The air combat hero Wang Weiyi mentioned was Hans. Joachim. Marseillo!

The new and shining hero of the German Air Force in air combat may never have thought of himself and the famous Ernst Brown. What will Marshal Bram have to do with it.

What he didn't expect was that Ernst. Marshal Bram actually saved his own life.

Sometimes, it's better to keep the secret forever. Ernst. Marshal Bram would not let him know what had happened.

His only request for Marseilleu is to keep breaking the record set by Marseilleu himself:

Keep shooting down enemy planes one after another!

Hans. Joachim. Marseilleu, this is a legendary figure

In the spring of 1941, Warrant Officer Pilot Marseilleu was transferred to Africa with the 1st Group of the 27th Combat Aviation Regiment.

Marseillo walked for half a day in the truck of the Italian army, feeling that it was too slow. Later, he went to the airfield on the side of the road and asked if the plane from Benghazi to Delna had landed here, but no one knew for sure. Finally, he found a general in charge of logistics supply on the road where the logistics supply vehicle passed. He tried his best to explain to the general that he was a commander of a four-unit crew, and that he had to rush to the front tomorrow anyway, and begged for a car to be sent to take him. Perhaps the general, seeing that Marseilleu was so pungent, remembered his youth, and he was so moved by the young officer's earnest request that he sent his "Admiral Oppel" high-speed car to take him back to the front. This incident surprised the officers of the Logistics Command and looked at each other.

At parting. The general said to him: "Then, thank me for the record of shooting down fifty enemy planes." How's that, lad? ”

"Yes. Excellency. Marseilleu replied solemnly.

The car ran all night. The next day, Marseilleu proudly arrived at Gazala airport in a high-speed car with a general's flag. Squadron Leader Gerhard. Holmt was astonished to see him. It turned out that the squadron had stopped at Benghazi airport for a night and had flown here just two hours earlier. Marseilleu "walked" 800 kilometers at a speed similar to that of the Me109, which is not slow!

There are many more "Marseilleu-esque" stories like this. When passing through Delna, the Admiral Opel had to be refueled here, and Marchieu took advantage of the opportunity to collect his salary. When the accountant was about to write the matter down in his military handbook. Marseilleu started the fire:

"That page can't be scribbled, it must be empty!" It turned out that the page was used to record the merits of the war, and the words "Iron Cross for Merit of the First Class" were already written on it.

The accountant asked, "Do you still plan to take credit for more than one grade?" ”

"Of course!" Marseilleu replied. Thereupon. The accountant left plenty of room on the empty page, and he scoffed, "That's big enough, isn't it?" Even the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Sword and Cypress Leaf is remembered! ”

21-year-old John. Marseilleu described himself as "the oldest warrant officer in the Air Force", and he should have been promoted to second lieutenant a long time ago, but his appraisal was too poor. So until now. He was also a warrant officer. During the training, he was proud, often quarreled with others, and violated flight rules. The commander had a bad impression of him. Hence the strange comment written on Marseilleu's identification form: "As a pilot, bad character". This comment is still preserved in Marseilleu's archives. Therefore, no matter how brave Marseilleu was on the battlefield and what he achieved in that air battle in the Anglo-French Channel. Even if I change to a new boss later, I don't always get trust.

He was determined to prove himself a good fighter pilot with his real actions in Africa. Over Tobruk, a new battlefield. The 3rd Squadron of the 27th Combat Aviation Regiment recorded his first record. It seems like this is a good start. However, Marseilleu was not satisfied with this, and he always wanted to try his luck in killing in a hurry. As a result, he often rushed into the middle of the British Air Force fleet and flew back to the airport with a bruised plane.

Marseilleu was incredibly lucky. At one point, when he occasionally looked down, a machine-gun bullet from a Hurricane plane just pierced his flight cap, and he was not hurt at all.

After the air battle of Tobruk, he made a forced landing in no man's land, but still managed to find the German positions. Another time, his engine was punctured, oil mist sprayed on the front windshield and he couldn't see anything, and in that case he flew back to base. But after all, he couldn't do it for long, so the captain of the group, Captain Norman, called him in and reprimanded him.

"The reason why you are alive now is that you are smart is not so much that you have handed in good luck. It can't go on like this! Don't expect too much from fate and planes. ”

Captain Norman secretly felt that the young pilot contained an immeasurable fighting spirit and strength. It's just that there is still a lack of exercise. Norman was well aware of his responsibility as an educator and could not take away the courage from him. But courage must be combined with prudence and self-denial. Norman encouraged him by saying:

"You're going to be a great pilot. However, it will take time and experience. In short, if you continue to do it like you used to, time will go to waste. ”

Marseilleu admits his mistake and is determined to make amends. But it's just that he won't change his method of attack. He had long hated the tactics he had learned in aviation school of attacking only from behind enemy planes. He was thinking about how he could master his beloved aircraft so that he could accurately shoot enemy planes from any position, not only in a straight line, but also in maneuvers such as hovering, climbing, and rolling.

This skill can only be mastered by a very small number of people, and most people shoot at that position with a large error. Marseilleu, on the other hand, has a special inspiration for time and space. After rigorous training for himself, he developed a superhuman acuity. Whenever the 3rd Squadron returned home, he always asked that he be allowed to fly alone. With permission, Marseilleu flew around his comrades in his beloved plane, practicing over and over again in various states. Methods of shooting from a variety of different angles.

It took Marseilleu a long time to master this tactic, and it took him all summer 1941. On September 24, he performed his first miraculous feat. Shoot down five enemy aircraft in one fell swoop. In the morning, a Martin-Maryland plane was shot down, and in the afternoon, after half an hour of fierce fighting between the top of Mount Halfa and Sidi Barani, four more Hurricanes were shot down in succession.

By this time, Marseilleu had already been promoted to second lieutenant. He led his four crews to repeatedly break into enemy aircraft formations, attack from different angles, and finally break through the circular defensive formations of enemy aircraft. Marseilleu bites the enemy's last plane. Killed it over Sidi Barani. This was the result of his 23rd enemy plane.

"Roughly understood, right?" That very night, Marseilleu asked his comrade-in-arms Hans. Arnault. Second Lieutenant Schutler Schmitt revealed his secret.

Soon it rained heavily. The fighter base was flooded. Later, the British launched a powerful autumn offensive. Rommel's corps was forced to retreat to sortie positions.

However, Marseilleu is still flying, fighting. February 24, 1942. He was awarded the Knight's Cross for shooting down forty-eight enemy aircraft. In April of the same year, he was promoted to lieutenant. In early June, he was promoted to squadron leader of the 3rd squadron. At the same time, Captain Holmt took over as the captain of the 1st Brigade. Major Norman, who effectively supported Rommel's large-scale offensive without a single casualty of his own, was promoted to commander of the 217th Combat Aviation Regiment on the African Front.

By this time, John. Marseilleu began to become a "star" shining in the skies over the African continent. Among the "foxes of the desert" in Germany and Italy, Marseilleu's "Yellow 14" enjoyed the same legendary reputation as Rommel's command armored car.

In the battle of Gazala on June 3, 1942, it took Marseilleu 11 minutes to shoot down six Curtiss and Tomahawk planes of the South African Fifth Squadron in succession. These South African planes attempted to wipe out the Ju87 formation of the 3rd Dive Bomber Regiment at the front of the desert fortress of Bir Hakeim. Although the German bombs hit their targets, Bill Hakeim, the southern pillar of the British Ghazala front, was still standing. The French soldiers used a wide minefield as a barrier. Hold on to skillfully deployed positions, trenches and more than 1,200 important strongholds armed with anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns.

In Rommel's opinion. Without taking Bill Hakem first, he would not be able to move forward, and the entire battle plan would be bankrupt as a result. To this end, he instructed the "Commander of the African Air Force" Hoffmann. Feng. Val Daw will increase the intensity of continuous dive bombing.

The enemy is also well aware of the seriousness of the situation. Major General Cunningham of the British Air Force transferred squadrons of fighters, fighter-bombers, and bombers of the British "Western Desert Air Force" to deal with the German army in the air and on the ground.

Lieutenant Colonel Ziger's 3rd Dive-Bombing Aviation Regiment suffered huge losses. As a result of the attack on Bill Hakeim, fourteen Ju87s were lost in one week. To make matters worse, the Air Force flew planes to bomb it, but the ground forces could not keep up with it, making the Air Force's painstaking efforts futile.

The commanders of Rommel's forces urged him to intensify the offensive, but Rommel insisted on refusing to commit more troops to the desert fortress. Fon Rommel, disappointed. General Waldau reported to Kesselring that due to poor air-ground coordination, dive bombing was almost pointless, and only required unnecessary sacrifices.

Kesselring immediately flew to Rommel's station and told Rommel: "This is not the case! It was only a few days before Rommel transferred the 135th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment under the command of Colonel Folz to the front of Bir Hakem, which had been holding back the onslaught of British armoured forces in recent days. Still, to no avail. As a result, he withdrew several main forces from the northern front and threw them into this "nasty desert cave", which worked.

On 9 June, two weeks after the German-Italian offensive, dive bombers attacked Birhakem again, destroying an important artillery position two kilometres north of the fort. In the evening of the same day, Feng. Waldau reported to Rommel: "To this day, the number of aircraft put into operation in support of ground forces in Bir Hakam has amounted to one thousand and thirty. The next day, June 10, he ordered all the planes to make three sorties. Kesselring also brought in several Ju88 Brigades from the 1st Flight Training Regiment from Greece and Crete to support the African front.

The sky over the battlefield was foggy and dusty. The pilots were unable to distinguish friend or foe, so the first attack wave was interrupted. At noon and in the afternoon, the dive bombers were again sorted, divided into twelve attack waves, and 200 aircraft were sorted. Among them, there are 124 Ju87 aircraft and 76 Ju88 aircraft.

The German bombs were dropped accurately. One hundred and forty tons of bombs fell on the positions of the brave French soldiers. Sappers and infantry rushed into enemy positions with the help of smoke screens after the bombs exploded.

On 10 June, 168 Messerschmitt planes met British fighters. It was the first time in an African theater of war that a Spitfire was engaged. During the battle, Lieutenant Marseilleu shot down four Spitfires in succession. These are the seventy-eighth to eighty-first enemy aircraft shot down by Marseilleu.

Bill Hakeim's gas is out. On the night of the 10th, General Kenig led a part of the garrison to break through and retreat to the British front. In the early morning of June 11, the white flag was raised at the desert fortress.

Rommel finally got rid of his worries. (To be continued......)