Chapter 662 Madness

The war continued without anyone being able to predict or deduce the exact direction.

According to the order conveyed by Zhukov himself, Malashenko led the 1st Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment of the Guards and the Infantry Division commanded by Colonel Chelchenkov to occupy the last field defense line outside the suburbs of Stalingrad and used it as a starting position. The battle with the German enemy in front of them was fierce.

The battle on the second day was just as Zhukov and Yelyomenko had decided.

The Soviet Air Force units that arrived one after another put all their strength into the action. Hundreds of Il-2 attack aircraft and Tu-2 tactical bombers launched air strikes against the German troops on the ground.

The German Air Force, which received an urgent request for help, immediately came out in full force!

The Fourth Air Force, commanded by Baron Richthofen, dispatched almost all fighters that could be assigned to the skies over Stalingrad. This huge air force, which accounted for 54% of the total strength of the German Air Force, did so for only one purpose: to stop the crazy Russian air raids and ensure that their ground forces would not be completely defeated.

The Soviet pilots, who were desperate to defend the great holy city in the name of the leader, lowered their aircraft to a height that could almost knock down small trees and launched intensive rockets and bombs at the German positions, which once hit the German troops on the ground in a defensive posture so hard that they could not even raise their heads, let alone counterattack.

The German fighter groups occupying higher altitudes tried their best to fight with the Soviet fighter aviation to seize air supremacy in the theater, while being forced to allocate some troops to deal with the Soviet attack aircraft and bombers that were like tigers and sheep in the low altitude.

The flames of the tracer bullets streaked across the red, hot sky, and the flames of blood and death were released in the explosions that rose up after hitting the ground, with amazing momentum.

The German pilots, who thought they were ready to fight the Russians, were shocked to find their mistakes soon. The Soviet air force they were facing at this moment was much crazier than they had imagined!

The fighter plane that Major Strauss was flying was the FW190A4 fighter that he had just received not long ago, nicknamed "Butcher's Bird".

The BMW 810 D-2 14-cylinder radial engine equipped with the latest water jet afterburner was extremely powerful, with a maximum thrust of 2,100 horsepower, making this fighter equipped with 4 20mm wing cannons and two 92mm nose machine guns a powerful, extremely high-speed and terrifying hunter.

Major Strauss's plane dived straight down from the sky at an airspeed of 670 kilometers per hour, which has reached the maximum speed of the A4 FW190 fighter plane in level flight, causing the fuselage to tremble.

With absolute confidence in the structural strength of the plane and his own air combat skills, Major Strauss put the aiming ring in the cockpit in front of him firmly on the back of a Soviet Il-2 attack plane that had just finished diving and was pulling up. He accurately controlled the nose direction at high speed and used this only attack window to succeed in one fell swoop!

The powerful firepower of 4 20mm wing cannons and 2 92mm nose machine guns is powerful! The 20mm ammunition chain mixed with powerful thin-shell bullets and armor-piercing bullets hit the wing of the Il-2 in the blink of an eye, causing it to catch fire and be riddled with holes.

According to Major Strauss's estimation, if the Russian-designed Il-2 had not been designed with a body structure as solid as a tank, and would not fall apart even if it landed hard on its belly, and if the Il-2 was not currently at a low altitude and low speed of 500 meters, its appearance alone would be enough to cause it to disintegrate on the spot, with the damaged skin torn into pieces by the airflow in an instant.

Major Strauss, who succeeded in one strike, had no time to rejoice in his 18th kill. In the airspace where he was, there were at least nearly a hundred German fighters competing for air supremacy with an equal number of Soviet fighters!

If the Soviet attack aircraft and tactical bombers that were still diving and bombing at low altitude were counted, the total number of Soviet aircraft deployed was almost twice that of the German Air Force in the airspace!

Major Strauss, who did not dare to neglect, swung the joystick in his hand, and the fuselage, which was not as flexible as the BF109F4, immediately began to change its course in a not-so-cumbersome manner. However, when he subconsciously turned back to confirm the results of the battle, he was shocked by the scene he saw!

The Il-2, which was covered in flames and black smoke and was about to disintegrate in mid-air, was still controlling the fuselage in this doomed situation, changing its diving course towards the ground with an extremely difficult attitude.

Major Strauss subconsciously looked at the ground along the diving route of the Il-2 covered in flames. At the final straight-line impact point predicted by experience, there was a group of German infantrymen who were manipulating their light weapons to frantically fire at the incoming Soviet army in an attempt to repel them.

Two groups of four 132mm heavy air-launched rockets under the wings, plus four 100kg bombs in the belly magazine, turned into a huge fireball that shot straight into the sky almost at the moment when the smoke-filled nose of the plane hit the ground.

Aviation fuel, machine gun ammunition, machine gun ammunition, aerial bombs, heavy air-launched rockets

Everything that can participate in the explosion and add bricks and tiles is releasing its destructive power!

Before dying, the German infantrymen raised their heads and looked up at the sky because of the screaming sound of the high-speed dive. Major Strauss, who had excellent eyesight, felt that he could even see the horrified and desperate expressions of those on the ground before dying at an altitude of 500 meters. Even if this was mostly his wishful thinking and imagination, it still couldn't stop the huge shock from the depths of his heart!

These Russians are crazy! They actually drove their fighter planes with full ammunition and fuel to hit the ground in a suicide attack!

Major Strauss knew very well that the Soviet pilot would die even if he didn't do this!

There was no chance of parachuting at an altitude of several hundred meters. The Il-2, whose fuselage structure had reached the last edge of fragmentation and was covered in fire, was not enough to support its forced landing.

But all this seemingly certain death was not enough for the Soviet pilot to be so fearless in his eyes.

They were all soldiers, fighting for their motherland, the only difference was their incompatible beliefs.

Major Strauss, who had once been on the verge of death, understood how desperate and helpless it was. It took tremendous courage to die together with one's enemy.

Hovering in the sky with lingering fear, Major Strauss couldn't help but ask himself, if the situation was reversed, would he be able to make the same heroic decision to die like the Soviet pilot?