Bismarck

"Rudel, don't panic, and be sure to maintain control of the plane!" Stephen's voice of warning came from the radio - although it was obvious that this man's voice was trembling and nervous.

"I know!" Rudel roared as if to vent his anger, and then pulled the joystick hard.

"careful!"

"Damn it--get up--"

Rudel had no time to care about him now. He pulled the joystick too hard when he was venting his anger. The nose of the plane suddenly trembled and fell down. He was so frightened that he was in a panic for a while and finally managed to correct it. But this altitude... Rudel hurriedly glanced at the altimeter. He had lost a lot of altitude just now. Now there was only more than 800 meters left...

Without a dive bomber that can dive at high altitude, it’s worse than fried chicken…

The evasive position was very unfortunate, only more than 2,000 meters away from the British warship in front of him on the left, and the British warship was facing him head-on. Not only was the projection area very small, but the distance and angle between the two sides, as well as the fierce firepower of the British fleet that blocked the surrounding airspace, meant that he had no chance to adjust his position and altitude. In the sky, the shadows of four fulmars had already appeared in his field of vision.

Although he is the best golden knight in the world in the future, due to time constraints, he is still just a complete rookie. He is just holding his breath and getting excited. When he sees an emergency, he will be in a panic like all novice pilots. However, the cruelty of the battlefield now arouses the blood of the future dive bomber king?

"Damn you!" Rudel gritted his teeth! "Don't think I can't do anything to you just because you don't have a high altitude!"

He pushed the joystick with one hand and pushed the throttle to the bottom with the other hand. The mount, aroused by its master, dived and headed towards the British warship on the sea.

"Don't think that our Greater Germany Air Force only knows how to dive. In addition to dive attacks, I have also received training in water bomb attacks from Instructor Zeppelin! Come and try it!"

The diving JU87C had its back to the sunlight in the southeast, and the light reflected from its wings formed a brilliant curve at the speed of the wind, like a cavalryman's fierce blade flying towards the British warship!

Screech, a shrill scream!

At such a close distance, the slightly bulky 133 anti-aircraft gun could not keep up with the Iron Eagle, which seemed to be erratic with anger. All the shells hit the wake of Rudel. Although the 40mm ping-pong gun could automatically correct the shooting parameters under the control of the 285 radar, there were too few of them, and the trajectory of the gun itself was too curved and the range was too short. It could not withstand the crazy attack of the JU87C in a desperate state!

In the panicked eyes of the British sailors, they saw the shadow of the JU87C swooping down from afar and approaching rapidly along the waterline getting closer and closer.

The wing quickly passed over the sea surface, creating ripples with the high-speed airflow.

Stunning photo!

"Full left! Hurry up!!"

"God...he's flying over here!!"

“Shoot! Keep shooting!!”

"Help...Mom..."

There was chaos on the British warship.

"Speed ​​430 kilometers per hour, stable altitude maintained at meters, the angle of the bomb falling into the water does not exceed degrees, distance one thousand two hundred... one thousand... eight hundred..." In Rudel's eyes, the projection of the damn British warship was rapidly enlarged in the halo of the sight, and a series of parameters were accurately gathered in his mind.

With a firm yet slightly crazy look in his eyes, he locked onto the target firmly. He pushed the rudder slightly to correct the direction, and the nose of the plane was pointed firmly towards the warship.

A string of shells with tracers flew around him, but could not stop the anger, determination and madness in his eyes.

come on!

At a distance of 87 meters, "For the Motherland!!" With a roar from the cockpit of JU250, a 120KG bomb dropped from the rack at a speed of meters per second.

Only one or two seconds later the bomb touched the sea surface, but it bounced high up again after hitting the sea surface, just like the skipping stones that children play with, and still moved forward rapidly.

Five seconds later, along with a dive bomber flying past, a huge fireball exploded from the bow of the Dido-class anti-aircraft cruiser. In the violent explosion, a huge hole was torn in the armor. The light cruiser, with a large amount of water taking in from the bow, twisted an irregular route on the sea with raging flames and a tilt of more than ten degrees, and gradually sailed away from the formation... and this scene happened to provide an excellent background for the JU87C that was starting to pull up.

However, before Rudel could celebrate the success of his first attack, the British anger and revenge came...

The feeling of being targeted is pretty bad!

"Rudel! Turn now! There is an enemy plane above you!!"

Staufen's anxious call was heard from the radio. Before Rudel could recover from the ecstasy of hitting the target, a series of "du du du..." sounds came from the fuselage.

A string of bullets shot down from mid-air instantly made several holes in his fuselage, and Rudel felt his right wing sinking on the spot...

"…What?!" Rudel turned around in shock and saw that a piece of his right wing skin had been torn off by the dense rain of bullets. The loss of lift caused his mount to tilt. Before he could react, the rear gunner began to shout:

"Rudel! Turn right quickly! There are enemy planes behind us!!"

Without time to think, Rudel hurriedly pulled the joystick. As soon as the Stuka turned right, a dense trail of smoke flew past the Stuka's vertical tail! Looking back, two Fulmars were biting their vertical tails tightly, and the wings were shining with a pale golden cold light under the reflection of the sun...

In the air farther behind, Staufen, who was also besieged by two Fulmars, hurriedly dropped his bombs, turned to evade, and called Rudel on the radio: "Rudel, come closer to me! We cover each other..."

Before he could finish his words, a Fulmar flew past from below Stovfen. After a series of dazzling flashes of fire, Stovfen's plane suddenly emitted thick black smoke.

"Damn it—I'm hit!!!" The radio came with the desperate call of the leader.

"Stephen, hold on—"

Before Rudel could finish his words, he saw Staufen's fighter plane staggering twice and then starting to plummet.

"We're going to crash - oh my God!"

After a while, the desperate screams disappeared in the vast ocean...

"Staufen—"

On the sea, the huge aircraft carrier has turned its bulky body and is about to launch its carrier-based aircraft...

"Well done, who is this pilot?" In the command post of the Glorious, Tovey listened to the call from the radio, looked at the black smoke falling into the sea in the distance, and asked his men lightly.

"Based on this call sign, it should be the squadron leader Eric Brown of this squadron." The carrier-based aircraft commander standing next to Tovey quickly replied.

"Yeah, not bad..." Tovey nodded, seeming to smile a little. However, inconsistent with his happy expression, a voice from the observation post outside suddenly came from the microphone: "Attention everyone! Enemy dive bombers spotted over the Fury! Two!"

Everyone in the bridge command post hurried to the porthole and looked toward the rear of the fleet, which was the location of the aircraft carrier Wrath. They just happened to see two huge fireballs rising from the flight deck of the Wrath, carrying thick black smoke into the air.

This unfortunate old aircraft carrier was severely damaged by the sudden sneak attack, and several large holes were blown out on the flight deck. It has at least temporarily lost its combat effectiveness.

The sudden blow stunned all the British.

"Two groups of Stukas are actually making a feint to the east and attacking in the west? Damn it!... Radar soldier, how far are the German aircraft groups from us?"

"Report to the commander! The German aircraft group is still 100 kilometers away from our fleet. It is expected to engage in battle in minutes!"

"There are only two aircraft carriers left, which means there are only twelve Fulmars. Even if the group in the sky doesn't catch mice, there are only twenty-four fighters... Lütjens is a good scheming old man. With four planes and two two-plane squadrons, my interception force has been reduced by a full fifth..."

Tovey, who had misunderstood, gritted his teeth in anger.

However, what he didn't know was that this attack was entirely the reckless and reckless personal behavior of a rookie, and had nothing to do with Lütjens...

The time displayed on the wall clock was 8:45. Tovey looked up at the time and immediately gave the order without hesitation: "... Order the Glorious and Ark Royal to launch fighter planes immediately. Also, tell Brown and his men to quickly shoot down these rats who are trying to escape after dropping all their bombs, and then go with the main force to intercept the German aircraft fleet!"

"Yes sir, Aye aye sir!"

Looking at Tovey, whose nose was crooked and teeth were gnashing with anger, the British carrier-based aircraft commander did not dare to be negligent and immediately took the order and left.

"Fighter unit, kill the rats quickly! After killing them, go find the main force to intercept the German air raid fleet together! Do you get it?"

"Brown got it!" In the cockpit of the British leader, Eric Brown turned off the radio microphone, looked at the JU87 on the lead angle of the sight halo, and pressed the trigger button.

However, Rudel was also smart. When he saw the fire bursting from the wing of the Flycatcher behind him, he pulled the joystick back without thinking. In just a moment, a string of machine gun bullets flew past Rudel's wing tip.

At the same time, Captain Hake's voice came from Rudel's radio: "Rudel, fly to your right front! Hurry and meet us, then we will fly back together!"

"understand!"

Three JUB87Cs were maintaining a three-plane formation and carefully moving through the fireworks rain at the edge of the British fleet's air defense circle. There were sparse fragments and traces of gunpowder on their bodies, and some even had dents all over the fuselage, but they were very lucky that no vital parts were hit, allowing the three fighters to escape.

High in the sky outside the British fleet, four Fulmar fighters were watching them closely... Once they were away from the fleet's air defense circle, they would rush out.

"Captain, we are about to fly out of the British fleet's air defense circle..." The voice of his wingman, Lieutenant Soren, came from Captain Hake's radio.

Hearing the concerns of his men and looking at the anti-aircraft fireworks that were beginning to become sparse around the plane, Huck turned his head slightly to glance at the four Fulmars high in the sky behind him on the right. It seemed that they were already preparing to rush down?

He checked the altimeter. Due to the frequent evasive maneuvers (aircraft maneuvers consume energy and reduce altitude, especially dive bombers that don't pursue climb rates), the altimeter was less than a thousand meters. He looked ahead and saw that there were still clouds several hundred meters above his head. He could only give the order again.

"You two, follow me closely, climb as high as you can, and avoid the clouds!"

Before he finished speaking, Huck had already pushed the throttle to the top. Although the fixed landing gear had great resistance and the speed of the constant-speed propeller would not increase, the thrust of the electric fan brought by the increased propeller torque still made the JU87C go faster. After all, it was a 1000-horsepower engine...

However, due to the surprise bombing and the disengagement after the bombing, the engine temperature gauge has been rising steadily over time... and no matter how fast it goes, it can't be faster than the fulmar behind it...

But now is not the time to worry about these things! Although the engine temperature is very high, it has not overheated yet. As long as we get into the clouds first, at least the chance of escape will be a little greater!

"Calling Hake, calling Hake, do you hear me? This is Zeppelin! The main force is coming, just above the clouds! You keep heading 240, we are rushing over with all our strength, we will be there soon!!"

Zeppelin's clear voice came from the radio. Hearing this cold female voice, the six people on the three planes were all cheered up.

Never before had I felt that Major Zeppelin's voice was so beautiful, Rudel almost burst into tears.

The fleet's aircraft are finally arriving!

The effective range of airborne radio voice communications in this era is one hundred kilometers. Being able to hear clear voices means that the main force is only one hundred kilometers away!

One hundred kilometers is not a very far distance for an airplane. Under normal circumstances, it takes 20 minutes to fly, and ten minutes to fly head-on to meet the airplane!

But before Hake could be happy, the radio operator and machine gunner shouted from the back seat: "Captain, they are rushing down!"

Four damned fulmars followed with a roar.

"Maintain a three-plane formation and make sure to cover each other!"

ps: I’m so sleepy...good night

Chapter 230: Action in Progress

"Maintain a three-plane formation and make sure to cover each other!"

The three JU87s began to climb desperately towards the clouds, while slightly staggering the planes at different angles so that the rear machine gun of each plane could cover the other two comrades.

The two pairs of Fulmar formations in the sky began to change their formation, separating from the original "four fingers"-like goose formation, and then split into two groups, one in front and one behind, one high and one low.

One group dived at a slightly larger angle and began to charge directly towards the small formation of JU87, while the other group maintained its altitude in the sky and began to change its course, apparently intending to deliver a fatal blow when the first group dived to break up the JU87 formation.

"Pay attention to me, everyone. Try to maintain the formation. If you are separated and cannot reunite, use the clouds to disperse and break out! And, most importantly, remember to lead the main force to the location of the enemy aircraft carrier after flying above the clouds! It is not easy for them to find the British aircraft carrier above the clouds..."

While Hake was still giving instructions to his men, the machine gunner in the back seat started shouting, "Captain! They are coming! Towards Rudel!!"

At the same time as the rear machine gunner shouted, there was a dense, almost continuous "beep, beep, beep" sound from the MG17 machine gun from the rear, and the other two wingmen also began firing.

However, for this manually operated 7.92mm rear machine gun, which only had a simple iron ring sight and was very unstable and had a limited firing angle, the threat to fighter planes was very limited - even if three machine guns fired at the same time, they could only slightly drive away the two planes.

It seemed that one could hear the two planes snorting coldly in front of the machine gun fire, and then they pressed the joystick slightly and got under the fuselage of the JU87s - just below the minimum depression angle of the rear machine gun!

Several rear-firing machine guns immediately fell silent, and the shooters looked anxiously at the empty sky.

"Captain! They have gotten into the blind spot below and behind us!" The anxious voice of the machine gunner came from the back seat.

Hake glanced back at the other two planes still in the sky, and turned on the radio with one hand: "They want to force us to lower our altitude! Soren, Rudel, you two will fly in a cross-flight manner, and pay attention to keeping a little distance horizontally and staggered in altitude! I will lower the rear gunners a little later, and pay attention to covering each other! Keep preparing for the cloud-penetrating flight!"

"clear!!"

The three planes began to pull away from each other and began to fly slowly in a staggered manner. Rudel and Soren on the left and right began to fly in a staggered manner. The tilted fuselage when turning provided them with a certain downward shooting angle, so they could shoot at the British fighter planes at a lower altitude than themselves. And Hack, who was in the middle of the front of the triangle formation, was in the lowest position and could fire at the blind spots where the two JU87C rear machine guns could not shoot - especially the outside of the two planes, effectively covering the rear of Rudel and Soren. For a while, this small three-plane formation, relying on the firepower of the three rear machine guns covering each other, actually resisted the attack of the two Fulmars following behind.

There is a large and dense cloud ahead. As long as we enter the clouds, we will be temporarily safe.

However, there were two more Fulmars in the sky behind them…

Rudel, who was making a cross turn, turned from the left rear to the right rear of the formation and was about to pull back. However, the pilot's instinct made him look at the Soran plane that was also pulling back in his direction, but facing the morning sun of the North Sea, what he saw was...

"Sauron! Behind the left! Two fighter planes! Be careful to avoid them!!"

According to the pilot's reaction speed, Soran should be able to respond immediately after Rudel's warning, but unexpectedly, Soran's plane did not move at all.

In fact, due to the inertia of thinking brought by the battlefield situation of the two previous fulmars, and the illusion caused by the tilt of the plane, Soran was indeed paying attention to whether there were the "previous" two fighters (Rudel wanted to say the "other" two fighters) "behind his left" (directly above Soran in Rudel's eyes)

On the contrary, Huck, who also heard the call from the radio, noticed this and shouted "Sauron! Climb!!" while moving his plane to the lower left.

Soran suddenly realized what was going on and quickly pulled the joystick.

The change in position gave him a reasonable shooting angle, and Hake's rear machine gunner used this angle to fire a round of bullets. The two planes that rushed down from the high altitude behind him were forced to evade slightly.

but…

The two fighters had already turned to the right, firmly grasping Rudel's six o'clock position! The only one who could cover the outside of the two of them, Hack, had only one rear machine gun and could not take care of both directions at the same time!

The four British fighter planes on both sides were getting closer and closer...

"Sauron, Rudel, the two of you fly head-on into each other! Shoot each other from behind! And then immediately get into the clouds!!"

The cloud height of one thousand meters is within reach, but the aircraft will lose altitude when making large-scale maneuvers. At the same time, since the engine power of propeller aircraft is fixed, only at a relatively low speed can there be a relatively high propeller thrust, which means that the climbing speed is actually only at a very low level...

Captain Hake's strategy allowed the two wingmen to temporarily escape from being hunted, as the thick clouds were already in sight.

Although only a few tens of seconds passed, for the six people on the three Stukas, this feeling of hovering on the boundary between life and death seemed to last as long as a century.

But the crisis was not over. The results of damaging an anti-aircraft cruiser and severely damaging an aircraft carrier made the chasing Fulmar Brown Team grit their teeth to destroy them. The head-on maneuver just now made the JU87C, which had poor mobility to begin with, pull further away. Although Rudel and Soran were desperately trying to pull it back, it would take at least 87 to seconds to pull it back given the JUC's mobility.

For British fighters with better maneuverability and more experienced commanders, it is actually not easy to crack this seemingly unsolvable "head-on flying to cover the rear of friendly aircraft" method - as long as one group pulls up and then dives to attack any wingman, while another group follows from the outside in the horizontal direction.

Due to long-term full-load operation, the temperature of the engine has exceeded the overheating warning line, but no one dares to reduce the speed. Especially the two wingmen of Rudel and Soren have been doing turning maneuvers, and their speed and altitude are not high enough! Although Hake can escape by himself, he has been lowering his altitude and speed, desperately covering his two wingmen!

"Rudel! Soren! Hold on! The Zeppelin's large force is above the clouds! Now we must fly above the clouds immediately and guide the main fleet to find the British fleet!"