LITMIR.BIZ

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communication, several enemy fighters from the pursuit group continued to catch up with us. Perhaps they received a visual indication from the ground, or simply decided to widen the search sector, but the fact remained – I only partially succeeded in the course change and jamming.

      The air battle, meanwhile, continued, and combat luck was clearly not on the side of the Soviet pilots today. The air division commander assured me that he was assigning his best pilots to accompany me, but having lost their leader, they seemed to have lost their composure after all. The second attack by the Messerschmitts was effective again. This time, however, they did not win an uncontested victory, but a dark plume of smoke followed one of the Yaks, although the pilot did not seem to have lost control of the plane.

      “Comrade Senior Lieutenant of State Security, we have to get out of here!” I heard the desperation in the voice of the Pe-2 commander. “Permission to change course!”

      “Stop panicking!” I growled at the Lieutenant, “"Blackbird-3", what's wrong with the plane?”

      “The engine is damaged, but it's still working,” I heard the pilot's strained voice, “Oil splashes on the cockpit canopy. There is almost no visibility.”

      “"Blackbird-3", get out of the fight! "Blackbird-2", pull the Messerschmitts on me!”

      “"Blackbird-2" did not understand the command! Please confirm the order!” immediately responded the pilot of the last intact Yak.

      The navigator of the Pe-2 also looked at me like I was crazy. Lieutenant Kalina couldn't take his eyes off the plane, but he, too, twitched in his seat when he heard my command.

      “"Blackbird-2", I need you to get the Germans into my rear hemisphere machine gun range. Is that clear now?”

      “Doin' it,” the fighter pilot said after a second, but it was clear from his voice that he thought my order was nonsense. However, he quickly lost interest in the NKVD special representative, who had lost his mind, because two Messerschmitts immediately attacked his Yak.

      Nevertheless, the pilot complied with the order. The combat between the fighters took place about a kilometer above us, and the "Blackbird-2", once again attacked from above, tried to pull away from the Germans in a steep dive. He chose his direction so that the Messerschmitts, which followed him, at some point were above our Pe-2, lagging slightly behind it. This arrangement suited the Germans well, too, as it gave them, with some luck, the opportunity to take out the last Russian fighter and the sluggish but fast bomber in one go.

      “Do not change course! No evasive maneuvers!” I ordered Lieutenant Kalina and took my place behind the machine gun, “If you interfere with my aiming, you'll be court-martialed!”

      “Copy that!” the pilot answered in a strained voice.

      The ShKAS machine gun was undoubtedly one of the brightest examples of engineering at the time of its creation. Its designers, Shpitalny and Komaritsky, managed to combine the best solutions of that time, used separately in other automatic weapons. The result was a machine gun with a very high rate of fire for its time – 1,800 rounds per minute. After a number of "child illnesses" were eliminated, the reliability of the ShKAS was brought up to quite an acceptable level, but it was still very sensitive to any dirtiness, which in real combat conditions led to frequent malfunctions and to the failure of attempts to use it anywhere but aircraft.

      I carefully inspected my ShKAS machine gun before the flight and found its condition to be quite satisfactory. The other thing is that the rifle caliber of this machine gun was still too small for 1941. Even the high rate of fire did not compensate for this drawback. The increased power of aircraft engines allowed German designers to significantly strengthen the armor of the Messerschmitts, giving good protection to the pilot and the most important components of the fighter. That's why I ordered the captain not to jerk the plane on course – I needed the best possible accuracy, because I could only hit the enemy aircraft in vulnerable spots, and it wasn't easy to hit them.

      The Germans, inspired by the successful start of the battle, decided not to delay in destroying the Russians and distribute the targets among themselves. I do not know how they agreed on this in the absence of communication, but the leader of the pair of Messerschmitts continued to pursue the Yak, and his wingman slightly corrected the course and began to approach our Pe-2 from behind.

      At 400 meters the German pilot felt comfortable enough, not too afraid of the machine guns of the Russian bomber. He was in no hurry to shoot himself, either – after all, the distance was great, and his ammunition supply was not infinite. I turned the machine gun on the turret slightly and fired a short burst toward the enemy. It wasn't very accurate, but it gave the computer a lot of information to make adjustments to the guidance system.

      The German did not even flinch when several tracers flashed to the right and above his plane. My machine gun's belt was mixed with rounds of armor-piercing, incendiary, and armor-piercing tracer bullets. It was thought that this approach contributed to the combined defeat of the enemy aircraft, although I would have preferred to limit it to armor-piercing ammunition only.

      The enemy plane was only 350 meters away. A little more, and the enemy will try to hide in the dead zone, where my fire will be hindered by the tail of my own plane. I wasn't going to let that happen. A burst! The hits were visible even to the naked eye. I aimed for the cockpit, as the Messerschmitt was descending with its nose down, and the engine wasn't obscuring it. A second later, the enemy disappeared from my sight. He never fired a shot, but the computer only repainted its marker yellow – apparently, it wasn't sure of my shooting score.

      “"Blackbird-2", are you alive?” the marker of the last Yak also turned yellow, but after a couple of seconds it turned green again.

      “He made holes in my wings, the bastard,” the pilot replied. “The plane obeys the rudders. The engine works.”

      The leader of the pair of Messerschmitts stopped chasing the Yak and joined his wingman, who was barely keeping his plane in the air. The plane itself did not appear to be seriously damaged, but the pilot was apparently injured. The fighter was yawing from side to side, and was pressing closer and closer to the ground. The computer repainted its mark a gray-yellow color, deeming the target practically unfit for duty.

      “We're going home,” I ordered, and then the German pilot finally lost control of his plane.

      The fiery flower of an explosion blossomed below – the wingman of the pair of Messerschmitts fell into the woods. I cursed quietly to myself. It was not difficult to predict what the surviving enemy would do now.

      I took a quick look at the situation. We changed course again sharply, and the other pursuers must have lost us. It took another five minutes to reach the front line, but it was clear that the bothersome Messerschmitt would not leave us alone.

      “Lieutenant, get down on the ground! "Blackbird-2", don't let him come at me from the side – let him try to attack from behind.”

      The German did not attack from the side. Taking advantage of the fact that near the ground our speed did not exceed 450 kilometers per hour, the Messerschmitt gained an altitude of about one kilometer and rushed to attack from top to back. He apparently considered the death of his wingman to be an accident, insane luck, for which the gunner of the Russian bomber should pay with his life.

      “Waiting for orders!” the Yak pilot reminded me of himself.

      “Go up a little higher and attack him if he changes course and comes in from the other side.”

      “Understood. I'm on it.”

      The pilot and navigator of the Pe-2 were silent. After destroying one of the Messerschmitts, they had no desire at all to interfere in the battle management or to challenge my actions in any way.

      “This is "Blackbird-2". Strong vibration when climbing. Engine loses power!”

      “"Blackbird-2", hold on a little longer. I need you here for a few more minutes.”

      “The altitude is 600 meters.”

      “That's

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