Iron Cross

On the B-17 bomber, the machine gunners almost stamped their feet and trembled in response - at an altitude of 9,000 meters, the outside temperature was only minus 35 degrees Celsius, and the firing port they were responsible for was an open port. Although they had electric flight suits for heating, they had to move their bodies, especially their fingers, frequently to avoid freezing or frostbite.

The pilots also became more vigilant, always paying attention to maintaining their altitude and speed, especially to avoid entering the wake of other bomber propellers - the closer to the tail, the more difficult it was.

"The enemy plane is descending, 8,600 meters... 8,400 meters... 8,200 meters... 8,000 meters!" In the zoo's control tower, the staff officer loudly reported the altitude of the US military fleet. Every time a number was read out, the tense atmosphere increased.

"No. 1, No. 9, No. 17 air defense positions, fire!" Major General Erich Klinsmann, the commander of the German Air Force's First Air Defense Division, who was in charge of the command, issued the order calmly.

"Boom!"

Amid the deafening roar, Li Mei looked out of the porthole and saw large groups of black clouds rising around him - that was the anti-aircraft artillery positions firing rapidly. The fierce artillery fire frightened him secretly - after not coming for a few months, the anti-aircraft artillery fire in Berlin became more and more intense.

8,000 meters is exactly the combat range where the German 105mm heavy anti-aircraft guns and 88mm medium anti-aircraft guns can cover together and exert good lethality. In just 3 minutes, more than 700 anti-aircraft guns poured tens of thousands of shells. Li Mei heard screams of "Ah, we were hit" from the headset from time to time, and his brows furrowed tightly.

The bomber group continued to fly forward, preparing to enter the core air defense zone of Berlin.

"Enemy aircraft have entered our tower's defense zone."

"Implement the barrage tactic!"

The air defense tower played a pillar role in Berlin's air defense. With Klinsmann's order, all anti-aircraft guns fired at the fastest speed. The four turrets could fire a square "barrage" with a range of 240 meters with 96 shells per minute, which could cause maximum damage to the invading enemy aircraft and force them to disperse their formation. However, due to the special requirements of the 128mm anti-aircraft gun, open-air anti-aircraft positions are usually not equipped. Except for a small part loaded by train for mobile deployment, all are deployed on air defense towers. If this kind of artillery is everywhere, it will be a disaster for large formations of aircraft.

Britain and the United States were well aware of the existence and power of air defense towers, and they had also bombed them specifically. After many futile attempts, they were forced to give up this attempt and only tried their best to avoid them when planning routes. However, with the increase in the density of air defense towers, no matter which direction they entered Berlin from, they would encounter at least one air defense tower. In the end, they had no choice but to charge forward.

This was also one of the reasons why the Eighth Air Force was unwilling to bomb Berlin, but this operation was a political task personally assigned by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Arnold. They could not escape even if they did not want to come. In order to show their importance, LeMay volunteered to rush to the front line, which calmed the others down a lot - he was only a major in 1941, and he became a brigadier general two years later. It is no exaggeration to say that he was the fastest promoted person in the United States. Another person with such good luck was Eisenhower. He was only a colonel in 1940, but now he is a lieutenant general and the commander-in-chief of the theater. However, seeing that he is suffering in Africa now, everyone is also calm - if you want to be promoted quickly, how can you not take risks?

"Disperse... disperse..."

Following the order of the formation commander, the US bomber group began to evacuate and widen the gap. This is the standard tactic of the Army Aviation. They shrink when encountering enemy aircraft and evacuate when encountering anti-aircraft guns. But in just a few minutes of anti-aircraft fire, more than 30 bombers have been shot down, and more bombers are injured. These injured planes have to hastily abandon the bombs they carry and return.

Le Mei instinctively sensed the threat: before bombing the Berlin target, the bomber group lost nearly 200 aircraft due to factors such as returning lost, returning due to malfunction, being shot down, and returning due to injury. The power of Berlin's anti-aircraft firepower has indeed increased a bit scary. What he didn't expect was that as Germany's proximity fuse on the 88mm shell matured, all 88mm, 105mm, and 128mm caliber artillery were loaded with proximity seal shells, and the combat effectiveness has doubled.

He didn't know that in addition to the 128mm artillery, Germany was inspired by Japan's three-type anti-aircraft bombs and tested and modified large-caliber naval guns in Hamburg to serve as air defense strongholds. By forcibly increasing the elevation angle, those 283mm caliber naval guns can fire special anti-aircraft bombs to a height of nearly 20,000 meters. With the proximity seal, it can form a killing circle of about 100 meters, which is the best weapon to break up the formation.

"German fighters are coming, all Fw-190!"

"Let the escort fighters deal with them!" Li Mei gave the order without hesitation. He brought out 400 fighters, including 100 of the latest P-51Bs, which were used at this time. The escort fighters rushed out, quickly abandoned the auxiliary fuel tanks and tried to occupy a favorable combat position.

The fighters of both sides quickly engaged each other in a fierce battle, but gradually LeMay realized the problem: those Fw-190s suddenly fought as hard as if they had been injected with chicken blood. Their speed and maneuverability were no worse than those of the P-47s in his hands, and their firepower was far superior - how could the power of the four 20mm MG213 cannons be resisted by the aircraft machine guns? Even if the P-47 was strong, it could not withstand more than 10 20mm thin-shell bullets.

The P-47 climbed desperately, trying to overwhelm the Fw-190s with a higher altitude, but the A8 series, which was now in a "drug-taking" state, was not afraid at all. It climbed synchronously with the enemy and even climbed faster. After all, the engine power of both sides was close, and the Fw-190 was much lighter than the P-47. It was not afraid of the P-47 in climbing or diving. In terms of rolling and circling, the bulky P-47 was even less of an opponent.

The battlefield was full of one-on-one fights, small formations and even 20-30 medium-sized groups. Obviously, the technical level of German pilots was much higher, and any one of them was up to the standard of the US ace. In just a few minutes, P-47s fell in piles, and basically it would take 7-8 planes to fall before a German fighter would fall. The P-51 performed better, but after all, it was not the world-famous P-51D, and it was still hit by the A8 and crashed repeatedly, with an exchange ratio of about 5:1. The excellent pilots who fought their way through the bloody battles on the Eastern Front were still able to handle the battles with ease on the Western Front.

LeMay was extremely distressed. Seeing that the escort fighters were getting fewer and fewer, while the enemy fighters were still pouring out, he quickly ordered the formation to shrink and provide support for his own fighters with intensive firepower. The machine gunners in the bomber cabin continued to fire, and the floor was soon covered with 12.7mm machine gun bullet shells, many of which even flew out directly. Experienced machine gunners would control the speed and fire with bursts, while inexperienced rookies would hold down the trigger and fire all around - this type of people accounted for the vast majority.

The bomber group had to fire fiercely, because more and more Fw-190s, after not finding fighters to fight, aimed their offensive targets at the bombers - they first climbed, then dived and fired from top to bottom. During this process, the B-17s could not dodge or maneuver, and could only rely on luck and the structure of the fuselage to bear it. If they could survive, everything would go well, and if they could not survive, they would crash. There was no other way out. The Fw-190 dived and then disengaged, and if there was a chance, it would attack again, executing the BZ tactics over and over again.

The only good news was that in order to prevent accidental injuries, the medium and large caliber anti-aircraft artillery on the ground stopped firing when the fighters of both sides were fighting, and only the small and medium caliber anti-aircraft guns closely monitored the low altitude to prevent the enemy from attacking.

There were too many German fighters coming to intercept today, and the dense crowds made people shudder. Li Mei initially estimated that there were no less than 400 - in fact, 500! Moreover, the skills of the German pilots were too good, and the rookie pilots of our side were beaten to a panic.

At 15:36, the bomber group continued to fight and advance, and continued to approach the core target. Nearly 300 of the 400 escort fighters were shot down, and the remaining aircraft basically ran out of fuel and returned - the rest of the way had to be done by the bombers themselves. Two minutes later, the P-47s retreated, and the last remaining P-51 was strangled, but LeMay also noticed that the enemy fighters seemed to have decreased a lot. Among them, less than 80 Fw-190s were lost in the exchange of fire with fighters and bombers. He guessed that most of the other planes were in urgent need of replenishment because of the exhaustion of fuel and ammunition.

He thought it was a good time to bomb. Even though the fleet had lost more than 150 bombers in the fierce attack just now, the entire flying box was flattened and shrunk a lot, but there were still more than 600 effective combat aircraft.

LeMay's guess was not entirely correct. In addition to the planes that were shot down, some German fighters did withdraw because of the exhaustion of ammunition, but more because the "drug effect" had passed. Without this effect, the combat effectiveness was reduced a lot. Experienced pilots began to lower the altitude, quickly reducing from an airspace above 7,800 meters to about 6,000 meters. They did not believe that the Americans could drop bombs at an altitude of more than 7,000 meters, unless the other party only needed the bomb to explode and did not care about the hit rate at all.

Just as Li Mei was commanding the formation to further descend, the navigation sergeant in front suddenly exclaimed: "What the hell is that!"

"What the hell?" Before Li Mei could react, more shouts began to stir in the radio.

"Oh my God...what is that?"

"Did the Germans invite an alien UFO?"

"Is there anything in the world that can fly without a propeller?"

"Are the Germans coming to attack us with a rocket?"

"It's bad..." Li Mei looked outside and saw more than 200 strange-shaped aircraft swooping down from an altitude of 10,000 meters. The speed was extremely fast and there were long white wakes behind them. The scene looked spectacular.