Arc of Gunfire

Not long after Drachenko climbed to 4,000 meters, wingman Bayev shouted: "Is there anyone down there?"

Drachenko flicked his wings, and sure enough he saw a small, almost invisible tank below.

The tank was clearly stopped, so there was no dust, making it very difficult to see.

Ivan, the No. 3 machine, was a little worried: "Could it be our troops?"

To be honest, it is impossible to tell which army is from the sky. If you rush in hastily, you may make a mistake.

The reason why Drachenko was sure that the one attacking the ground below was the enemy was because the friendly twin-engine P-2 bombers would climb after dropping their bombs and would not fire cannons on the ground.

Now faced with a ground target, Drachenko is in trouble. He decided to ask on the radio.

"The eagle calls to the convoy below, what brand of pickled cucumbers is good? What brand of pickled cucumbers is good?"

no respond.

At the same time, wingman Bayev said: "I heard a lot of very clear conversations in Prosin on the radio. I guessed it was the enemy."

Drachenko was speechless and made up his mind: "Go down, we may not be able to explode it accurately anyway, let's explode it first."

After saying that, he directly moved the control stick, and the aircraft rolled half a circle, then buckled down and entered a dive.

He aimed his dive bombsight at the tank, which was as small as an ant on the ground, and dived at full speed.

The P47 can pull up to a speed of 7800. Ant's own wooden planes simply can't do this. Therefore, veteran air force pilots who quickly became familiar with the aircraft began to not even close the throttle when diving. This way, the aircraft was faster, climbed faster when pulling up, and was within the enemy's anti-aircraft gunfire range for a short time.

Therefore, when the P47 drops a bomb, it generally does not stop the fuel or deploy any speed brakes. It dives directly at full speed and drops the bomb at about 2000 meters - if it is too low, it may hit the ground.

The accuracy of bombing in this way is worrying. Firstly, the height of the dive is too high and the ground target cannot be seen clearly. Secondly, the height of bombing is too high and the speed of bombing is too fast.

Moreover, the P47 does not have a special dive bombing rack. When the bomb is dropped, it will be affected by the turbulence caused by the aircraft pulling up.

In order to deal with the problem of low bomb hit rate, the 4th Attack Group used their brains to hang two 500 kilogram bombs and two 250 kilogram bombs on the P47.

Since I can't throw it accurately, I'll just throw 4 at a time. There can always be one shot that covers you within the range of power, right?

This method of hanging bombs has an outstanding effect on soft targets. If a two-machine formation drops bombs and bombs a relatively dense marching column, the casualties will be upwards of 400, and a battalion will be wiped out.

If the enemy is already deployed, it is normal to destroy one or two companies.

In contrast, although the Stuka's bombing is more accurate, it only throws 500 kilograms at a time, so the effect may not be better than that of the P47.

The P47 can still fight in the air after throwing bombs, but the Stuka can only run away after throwing bombs.

At this moment, four P47s rushed towards the enemy on the ground carrying 8 500kg bombs and 8 250kg bombs.

He didn't look at the altimeter at all and dropped the bomb directly based on experience. When he started to pull up, he looked at the altimeter: 1500 meters, the drop was low!

So he pulled the control lever back harder, as if this would make the plane pull up faster.

The overload caused Drachenko's blood to run to the soles of his feet. Due to the lack of blood, his head entered a light-headed state and his vision went dark.

He could only rely on his last will to pull the operating lever tightly.

At this time, when to release the control stick can only be determined based on experience. If you release it too early, the aircraft will not pull up and it will hit the ground.

Drachenkoson counted three times and suddenly relaxed the control stick, allowing the tail rudder to reset under the action of airflow resistance.

The dizziness gradually faded away, and the blue sky filled the field of vision again. Drachenko looked at the altimeter. It was already 2100 and the plane was pulling up.

He leaned to his left and tried to look behind him to see the effects of the bombing.

The bomb's fuse was timed for one second and should have detonated.

Sure enough, Drachenko saw sixteen dust clouds of different sizes on the ground completely engulfing the enemy's queue.

Hit!

In excitement, Drachenko asked over the radio: "Is everything okay? No one slapped the ground, right?"

"No."

"Boss, you pulled me up too late. I thought I couldn't pull myself up and would die for the country."

"Should we shoot a little, there are more bullets anyway."

The weapons of the P47 are eight Browning 12.7mm machine guns. The firepower is unusually fierce, so it was able to cut off the wings of the Dow 215 bomber just now.

This kind of firepower is naturally very powerful for strafing soft targets on the ground.

Drachenko: "No, didn't you see what happened to the four Prosen tactical bombers just now? If we indulge in strafing and reduce our speed to a very low speed, we will become the prey of 109! Now we have recovered Height and speed, it’s a good fight when it comes to 109.”

It can be said that 109 and P47 have their own merits. It all depends on the height and speed of both parties when entering the battle.

The four P47s flew towards the airport.

————

On the ground, Lieutenant Linden of the Prussian Army opened the hatch and stuck his head out of his No. 217 car.

There was a mess all around, with wounded soldiers everywhere.

The voice of the electromechanical man came from the earphones: "Damn it, the enemy might have thrown twenty or thirty rounds of heavy bombs! Not one of them hit us. It can only be said that these inferior people are just bad and can't throw them accurately!"

Without waiting for Linden to reply, the driver said, "Not necessarily. I saw that the track of the 218 vehicle seemed to be blown off."

Linden immediately turned his head to look at the 218 vehicle, and indeed saw its driver checking the track.

Lieutenant Linden picked up the microphone: "218, how are you?"

"A bomb fell less than 30 meters away from me, and the track was destroyed, and the infantry hiding next to the tank was also destroyed. It looks really miserable. This is the first time I know that people killed by overpressure are like this."

"Can you still repair the track?" Lieutenant Linden skipped the dead infantry and asked the most critical question.

"Whether it can be repaired depends on the results of the driver's inspection." The commander of the 218 was looking at this side on the turret. At this time, his driver suddenly looked up and said a few words.

Linden asked: "What did he say?"

"It's not just the tracks that are ruined, but also the first road wheel. His suggestion is to remove the tracks on the other side, and then have a Type 6 tank to tow us back."

The Type 6 tank can also remove the tracks and be towed by other vehicles, but that will have a serious impact on the running mechanism of the Type 6 tank and easily induce more failures.

Lieutenant Linden: "This way you can't participate in combat operations for at least half a month. You know that our field repair battalion has not caught up, right?"

The commander of the No. 218 vehicle did not answer, but said a few more words to the driver. The driver shook his head, glanced in the direction of the platoon leader Linden, and lowered his head to continue fiddling with the tracks.

"My driver said that it will take at least until the morning after tomorrow to repair it." Lieutenant Linden: "Then you repair it here, and we will continue to move forward. We can wait for you in the village 20 kilometers away from Yarvik!" The commander of the 218 tank asked hesitantly: "Do we still want to move forward? The enemy's air raids will become more and more frequent in the future-" As soon as he finished speaking, someone next to him shouted: "Air raid! Enemy planes are above our heads and are diving!" Linden looked up and saw planes with zebra patterns on their wings diving. These planes did not scream as terrible as the Stuka when they dived, but Linden, who had seen the power of a bombing, felt that this thing was much more terrifying than the Stuka. He quickly retreated into the tank and closed the lid, and then he remembered that his driver and mechanic were outside the tank! At this time, the hatch leading to the ground at the bottom of the fighting room opened, and the driver seemed to want to crawl in from under the car, but the bomb fell as soon as he reached in. Linden felt that the huge body of the No. 6 tank was shaking. Every time a bomb exploded, the tank was like being slapped by an invisible hand, and the armor facing the explosion direction hummed.

The difference between an air raid and an artillery bombardment is that an air raid ends quickly.

After it became quiet outside, Linden pushed open the hatch again and got out.

The enemy planes in this air raid were five times more than before, so the bombs dropped were also five times more. Linden saw that half of the accompanying half-track vehicle was burning, and a motorcycle seemed to be overturned on the ground by the shock wave of the bomb.

The motorcyclist in a windbreaker lay not far away, motionless.

Just as Linden was about to speak, he saw the captain of the 218 vehicle in the distance gesturing, which seemed to mean "pay attention to the tracks of your vehicle."

"Bob, check the tracks!" Linden ordered the driver.

The driver who had just entered from the bottom hatch got out from the driver's exit on the top of the vehicle and jumped to the ground.

He took only one look and reported: "Captain, bad news, our track is broken."

Linden: "Is there a problem with the first road wheel?"

"At least I can't see it now." The driver shook his head, "but it is possible that it will break while driving. Repairing the track may take a day."

Linden was shocked. After a brief thought, he called the commander of the accompanying troops.

The infantry captain climbed onto the tank and asked: "What's wrong?"

"As you can see, we are stranded. The good news is that only the track is broken, and one of the vehicles has a problem with the road wheel. The bad news is that we have to stay here at least until tomorrow night."

Lieutenant Linden did not dare to say that he would stay until the morning of the day after tomorrow.

The captain's brows twisted into knots: "The enemy bombed us once, and they will bomb us a second time." Lieutenant Linden: "We can contact Colonel Busse and ask him to send anti-aircraft guns. Of course, it would be better if Colonel Busse attacked directly and took the village in front." The captain sighed: "Lieutenant, I have a bad feeling, really, a bad feeling." Lieutenant Linden comforted: "Don't worry, there are four Type 6 tanks here, and you have seen our combat effectiveness. Even if the enemy sends out a hundred T34s, they can't do anything to us!" "I'm not worried about this..." The captain looked to the east - the direction where the enemy was, "I'm worried that the White Horse General Rokosov has come to us. He is a dangerous guy who has eaten up many of our troops!" Lieutenant Linden said confidently: "Don't worry, with the Type 6 tank, he can't eat us! You can see that the Ants don't have any weapons that can threaten the Type 6 tank!"