Chapter 269 Vulture Falls

The MiG-3 fighter, designed in the pre-war era as a high-altitude fighter, was obviously not designed for low-altitude dogfighting. Only the flight altitude above 5,000 meters was the combat airspace where the MiG-3 fighter could fully exert its strength. At that time, the extremely excellent high-altitude maneuverability and climb rate made the MiG-3 flying above 5,000 meters enough to deal with almost all the active aircraft in the hands of the German army.

But in fact, the battle for air supremacy in the theater that broke out to cover ground combat often occurred in low-altitude airspace below 2,000 meters or even only a few hundred meters.

The German bombers responsible for ground attack missions, whether they were relatively agile and accurate Stukas or bulky Dornier and Heinkel, almost without exception, launched ground attacks at a flight altitude of about 1,000 meters or even lower.

If the Soviet fighters wanted to intercept them, they had to descend to a low altitude of about 1,000 meters. The German BF109, which usually escorted its own bombers, would naturally not allow the Soviet fighters to slaughter them so wantonly. An extremely fierce low-altitude dogfight and battle for air supremacy were inevitable.

The German BF109E series fighters, which have a much better low-altitude turning radius and directivity than the MiG-3, have powerful dogfighting performance. With the help of experienced German pilots, it is not a problem to press the MiG-3, which is not good at low-altitude combat, to the ground and beat it up. This is also one of the reasons why the Soviet army has always suffered heavy losses in the battle for air supremacy in the theater since the war began.

At present, the German Heinkel 111 bomber group without the escort of BF109 can only rely on the self-defense firepower on the fuselage to barely cope with the attack of the Soviet MiG-3 group.

Although the current air interception battle also took place at low altitudes below 1,000 meters, which the MiG-3 was not good at, the MiG-3, which could not fight the German BF109 at low altitude, would not be defeated by the bulky bomber.

No matter how bad the high-altitude fighters were at low altitude, they were still agile fighters born to fight for air supremacy. The self-defense machine guns on the bulky bombers could not even protect themselves in the face of organized air combat attacks, not to mention that the self-defense machine guns on the German Heinkel 111 bombers were just some G15 small water pipe machine guns.

The interception group consisting of 18 MiG-3 fighters was like a group of prairie wolves circling around the sheepfold, constantly circling and spying on the weaknesses of the German bomber group, looking for any possible attack opportunities.

Even the self-defense firepower network formed by the US B29 heavy bomber fleet at the end of World War II could not be absolutely airtight. The Heinkel 111, which had only G17 aircraft machine guns and four machine gunners manually operating the shooting, was undoubtedly worse.

Under the premise that the bombardier Burns, who was also the nose gunner, had been killed, the Heinkel 111 bomber commanded by the fleet commander Major Alfred Hank had only two machine gunners on the belly and one machine gunner on the back left to fight.

The Heinkel 111, which had a much sparse self-defense firepower and occupied the position of the fleet leader, soon attracted the attention of the circling Soviet fighters.

The supreme truth of "killing while you are weak" also exists in the air battle where one strike decides the outcome. The Soviet fighter plane, realizing that the nose gunner of the German Heinkel 111 bomber had been killed, immediately rushed over from the front of the nose after pulling out the full turning radius, and the black muzzles of the 7mm Berezin machine gun and the 62mm Shkas machine gun immediately sprayed out hot flames.

Boom boom boom --

Crackle --

"Uh ah ah ah!!!"

The fleeting sound of the machine gun volleys and the bangs of tearing the skin of the fuselage echoed in the not-so-spacious cabin. In just a moment, the back gunner, who was hit by seven or eight bullets, fell on the bloody seat with a miserable wail, and the lowered head soaked in blood no longer had any vitality or movement.

Major Hank, who realized that his crew members were in trouble again, had no time to care about other things. He was shot through the thigh by at least two 62mm SKAS machine gun bullets. At this moment, he only felt that his right leg was completely out of control in the severe pain. This was undoubtedly a fatal blow to the pilot who needed to step on the tail rudder pedal to realize and control the turning of the aircraft.

"Damn plane! Damn Russian Ivan! Where are our fighters!?"

The nose instrument panel, which was hit by the machine gun barrage like autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves, kept bursting out hot short-circuit sparks. The pointers of various instruments were either broken and stopped or kept spinning like they were on drugs. The aircraft had been subjected to two rounds of machine gun fire and had been severely damaged. Major Hank soon found that the severity of the problem had exceeded his imagination.

"Damn it! The wing flaps won't move! The altitude is dropping! Move! Pull them up for me, you bastard!"

Despite his desperate efforts, Major Hank used all his strength to pull the joystick in his hand, trying to return the plane, which had already begun to dive and lost its flight posture, to a level flight state.

But what Major Hank didn't know was that the head-on strafing by the MiG-3 fighter just now not only killed his back machine gunner and pierced and scrapped his entire right leg, but also directly broke the wing control cable connecting the pilot's joystick to the wing flaps, just like the brain with its control nerves cut off could no longer command the limbs to make any movements that were normally very easy.

Major Hank, who had pulled the joystick to the limit, failed to change the wing flaps to the airflow rising state. The downward dive angle and speed of the Heinkel 111, which increased with the passage of time, had become a heavy flying coffin.

In order to meet the bombardier Burns's tactic of lowering the flight altitude for precise aiming and attacking, it has now become a death choice to bury all the remaining crew members including Major Hank.

The flight altitude of only a few hundred meters was not only unable to pull up, but also did not even have the last chance to seek parachute escape. Major Hank, who was dragging a scrapped thigh and looking at the ground rushing towards him, had given up the last attempt. The Heinkel 111 fuselage, which had entered an overspeed state during the uncontrolled dive, was now shaking violently like a thatched house in the winter wind.

Ignoring the last terrifying sign before the plane disintegrated due to overspeed, Major Hank, whose heart and soul had died before his life, leaned back in his seat and glanced at the black and white photo on the dashboard on his right hand side with an emotionless face like a vegetable.

His attachment to his own life and the people far away, and the unwilling and manic cry in his heart, immediately soared into the air with a sky-high explosion.