Chapter 309: The Civil War of Weapons

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In the cold sky, several fighter planes were engaged in a brutal dogfight. The roar of their engines let out a heart-wrenching howl in the a

In the cold sky, several fighter planes were engaged in a brutal dogfight. The roar of their engines let out a heart-wrenching howl in the air. This high-level fighter combat was of a higher caliber and far more intense than the Me-109C duels of the Battle of Shanghai.

This was because it was a duel between fighters of higher quality. To regain local air superiority and to cover the retreat of the Anglo-French coalition forces in Belgium, the British had no choice but to send all the air power they could muster to counter the German Air Force fighter units that had established a foothold in the Netherlands.

But Britain had scoured its weapons inventory and could not find a weapon that could contend with the German Air Force’s Fw-190D. In the end, they found that the only plane that could be barely considered to be in the same class was, in fact, the smuggled German Me-109C.

However, this fighter had been downgraded by the Germans, so its engine performance could not meet the needs of fighting the Fw-190D. Coincidentally, the British did not lack for engines. They happened to have an engine that had just completed testing for a new fighter. So the British had stuffed this Rolls-Royce engine into the Me-109C and had hastily created an advanced fighter with a speed that was not inferior to the Fw-190D.

And for this very reason, in the skies over southern Belgium, a great drama of a dogfight between the British Royal Air Force’s modified Me-109C fighters and the German Fw-190D fighters was now playing out.

This time, the German fighters could no longer use a diving acceleration to slaughter the British pilots, nor could they use rolls and circles to bully the clumsy Defiant fighters. They had to honestly compete with their opponents in a contest of skill and courage.

But the combat skills honed by the two sides in the war were not on the same level at all. Just as the British Navy sailors could often rely on the “Nelson spirit” to defeat a strong enemy, the German Air Force also often took Richthofen as their motivation and goal. They relied on their experienced dogfighting skills and their familiarity with their aircraft to defeat more powerful opponents.

Galland controlled his plane, maintaining a high degree of coordination with his wingman. The two planes covered each other as they weaved back and forth among the enemy aircraft. They used their fighter’s better roll performance and excellent climb performance to contend with the opponent’s Me-109C fighters, repeatedly chasing and biting at the tails of the enemy fighters with patience and skill.

“Which bastard sold the Me-109 fighter to the Brits! I’ll break his jaw when I get back!” Galland complained loudly as he pushed the control stick of his plane. “Wingman! Left roll! Two in a row! We have to shake them off and regain our altitude!”

“Wingman understands!” the wingman’s voice came through the headset. “You start the roll. I’ll charge ahead. You take out the enemy plane on our tail! They are firing at us! I’m taking evasive action! I’m evading.”

Galland pushed his control stick hard to his left, and the rudder pedals under his feet worked in concert. The engine of his Fw-190D began to roar with a “vroom,” and the entire plane began to roll sideways, its speed also slowing down.

And the wingman, who had originally been behind Galland, continued to fly in a straight line, weaving left and right, and shot past Galland’s plane in an instant. In just a few seconds, a British Me-109C fighter also shot past. Galland could even see the dense rows of rivets on the British fighter.

If it weren’t for the change in the engine, which had caused a considerable modification to the nose of the British Me-109C, Galland would have almost thought he had run into a German-piloted Me-109A. After dogfighting in the air for so long, he was also absolutely certain that this British modified Me-109 was almost the same as the Me-109A that the German army itself used.

He pushed the wild thoughts from his mind and made the plane’s engine suddenly accelerate. And so this fighter, with its Mickey Mouse painted on it, chased after the British fighter that had just passed. He ignored everything, locked the sight in front of his cockpit onto the tail of the British plane, and squeezed the trigger without hesitation.

The tracer rounds drew a straight line toward the British plane. The British plane, perhaps sensing that things were not looking good, immediately began to pull up and climb, hoping to use its speed advantage to evade Galland’s attack. Galland didn’t waste any words. After reminding his wingman over the intercom, he followed the tail of that plane and simultaneously pulled up.

His cannon did not stop but continued its firing action as the nose of the plane rose. The shells, due to inertia, drew beautiful parabolas in the sky, but with the maneuvering of the two planes, the tracer rounds still hit the wing of the British plane in front.

“Wingman! I’ve hit him! Continue to climb with me! We’re going up into the clouds to shake off these British planes,” Galland commanded loudly as soon as he saw that he had succeeded.

The wing of the hit British fighter began to smoke, but the pilot quickly bailed out. The plane, now out of control, began to fall to the ground. The British pilot also opened his parachute and descended slowly with the white canopy.

Behind his plane, his wingman had already returned to his original position with a simple climbing maneuver and replied, “The British planes are also regaining altitude. Their planes are about the same speed as ours, and their fighting style is also very similar.”

“That’s our obsolete Me-109 export model…” Galland said to his wingman, keeping his fighter’s attitude level and looking around for any pursuing British planes. “Don’t count on speed. They are about the same speed as us. Use the alternating cover method and take them down one by one.”

“Our plane? Those arms-exporting merchants should be taken out and shot!” the wingman said, wiggling his own control stick as he followed Galland in a climb.

“I’ve already complained once! Don’t complain again! Adjust your altitude. We’re going to dive and attack! Remember to control your altitude. Don’t go too low,” Galland commanded, pushing his control stick sharply forward and giving the attack order. “Attack the British fighters that are on the tails of our planes. Don’t waste ammunition!”

The two planes, one after the other, charged toward the battle circle at a slightly lower altitude. Galland found a British fighter that was fiercely attacking an Fw-190D, and dived down from a high altitude like lightning, opening fire fiercely at the British fighter.

The bullets were fired in the path of the British plane. In other words, he fired the bullets first and then waited for the other’s plane to run into them. And if the other side changed its flight path, it would also be considered as having helped his friendly force by driving off the tail.

But the target that Galland had found clearly did not have such a high level of air combat skill. This British plane had not yet discovered that it had turned from a hunter into the prey. It flew headlong into Galland’s web of fire. Its engine was immediately hit and began to burn, and the glass of the cockpit was also shattered by the bullets coming from above.

Galland saw with his own eyes the pilot inside being hit by the 13mm machine guns. The British pilot’s face slammed into his own plane’s instrument panel and did not move. Because his body was pressing on the plane’s control stick, the plane also immediately began a violent dive, hurtling toward the ground. Just a dozen or so seconds later, it crashed into a field and exploded violently.

Another batch of black dots appeared in the sky, at about the altitude of the clouds. A cheer immediately went up in the German fighters’ radios. This world was just that unfair. The German Air Force, which had 2,000 Fw-190D fighters, had no intention of playing at chivalry with the British Air Force, which had only modified a few dozen Me-109C fighters.

After discovering that the British had dispatched a flying unit with strong technical skills and piloting modified German export Me-109C fighters, the German Air Force’s frontline commander, Major General Dick, had prepared 200 Fw-190D fighters for this special British fighter unit, with the aim of entangling and then surrounding and annihilating them.

This was also the main reason why the German Air Force dared to commit its fighters to a head-on fight on the front line. That is, up to now, the number of German fighters in any given airspace was absolutely superior to the British and French fighters.

As soon as they saw the German planes coming to support, the British planes naturally knew that they were outnumbered and immediately began to scatter and flee. But the German fighters, which were still slightly superior in speed, pursued them relentlessly. The British planes, which had been enjoying a local numerical superiority, immediately fell into disarray, and their losses began to mount.

Galland covered his wingman as he locked onto a fleeing British fighter, watching as his wingman opened fire and hit the British plane. Only then did the two of them stop their pursuit because they had run out of ammunition.

The German pilots did not win this battle easily. While they shot down 11 British planes, they also suffered a record loss of seven of their own fighters. This was the first time the German army had lost so many fighters in a single battle, and this situation also made the commanding Major General Dick feel very heartbroken.

Of course, no one knew that Britain had already scraped the bottom of the barrel. The Royal Air Force had already lost five of the same modified Me-109C fighters in recent engagements. Including the 11 lost in this battle, they had already had more than two-thirds of their fighters destroyed, and they had also lost a full 10 pilots. Whether in terms of planes or pilots, this loss was something the fragile Royal Air Force could not afford.

The remaining four modified Me-109C fighters were urgently recalled to Britain by the Royal Air Force. The air force commanders had already given the order that until the new fighters were deployed on a large scale, they would no longer commit sporadic forces in an attempt to counter-attack the German air power.

The result of another attempt was another failure. The Allied air forces had completely lost air superiority over Belgium. The German fighters were running rampant over northwestern France and Belgium, destroying bridges and blowing up railways, making it impossible for the hundreds of thousands of Anglo-French coalition soldiers to move. However, even more fatal news followed. The Belgian forces had failed to hold Brussels, and the German Army Group B had rapidly advanced south, once again biting at the tail of the main Allied forces in Belgium.