Chapter 256: Hunting the Swordfish

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“Sea Eagle 1, Sea Eagle 1, Imperator command calling Sea Eagle 1,” the voice from the aircraft carrier’s command center came through the headset of the Fw-190 fighter pilot, who was on patrol over the German Second High Seas Fleet. “Please respond if you hear me.”

“This is Sea Eagle 1, over,” the 20-year-old youth, who was the commander of the Imperator’s air defense fighter formation, replied. He possessed an unparalleled level of experience and composure. He gently pushed and pulled the control stick, keeping the plane on its original course.

“Our reconnaissance plane is returning, from a due north heading… but our radar has detected some guests following behind it. Approximately five, possibly four, enemy aircraft,” the commander on the Imperator said through the headset. “There is too much noise on the radar. We can only estimate the number of enemy forces.”

“Sea Eagle 1 will intercept,” the young man said calmly into the intercom. “Sea Eagle 2, follow me to engage! All other aircraft, climb into the clouds and maintain vigilance over the entire combat zone!”

“Sea Eagle 2 understands!” his wingman replied immediately.

The other six fighters, without any fuss, immediately began to climb. Their engines let out a pleasant roar. At an altitude of 6,000 meters, the performance of the Fw-190 fighter could be fully utilized. This was practically their heaven.

The name of this young man, who had originally served in the air force and was later selected and sent to the naval carrier aircraft training base to study, was Günther Rall. At the beginning of the Polish campaign, he did not yet have an aircraft carrier (the carrier Imperator, on which he was stationed, was launched later), so he was ordered to coordinate with the air force. It was in one of the few battles he fought that he scored his first victory, becoming the only pilot in the naval air arm with actual combat experience.

He gently accelerated his plane, and the engine began to spin more joyfully. Flying just below the cloud layer, he and his wingman soon saw the returning friendly reconnaissance plane. Its unique shape made it recognizable as a German aircraft at a glance.

“Sea Eagle 1 calling Sky Eye 1! Welcome home!” Günther Rall called out on the radio.

“Thank you! I am descending now! I’m almost out of fuel!” the reconnaissance plane replied.

“Wingman, maintain your heading. You search the left, I’ll take the right. After you’ve spotted the target, confirm the numbers first. Don’t be in a hurry to attack,” Günther Rall said as he searched for his prey.

“Wingman understands,” his wingman replied clearly.

Soon, they spotted several small black dots in the distant sky. It was no wonder these British planes were chasing farther and farther, because they simply could not keep up with the extreme flight speed of the Fw-190 modified reconnaissance plane, which could reach up to 610 kilometers per hour.

“Sea Eagle 2, confirm… four British planes to our direct front! I don’t see a fifth. Do you?” Günther Rall asked, frowning as he confirmed the number of enemy planes.

“I can’t see it either. Maybe there are only four,” the wingman’s reply was also very hesitant. He also couldn’t quite believe that Britain had only sent four planes to “die.”

In fact, they had misjudged the commanders of the Royal Navy’s southward-bound 1st Task Force. Because the German Navy’s tactics were developed around the aircraft carrier as the core, German carriers of this era were advanced and could carry a large number of combat aircraft. This was also why the German Navy was able to send out more than thirty planes in one go to attack.

But the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier, HMS Eagle, was a converted battleship, and its age was also very old. So this carrier was more of an escort carrier than a fleet carrier. This carrier carried a total of only 21 carrier-based aircraft, less than a third of a single German carrier.

So these German pilots, who were inferring the opponent’s numbers based on their own situation, were instead confused by their own estimates. They felt that the other side should have at least a dozen planes coming to attack, but they never expected that there would be only four. And what made them not know whether to laugh or cry was that these four planes were actually old-fashioned biplanes…

“Rall… this isn’t bait, is it?” After a long while, the pilot in the wingman’s plane finally asked this hesitant question.

“Alright, we have to give it a try! Wingman, you climb into the clouds and look for any large force they might have. I’ll attack to lure them out… If they have planes providing cover, you can dive and cover me,” Günther Rall said after a moment’s thought.

At this time, they were not far from their opponents, and time did not allow them to arrange a more detailed plan. So after the wingman agreed, he immediately began to climb, while Günther Rall began his dive.

What is shamelessness? This is shamelessness! What does it mean to conquer the world with a single trick? This is it! The technical superiority of the German fighter planes allowed the German Air Force to dominate the sky, and their tactics for dominating the sky were not at all profound. They could defeat all their airborne competitors simply by relying on that diving speed of up to 600 kilometers per hour.

In air combat, the side with the speed advantage often holds a certain advantage, because they can find an attack position faster. Of course, the slower side can rely on flexible turns to lure the opponent into a dogfight, but no matter who it is, as long as other performance aspects are not greatly lost, they would hope to pilot a faster fighter into battle.

The reason for saying so much is actually very simple. Günther Rall once again used the German Air Force’s textbook air combat tactics. He began to dive from a higher position, converting potential energy into kinetic energy, and was the first to open fire when he was closest to the enemy fighter. He then used his high speed to reduce the contact time, and after one attack, he immediately climbed and circled, using his speed advantage to shake off his opponent and climb to a higher altitude again to look for another opportunity. This set of attack methods was simply invincible when an Fw-190 fighter with a speed of nearly 600 km/h was attacking an enemy plane with a speed of about 300 km/h.

Soon, Rall found the best opportunity to fire. His plane charged to an extremely close distance and opened fire fiercely on the oblique upper side of a British Swordfish torpedo bomber. The bullets soon passed through the thin upper wing of the Swordfish, pierced the fuel tank and the pilot, passed through the lower wing, and then flew into the embrace of the vast sea.

Although the British Swordfish torpedo bomber was sturdy and durable and was popular with the Royal Navy for its stable handling and solid fuselage, even if it were sturdier, it was powerless against the German fighter’s 30mm cannon and 13mm machine guns.

By the time Rall’s fighter had shot past the British plane formation and was pulling up in the distance, the hit Swordfish was already trailing thick smoke and had crashed into the sea. And the remaining three planes, as if realizing that things were not looking good, actually broke formation and scattered.

“Lead, I didn’t find any ambush! Should I still maintain watch in the air?” the wingman’s voice came through the headset. It was clear from his tone that he was full of anxiety and expectation.

“Never mind if there’s an ambush or not! You dive and attack too! Even if there is an ambush, we can probably eat this bait before the ambush arrives,” Rall said as he made his plane fly higher, spotting a fleeing Swordfish.

Do I really need to pull back to high altitude and then dive again? The opponent clearly has no speed advantage. Rall thought to himself. He frowned slightly and decided to try changing his tactics a bit. So he continued his own climbing maneuver, which made the plane complete a somewhat huge Immelmann turn, directly latching onto the tail of a fleeing Swordfish.

The Fw-190’s roll rate was more than enough to deal with the biplane Swordfish. So Rall was first facing the grey sky, and then he saw the sky begin to recede from him. He saw the sea horizon, and then the sea rushed toward him, and finally, the sea disappeared from his view. And then he found that his nose was already aimed at the tail of the Swordfish torpedo bomber.

“Rat-tat! Rat-tat!” The British plane also had defensive weapons at its tail. Rall was startled and quickly adjusted his flight angle, avoiding the attack from the British plane’s machine gun. Only then did he see that this type of British plane actually had a crew of three.

“Thump-thump! Thump-thump-thump-thump!” The Fw-190’s cannons roared again, and soon the other plane was smoking in the sky. Rall would not mercifully let his opponent go. He opened fire again with his 13mm machine guns. This time, the place the bullets hit was a bit tragic. The torpedo hanging on the plane suddenly exploded.

A violent explosion appeared before Rall’s eyes, frightening him into quickly pulling up his plane. As a result, his plane scraped past the explosion and flew into the sky. Rall even heard something hit the underside of his plane’s belly.

“My God! I hit it! I hit it!” Rall was still in shock, but the excited shouts of his wingman came through his headset. Rall searched around and saw an enemy plane trailing thick smoke and falling toward the sea. Of course, he knew that the one he had hit had already become a ball of fire, and what was falling to the ground was certainly a pile of parts.

“Find the other plane! Don’t let a single one get away!” Rall said as he adjusted his flight angle and began to search for the other plane. Soon, he found the panicked British plane on the surface of the sea.

There was a machine gun on the tail of the British plane, which was at this time pointing in the direction of Rall and his wingman. Rall, without thinking, once again piloted his plane and charged up. Compared to the Polish fighters, this British bomber was clearly not much more advanced, so Rall decided to chase and annihilate all of these bombers.

You can imagine the scene of a cheetah chasing a small deer. The speeds of the two were not on the same level at all. Soon, Rall had easily scored his third victory of the day. The four attacking British Royal Navy Swordfish bombers had not escaped the fate of being completely wiped out.

“This is Sea Eagle 1! We have shot down four British planes! We have not found a fifth enemy plane… My wingman and I are now preparing to return to base,” Rall said into the intercom after stabilizing his plane at cloud level.

“You are cleared to return! Our attack formation may have achieved an unbelievable combat record. God bless Germany. The Führer has let us… my God… a record you would never dare to imagine,” the naval air arm commander on the Imperator said, somewhat excitedly.