"Alright, mission accomplished, let's go home."

Müller said as he steered the plane and began to turn, and as he turned, he glanced down - only then could he see the target he had bombed relatively easily.

"The Germans have a good idea this time." Seeing the flames of the bombs exploding in the city, Mueller said in a relaxed tone.

"But for this big gift, we lost so many brothers." Eric said.

Müller didn't answer, but just looked at the group of bombers that followed him behind him, let alone two hundred, and Müller doubted that there were fifty planes in this group. Because he has been serving as the pilot aircraft, he can only see the B17 flying in front of him and on both sides from Muller's field of vision, and he can't see the friendly planes flying some positions behind, so he doesn't have too intuitive feelings about the loss of friendly planes, he sees that there are only a few friendly planes shot down in total, so subconsciously Muller always feels that this loss is not as big as he imagined.

But apparently that's not the case.

"Cheer up, we can fly much faster after dropping the bomb, and the return time will be shorter than the time we flew here, just hold on and get there."

Müller's voice was very stern, because he knew that the return trip would not be an easy errand, and that he had dropped the bomb on German soil this time - not France, not Holland and Belgium, but Germany itself - and the Germans must have been mad, and they would send a force in their hands to prevent the B17s who had bombed the Reich mainland from leaving Europe.

Mueller could almost have foreseen the 109 that would swarm in coming.

However, the performance of the 109 at high altitudes is not as good as his at medium and low altitudes, and the sea female fox rarely flies above 30,000 feet, so as long as it climbs to 30,000 feet, the probability of being shot down will be greatly reduced.

Height is the best weapon of the B17 formation.

Mueller glanced at the altimeter.

"It's high in the air, wear an oxygen mask."

As soon as Mueller's order was given, someone in the headset shouted: "At six o'clock, dive attack!" Enemy aircraft in large numbers! ”

"Fire!" Muller seemed to have the only order to give, he looked at the altimeter again, and muttered, "We're all at this altitude, and we've been attacked by a dive?" ”

As if in response to Müller's doubts, the top gunner shouted: "This is a new type of machine that has never been seen before!" Not 109! It is a new type of machine with a slender body! ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the cockpit was illuminated by the bright light of the tracer bullets, and then a red glow filled the entire cockpit - the light came from the right wing.

"Engine No. 3 is on fire!" Eric shouted.

"Cut off the oil circuit of engine three!"

"Cut off, doesn't work! It may be that the wires of the control system have been broken! Eric almost shouted to Mueller, "We must dive to extinguish the fire, or burn the wings again!" ”

"The radioman, contact the fleet, tell them that we are going to dive to extinguish the fire, repeat, we are diving to extinguish the fire, do not follow. The pilot aircraft was handed over to the Daddy Mack in the pilot sequence. ”

"Radio understood."

After the sound of an answer from the headphones, Muller turned his head to look at Eric, and after a quick exchange of glances, Muller slammed the joystick - the B17 could not roll directly into the dive like a fighter jet, which would make the other members of the plane fall into stupidity. It can only push the joystick forward, which has the disadvantage that blood rushes up to the brain.

If the fighter rolls and then pulls the lever into the dive, the blood will leave the brain and rush to the soles of the feet, so it may temporarily enter the so-called "black vision" due to cerebral ischemia, but when doing so, the G-force that the pilot can withstand is very large, but the blood rushing to the brain is different, and a little overload is a cerebral hemorrhage.

Fortunately, the B17's dive maneuver overload was not particularly large, but the moment he turned into a dive, Muller was still particularly uncomfortable.

The uncomfortable feeling lasted for a few seconds before it faded.

Then Müller's attention turned to the altimeter and speedometer.

"Is the fire out?" He asked aloud.

"Not yet!"

"Our speed is approaching the limit speed!"

"But the fire hasn't been extinguished!"

"No matter how fast we are, we won't be able to pull the elevator!"

The faster most aircraft go, the more power is needed to control the aircraft, and the same is true for the B17, after all, the flight control in this era is still mechanically transmitted, and when the dive speed is too fast, the pilot of the B17 will "not be able to pull the joystick" as literally described.

"And even if you can pull the lever, the wing won't be able to withstand breaking."

But the fire has not yet been extinguished...... Well, the fire is out! Pull it up! ”

Eric and Mueller began to pull the joystick at the same time, and both of them used their strength to feed, making sounds reminiscent of people struggling in the toilet without "amplifying" them for three days.

Eventually, the B17's body gradually flattened out, and when the airframe returned to level flight, Muller let out a long sigh of relief.

He raised his hand and wiped the dense sweat from his palms on his clothes.

"Navigator, where are we now?"

"I think we're over the Netherlands, and I can see windmills looking down here, and I'm looking for landmarks. If the captain can climb a little bit, I confirm that the position will be much more convenient. ”

Müller was about to answer the navigator's words when his ears heard a strange sound coming from his wing.

He turned his head to see another engine stopped.

"We've lost another engine, damn it. We won't be able to go back to Britain in this way, all positions, start losing weight, repeat, start losing weight, throw everything we can, and leave only the last chain of ammunition for the machine guns. ”

With that, Mueller picked up his lunch box and thermos cup, opened the side window and threw both things out.

At this moment, the tail gunner shouted again: "Enemy aircraft! At six o'clock in us he was approaching! I'm running out of ammo, who will send some! ”

"I just threw it down! We're all left with one bullet chain! ”

Mueller sighed, and he glanced at Eric, who had already taken on a resignation expression.

At this time, the German tracer bullets came from behind, but the barrage lasted only a short time before disappearing.

Mueller frowned, not knowing what was going on.

"Did you hit it?"

"I don't think so, sir. He's at the best firing distance right now, but he just doesn't shoot. ”

"The Germans don't have shells anymore!" Someone shouted with joy, "It must be so!" ”

"He's put down the landing gear!" The tail gunner's voice overshadowed the previous one, "He's going to hit us with the landing gear!" Captain! Don't let him get his way! ”

"But I can't see it!"

"It's getting closer, Captain, he's going to hit our main wing! You'll see it! ”

At this time, Muller finally saw the Germans, who, as the tail gunner said, had lowered the landing gear and were approaching the main wing, apparently intending to knock the B17 off with the landing gear.

It was then that Mueller heard the left machine gunner roar.

"Fooled little rabbit, Lao Tzu still has a bullet chain!"

Müller saw that the cockpit glass of the German plane was instantly covered in blood, and it was clear that the left machine gunner had hit the pilot.

The German plane, which had lost control, fell to the ground and left Müller's field of vision.

"Great!" The headphones were instantly filled with the cheers of the crew, "I love you to death, you know?" ”

Müller also breathed a sigh of relief, he had a hunch that he would survive again this time - the Germans would definitely intercept the group, and his lone B17 might really be able to escape the German air defense circle safely.

Damn, Mueller thought to himself, this time I must go back with the café owner's daughter.