Before the three people in the cockpit could be freed from the false alarm, the Della Belle in the pilot's position was shot.

"Oh my God."

Mueller muttered.

The nose of the Della Belle was knocked off in its entirety, and the navigator and bombardier fell out of the plane just like that.

"They didn't have parachutes on their backs......" Eric whispered.

"Attention everyone, buckle up and bring your parachute!"

"With a parachute on our backs, we can't move in the cabin!" The voice of the Heavy was heard in the in-flight communications.

"That's right," the spherical turret shooter immediately agreed, "I can't bring a parachute at all!" ”

"Then buckle up your seatbelts."

As soon as Mueller's voice fell, a radio call came from the headset: "This is the Della Belde, we are leaving the queue, please ask the Morpheus Macho to take over as the pilot aircraft." ”

Everyone fell silent, and Muller looked at the Decora Beauty, which slowly lowered its altitude and exited the queue, and suddenly felt a little dry in his mouth. Everyone knows what it means to leave the queue at such a time, without the cover of the machine-gun fire net provided by the entire bomber fleet, the lone B17 has only one ending.

"The enemy withdrew." The spherical turret shooter said, "I saw them break away in level flight." ”

"yes, they're running out of ammo, of course they're leaving. Believe me, the next wave will come soon, and we won't wait long. Mueller whispered, "Radio, give me the whole fleet." ”

"Connected, sir, you can say it."

"This is the Memphis Macho Man, and we're starting to serve as the pilot aircraft all over the place, and all the crew are following me forward, over."

After Mueller ended the call, there was silence for a long time in the in-flight communications, and suddenly the spherical turret shooter said, "Hey, guys, do you remember the left machine gunner of the Della Belle?" I can't remember his name. ”

"Schiller."

"No, that's their tail gunner, I think it's Ron, and he hasn't given me the laundry money I paid for him."

"Ron is the top gunner, I'm talking about the left machine gunner. It's the guy who knows a lot of jokes, and he seems to be from Texas. He told me a joke last night, and it's very interesting, and I'll tell you about it.

"It is said that there was a reconnaissance plane pilot who was shot down during the reconnaissance of the European continent, and when he landed, he broke his leg, and the Germans saw that his leg could not be saved, so they amputated his leg. Then the pilot said, 'Please, throw my leg on the land of my homeland.' The Germans did so and dropped their legs to his base. Then he had another leg that became infected and had to be amputated, so the pilot said, 'Please throw this leg of mine on the soil of my homeland.' The Germans did so. Then his hand was no longer working, and he had to have his leg amputated, and the fellow said to the Germans: 'Please throw my hand back too.' This time the Germans refused, and the Germans said: 'No, sir, now we suspect that you intend to run away in this way!' ’”

Only the tail gunner let out a hearty laugh, and everyone else was silent.

"I like the joke," the spherical turret shooter continued, "but I can't remember the name of the person who told the joke, I can't remember his face at all." ”

"Never mind what his name is," said Müller, "it's a good joke, and if you keep it in mind, you might be able to use it when you're a girl." ”

"Okay, I'll remember."

Then the in-flight communications fell silent again, and Mueller concentrated on piloting the plane.

"I always thought we were going to be attacked by a sea fox." Eric whispered that he had cut off the loop of the laryngeal patch microphone so that only Mueller could hear what he had just said.

"Listen, the intelligence services believe that the Germans only have about eighty Sea Hens, and one of the major characteristics of this equipment is that it is difficult to maintain, and it takes more than 30 hours to overhaul it on the ground after flying in the sky for a few hours, especially if we hit it on the surface with a machine gun. So we have never seen more than four sea female fox formations, this kind of expensive hunters are two-plane operations, they will leave after killing a few prey, our entire fleet has hundreds of B17s! ”

"But we're navigators now." Eric turned his head to look at Muller, "Maybe the sea fox can only take a few of us, so the chance of bad luck for the other planes in the formation is only one percent, but we are the pilot, oh my God, we will definitely be attacked as the number one target." ”

"We were the only crew in the formation with three experiences," Mr. Mueller said, "and we didn't start out as a pilot because I wasn't as senior as the captain of the other planes, you know?" Now it's our turn, and we'll have to lead until the Germans finish us off. Otherwise, how would we deal with the crews of the other aircraft that appeared to be leading the fleet? ”

Eric was silent for a few seconds, then continued: "We can direct the group to the nearest city, drop the bomb there and go back, we have blown up the Germans, the goal has been accomplished. ”

"And then we're going to go court-martialed for directing the fleet to the wrong place, and we're going to put the blame on the navigator at that point?"

Eric finally stopped talking.

Mueller waited for a while, then changed his soft tone and said, "Don't worry, since we can survive three times, we will survive the fourth." Trust that Lady Luck is always there for us. ”

"But you named our plane Macho Man."

"That's what attracts lady luck, doesn't it?"

"Enemy planes!" The tail gunner shouted, "Approaching from the rear!" ”

"Greet them with bullets!" Mueller unconsciously raised his voice.

The advantage of being a pilot aircraft is that if the enemy comes from the rear, then they have to pass through the entire fleet's network of fire. The enemy will have the largest firing window from the rear, can shoot calmly, and can also fire more ammunition, if you face the head from the front, the enemy plane's firing window will be much smaller, at that time the relative speed of the two sides is seven or eight hundred kilometers per hour, the opportunity to attack is fleeting, relatively speaking, it is relatively difficult to inflict decisive wounds on the heavily armored B17.

Of course, a head-to-head attack is the last thing Mueller wants, which means that he and his co-pilot are likely to be the enemy's preferred targets.

"I saw one shot down." The tail gunner loudly reported, "but more are rushing through the formation." ”

As soon as the tail gunner's voice fell, Muller's eyes caught the trajectory of the tracer bullet, which generally emitted green or blue light, which was quite different from the red tracer bullet used by the US military.

Mueller could do nothing but pray that the enemy plane would not be hit - this was a B17, and he could not maneuver at all, and the only thing he could rely on was the shooting skills of the shooters.

"I hit a fight!"

The machine gunner on the right shouted: "I hit a fight, and he dragged his cigarette down!" ”

"Well done brother," Mueller did not forget that as a commander, he should affirm the achievements of his subordinates at any time and place, "them hard!" Beat them down! ”

Suddenly, Müller felt the body tremble, and he swung the joystick slightly, making sure that there was still feedback from each rudder face—if the control line between the rudder and the rudder was broken, the joystick would feel fluttery when twisted in the corresponding direction.

"I just felt a noticeable tremor, and everyone paid attention to see where it was hit." Mueller said as he checked the gauges on the instrument cluster to confirm the readings.

"It's the tail," the radioman cried out, "and I see that the tail has been shaved off, but the rudder is still working." ”

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, you're hitting the rudder to the left right now, right?"

Mueller was relieved.

The B17's vertical tail is particularly large, and it doesn't matter if it is slightly damaged, since he can still control the plane normally, it means that the damage to the vertical tail is harmless.

At this time, the German plunder was almost over, and the navigator's voice came from the internal circuit: "We are about to reach the target, please start reducing the altitude." ”

"Understood, began to reduce the altitude to the bombing altitude. Radioman, turn on the fleet. ”

"Got through, sir."

"Attention team, we're about to get to the top of the target area, and the whole team will descend with me."

It didn't take long for the anti-aircraft shells to explode in the air less than a hundred meters from the cockpit of the Morpheus Macho, and the black cloud of smoke looked like flowers blooming on the blue "earth".

"All wearing helmets and body armor, the enemy's anti-aircraft guns opened fire."

Mueller said this without reaching for the helmet, and as for the body armor, it was something that the person who piloted the plane couldn't wear, so he didn't even think about it.

At this time, in the cabin behind the plane, the crew members were wrapping themselves in body armor. The body armor of this era did not have Kevlar fiber, but it was stuffed with real steel plates, which was very bulky to wear, and the steel helmet had dozens of kilograms, so this thing basically had no actual combat value, and I heard that the Germans only assigned similar products to combat sappers who carried out dangerous work such as bomb defusal.

However, in the fierce anti-aircraft artillery fire, body armor can effectively improve the survival rate of the crew -- the approach attack of the anti-aircraft artillery and the fighter plane is different, and the ground anti-aircraft artillery fire is generally difficult to target the specific part of the specific aircraft, after all, the distance between them and the plane when they fire is far greater than the distance between the plane and the plane when they are engaged in a fight.

Therefore, the attack method adopted by ground anti-aircraft artillery is the so-called "barrage", that is, with the help of the commander, a sufficient number of shells are poured into a certain air area, relying on the fragments produced by the explosion to destroy the parts of the enemy plane and kill the personnel on board.

According to the experience of the B24 and other aircraft crews that arrived in Britain to carry out the attack plan on the European continent, helmets and body armor can effectively reduce the combat effectiveness of anti-aircraft artillery groups, so these equipment are now the standard equipment of US Army air crews.

In this way, Müller drove his B17 through anti-aircraft fire.

"I see the city," the bombardier reported loudly, "but I don't know if it's Bremen, I'm comparing the map." ”

"That's right, it's it," cried the navigator, "I swear I'm not mistaken!" ”