Red Moscow

  Chapter 546 Air Combat

   Before the tanks were evacuated, a German bomber swooped down and dropped a bomb on the huddled tank group. The bomb missed the target and exploded four or five meters away from the tank. The flying shrapnel hit the soldiers sitting on the tank. Several soldiers screamed and fell off the tank. The following tanks were crushed under the tracks and turned into a pool of meat sauce.

Seeing this scene from a distance, Sokov couldn't help feeling as if a knife had pierced his heart. So far, the offensive battle he organized had almost negligible casualties. However, a bomb dropped by an enemy plane at this moment killed five or six people. casualties. He quickly squatted down, grabbed the microphone, and shouted into the microphone: "Connect me to the anti-aircraft artillery position!"

   After a short time, the phone at the anti-aircraft artillery position was connected, and Sokov hurriedly said into the microphone: "Lieutenant Ulanova, have you seen the enemy plane in the sky? Fire immediately and shoot it down."

As soon as the microphone was put down here, the three anti-aircraft guns commanded by Ulanova started firing "bang bang bang" at the enemy plane in the air. Flying far away, all the bullets fired by the anti-aircraft guns fell through.

  Sokov shouted at the radio operator standing below: "Communication operator, come to me!"

   Seeing Sokov calling himself, the radio operator hurriedly agreed, stepped on the bricks and rubble all over the floor, climbed onto the driving track, stood up and asked Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, what instructions do you have?"

Sokov pointed to the radio on his back, and said one after another: "Contact Colonel Bely immediately and ask him to withdraw as quickly as possible. Even if a tank is blown up during the retreat, it cannot stay, or wait until the enemy A large number of planes arrived, and they couldn’t get out even if they wanted to.”

The radio operator promised, put the radio on his back on the ground, and was about to send a report to Bely, but was stopped by Sokov: "What time is it, and you still want to send him a report, immediately use plain language to call .”

"Understood," the operator agreed, and quickly grabbed the microphone and shouted loudly: "Car, car, I am the headquarters, I am the headquarters, please answer if you hear it, please answer if you hear it!" Cove's code name for the tank battalion, and his own code name is the command.

   Soon, the operator heard a reply from the headset: "I am a car, I am a car!"

"Car, car." Hearing the other party's reply, the radio operator hurriedly shouted loudly: "The brigade commander ordered you to withdraw as quickly as possible. Even if there are tanks destroyed along the way, ignore them. After a large number of planes arrive, you won’t be able to evacuate even if you want to.”

"The car understands, the car understands." Bely replied decisively in his tank: "We will return to the hiding place as quickly as possible." The company commander gave an order, "Captain Sereda and Captain Ivantsov, return to the underground tank depot as quickly as possible."

   "Comrade Colonel," Sereda replied worriedly: "We have German planes on our heads. If we return to the underground tank depot like this, our hiding place will be exposed."

   "If you continue to stay here, your company will be reimbursed as soon as the German fart plane arrives." Bely Luck said sternly: "Return to the tank depot at full speed immediately."

  As soon as Bely's voice fell, a bomb dropped by an enemy plane exploded not far away, and the shrapnel flying around hit the tank body and jingled. Bely turned his head and asked the driver beside him, "Is our tank all right?"

"It's all right, Comrade Colonel." The pilot replied: "As long as the bombs dropped by the enemy planes don't directly hit our tanks, nothing will happen." He hesitated for a moment, then murmured, "But just sit down." The infantry comrades on our tanks can't tell."

  Biely was worried that Briski, who was sitting on his tank, would be in danger, so he quickly grabbed the phone and asked loudly, "Hello, hello, is there anyone? Is there anyone?"

  The shrapnel that just flew horizontally hit a soldier, and the soldier fell silently into Briski's arms. Briski was supporting his soldier, checking his injuries, when he suddenly heard the phone ringing non-stop at the rear of the tank, and hurriedly asked someone to bring the microphone over. He pressed the microphone to his ear and asked loudly, "Comrade Colonel, what's the matter?"

   "Comrade Captain," Bely felt more at ease when he heard Briski's voice full of confidence. He continued to ask, "A bomb fell nearby and exploded just now. Are you all right?"

   "A soldier was wounded," Briski said loudly as he checked the soldier's injuries, "The shrapnel hit his shoulder. We need to send him back to the basement for treatment as soon as possible."

   "Hold on, we'll be there soon." After Bely put down the phone, he shouted at the driver beside him: "Speed ​​up!"

   "Comrade Colonel, you can't go any faster." The driver said in embarrassment, "Look, there are bomb craters everywhere. If we drive faster, the car will easily overturn."

   "There are wounded people in the car and they need to be sent for treatment immediately." Bely did not blame his subordinates, but told him: "Drive as fast as possible while ensuring safety."

  The 36 tanks of the tank battalion crossed the wall in a single file, rushed into the factory area, and drove towards the location of the underground tank depot more or less quickly. Seeing this scene, Yakov couldn't help but worry and said: "Misha, if the enemy planes discover the location of our underground tank depot, I'm afraid they will continue to send planes to bomb it until it is completely destroyed."

Although Sokov looked at the enemy planes in the sky and was extremely disturbed, he still forced himself to say calmly in front of Yakov: "Yakov, if our tanks don't return to the underground tank depot as soon as possible, they will be killed." It was blown into a pile of scrap iron by German planes. As for whether they will bomb the underground tank depot, that is a matter for the future, and we don’t have to think about it now.”

  German bombers swooped down from time to time, dropping bombs on galloping tanks, or strafing infantry sitting on tanks. They quickly achieved results. Two tanks were hit by bombs and stopped in place and caught fire. The soldiers sitting on the tanks were directly killed by shrapnel from time to time, and ran around covered in flames.

  Seeing that a tank was destroyed by an enemy plane, Sokov couldn't help feeling anxious. He kept raising his hand to look at his watch, and murmured, "Damn it, why isn't Colonel Khorstnikov's fighter squadron here yet?"

   "Misha, look quickly." Just when Sokov was extremely anxious, Yakov suddenly pointed to the sky and said to him excitedly: "Airplane, our airplane."

  Sokov looked in the direction of Yakov's finger, and sure enough, he saw four Yak-1 fighter jets appearing in the sky. Knowing that it was a fighter plane from the Women's Squadron, Sokov couldn't help waving his arms and yelling loudly: "Come on, girls! Beat them up, beat them all down, knock down these damned German planes, beat them down quickly!"

  Yakov didn't know that there were female pilots in the flying regiment commanded by Sokov. He asked in surprise, "Misha, are these fighter jets driven by female pilots?"

   "That's right," Sokov nodded vigorously, and said in an affirmative tone, "The pilots of these four Yak-1 fighter jets are all young girls."

   "Young girl?!" Hearing Sokov's words, Yakov frowned even tighter, and he asked worriedly, "Can they do it?"

"Yakov, what's wrong with the girl? Don't you know that women can hold up half the sky." Sokov said to Yakov, "During the air battle a few days ago, they beat up eight enemy planes in one go. Down." At this point, he pointed to the air, "Did you see that No. 02 fighter jet? Its pilot, Lieutenant Lilia, shot down five enemy planes by himself, and one of them was fighter."

"It's really amazing that one person shot down five enemy planes." Yakov sighed and raised his binoculars to look into the sky: "Misha, I saw fighter No. 02, is it on the fuselage? The one with the white lily?"

"That's right, it's that plane." Although Lilia had only participated in one air battle and hadn't been called a "white rose" by the Germans, Sokov still took the initiative to say to Yakov: "The Germans don't know the Lilia fighter plane." I thought the lily on the bed was a white rose, so I called Lilia a 'white rose'."

   "White Rose?!" Yakov couldn't help putting down the binoculars when he heard Sokov say that, and asked curiously, "Misha, how do you know?"

  Sokov replied casually: "This is what a German pilot who was captured by us said personally."

For Sokov's statement, Yakov naturally believed deeply. He raised his binoculars again, looked at the four fighter jets in the sky, and said to himself: "I don't know how many fighter jets she can shoot down today." Enemy plane."

   Sokov opened his mouth, and was about to express his opinion, when he heard the operator calling him, he turned his head and asked, "Comrade operator, what's the matter?"

   "Comrade Brigadier," the operator said respectfully, "The captain of the third flying squadron wants to talk to you!"

"Captain of the Third Flying Squadron?" Sokov was taken aback when he heard what the radio operator said, and then realized that the person the other party was talking about should be Lieutenant Raisa, the captain of the Women's Flying Squadron, and quickly took the microphone from the other party's hand And the headset, said loudly: "Lieutenant Raisa, hello, I am Lieutenant Colonel Sokov."

   "Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!" Raisa's polite voice came from the earphones: "There are only two enemy planes in the sky, what is our mission?"

"Lieutenant Raisa, the mission is clear." Sokov said in an official tone: "You must shoot down these two enemy planes in the shortest possible time, otherwise you will wait until a large number of enemy planes arrive. Shooting them down won't be as easy as it is now."

"Understood!" After Raisa answered briefly, she began to issue orders to her subordinates: "Lilia, you and Katya are in a team, and Maria and I are in a team to attack the German bombers ahead. We must attack the German bombers in the shortest possible time. Come on, knock them all down, understand?"

   "Understood!" The other three female pilots replied in unison. Afterwards, the four planes were divided into two groups, and rushed toward different enemy planes.

  Seeing the enemy and our planes flying up and down in the sky and chasing them, Sokov thought to himself: "It seems that in today's air battle, it must be Second Lieutenant Lilia who has scored first in today's air battle."

  The German pilot was very cunning. He climbed up for a while and swooped down for a while, trying to get rid of Lilia who was following him. Although Lilia locked onto the target several times, before she could fire, the enemy plane disappeared from her sight again. The two sides chased each other for two or three minutes, but Lilia and He did not find a chance to fire.

Just when the enemy plane was trying to pull up again to get rid of Lilia who was following behind, Lilia suddenly heard the sound of machine guns firing above her head, and then, a puff of black smoke came out from under the enemy plane's wings, and lost The controlled enemy plane soon flew obliquely downward. About twenty seconds later, he fell headfirst to the ground, and a cloud of thick smoke mixed with dark red flames rose up.

   "Good job, Lilia!" As soon as the enemy plane crashed on the ground, Lilia heard Raisa's voice from the earphone: "You shot down another enemy plane."

"Comrade Lieutenant," Lilia replied hastily, "I did not shoot down this plane." She quickly glanced back and saw Katya following behind, waving at herself in the cockpit, before continuing Said: "It was shot down by Katya."

"What, Katya shot it down?" Raisa couldn't help being taken aback when she heard Lilia say this. She thought that Katya was shot down by an enemy plane in the air battle two days ago, but she didn't expect to fly a new fighter plane into the blue sky today. Unexpectedly, it was the first record, and he coughed softly: "Katya, good job! But don't be proud, try to fight a few more enemy planes."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant." Katya, who had just opened the record for the first time, replied emotionally: "I shot down the Germans once two days ago, so I will shoot down ten of their planes in retaliation."

   "Girls, let's kill the remaining enemy plane together." Raisa said to her female pilots in the communication channel: "Then prepare to face more enemy planes."

Sokov, who was staying in the factory building, saw that it was not Lilia who shot down the enemy plane, but Katya who had been shot down by the enemy plane two days ago. She can shoot down a few enemy planes."

  Yakov heard Sokov say this, and couldn't help asking curiously: "Misha, do you know these female pilots?"

"Yes," Sokov pointed to the air with his hand, and introduced to Yakov: "Katya, the pilot of fighter No. 04 who just shot down the enemy plane, was shot down by the enemy plane in the air battle a few days ago. , It was my people who rescued her. I didn't expect that she returned to the blue sky today and shot down an enemy plane first, which is really amazing."

When Yakov was about to say a few words, he suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the air. He quickly raised his binoculars and looked in the direction of the sound, his face also turned livid: "Misha, I think we have Trouble."

"What's the trouble?" Sokov heard Yakov say this, and raised his binoculars to look in the direction of the sound. When he saw more than 20 enemy planes in the distance, half of them were fighter jets, his expression changed. It also became serious: "Yakov, you are right, we are in trouble. The girls only have four fighter jets, but they have to deal with more than 20 enemy planes. It seems that this air battle will be extremely tragic."

  (end of this chapter)