Under the circumstance that the visual distance of the naked eye is not more than two kilometers, several groups of piston monoplanes painted in light gray suddenly appeared over the Gorky Airport like ghosts, only to see them roaring past at a flight altitude of less than 100 meters, dropping bombs one after another to the runway and hangar in the form of horizontal bombing, but the tragic and bloody scene in the war did not appear, only to see these bombs burst one after another like ripe watermelons at the moment they landed, and instantly sprayed a large amount of red powdery dye. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn the blink of an eye, dozens of red patches suddenly appeared on the two runways at Gorky Airport that had been struggling to clear out of the snow and the hangar area at the end of the runway. The ground crews, guards, and soldiers of the anti-aircraft artillery regiment who had no time to scatter and conceal were stunned one by one, you look at me, I look at you. If this was not a drill but a real battle, the bombs just now would have been enough to make them bleed, and it was not until these ghostly "enemy planes" disappeared again in the vast snow that the sound of gunfire rang out around the airport......

On the Yak-7 piston fighter numbered 1401, the commander of the 14th Air Regiment of the Russian Navy, Colonel Tigrev, stood in the cockpit with a surprised face. With his battle-hardened experience, he knew exactly what those vivid red spots in his sight meant. With the maintenance conditions of the Gorky airfield, even if the impact of wind and snow is not taken into account, it will take half a day to fill these "craters", to say the least. Could it be that his own aviation regiment can only sit on the sidelines during this joint exercise?

In the early morning, a young non-commissioned officer ran from the duty room next to the hangar to the fighter where Tigrev was located, and hurriedly reported to him: "Comrade regiment commander, the call of the commissar, he said that as long as you have not started the plane, you must go and answer his call. ”

Tigrev heard the overtone, and he gritted his teeth: "Then you tell him that I have started the plane." ”

With that, Tigrev sat down, closed the hatch manually, and pressed the engine start button, the familiar roar sounding unpleasant at the moment. After confirming that the engine was working properly through the gauge, he gave his right thumbs up to the usher outside the hangar, who lowered his left hand holding the green flag and raised his right hand holding the red flag.

Tigrev continued to nudge the throttle stick, and with the roar of the engines, the blue-gray painted single-engine fighter gently moved out of the hangar under its own power, then taxied onto the take-off runway with a turning tail wheel. Under normal circumstances, the Yak-7 designed as a fighter-bomber takes off with a taxiing distance of about 500 meters, and the runway in front of you is more than 600 meters long, aside from those unpleasant red patches, there are still some snow and ice on the runway that have not been completely cleaned up, and any small bulge or pit may have a fatal impact on the aircraft taxiing and taking off.

At this time, a familiar voice came out of Tigrev's headphones: "The tower calls Seahawk 1, please answer when you hear it!" The tower calls the Seahawk 1, please answer when you hear it! ”

It's his partner, commissar Pavlyuchenko!

Tigrev hesitated for a moment and turned on the communicator: "Tower, tower, this is Seahawk 1!" Everything is ready to take off, request to take off! Repeat, everything is ready, request to take off! ”

"Sea Eagle 1, listen up, I will only say the following things once: Just now the exercise headquarters called to ask about the damage at the airport during the exercise, and I truthfully reported our situation here. We were instructed by our superiors to overcome all odds, to find a way to take off a few planes on the alternate runway, to find the 'invaders' fleet, to give them a little color, and to let them know that the Soviet army was invincible! ”

Gorky Airport does have relatively rudimentary alternate runways, which are now covered in snow, and it would take two to three hours to clear a distance for the Yak-3 to take off. However, Tigrev knew that there was another meaning behind his words, which coincided with his thoughts.

"Seahawk 1 understands and guarantees to complete the mission!" Tigrev stretched out his hand to switch the communication channel, "Sea Eagle Squadron, Sea Eagle Squadron, this is Sea Eagle No. 1, according to the assumptions of the exercise, Sea Eagle No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 will take off with me, and the rest will be on standby." ”

After the wingman pilots answered one by one, Tigrev took a deep breath and pushed the throttle lever again with his left hand, and tightly controlled the flight joystick with his right hand, and the 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine let out a powerful hissing sound. Hearing this voice, the runway sweepers withdrew one after another, and in their complicated eyes, the fighter, which represented the highest level of the Soviet Russian aviation industry, began to accelerate and taxi. As expected, the ice on the track caused it to perform a weird dance as it coasted, but one of its front wheels lacked steering control, and the driver had to use the humble tail wheel to steer the way.

Tigrev is worthy of being the flying ace of the Soviet Russian Navy, with solid flight skills, rich flying experience, and the experience gained from spending two cold winters in the Caucasus, he managed to let the Yak-7 fly under extremely harsh conditions. After flying off the ground, he didn't have time to wipe the sweat that had accumulated in his jaw, and hurriedly reminded the three wingman pilots who were about to take off through the radio that they must be up to 12 points of spirit to cope with this extremely difficult take-off task.

While the proud men of the 14th Naval Aviation Regiment struggled to fight the runway, the surface ships of the Russian Northern Fleet participating in the exercise were gloomy, heading for the "Intruder" fleet position provided by the shore-based radar station. During the first wave of the enemy's air raids, the "Mikhail-Frunze" was given special care by the enemy's carrier-based aircraft, and the bombs on the fore and aft decks and the starboard side of the amidships were stained red by the bombs used in the exercise. However, the Russian admiral did not lose his mind because of this, and the reason why he led the fleet to meet him at this time was only to attract the attention of his opponent, so as to cover the success of the surprise attack of the submarine force on which he had high hopes.

In the vast wind and snow, nine submarines belonging to the 1st, 2nd, and 5th submarine detachments of the Soviet and Russian Northern Fleets lined up on the sea surface, and according to the plan of the exercise, they were in a warning position northwest of the port of Murmansk at the beginning of the exercise, about 60 nautical miles away from the "Intruder" fleet measured by the shore-based radar station. In the vast Barents Sea, 60 nautical miles is not worth mentioning, but for conventional submarines, even if the target is stationary, it will take them three or four hours to enter the attack position, and the target is in motion, it is really not easy to seize the opportunity to attack as soon as possible.

On the far left flank of this submarine formation was the K-1, the first K-class submarine of the Soviet Russian Navy. When it was first incorporated into the Navy's active service sequence, those who came into contact with it were impressed by its excellent underwater performance, and the crew unanimously agreed to give the unofficial name "The Light of Communism" to this new submarine that gave them a sense of hope, and this title soon became a name known throughout the base and even for the Northern Fleet.

As the first captain of the K-1, the 39-year-old Captain Vasily Berezutsky was arguably the best submarine commander in the Russian Navy. In the early 30s, he had the privilege of going to England as an officer to further his studies, and participated in many combat operations of the British Navy in the first few months of World War II, and even had a thrilling experience of narrowly escaping death. During the Soviet-Japanese War, he was sent to the Pacific Fleet as a submarine commander, and in two years he carried out a total of 19 combat missions, sank 17 Japanese ships, and achieved a good record of sinking 26,900 tons with zero casualties. These practical combat experiences and experiences have given Captain Berezutsky a relatively deep understanding of the anti-submarine warfare capabilities of the naval powers of the East and the West. In his opinion, the anti-submarine warfare capability of the Japanese Navy in the early 40s was not as high as that of the Germans in the early 30s, and the combat capability of the Irish Navy was not inferior to that of the German Navy in all aspects.

Through the cables sent by the shore-based radar station and the command of the "defenders", Captain Berezutsky learned of the successive air strikes on the Gorky airfield and surface ships, and although the damage was not reported in the telegrams, it was surprising enough that the carrier-based aircraft units of the new United Kingdom Navy were able to accurately locate the targets of attack on the shore and at sea in such weather. As time passed, Captain Berezutsky's bad premonition grew stronger - his own deployment and operation seemed to be under the reconnaissance and surveillance of the other side. In order to avoid the loss of the heaviest force of the ships participating in the exercise of the Northern Fleet, he issued an order in the name of the commander of the 5th Submarine Detachment to the K-3 that he should enter the submersible state with his own submarine.

The current bad weather is undoubtedly a natural cover for the whereabouts of the submarine, whether concealed diving is really necessary, even Captain Berezuki himself is not sure, but he still followed his instincts, and the slightly less senior K-3 captain did not have any doubts, two cutting-edge Soviet Russian submarines quickly dived into the water, and shortly after they dived, a group of light gray painted carrier-based aircraft swept by at low altitude in a ghostly attitude, and they quickly locked onto the target, The red and pink bombs used in the exercise were dropped on seven other Russian submarines in a floating state, and four of them were successfully dyed red, while the weak anti-aircraft fire of the Russian submarines only made a symbolic resistance.

The three Soviet and Russian submarines that escaped the air attack hurriedly dived, but the crew was obviously too early to be lucky, because the two fierce "red dragons" were speeding towards their direction, and that was their real "nightmare......

(End of chapter)