Chapter 620 Heavy Thunderstorm 8

"It looks like the oil fields have really been blown up."

"It looks even more like that when you look down from a few thousand meters in the air. I think Stalin should be happy now."

"He should be happy. If he is happy, we can have peace here for a few days."

"There will probably be a few more bombings. When Stalin confirms that the Kirkuk oil field has been destroyed, we will probably have peace for a month or so."

"Well, I hope so."

Seven or eight kilometers away from the oil production area where the fire broke out, General Rommel was talking in a low voice with his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Bismarck. The content of the two people's discussion was actually a trick to fool people.

This trick was very popular at the time. It was to create some fake targets to fool the pilots in the sky. The Germans erected more than a hundred fake oil pumps in an unimportant oil production area in the Kirkuk oil field. They were all fakes made by carpenters, but it was difficult to recognize them from a few thousand meters in the air.

At the same time, he had people dig some pits next to these fake oil pumps, and then poured some light crude oil and gasoline into them. When the Soviet bombs exploded, these oil pits were naturally ignited, and the thick smoke looked very bluffing, as if there was a real oil field fire.

After this fake oil field fire scene was photographed and sent to Comrade Stalin, Stalin would probably think that the air raid had a good result and there was no need to carry out such a heavy bombing... At least it would allow Rommel and Bismarck to live a peaceful life for a month or so.

Of course, Rommel and Bismarck did not know how badly General Alexander Lehr's fighter planes hit the incoming American bombers.

In fact, Roosevelt and Stalin's decision to bomb Kirkuk and Abadan oil fields was a huge mistake. Because the place they wanted to bomb was too important, and it was too far from the Soviet border. The planes needed to fly 700-900 kilometers to reach their destination. Germany also deployed radar stations near the Soviet border, so Soviet and American aircraft would be discovered before they crossed the border, so the German 4th Air Force had enough time to mobilize aircraft and formulate combat plans.

Moreover, the scale of the German Air Force at this time and space was much larger than in history, and the number of high-altitude and high-speed fighters it had was several times more. Fighters such as He-219, Fw-190B/C and Bf-109T used to deal with enemy strategic bombing had a total of more than 2,700 (commonly used) in June 1942, and the 4th Air Force in the Middle East had as many as 900!

…

"Everyone pay attention! We are going to dive!" At this time, LeMay was gritting his teeth and pressing the steering wheel desperately to make the B-17 aircraft he was driving dive down at a 60-degree angle. This is very dangerous for a four-engine heavy bomber, and the body is likely to disintegrate because it cannot withstand the gravity brought by the dive.

But Colonel LeMay had to do this because there were two He-219 aircraft chasing his B-17, which had 12 machine guns. If they were hit, they would be dead. So LeMay could only desperately use the method of accelerating dive to get out of the battle.

"The Germans are following! Oh my God, they are getting closer!" The voice of the tail gunner Jason came, and then there was the sound of machine guns firing.

"Stop them, don't let them get close!" Colonel LeMay held the steering wheel hard and continued to rush down regardless of the violent shaking of the fuselage.

"They left, they left... Pull up quickly! Colonel, pull up quickly!" Tail gunner Jason shouted in a voice that was almost crying.

"Baby, get up!" Colonel LeMay shouted and pulled up the steering wheel with all his strength. He almost heard the "crackling" sound of metal disintegration from the fuselage. But the plane was miraculously intact!

"God bless Boeing!" Colonel LeMay, who had escaped death, almost cried with joy. At this moment, LeMay suddenly found a B-17 swooping down at a faster speed and a steeper angle outside the left window, and a dense and unimaginable rain of bullets surrounded it mercilessly. Fist-sized tracer bullets fell like a rainstorm, and bursts of fire exploded on the wings and fuselage of this unfortunate bomber.

It turned out that the two He-219s chasing LeMay found a better target during the chase, which was the B-17 that was about to be destroyed, so they gave up the plane driven by LeMay.

"Oh God!" LeMay didn't care about the final fate of this plane. He was busy saving his life now - the bombing operation had completely failed for him. All the B-17s of the 305th Bomb Wing that could still fly had dropped their bombs in the desert to reduce weight and escape.

But even so, it seemed difficult to save everyone's life! Because there were too many German planes and they hit too hard. Especially the firepower of the twin-engine fighter was so fierce that it was insane.

He suspected that this aircraft was tailor-made for the B-17 Flying Fortress. No matter how strong the fortress was, it could not withstand the fierce bombardment of 6 machine guns!

"Colonel, the enemy planes are catching up! The enemy planes are coming again!" Jason, the tail gunner, interrupted Colonel LeMay's thoughts with a desperate roar.

This time, two He-219s and two Fw-190s came to find LeMay, two double-plane formations, rushing from two different directions.

It's over now! Colonel LeMay knew that his plane could not withstand another high-angle dive. And... there were two Fw-190s, and the B-17 would not be able to escape even if it dived.

"Fire! Fire the cannon and kill the Germans!" He roared at the top of his lungs, but the first thing that fired was the 12 cannons of two H-219s!

The shells hit the B-17's solid body like a hailstorm, immediately smashing the aircraft into a sieve, and screams could be heard.

"Ah! I was hit!"

"God, Jason's head is gone!"

"Blood! Blood! My blood..."

"One of the engines is on fire, the plane is dead, let's parachute!"

The plane was really in trouble. One engine caught fire, another engine stalled, a big hole was punched in one wing, and the fuselage was riddled with holes. It would definitely not be able to fly back to the Soviet Union.

"Skydive! Skydive now!"

Colonel Li Mei had no choice but to issue an order to parachute to escape. However, this was the sky above the Kingdom of Iraq, and it was also close to the Kirkuk oil field. The Germans stationed heavy troops in this area.

At this time, Rommel had sent several SS cavalry regiments waiting on the ground to capture prisoners. So Colonel Li Mei succeeded in parachuting, and what awaited him was the "Soviet-German Friendship Concentration Camp" specially built for Soviet prisoners of war... This Li Mei, who was supposed to become the god of death in the air of the United States, is now in bad luck, and he will soon It is about to begin a life of transformation for prisoners of war that touches the soul.

…

"Boom!"

A huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky from the ground, and a blue-black smoke column rose to a height of a thousand meters. Red firelight could still be vaguely seen rolling in the smoke column. At this time, the Hs293 glide bomb hit the oil depot of the Batumi refinery. The scene where French planes bombed Baku more than two years ago seems to have reappeared. The difference is that countless anti-aircraft guns fired dense shells, exploding countless smoke balls more than 1,000 meters in the air below the German Ju288 high-altitude bomber.

But for the Ju288, which hovers at an altitude of 10,000 meters and throws Hs293 remote-controlled gliding bombs, the lethality of these Soviet anti-aircraft guns is almost zero. Because even the effective shooting height of the 1L55.2 anti-aircraft gun is only more than 8,300 meters, which cannot threaten the Ju288 at an altitude of 10,000 meters. As for the larger-caliber 130mm anti-aircraft gun, it cannot hit targets at an altitude of 10,000 meters because it does not have radar fire control and radio proximity fuses.

The 72 Ju288s led by Air Force Major General Johannes Steinhoff were able to accurately drop Hs293 bombs into the Soviet oil refinery very comfortably, causing big explosions one after another!

"General, Soviet high-altitude fighter found!"

In the earphones of Air Force Major General Steinhoff, the commander of the 2nd Group of the 3rd Night Combat Flying Regiment, Prince Heinrich Alexander Ludwig Pieter zu Shayan-Wettingenstein, was heard. The captain's voice. The prince captain is also an ace who has won the Blue Max Medal. He is currently flying a He-219 night combat/high-altitude fighter. Therefore, a radar is installed on the aircraft, which allows him to detect Soviet meters at a longer distance. G-3 fighter jet.

"How many planes are coming?" Air Force Major General Steinhoff asked.

"About 10."

Air Force Major General Steinhoff issued an order through the airborne radio, "Stop bombing now, raise the altitude to 11,000... Prince, you lead a squadron to meet them, feel the performance of Soviet high-altitude fighter aircraft, and take a look at this aircraft How high can it fly and how maneuverable is it at an altitude of 10,000 meters?”

The German intelligence department knew that the best high-altitude aircraft in the Soviet Union was the MiG-3, which could operate at an altitude of 10,500 meters and had a maximum speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour. Theoretically, this kind of aircraft poses no threat to the Ju288, because the high-altitude version of the Ju288 flies higher and can reach a maximum speed of 670 kilometers per hour.

The latest model He-219 flies as fast as the Ju288, with a maximum speed of 670 kilometers per hour, and the engine it uses has better performance at high altitudes. In theory, it can defeat the MiG-3 at high altitudes.

But theory is theory and reality is reality. Therefore, Air Force Major General Steinhoff, who commanded the air attack on Batum, had a special mission to test the depth of the Soviet MiG-3. And the results he tested will serve as the basis for the German Air Force to bomb Moscow.