New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

() Although knowing that the possibility of the Germans finding themselves in the creeping woods more than 70 meters away from the railway is almost zero.However, Edmund still buried his head.The hand-cranked rail car slowly went away with the sound of "babbling". Edmund's eyes widened, staring at the railroad track that was shining coldly under the moonlight, and at the same time pricked up his ears. , listening to the various sounds brought by the night wind.

After a few minutes, Edmund noticed that a rhythmic "clang, clang" sound seemed to be mixed in with the chirping of crickets.The sound started out very softly, but soon became louder and louder.In the end, this "clang" sound completely suppressed the buzzing of the surrounding insects.Then with the help of the moonlight, Edmund saw a dark train bypassing the forest ahead and appearing in Edmund's field of vision.

The train, which was running at low speed on the railway, did not turn on its lights.But Edmund's eyes are very good, he can still see that this is definitely a military column belonging to the German army.At the front of the train were two flatbed cars. It was unclear what was on the flatbed cars, but Edmund knew that they were probably anti-aircraft artillery.Generally speaking, each military column will have one or two flatbed vehicles with anti-aircraft guns on them to perform air defense missions.Behind the two flatbed vehicles is a carriage, which looks like an armored wagon, because there are two bulging things faintly on the roof of the carriage, which are probably turrets.Then came the power locomotive, followed by several carriages, then another power locomotive, followed by an armored carriage and two flatbed cars.

"Good guy! There are four anti-aircraft vehicles, there must be something important inside." Edmund watched the train go away, and then touched a microphone from the ground: "A-1 area found the target, the target It is moving towards the A-2 area at a speed of about 30 kilometers per hour. There are four anti-aircraft vehicles, two at the front and two at the end, one at the front and one at the front..."

Below this microphone was a telephone wire that ran through the dark woods and eventually into the depths of the woods.There were several people gathered around a transmitter.

"Well, we got it, keep monitoring!" A person whispered into the microphone.Then he turned his head and said to the person next to him: "The target has appeared. Send a report immediately, the content is..."

……

An AC-47 was flying in the dark sky. At this time, an instruction came from the radio: "Snowy Owl 1, go to the A-2 area, search and eliminate the enemy column."

"Raydell! Where is the A-20 area?" Captain Matt said.

The navigator Raeder immediately took out the route map, studied it carefully, and replied: "Direction 44, altitude descending to 1000 meters, speed 320, and we will reach area a-5 in about 2 minutes..."

At the same time that this AC-47 received the order, several other PA-38 attack aircraft and mosquito bombers also received similar orders.

……

"Captain, the radar has found the target." Chris, the radar operator sitting in the middle, reported to the captain Luther sitting in the front seat, "At 11:1.5, the distance is 1100 kilometers, and the altitude is [-] meters. The target is found, maybe It's an enemy night bomber or transport plane!"

"Okay, keep an eye on the target! We are ready to attack!"

Luther made a side-slide and pointed the nose of the aircraft in the direction of 11:110.The bf-[-] night fighter flew towards the target in the dark.

The bf-110 is not considered a success as a heavy fighter. Compared with those single-engine fighters, it is too clumsy. Whether it is rolling, circling, or climbing, it cannot compete with those single-engine fighters.During the Battle of Britain, the Germans sent bf-110 fighter jets to escort their bombers.It turned out that because the bf-110 fighter jet was too clumsy, it was not an opponent at all when facing the British fighter jets. Not to mention protecting the bomber, it could not even protect itself. Later, it actually needed a single-shot Bf-109 came to escort himself.So much so that the notoriety of escort fighters who need to be escorted is left behind.

However, as a night fighter, the bf-110 was quite successful. The bf-110 has a lot of space, especially the head space, which can accommodate the airborne radar. The Germans added a seat to it, a radar operator, and an upward-sloping cannon.In this way, the bf-110 night fighter can use it to attack from the enemy's weakly defended belly position.Under the cover of the night, the problem of the poor flight performance of the bf-110 was covered up, but the sufficient space of the machine body and powerful firepower just came in handy in the dark night.As a result, this kind of aircraft became a successful night fighter, and even emerged as a super ace that shot down hundreds of enemy planes.

Moreover, unlike the daytime, the Allied forces did not have the overwhelming air supremacy in the sky as during the daytime.This is first of all because the radar performance of the night fighters of that era was quite limited.As far as its detection distance is concerned, it is far inferior to the detection distance of the human eye during the day, so in the dark night, it is not a new thing that the planes of the two sides pass by each other and cannot detect each other.Moreover, the airborne radars of that era not only had a short detection range, but also a very small detection angle. Often, the enemy plane would slip out of the radar's detection area and disappear without a trace.In addition, the reliability of the airborne radar of that era is even more unbearable. The average trouble-free running time is even less than ten hours. It is not uncommon for the radar to suddenly break down while flying. , even if it is not broken, it is commonplace for the radar to find nothing if it suddenly loses the target for no reason, even if the target can be seen with the naked eye in the night sky.So, at night, it was impossible for Allied fighters to drive all the German fighters out of the sky as they could during the day.At night, there are still German night fighters in the sky.

……

The distance between the bf-110 night fighter and the enemy plane is getting closer and closer, and the distance between the two sides is only about 600 meters.But at this moment, the radar of the bf-110 night fighter suddenly went on strike.

"Captain, radar malfunction," Chris reported.

"Damn it! Can it be fixed?" Luther asked.

"I'm afraid it won't work for the time being," Chris said. "It's probably because the temperature is too high. I'll turn it off and turn it on again in 10 minutes to see if it works."

Radar failure due to overheating was also a very common problem at the time.Sometimes, it just needs a cool down and it recovers, and other times, well, it just has to wait until we get back to the airport.But at least, within 10 minutes, they can't count on this radar.

Now the distance between the two sides is only 600 meters, but in this case, it is still impossible to see the enemy bombers hidden in the night sky with the naked eye.Luther lowered the throttle, and the sound of the engine began to fade.He opened a small slit in the canopy, and a cool night breeze blew in at once.Luther put his ear close to the small opening, and listened carefully to the sounds outside. From this distance, he might be able to hear the sound of the opponent's engine.

However, the facts disappointed him. He couldn't hear anything except the whistling wind and the muffled sound of his own engine.

Luther closed the small window in disappointment. It was so frustrating to suddenly lose the target at a distance of only 600 meters from the enemy plane.

……

"Captain, we should have arrived at the scheduled location." Navigator Raedel said.

"Okay, let's drop flares and search this section of the railway."

Several flares were thrown.These flares are equipped with parachutes, they will be ignited after falling a certain distance, and illuminate a large area.

One after another, the flares ignited in the sky, and under the blazing white light of the flares, a railway was clearly displayed.It's just that there is no shadow of military columns on the railway.

"Maybe we should fly a little further west along the railroad," Raeder said.

……

The flares dropped by AC-47 not only illuminated the railway below, but also revealed itself for a short time.

"Look! Captain, the enemy plane!" Chris called out.

"I see it," Luther said.

In the flash of flares just now, Luthor saw the shadow of the enemy plane flicker for a while, and then disappeared into the darkness.

However, Luther was now full of confidence in shooting down the enemy plane, and the several flares dropped one after another pointed out the direction of the enemy plane's flight.Moreover, the enemy plane is obviously searching for the target on the railway. They have not found the target now, and they will continue to drop flares. Moreover, once they attack the target, they will inevitably be exposed. At that time, he can give The fatal blow of the enemy plane.

Therefore, Luther gently pulled the plane to a higher position. In this way, on the one hand, he could avoid being illuminated by the flares and expose himself, and on the other hand, he could quickly accelerate by diving. That short moment of illumination closes in on the target and strikes.

In this way, Luther controlled his bf-110 to fly and climb along the direction of the railway, while waiting for the enemy plane to appear again.

Sure enough, just as Luther expected, 2 minutes later, the enemy plane dropped a series of flares again...

"Captain, we found the target!" Co-pilot Lawrence said in surprise.

Just below the front of the AC-47 attack aircraft, the rear of a train emerged in the light of flares.

"Get in front of them, go around and drop flares, then fire the 40s!" Matt said.

……

As early as when the AC-47 dropped the first flare, the Germans on the train on the railway knew that it would be difficult for them to escape the enemy's search, so all anti-aircraft artillery was in a state of readiness.

There is an 88mm anti-aircraft gun on the penultimate flatbed car at the rear of the train.This is a very unusual configuration.Because those who can effectively attack trains are low-altitude targets, and the efficiency of 88mm guns against low-altitude targets has always been not very good.However, the Germans put this weapon on the train, and naturally they had his intentions.Now, several soldiers are filling some special shells into the barrel of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun...