North of Texel Island, a camouflage-painted biplane flew leisurely through the clouds, not like a battlefield battlefield stained with gunpowder and blood, but a heron that was indisputable, the slow speed made people feel abnormal, could it be that this guy had a malfunction?

With the mentality of picking up leather clips, two US military "flying barrels" with round fuselages quietly touched up from the side and rear, and just as one of them was about to launch an attack on it, several black spots suddenly drilled out of the higher clouds, and they descended rapidly, pounced on the two "flying barrels" with precision like ospreys. www.biquge.info Seeing that the situation was not good, the American pilots hurriedly flew the plane to evade, but they could avoid the enemy plane that rushed first, and could not avoid the enemy who came one after another, and the Germans did not care about the notoriety of bullying more and less, and three or four Fokker warhawks stared at a Grumman F3F and chased after them, and they were cleanly solved in a few minutes.

On one of the Focker-XI that took part in the battle, Colonel von Richthofen looked around with satisfaction and said to his subordinates over the radio: "Well done, gentlemen!" Fett, you continue to be the bait while the rest of the group returns to the ambush position. ”

Including Richthofen's plane, seven Fokker warhawks climbed to an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, where the air was thin and the temperature was low, and the pilots wore oxygen masks and stared coldly at the airspace below. Relying on this fishing tactic, von Richthofen and his detachment were able to avoid large groups of enemy aircraft with zero losses in three sorties, and with the warning and guidance of ground-based radars, they were able to calmly avoid large enemy fleets, but this strategy was not without risk. When Richthofen's combat detachment repeated its old trick for the fourth time, several enemy planes came out of the clouds in the cold, and all of them were British-made "Sea Hawks" with strong performance. Richthofen decisively retreated south with his hunting detachment, but how could the enemy let them go so easily? In the ensuing chase, several American and British fighters arrived, which made the Fokker-XI, which was at a disadvantage in speed, quite passive. The top pilots of the 33rd Fighter Wing had to rely on their excellent flying skills to support themselves until friendly forces came to support them, and in the process, Richthofen lost three fighters, and the remaining five were basically wounded.

The fighter unit's key strikes and flexible guerrilla attacks were not carried out easily, and every sortie of the bomber units was even more reckless. After a wave of air raids by American and British fighters ended, several Ju-17s quietly took off from a temporary airfield in the southeast of Texel Island and flew across the entire island over the battlefield. Looking down from an altitude of 3,000 meters, the situation on the ground is clear: The US and British troops who landed on the northeastern coast of Texel Island have taken control of an area about eight kilometers long from east to west and about six kilometers wide, which occupies about one-tenth of the entire island. The Germans had retreated from the open area in the northwest of the island to the two volcanic belts in the west and center of the island, where they were condescending to resist the enemy's attack. There is a corridor between the two volcanic belts and the adjacent coast and between the two volcanic belts, the most accessible of which is the corridor that runs through the middle of the island, and the Germans have built fortifications about two kilometers wide in a narrow area, and the focus of the two sides is now concentrating.

When enemy planes were discovered, the US and British troops on the ground immediately organized a defense with small-caliber anti-aircraft guns. In the face of this kind of resistance, which was better than nothing, the German bomber pilots were dismissive, they skillfully turned off the cooler, the push rod, the pressure slope, and then watched the speedometer reading increase from three hundred kilometers to three hundred and five then to four hundred, and when the fighter plane dived to a certain height, the dive brakes, and then pressed the bomb drop button on the steering stick, the plane shook a little, and the black bomb left the fuselage and flew towards the ground. The pilots decisively pulled up the plane, made a turn, and continued to climb higher to escape the anti-aircraft fire...... Without the interference of enemy fighters, the Ju-17's dive bombing was as scripted and effortless, and the high-explosive bombs they dropped fell very accurately into the middle of the enemy infantry group, and the ground was immediately covered with flesh and blood, and black plumes of smoke rose into the sky.

Regardless of whether the German-made or the German-made radar was made by the United States, it did not have the function of identifying friend or foe at this time, and the detection accuracy was not satisfactory, and on the radar screen, two or three enemy fighters hidden between the clouds were easily confused with their own safari squads. A handful of U.S.-British fighters had little impact on the ground situation, and the clumsy Ju-17 was an excellent prey. Without the timely support of their own fighters, the German dive bombers could only fly as close to the ground as possible, hoping that their anti-aircraft fire would be able to shoot down or drive away the enemy fighters in pursuit, and if both expectations were disappointed, the probability of them getting away from the pursuit was only 20 percent......

By the end of the afternoon, the increasing number of losses in each wing made General Lonnebug pacing back and forth in the headquarters in a very irritated manner, and his tactical adjustments did not show any obvious differences, but the situation of the battle was still developing in a direction that was not favorable to the defenders. There is no doubt that the full preparation and ingenious arrangements of the US-British coalition forces for this battle are opening the door to victory for them.

The sharp sound of brakes came from outside the door, and a moment later, Colonel von Richthofen walked into the headquarters with a bewildered expression.

"The enemy has more planes than we expected!" The colonel said with chagrin, "They either have additional aircraft carriers or proper means of supply, otherwise they would not have had so many aircraft." ”

The general clasped his hands to his chest: "Are we really going to lose this battle and fall miserably before dawn?" ”

Richthofen heard the clue from the other party's words, so his eyes lit up: "The main force of the High Seas Fleet is about to arrive?" ”

"The General Staff asked us to hold out for another 24 hours." "But General Yuna thinks that his line is likely to be lost before dark, and once that barrier is breached by the enemy, we will have to put up a final resistance at Angra Sansseemo, which means that all the airfields will be occupied by the enemy, the remnants of the aircraft will have to move to other islands, and our vigilance troops and ground crews will fight like ordinary soldiers......"

"Oh my God......" Richthofen looked desperate with his hands down. The Luftwaffe's fighting in the Azores did not end there, but there was no doubt that it was badly damaged, and the situation deteriorated so quickly, how could the soldiers maintain enough confidence in the subsequent combat operations?

"What other good ideas do you have?" Lonneburg pinned his faint expectations on Richthofen.

Richthofen squeezed a very pained expression between his eyebrows: "We lost too many planes in the first day of the enemy's attack, and if half of the fighters that were destroyed on the ground and later destroyed in the shelling were used in air combat, let alone 24 hours, we would have been able to fight the enemy for at least three days." It's too late to say anything, my wing has only three Fokker-XI capable of taking to the skies, and one Fokker G-51 that has just been repaired, and with fewer and fewer scattered enemy fighters, it is becoming more and more difficult for us to capture the right opportunity. If General Yuna's troops can continue to resist the enemy's attack, we will hold out until this tomorrow even if we all the planes are exhausted, but as you said, once the line of defense is lost, we have no choice but to retreat to Sangra Sangra and a few fortresses, and the planes will not be able to follow us into the cities and fortresses, so we can only temporarily retreat to other islands. Of course, General, we are not completely without a chance to turn the tide of the war, as long as we inflict heavy damage on the enemy's aircraft carrier formation, as we did yesterday, and greatly weaken or even suspend the air attack of the enemy's air forces on Texel, we can dispatch all our fighters to attack the enemy's ground forces, at least to delay their offensive before dark. ”

Lonneburg nodded abruptly, but his expression was not noticeably relieved. He was silent for a moment, and then said to Richthofen: "I have already contacted General von Oldenburg, one of his two aircraft carriers was wounded in yesterday's battle, and the loss of carrier-based aircraft is very large, all the naval reserve aircraft on Flores Island are in battle, and there are only about forty planes that can be used for combat at the moment, and it is difficult to organize an offensive like yesterday." ”

"Can't we do anything?" Richthofen asked reluctantly.

Lonneburg lowered his gaze: "Pray! ”

A few minutes after speaking, rumbling thunder was heard in the distance, but what made people feel very disappointed was that it was still not a precursor to a storm, but a new round of shelling by the American and British fleets. With the defeat of the German aviation force, the main warships of the American and British fleets approached Texel Island in the sun, and the Lexington-class battlecruisers, South Dakota-class battleships, and Sovereign-class battleships appeared in people's field of vision. The No. 7 fortress group "Lübeck Fortress" in the northern part of the island of Texel was still under the control of the Germans, but after repeated bombardment by enemy warships and aircraft, this coastal defense fortress group was no longer capable of fighting the enemy fleet, and its role was only to prevent the enemy landing force from entering the open area east of the island of Texel from this side. This time, the U.S. and British fleets were determined to completely remove this eye-catching nail, and the capital battleships, equipped with 16- and 18-inch guns, opened fire from more than ten kilometers away, and carried out a fierce shelling that lasted for more than 40 minutes at a frequency of every two minutes, and thousands of large-caliber shells and thousands of medium-caliber shells turned the fortress complex that the Germans had painstakingly managed into a pile of ruins. In the face of such a devastating attack, the German officers and soldiers stationed in the fortress may not be able to escape the catastrophe even if they hide in the fortifications deep underground, and those who survive are mostly crushed by the enemy's will to fight, so when a regiment of British landing troops enters the fortified area, they will meet with little resistance.

After the fall of the "Lübeck Fortress", the US and British troops who landed on Texel Island no longer had to continue to storm the German defense line between the two volcanoes, and a large number of landing troops passed through the "Lübeck Fortress" and detoured to the rear of the main German army, and the German No. 8 artillery group "Dartstam Fortress" near the Lyles Cape bombarded the enemy with the few remaining artillery pieces, trying to prevent the US and British troops from smoothly passing through the open area east of Texel Island, but the result was a "mixed double" of American and British warships and carrier-based aircraft. Within half an hour, the fortress complex was completely muted, and the German commander stationed there, knowing that there was no hope, led the remnants of the troops to evacuate the fortress, first at the eastern airfield, and then with the air force guards and ground crews to retreat to Angra Sangra Sangra.

Before dusk, von Richthofen took to the skies, and his trip no longer ended at any of the airports on the island of Texel. His heart was heavy as he watched his ground forces retreat from all over the place to the last fortress on the island, and his morning hopes had been shattered by the unforgiving reality. The main forces of the High Seas Fleet are still on their way, and the Allied forces that remain on Texel may be able to hold out until the turning point, but before that, they will have to undergo the most brutal test - if the American and British fleets gather all the capital ships and raze the whole of Anshami Sansmo to the ground overnight, then few of their former colleagues will probably see each other again.

Grief, desolation, resentment, and complex emotions are intertwined. Seeing several enemy planes flying from the north, strafing the retreating German officers and men at low altitudes, Colonel von Richthofen's eyes were literally capable of spewing fire.

"Gentlemen, today is the darkest day of our lives, and although we did not withdraw from Texel out of cowardice, it was our honor that we were tarnished by abandoning our comrades and leaving us alone. In order to alleviate the guilt in our hearts, in order to give our brave comrades a last bit of help, let us launch a final attack on the enemy in front of us, whether we succeed or fail, and leave no regret in our hearts. ”

In the radio communication channel, there were few echoes, but every voice was extremely determined. With more enemy planes in front of them than they had, and most likely enemy fighters in ambush at high altitude, Richthofen and his air fighters rushed forward with ferocity. The British fighters, who were ravaging the German ground personnel, hurriedly pulled up to meet them, and their position and altitude were at an unfavorable position - the excellent opportunity to attack was fleeting, and Richthofen had the help of God at this time, he shot down a two-winged American Boeing F4B "Hound Dog" as soon as he opened fire, and then pulled up the nose of the plane, launched an attack on another "Hound Dog" during the climb, and wounded it three times by opening fire. Climbing to a height of a kilometer, Richthofen found a group of enemy planes diving down from the clouds, and the situation on the battlefield immediately became very unfavorable for him.

Although he was eager to fight the enemy to the death, Richthofen still maintained due calmness and restraint in his heart, and seeing that the fighters he led had achieved good results, he decisively commanded his subordinates to break away from the battle, and in the process of retreating, he killed a beautiful return pistol and forced back the enemy planes that came to pursue.

Instead of the turquoise land, the blue sea flashed under the wings, and Richthofen looked back at the island of Texel as it gradually turned into a dark line. The temporary base of residence is Pico Island, which is more than 80 kilometers away from Texel, and although Texel is completely within the fighting radius of Focke-XI, he has a faint bad feeling that he may never return to Texel Island as an occupier.

(End of chapter)