() In the evening of August 25, 1943, the conference room of the Eighth Air Force headquarters was brightly lit, and an analysis meeting of the day's combat situation was in progress.

"According to preliminary statistics, the fighter force dispatched a total of 3,435 sorties today, of which P-51s and P-38s dispatched an average of two times, and P-47s dispatched an average of four times. A total of 133 air battles occurred. Our side was shot down in the air battle.

-51 total

23 aircraft, a total of 16 P-38s, a total of 8 P-47s, a total of 47 aircraft. The other aircraft were seriously damaged as follows: 12 P-51s were seriously damaged, 1 pilot was seriously injured, and 5 were slightly injured; p

20 -38s were seriously damaged and 8 pilots were slightly injured.

26 P-47s were damaged and 3 pilots were slightly injured. A total of 58 aircraft were damaged. 47 pilots were permanently lost and 17 pilots were temporarily lost. According to our incomplete statistics, our results are as follows: We

The two sides shot down an enemy plane

190 aircraft, including 136 of the BF-109 series and 54 of the FW-190 series, and 315 enemy aircraft were damaged, including 170 of the BF-109 series, 140 of the FW-190 series, and 5 unknown jet fighters."

A staff officer was briefing the participants on the day's results.

"The bomber force dispatched a total of 2,115 sorties, dropped 4,205 tons of bombs, and bombed 10 enemy airports and two bearing factories. During the battle, 22 bombers were shot down, 16 of which were lost to enemy high-speed firepower.

, 5 were lost to enemy fighters. One was lost due to mechanical failure. A total of 43 of our bombers were damaged, 16 of which were seriously damaged and could not be repaired. During the air battle, our bomber unit shot down 3 enemy planes and wounded them.

12 enemy planes."

On the first day of fighting alone, the Eighth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Force lost (permanent losses plus temporary losses) 105 fighters and 64 fighter pilots. The bomber force also lost 65 aircraft and 306 crew members.

Looking at the loss alone, the loss for this day

The loss is not small. But in this day's air battle, the Germans suffered even greater losses. Everyone present at the meeting knew that if such losses continued, the Germans would not be able to hold on for long. Therefore,

When the staff officer reported the entire battle result, the whole venue was filled with joy.

"Okay, don't be too busy celebrating, the war is not over yet." General Doolittle also smiled, "So, we still have to consider how to fight the next battle. Ron, you made this plan, you

Come and tell me what you think."

"Okay, sir." Ron stood up, "Everyone, let's imagine that we are the German army. What can we do?"

Discussions began below.

Ron smiled and continued, "If it were me, what I would most like to think about most is whether I can hide the plane and the pilot without coming out to fight. If the factory is blown up, I will have nothing to do with it. But Hitler will definitely not agree.

If I dare to do this, he will definitely catch me and hang me. So, I have only two choices: one is to take off as soon as I see a fighter jet like today - of course, such an outcome

There won't be much difference; another way is to see the bombers taking off again, which is equivalent to giving up the height advantage to our fighters. But if I have to choose the same, I will choose the latter one. I think

Although this is not optimistic, it is not impossible to fight. Unfortunately, the number of fighters in my hand is still not enough. Otherwise, I can show them a magic trick."

"There will be planes, don't worry, they will be there in a few days."

"Actually, our fighter force has nothing to discuss. Let's discuss which targets the bomber force will attack tomorrow. I guess there won't be much oil or water at the airport tomorrow."

"I think the priority is to attack the jet production plant..."

"I think we should give priority to attacking..."

…

Like the US military, the German Air Force was also having a meeting. And the people participating in the meeting had much higher military ranks than the Americans. This meeting was chaired by Marshal Spehler of the German Air Force.

Air Force Commander Göring has put more energy into political activities in the past two years, and has less time to directly manage the affairs of the Air Force. More often, the affairs of the Air Force are handled by Kesselring, Speyer, and Reed.

Hitthofen was operating. Today's air battle took place on the Western Front, which was under Spehler's charge. Today's battle report shocked Marshal Spehler.

The results calculated by the Germans are as follows:

The results reported by various units were that a total of 138 enemy aircraft were shot down in air combat, including 96 fighters and 42 bombers. The Germans themselves shot down 296 aircraft (some injured aircraft failed to fly to the airport and were recorded in German statistics as being shot down).

shot down) and another 203 aircraft were damaged to varying degrees in the air battle. In addition, in the subsequent bombings, more than 80 fighter aircraft were damaged to varying degrees, most of which were complete losses.

Obviously, such a battle loss ratio is unacceptable. If this situation continues, the Luftwaffe will completely collapse in less than two weeks. This is absolutely intolerable!

"The enemy adopted new tactics in this operation. They took advantage of the range advantage of their fighter jets to send fighter units in advance to control the airspace that the bombers were about to pass. If our fighter jets take off immediately to fight like today, they will take advantage of their speed.

, dragging us around until we run out of fuel, then they will pursue us. At the same time, they will send out a group of bombers. And our fighter jets are making an emergency landing due to lack of fuel. Not to mention intercepting them, it is even possible

We were bombed by them on landing."

"Then, how about we don't take off yet and wait until the bombers appear?"

"That's not possible, then our fighter jets will have to climb against the shells of enemy aircraft with a high altitude advantage. Moreover, during this process, we cannot fight back with all our strength, because that will interfere with the climb, making it impossible for us to catch the enemy bombers before they arrive.

Climb to a high enough altitude. The enemy is in a disadvantageous position in an air battle. They can dive and escape, but we cannot chase, because this will also interfere with the climb... Damn it, can such a battle be fought?"

"So how about we split the plane into two batches?"

"It's useless! We have twice as many fighter jets as ours. Dividing them into two batches means that every time we go out, we will let them fight with more. Besides, the high-altitude performance of their aircraft is obviously better. If we do this, the result will be

It won’t be good!”

"Okay, stop complaining, let's talk about what kind of conditions we can get to save the situation." Marshal Spehler spoke.

"Unless we greatly strengthen our strength, our number of fighter jets must be more than twice that of the other party!"

"In the long term, we need a long-range, high-altitude fighter aircraft with good performance."

"This is not a problem that can be solved in the short term. The question now is, if Americans continue to do this tomorrow, what will we do?"

"Marshal, then we can only choose between what we are doing today or climbing hard under the firepower of enemy fighter jets." An officer shook his head helplessly.

"Actually, the best approach may be to avoid fighting for the time being. Once we have accumulated enough new aircraft, we can then counterattack." Another officer timidly put forward his own opinion.

"Allowing the enemy to bomb? How is this possible? If you do this, the factory will be affected and new aircraft will not be produced!" An officer immediately stood up and retorted.

"Neither the head of state nor the commander will allow it." Some people were shaking their heads.

"Don't talk nonsense," Marshal Speller said a little angry. "The important thing is that we have to determine what we will do tomorrow! Should we take off early or climb under a hail of bullets?"

…

After a period of controversy, everyone basically agreed on a unified attitude. That is, if you must face a battle, then choose to climb against the rain of bullets. In addition, everyone also pointed out that to perform such a task, they need a very sturdy and strong weapon.

of fighter jets like the il-2.

Marshal Spehler actually knows that this is the only option at the moment. In any case, it is better to climb while staring at the rain of bullets than to land behind a large number of enemy planes with superior energy. (If you can't climb up, you can still do it.

Can run.)

Spehler asked his staff to compile the minutes of the meeting, and then planned to call Göring and once again request more troops from the Air Force Commander, Reich Marshal, and the No. 2 man in the empire. But Spehler knew that this request

Mostly difficult to achieve.

…

The nights in August are extremely short, and dawn comes extremely early. The breeze blows gently, and the ancient European continent is sleeping peacefully in the tranquility before dawn. This is a rare tranquility. As soon as the sky breaks, the United States

Thousands of various aircraft of the Army Aviation will stir up the whole of Europe like a pot of boiling water, and at night, the bombers of the Royal Air Force will continue to bring noise and death. Only at dawn can such things happen

of quietness.

But everyone knows that the silence is only temporary. As the sun rises as usual the next day, the huge war machine will roar again.

In fact, even before the sun rose, the airports of the Eighth Air Force were already busy. Yesterday, a batch of oversized fuel tanks were urgently produced from the British factory, and they will be hung on the p-

47. In this way, the short-legged P-47 can fly all the way to western Germany. This means that the number of fighter jets available for combat in Ron's hands has once again increased.

On the other side of the strait, the Germans are also making silent preparations. They spent the night adding thicker armor to the JU-88, BF-110 and FW-190. Tomorrow will be an extremely long and difficult day.
Chapter completed!