Kulakov spotted three IAR.80 fighters of the three major teams of the Romanian Air Force, which were rushing at a fast pace!

Rechkalov turned the nose, the fighter began to climb altitude, and the wingman followed. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info "Lieutenant, what are you doing?!" ”

"I have about 1,200 more machine gun rounds, what about you?"

"Enough to pack them up!"

Without much discussion, two P39s roared to meet them, and a skirmish broke out in the air only 500 meters above the sea!

The current fuel capacity of the two P39s is perfect for aerial dogfights, not to mention that the opponent is the Romanian "Yellow Head Cigar"! Lechkalov killed the "yellow-headed cigar" last year - "entangle with it horizontally, use speed!" ”

At low altitudes, IAR.80 was inferior in speed and circling ability to P39, and the lieutenant knew this very well: soon the two sides were close to within 1 km - the two P39s increased their speed to the maximum, and the formation circled in an arc during the roar, and the "yellow-headed cigars" were originally facing the Soviet fighters, but now they were on their flanks!

The Romanians were also maneuvering sharply trying to bite the tail of the P39, but the P39 at low altitude was as tough as the MiG-1 at an altitude of more than 7,000 meters! Lechkalov bit the opponent's tail after more than ten seconds!

There was a speed difference of more than 80 km/h, and the P39 had to slow down - three IAR.80s scattered around the left, and two P39s just bit each other's long planes!

Swinging left and right, the IAR.80 in front of Rechkalov simply could not escape his pursuit, getting closer and closer to the target!

The distance is close to 150 meters! Rechkalov pressed the machine gun launch button, and the four machine guns on both wings spat out a dense tongue of fire!

The "cartridge belt" composed of four machine-gun bullets is like the braid of death, swinging from left to right and from right to left, just two seconds of long point shooting, and the front half of the fuselage of the "yellow-headed cigar" was hit by dense machine-gun bullets and turned into a honeycomb!

The blister-shaped cockpit of the IAR.80 had already made several small holes, and the engine on the long nose was bursting into flames!

Its engine has been reimbursed! Those armor-piercing shells with cemented carbide cores made in the United States easily penetrated the skin of Romanian fighters and smashed the engine!

The "yellow-headed cigar" fell to the sea with a thick smoke!

Lechkalov turned to the left, made a "three-dimensional circle" with the second IAR.80, which was supposed to go around behind his twin fuselage, and bit its tail after a few movements close to 4 Gs!

One point shot, apparently this Romanian pilot was a little less skilled than his long plane: Rechkalov solved the problem with only one short burst - the IAR.80 exploded violently! Tracer incendiary bombs burst its fuel tank!

"Lieutenant, the one at three o'clock wants to run!"

Hearing the wingman's call, Rechkalov turned his head and saw the third Romanian fighter at high speed at a distance of 1 kilometer in an arc to the northwest - immediately turned, "No. 2, you attack!" ”

The task of the wingman in air combat is to learn from the experience of the long plane and protect its tail when the long plane attacks, and a rookie like Kulakov will never compete with the long plane. Rechkalov thought that the goal of escape was just the right time for novices to practice their skills - the third Romanian pilot found that his fighter could not compete with the strange-looking Soviet plane in front of him at low altitude, and the unnecessary sacrifice was not worth it.

"Yes, Lieutenant!" There was a hint of excitement in Kulakov's tone, and his plane swerved and accelerated—seconds later the lieutenant's plane was behind his left flank.

The "Yellow Cigar" was no match for the P39 in terms of vertical, horizontal maneuverability, and speed at low and medium altitudes - at first the three Romanian pilots thought that it was a Soviet fighter plane attacking their ship, possibly the Il-2. When the strange shape of the target was seen before the outbreak of the air battle, it was even more certain that the Soviets were attack aircraft: they were very different from the general appearance of Soviet fighters, and the relatively large fuselage should also be characteristic of a clumsy attack aircraft.

It really hit the iron plate, and soon the Romanians sadly found that two Soviet fighters were bitten behind them, and the distance was getting closer and closer!

Fight!

The Romanian jerked to the right, but Kulakov was already close to 150 meters, and while turning to pursuit, he pressed the machine-gun firing button!

Three long point shots in a row, the bullet hit the second half of the fuselage of the IAR.80, knocking it into a honeycomb! The second lieutenant's technical and tactical skills still need to be trained, but he won his first victory in air combat!

"Stop shooting, it's the end of its pilots."

Kulakov had the urge to blow up the falling fighter and chased after it, but the captain gave the order, "Go back and shoot that little gunboat again." ”

With that, Rechkalov turned, Kulakov followed, and the second lieutenant glanced sideways and behind him a few times: the "yellow-headed cigar" was no longer needed to attack, as the captain had said, and was tumbling down - a dozen machine gun bullets had just pierced the cockpit, and the Romanian pilot was already dead in his seat.

In the distance, the sailors inside the gunboat "Gikalesku" re-entered the badly damaged bridge, and the gunboat regained control, but the P39 came again!

Refchkalov saw that the bow of the "Dacia" on the other side was already erected and was sinking, and the back half of the hull of the "Ugen" was surrounded by thick smoke: the fire in the engine room seemed to be out of control!

Two P39s passed through the field twice and beat all the Romanian sailors who appeared on the "Gikalescu" into a sieve!

The bullets were almost exhausted, and Rechkalov looked at the fuel gauge: there was still a lot of oil, but there was little point in staying here any longer - the gunboat in front of him could not be sunk by machine guns, and the one that was on fire should probably be scrapped.

There were several life rafts near the sinking "Dacia" on the sea, but Comrade Lieutenant did not intend to pour the remaining ammunition on their heads, he was not a butcher who liked to strafe the crew that had fallen into the water, and there was still a bit of humanitarianism.

"Go home."

"Okay, Lieutenant."

At this time, Kulakov seemed to find that Comrade Lieutenant was a little unsatisfied: the course of the long plane flew towards the sinking "Dacia", and the altitude dropped to 10 meters!

However, the long plane did not give orders, and Kulakov followed, and the landline was slightly higher behind the long plane.

Whistling over two lifeboats at a slow speed of less than 250 kilometers, Rechkalov turned his head to look at the lifeboats below - just before he could rush over, a group of Romanian sailors who were already on board jumped into the sea again: they thought the plane was going to strafe!

Rechkalov smirked, "Altitude 3500, course 030." ”

That's the way home.

More than forty minutes later, two P39s landed on the airport lawn. As soon as he emerged from the door-like cockpit of the car, Kulakov shouted to the mechanics who came running: "We killed the Dacia!" Big guy of 4000 tons! ”

The commander of the aviation regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Polik, heard Kulakov's shouting at the door of the pilot's lounge on duty, and when he heard clearly what the second lieutenant was shouting, the lieutenant colonel walked quickly to the tarmac.

"The two guys who got into trouble yesterday are lucky today?!"

"Rechkalov, what's going on?" Before the person arrived, he opened his throat and asked.

Seeing the regiment commander comrade striding forward, Rechkalov took out his portable aviation chart, opened it and showed it to the regiment commander: "Probably here, the No. 3 sea area." The Dacia and two Romanian gunboats, about four or five hundred tons, we detonated the mines of the Dacia with auxiliary fuel tanks and aerial guns, and sank! It was supposed to be in mine-laying operations, when the two gunboats were about ten kilometers away from him.

We also strafed the gunboats, the larger one caught fire in the power compartment, and the smaller one was probably still sailing...... Three "yellow-headed cigars" were also killed, and Kulakov shot down one. ”

Rechkalov said a long time in one breath, and also took out the camera: "I took a few pictures. ”

Polick glared at him, "Leave the camera alone, can you still find the target?" ”

"It should work."

As soon as Polik turned around, he shouted at the rest area: "The fighter on duty is ready to take off!" Ground crew, replace the plane with bombs! ”

As soon as the comrades on the ground heard the shouts of the regiment commander, they hurriedly towed the 227-kilogram bombs -- and after the two planes were loaded, Polik ordered the four fighters on duty to take off: Rechkalov piloted a fighter with bombs and replaced it with a junior wingman pilot, while the comrade in regimental gear left the other wingman pilot depressed on the tarmac.

Forty minutes later they found their target: unfortunately only the gunboat that was still on fire and the oil and floating debris left behind by the sinking of the Dacia were left on the surface of the sea, and the second gunboat was nowhere to be found, apparently the Romanian gunboat had rescued the crew and fled!

As the weather deteriorated and clouds were gathering over the land, Polyk decided not to pursue it any longer, but dropped all his bombs on the burning gunboat - one hit directly, the other 3 meters close, and it exploded in two and sank into the sea in the blink of an eye!

By the time Rechkalov returned to the airport, Odessa was covered in heavy rain. Wet and running back to the lounge, the work of pulling the plane into the hangar was left to the comrades on the ground.

"Lieutenant, the photo is washed out, this is Lieutenant Colonel Ilyich Berchensky of the Odessa submarine detachment of the Black Sea Fleet." Kulakov handed a couple of photographs to Rechkalov, and next to him stood the famous lieutenant colonel officer in a naval uniform.

At this time Lieutenant Colonel Polik also walked in, and he saw Berchensky: "Hello, Comrade Berchensky. ”

"I came as soon as I received your notice, where is it?"

The airport had informed the Red Navy of the sinking of the "Dacia" and that the Romanians were laying mines at that time. The mine arrays laid by the Romanians caused great trouble for the activities of the Red Navy's Black Sea Fleet in the western part of the Black Sea, especially for the submarine forces, so as soon as the news was received, the chief of staff of the submarine detachment was sent to the airfield.

Just now, Berchensky had already looked at the photos that had just been washed out and judged that the big ship in the sinking was the "Dacia", and the other gunboat was probably the "Ugen".

The re-identified position on the aeronautical chart allowed the Red Navy submarine force to avoid the newly laid minefield laid by the Romanians: although it was not certain how many had been laid by the Dacia this time, at least it was able to avoid that area.

"Thank you, comrades pilots! The Dacia has already cost us two submarines, and the naval base should send you vodka! ”

Berchensky was pleased, but could not stay long - he returned to the detachment with a photograph and an aeronautical chart to report to the command of the Odessa naval base.

Although it is impossible to confirm the shooting down of three "yellow-headed cigars" by Lechkalov and Kulakov from other sources, this time the regiment decided to follow the record of the downing -- as for the credit for killing the "Dacia", we will wait until it is reported.

Polyk estimates that it should be possible to win two "Red Banner Medals" for two pilots, but it is not enough to want to produce a "Hero of the Soviet Union" in his regiment, even Rechkalov seems to be a little close.

At night, a gas sedan belonging to the Red Navy drove into the airport, and the Navy comrades delivered a dozen boxes of vodka and half a car of canned food, as well as a small box of Caspian caviar!

、、、、、、

Moscow Kremlin, Office of the Deputy Commander-in-Chief. After the meeting of the high command, Lin Jun originally wanted to go to Zhukov to see the children, but after the meeting, Gusev told him that the second system test report of the Leningrad Kirov plant on the Tiger tank had arrived.

Not only the document report, but also Lin Jun's old friend, Lieutenant General Ferdo Petrovich Polenin, technical director of the Soviet Air Force, was also waiting in the Kremlin for his reception: about the plans of the bomber forces to launch the next attack on the fascist strategic targets in depth.

Lin Jun first asked the staff officer to invite Porenin into his office, and he couldn't let his old friend wait in the lounge. However, the Leningrad documents were brought by special people, so the Leningrad problem was solved first, and then we had lunch with the comrades of the generals and talked while eating.

Porenin was not a man of all kinds, and sat patiently on the sofa listening to the middle-aged steel engineer named Okarkov report to the marshal - Kokin asked the engineer to be a messenger, because he was afraid that the deputy commander would not understand the large pile of boring professional data in the report.

To be honest, seeing a bunch of equations and various charts in the file, Lin Jun's head was a mess! He is a deputy commander-in-chief and an ace pilot, but he is not a genius who knows everything!

"You mean that German armor plates contain molybdenum in the right proportions?" Lin Jun motioned for the engineer to sit down and speak, Lin Jun looked tired, "Is this molybdenum what makes German armor very tough?" ”

"Yes, Marshal. Without molybdenum, the quality of German tank armor may drop by several grades, and it is definitely not comparable to the quality of our armor steel, even if it is replaced by vanadium, it will not be possible to reach the current level of quality. Several large steel plants producing armor steel, such as the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Plant, the Kuznets and Zaporozhye Iron and Steel Plant, use molybdenum ...... from the Kurdai non-ferrous metal refinery in Kazakhstan."

is really a technical talent, as soon as he introduces things within the scope of his profession, Lin Jun had to interrupt the engineer: "You wait." This molybdenum is a metal deposit, I understand this, what does it do? Also, besides us, what other countries in the world have such deposits? ”

To tell the truth, it was the first time that Lin Jun had heard of such a metal as "molybdenum" - in his previous life, he didn't think he was a fighter pilot, but he was born as an excellent liberal arts student, and he couldn't even memorize the element table pioneered by Mendeleev: maybe I had seen this element symbol before, but I didn't pay attention to it at all!

The junior high school physics and chemistry exams were copied, but fortunately, the math was okay, otherwise it would be enough to be a pilot!

"Plunyakov" is a mechanic, he should know "molybdenum", but he doesn't have much memory left in his head.

Comrade Okarkov is really a good comrade, he doesn't mean anything about playing the piano (probably he doesn't dare to be a little impatient), and he patiently introduces it.

Molybdenum, element symbol: Mo, was only extracted from molybdenite by Swedish chemists in 1792. In the metallurgical industry, molybdenum is the main additive in the production of various alloy steels, and can also be composed of advanced alloys with tungsten, nickel, cobalt, zirconium, titanium, vanadium, rhenium, etc., to improve its high-temperature strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance......

The United States, Chile and China are rich in reserves, Peru and Mexico also have them, and the first molybdenum mine in Europe and the world is the Knapben molybdenum deposit in Norway, and it has also been found in Bulgaria in Europe, but the production is almost equal to none. ”

Lin Jun motioned for him to stop again: "Is there anything in Germany?!" ”

"Nope." Okarkov is very sure, "Their molybdenum ore is all from the Knapen mine in Norway, the only molybdenum mine in Northern Europe. ”

Lin Jun pressed the button on his desk at this time, and Gusev quickly walked in, "Bring a detailed map of Northern Europe." ”

"Yes, Marshal."

Soon Lin Jun got the information he needed: the Knaben Mine is located off the southwest coast of Norway, and it can be said that it is now one of the most important German facilities in Norway, and it plays a pivotal role in the war machine of the Third Reich, both economically and industrially!

In fact, the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940 not only to seize Norway's high-quality iron ore, but also to seize the molybdenum mines in Knappen in order to obtain a stable supply of molybdenum.

"Okarkov, that means that the Knapen mine is a dead hole for Germany, and if we destroy the molybdenum mine in Knapn, we will not only make the German tank armor vulnerable, but also hit the entire machinery industry of Nazi Germany."

"Yes, Marshal. High-speed alloy steels containing 4% to 9.5% can be used to make high-speed cutting tools, and molybdenum alloys such as copper-nickel and chromium can also be used to make metal components of aircraft, corrosion-resistant parts of locomotives and automobiles. Without molybdenum, Germany's industrial production capacity and product quality would drop by a notch. ”

Lin Jun patted the table lightly with his right hand, and said to the engineer: "I'm sorry, Comrade Okarkov, you need to stay in Moscow for a while, and my staff will arrange your life." When I return to Leningrad in a few days, I will have someone say hello to Comrade Kokin, you have been borrowed by me for the time being. ”

Comrade engineer still has some political and military concepts, of course, there is no opinion.

As soon as he asked the staff officer to take Okarkov out of the office, Porenin stood up and said to Lin Jun with a smile: "Marshal, it should be my business down there." ”

"Yes, Ferdo Petrovich."

"But, Marshal, the nearest voyage is to cross Sweden."

Comrade General reacted quickly.

"neutral!" Lin Jun's swear words are out of the mouth, crisp and neat! - He is usually very personable, but in front of the old subordinates who fought side by side on the Songhu battlefield back then, Lin Jun's rare swear words don't matter. (To be continued.) )