Paulus immediately sent a fighter group and two attack aircraft groups to participate in the battle. (An aviation group has about 0 aircraft)
At this time, the German army actually did not have any serious "attack aircraft". The ones responsible for ground attack missions were usually "Stuka" bombers and "Henschel" attack aircraft. The real "attack aircraft" should be in 1944.
The "Taloned Hawk" developed... "Taloned Hawk" is the prototype of the American A10 attack aircraft.
From this aspect, American innovation is actually not that good. Attack aircraft, helicopters, and missiles all come from German ideas. Even the moon landing was led by German scientists.
This time, the German army sent a "Henschel" attack aircraft.
The reason why it was sent was because the "Henschel" attack aircraft was more suitable for fighting in situations where visibility was not high than the "Stuka" dive bomber... The reason why the "Stuka" dive bomber was called
A "dive bomber" is because it needs to dive towards the target at a higher altitude, which allows it to obtain a higher speed and momentum towards the target, thus improving the accuracy exponentially.
But this also determines that it needs to see the target at a higher position. In rainy weather, it cannot see the target at all, so it cannot aim and dive. If this kind of bomber is forcibly used to dive against the target, there will be great danger.
.
The "Henshel" attack aircraft, known as a tank can opener, is an attack aircraft equipped with a cannon. It can fly at low altitude and attack enemy ground armored targets with armor-piercing projectiles. The required altitude difference is low so it can operate in poor visibility.
Even on missions at night.
Colonel William is the commander-in-chief of this reinforcement force.
In fact, Colonel William mainly commands the fighter force, because there is no doubt that when fighters and attack aircraft jointly perform missions, the fighter aircraft is definitely more important... The fighter aircraft is responsible for the task of covering the safety of the attack aircraft. If the goal is to put it a little higher, it is to destroy all the enemies.
With things that can fly in the air, even ground-based anti-aircraft guns, attack aircraft can confidently attack enemy armored targets.
"I don't like fighting in this kind of weather!" Colonel William looked at the surrounding sky and said to the adjutant through the intercom: "I feel that there is danger everywhere. This kind of weather is very suitable for the enemy to ambush!"
"Don't worry, sir!" the adjutant replied: "Even if there is an enemy ambush, we can beat them away! Do you remember? Last time we captured a young cabbage..."
As he said this, he started laughing "haha" with several people.
The so-called "young cabbage" was a Soviet pilot.
The Germans always like to call enemy pilots who can parachute in time when their fighter planes are shot down "cabbage" because the combination of parachute and pilot looks like a cabbage.
And "cabbage" was often of high value to German pilots.
First of all, it is because there is an unwritten rule among pilots, that is, once the pilot successfully parachutes, the aircraft will not attack and will be allowed to land.
It is said that even American and Japanese pilots abide by this unwritten rule. It was not until the mid-to-late period when the Japanese troops were beaten in pain on the Pacific battlefield that they began to go crazy and did not care about anything, so they ignored this rule.
Secondly, pilots are of great value to both the enemy and ourselves.
The reason is that it takes time and cost to train a pilot, and the combat experience of being shot down is even more rare and valuable. Therefore, if the pilot can be rescued, he will soon be able to fly to the sky again and participate in the war even more powerful than before.
Therefore, the enemy must make every effort to capture the enemy's landing pilots.
In previous air battles near Stalingrad, the Germans destroyed Soviet fighter planes one after another, and of course there were a lot of "cabbage" falling from the sky.
However, the situation of the prisoners greatly disappointed the German pilots, because each of those "cabbages" were only eighteen or nineteen years old, and some had just learned to fly for a few months before going to fight in the sky, so it was meaningless to capture them.
The German army also called these pilots "baby cabbage."
This means that the combat quality and experience of Soviet pilots are not at the same level as theirs.
However, Colonel William was not as optimistic as his subordinates. He sometimes flew the plane away from the team to conduct reconnaissance, and sometimes flew the plane upside down to observe blind spots.
But nothing was discovered along the way.
The adjutant was a little surprised by Colonel William's caution. He asked: "Colonel, have you noticed anything?"
"I'm not sure, Eric!" Colonel William replied: "That's a bad feeling. Although I know that most of the Russian pilots are rookies, but... I don't know if you have noticed that their combat effectiveness is obviously
Enhanced, I mean recently!"
When Colonel William said this, the German pilots fell silent.
What Colonel William said is true. Everyone actually felt similar pressure... In the past, the Russian air force combat was very chaotic, or it could be said that the reaction speed was very slow. The German pilots could easily finish one battle and then continue to fight another.
one slice.
But now, the Russian fleet is unpredictable one after another, and there is coordination between them.
In other words, although the people are still the same and the aircraft are still the same, the combat capabilities are not the same.
"I believe they are growing!" Colonel William said: "Or we can say learning, and the learning speed is very fast, which means they will become more and more difficult to deal with, which means we have to be more and more careful, understand?
"
"Yes, Colonel!"
"Yes, Colonel!"
…
"There are still twenty miles away from the target!" Major William then ordered: "Be ready for battle. Pay attention, our mission is to ensure the safety of Group B!"
"Yes, Colonel!"
At this moment, the adjutant suddenly screamed: "Enemy plane, three o'clock direction!"
"And there's ten o'clock! They're everywhere, at least twice as many as us!"
"The colonel is right, we were ambushed by them!"
…
Colonel William gritted his teeth and ordered: "Get ready to fight!"
William observed the surroundings and then added: "Order Group B to cancel the mission and have them return immediately!"
After hesitating for a moment, Colonel William added: "Group A, the mission is cancelled. Your mission is no longer to protect Group B! Fight freely!"
Colonel William's orders were correct. He knew at the first moment that the mission could no longer be carried out normally.
At the same time, he canceled the order for fighter aircraft to protect attack aircraft... This is because he knew clearly that facing such a large enemy aircraft group, and the opponents were all fighters and well prepared, if his own fighters continued to stick to their mission and had to protect attack aircraft
If so, the result will be that no one can escape from here. (To be continued)