Chapter 273 Strait Air Battle (1)

If possible, Dowding really didn't want to send out the precious air force to die in vain.

Although insufficient performance can be made up by quantity (not cross-generation), insufficient quantity can be made up by performance; but now the German fighters have advantages in both quantity and performance.

However, under the current situation, he can only use 180 fighters to shut Churchill's mouth and keep his position; otherwise, if he replaces a guy who can only flatter as the commander of the fighter aviation, the fighter aviation may be completely ruined.

However, he also took the opportunity to make a request. "Prime Minister, our fighters are far inferior to the German fighters in performance, and they need to be improved and upgraded as soon as possible."

Churchill was certainly not a fool, and nodded. "Okay, I will allocate a sum of money as soon as possible." After all, he also knew that the performance of British fighters was not as good as that of the Germans. If they were not improved as soon as possible, they might suffer a great loss in the future.

As Dowding gave the order, a large fighter formation consisting of five squadrons of Spitfires (60 aircraft) and ten squadrons of Hurricanes (120 aircraft) flew over the city. Many citizens waved and cheered to the sky. No one noticed that a middle-aged man stopped, scanned the sky with sharp eyes, turned around and walked quickly in the direction he came from.

Soon, invisible radio waves spread from all over Britain to the distance.

Before the German radar found the target, the Air Force Command Center had received news that the British had taken off fighters, at least 150!

In less than a minute, shrill combat alarms sounded at various temporary air force airports on the front line.

The German fighter pilots ran out of the duty room and rushed to their fighter planes.

These days, British and French fighters did not dare to take off and fight, and no decent air battles broke out, which made them feel very depressed.

Because of Yannick, the German fighter pilots at this time knew the performance of the British fighters very well. The turning radius, climbing speed, maximum speed, dive speed, weapon firepower, ammunition loading quantity, and the number of screws used in the entire aircraft are all clearly stated. I am afraid that the flight manuals issued by the British do not have such detailed instructions.

Not only that, the German secret factory even produced a batch of "Hurricane" and "Spitfire" that are exactly the same as those made in the UK for fighter pilots to experience in person.

If the British still shoot down like this, they can only blame their bad luck.

Soon, one BF-109F after another rushed into the sky, forming a huge formation and flying far away.

But it was not only the BF-109F fighter that took off.

"Fuck, that guy is flying too high, right?"

At an altitude of 11,000 meters, two fighters with slender wings, streamlined fuselages, and eye-catching auxiliary air intakes were flying steadily. The fighter pilot with the number 001 painted on the fuselage looked up at a four-engine transport plane more than a thousand meters above their heads and sighed. Unlike other transport aircraft, it has several thick antennas extending from its belly pointing downwards.

"It doesn't need our escort to fly so high. What aircraft can reach its altitude to threaten it?"

When the flight altitude gradually increases, the density of the air will decrease with the increase of altitude, thus affecting the intake of the engine; the intake of the engine decreases, and its thrust will generally decrease. When it reaches a certain altitude, it has no ability to climb due to insufficient thrust and can only maintain level flight. This altitude is the ceiling of the aircraft.

For this reason, the combat altitude of fighter jets in various countries at this time is considered high at around 6,000 to 8,000 meters, and 10,000 meters is almost the limit. The current Spitfire is not a later improved version, and it is difficult to climb to an altitude of 10,000 meters for combat.

The pilot of another fighter jet numbered 002 smiled and said. "Isn't this the mission of our Guards X Force? I guess there is no chance to fight the enemy in this life." As he spoke, a buzzing interference sound suddenly came from the headset, but the sound was very slight and did not affect their communication. "It seems that the big guy has started?"

Not only them, but also the hundreds of fighter pilots fighting below also heard harsh interference sounds in their headsets. However, the sound in the German pilots' headsets was very slight and did not affect their communication. The British pilots were miserable. The sudden crackling electronic sound disturbed their attention. Several pilots were frightened by the interference sound and were not able to react for a while and were picked up by the German pilots.

"Call wingman, wingman, do you hear it?! Julian, Frank, do you hear it? Please answer if you hear it, Julian, Frank?!" Joseph shouted a few times into the communicator, but there was still a continuous crackling sound in the headset, and he could not contact his two wingmen at all. He had no choice but to take off the annoying headset and concentrate on dealing with the enemy planes.

British pilots still use a compact three-plane V-shaped formation. Although this formation looks good, it limits the pilots' vision and mobility. It is not easy to fly carefully next to each other. Pilots always focus on not blocking each other's way, and there is not enough space to dodge enemy planes. When German pilots intervened in the Spanish Civil War, they had developed a set of two-plane and four-plane formation tactics. The intervals were large, so there was no need to worry about hitting teammates, and they could still cooperate flexibly with each other. They can cover each other and cooperate in combat. The wingman can cover the leader, and the leader can concentrate on launching an attack, or the leader and wingman can attack and defend each other. In short, the formation is safer and more efficient than a single aircraft. Even in the era of fifth-generation fighters in later generations, two aircraft are still the most basic air combat tactics.

Adding to the electronic interference of the German army at this moment, the British Air Force had no coordinated operations, completely lost its formation, and became a lone army.

In the sky, the fighter planes of both sides were fighting together and tumbling, the harsh sound and the speeding fighter planes were circling together, and the dazzling fireballs and white smoke kept flashing.

In the fierce battle and chase, a British fighter plane kept changing its flight posture, trying to avoid the bullets of the German fighter plane. Unfortunately, it avoided the enemy but not its own people, and finally ran into another friendly plane in a panic. The two fighter planes instantly turned into fireballs, and the flying aircraft wreckage fell into the vast sea.

"Haha, that idiot." Two fighter planes in the sky happened to see this scene, and No. 001 couldn't help but taunt. "The British are not opponents at all. Are they too weak or are we too powerful."

No. 002 shook his head in some confusion. "Something is wrong. I've seen the loss ratio of the last air battle. Although the British suffered much more than us, they were not so crushed. These British pilots don't look like experienced veterans." He has seen several British pilots being shot down because of very naive and low-level mistakes. Even pilots with a little combat experience would not make such stupid mistakes.

"Oh? Could it be that all the veterans of the British Air Force have died and they can only send out newcomers?"