Chapter 437 The sky is stained with blood

Although it is better at low-altitude combat than the MiG-3 fighter designed as a high-altitude fighter, this is only a comparison within the Soviet aviation.

As an excellent improved fighter jet manufactured by condensing Germany's most cutting-edge aviation technology with the purpose of defeating the Royal Air Force Spitfire, the performance of dozens of German BF109F2 fighter jets flying up and down in the sky at this moment is enough to be called It is impeccable, far superior to any Soviet fighter at this time in many key attributes of air combat such as climb, body structure, and turning radius.

Compared with the well-made and refined German BF109F2 fighter, the Soviet La3 fighter, which encountered unprecedented difficulties due to the outbreak of the Patriotic War, was far inferior.

Due to the huge loss gap of frontline fighters, they were forced to choose to recruit a large number of ordinary workers into the aircraft manufacturing factory to greatly increase manufacturing output. The final result of this move was the eighth batch of the Soviet Army's latest Ruila 3 The quality of fighter jets has declined sharply.

The collapsing frontline battle situation and the loss of large swathes of land to the enemy caused a serious shortage of phenolic resin plywood, a key material used to manufacture the La-3 fighter jets. The Soviet engineer team was forced to choose to use low-grade plywood. Pine and birch were used to replace phenolic resin plywood. The final result of this move was that the empty weight of the Type 3 fighter jet increased dramatically due to the replacement of solid wood materials, which greatly affected the maneuverability and was far worse than before.

Aware of this bad situation, the Soviet engineer team tried to reduce the aircraft's armament to reduce its empty weight and thereby recover the loss in mobility. The final approach they took was to cancel the original 62-inch missile on the eighth batch of La-3 fighters. mm Schkath machine gun, the fighter's armament plan was changed to a 20 mm Schwark coaxial cannon and a 7 mm Berezin machine gun located above the nose.

Unfortunately, this kind of improvement plan that treats the symptoms but not the root cause is extremely limited in improving the maneuverability of the La-3 fighter after gaining weight. The La-3 fighter, whose whole body has become heavier than before, cannot be replaced by a simple weapon change. Recover mobility. At the same time, it also turned the La-3 fighter, which originally had good firepower, into a mediocre fighter with weak firepower and poor maneuverability.

For comparison, the empty weight of the eighth batch of La-3 fighter jets has increased by a full 300 kilograms compared with the previous batches. For this reason, it has also lost its originally better barrage firepower and the number of airborne weapons and ammunition. The entire eighth batch of La-3 fighter jets are all unsatisfactory in terms of firepower output and maneuverability. Compared with the latest BF109F2 fighter jets equipped by the German army, they are not at the same level of competition.

But even so, these latest eighth batch of La-3 fighter jets are among the best fighter jets in the Soviet aviation force. The Soviet fighter aviation units, which suffered increasingly heavy casualties in successive battles, had no choice but to use this fighter jet, which was far different from the German BF109F2, to defend the sky.

The German pilots who faced off against the latest eighth batch of La-3 fighters quickly noticed the changes in their opponents. The weakened firepower and the inferior low-altitude maneuverability of the fighters were simply incomparable to the La-3s they had encountered before. Same thing.

The larger-caliber 20mm coaxial Schwark cannon gave it an advantage in firepower, but it also led to a reduction in the rate of fire and a scarcity of ammunition.

Only 150 rounds of ammunition for the 20mm Schwark cannon are often used up within three shooting windows. The dexterous flying combat of low-altitude dogfights requires long-lasting firepower and dense barrages to defeat them. Not a thin piece of large-caliber firepower.

The requirements for pilots' shooting skills are extremely high and the ammunition supply is insufficient. The Schwark cannon is too difficult to use. Most Soviet pilots who have just taken over the eighth batch of La-3 fighter jets cannot adapt to such bad changes. The BF109F2, which has a very small turning radius and super low-altitude maneuverability, can always avoid incoming deadly shells, which makes the Soviet pilots who missed the attack window extremely angry.

The powerful energy advantage of diving straight down from high altitude was quickly exhausted in the subsequent low-altitude dogfighting maneuver. It didn't take long for the BF109F2, which had more engine capacity and greater maneuverability, to regain its advantage. It began to get out of the passive tail-biting situation and then relied on a very small turning radius to bite the Soviet fighter at 6 points to reverse the situation.

The Soviet and German fighter jets, which were fighting in an airspace of 300 to 1,000 meters, were completely stunned.

The Soviet pilots who received the order to kill the German fighter jets before the attack did not retire at all. Behind them was the capital of the great motherland. The desperate adversity made each of these Soviet pilots take off with the determination to die. .

The German pilots who played the role of evil invaders were equally as determined as the Soviet pilots in their will to die. If air superiority could not be guaranteed, there would be no other possibility for our ground troops except to be torn into pieces by the Soviet air-ground offensive.

From the launch of Operation Barbarossa to the present day, the German pilots have been arduously moving forward until they are very close to their final destination. Seeing the shining red star on the top of the Kremlin right in front of them, the German pilots are not willing to give up. As long as they take another step forward The powerful temptation of the endless light is enough to make these glory-seeking German pilots risk everything.

The Soviet pilot, who was caught by a BF109F2 at six o'clock on the fighter plane, saw that he could not escape. He simply rushed towards the BF109F2 that was doing a roller maneuver at the nearest distance directly in front of him, pushing the throttle full and rushing away.

Two dense tracer barrages hit their respective targets almost at the same time. The BF109F2 with its right wing broken into two pieces and the La-3 fighter jet with its tail directly torn into pieces fell downwards at the same time, dragging black smoke and falling only a few hundred meters low. The fleeting distance in the air caused the two fighter jets to turn into two blazing fireballs at the same time, making a huge explosion in almost the blink of an eye.

Climbing, level flight, diving, tail-biting, firing, dogfighting, shooting down an enemy plane and repeating the process again, or being shot down by an enemy fighter plane after desperately doing a roller defensive maneuver to no avail.

The blue sky, which had just ended with a snowstorm that lasted for many days, was almost ignited by violent aviation fuel explosions and hot tracer barrages. The Soviet and German fighter jets, fighting for their lives, refused to give in to each other and vowed to fight to the last one. The bloody fight in the sky is no less calm than the ground battle where steel and flesh collide fiercely.