned around, stretched out his hand, touched Rechkalov's forehead, and immediately became very serious: "Rechkalov, you have a bad burn, why didn't you report it in advance?" You go to the infirmary, don't take off again today. ”

"But I'm your wingman, and if I don't fly with you, there's no one behind you to protect you." Rechkalov said anxiously.

"Me, me!" Kalariksin's eyes lit up: "I have been flying on the MiG-3 for more than 50 hours, I have a lot of experience, my plane has not been repaired yet, and I can just go on a mission with you." ”

In his heart, Kararixin was even happy, Rechkalov was so sick that he freed up a plane for himself.

"I'm not going to let you touch my fighter." Hearing this, Lechkalov suddenly became even more anxious, his hand even clenched into a fist, and he came to the bridge of Karariksin's nose, you kid, you dare to pick up my leak!

"Rechkalov, carry out the order!" Pokryshkin doesn't care about Rechkalov's mood now, he always turns a deaf ear to his own words, and this time it's time to teach Lechkalov a lesson and let him remember it for a long time.

Pokryshkin looked at Karariksin again, and he remembered the scene a few hours earlier, when Karariksin bravely landed a fighter plane without landing gear, a determined pilot, skilled enough to follow him on a mission.

"Let's go, follow me." Pokryshkin said.

"Hooray!" Kararixin shouted happily, left Rechkalov, who was on fire in his eyes, and ran out.

The MiG-3 was developed from the MiG-1, and it was as ugly as the MiG-1, with a long nose in front, which occupied almost half of the length of the fuselage, and the cockpit in the middle, and when sitting in the cockpit, the nose raised high in front blocked all forward vision, and nothing could be seen.

For the pilot, all this is used to, the front must be high, otherwise the propeller will hit the ground, although the front is not visible, just see the sides.

The liquid-cooled AM-37 engine emitted puffs of black smoke, and with the violent vibration, the engine roared and started normally.

Kararixin looked at the front of the cabin, and there was a small hanging photo of a young girl, who seemed to be Rechkalov's lover, this guy, it seems, always likes to break a little discipline, and it was strictly forbidden to hang these photos in the plane.

Karaiksin took the photograph off, put it in his pocket, and returned it to Rechkalov when he returned.

"877, take off with me in formation." Pokryshkin's voice came from the headphones.

"877 received." Pushing the throttle stick, releasing the brakes, the two MiG-3s slid onto the runway and soared into the sky at high speed.

The MiG-3 was one of the best fighters in the Soviet Union, which was reflected in the fast climb speed, and the two continued to climb, pulling the fighter all the way to an altitude of 10,000 meters, and then flying westward, over the Baltic Sea.

This combat cruise, they want to detect the German bombers as soon as possible, it is a long-range mission, so they have auxiliary fuel tanks mounted on the wings on both sides, which can allow them to have a patrol radius of more than 500 kilometers.

"877, watch out for visual search." Pokryshkin continued to order.

To fly in formation, you must be familiar with it, and now although this wingman of his own is skilled, the cooperation between the two sides cannot be said, so Pokryshkin has to remind him a little more.