"Noel, Gerhardt, Kesso, Sterling, the four of you who have the privilege of being the fogbreakers of this journey to Nirvana, the next thing to do is to show what you have learned and practiced in your daily life. Tonight, this beautiful moonlit night, will go down in the military history of the Empire because of your sortie. From this moment on, leave all your worries behind and make the most of your talents! ”

This was the middle of the hangar on the upper level of the "Vault" base, and with the sound of the alarm bell as the background, a tall, lanky air colonel wearing a sword and silver oak leaf knight's cross spoke in a serious and impassioned tone to the four pilots who had just been assembled. The four people in front of them did not look young, they formed a double crew, and they were all dressed in handsome and neat flight suits, and the eagle embroidered on their chests shimmered faintly in the light of the incandescent light. Not far behind them, two single-wing, twin-engine jet fighters took their respective positions. At this time, the hangar was arranged like the deck of a large aircraft carrier - although the Germans did not have a single aircraft carrier in service during the war, this could not erase the considerable efforts made by the Luftwaffe Navy and Air Force for the development of carrier-based aircraft, deck take-off and landing, and they determined through thousands of tests and exercises the technical details of conventional take-off, ejection and the use of arresting cables to achieve short landings.

With a slight rumbling sound, the door to the hangar slowly opened, the first time since the "defection" that the hangar door had been opened. As it was designed, crews are rapidly removing the camouflage from the glide platform outside the hangar door and clearing the snow and ice from there, thus providing an extended, angled runway for the take-off of aircraft in the hangar.

The colonel turned his head to look at the open hangar, and the cold wind blew in, which immediately cleared the confusion of people's thoughts, and he crossed his hands on his hips and said, "All right, guys, the words of praise will wait until you return triumphantly." Finally, to reiterate our battle plan: there are two objectives, both in the northeast direction, and the first one is expected to be sprayed soon after you take off, using your familiar two-plane tactics to shoot it down! The second target is 50 kilometers apart, and the radar station will guide you to find and shoot it down. We can't determine their model by radar, it could be a reconnaissance aircraft or a fighter, but in any case, the enemy's planes must be less advanced than your planes, shoot them down! ”

The four pilots stood up in unison and raised their hands in a salute: "Long live the Führer!" ”

The Colonel returned the salute with the same gesture of hand. At this moment, an emotionless male voice came from the loudspeaker in the hangar: "The first volley group, take off in two minutes!" The first volley group, taking off in two minutes! ”

The air colonel looked down at his watch, nodded and said, "Let's go!" ”

With a strangely solemn look, the four pilots turned around and walked towards the landline that had completed the final preparations before departure. The two two-seater ME262B-2B night fighters were practical models at the end of the war, they were equipped with a traditional X-shaped radar antenna in the nose position, which was more compact than the previous BF-110 mount, and there were no additional fuel tanks or air-to-air rockets commonly used at the end of the war under the wings and fuselage, so that their main armament was still four forward-facing MK108 cannons in the nose position and two inclined cannons of the same type at the rear of the fuselage. These large 30mm guns are capable of cutting through the armor of heavy bombers such as the U.S. Flying Fortress, especially against ordinary bombers or fighters.

Along the two-legged ladder that had already been set up by the service personnel, four pilots drilled into the cockpit of the fighter plane in pairs, and the number painted on the fuselage in front was JG09, and the one in the back was JG15, which does not mean that the base currently has more than 15 ME262s that can be put into use, but a kind of false number that deliberately interferes with the opponent's judgment. With the oxygen/talk masks on, the pilots could not tell the difference in age, and the two radar crews/communicators sitting in the back seat adjusted their radio equipment and made contact with the radar station. The attendants closed the side-opening hatch of the cockpit and quickly removed the ladder frames, and the Junkers 004 jet engines of the two fighters were activated with a special sound with a towing sound. The wake blew up some dust particles left on the ground, and the attendants gave way one after another, and the guide waved a green glow stick to signal that the runway was normal. In the command and control room through the glass window, the officers who were idle at hand walked to the window to salute the warriors who went out to fight.

As the roar of the jet engines intensified, the two ME262s left their original positions one after the other and began to move along the line-drawn runway. Aside from the limited space on both sides and upper parts of the hangar, there is no essential difference from taking off from an airport in good condition. Under the control of pilots who are highly skilled but sometimes have never actually flown before, they get faster and faster, and the roar that lingers in people's ears grows louder. The lead JG-09 was the first to glide from the middle of the hangar to the gate, and it crossed the door line unstoppably, and the wheels showed no signs of leaving the ground. Once on the platform, the angle of its fuselage changes with the tilt of the platform, and the distance from the hangar gate to the edge of the platform is less than fifty meters, a distance that is fleeting for a jet that has already accelerated - although this is not the first time that a ME262 has taken off from here, but the last flight dates back to 14 months ago, and the officers and staff in the hangar are all looking forward to it. The twin-engine jet finally rushed through the sliding platform like an arrow, and instead of making a thrilling move that stopped everyone's hearts, it continued to climb along the angle of the sliding platform.

Amid heartfelt cheers, the second ME262 also crossed the hangar gate and onto the sliding platform, and with swift-like lightness, it finally left the ground, climbed with its companions in the clear moonlight, and then turned deftly and gracefully in the hollow, flying northeast with a very popular roar.

In the command and control room of the hangar, a gray-haired general picked up the phone with irrepressible excitement on his face: "Pick up the base command...... Report to Field Marshal Rommel that this is the hangar, and the first volley group has taken off without incident......"

At this time, in the radar station of the base, the technical officers had already observed the changes on the radar screen, and the middle-aged officer wearing glasses quickly and accurately reported the reading: "Our two fighters have taken off, at an altitude of 400 meters, at a distance of 5 kilometers, with an azimuth of 22 degrees to the east of north, and a distance of only 3 kilometers from the No. 1 target, right in front of them!" Height 300 meters! ”

Without pause, the young technical general turned to the liaison: "Tell the pilot...... Target number one is right under their noses, at a height of 400 and at a distance of 3000! ”

There are four crew members in charge of direct line communication, each of whom is responsible for a radio communication device, each of which can direct a two-plane air combat group to track the target's position, which means that they can direct eight or more fighters to intercept operations.

After the guidance message was sent, the pilot's confirmation was quickly transmitted back to the crew's headset, and although the sound was not too loud, the people next to him pricked up their ears to learn about the latest developments.

With a clear area of operation, the Caesar radar is still conducting a 360-degree maneuver probe, while the "Bruno" - an auxiliary radar with a maximum detection range of only 50 kilometers but twice as accurate as the "Caesar" has been turned on, detecting only one direction, it is able to update readings every ten seconds, and the technical officer continuously reports: "The target altitude is decreasing...... 250 meters, measured speed of 380 kilometers per hour, 1500 meters away from the interceptor...... 1000 m ...... 500m ......"

The liaison officer kept repeating the radar readings, in fact, with the two ME262 carried by the FUG218 improved night vision radar, the radar column in the back seat has been able to detect the target and determine the direction on its own, with the German night combat interception mode during the war, the fighter mainly relies on the radar station to guide when looking for the target track, once the enemy fire, the pilots often temporarily turn off the long-distance communication channel until the combat state is lifted.

Just as the combat command and auxiliary departments in the shelter base were in full swing, in the "mountain rock" area located southeast of the base, the soldiers of the Imperial Guard wearing M42 steel helmets drove forklifts and half-track armored vehicles to move rock-like molds ranging from half a meter to four or five meters in height. Only small reconnaissance planes and helicopters could land, and the original designers built a standard runway at the bottom of the valley with heavy engineering equipment in order to arrange a landing deck for the immovable aircraft carrier, and then camouflaged it so that it was no different from a rocky ice valley, but it only took an hour or so for people to clear the place again for fighters and bombers to land.

Hearing the sound of cannon from the sky, Lynn was a little surprised to hold up the telescope, at first only saw the sky illuminated by the bright moon, searched for a moment, and finally saw a flash of black shadows, unlike light gliders, they were as fast as lightning, and under the wing of the pursuer could see two flames from jet engines. Although the preparation of the battle plan was somewhat hasty, the joint efforts with Rommel and the assistance of the staff officers of the base command, most of whom were from the Wehrmacht, basically took into account the possible situations on the battlefield. In order to prevent the Soviets from sending reconnaissance planes overnight to investigate the situation, the air defense forces of the base have also been fully mobilized, and when the situation is necessary, 12 jet fighters and the same number of piston fighters can take off within half an hour, and 22 twin or quadruple anti-aircraft guns that can be lifted and lowered are also used to protect the base. The only regret for Lynn is that the ground-to-air missiles and individual air defense rocket launchers that had been tested at the end of the war were abandoned as an extension of the rocket series, and after he served as the chief strategic staff officer of the base camp, he strongly advised the top management to find and gather rocket experts as much as possible, but the operation on the home ground did not go well, especially after the confrontation and friction between the Eastern and Western camps, the control of their respective occupied areas was more tight, and those experts who stayed in scientific research institutions or fled back to their hometowns were basically looted by Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. Only those who disguised themselves escaped the disaster, but it was not so easy to find them and use them for their own use.

Following the flight trail of the three planes, Lynn kept flashing a meteor-like light in his sight, which was obviously a tracer bullet stuck in a machine gun shell. By the end of World War II, air combat technology had begun to change from the traditional piston-powered, visual guidance, and machine-gun attacks to jet-powered, radar-guided, and mixed attacks with machine guns and rockets. At this time, the night air combat was more primitive than imagined, and it was also difficult for the pilots to perform the skills of conventional air combat, because of this, Lynn chased for more than a minute, and the two sides were still circling in circles in the night sky, and the pursuers used a short-fire mode that saved ammunition, but after seven or eight attacks in a row, there was probably not much ammunition on board.

Just as Lynn began to worry that the Soviet fighter plane would fly back to the Soviet Union with an observation of the battlefield or at least fly out of the radio jamming area to report to the command, a brilliant fireball suddenly appeared in the night sky. He used his hands to stabilize the telescope, and in the night, the fireball fell downwards with his usual speed, and the fire was not extinguished until it hit the ground.

Based on this observation alone, Lynn could not be sure that it was the Soviet plane that fell, but after a few moments, two planes flew overhead with a continuous roar, and he was relieved.

At least in the face of the Soviet Air Force, the ME262 still maintained a clear technological superiority.

As the distance increased, the roar of the high-speed aircraft gradually weakened, but they did not disappear completely, and the roar sounded from low to high, and finally the two warhawks flew across the battlefield at an altitude of about two hundred meters. With the radar and ammunition technology of this era, they cannot provide fire support on the ground battlefield at night, but their existence is at least a psychological interference and deterrent to the enemy. Prior to this, the battle for the largest camp of the Soviet army had been going on for nearly a quarter of an hour, and the input of eight snow leopards and more than 200 night fighters did not make the battle one-sided. It can be seen that the Soviet troops are very determined to defend, and their main front has been torn apart by the tanks and night infantry of the attacking side, and the remnants of the troops are desperately resisting in groups. Some of them hide in snow pits, and some hide in ice ditches, which are not conducive to the observation and judgment of infrared night vision devices. In addition, some Soviet soldiers used heavy mortars to carry out long-range indiscriminate attacks from the rocky terrain about four kilometers on the left, which certainly killed some friendly troops and also had a certain impact on the attack of the Emperor [***] team, but fortunately, the night combat team that skied from the outside had just solved the tricky problem. Now, the officers and soldiers of the 1st Company of the Night Battalion have begun to clean up the mess, and in order not to affect the speed of the attack, Lynn directly asked the 3rd Company of the Night Battalion to bypass this Soviet camp and advance to the coast.

When two jet fighters whizzed overhead for the third time, Franz, who had been lurking in the Soviet Union for more than two years, sighed: "It turns out that they are the real elegant and dashing imperial knights." ”

Lynn put down the binoculars and responded very seriously: "Actually, it's not easy to be a pilot." ”

Seeing the two ME262s flying in the direction of the base, Franz turned his head to look at Lynn, and his puzzled gaze obviously did not understand what Lynn was referring to. To this day, the secrets of the disc flying machine are still in the hands of a very small number of people - Lynn is one of them.

At this time, Gerhardt also felt the same way. Captain Desschel, a full-time night fighter radar crewman, raised his head and looked through the cockpit canopy to the right front when the radar station personnel gave clear guidance, and there was not even a single shining star in the night sky except for the bright moon. The target they shot down before seemed to be a single-wing, single-engine reconnaissance plane or fighter plane, which basically did not have the ability to fight at night, but the Soviet pilot's evasion skills were obviously very skillful. It took a lot of effort for a night ace like Lieutenant Colonel Helot to shoot it down, and ammunition was obviously a more worrying problem than fuel.

"Nighthawk Squad...... The No. 2 target is flying near the coastline at an altitude of 700 and 10 degrees east-north in azimuth, at a speed of about 320 kilometers per hour......"

"Did our radar spot it?"

Also hearing the guidance of the radar station, Lieutenant Colonel Helot, who was sitting in the front cockpit, asked his partner questions about the wired communication in the plane.

Captain Deschel replied: "Yes, right ahead, we are flying towards it!" Ammunition is running out! ”

"The big guy with a speed of 320 kilometers per hour should be a long-range patrol and reconnaissance plane, and this time I will strive for it with one shot!" The lieutenant colonel's words are half judgment and half guess.

Captain Deschel didn't answer, and even if the forward guns ran out of ammunition, the two oblique guns behind him would still be useful. In night air combat, the technical difficulty of "disemboweling" from under an enemy aircraft is actually slightly less than that of a rear-end attack, because the attacker at least does not have to worry about the risk of collision due to the difference in speed.

At speeds of over 720 km/h, the ME262 is capable of covering more than a dozen kilometers per minute, and its climb is just as impressive. In less than a cigarette, the indication on the altimeter has increased from 400 to 1,400 meters, and the radar has changed the location of the target from above to below. With more than 5,000 meters to go, Captain Desschel was about to remind his partner, but he heard Lieutenant Colonel Helot laugh - the cabin was noisy, and he still heard the voice of the customary surname through the communicator. Looking down to the right through the canopy, the calm sea looks like a homogeneous piece of glass, and if you look closely, you can see the enemy's aircraft with the naked eye. Contrary to the lieutenant colonel's guess, it was an aircraft with two engines and a conventional layout, which may not be very large, but at least it was clumsier than a single-engine fighter. Now that the target has been spotted, the nose of the jet warhawk is pressed down, and the speed begins to increase, although Captain Desschel did not directly observe it, he knows that the lieutenant colonel has impatiently turned on the shooting safety, and the Soviet plane may have sensed the approach of danger, but an ordinary twin-engine bomber could not avoid the attack of two jet fighters in any case.

(To be continued)