For Captain Wink, who has participated in air battles in China, the history of air combat over the past month is a wonderful memory, flying the latest Hurricane fighter jets and achieving ten crashes in the past month, six of which were He51 and FW90 that gave him a huge nightmare.

Major Wink took part in the British intervention in China in 1935 and experienced the five-month aerial grinder. At that time, the Chinese and British air forces had three large-scale battles over Shanghai and Hangzhou, and Major Wink participated in most of them from beginning to end, until the third major air battle broke out in February 1936, when he ran out of luck and was beaten down by his opponent in the air.

At that time, he had already achieved six crashes on the Chinese battlefield that could not be "100 percent" confirmed, but he had seen countless times that his friendly troops were beaten down by his opponents like wild ducks. The last time he participated in an air battle in China was on 5 February, when he flew a gladiator fighter to escort his own bombers, and then encountered a large group of aircraft from the Chinese and Soviet air forces.

Wenk, who was still a lieutenant at the time, ran out of luck at the beginning of the air battle, he just saw a blue-white He51 fighter coming head-on, and it was only a small blue dot of 800 meters, and the opponent opened fire directly, and then his plane was shot at the first time, and the engine was directly blown out and emitted black smoke, and soon lost power and fell headlong to the ground.

As his flight dragged black smoke to the ground, Lieutenant Wink saw the opponent who shot him down, a He51 with a striking "13" number on it, the most famous "blue witch" in the sky over Shanghai Airlines.

Captain Wenke, who had successfully parachuted, was blown by a strong wind to the Red Army's control area, and then captured by several militiamen. He stayed in the prisoner camp for more than half a year, and was not released until the complete armistice between China and Japan. British prisoners of war who were captured at that time, ordinary soldiers were released as early as June, but officers and pilots were held by the Red Army until the end of the war. Although there was no mistreatment in the camp, and the food treatment was so-so, the experience was definitely not a good memory.

As Dowding predicted, the RAF lost more than 1,700 pilots and crew members killed in China during the five-month air battle, 400 were captured, and the air force was nearly disabled. Postwar. The Royal Army, which had suffered heavy losses, recovered their pilots who had participated in the capture. All entrusted to reuse. As one of the few trump cards who did not survive in the Shanghai-Hangzhou air battle, he was promoted two levels in a row and was entrusted with important tasks.

In the eight months since the end of the war after its withdrawal from China, the Royal Air Force has been desperately training pilots, recovering little by little to lose its vitality in the skies over China.

After the end of the Shanghai air battle. The Royal Air Force became the laughing stock of the whole world. The U.S. news media even more openly ridiculed these veterans of the Royal Air Force, who couldn't even beat a woman. actually let a woman brush up on them to achieve a record of nearly two hundred -- in order to prove that Li Huamei's number of shootdowns was not injected with water, after each air battle, as long as it could hit the wreckage of the downed fighter plane. The number of the downed plane and the identification number of the pilot will be published, and it is well documented that the list can be determined to be more than 100.

When the British intervention wolf fled back to Zhoushan Island, the cover of Time magazine in the United States was a POSE photo of Li Huamei standing next to the He51 fighter plane painted with the downing logo, and this sentence was written in English next to it.

"Nomancandefeat!"

This sentence is obviously plagiarized from the classic lines of the demon king in the first part of the movie "The Legend of King Arthur".

The Royal Air Force, with its glorious history, became the laughing stock of the whole world, and was ridiculed by the American and German media as "an air force defeated by a woman".

Humiliated, the royal licked his wounds, intensified his training, and worked hard to restore his vitality and morale. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in January 1937, under the covert promotion of the British government, a large number of Royal Air Force pilots who received new fighters entered Spain in the name of "volunteers" and directly intervened in the Spanish Civil War.

The loss of elite pilots can be recouped by the long hours of training and burning money, but the fighting spirit and courage that were shattered in the skies over China can only be restored by the victory of the Tongguò war.

Relying on the excellent performance of the new Hurricane fighter, the Hurricane fighter was eye-catching in a month's air battle, defeating the old opponent who brought nightmares to the Royal Air Force last year, and also restoring some of the self-confidence of the Royal Air Force, which had been shattered on the Chinese battlefield.

On 15 February, Major Wink flew again in a sortie, this time with four fighters in his flying group.

The air battle over Spain is completely different from the air battle over Shanghai and Hangzhou in China.

In the air battle over Shanghai and Hangzhou, the strategic objectives of the two warring sides were strikingly identical.

On the British side, the original idea was to rely on its absolute superiority in national strength and numbers to destroy the opponent's air force in World War I to clear the way for future landing battles.

The Red Army's thinking was to take advantage of the home advantage, generation advantage, and humanoid radar advantage to inflict maximum damage on the Royal Air Force before the British realized that they were actually on the side of a slight advantage, and to force the British to give up their illusion of regaining China by means of "excessive blood loss."

Since the goal of both sides was to destroy the opponent's air force, and the battlefield was confined to the "bathtub" of Hangzhou Bay, the air battle from the very beginning became the most direct head-on confrontation with the "anus" without any buffer room. That's why in air battles, the warring sides lose hundreds or even nearly a thousand aircraft in a few days.

The air battle in Spain, on the other hand, was an external situation.

The task of the planes of both sides is to cover the attack of the ground troops, because the battlefield is wide enough and the "density" of the planes is insufficient, the superior side is simply unable to maintain "complete air supremacy" in the air, and the inferior side can also use the tactics of sneak attack, taking advantage of the large gap in the opponent's air defense network to break into the sneak attack, and turn around and run away after the bombing. Here, guerrilla warfare in small groups and small formations is often the mainstream of air warfare.

This situation was also encountered by the Red Army on the battlefields of Shandong and Hebei, and both the Red Army and Japanese planes used this attack tactic. In this situation, the fighting between the air forces of the two sides. It becomes a game of hide-and-seek between hunters and prey, and the main task of the fighter is to cover its own bombers and attack aircraft. The form of air combat has also changed from a "life-and-death duel" to a contest between assassins and guards.

Lieutenant Wink was tasked with escorting four Bristol Blenheim light bombers (the name was so long, it would be called the Blenheim bombers), which were to bomb the city of Córdoba of the Republican Army.

In Spain, both the Republican Army and the Franco National Army have small air forces, and the number of aircraft fluctuates between 300 and 500, and the number of sorties per day is usually less than 100. When attacking, I also like to use small teams to attack. The main reason is that the number of pilots on both sides is insufficient. In last month's air battle, the Republican side lost hundreds of aircraft in a month, which was already a very heavy loss. On the Franco National Army's side, if it weren't for the Royal Air Force's backing. Its air force has long been depleted. After a crushing defeat on the battlefield in China. The Royal Air Force needed a good "battlefield" to restore self-confidence and morale. The Spanish Civil War was undoubtedly an excellent and cost-effective training ground for them.

The city of Córdoba is located in south-central Spain, and when the civil war broke out, the Franco National Army briefly controlled the city. Then, with the entry of a large number of international columns with actual combat experience in China, Franco's Nationalist Army was beaten out. By February of this year, the Nationalist Army, with the support of the British, had made a comeback.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Lieutenant Wink's small group appeared over Córdoba.

The Blenheim light bomber was a high-speed bomber with a maximum speed of more than four hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. One of the "wrong" effects of the Chinese War of 1935~1936 on the development of world aviation was that the concept of "fast bomber" was confirmed. In the 1936 war against Japan, the two high-speed bombers DO17 and HE111 in the Sino-Soviet air force also made a big splash, and the British and Japanese biplanes could not catch them in the air at speeds of more than 400 kilometers per hour. As a result of this, countries are more convinced of the design idea of "fast bomber".

But in reality, this is the wrong idea, nothing more than a "beautiful mistake" caused by the generational difference created by the twin-engine bomber to the obsolete biplane. Hannah and Linhan, who were the traversers, knew about the mistake, but the British didn't.

On the Spanish battlefield, due to the fact that the air defense networks of both sides were full of loopholes, the Blenheim bombers, which were very fast in this era, had not yet exposed their shortcomings, and they had received rave reviews so far in the war, and the battle loss rate was also acceptable.

Climbing down from the sky, the city of Córdoba is in ruins, and the city has long since been scorched by the warring sides after three months of repeated battles between the warring sides. In many parts of the city, there is still the black smoke that has not been extinguished from last night's fierce battle, and the black smoke columns float high in the sky, and the sky and the clouds above are connected together.

Today was a cloudy day, and Major Wink drove around the city with the Blenheim light bomber, watching him focus on bombing the city hall and other key facilities in the center of the city, and then he was still using machine guns to strafe the ground.

The Spanish Civil War has been brutal to this day, with both warring sides battling to brush up on the moral limit. The torture and killing of prisoners of war by the two warring sides has long been known in Europe, and civilians other than soldiers often kill each other because of their religious beliefs, which makes Major Wink, who "enjoyed" the "humanitarian treatment" of the Red Army during the intervention in the Chinese war, very disgusted. Major Wink did not learn how to fly a bomber to lower altitude and strafe the ground, not out of chivalry, but from the brutal air combat in China: the task of the fighter is to be used for air combat, and the fighter should not be allowed to do anything stupid with danger, including the stupid thing of lowering the altitude to strafe the ground.

Major Wink ordered: "Do your own thing, keep your heights, and be vigilant. The clouds are too thick today, don't fly too low. ”

Hurricane fighters in a four-plane formation circled over the city without any intention of lowering altitude.

Recruits are more interested in attacking, while veterans are more concerned with not making mistakes. The city of Córdoba had weak anti-aircraft fire, and as a veteran who survived the most brutal air battles, he did not want to take even a hundredth-of-the-line risk.

It was the right decision.

The Blenheim light bomber had swept away its bullets and was about to leave when two BF109B fighters suddenly burst out of the clouds behind the left rear of Major Wink's plane and swooped down on his plane formation.

Fortunately, his crew was on high-altitude circling alert. When the two BF109B fighters burst out of the clouds, Major Wink himself did not see it, but the crew behind him spotted the attacking opponent.

"At three o'clock, two 109s are rushing towards you."

Alerted by his teammates on the radio, Major Wink spotted the enemy aircraft in time. Although the opponent dived down at a relatively high height, the distance was a little farther, and the angle of the cut was not the best six-point direction. As a battle-hardened pilot, Major Gentle knew how to deal with the situation.

BF109 joined the IRA side when the Germans were in transit with the aircraft carrier Guò Hamburg in early February, and Major Winck learned about it from the Navy. In the past half a month. Other battlefields have also reported that the Hurricanes have fought against the Republican Army's new fighter jets. As far as the pilot's report is concerned, the performance of both aircraft has its own strengths. However, due to the small number of combat records, the British did not know much about the specific performance of this new German fighter.

Major Wink maneuvered the Hurricane fighter to the left, ready to cut into his opponent's inside corner and reverse the tail bite.

The faster it is. The ability to hover will inevitably decrease. The circling performance of the Hurricane fighter is good. Major Wen had received little information from elsewhere that the new German aircraft had excellent speed and climbing ability, but its hovering performance was mediocre.

There was only one BF109B in the raid. The other is at high altitude cover. At the time of the bombing of the city of Córdoba, the two BF109s were on combat readiness patrol in other directions, and they hurried to meet Major Wen's escort plane when they received an air raid alert.

By the time Major Wink's Hurricane fighters began to circle, the BF109B, which had dived down, had begun firing from eight hundred meters away.

"Hmph, is it a rookie?"

Major Gentle Snorted disdainfully.

Although the MG131 machine gun bullet also has good ballistics at a distance of 800 meters, firing at a distance of 800 meters, except for the "blue witch" in China, the rest of the people are doing this purely to waste bullets.

"Fire so far away, do you think you're Blue Thirteen?"

He hummed disdainfully in his heart, and then he felt the fuselage thump, and a few seconds later, he was surprised to find that the left side of his Hurricane fighter's engine was constantly emitting extremely thick black smoke, and the sound of the propeller spinning quickly became abnormal.

"I was shot, how is this possible?"

Major Wink turned his head to see that the BF109B had quickly passed the right side of his plane, and as he flew past his plane, Major Wink could clearly see the striking Arabic numeral "13" on the opposing plane, as well as the familiar blue-and-white sky camouflage.

"Oh my God, it's Blue Thirteen! Blue Thirteen is back! How did she come to Spain! ”

Major Wink's friendly communicator was heard with his frightened cries. At this time, the blue-and-white BF109 had already bitten ferociously into another hurricane in the distance.

On the same day, Major Wink commanded the heavily damaged Hurricane fighter jet to fly to the position controlled by the Franco National Army outside the city and parachuted, and finally the Nationalist Army on the ground rescued him.

And the friendly troops and the bomber crew that he was covering with were not so lucky.

Li Huamei, who rushed to the battlefield urgently, shot down two Hurricane fighters, including him, in the air battle that day, and one of his friendly planes also shot down one of them.

The four Blenheim bombers that were covered by them were also caught up by BF109 fighters coming from other directions in the process of escaping, and all of them were shot down. The other two downed Hurricane fighters, one pilot was shot down directly in the air, the other parachuted and landed successfully and was captured, and the angry IRA side directly shot the hapless British pilot to revenge the Nationalist Army for shooting the captured Republican pilot not long ago.

In the increasingly brutal Spanish Civil War, it was not uncommon to shoot and kill captured pilots of their opponents.

Major Wenk was unlucky to meet Li Huamei in both air battles, and even more unfortunate was that he had just fought each other, and was directly hit by the engine twice in Li Huamei's 800-meter ultra-long-distance "school shooting".

Luckily he was only hit in the engine and not the cockpit on both occasions, and even more fortunately, he survived both successful skydives.

When the air battle ended, a message echoed repeatedly in the radio broadcast over the entire western class.

"Blue 13, the Blue Witch has arrived in Spain!"

A few days later, the news spread again throughout Europe.

Unlucky and lucky, Major Wink did not know at this time that for a long time to come, he and his teammates would be in the skies of Spain to relive the nightmare they enjoyed in China.

In 1937, the Hurricane fighter and the BF109B were actually half a pound and eight taels of performance. The BF109 appeared in the skies over Spain, bringing the performance of the fighters of both warring sides back on the same page. However, the appearance of Li Huamei, an inhuman super trump card, is an important weight that affects the balance. In the skies of Spain, the scale of the planes on both sides at the time of the air battle was not large, which was just suitable for the space where a super ace like Li Huamei could show his strength the most.

The Royal Air Force figured out that the Spanish battlefield "repaired" the "self-confidence" that had been badly damaged in China, and this dream was destined to turn into a second nightmare. (To be continued......)