In the southern airspace of Ireland, British Air Force Sergeant Chris Varner looked around and saw the planes in his eyes were all Handley Petty HP-38. He counted silently. More than eighty HP-38s dispatched by the 36th and 37th Bomber Wings were left with only 21. After the extremely fierce air battle before, the faster Boeing P-9 and Blenheim Iii had retreated under the cover of fighters, leaving the slower biplane heavy bomber behind.

Varner is a machine gun shooter, and has been assigned to this HP-38 since he served. His dream is to become a fighter pilot, so he spends a lot of his spare time learning about flight-related knowledge, but now it seems that his dream has become extremely far away, especially when several four-plane formations fly quickly from the north, his mood falls to the bottom.

The Fokker G-51, the new generation of the main fighter jets of the Luftwaffe, has not been equipped for a long time, and the number of incoming service is said to have reached 6,000. The British Air Force fighter jets together have only more than 7,000. The newly equipped "Shane Eagle" has only been equipped with more than 20 flight squadrons. In the previous battle, one of the few Fokker G-51s showed a terrifying momentum like a wolf and a tiger. The 20mm cannons they were equipped with are simply a heavy hammer in the air. Their fuselage and body are far stronger than imagined, and they can be called breastplate cavalry on the air combat battlefield!

"British warriors, prepare for battle!"

Hearing the pilot's encouragement, what surged in Varner's heart was not a fighting spirit, but a deep despair. Without the protection of his own fighter jets, the chances of these hp-38s being able to escape were probably approaching zero infinitely.

He opened the machine gun security expressionlessly and loaded the fire. The 7-point 7 mm caliber Lewis machine gun should be just fine when used against infantry, and it made people feel pale and powerless when used against fighter jets. In the previous air battle, Varner scattered four bullet discs, and it seemed that twenty or thirty bullets hit the enemy plane, but he couldn't even shoot the hair.

As the fierce Fokker G-51 approached step by step, the 21 British bombers who survived consciously reduced their formation in order to concentrate their dispersed self-defense firepower in recent years, the British heavy bomber units have been diligently cultivating the so-called dense air defense phalanx, but judging from the heavy blows encountered over Ireland, this tactic created by British Air Force General Joel Jensen is far from achieving the expected effect.

The German fighter jets were still several hundred meters away, and the roar of Lewis machine guns rang out from the bomber group. Unexpectedly, the Fokker G-51s swung lightly and avoided the fire whips formed by a series of bullets without any effort.

Accompanied by the loud roar of Daimler engine, the Luftwaffe's breastplate cavalry began to charge. The effective range and air combat power of the 20mm cannon far exceed that of ordinary machine gun bullets. They ruthlessly penetrated the Handley-Peji P38's mixed skin composed of metal and fabric, smashing any object they encountered inside the aircraft, including the metal frame, and then penetrated from the other side of the aircraft. A three or two rounds were enough to leave fatal injuries to more than seven tons of British bombers!

"ah……"

Seeing a friend plane falling from a close place in a broken state, the shooter at the nose of the plane finally screamed out of control. He swept the bullets to a whizzing German fighter plane. The bullet discs were quickly exhausted, but the bullet track failed to catch up with the target.

"Recharge, Winnie, recharge quickly!"

Varna heard the pilot reminding the thief archer that he was not distracted from seeing his companions, but his heart hurt like a knife. Such a hopeless battle was too cruel for a 20-year-old boy, many people grew up in failure, but they were not qualified to be losers, because even one failure could become the end of their life journey.

In the first round of charge of German fighters, there were only 12 bombers left in this flight formation, and the loss was indeed much faster than before. If we continue according to this trend, in a few minutes, the main forces of the 36th and 37th Bomber Wings will be wiped out over Ireland.

Following the flight trajectory of German fighters, Varner turned the muzzle to the other side and suddenly found a team of biplanes flying in the distance. Their formation was a little messy and their air combat performance was definitely not as good as that of the German Folk G-51. However, if they were British fighters, they would still bring a glimmer of vitality to the remaining 12 bombers.

The flame of hope had just ignited and was soon extinguished by the ruthless reality: the biplanes met the Fokker G-51 in a friendly manner, and then flew straight toward this side, and all the Fokker G-51s were reorganized into four aircraft formations and turned around and flew eastward.

The only officer on board, Pilot Hughes, lamented: "It's the 'griffin' of Ireland! These guys are not as fierce as German fighters, but we just bombed their capital, and these guys will not let us go easily."

The fierce Irish Warhawks quickly echoed the inference of Lieutenant Hughes with the sound of gunfire. Seeing the fewer and fewer Handley Pedge around him, Varner was furious but had nowhere to vent: Which bastard made the decision to attack Limerick? Why didn't he sit on the bomber and see with his own eyes what he did?

The Irish did not give these British pilots the chance to raise the white flag. After two rounds, there were only two lonely British bombers left in the sky, and some bullet holes were left on their fuselage and wings.

At this time, Lieutenant Hughes finally said something heart-warming: "Prepare to skydiving! Guys! You have done your duties."

The parachute is on the back. As long as you untie the safety buckle and climb out of the open cockpit, Varner will be able to free himself from this nightmare and become an Irish prisoner of war. At least you don’t need to face the whistling enemy planes again and again and endure endless mental torture.

At this time, most Irish fighters turned around and flew eastward, leaving only four ir-29s to settle the grudge.

Varna silently installed a new bullet disk, pulled the bolt, loaded the fire, and incorporated the outline of the Irish fighter into the sight. There was no suspense in the failure. After that, he no longer had to stare into the distance with fear, because there would no longer be an enemy fighter group like a shark smelling blood. Whether it was life or death, everything ended here...

At various airports in southwestern England, many officers, soldiers and ground crews were looking at the sky to the west. After the two rounds of planes were dispatched one after another, the airport became empty. Before, pride came to their hearts as they watched the group of bombers and fighters flying towards Ireland, but as time went by, some bad speculations and the words from the command center worried people: Is it an epic victory or a tragic Waterloo waiting for Britain?

Before the answer was revealed, the ruthless air strike sirens had already been heard. The fighter planes that remained to implement the guard defense were rushed into the air, and the soldiers of the air defense forces rushed to their respective combat positions. People looked serious, but they rarely saw panic, because this was not the first time the enemy fighter planes came. Less than half an hour after Germany officially declared war on Britain, thousands of German bombers began to spread across the English Channel like a tide, and repeatedly bombed military facilities and transportation hubs in southern Britain.

"Be careful! German planes have come a lot this time!" someone shouted.

"They are really not the time to come!" someone said while running, "In another twenty minutes our first bombers will be back."

Others responded: "It takes not twenty minutes for bombing. I am afraid that the Germans will blow our flight tracks up and plow the nearby grasslands, so we will go to the reserve airport to welcome the heroes to land."

Someone answered angrily: "Hmph, the Germans must have calculated the time."

In a short time, the well-trained British officers and soldiers were ready to deal with the enemy's air strikes. Dozens of British fighters were divided into several formations to face the German aircraft group. Before they approached the German bomber formation, a large group of war eagles dived from high altitude. The fighters of both sides quickly formed a group, and it was difficult to distinguish between enemies and us from the ground. However, the British fighter jets in the sky and the air defense forces on the ground had obviously agreed on their respective defense ranges. Just wait for the black aircraft group to cross the coast, the rumbling sound of cannons would be endless like thunder, and the clear sky was immediately filled with smoke.

In the bunker near the airport runway, someone lit a cigarette, and only half of it was smoking. Twenty or thirty fighter planes on both sides had fallen, and seven or eight German bombers hit by anti-aircraft artillery fire fell down with black smoke.

"The Luftwaffe is just like this." As soon as someone sighed, a particularly loud roar came from his ears, and it felt like a truck was rushing towards him. When the people in the bunker looked at it, they were shocked: a large group of low-altitude biplane swept over, obviously the shape of fighter jets, but they were loaded with large and small aviation bombs on the belly and wings. The anti-aircraft gun positions that were firing at the air were the first to be attacked. Immediately afterwards, the hangar, fuel tank and airport runway were full of flashing flames and rolling black smoke.

"It's so despicable. The Germans actually converted their Folk-xi into a fast bomber!" someone in the bunker shouted angrily, "This is not fair!"

There was no fairness on the battlefield. The German biplane fighter who had dropped the bombs quickly climbed. Without the drag of the extra load, they had the ability to compete with the British Air Force's "long gloves", "gladiators" and many American biplane.

The explosion at the airport finally calmed down, and the screams of bombs falling from high altitudes sounded above my head. The dense explosion sounded, making people unable to hear the second sound.

At the combat command center in London, young staff officers kept adjusting the markings on the combat diagrams based on the battle reports from various places. German fighter jets taking off from northern France were divided into four arrows and invaded southwestern England. More than 20 military airports from Cornwall Peninsula to Devon and Wales were attacked one after another. Since most of the aircraft stationed here have been sent to bomb Limerick, the British Air Force's losses in this large-scale air strike were not as heavy as the first two attacks in the morning, but the airport facilities were greatly damaged, and many airports even completely lost the ability to take off and land aircraft.

The two backbones of the RAF, General Hugh Trenchard and General John Salmond, stood shoulder to shoulder, and the former ordered the adjutant: "The fuel of the bomber should be enough to fly to the military airports in Shprost, Hereford and Gloucestershire. The situation of fighters may be relatively difficult, and the fuel consumption of combat is very high... Let the areas I just mentioned are ready to respond, see the losses of each air wing, and arrange them to land at the new airport."

A few minutes after the adjutant took the order, a well-deserved Air Force colonel walked out of the communication room in panic. When he was going up the steps, he almost mixed garlic under his feet. His abnormal behavior attracted the attention of Trenchard and Salmond.

"Dermot, what's wrong with you?" Salmond asked.

"Generals, we just got in touch with several wings that were first dispatched to bomb Ireland. Judging from their reports, the losses of the first echelon over Ireland may reach 80%!"

The two Air Force generals were so surprised that they could not speak at all. Eighty percent meant that less than a hundred of the 400 aircraft that launched the first wave of attacks were able to return, and their worst plan was to lose half of the aircraft.

The colonel argued: "The situation has not been fully confirmed. Perhaps our pilots were so nervous and lacked the experience of the war that they made an overly pessimistic estimate."

After a long silence, Salmond asked Trenchard, who had created the Royal Air Force, for instructions: "Does the second tier need to be recalled urgently?"

"Are you sure that won't have any worse consequences?" Trenchard's face was terrifyingly gloomy.
Chapter completed!