Not far away, on the sea in the background, there is a British Royal Navy escort destroyer. It was bombed by a group of German bombers and paralyzed on the red sea. The ship's hull tilted at a large angle in the sea and continued to sink, with billowing smoke. The flames burned the steel hull red. The sailors jumped into the water to escape and swam desperately to the surrounding blue water area, because behind them, there were raging fires that continued to follow the leaked fuel.
The wreckage of a Hurricane fighter jet was burning four to five nautical miles due north of the destroyer, with thick smoke billowing. After the pilot parachuted out, he fell into the sea before fully opening the parachute. He was entangled in the parachute and could not escape. He had to use his mouth to wear the life jacket. Blow, he was already exhausted. He saw two yellow lifebuoys thrown from the transport ship in the distance. He just couldn't swim to them. The temperature of the sea water at this time was about 10 degrees. At this water temperature, the pilot who fell into the water would It couldn't last long, and at this time, the Royal Navy's search and rescue boats were beyond reach.
On the sea two miles away from the Hurricane fighter, there is the wreckage of a Messerschmitt, which is also billowing black smoke. It is unknown whether it was shot down by an escort destroyer or the Royal Air Force. The German pilot was wearing a conspicuous orange-red life jacket. Lifting him to the surface of the water, he is very visible.
There were many corpses of Allied soldiers floating on this large blood-stained sea. A single dive by Messerschmitt could kill dozens or dozens of soldiers on the crowded ship.
The transport ship "Isle Mona" was riddled with bullets. While waiting for Allied soldiers to board the ship in Dunkirk, it was continuously bombed by the Germans. Under the vigorous cover of the Allied air force, it sailed away after being loaded with soldiers. Dunkirk turned into a hell on earth and headed back to the British mainland at full speed.
Due to the fall of Calais, the German tank troops covered several infantry divisions and launched a fierce attack from the direction of Calais towards Dunkirk, further compressing the defense line of 400,000 Allied troops in Dunkirk. Therefore, all the troops starting from Dunkirk The Allied troop transport ships were afraid of being shelled by the Germans at Calais Port, so they could only sail towards the British port of Deal, then go around dozens of nautical miles and then circle in the direction of Hastings in the UK.
Although the distance directly to Dier is very short, it faces the huge threat of a large number of German bombers flying from the direction of Ostend. In fact, this road is directly strangled by the Germans.
In this way, the Allied troop transports that could have returned in three and a half hours now need at least six hours to return to the British mainland.
The transport ship "Isle Mona" was escorted by destroyers. More than an hour after setting off from Dunkirk, it was discovered and chased by a group of German bombers.
The transport ship "Mona Island" was fully loaded with 1,420 British troops, but it did not have a single decent anti-aircraft weapon.
Since the Dunkirk port terminal was completely paralyzed after being bombed by the Germans, the troop transport ship was afraid of running aground and could only park in the deep water area. The soldiers who boarded the ship for the general retreat had to swim over? Or wait for small boats to transport them back and forth? So the retreating British troops All heavy weapons were dumped on the beach.
In order to be able to transport a few more soldiers back to the UK, this cargo ship almost didn't even have a few heavy machine guns. When the German bomber group appeared, only the destroyer held up a defensive corridor in the air for the "Mona Island" transport ship. , but under the successive siege of the German aircraft fleet, more than ten minutes later, the escort destroyer was hit by more than a dozen shells, completely paralyzed on the sea, ignited a fire, and gradually sank.
Fortunately, just when all the soldiers on the "Mona Island" transport ship could only pray for God's blessing, the 615th Fighter Squadron led by Royal Air Force Lieutenant Tony Eyre appeared in time on the way to Dunkirk. ? Intercepted the German bombers and escort formations.
During the battle, a Messerschmitt and a Hurricane fighter were shot down one after another.
The eleven fighters of the Royal 65th Fighter Squadron knew they were no match for the German fleet, but if they were defeated and left, the transport ship "Isle Mona" would become a massacre platform for the Germans to do whatever they wanted.
Lieutenant Tony Eyre ordered all pilots not to leave even to the last plane, waiting for the fighter jets that took off from the British mainland to come to support.
On the first day of the Dunkirk retreat, due to numerical limitations, the British fighter force did not adopt Zhou Zhihan's suggestion to use a large fleet of aircraft to take off for defense. Instead, they followed the previous plan and took off a combat formation every 50 minutes.
But Major General Parker adopted another suggestion from Zhou Zhihan, that is, the fighter planes in each formation became a high-low mix of Spitfires and Hurricanes. When encountering a German bomber formation escorted by Messerschmitts, the Spitfires outnumbered the enemy. Too many, only to disturb but not to attack, entangled Messerschmitt, allowing the Hurricane to take the opportunity to attack the German bomber formation, making it difficult for Messerschmitt to focus on the head and tail, and the combat effectiveness was reduced after being distracted. The 65th Squadron used this change for the first time today, and it really worked.
Another great thing is that just two days ago, all Royal Air Force pilots were given a schematic diagram for deciphering the Messerschmitt dive. On the diagram were written in red letters "During the Messerschmitt dive, if you are afraid If you stall and don't dare to do a 360 backward roll, then you have to accept the possibility of being shot down by the opponent." Therefore, in the fierce battle, Messerschmitt's ultimate attack by diving was cracked by the Royal Air Force, and its power was greatly reduced.
However, it was difficult for six Hurricanes to break through the defensive formation of twelve Stuka bombers. The Hurricanes had to find ways to keep the air battle away from the "Mona Island" transport ship, and they also had to take into account the intensive defensive firepower of the Stuka bomber formation. Gradually fell behind.
During the fierce battle, a Hurricane was accidentally hit by the intensive firepower of a Stuka bomber formation and fell to the sea. It exploded a few seconds later. A powerful shock wave splashed up to a height of tens of meters. The pilot successfully parachuted in advance and fell. On the sea, he pulled out the flare gun from the holster strapped to his calf and fired the red flare, hoping to be discovered by the Royal Search and Rescue Boat in the distance. At the same time, he prayed that the damn German He57 sea search and rescue aircraft would be better if he persisted. Will come again during my stay.
All the Allied soldiers on the "Mona Island" transport ship could only look up at the sky and the Royal Air Force, which was tightly entangled with German fighter planes and bombers, and kept praying, hoping for a miracle.
Now, the Royal Air Force has ten fighter planes left. It has to fight against eleven Messerschmitts and defend twelve Stuka dive bombers. It is gradually beyond its capabilities.
Watching a Hurricane fighter jet in the distance being shot down by a group of Stuka bombers, the 303rd Squadron rushed forward at full speed. On the way forward, another Spitfire fighter from the 65th Squadron left the battlefield dragging thick smoke and evacuated towards Dover. , but a Messerschmitt was obviously unwilling to let go of this great opportunity to harvest, and immediately pressed the lever and chased after it.
There were only nine fighters left in the 65th Squadron. The right wing was clumsy and the left wing was weak, showing a defeated look and still refused to retreat.
The two warring parties were fighting fiercely, and no one noticed the 303 Squadron diving down from high altitude at full speed more than ten miles away.
"The four Spitfires were divided into two two-plane offensive and defensive formations, and followed me to deal with Messerschmitt; Skalski led the Hurricane fighters, rushed forward, disrupted the defensive formation of the Stur bomber formation, and dispersed The Kai turned into a two-plane, two-attack formation and beat up the lone Stuka; the Dreadnought fighter jets lowered their flight altitude, two of them guarded the sky above the troop carrier, and the other two entered the belly of the Stuka bombers, knocking them down and earning a profit. We will return after making a large sum." Zhou Zhihan laid out the battle plan, pushed the throttle all the way forward, and the Spitfire No. 214 moved forward at full speed. "When the enemy planes find us and attack head-on, all the leading planes of the Spitfire will The attack distance should be as far as 150 meters away, because Messerschmitt pilots like to fire within 80 meters. If we fire in advance, we can disrupt the reaction time of the German aircraft. Even if the lead aircraft cannot shoot down the opponent, the wingman can take advantage of the enemy aircraft. When turning early, bite its rear hemisphere in one fell swoop and shoot down your enemy in a plane fight."
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone in the 303 Squadron answered in unison, then spread out their formation and moved forward at full speed. This time the enemies met, they were particularly jealous. They traveled all the way to England, and finally found an opportunity to face their mortal enemy.
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