() Although he knew that the possibility of the Germans discovering him crawling in the woods more than 70 meters away from the railway was almost zero. However, Edmund still buried his head.

"The sound slowly faded away. Edmund's eyes widened, staring at the railway track that glowed coldly under the moonlight. At the same time, he raised his ears and listened to the various sounds brought by the night wind.

A few minutes later, Edmund noticed that among the chirping of crickets, there seemed to be a rhythmic "clang, clang, clang" sound mixed in. The sound was very soft at first, but soon became louder and louder.

It got louder and louder. Finally, this "clanging" sound completely suppressed the surrounding insects. Then with the help of the moonlight, Edmund saw a dark train bypassing the woods in front and appearing in front of Edmund.

In the field of vision.

This train, which was running at low speed on the railway, had no lights on. However, Edmund's eyes were very good, and he could still tell that this was definitely a military train belonging to the German Army. At the front of the train

It was two flatbed trucks. It was hard to see clearly what was on the flatbed trucks, but Edmund knew that they were probably anti-aircraft artillery pieces. Generally speaking, there would be one on each military column.

Two flatbed trucks carry anti-aircraft guns for air defense missions. Behind the two flatbed trucks is a carriage that looks like an armored carriage, because there are two vaguely bulging things on the top of the carriage.

It was probably a turret. Then came the power locomotive, then several carriages, then the power locomotive again, and then another armored carriage and two flatbeds.

"Good guy! There are four anti-aircraft vehicles. There must be something important inside." Edmund watched the train go away, then picked up a microphone from the ground: "The target was found in the A-1 area. The target is

It is moving towards the A-2 area at a speed of about 30 kilometers per hour. There are four anti-aircraft vehicles, two at the front and two at the end, and one armored vehicle at the front..."

There is a telephone wire attached to the microphone. The telephone wire extends in the dark woods, and finally extends into the depths of the woods. There, several people are gathered around a transmitter.

"Well, we got it, keep monitoring!" A person whispered into the microphone. Then he turned his head and said to the person next to him: "The target has appeared. Send a report immediately, the content is..."

…

An AC-47 was flying in the dark sky. At this time, an order came from the radio: "Snowy Owl 1, go to the A-2 area to search and eliminate the enemy's column."

"Radel! Where is the A-20 area?" Captain Matt said.

Navigator Reidel immediately took out the route map, studied it carefully, and replied: "Direction 44, altitude dropped to 1000 meters, speed 320, and arrived at the A-2 area in about 5 minutes..."

At the same time that the AC-47 received the order, several other PA-38 attack aircraft and mosquito bombers also received similar orders.

…

"Captain, the radar found the target." Chris, the radar operator sitting in the middle, reported to Captain Luther sitting in the front seat, "In the direction of 11:30, at a distance of 1.5 kilometers and an altitude of 1100 meters, the target was found. It may be

It’s an enemy night bomber or transport plane!”

"Okay, keep an eye on the target! We're ready to attack!"

Luther made a side slide and pointed the nose of the aircraft in the direction of 11:30. The BF-110 night fighter flew towards the target in the darkness.

The BF-110 was not successful as a heavy fighter. Compared with those single-engine fighters, it was too clumsy. Whether it was rolling, circling, or climbing, it could not compete with those single-engine fighters. During the Battle of Britain

, the Germans asked BF-110 fighter jets to escort their bombers. The result was

It was found that because the BF-110 fighter jet was too clumsy, it was no match for the British fighter jets. Not to mention protecting the bomber, it could not even protect itself. In the end, it actually needed a single-engine BF-110 fighter jet.

109 came to escort itself. So much so that it left a bad reputation as an escort fighter that needed escort.

However, as a night fighter, the BF-110 was quite successful. The BF-110 has a large space, especially the nose space, which can accommodate airborne radar. The Germans added another seat to it and a radar operator.

, and also has an upward-inclined cannon. This allows the BF-110 night fighter to escape from weak defenses of enemy aircraft.

Use it to launch attacks from the underbelly position. Under the cover of darkness, the problem of poor flight performance of the BF-110 was covered up, but the sufficient body space and powerful firepower came in handy in the darkness. As a result, this

This kind of aircraft successfully became a successful night fighter, and even a super ace emerged who shot down hundreds of enemy planes.

Moreover, unlike during the day, the Allies did not have the overwhelming air supremacy in the sky that they had during the day. This was first of all because the radar capabilities of night-flying fighters of that era were quite limited. In terms of their detection range, they were far less than during the day.

The detection distance of the human eye, so in

In the dark night, it is not a new thing for the planes of both sides to pass each other and not be able to find each other. Moreover, the airborne radar of that era not only had a short detection range, but also had a ridiculously small detection angle. Enemy planes would often slip out and fly out.

entered the radar detection area and then disappeared without a trace.

In addition, the reliability of the airborne radar of that era was even more embarrassing. The average trouble-free operation time was even less than ten hours. It was common for the radar to suddenly break down while flying.

It's not uncommon, even if it's not broken, to suddenly lose the target for no reason, or even

Targets can be seen with the naked eye in the night sky, and it is common for radars to still find nothing. Therefore, at night, it is impossible for Allied fighter jets to expel all German fighter jets from the sky as they can during the day. At night,

There are still German night fighters in the sky.

…

The distance between the BF-110 night fighter and the enemy aircraft was getting closer and closer, and the distance between the two sides was only about 600 meters. But at this time, the radar of the BF-110 night fighter suddenly went off.

"Captain, radar malfunction." Chris reported.

"Damn! Can it be fixed?" Luther asked.

"I'm afraid it won't work for the time being," Chris said. "It's probably because the temperature is too high. I'll turn it off and turn it on again in ten minutes to see if it works."

Radar failure due to excessive temperature was also a very common problem at the time. Sometimes, it only needed to cool down for a while, and sometimes, well, it could only be solved after returning to the airport. But at least, within ten minutes,

Inside, they can't count on this radar.

The distance between the two sides is now only 600 meters, but in this case, it is still impossible to see the enemy bombers hidden in the night sky with the naked eye. Luther closed the throttle and the sound of the engine began to become quieter.

. He opened a small opening on the canopy, and a gust of cool night wind immediately blew in. Luther put his ear close to the small opening and listened carefully to the sounds outside. From this distance, maybe he could

I heard the sound of my opponent's engine.

However, the facts disappointed him. He could hear nothing in his ears except the whistling wind and the low sound of his own engine.

Luther closed the small window in disappointment. He suddenly lost the target only 600 meters away from the enemy plane. This was really frustrating.

…

"Captain, we should have arrived at the scheduled location." Navigator Redel said.

"Okay, let's drop flares and search this section of railway."

Several rounds of flares were thrown. These flares were equipped with parachutes. They would ignite after falling a certain distance and illuminate a large area.

One flare after another burned in the sky. Under the bright white light of the flares, a railway appeared very clearly. However, there was no shadow of military columns on the railway.

"Perhaps we should fly a little further west along the railway," Redl said.

…

The flares dropped by the AC-47 not only illuminated the railway below, but also revealed themselves for a short time.

"Look! Captain, the enemy plane!" Chris shouted.

"I saw it," Luther said.

Just now in the flash of the flare, Luther saw the shadow of the enemy plane flash from a distance, then disappear into the darkness.

However, Luther is now full of confidence in shooting down the enemy plane. Several flares dropped one after another pointed out the direction of the enemy plane's flight. Moreover, the enemy plane is obviously searching for targets on the railway. They have not found the target now, and they will continue to do so.

Dropping flares, and once they attack the target, they will inevitably be exposed. At that time, he can give the enemy plane a fatal blow.

Therefore, Luther gently pulled the aircraft to a higher position. In this way, on the one hand, he could avoid being illuminated by the flares and exposing himself, and on the other hand, he could quickly accelerate by diving, so that when the enemy aircraft was illuminated by his own flares, he could quickly accelerate.

In the short moment of illumination, it approaches the target and launches an attack.

In this way, Luther controlled his BF-110 to fly and climb along the direction of the railway while waiting for the enemy plane to appear again.

Sure enough, just as Luther expected, two minutes later, the enemy plane dropped a series of flares again...

"Captain, the target has been found!" the co-pilot Lawrence said in surprise.

Just in front and below the AC-47 attack aircraft, the rear of a train emerged under the bright light of the flare.

"Get in front of them, go around and drop flares, and then attack with 40-gun cannon!" Matt said.

…

As early as when the AC-47 dropped the first flare, the Germans on the train traveling on the railway knew that it would be difficult to escape the enemy's search, so all anti-aircraft artillery entered a state of readiness.

There is an 88mm anti-aircraft gun on the penultimate flat car at the rear of the train. This is a very unusual configuration. Because only low-altitude targets can be effectively attacked by the train, and the 88mm gun has always been effective against low-altitude targets.
Chapter completed!