The Luftwaffe in 1942 was by no means comparable in combat strength after 1944, a large number of experienced pilots were still alive, and its fighters were not much inferior to their opponents in terms of quantity and quality. In contrast, the main problems faced by the Red Air Force in 1942 were the inexperience of pilots and the unstable quality of the aircraft.

First of all, the performance of the engines of the Red Army was unstable, for example, the classic liquid-cooled engines VK-100 series (formerly M-100 series) and AM-34 series faced the problem of a gap in real quality and performance on paper.

For example, the VK-107A engine, which has been equipped for the Yak-3, has 1,650 horsepower at a hollow of 3,200 meters on paper, and 1,450 horsepower at an altitude of 2,800. However, when actually used, most VK-107A only has 1500 horsepower at an altitude of about 3000 meters, and only 1300 horsepower at about 2000 meters.

That is, most of the fighters of the Red Army were beautiful on paper, but in practice it was a different matter. And these less powerful engines also have the problem of low life. Fortunately, in 1942 most fighters had a limited service life, and it was likely that they would be reimbursed by the end of a third or a quarter of their engine life.

In addition to the problem of pilots and aircraft, another key factor affecting the role of the Red Army's fighters was the problem of tactics. According to the dogma of the Red Army, fighters were tasked with covering bombers and attack aircraft to strike at the enemy. In order to ensure the safety of bombers and attack aircraft, the Red Army tended to escort the bombers and attack aircraft closely throughout the process, which meant that the fighters would not leave the bomber or attack aircraft formation for a moment.

Close protection looks good, but in reality it is not particularly ideal, since the fighter is firmly tied to bombers and attack aircraft. When German planes enter from all directions and at different heights, the escort fighters are always allowed to take care of one or the other, and the final effect is naturally very unsatisfactory.

Moreover, the performance of the Red Army's fighters at that time was also insufficient to escort long-range bombers throughout the whole process, and most of the Pull series and Yak series fighters were short-legged aircraft, that is, a combat radius of two or three hundred kilometers.

And the Pe-2, a twin-engine heavy fighter that flies far, is too bulky. The German pilots were not at all afraid to engage in a dogfight. As mentioned earlier, in order to solve the escort problem, Arksnis racked his brains to find a way to develop a long-range escort fighter of the Yak-7DD type.

The problem was that the Yak-7DD could not save the fire from far water, and in the face of the threat of German fighters, the Red Army had to find a way. At first, everyone's idea was very simple, if you want to fly far, you need to fill more fuel, and add more fuel tanks to the fighter.

Does this seem like a solution? The question is. It's not a particularly good idea. Why? The first point is that there is an essential difference between the early auxiliary fuel tanks and the modern auxiliary fuel tanks, the former cannot be discarded, while the latter can be discarded. In other words, most of the auxiliary fuel tanks of the World War II era were dead heavy even if they ran out of fuel, and it also affected the aerodynamic performance. Most of the fighters equipped with such non-disposable drop tanks have become capable of flying far enough, but their combat effectiveness has plummeted. The most typical example of this is the P-47 of the US imperialists. In the words of the US imperialists themselves: "If you fly far, you have to avoid war, and if you want to fight, you can't fly far!" ”

The thrust of a fighter is limited. Increasing dead weight inevitably affects flight performance. The most typical example is the Su-27, which is a fighter "repaired" by patching in order to meet the needs of the Soviet Territorial Defense Force and the Air Force's large combat radius, the auxiliary fuel tank is "integrated" inside the fuselage, and the fuel load is up, but the empty weight is also rising in a straight line (more than 16 tons). The F-15A/B of the same grade is only 12.5 tons, and even the F-15c/d with CFTS (non-disposable conformal fuel tank) is only a little more than 14 tons. The F-15E for ground attack is also only 17 tons (with CFTS, 14.6 tons without it).

Let's put it this way, the "auxiliary fuel tank" integrated in the body of the Su-27 is actually deadweight, which seriously affects its flight performance. At a time when the Su-27 does not need to perform combat missions with an ultra-long combat radius, these empty fuel tanks do not make any sense at all. On the contrary, it is not as good as the F-15, which had a relatively low fuel load coefficient at the beginning. What's more, the F-15 can also be equipped with CFTS to increase the combat radius. Especially after the F-15 switched to a higher-thrust engine, the performance gap between the two sides is actually getting bigger and bigger.

To get back to the point, the undiscardable auxiliary fuel tank was a pit back then, and it could indeed fly far if it was installed, but it really couldn't fight, and the meaning was greatly reduced. Some comrades may want to say, in this case, let's just develop disposable auxiliary fuel tanks, which is not a high-tech technology.

To tell the truth, disposable drop tanks are not very sophisticated, but for the fighters that began to be designed before World War II, the use of such drop tanks was not considered at the beginning of the design. The use of drop tanks was not even considered for the most part.

This involves the overall design problem, and the disposable auxiliary fuel tank necessarily needs a special pylon, which is also a research and development problem. In addition, it may be that in the future era of aluminum alloy rotten streets, consumables such as auxiliary fuel tanks are not worth a few dollars. In the Soviet Union at that time, aviation aluminum has always been relatively tight. Let the poor and afraid that the Red Air Force will use a large number of valuable aviation aluminum materials on disposable consumables, which is categorically to scold the mother!

So this kind of solution is not without the Soviets, but it has not been widely promoted, only some of the newly manufactured Yak-3 can carry "precious" disposable auxiliary fuel tanks to escort the bomber formation, through a large number of heavy auxiliary fuel tanks, the small Yak-3 combat radius finally reached 600 kilometers (high combat profile), barely able to accompany the bomber flight.

For example, in this air raid, more than 72 Yak-3s escorted the bomber formation, and before flying over Ploiesti, these Yak-3s were strictly ordered to maneuver in a wide range or at a large angle, flying as much as possible like bombers (in order to save fuel).

Immediately, some comrades will ask: "Is there an egg for such an escort?" Don't worry, the Red Army is not so stupid, the reason why this batch of Yak-3s was ordered to fly leisurely is mainly to save fuel. In order to hold out longer over Ploiesti, that is, their mission was to seize air supremacy over Ploiesti and prevent the bomber formations from entering the bombing route and being guarded by the enemy.

Prior to this, the Reds had sent more Yak and La series fighters to escort the enemy along the way, and if they were intercepted by enemy aircraft on the way to Ploiesti, they would be responsible for dispersing the enemy.

Let's put it this way. The Red Army divided the convoy operations, with the short-range Yak-1 and Yak-2 and La-5 being responsible for the close escort, while the Yak-3, which could carry disposable fuel tanks, was responsible for the "escort" over the combat target.

This division of labor initially solved the problem of short legs of the fighters, and also made it possible to fly to Ploiesti and start bombing, when the German fighters came to hunt, the Red Army bombers would not have to be captured.

The Yak-3 quickly ditched the empty drop fuel tanks and went into air combat, and although the drop fuel tank pylons left on the wings still affected flight performance, they were still much better than the bulky drop tanks. As the fastest flight speed in the Red Army fighter sequence (with the VK-107A installed, the maximum speed can reach a speed of 690 km / h. With the installation of VK-105-CP-2, it was only 650 km / h). Most of the fighters deployed by the German army and the Romanian Air Force in Romania are early BF-109s, and most of them have not reached a flight speed of 600 kilometers.

The small number of BF-109s that made it to Ploiesti was quickly eaten alive by the Yak-3, which meant that the Germans and Romanians no longer seemed to have any way to stop the Red Army bombers from blowing up their refineries.

Well, in fact, the Germans and Romanians still have a solution, and that is anti-aircraft fire on the ground. In order to protect this important oil-producing area. Germany and Romania invested a lot of troops and money, which made the anti-aircraft fire around Ploiesti quite terrifying.

In charge of the ground air defense of Ploiesti at that time was Alfred. Major General Gerstenberg. This duke was known in the Luftwaffe for being "energetic and disproportionate to his age". After the Red Air Force visited Ploiesti in July 1941, he was appointed by Hitler himself, not by German Air Marshal Goering, to take charge of Ploiesti's air defense.

Gerstenberg did have two brushes, and as an Air Force veteran, in 1916 he joined the 2nd Hunting Squadron, commanded by Polk and then Richthofen, the "Red Baron". In 1938, Gestenberg returned to the Luftwaffe, serving in Warsaw and Bucharest. February 15, 1942. He was appointed Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe forces in Romania. From that moment on, he mobilized 25,000 troops and more coolies day and night to build an anti-aircraft fire network in Ploiesti.

It is worth mentioning that after Romania announced its defection in 1944, the air force major general stormed Bucharest with a patchwork of 4,000 troops. Trying to occupy the main buildings in the city. As a result, he was surrounded by Romanians, and was able to escape thanks to the rescue of the Brandenburg paratroopers. However, he was eventually imprisoned in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp and died of tuberculosis in 1955.

All in all, in the star-studded and famous Luftwaffe, Gerstenberg was not a resounding name. However, history has a brief but concise assessment of him: "During World War II, the anti-aircraft defense system he organized in the area of the Ploiesti oil fields in Romania was impressive! ”

Let's just say that the Ploiesti oil field area has become one of the highest concentrations of anti-aircraft artillery units in the world. The anti-aircraft artillery unit here is a joint German and Romanian unit, which is under the jurisdiction of the 5th Anti-aircraft Artillery Division of the Luftwaffe. Under the division commander Julius. Under the command of Major General Kudner, a series of anti-aircraft positions had been established on the periphery of Ploiesti, the main two of which concentrated the main firepower, ten kilometers from the oil fields at the far end and three kilometers at the near end.

Major General Kudner also deployed the most elite 180th Motorized Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment here, and at the same time transferred part of the 202nd Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment stationed in Constanta. In this way, the commander of the 180th regiment, Oscar. Colonel Bauer had 42 anti-aircraft artillery batteries at his disposal, of which 32 were armed with 88 guns, 5 companies with 105 and 128 guns, and 5 companies with 20 and 37 guns. In total, these units are armed with more than 350 anti-aircraft guns of various types.

The anti-aircraft artillery units of the Romanian army came from the 4th anti-aircraft artillery brigade and consisted of the 7th and 9th regiments. The 7th Regiment is located directly in the central area of Ploiesti and has 24 anti-aircraft artillery batteries, mainly armed with 20 and 37 guns, while the 9th Regiment has 16 anti-aircraft artillery batteries in an area that extends for about 80 kilometres, including Ploiesti and Campina. The number of anti-aircraft guns in the Romanian army was about 250 pieces. There are certain 88 guns. In addition, the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Regiment was responsible for maneuvering and blocking balloons, with a total of 71 balloons.

The Red Army had some information about these anti-aircraft fire configurations in advance, but it was not perfect, and the anti-aircraft artillery positions marked on the map in advance were about half of the real number.

According to German information after the bombardment, the anti-aircraft guns fired a total of 3,552 rounds of 88 shells and 56,271 rounds of other small-caliber shells during the day's fighting. In other words, on average, each bomber of the Red Army would have been greeted by almost a hundred shells.

For example, the 109th Bomber Regiment of the Red Army was originally going to bomb along the prescribed route. But soon the heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire on the ground forced the regiment to change its plan, and they tried to bypass the anti-aircraft artillery positions in confusion, but the dense rain of bullets still left them in danger.

According to the memories of the surviving pilots: "Enemy shells exploded in the air, like an artist casually swaying on a canvas." The shelling caused the clouds to take on a peculiar arrangement, blue at the top, white in the middle, and black in front of them formed by the black smoke of anti-aircraft fire, interspersed with large, furious red flashes produced by the explosion of shells. ”

In desperation. The head of the regiment could only order his own lads to "do what is appropriate." The target of the regiment was Romei Standard Oil, but no one knew if the Pe-8 had accurately found its target. In fact. Most of the regiment's bombs were dropped between fields and streams.

The only thing that was known for sure was that the deputy commander of the regiment, Major Nikolayevich, hit the "Red Two" target, which originally belonged to the 209th Bomber Regiment. Major Nikolaevich flew at high speed over Romei Standard Oil with four Pe-8s when he realized that he had missed his target. He immediately made a U-turn and ordered his wingman to maneuver closely with him.

"Let's rush inside! Keep up with me and stay in formation! ”

These Pe-8s dropped all their bombs on improvised targets. The explosion of the oil storage tank and processing plant produced a raging fire and thick smoke, and at one point the plume of smoke rose into the air to an altitude of 1,000 meters.

Just after the bomb was dropped, Major Nikolaevich was surprised to see a group of Tu-3 bombers coming at him, all covered in green. He didn't know that it was the 144th Bomber Regiment, which had just finished bombing, and was leaving the battlefield at high speed. Even more surprising than Nikolaevich was his co-pilot, Captain Konstantin, who saw quite a few Il-4s with mottled fuselages and black smoke in the other direction. In this way, three groups of bombers and attack aircraft of different types went to the same end. With a relative speed of 800 km/h, it appeared in a small airspace.

This unexpected encounter immediately caused a great chaos, and more than 60 bombers and attack planes tried their best to avoid a collision in the air, and the end was extremely thrilling. However, the Germans and Romanians on the ground had diametrically opposed and different impressions of this chaos. In their opinion, these Russian planes had just carried out a "well-planned" series of air strikes. It is really admirable that the reckless Ivan actually grasped the docking time of different batches and models of aircraft to such an "airtight" level!

More than 600 bombers and attack planes from more than a dozen bomber regiments and attack aircraft regiments visited Ploiesti in turn and dropped nearly 1,000 tons of aerial bombs. By 10 a.m., the entire Ploiesti region was already billowing with smoke, and the explosions set off one flame after another, making the winter Ploiesti suddenly feel the scorching heat of summer.

After two hours of high-intensity flying and fighting, Ivan also felt tired, and the bombing came to an end when the last Tu-3 flew past the "Red Five" target and dropped the last bomb. The Red Army boys began to make their way home.

And by this time, many bombers and attack aircraft had already been beaten to the ground, they flew not so fast, and their maneuvers were no longer so flexible. But those who made it back alive were lucky. Compared with them, a considerable number of Red Army pilots could only sleep forever in foreign lands.

According to post-war statistics, 67 of the 450 bombers were shot down, and three crashed due to mechanical problems. The bomber formation alone paid a heavy price of nearly 650 pilots killed and more than 100 pilots captured, and the battle loss rate of the bomber formation reached 15%!

Of course, it was not for nothing that these sacrificed fighters destroyed the Romanian oil refinery with their lives, and 60% of its refining capacity was directly wiped out. For example, the key goal Astra. The Romana refinery was scrapped and production was not resumed until 1950...... (To be continued.) )

PS: Bow and thank you to the fat man Fei Ah Fei, the old student, hzwangdd, the king of mending swords, the head of the word Yizi→ the Bright Templar and Comrade Juventus!