On December 4, 1946, three weeks before Christmas, people in the Western world were not in the mood to enjoy Christmas and the New Year's holiday that followed. Needless to say, 240 Soviet divisions, nearly 4 million officers and soldiers, together with tens of thousands of tanks and artillery, confronted 3 million Allied troops across a front across Eastern Europe from north to south, in terms of scale and firepower, this is a rare heavyweight battle in human history, in many respects has far surpassed the Second World War a few years ago, and more importantly, the belligerents have broken through the limitations of conventional weapons and entered the era of nuclear weapons. It is widely believed that both sides possess an indefinite number of atomic bombs, and that no one can accurately predict the devastating power of nuclear war, but it is certain that if both sides use atomic bombs recklessly, Europe, which has gathered the best of human science and technology, civilization, art, and economy over the past few centuries, will inevitably become a terrible purgatory......

In addition to Europe, the United States is also at peace on the other side of the ocean, with vicious attacks and bombings eroding the nerves of the American people once or twice a month, and the country once considered a paradise of freedom, democracy, and peace has reached the point where everyone is in danger, especially those who live in industrial cities and large ports. In the past year, the New York fire on June 9, the poison gas massacre in Boston on August 16, and the San Francisco bombing on November 7 have all become indelible nightmares, and more than 300 American citizens have been killed and thousands injured. Rumors of an atomic bomb attack on the American mainland spread throughout the United States, with a large number of people leaving the cities for refuge in the countryside, and many people believing that the U.S. government should end the war with the Soviet Union as soon as possible -- either knock it out with a heavy fist or shake hands with it. Under the political background of such a very special era, in this season that is not very suitable for large-scale military operations, the League ** team suddenly sounded the horn of attack!

3 million attacking 4 million, the other side is still the number one army power with extremely rich war experience, the Allied offensive in the eyes of most people is simply a military adventure with little hope, they can only hope that the long-term strategic bombing will greatly weaken the military supply of the Soviet troops and even the morale of officers and soldiers while severely damaging the Soviet industrial economy, and the habitual thinking makes people ignore the learning, reflection and growth of the Allied officers and soldiers and generals. In the months when the Soviet Army's first autumn offensive was hit hard, in addition to the continuous and fierce bombardment of the Soviet Army in depth, the Allied forces also fully launched military mobilization in the rear, and the United States, Britain, France, and even Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland were all making every effort to produce all kinds of military supplies. The newly formed 115 Allied divisions have reached the level of mechanization of the US military during World War II, and the density of battlefield support firepower is theoretically no less than that of the Soviet army, which is equipped with a large number of rocket artillery, and there are also 30 armored divisions equipped with first-class tanks into active service. The members of these new units were not extremely inexperienced recruits, and the Allied countries mobilized veterans who had fought in World War II. In the newly formed units of the US military, 54 percent of the personnel who have been re-recruited for the second time and 31 percent of the personnel who have been reorganized or returned from the wounded have returned to the unit, that is to say, only 15 percent of the recruits are recruited from the reserve forces. The situation of the British Army is roughly the same, and the French finally made up their minds after watching and vacillating in the early days of the war, although the former European First Army had the painful experience of being defeated by the German ** team in a few weeks, but the two million French ** people who laid down their arms are still an extremely valuable asset, and 5 years have not deprived them of the quality of formal military training and training, once they regain their equipment and pack up their confidence, they are still a land force that cannot be underestimated. At the same time, most of the more than 400,000 troops mobilized by Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia were veterans who had participated in World War II, and their previous experience enabled them to quickly adapt to the environment and rhythm after arriving in Europe.

After months of rest and preparation, the Allies firmly grasped the rhythm of the battlefield from the very beginning of this winter offensive. The United States, Britain, France, Poland, and other 11 belligerent countries have formed a battlefield aviation force consisting of nearly one million ground crews, 90,000 pilots, and 50,000 planes of various types, and the overwhelming Allied fighters seized air supremacy on the Eastern European front with bloody battles on the first day, and fighters, dive bombers, light bombers, and medium bombers cleared tactical targets within 400 kilometers of the battle line with staggered attacks. Although they were unable to do their job in a single battle because of the way the Soviet air force was deployed, the intensive destruction of Soviet front-line airfields meant that the opposing side would have very few field airfields available in the short term, and even if Soviet pilots had extraordinary skills, they could not turn the tide of the battlefield with their individual abilities. …,

On the ground, the temperature of more than ten degrees below zero makes the soil as hard as stone, and the skillful use of antifreeze makes the vehicles and equipment of the Allied forces can be used as usual, they use more than 60 armored divisions and independent tank brigades to form three strong armored clusters, respectively, as the sharp knives of the three-way offensive troops, and their combat ideas are also greatly borrowed from the Barbarossa plan when the German army launched an attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, putting "fast" in the first place. And greatly used the results of the holding of the troops of the Northern Front in East Prussia and Lithuania. Only two days after the offensive began, the Allied troops on the northern and central fronts trapped the Soviet army's Belorussian Front in the central region of Belarus, and the southern front troops returning to western Ukraine cleanly surrounded more than ten divisions of the Soviet army in the border area between Romania and Ukraine. Alexander did not dislike the limited size of this Soviet army, and he concentrated 41 Allied divisions in one go, including 9 British and Commonwealth divisions, 16 American divisions, 11 French divisions, and 5 Polish divisions, and launched a campaign of annihilation codenamed "Divine Messenger" with a force advantage of 6 to 1, destroying most of the besieged Soviet forces in four days. The armored corps of the southern front and the tank units of the Ukrainian Front of the Soviet Army, which went south to rescue, fought an extremely fierce tank battle, and the two sides invested more than 9,000 tank fighting vehicles in the hilly areas of western Ukraine, which was the most shocking steel torrent collision after the Sudkursk battle. In this land swept by the cold snap, it was not the Soviet T-34 and the imposing IS series heavy tanks that sang the protagonists, nor the Il-2 strike planes, which were as easy to deal with tanks as open a can, but the Allied fighters that used new air-to-ground rockets. Those air-launched weapons improved and produced by the United States not only enhanced the armor-piercing ability, but also improved the accuracy of hitting, and they repelled the Soviet fighters covering their ground forces in intensive sorties, regardless of casualties, and destroyed and damaged at least 1,500 Soviet tank fighting vehicles in just two days, which played a powerful role in the Allied tanks that were technologically inferior!

Looking down from the cabin of the aircraft flying at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, "Coconut" Abraham. Camoro felt that the battlefield in the hilly terrain of western Ukraine was like a hodgepodge of soup, with gray, black, and glowing "bubbles" everywhere, and the winter-painted tanks resembling sliced mushrooms, and the destroyed tanks that were still burning - whichever side they belonged to, looked like smoking pieces of meat!

"Coconut" is a nickname given by his comrades, not because of Camoro's round head, but as a tribute to the nine enemy planes he shot down during World War II, which means "stun the enemy like a coconut". These 9 planes were all won by the fierce Third Reich Air Force, although after 1944 Germany has completely declined militarily, and many of the pilots who fly the fighters are rookies who have been hastily trained, but shooting them down is not as simple as cutting butter, you must know that one of the nine is a jet fighter that the Germans are counting on to turn the tide of the war.

Shooting down the enemy's jet fighter does not mean that the jet is contemptuous, the "Coconut" remained in the US Army Air Force after the war, and he hopes to one day be able to fly a new generation of American-made jet fighters, but the powerful aviation industry of the United States has not been "enlightened" in this regard, until the declaration of war on the Soviet Union, the P-59 with limited equipment of the US military is still only a not very ideal transition product, it is far less mature and representative than the British "Meteor", so that the United States ** The team had to buy "Meteor" and its technology from the British. In 1946, the "Mustang" was still the main force of air combat in the US Air Force, and the "Coconut" was piloted by an improved model, which had a well-known long range and comprehensive and balanced air combat performance, and had a slight technical advantage in the fight with the main fighters of the Soviet Army.

"Attention Dark Arrow Squadron, Attention Dark Arrow Squadron, the Blade Force has exchanged fire with the enemy, and the comers are not good, everyone concentrate!"

The sound from the headset made Camoro's eyes turn from the ground back to the air, at this time on the battlefield of the southern front, more than 6,000 Allied fighters should be overwhelming in number, including two wings of "shooting stars", but the Soviet aviation did not lose the ability to fight back as people speculated, and their fighters continued to appear over the battlefield when almost all front-line airfields were hit continuously, Moreover, the flight altitude close to the treetops made it difficult for the Allied front-line radars to provide sufficient warning time, and the Allied aviation units could only rely on high-frequency sorties to achieve all-round suppression. No, the third sortie in two days, finally caught up with the Soviet army, in the past few months, many encounters with Soviet fighters but only shot down 2 Yaks, "Coconut" such a World War II ace heart secretly anxious. …,

Seeing that the group of Soviet fighters that came to intercept had already exchanged fire with the group of planes that were the first to depart, the formation of British fighters waiting for the opportunity at high altitude began to "change": the swarms of Spitfires swooped sideways towards a low altitude in an extremely chic attitude, and the number of cutting-edge "shooting stars" was limited, but the thunderous roar alone was enough to make people look forward to their performance.

The RAF, which was flying side by side at the same altitude half an hour ago, had already begun to show its strength, but the squadron of the "Coconut" did not rush into battle, but continued to fly in the clouds. Since it is called the "Dark Arrow" squadron, it should deliver the most lethal blow in the most cunning way.

The Mustangs with their drop tanks on board have plenty of range, and they really don't have to rush back as much as the Spitfire. After about a cigarette, the opportunity finally appeared, a group of Il-2 sneaked to the battlefield from the northeast, apparently preparing to use bombs and cannons to give the Allied tank group a "pry the heavenly spirit cover" strike, and the commander's voice appeared in the headset at the right time: "Dark Arrow Team 3 is in the air to cover, Dark Arrow Team 1 and Dark Arrow Team 2 are attacking me, the Soviet bomber group on the lower right of the target is quickly resolved!" ”

5 Mustang fighters in an echelon of Su Jiang in a vigorous posture, hungry wolves rushed to those clumsy Soviet attack planes, their biggest difference from ordinary bombers is the powerful ground attack capability, and the thick body armor can certainly resist machine gun and machine gun attacks, in the face of anti-aircraft rockets are a little weak.

Glancing at the surrounding airspace, the Soviet fighters that appeared earlier were either still fighting with the British Royal Air Force, or they ran out of fuel and turned back, at this time they couldn't pull out to rescue their own attack planes, and the group of Il-2, which had a total of less than ten, did not know whether it was to avoid the attack of enemy fighters in advance or out of the needs of ground attack tactics, the formation had been completely dispersed, and the American fighters who dived in formation still maintained a neat formation like a sword, and they launched rockets from a distance of 500 meters. These guys with sensitive fuses have a special "interest" in metal objects once they are launched, but unlike the magnetic torpedoes used by German submarines, this sensitive fuse cannot change the direction of the rocket's flight in the air, but is similar to the principle of a proximity fuse, detonating the warhead when sensing that the target is near, and destroying the enemy aircraft with the action of the warhead charge and shrapnel.

Looking at the rockets dragging white smoke in the air pulling out a slight arc due to gravity, "Coconut" felt more and more that this world is a wonderful world, human intelligence is almost omnipotent, maybe after a few years, the weapon does not need to be operated at all, and it will automatically find the target when it is launched directly.

As soon as I was a little distracted, someone in the headset issued a warning: "There is an enemy plane at the same altitude as us at 3 o'clock!" ”

As the commander of the 1st Dark Arrow team and the star ace of the squadron, "Coconut" had the duty to quickly identify the situation: there were 4 Soviet fighters in the front, in two typical two-plane formations, and the distance between them and their own squad was about 4,000 meters, and the piston fighters, Yaks or MiGs, were characterized by fast speed and difficulty, and their weaknesses were poor endurance and firepower were not strong.

"Come on! Surprise them, boys! ”

"Coconut" instantly gets excited by shouting loudly, and he believes it does the same for his companions. Those Soviet fighters had just broken out of the clouds, and it seemed that they were supposed to lower their altitude to support their own attack planes -- in the blink of an eye, three or four Il-2s had already been damaged by US rockets, one had already fallen to the ground with black smoke in tow, and the rest seemed to have immediately given up their ground attack and were preparing to evacuate, but their pitiful speed could only be pursued by the opposing fighters on the battlefield, and then they hoped that the thick flesh could withstand the opponent's attack. In order to prevent these four Soviet fighters from disturbing the good deeds of their comrades, the "Coconut" immediately ordered to "block the shooting" and took the lead in lowering the nose of the plane and firing four rockets -- because it was impossible to adjust its position during the flight, the effective distance of the air-launched rockets in air combat was still limited to a short distance, especially when fighting against fighters with small size and strong mobility. 3,500-4,000 meters is far beyond its ideal attack range, and the "Coconut" moves are intended to force the opponent to pull up, make a sharp turn, or change more violently in the middle of the velocity, and then lose the position that has just been advantageous to the attack. …,

The other four Mustangs that followed the long plane also reflected the rockets after a slight adjustment, and before getting involved in the air battle, the "Coconut" did not forget to remind the pilots to drop the auxiliary fuel tank, and with the abandonment of these external "cumbersome", the agility of the fighter suddenly increased significantly.

After the battle began, the Soviet pilots were familiar with the two-plane alternate cover tactics that they sharpened into sharp weapons in the Great Patriotic War, and in the Allied summer offensive and the Soviet army's autumn counteroffensive, the Soviet aviation achieved very considerable results with these flexible and reasonable tactics, and the mature pilot training system also allowed them to make up for the losses caused by the fierce battle, and the Allies were never able to turn the huge numerical advantage into overwhelming air supremacy, On the contrary, they were repeatedly caught off guard by counterattacks or surprise attacks by the other side, and it was these profound lessons that allowed the pilots of the allied countries to grow up step by step. The linear formation of five Mustang quickly dispersed under the impact of the opponent's life, and the US pilots seemed to be isolated, but those who obtained the pursuit position did not shoot blindly, and those who were pursued did not lose an inch, and their flight maneuvers seemed to have been practiced many times, and there seemed to be flaws everywhere, which caused the Soviet pilots to chase after them relentlessly, and fired several times but found nothing.

After lightly attacking a Yak fighter, the "Coconut" found himself bitten by a Soviet fighter from behind. It seized the opportunity to fire a long shot from its 12.7 mm aviation machine gun, and two strings of bullets flew diagonally towards the Mustang. The "Coconut" swung its wings calmly and dodged the bullets after bobbing from side to side. After shaking off the pursuit, he pulled up the nose of the plane violently, and then rolled sideways like a flying acrobatic troupe, easily avoiding the pursuers, and the two mustangs, one left and one right, were obviously waiting nearby for a long time, when the leading Soviet fighter turned back to provide cover for the wingman as usual, the two docile mustangs turned into fierce vicious dogs, the 12.7 mm caliber Browning heavy machine gun fired almost at the same time, and multiple strings of bullets instantly intertwined into a fire net that was difficult to get rid of, and the Soviet fighter turned sideways to the right, and then the nose, The position of the wing flashed, and I saw that it suddenly shook a few times in despair like a reckless man who had been beaten with a stick, and the nose of the plane fell down......