Chapter 163 Air Combat

This was an air battle between the German BF109 and the British "Hurricane".

Both sides chose the battlefield above the 21st Armored Division.

For the British army, the purpose of doing this was to attract the main force of the German Air Force to fight. The traditional British army was not good at flexible tactics, such as ambushes, sneak attacks, etc. They were better at pulling out the formation and then launching a charge, just like the battle in the Knights' era.

The German Air Force had to fight, because the 21st Armored Division was their main cover mission. If they did not fight, it would mean that the 21st Armored Division would suffer a heavy blow, so the German army's attack on the Alamein Line would be out of the question.

At the same time, the German Air Force was also happy to fight, because the air defense forces of the 21st Armored Division would provide them with the necessary air defense firepower.

As Qin Chuan saw, anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns were set up at the first time and poured bullets into the air. Most of the anti-aircraft guns were "Bofors" anti-aircraft guns... The German army was reluctant to use the 88 anti-aircraft guns for air defense because they found that this thing was more suitable for attacking tanks.

It was actually very dangerous for the ground troops to do this. Soon they were attacked by enemy fighters... Several "Hurricane" fighters dived down, and with a roar of machine guns, bullets shot several German soldiers in an anti-aircraft machine gun position into sieves.

The ground troops felt very powerless against the high-speed and flexible fighters in the air. Qin Chuan, as a sniper, knew this very well.

You may be able to find a few fighters and use them as targets, but in fact, it is difficult for the bullets and shells fired to hit the target because the aircraft moves at high speed, unless you can judge the distance and speed of the target and accurately shoot ahead... In fact, this is difficult to do, the background of the aircraft is the sky, and there is no reference for reference.

And even if you guessed it right, as long as the target turns or rises, your calculation and luck will disappear.

So, several anti-aircraft machine gun positions and anti-aircraft artillery positions were destroyed by British fighter planes and bombers. Fortunately, these shooters and gunners were well-trained. After they judged that they had become the enemy's target and would inevitably be destroyed, they immediately dropped their equipment and ran away... Experienced soldiers knew to avoid the shooting line of enemy fighter planes when running away.

The so-called shooting line is the direction in which the enemy fighter planes dived down. This direction is basically the direction from which the bullets came, and the bullets will also be a long string of bullets on the ground.

If you run along this line... then you are finished, and a 7.7MM machine gun bullet will mercilessly pass through your body.

The well-trained German soldiers knew to run in the vertical direction of this line, so some of them survived.

Of course, the German Air Force would not allow the British army to attack the ground forces recklessly, so it immediately dived down to join the battle, and the fighters of both sides soon tangled together and started a tense and fierce fight.

The performance of the German BF109 is better than that of the British "Hurricane" fighter, which is mainly reflected in the faster speed of the BF109... Speed ​​is always the first indicator, especially in the era of dogfighting, having a faster speed can always escape the enemy's tail or even go around the target and destroy it.

(Note: The maximum speed of the BF109 can reach 686 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed of the "Hurricane" fighter is 505 kilometers per hour)

But this is not the most important thing. The fatal thing is the relatively backward formation tactics of the British army... The British army has always adopted a three-plane "V" dense formation, that is, the leader is in front, and the two wingmen are behind the leader on both sides, and the wingmen are about 100 meters apart from the leader.

The British Army believed that such a dense formation had the largest observation angle and was most suitable for air combat... As long as each pilot paid attention to and was alert to the part he was responsible for, the iron triangle could perfectly detect and deal with the enemies approaching from all directions.

But in fact, this was just an idea that the British had in mind, just like they came up with the "infantry tank". Even because of the British tradition and conservatism, even if it was proved in actual combat that this formation was not suitable for air combat, the British Air Force was always unwilling to correct its mistakes.

The actual combat results were exactly the opposite of what was imagined: because the formation was too dense, the wingman pilot had to fly very carefully, and his main focus was on keeping the formation distance with the leader, and he had no time to pay attention to the rear. When making sharp turns and other maneuvers, the British leader had to be doubly careful and had to spend a few seconds that were enough to determine the outcome of the air battle to remind the wingman to prepare. Because with such a close distance, the two planes would collide if they were not careful.

The leader thought that he had the protection of the wingman in the rear, so he could rest assured. Often, the British army only discovered that the tail or even the wingman had been shot down after the German fighters had bitten them and opened fire, but it was too late.

The German army originally used this "V" formation.

But on the one hand, because the number of BF109s was small, they had to be dispersed, so gradually formed a two-plane horizontal formation with a distance of about 200 meters between the two planes.

As a result, the Germans found that this horizontal formation was far more maneuverable than the "V" three-plane formation, so they used the two-plane formation without hesitation.

As a result, the BF109 showed its power in the air. Amid the whistling of fighter planes and the sound of machine guns, one after another "Hurricane" fighter planes fell straight from the sky with black smoke and strange roars.

This was the first time that Qin Chuan watched an air battle up close as a third party... In fact, Qin Chuan could not be considered a third party, but at this time he had completely entrusted his life to the driver, so he was almost a crowd watching the show.

In his eyes, air combat is like a bunch of kites flying around in the sky, and from time to time a few of them fall down because of damage or entanglement.

This does not make people feel cruel... Although Qin Chuan knows that this is not the case, because it can be imagined that the pilots driving those fighters are nervously chasing the target while trying their best to avoid becoming the target of the enemy.

But at least there is no blood, no disgusting limbs and arms, there are only a fighter plane smoking and crashing, a fighter plane catching fire and disintegrating, or a fighter plane falling to the ground due to a mistake...

Of course, most of the fighters shot down are British fighters.

This made the German soldiers who were fed up with the British bombing and were full of anger cheer:

"Well done!"

"Show these guys some power!"

"Wow, did you see? They destroyed another one!"

...

This can't help but remind Qin Chuan of a person, a legendary German ace pilot Marseille.

The pilot's confirmed personal record of destroying 158 aircraft, 151 of which were achieved over North Africa. What is incredible is that he once set a record of shooting down eight enemy aircraft in ten minutes.

Shooting down eight enemy aircraft in ten minutes, even if they were lined up and used as targets, it would take about the same amount of time!

Looking at the parachutes that flashed like white mushrooms in the sky because of the downed fighter planes, Qin Chuan wondered... Could one of them be Marseille?