Chapter 334 Enemy Planes Fly Straight up and Then Descend Rapidly

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 Pe-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 will always be one shot that can cover 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 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 not good enough and can't throw them accurately!"

Without waiting for Linden to reply, the driver said, "Not necessarily. I saw that the tracks of the 218 car seemed to have been blown off."

Linden immediately turned to look at Vehicle 218, and sure enough he saw its driver checking the tracks.

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

"A bomb fell less than 30 meters next to me. The track was destroyed, as well as the infantry hiding next to the tank. It looked so miserable. It was the first time I knew that someone was killed by overpressure. ”

"Can you still repair the tracks?" Lieutenant Linden jumped over 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 218 was looking here on the turret. At this time, his driver suddenly raised his head and said a few words.

Lyndon asked: "What did he say?"

"It was not only the tracks that were finished, but also the first road wheel. His suggestion was to remove the tracks on the other side, and then let a Panzer 6 tank drag us backwards."

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

Lieutenant Linden: "As a result, you will not be able to participate in combat operations for at least half a month. You know that our field repair battalion has not followed up, right?"

The captain of car No. 218 did not answer, but said a few more words to the driver. The driver shook his head, glanced in the direction of platoon leader Linden, lowered his head and continued to fiddle with the tracks.

"My driver said the repairs will have to be made at least until the morning of tomorrow."

Lieutenant Linden: "Then you make repairs here while we move on. We can wait for you at a village 20 kilometers away from Jarvik!"

The commander of Car 218 asked hesitantly: "Are we still going forward? In the future, enemy air attacks will become more and more intensive -"

As soon as he finished speaking, someone next to him shouted: "Air strike! The enemy plane is above us and diving!"

When Linden looked up, he saw a plane with zebra stripes on its wings diving down. When these planes dived, they didn't have as terrifying a scream as the Stuka, but Linden, who had seen the power of a bombing, felt that this thing was much scarier than the Stuka.

He quickly retracted the tank and closed the lid. Then he remembered that his driver and electromechanical personnel were outside the tank!

At this time, the hatch leading to the ground opened at the bottom of the fighting room. The driver seemed to want to climb in from under the car, but as soon as he put his hand in, the bomb fell.

Linden felt that the huge body of the Panzer 6 was shaking.

As each bomb exploded, the tank was like a slap in the face from an invisible hand, buzzing against the armor facing the direction of the explosion.

The difference between air strikes and artillery strikes is that air strikes end quickly.

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

The number of enemy planes in this air strike was five times that of the previous one, so the bombs dropped were also five times. Linden saw that half of the accompanying half-track was burning, and a motorcycle seemed to be overturned by the shock wave of the bomb.

The motorcyclist wearing a windbreaker was lying not far away, motionless.

Just as Linden was about to speak, he saw the commander of car 218 making gestures in the distance, which seemed to mean "pay attention to the tracks of your car."

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

The driver who had just entered through the bottom hatch exited through the driver's exit on the top of the car body and jumped to the ground.

He only glanced at it and reported: "Captain, bad news, our track is broken."

Lyndon: "Is there something wrong with the first road wheel?"

"At least it can't be seen now." The driver shook his head, "But I don't rule out the possibility that it will break into pieces while walking. It may take a day to repair the track."

Linden was speechless. After thinking briefly, he called to the commander of the accompanying troops.

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

"As you can see, we're broken down. The good news is, it's just a broken track and one vehicle has a problem with its road wheels. The bad news is, we're going to be here at least until tomorrow night."

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

The captain frowned: "If the enemy bombs us once, he will bomb us a second time."

Lieutenant Linden: "We can contact Colonel Busey and ask him to send anti-aircraft artillery. Of course, it would be better if Colonel Busey directly attacks forward and captures the village in front."

The captain sighed: "Lieutenant, I have a bad feeling, really, a bad feeling."

Lieutenant Linden comforted him: "Don't worry, there are four No. 6 tanks here. You have seen our combat effectiveness. Even if the enemy dispatches a hundred T34s, they can't do anything to us!"

"I'm not worried about this..." The captain looked to the east - that is, the direction where the enemy is. "What I'm worried about is that White Horse General Rokossov has already arrived in front of us. He is in danger of eating many of our troops. Guy!"

Lieutenant Linden said confidently: "Don't worry, with the No. 6 Tank here, he can't eat us! As you can see, the Anters have no weapons that can threaten the No. 6 Tank!"