New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

() After New Year's Day in 1944, the newly expanded "Reverse Cross" ushered in the first batch of new students.It is actually not particularly appropriate to say that they are "new students". These students are not all new rookies who have just left the aviation school, and more of them are veterans who have come from other regiments that are currently fighting on the front line. pilot.Most of this group of pilots are from Europe, and they will mainly conduct safari and ground attack training; there are also some fighter and bomber pilots coming from the direction of the South Pacific. Pilots will mainly be trained to strike moving targets on the ground or in the sea.

Many of these pilots came to the "Inverse Cross" for the second time, such as P-38 pilot Arthur.Arthur is a German-American. After joining the war, he has been dealing with Germans and Italians in North Africa. Later, as the Italians withdrew from the Axis and joined the Allied forces, there was no business in North Africa, and the p-38 was in continental Europe. It’s not very easy to use—the p-38’s cockpit lacks a heating device. At high altitudes in Europe where the latitude is higher and the temperature is lower, it often happens that the pilots performing missions are frostbitten, and even become unconscious.But Arthur was particularly afraid of the cold. Once when he was performing a reconnaissance mission, he was so cold that he passed out and almost had a plane crash.And he was not used to flying other types of aircraft, so he was transferred to the South Pacific.

And in the South Pacific, he found himself often performing a job that he rarely did before-land-to-sea attack.In order to master this new skill, he was sent to the "Reverse Cross" again.

"Arthur, what is the training of the 'Reverse Cross'? Is the instructor good?" asked a novice named Tosca in the dormitory of the 'Reverse Cross'.

"What's 'Reverse Cross' training like? It's basically just constant abuse. You're tortured until you think you're the biggest idiot in the world, and then you graduate. And when you graduate and go to the battlefield, you You will find that your opponent will often make more foolish mistakes than you."

"Then you were abused badly back then?"

"I'm a special case. I have an innate aura for evasive actions, and the evasive actions are always just right. This was shown when I first entered the 'Inverse Cross'. I was the first among rookie pilots. The one who persisted for more than 1 minute in the confrontation with Chief Ron. At that time, Chief Ron praised Uncle Ben, saying that I am the most hopeful of this group of pilots to survive to the end of the war..."

"Arthur," Tosca interrupted Clausewitz's boast, "you are so good, why haven't you shot down an enemy plane by yourself?"

"What nonsense? I have 4 shot down together! And, so far, has any guy actually hit me with even one bullet?" Arthur still looked proud.

"Come on, Arthur!" A guy who came to drop by said this, "Don't lie to the rookie. Your four shot down together are all stealing other people's cabbages."

"What nonsense are you talking about? It's obvious that someone robbed me of my cabbage." Arthur retorted, turning his head to see who made such an insult.

"Ah? It's you!" Arthur said, "John, I heard you were transferred to the 'Reverse Cross' as an instructor?"

"Yes!" said John J. Wall from the Mediterranean Sea. "I heard that some old teammate came here to study, so I came here to visit him."

"I see, you're just here to show off?" Arthur said enviously, "Brother, for the sake of my life-saving skills that I taught you back then, do you want to give your brother a hand too? Let me recommend you to my brother? Among other things, isn’t the 'Reverse Cross' training how to attack the ground now? This will definitely involve how to avoid ground fire. In this respect, can anyone be better than me?"

"Don't blow it up, as far as I know, there is a guy named Ussling in the heavy bomber unit who is better than you! He has driven a big guy like the B-24 to bomb German targets more than 100 times, and he has interviewed him several times. The thousand planes that intercepted the Germans didn’t even have a single bullet hole on their wings. That’s a heavy bomber! But your dodging skills are really good, I’m afraid that the students will learn everything from you, and the enemy will certainly attack He can't reach him, but he can't touch the enemy either!" John continued to sarcasm Arthur.

"That guy is just a bit of luck, compared to 'Memphis Belle', what is it?"

……

The learning process for new students learning ground-to-sea attacks is actually very similar to the process of learning air combat. The first training subject is to identify targets.All trainees were issued two thick target identification manuals.The brochure is printed in color on coated paper, which is extremely exquisite.The first book is full of common pictures of own and enemy ships from various perspectives, as well as various data of enemy ships, especially the data related to their anti-aircraft firepower configuration.However, the data in this area is also the most confusing. The war has been going on for so long, and everyone's warships are constantly being refitted, and the anti-aircraft firepower is the focus of refitting.Now it is no different from the beginning of the war. At that time, everyone had insufficient expectations for the power of air strikes, so most warships had mediocre anti-aircraft firepower.For example, the German battleship Bismarck actually used that kind of manual 37mm anti-aircraft gun that was so weird that it had to be pulled like a bolt-action rifle to fire a single shot. The swordfish torpedo aircraft, which was far behind the times in the world, with a top speed of only 225 kilometers, was paralyzed by these old-fashioned aircraft.In the end, he was surrounded by onlookers and buried in the sea.

After learning such a series of lessons, the anti-aircraft guns on the ships of the major countries participating in the war began to increase crazily. Battleships, cruisers and other big guys with more than [-] tons were all covered, as long as there was space, they were all filled. All kinds of anti-aircraft guns look like hedgehogs from a distance.And destroyers and other little guys with more than a thousand tons are also increasing the number of anti-aircraft guns as much as possible, even if they pay for this by increasing the center of gravity and reducing the navigation performance.

And the anti-aircraft gun itself is constantly changing.In addition to the urgency of the war, many warships have to wait until there is a gap before returning to Hong Kong for refitting. Therefore, even warships of the same type often have different configurations of anti-aircraft firepower, and even the same warship has different situations last month and this month. .Therefore, in this identification manual, the descriptions of them are full of words such as "maybe" and "maybe".

As for the second book, there are pictures and descriptions of various local ground targets, such as various vehicles, artillery, tanks and armored vehicles.

The pilots must memorize all these things, at least the things involved in the strategic direction of their own troops, within a week.So, on the way to the cafeteria, in the spare time of daily training, there are guys everywhere with booklets reciting.Seeing this scene, Ron unconsciously smiled.

"General, what are you laughing at?" Scott asked.

"Ah, I remembered some things from the past." Ron said seriously, "When I was studying, every time it was time for an exam, there would be a lot of things to memorize. So at that time, I was vicious in my heart. I made a vow that one day, it will be my turn to test others, and I must come up with more recitation content, and memorize them to death!"

……

In fact, recitation and the like are just small things.The subsequent identification training is the really difficult stuff.The identification training is the same as the previous identification training for enemy aircraft. The method of showing movies is used to display various targets on the screen for students to identify.The identification of sea targets is okay, it is nothing more than the interference of some weather conditions.Clouds, light, but the sea is unobstructed after all, so the difficulty is not too great.But the identification of ground targets is really not that difficult.

In line with the principle of gradual and orderly progress, at the very beginning, what the students came into contact with in the classroom was directly exposed convoys, armored clusters and so on.And it is also allowed to play it repeatedly several times, so that the students can see clearly what is inside.But soon, the difficulty began to rise. The film was only played once, and the target appeared for a short time. After the show was over, the students were asked to answer the driving speed of the convoy, how many anti-aircraft guns were in the convoy, where they were located, and what type they were .The guy who answered the worst situation will naturally be punished. Usually he will go to the cafeteria as a helper, and then stand in a row in the restaurant, watching other students eat, and being watched by other students at the same time, and then after everyone finishes eating, wash the dishes for everyone To eat or something.

To be honest, this kind of punishment is much gentler than the education of punching, kicking and whipping in the Japanese army or the police.But the effect is not necessarily bad. For those pilots who entered the "Reverse Cross" study, it is definitely not a glorious thing to be a joke for teammates.As a result, many students even claimed that going to class is more tiring than fighting, at least they can desert while flying to dangerous airspace during war.And if you really fight, you don't necessarily need to be able to see all of these.

But this difficulty is not the end, soon, the students' nightmare - the hidden target appeared.

In one of the large classrooms, a movie screen showed this clip, apparently shot on an airplane:

A dense forest is rushing towards the face at a very high speed below, and then quickly goes away.Then in the middle of the woods, a monorail appears, then a small station with a military column on the platform, and then the sequence ends, and then the lights in the classroom come on.

The teaching assistants distributed paper and pencils to each student, and on the paper was a map near the small station that appeared just now.

"The military column you saw just now is the target. Now I give you 3 minutes to mark the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower that you found in the clip on the map!" The instructor issued instructions.

"There are two carriages on the military column, 6 quadruple 20 guns, and then..." Tosca bit the tip of the pencil, "Damn it, I have to see people for dinner again today!" He turned his head and glanced at the Arthur who was over there glanced at him and saw that Arthur was writing fast, "Arthur, you can eat normally again at noon."

……

During lunch time, Tosca stood obediently against the wall in the cafeteria, watching everyone eat.Arthur also stood beside him in disgrace.

"Arthur, have you found any anti-aircraft guns?" Tosca asked because they were not forbidden to speak when punishing and observing everyone for dinner.

"Don't mention it!" Arthur said, "I've drawn them all, not a single one! It's just that the instructor said that I drew twenty more firepower points, so..."