Chapter 89 Air Combat (2)

　　"Bach, watch out, they're firing!" Frank warned his wingman loudly. "Quickly pull up!!!"

　　"Shit! Shit!" Bach cursed somewhat lamely from his headphones. "These unchivalrous animals!!!"

　　As mentioned earlier, the German and Italian planes supporting the Franco army were called into action after the Spanish government forces suffered heavy losses of planes, the Franco army seized control of the air in several important directions, and with the cooperation of the air force, the ground forces intensified their attack, leaving the government forces in a precarious position.

　　The I-15s and I-16s sent by the Soviet Union soon engaged the Bf109s, only to be overwhelmingly shot down by the Bf109s at every turn.

　　As a result, after a few lost dogfights, these guys started to get slick and play ambush tactics.

　　This is not, today Frank and Bach was hit, originally received the battle report is that there are two old biplanes in the Franco army ground targets to carry out an attack, the result is that when they arrived, but encountered a four I-16 type annihilator siege.

　　Hearing this tirade from him, Frank let out a helpless bitter smile, hearing that this Bach was a descendant of some minor noble, it seemed to be true.

　　Too bad this boy is a bit naive and doesn't realise that chivalry doesn't win wars, it's winning wars that qualifies you to talk about chivalry. Besides, the Soviet Union of today is not the Russian Empire, and I'm afraid the aristocrats of the Russian Empire have long since been purged.

　　Murmuring to himself, Frank looked at his altimeter and began to descend. Without his help, I'm afraid the tangled Bach would be in bad shape.

　　As he descended, he saw through the not-so-smooth bulletproof glass of the front windscreen that Bach had gone into a floating pull-up. (Under Wilhelm's leadership, the German engineers really conquered the bubble cockpit technology. But then they found that this technology had two shortcomings. One was that it was not easy to work with, and the other was that it was very expensive. The British Empire or the United States of America might be able to afford it, but for the Germans to have to completely replace this water-drop cockpit cover is really a bit unbearable. Under no circumstances did Wilhelm decide to use this water drop cockpit cover as a reward for the ace pilots, the rest of the pilots can only continue to use the processing and manufacturing simple, easy to replace the straight plate of bulletproof glass).

　　Bach's fighter climbed quickly, knowing that the Bf109's excellent climbing ability would outwit most opponents, but it was still usually no problem to use this technical manoeuvre to get out of the fight.

　　He then locked on to an enemy aircraft that was climbing towards Bach.

　　The I-16 was a Soviet fighter developed in the early 1930s and was the first fighter in the world to feature both retractable landing gear, a cantilevered lower monoplane and variable pitch propeller designs. Its appearance sparked a wave of new fighter design.

　　Unfortunately, the Soviet Air Force, one step ahead of the others, began to debate the merits of biplanes and monoplanes, as biplanes were better in combat but slower, while monoplanes were just the opposite, and so it was decided to develop two lines of fighters, the so-called I-?15 (biplane) and the I-16 (monoplane). If they had concentrated on the monoplane, they would not have been so badly beaten in the early stages of the war.

　　The I-16 represented a change in the concept of air warfare between the two wars, the design concept of the I-16 was to put a high power engine in a small fuselage, the aircraft had a stubby low monoplane wooden hard shell structure, the fuselage was made of short cylindrical wooden plywood, the front and rear wing girders were made of steel tubing, the front wing skins and ribs were made of aluminium alloy while the rear of the wing was made of canvas, and it had an open cockpit and stowed rear three point landing gear. It used an open cockpit and retractable rear three-point landing gear.

　　The landing gear has to be engaged by the pilot to move a handle 44 times in order to be contained in the wing, when landing as long as the handle is released, the landing gear will be in the centre of suction under the release, but at this time the pilot must be careful not to be rotated in the handle hit the arm, there have been accidents in the rotation of the handle to break the pilot's arm.

　　Interestingly, the I-16 had the first armoured cockpit (with a bulletproof steel plate behind the seat) and its cockpit was originally closed, but as pilots were used to open cockpits and the I-16 had a blind spot at the rear of the cockpit (where you had to stick your head out to see the rear), the cockpit cover was removed and the cockpit was opened.

　 The pilots during the Spanish Civil War in the original time and space still used the experience of the First World War as a tactical guide. Moreover, the main force of the German and Italian air forces were biplanes, including the German He?51 fighter and the Italian CR.32 fighter. Therefore, the I-16 initially performed brilliantly and suddenly made the Soviet Union an advanced aviation country.

　　But now, under Wilhelm's leadership, Germany didn't even bother with those useless biplanes, only the advanced Bf109s, and the poor I-16s were only abused. This is also the main reason why the I-16 had to be decoyed and used in large numbers to make up for the performance gap.

　　So even if you get ambushed, as long as you don't get disorganised and react calmly, the chances of a counterattack are still pretty good.

　　Frank, having gained a speed advantage from his dive, approached one of the I-16s he had targeted at high speed.

　　The Bf109's wings cut through the air like a bolt of lightning as it swooped down on its target.

　　"Bach, cover me after you climb!" After instructing his wingman, Frank pulled the machine gun lever.

　　The Bf109's fuselage shook slightly and the four 7.62mm machine guns on the wings sprayed long tongues of fire simultaneously.

　　As for the Bf109's original wave gun and nose machine gun, Wilhelm simply cancelled them.

　　Later it was said that the Bf109, from the F-model onwards, gradually fell behind the Spitfire because of the engine drag, while the engine was dragged down by the machine guns.

　　Wilhelm didn't know if this was true, but what he did know was that because of the shaft gun, the engine was not completely separated from the cockpit. In order to accommodate some of the auxiliary components, such as the barrel of the Bf109F's coaxial shaft gun, openings had to be made in the firewall to allow it to extend into the cockpit. This meant that if the engine was hit and oil leaked into the cockpit, the pilot would probably be burned to death.

　　Bullet after bullet was hammered into the primer and spat out of the chamber, the tracer bullets seemed to be like four whips and hit the enemy plane with precision, the hard metal warhead easily slammed into the skin, breaking the wooden boards and metal frames inside and finally nailing the other side of the fuselage inside.

　　The unfortunate I-16 was hit by the smoke, the fuselage spun down, you can see the pilot inside was thrown east and west by the centrifugal force, whether he is dead or not nobody seems to care.

　　Frank pulled hard on the stick and the plane began to climb dramatically.