artillery arc

Chapter 687 New Rules for the Eighth Air Force
August 8, United Kingdom, United States Army Air Force Eighth Air Force Headquarters.

As soon as Lieutenant Colonel Miles sat down, Major Johnny next to him came over and asked, "Did you hear about it?"

The lieutenant colonel looked puzzled: "What did you hear?"

"The new commander wants us to bomb Plossom itself without escort."

Lieutenant Colonel Miles: "I thought it was something else. Before the auxiliary fuel tanks were put into use, we had been bombing Plossen without escort, right?"

Major Johnny: "I only have ten bombings left before I can go home, and I don't want to dance on the edge of a knife for the next ten bombings!"

"Look at Van Kilmer over there. He only has four flights left before he can go home. Among the pilots who haven't returned home yet, he is the one closest to going home. He is also the first one to make suggestions," said Miles.

Before Johnny could say anything else, a command came from the door: "Everyone stand up!"

Although the pilots were rather casual, they still had basic military qualities. When they heard the command, they stood up at attention with their heads held high and chests puffed out as a reflex.

The new Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Doolittle, walked into the room, threw the documents in his hand on the podium, pressed the table and looked at the people in the audience: "I think you already know me. When I bombed the capital of the Fuso Empire, it was on the front page of the news."

Major Johnny raised his hand.

Lieutenant General Doolittle: "Wait a moment, Major. I want to finish. In order to fly the B25 from the aircraft carrier, we removed all the excess weight. We removed many of the self-defense machine guns and even the machine gunners.

"In the end, we successfully completed the mission. If the Fuso Empire hadn't discovered the fleet in advance and scared the cowards in the navy, our range would have been more than enough to fly to Seris.

"But the cowards in the navy made us take off 200 kilometers in advance, so many good guys had to make emergency landings in the sea. During the entire operation, not a single plane was shot down by the Fuso Empire fighter planes."

Major Johnny: "Are you going to say that you won't provide us with escort just because of this?"

Lieutenant General Doolittle: "I want to say that I have flown bomber missions and I know what they are like.

"You may have already known that in the next bombing mission, the fighter units will no longer stick to you like nannies. In this way, they will no longer block the shooting range of your machine gunners!"

Many pilots laughed, even though it was a hell of a joke.

Major Johnny pursed his lips and said, "General, although it is true that some machine gunners hesitated when firing because they were afraid of hitting our fighter planes, but..."

"But!" Lieutenant General Doolittle interrupted Johnny, "The fighter pilots will enter the airspace of the Proson Empire before the bombers, and they will attack the Proson fighters that are forming and climbing over the airport!"

During the Proson air defense operation, the fighter jets need to complete the combat formation after taking off, assemble into a group, and then approach the bomber group under the guidance of the ground.

Conversely, as long as the Allied fighters arrive over the airport first, there is a high probability that they will capture the Proshen fighters that are in formation.

Lieutenant Colonel Miles raised his hand. "How can we determine when the enemy planes will form? What if we arrive over the airport but don't see any enemy planes? Although the Plossons are famous for their punctuality, we can't bet the battle on the enemy's punctuality, right?"

Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle: "They will definitely find the enemy planes. The enemy planes still on the ground are also enemy planes. Strafe those enemy planes will also prevent them from taking off.

"In addition, the guys in the fighter unit also have to carry rockets and bombs. If they encounter enemy planes, that's great. They can just drop the rockets, bombs and auxiliary fuel tanks together and then they can go into battle lightly and engage the enemy.

"If we don't encounter any enemy aircraft, we can drop rockets, bombs and auxiliary fuel tanks on the enemy's airfield. In short, the future mission of the fighter unit is to fight the enemy's fighters and bleed the enemy's air force fighter units."

Doolittle paused and glanced around the briefing room.

"Your casualties will be heavy at first, and I can only say I'm sorry about that. In time, this bloodletting policy will definitely work, as Marshal Rokossov of Ant asserted!"

The pilots immediately became noisy.

Lieutenant Colonel Fangkimer, whom Lieutenant Colonel Miles had just mentioned, immediately stood up and said, "Marshal Ant fought well in land battles, but has he ever shot down an enemy plane? Has he ever bombed the city of Plossen?"

Lieutenant General Doolittle: "He didn't, but he understands war and the nature of war. In short, this new rule has been approved by the President and must be implemented, and it will be implemented starting from the next bombing! You have one day to write a suicide note to your family."

The pilots, who had been noisy just now, now fell silent.

Lieutenant Colonel Miles slammed the table hard: "It's just a return to the way it was before! Without fighter escort, we can still bomb Plossen's factory!"

Then he stood up and left the briefing room.

The other pilots didn't say anything, but they stood up and followed Miles out of the briefing room.

----

August 8, Germanmeyer Air Force Base, Plossom Air Force.

As usual, at 10 o'clock, the Focke-Wulf fighters of the JG52 Hunter Squadron stationed at the base began to warm up and prepare to take off to meet the enemy.

Erich, the squadron's top ace, was the last to arrive at the briefing tent. He saw the empty seats in the tent and asked, "Walter and Otto didn't come back?"

"Yes, and no one saw them being hit. Maybe the plane malfunctioned and forced them to land far away from the base," said Erich's wingman Günter.

Erich: "Damn Meyer, since his order was issued, our casualties have increased by 30%!"

Only the air force pilots dared to criticize Grand Duke Meyer in this way. Grand Duke Meyer, the air force commander, ordered the fighter units to shoot down the Allied bombers at all costs, and the order even openly required the pilots to hit the Allied bombers after they had used up their fighter planes' bullets.

Of course, the pilots were all quite smart. Except for a few die-hard fans of His Majesty the Emperor, no one actually crashed into the aircraft. They knew that they could achieve more results by loading ammunition after landing.

However, the order "attack bombers at all costs" itself will greatly increase the death rate of fighter pilots, because it means that they will not seize the height, gain energy advantage, and forcibly attack the bombers when there are enemy escort fighters.

Even if they could shoot down the bomber, the pilots would be at a disadvantage in the subsequent fighter fight.

It can be said that the orders from the high-ranking air force commanders on both sides were almost the same. On one hand, the fighters were unable to gain speed by accompanying the slow-moving bombers, while on the other hand, the fighters were unable to seize the initiative.

Erich: "What about today's air situation report? Did the radar stations and surveillance posts see any enemy aircraft?"

"It's a bit strange." The wingman Gunter handed Erich something on his map board. "The first report said that a large number of separate contrails were seen densely concentrated together. It looked like a large number of fighters entered the imperial airspace. Then they reported seeing the composite contrails of bombers."

Erich checked the report and saw the words "large amounts of chaff interfering with detection" in the radar detection column.

"The enemy dropped chaff, which means they have a big move today. But what does it mean to let the battle in first?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a shrill alarm sounded.

The messenger rushed into the tent: "Arao! Radar sees enemy planes approaching the airport! Very fast! Take off urgently!"

Erich stuffed the map board back to Günter, picked up his flight cap, rushed out of the tent, and ran towards his fighter.

His ground crew leader ran towards him and said, "Full of fuel and ammunition, in good condition, Major!"

"Got it!" Erich answered while running towards the fighter plane.

At this time, the anti-aircraft guns began to fire.

In addition to a small number of 88mm anti-aircraft guns, the main weapons near the airport are 25mm and 37mm machine guns.

Erich's ears were filled with the rattling of anti-aircraft guns.

As soon as he reached the plane and was about to climb the gangway, the ground crew leader threw him to the ground from behind.

Erich yelled, "What are you doing? I'm taking off!"

Before he could finish his words, the shooting began.

The bullets made a BIUBIU sound when hitting the ground, and a DAANG sound when hitting the plane.

Erich looked up and saw his plane burst into flames. The fire engulfed half of the shot-down mark next to his canopy.

It turned out that the ground crew leader wanted to save him.

"Thank you, Cruz!" Erich turned around to thank the ground crew leader, but he only saw his dilated pupils.

"Cruz?"

Erich pushed away the old ground crew member who had been serving him on his plane and found that his military uniform was stained with blood.

"Damn it!" He closed the team leader's eyes, stood up and looked for aircraft that could still be deployed. He saw an FW190 preparing to take off forcibly, but it was strafed by an enemy plane swooping down from the sky and turned into a fireball.

Erich shouted: "The enemy fighters entered the country first to disrupt our air defense deployment! They changed their escort strategy!"

Another ground crew member swooped over and pinned him to the ground.

Then the strafing started again, and the bullets hit the ground with a BIUBIUBIU sound.

There was an explosion in the distance.

Erich looked up and saw a P47 with a red tail paint flying overhead, and there was a black person in the cockpit!

"Damn it, I saw a black man flying a plane!" Erich shouted.

The ground crew member who had just rescued him said, "It's okay. I was transferred back from the Eastern Front before. A pilot said he saw a woman flying a plane. You two must be crazy!"

Erich: "I have to find a plane to take off!"

"Don't dream. Planes ready for takeoff will be towed out of the hangar and lined up on the apron. You know, are there any planes without holes on them?"

Erich turned his head, and at that moment another P47 flew over the tarmac and strafed the rows of FW190s, leaving more holes in them.

Erich: "Fuck!"

(End of this chapter)