At the military airfield in eastern Texel under the bright sunshine, the single-wing Fokker G-51 and the double-wing Fokker-XI left the runway one after another, assembled in the air and then flew north one after another. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoHow could the Atlantic fortress, which the German Empire had painstakingly managed, be so easily kicked over by the US-British coalition?

At this time, the airport was full of busy figures, and Colonel von Richthofen was a different one, standing silently by the hangar, his left hand shading, staring into the distance. More than 100 German warhawks went to meet the enemy's second wave of air attack planes, and no matter whether they were in it or watched from the sidelines, they could not help but feel the majesty and majesty. The 33rd Fighter Wing dispatched 30 fighters this time, most of which were towed out of the reserve hangar, and their combat performance was one level lower than that of the Fokker G-51. If the second wave of enemy planes still has the number of the first wave, and most of them are carrier-based fighters, then the next air battle will be extremely tragic, and it is difficult to say whether the outcome will be great. If enemy planes break through the air defense line again and bomb the airfield, the battle that follows will really not be optimistic.

"Our Lord Baron looks a little melancholy!"

The witty tone came from a slightly slender German officer, wearing a boat-shaped beanie, a white Air Force summer suit, a plaster sling in his left hand, and a pair of fashionable big scalp boots, as he walked gracefully to Richthofen's side.

Richthofen lowered his right hand, and his face did not show the sadness of the other man.

"Your Excellency Baron von Teleburg, your injuries are not healed?"

The slender officer, who was of the same rank as Richthofen, wore a distinctive blue medal at his neckline, but it was not the famous "Blue Marcos", but the knightly medal of the Order of the Order of the Bavaria, the Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He smiled self-deprecatingly, "Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have had a chance to stand here and talk to you right now!" ”

"Not necessarily!" Richthofen said calmly, "Major von Darvel has always been your underdog in training, and today he scored three in one go. As long as you are not too lucky, shooting down two or three enemy aircraft should be easy for you. ”

The little officer heard Richthofen's polite compliment, and instead of being complacent, he was not annoyed and sarcastic, but asked lightly: "Our opponent is so vulnerable?" ”

Richthofen sighed softly: "It's almost as expected, but they are better than planning a brilliant surprise attack, and they actually hide from all our intelligence agencies......"

The little officer snorted dissatisfiedly: "I don't think it's that the enemy is too cunning, but that the guys trained by the Intelligence Department are too stupid, and they stay in one place for half a year, maybe not as much information as we can gather from a week of anchorage." ”

Richthofen expressed his approval with a regretful expression.

There was little point in continuing the topic, and the little officer changed his words: "Do you think you can win this battle?" ”

Richthofen mused: "We can definitely win this war, but the battle for the Azores ...... I think it's very suspenseful. ”

"Oh?"

"You see, just a few days after the war began, the enemy sent carrier-based aviation units to launch a fierce surprise attack on us, how could this be done without very adequate preparation? I even think that the American and British fleets were assembled before the war began, and air strikes were obviously not their only means of attack. ”

"You mean...... And then there will be naval artillery shelling and landing operations? The little officer touched his shaved chin with his right hand, then looked around and said only half-sentenced: "It looks like we're going to have to do our best to protect the rest of the plane." ”

The damaged Fokker G-51s, the Fokker-XI that had just been towed out of the concealed hangar, and the tactical bombers that had been refueled and ready to be put on a counterattack should add up to about 200 units, and the other military airfields on Texel Island should be in a similar situation. These combat planes are the key force in building air defense lines and protecting the Azores, and if they are played properly, they will have a chance to overcome this difficulty, but if they fail, it will be like the second half of the words of a small officer who has disappeared - the situation is critical!

After a short conversation, a ground crew officer came to report to Colonel Richthofen that the second batch of urgently activated stock fighters was ready, and 21 of them could be immediately lifted into the air.

Seeing Richthofen contemplating his eyebrows, the little officer smiled and stretched out his right hand: "It seems that His Excellency the Baron is going out in person, then, I wish you a triumphant return!" ”

Richthofen shook hands and said: "Hopefully this is not the last time we will talk face-to-face." ”

The little officer smiled heartily: "Okay then, I'll stay in the air raid bunker and wait for your return, and then have a drink together!" ”

Richthofen nodded: "A word is a certainty." ”

When Colonel von Richthofen sat in the cockpit of the fighter plane, which smelled of engine oil, his 30 elite air combat officers had been engaged in a fierce battle with the incoming enemy aircraft in the airspace dozens of kilometers north of Texel Island. In this wave of air attack aircraft of the US-British coalition, monoplanes still account for about half, but the monoplanes are not necessarily fighters, and the two-wing ones are not all bombers. At present, there are three types of carrier-based fighters used by the US Navy, the single-wing British-made "Mountain Eagle", the two-wing American-made Grumman F3F "Flying Barrel" and the Boeing F4B "Hound Dog", and there are two types of carrier-based attack aircraft, the two-wing British "Hunter" and the single-wing American-made Walter SB2U "Guardian", and there are two types of carrier-based torpedo aircraft, that is, the two-wing American-made Martin BM-2 and the Great Lakes **-2.

Although most of the British's aircraft carriers are built in American shipyards, they do not like American-made carrier-based aircraft very much, and the carrier-based aircraft squadrons use basically domestically produced goods, such as "Mountain Eagle", "Cape Fighter", "Hunting Fan", and "Sailfish", and their active models are much simpler than those of the Americans.

Single-wing and biplane are not the only criterion for distinguishing aircraft types; after the distance is shortened, it is very easy for German pilots to make correct judgments based on the movements of enemy planes -- the fighters are like piranhas that smell blood, and they pounce forward one by one with great ferocity, and the bomb-carrying attack planes and torpedo planes are very clumsy, and they are afraid to avoid the German fighters, and once they are attacked, they will scatter and flee in all directions at the first opportunity.

"Ahaha! I'm going to fight next! If you run into me, he's out of luck! ”

"I was bitten and couldn't shake off this tail. Fokker-XI is too slow! I'm going to do a big angle dive! Niko keep up with me! ”

"Redbeard No. 25 was hit! What the hell! It fell, and I didn't see Wright skydive! Poor guy! ”

……

During the air battle, the radio channels of the German fighter squadron were full of such words, some were excited, some were anxious, some were successful, and some were shot down by enemy planes. In just a few minutes, the great air battle that took place in the northern part of the island of Texel was completely a mess, and the two sides had no formation to speak of, except for those attack planes and torpedo planes that were trying to maintain their formation. A fighter plane is still biting its prey one second, and the next second it may become a target for someone else's attack, and pilots must not only be careful to avoid flying bullets in the air, but also watch and listen in all directions to avoid colliding with other planes.

"Redbeard 3 calls Redbeard 1! Redbeard No. 3 calls Redbeard No. 1! ”

In the cockpit of the new plane, Colonel von Richthofen received a call from Major Hessel, commander of the 1st Brigade, who calmly replied: "Hey, Felix, it's nice to hear you!" Some of the fighters of the 2nd Group and I have just left the airfield and are flying towards you. How's it going? ”

The voice in the headset said quickly: "It's not good, it's not bad, most people are alive, but they're basically entangled." Enemy bombers are heading to the airfield, you must stop them! ”

Richthofen had already seen a large group of enemy planes in his sight, and it was difficult to estimate their number with the naked eye, and according to the radar detection data fed back by the command, there were more than 200 enemy planes attacking this time. Even on a one-to-one scale, the German fighters that had previously taken to the air were able to drag nearly half of the enemy planes. Richthofen's second combat echelon, the 33rd Wing, contributed 21 fighters, and the other two fighter wings deployed on Texel Island cobbled together more than 30 planes, although the number was only half of that of the opponent.

"Don't worry, as long as you continue to hold back the enemy's fighters, we will beat all the enemy's bombers!" Richthofen was relieved.

"Then wait for your good news! Good luck! With that, Major Hessel took the initiative to end the call.

Although the other side could no longer hear it, Richthofen still said "good luck" and quickly adjusted the communication frequency of the airport headquarters, informing them that he would lead a second wave of fighter groups to intercept incoming enemy planes in the coastal airspace north of Texel Island, leaving the fish that slipped through the net to the ground air defense forces.

Unexpectedly, General Lonnebug of the command spoke with him personally: "Colonel, we have just received an important communication report that two of your subordinates have carried out a very brave long-range reconnaissance with fighter planes, and they have spotted the enemy fleet at a position 350 kilometers east-northeast of Texel Island, and the enemy is even stronger than we expected. The naval forces of the United States and Britain in North America, except for the few American capital ships that showed their faces in Boston Harbor, the rest are probably here! ”

"Oh my God......" Richthofen's eyes widened at the news, "so it seems that the enemy is preparing to take the Azores in one fell swoop, and not just to weaken our military forces here." ”

"I'm afraid that's the case, Colonel, I need you to send two more planes to follow the returning enemy planes in order to determine the exact position and defense of the enemy fleet, and we will strive to launch a counterattack in the shortest possible time, and the destruction of the enemy's aircraft carriers is our only chance to regain the initiative." General Lonnebug said in a deep tone.

"Understood, sir! We will do our best! Richthofen gritted his teeth and said, "In this battle, victory must belong to the brave!" ”

(End of chapter)