"Hey, this weather is really choking, it's cold!"

Standing in the cold wind and howling snow, the young officer in an American flight suit and a tawny leather jacket looked at the busy soldiers on the runway, these people were working hard to clear the snow with the help of two tracked engineering vehicles, it would take two or three hours to clear a runway for fighter jets to take off and land, but it would only take one night of wind and snow, and it would be the same place again!

"I always thought the Pacific Ocean was sunny and tropical, and I came with sunglasses, a swimsuit and sunscreen, which is ridiculous to think about!"

Another young officer, dressed in similar attire, spoke the same pure Irish, with a self-deprecating smile on his face. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

This is the island of Edak in the middle of the Aleutian Islands, which is located at high latitudes, but due to the influence of the Alaskan Warm Current, the temperature here is slightly higher than the northern tip of Scandinavia, which is close to the latitude, but there is no shortage of rain, snow and fog. In early spring, it is still a polar day, and people who do not live here for a long time have to endure both psychological and physical torture.

The third officer, also dressed as an American pilot, with his hands on his hips and a haughty expression, complained: "These Yankees are really cunning enough to get us to such a place, hum!" What an insult to our prestige on the battlefields of Britain! ”

"Come on, what if you're not satisfied?" The fourth officer, a handsome young man with blond hair and blue eyes, pouted and said, "It's all here, and if you quit now, it will really disgrace the prestige of the Royal Irish Air Force!" ”

"Yes, it's for the money......" said the first officer, when he heard the creak of the door opening behind him, and stopped talking. I saw a burly American officer coming over: "Gentlemen, after receiving an order from your superiors, in 10 minutes, a two-plane formation will be dispatched to the direction of Kiska Island to carry out combat reconnaissance!" ”

"Cut, what's there to scout about in this weather! Aren't all the Japs huddled in their caves? The third officer muttered, speaking so quickly that the American officer could not be surprised.

In the summer of 1934, Japan sent its naval and army forces to attack the Aleutian Islands, but their intentions were strikingly similar to history: to induce the U.S. Navy to split its forces north. The Americans were still not fooled, and the US commanders stationed in the Aleutian Islands also responded early, retreating the few residents to a safe area, and dispersing the ships and combat aircraft, the Japanese army did not take advantage of the attack, and did not invest enough troops to occupy the entire archipelago, and finally only captured the four islands of Attu and Kiska, which were empty, and built a field airfield and a small military port on the largest island, Saska, which was initially equipped with a squadron of combat aircraft and two submarines, From time to time, they carried out harassing attacks on islands and ports controlled by the US military, but because they were far away from the mainland bases and the local climatic conditions were very harsh, some equipment that had been frozen in the severe cold could not be repaired in time, and they were damaged by two US air raids, and now they are in a semi-abandoned state, and the Japanese troops of several hundred people are also hiding in the cold fortifications they dig on weekdays. The so-called combat reconnaissance, in most cases, was only of reconnaissance significance - after the arrival of the German volunteer pilots, they had not yet come into contact with combat!

"Forget it, I'll go! The right is a hot engine! The first officer loosened his scarf, and the second officer, who was partnered with him, did not object, and seeing this, the American officer hurriedly said:

"Then I'll give the names of Lieutenant Bart and Lieutenant Kamid!"

The first officer turned his head sideways and politely replied: "Okay, we will leave on time!" ”

The American officer breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly went back to the house.

"Judging from the whole rigorous training last year, it seems that the Air Force top brass had long anticipated that we were going to fight in such a harsh environment, and in any case, we were fighting for Ireland, not the United States!" The first officer, who had the demeanor of a big brother, patted his partner on the shoulder, "Let's go, Maxi, check the plane in advance, I can't trust those clumsy American ground crews!" ”

As if to deliberately ease the atmosphere, the second officer relieved: "They are also quite dedicated, but sometimes the nerves are too relaxed!" See you later, guys! ”

The other two officers took their hands out of their pockets and waved, a little lazy and in the same state of mind.

After a while, the US soldiers pushed out two silver-gray planes from the hangar, although this "silver gray" is close to the "German gray" that dominates Europe in color, but it still looks like there is a clear difference, and the designated position of the wing surface is printed with the US military logo with a white five stars on a blue background.

After a final routine check, the two pilots finally climbed into the cockpit of the plane and pulled the canopy closed. For them, everything here - the environment, the climate, and the customs - is unfamiliar, but fortunately, the landline is still "old buddy". With its clean lines, chunky nose, sloping back and slender tail, the ME-50D, nicknamed "Thunderstorm", is the main fighter of the Irish Air Force!

Amid the familiar roar, the V-cooled 12-cylinder piston engine still runs very smoothly in sub-zero temperatures. Suddenly, the two Warhawks, with 240L fuel tanks mounted under their bellies, began to glide down the runway, their posture as agile as their bodies, their compact structure had a good bulletproof design, and it was easy to see that their cockpits provided the pilot with good backward and sideways visibility. After the plane slides off the ground, the electrically driven three-point landing gear is retracted and the eagle spreads its wings!

A routine flight sounds easy, but after the plane lifts off, the clouds and fog become the first hurdle for pilots to overcome. Fortunately, after arriving in the United States, all ME-50s are equipped with American-made radio direction finders, which are small in size and relatively easy to use, but it is still difficult to accurately locate in long-distance flights, which requires pilots to use personal experience to assist in judgment, and in the Aleutian Islands, the crescent-shaped island group is a relatively clear landmark, and most of the islands can be reached along this dark arc - the only thing that hinders pilots from crossing the archipelago is the range of the landline, The ME-50, designed for air interception and battlefield air supremacy, has no advantage in this regard, and even with the addition of auxiliary fuel tanks, its maximum range is only 1,200 kilometers, which is only a moderate level among single-engine fighters of its era. So much so that many considerable commentators believed that the introduction of Irish fighter jets at a high price was a wrong decision of the US government, but when the Irish volunteers flew the first fighter jets to arrive in the United States and conducted a series of exercises with the US Air Force, the doubts disappeared!

The straight-line distance from Edak Island to the Japanese-occupied islands of Skika or Attu was about 500 kilometers, and the wind direction and flight path were within the effective combat radius of the ME-50, which meant that Irish volunteers could fly their planes around the island and intimidate the Japanese troops on the island with machine guns.

After leaving the base, the two ME-50s quickly climbed above the clouds, where they not only had a cheerful view, but also took advantage of the power of the V-type liquid-cooled engine, and the pointer on the plane's speedometer easily crossed the horizontal line of 550 kilometers per hour, which was enough to drive the Japanese pilots maddeningly, considering that the Type 95 fighter they were currently using could only reach a top speed of 460 kilometers per hour......

At about the same time, a flotilla of ships with sun flags on their masts appeared in the waters southwest of Kiska Island, and the fog that filled the sea made the ships loom in shape, and in terms of size and speed, it looked like a convoy of transports on ordinary tasks, but in the middle and rear of the fleet, the ships with wide decks were full of planes, like fighters about to enter the battlefield. In this strange flotilla, two slender ships lead the way, with uncovered gungear and officers and men on guard, keeping in touch with each other with flags and light signals. On both sides and in the rear of the flotilla, a light ship was maneuvering at a high speed, and in the center of the flotilla, both transports were armed with anti-aircraft machine guns and small-caliber guns, and the crews were already busy carrying supplies from bags and crates onto deck!

As we get closer to Kiska Island, the fog on the sea surface gradually dissipates. With the characteristic roar of the aircraft, a seaplane ejected from the cruiser's amidships, circled over the flotilla like a gray-white seagull, and flew head-on towards the nearby islands without looking back. About ten minutes later, the two gray-and-white fighters also left the flight deck of the light aircraft carrier, their attitude as light as birds and not clumsy in comparison.

About forty-five minutes later, the two ME-50s had already flown near Skika Island, and during the monotonous flight, the two volunteer pilots from Ireland had been strictly silent on the radio, and just as they began to search for the outline of the target island, the gray dot moving in the clouds attracted the attention of the wingman pilot, who turned on the short communicator: "Watch the left front!" ”

"Roger!"

The long plane, which was descending, quickly pulled up the nose of the plane, and in the event of a sudden encounter with an opponent, it grasped the initiative by grasping the altitude advantage. At this time, the other party also seemed to find these two uninvited guests, and it did not retreat immediately, but also chose to climb - the movement was quite light!

"Baseball guys, baseball players, this is Baseball One, and a flying plane was found near the target island! Repeat, find a flying plane on the target island! When reporting the situation to the US military base, the "retired" Irish Air Force lieutenant and international volunteer Norlin Bart did not expect that this was the first encounter between the ME-50 and the new Japanese fighter -- the 96 ship battle in actual combat.

(End of chapter)