"How are they endless?" A German machine gunner cursed while controlling the machine gun in his hand and tried his best to disperse the various fighters trailing behind, after the collapse of the defensive line, the remaining planes of the opposing side chased after them like sharks asking about the smell of fish, the fierce twin-engine attack aircraft usually dared to attack the bombers with single or double planes, and the weaker fighters usually fell behind in a formation of three or four planes to attack themselves in turn.

The other party is not in a hurry, they control the speed to follow behind, in order to choose a better supply angle, at this time the entire bomber formation only 3 bombers, the chaos and battle damage during the evacuation made many planes unable to find their original teammates, in order to survive, these scattered bombers can only temporarily huddle to resist the opponent from all directions. Around these three bombers, at least a dozen enemy planes of various kinds surrounded and intercepted them. Like a pack of wolves hunting horses, the other side is not in a hurry, but finds a gap and gives the Germans a blow, and then leaves the opponent's attack range before the other side reacts.

These fighters fully comprehended the spirit of ants biting elephants, and they constantly attacked from the tail and from the top, and bullets and shells from both sides flew in the air. UNDER THE STRONG FIREPOWER OF THE SUPERIOR ENEMY, THE MACHINE GUNS AND TURRETS ON THE BOMBERS WERE DESTROYED ONE AFTER ANOTHER, AND THEN IN THE INTENSIVE FIRE OF A LARGE NUMBER OF 20MM MACHINE GUNS, 12.7MM MACHINE GUNS AND EVEN 7.92MM MACHINE GUNS, THESE THREE BOMBERS FINALLY FAILED TO RETURN TO THE BALKANS, TWO PLANES WERE COMPLETELY DESTROYED, AND THE THIRD PLANE WAS FORCED TO LAND IN A FARMLAND.

The outliers were the target of the group's assault, and Grim's own team was not safe. The interceptors of the remaining Haidongqing Brigade followed behind and attacked the formation from time to time, and the Germans had already understood that machine gun fire had little effect on these killers. The box formation was much less useful, and some people who couldn't bear the pressure began to try to get out of the formation and evacuate, but the result of this was to make them die faster.

"These guys don't even have the IQ of birds!" Watching another bomber flee away, Grim scolded indignantly! The Haidongqing Brigade that was following did not rush up to chase the escapee, but divided one attack plane with several fighters to hunt and kill. The remaining planes are still tailgating. Under the impact again and again, the already shaky formation appeared even looser, even if some pilots did not want to get out of the formation. Because the problems of the plane itself were also thrown off by the brigade.

From time to time, a muffled sound like an air hammer came from the air, and every time this sound sounded, it meant that another bomber was about to be destroyed. Grim turned his head to look out the porthole to see a bomber on the edge of the formation, possibly slowly out of formation due to a mechanical failure, and when it was completely out of the range of friendly machine-gun fire, two interceptors sped up. Four bright tongues of fire shot out from above. It took only a few seconds to destroy both wings of this aircraft.

Just when Grim was about to despair about the situation in front of him, a group of small figures suddenly flew from the east made Grim's heart shock, at this time they were almost in the Adriatic Sea, and the target flying from the east sea could never be the opponent's plane! These light, single-engine monoplanes were rapidly closing in on him at a speed that seemed unbelievable to him. "It's Messerschmidt's new plane, and we're saved!" Grim felt a little like a long-term drought in his heart, and just when the situation was about to get completely out of control, the Luftwaffe reinforcements finally arrived! Let Grim and his lancers escape!

Throughout the course of the campaign, the German air command in the Balkans kept an eye on the changing tide of the war. And preparations are being made based on intelligence sent from the front, judging by the situation from the front. The enemy was clearly well prepared, and the fighters escorting the bomber formations had suffered heavy losses in one battle after another, and in order to maintain this expensive strategic force, the Germans had to take out the new fighters they had been hiding for a long time. "It's a waste to use such a good plane against Italy." Richthofen, who later learned about this, once commented. And this kind of aircraft is very close to the historical BF109 in terms of appearance, how to say, it is not very mature BF109. Although the BF109 was only equipped with an engine of about 700HP during this period, its flight performance was still much stronger than that of other early monoplanes and biplanes.

"The speed of the other party is very fast, it is estimated to be close to 500KM per hour. THE WEAPONS ARE ALSO SHARP, WITH A 20MM GUN SUPPOSED TO BE PLACED IN THE ENGINE SHAFT, AND A MACHINE GUN IN THE WING ROOTS, BUT IT IS MORE POWERFUL. Probably because of the lighter weight, the climb is also very good. This is how Wang Yue felt when he first met these nimble guys.

The Luftwaffe had run out of fuel, and after hours of fierce fighting, the Italian and Allied troops were exhausted. The forces then committed by the Germans allowed the shape of the air battle to quickly become balanced. The other side did not engage in a grappling with the fighters of the Entente, but took advantage of the climb and speed advantage, first climbing, then observing, and then diving, attacking, and disengaged. It is the same as the BZ tactics of later generations. It doesn't matter if you fail one attack, then do it a second time, a third time. "We're either guaranteed a high degree of superiority. Either speed superiority is guaranteed, and if you have neither altitude nor speed, then you are not far from being shot down. After the battle, a German pilot said.

"Withdraw, there is not much fuel and ammunition, and it will be no good to continue fighting." In the end, when another batch of German planes appeared in view, Wang Yue decisively chose to evacuate. And Germany's new aircraft did not continue to catch up, probably because of the lack of fuel or because it was considered unnecessary.

"We lost at least 17% of our strategic bombers, and that's not counting those that had to be scrapped when they returned to base." Grim looked out the window at the bomber formation and began to estimate his own losses, in this battle, the Luftwaffe strategic bombers were taken down about 28 units. The rest of the planes were also wounded, and even Grim's own plane was riddled with more than 20 bullet holes. BUT FORTUNATELY, HE WAS NOT HIT BY THAT DEADLY 30MM GUN. Such a rate of losses had already significantly exceeded the Luftwaffe's estimates, and tactically the attack was not successful.

"I wonder what the losses of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force were? It looks like it might be even worse. Grim said in his heart. This time, however, Grim's guess was not very accurate. Maybe for revenge. The Entente and Italy focused their attacks on the German bomber forces, not only the heavy bombers were the target, but also the medium bombers were not spared, the German 4 bombers lost more than 17%, and the proportion of medium bomber losses was as high as 25%! And when the Entente was trying to attack the Germans, there were not enough forces to attack Austria-Hungary again, so the allocated forces were not large. In addition, the Austrians saw that the situation was not good, and many bomber squadrons hurriedly dropped bombs and broke away before entering the target area, so the loss ratio of the Austro-Hungarian bomber formation was only about 15%, although this battle loss ratio was not low, but it was much better than the Germans.

In addition to the bomber formations, the German escort fighter units also suffered heavy losses in this engagement, in this battle, the Germans put in 5 fighter groups to escort more than 200 fighters of various types, and after the battle, at least 65 fighters never returned, and at least a quarter of the losses of these fighters were due to lack of fuel and eventually crashed, except for fighting reasons. However, compared to the loss of strategic bombers, the Germans did not care about the loss of fighters, and the Crown Prince's Air Force alone had up to 600 or so fighters of various types, and with the gradual arrival of the Crown Prince's Air Force, the losses caused by this battle could be easily compensated. So these are really nothing to the Germans.

The Austro-Hungarian fighter fleet also suffered heavy losses, and more than 50 of the more than 100 aircraft of the three air groups involved in the escort failed to return home. Unlike the Germans, however, nearly half of the Austro-Hungarian planes were lost due to fuel and mechanical failures. In particular, the problem of engine stability has been criticized after this operation. After a long air battle, there is a risk of engine overheating, flutter and a drop in intake pressure. So much so that many Austro-Hungarian pilots decided not to use aircraft equipped with engines of national production. Instead of using the same type of German engine.

"We have drawn almost all our strength, and for this campaign we have concentrated no less than 450 fighters of all kinds, and the actual number of planes on the field has reached about 400, and we have taken down nearly 200 German and Austro-Hungarian planes, but we have also lost more than 130 aircraft. If it were a regular rule, at least half of the participating squadrons would need to go back to the rear for reorganization. The Germans could continue to draw troops from within the country, but we used up almost all our reserves. As the Germans licked their wounds, Tycho shuddered when he saw the report of the war damage that had been reported. Although the overall exchange ratio and losses of the Germans were much greater than the losses of the Entente and Italy, if you look at the comparison of the number of battle losses and the overall number of troops, the Entente and Italy suffered even more losses!

The Germans were nothing more than a unit with heavy losses, and the aviation forces deployed in Crete, Egypt did not have any losses. The Germans could continue to launch strategic bombardments against Libya and even Sicily, and the Italians could no longer organize such a large-scale air campaign, unless the Entente and China could give more help, it would be a luxury to restore the air power in Italy to the level it had before the war within a month at the current level of aid!

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