Chapter 88 Air Combat (1)

　　Just as the Derbling Games were in full swing the Spanish Civil War reached a minor high point.

　　Before the outbreak of the Civil War, the Spanish Air Force was still very weak. There were only 40 Nid-52 fighter planes, 60 Bregay-19 biplane reconnaissance bombers and 20 torpedo bombers. These planes were outdated and old-fashioned, especially the bombers, which had a speed of only 120 kilometers per hour, a bomb load of 80 kilograms, and only one machine gun on board. The fighter planes were also mostly from the First World War. The only more advanced ones are the three newly acquired "Fury" fighter planes.

　　At the outbreak of the war, most of the Spanish airplanes were in the hands of the government forces, which effectively cooperated with the ground combat in the initial counter-insurgency operations. However, 10 days after the outbreak of the war, Germany and Italy began to intervene in Spain's internal affairs and provided Franco with a large number of weapons and equipment. Among them were 32 Junkers Ju-52 bombing transports aided by Germany and 12 SM-81 bombers and 25 CR32 biplane fighter planes and volunteer pilots sent by Italy.

　　Shortly after the start of the war, the warring parties first engaged in a struggle between air transport and counter-air transport. The government air force had not yet received significant foreign aid, and the limited number of aircraft were used almost exclusively to intercept enemy transport planes, except in support of army operations.

　　On August 8, according to reconnaissance reports, dozens of enemy transport planes were again carrying troops to Spain with very few escorts. Government forces immediately deployed 28 Nid-52 fighter planes to intercept them.

　　Soon the fleet of fighter planes noticed bright spots in the airspace ahead, and those bright spots, more and more!

　　The leader of the lead Jagdpanther group habitually wiggled his wings a bit before ordering into the radio. "Enemy aircraft spotted ahead, prepare to attack!"

　　This kind of Nid-52 Jagdpanther was a product of the last Great War, and the pilots could only sit in the open cockpit, wearing thick flight jackets and thick flight caps. Even the radio had been installed only a short time ago with French help, and to this day they were not fully familiar with it.

　　Just as they were about to accelerate their attack, a storm of bullets poured down from above them, instantly hitting the six fighter planes, two of which were even directly blown up in the air.

　　The fighter group radio instantly exploded.

　　"What's the situation?!"

　　"Enemy attack!"

　　"Where is the enemy?!"

　　"The enemy is above us! Overhead! Above!!!"

　　The captain jerked his head up and was shocked to see six slim monoplanes that he had never seen before swooping down from a high altitude at speeds that were unheard of and unseen! That lightning speed was not something they could hope to achieve with the biplanes they were flying!

　　"That's fast!!!" Just as he watched in awe, the six fighters with their noses painted yellow once again spewed out their tongues of fire, easily shooting down the six fighter planes.

　　Watching those six fighters climb up at an incredible speed, the captain made a snap decision and yelled into the radio. "Evacuate! These are the enemy's new fighters! We are no match! Evacuate immediately!!!" Just by looking at the other party's terrifying climb speed and dive speed, he knew that the biplanes that his side was piloting were no match at all, and that continuing to stay here would only result in being slaughtered!

　　The entire 28 biplanes were actually killed by six fighters holding their heads, although his heart was stifled, the captain was not a reckless person and would not make fearless sacrifices.

　　Unfortunately, it was not easy to evacuate.

　　The Nid-52s that fled in all directions were easily caught up by those fighters, and one after another caught fire in the air and fell down!

　　Listening to the incessant cries for help and screams from the radio, the captain's heart was dripping blood.

　　But before he had time to mourn for them, he heard sharp air-breaking sounds from the rear.

　　Poof poof poof! Several bullets hit his wing, and in an instant, the wing was penetrated through several holes!

　　The captain subconsciously pulled the operating lever to try to dodge, resulting in the wooden wing making a crunching sound and breaking into two!

　　It was important to realize that the upper and lower wings of a biplane were connected with struts and tension wires to form a load-bearing whole, forming a space truss structure. Now that one wing was broken, the whole airplane instantly lost its balance and fell downward in a spin.

　　"Damn it!" The captain cursed fiercely, pulling hard on the joystick in an attempt to get the plane back in balance, but no matter how hard he pulled, the out-of-control plane simply wouldn't listen to his commands, and the speed of the descent became faster and faster.

　　Seeing that he was about to lose his best chance to jump, he could only helplessly climb out of the cabin, jump out of the airplane, and pull his parachute.

　　When he landed in the air, he saw that there was not a single airplane left, and the six fighters also left.

　　In this battle, 28 Nid-52 fighters of the government forces were wiped out, which can be described as a heavy loss, the government forces were forced to pause the large-scale interception operation, and changed to use a single plane or two planes in small formations to carry out the attack, but the same was escorted by the fighters to wipe out the clean.

　　The German and Italian airplanes that aided Franco immediately changed the contrast between the quantity and quality of the two air forces after they were put into the battle. Through the two air battles, the Spanish government forces suffered heavy losses in their planes, and the Franco forces seized control of the air in several important directions. With the cooperation of the air forces, the ground forces stepped up their attacks, and the government forces were in a precarious position. In order to gain international support and assistance, the Spanish government appealed to the whole world for assistance to fight against the armed intervention of Germany and Italy.

　　The French government first responded generously and promised to assist the Spanish government with 50 Portez-54 bombers. The Soviet Union was invited to send a volunteer force composed of military advisers, pilots, tankers, sailors and other professionals to Spain, and successively provided a large number of the Soviet Union's most advanced SB-2 bombers, P-5 reconnaissance bombers and I-15, I-16 fighter planes. According to statistics, in the next two and a half years, the Soviet Union provided Spain with a total of 1,409 aircraft, 400 tanks, and thousands of artillery pieces. In addition, 42,000 volunteers from 54 other countries also came to Spain to participate in this war.

　　This situation caused Germany and Italy to continuously increase the strength of the intervention forces. While the German "Vulture Legion" expanded to 10,000 people, Italy also formed a new foreign aid aviation regiment to participate in the Spanish Civil War. Several squadrons of fighter, assault, bombing, and reconnaissance planes were also placed under the command of Franco's army. In the first two years of the war, Germany and Italy provided Franco with a total of 1,650 aircraft, 1,150 tanks, and nearly 3,000 artillery pieces.

　　During the first few months of the German intervention in the Spanish Civil War in the original time period, German pilots only occasionally participated in the war, without official permission from the military. What was provided to Franco were also the less advanced He-51 biplane fighters (which were still somewhat more advanced than the biplanes of other countries).

　　But Wilhelm was different, although he sent a lot of fighters, all of them were flown by German pilots in the war, and the Bf109 squad that shot down 28 Nid-52 fighter planes were German pilots.