I asked you to escape, but you became a soldier in World War II

Chapter 140 Ace of Aces
The plane landed steadily on the runway and then slowly glided into the hangar.

When the hatch opened, everyone felt that Anderson's driving skills were first-rate. The landing was smooth and impeccable!

Unexpectedly, it was Lin Chen who climbed off the plane first, greeted everyone politely, and then went to the cafeteria to eat.

Anderson refused to get off the plane until everyone noticed that something was wrong with him. Will and another non-commissioned officer climbed up to find out what was going on.

Unexpectedly, a foul smell hit me in the face.

Oh my god, Anderson's back seat was a mess!

What the hell is going on? What happened?

Everyone was stunned for a while.

Major Karl rushed over upon hearing the news and took a look at his once invincible subordinate. "What on earth is going on?"

Anderson was ashamed, "Damn, this Lin Chen is not a human from Earth at all!"

Lin Chen was enjoying a luxurious meal in the Air Force cafeteria at the moment, and had no idea that his glorious deeds would soon spread throughout the entire First Wing because the food was so sumptuous.

The food standards for the air force have always been the highest in all countries, and the United States is the best among them. In order to comfort these young men who are in a foreign country and whose lives are in danger at any time, the U.S. military has done everything possible to strengthen logistical support.

During World War II, American soldiers had three "packages" to comfort their souls on the battlefield: cigarettes, beer, and Coca-Cola.

These three things could be said to be the most sought-after hard currency during World War II. For soldiers from other countries, having just one of these three things would make them happy for a whole day, but American soldiers could enjoy these three things every day.

There were even a few American soldiers who blew the Freon in the flamethrower into the Coke bottles in order to drink ice-cold Coke. This earliest battlefield refrigerator can be said to be the favorite thing of American soldiers at that time.

From this point alone, we can see that the US military has never had any problems with food. It can even be said that they eat too much, so they have the "idle mentality" of wanting to drink iced cola.

As the leader of the US military, the United States Air Force's Eighth Air Force not only has all these hard currencies, but also rare goods such as turkey and beef shipped from the United States, and even seafood caught locally.

If an officer or soldier has a birthday, the kitchen will make a birthday cake for him. This kind of support capability was not available to many countries even after the war, let alone during the war.

It is precisely because of this food standard that American soldiers stationed overseas are very popular locally, because they not only have money, but may also have chocolate and stockings on them.

As a lieutenant officer, Lin Chen was naturally given free access to the restaurant. After eating and drinking his fill, he even took away two pieces of authentic American chocolate.

When he found Major Carl again in the afternoon, Carl's stare made him a little nervous.

"Is this really your first time flying?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Lin Chen felt a little puzzled.

"Well, whether this is your first time or not, it doesn't matter. What matters is that Anderson and Will are no longer willing to take you to the sky, so you can only fly solo. Oh, I can be your wingman."

Although Anderson told him the results of the morning training in detail, he still didn't quite believe it. How could there be such a person?
In the following days, Carl took Lin Chen, or to be more precise, followed Lin Chen's plane to train at the base.

Lin Chen's aerial skills became more and more sophisticated. Although he had no actual combat experience, he already showed signs of being an ace pilot. This also amazed Major General Richard, who later came to visit Lin Chen.

He even asked Lin Chen in front of everyone, "Are all you Orientals so powerful?"

Lin Chen replied, "I don't know about people from other countries, but I am Chinese."
-
When it came to selecting the bomber crew, Lin Chen discovered a fact that made him extremely desperate, that is, the "Memphis Belle" had already flown 25 times and returned home safely.

It was really bad that he had no idea which other crew members had managed to fly 25 times.

Major Carl was very confused. Why did they have to choose this crew? There were planes in my bomber squadron that had flown more than 20 times. They were experienced. Including himself, he had actually flown 19 missions. As long as they flew the last few times, they could return home smoothly.

"Mr. Major, can our escort fighters reach that location?" Since Lin Chen couldn't be sure which crew was definitely safe, he would rather choose to fly the fighter himself. This was also the main reason why he was so eager to learn how to fly.

"I'm afraid not. Even our P38 Lightning fighter, which has the longest range, can only fly 400 kilometers from the target airspace before it has to return."

"Without escort aircraft, won't the B-17 bombers become lambs to be slaughtered?" Lin Chen was shocked.

"You are wrong. This time we sent out not B17 bombers, but B24 Liberator bombers." Carl revealed again.

Anyway, the mission would be carried out in the next two days, and his squadron had already begun to adapt to this type of bomber, so it was an open secret.

"B-24?" Lin Chen was not unfamiliar with this type of bomber.

Although the B-17 was the main force of air strikes during the entire strategic bombing of Germany, this did not hinder the B-24's fame. Compared with the B17 bomber, it had many shortcomings, such as being less comfortable to ride, thinner armor, smaller bomb load, and weaker firepower, but its advantages were also outstanding, the most powerful of which was its range, which was much longer than that of the B-17.

And its nickname is "Sky Overlord". It adopts conventional aerodynamic layout, a large wingspan upper wing, retractable landing gear, and double vertical tail.

The aircraft was the largest large bomber produced by the United States during World War II, and it was also the most used bomber. The production of up to 1.9 aircraft established its position in the history of aircraft development. The B-24 bomber not only participated in the war in Europe, but was also the "king of the sky" in the vast sea and air battlefields of Africa and Asia.

The main reason why the US military did not choose it as the main bombing force is due to considerations of protection and firepower. Besides, the B-17 is known as the "Flying Fortress", and its protection and powerful firepower are favored by most US troops.

In particular, the B17's range was enough to cover most German cities, so the B24 had always been used as a backup bombing force.

This time, the bombing target was Germany's atomic bomb research base, with a range of about 2000 kilometers, which was far beyond the combat radius of the B17. This gave the B24 the opportunity to return to the European battlefield as the main force.

Lin Chen was finally helpless and could only choose a "Warrior" bomber crew, that is, Anderson's crew, and planned to take their plane to the target airspace to carry out a strategic bombing on the German factory.

Because the flight was very long and the B24 bomber had a limited bomb load, each bomber only carried 2 tons of heavy aerial bombs.

The firepower of the bomber is much weaker than that of the B17, and the fighter has a limited range, so the bombers can only form all-round firepower coverage in tight combat formations, which will pose a threat to German fighters.

The B17 bombers relied on their unique three-plane formation tactics to inflict some losses on the German fighter pilots. However, the firepower of the B24 was significantly weaker, so this attack was very dangerous. Now we can only hope that the main force of the German Air Force has been withdrawn. Although this possibility is very small.

This bombing needs to fly along Norway's long coastline. Norway is a German-occupied area. Such a large group of strategic bombers will inevitably be easily discovered, and the Germans will inevitably have much more time to react.

Considering the difficulty of this mission, Lin Chen will also be assigned corresponding tasks on the plane.

In addition to Captain Anderson, there was also a co-pilot and several machine gunners on the plane. Anderson's plane was the lead plane, so it was equipped with the most advanced Norton bomber sight. Just in case, two backup lead planes were also deployed in other directions of the fleet.

They are also equipped with Norton bomber sights, which can be said to be a revolutionary high-tech equipment.

During World War II, all countries wanted to destroy the enemy's military industry through bombing, so as to achieve the goal of cutting off the enemy's supply of funds. However, if the strategic bombers flew too low, they would easily be hit by ground-based air defense fire, causing great losses.

However, if it flies too high, the bombing effect will be greatly reduced, and the cost will outweigh the gain.

Therefore, the United States took the lead in developing this computer-aided device that allows bombers to drop bombs accurately at high altitudes.

It will automatically calculate the aircraft's altitude, wind speed and other parameters, so that the bombardier only needs to open the safety and press the button, and other aircraft will follow suit and drop bombs, with an astonishingly high hit rate!

During World War II, U.S. bomber crews usually received 12-18 weeks of basic training. Due to the high performance of the Norton sight, relevant personnel would be required to take a confidentiality oath before receiving training.

If a bomber is hit and has to choose to parachute, the machine must be destroyed. This is a death order, which shows the great value of this equipment.

Since Lin Chen was just a "passerby", he obviously could not access this kind of equipment.

But Lin Chen had to participate in all the training on the crew. For example, he had to learn how to shoot the machine guns on it. Shooting moving targets at high altitudes was very difficult, and he needed to estimate the lead time himself. Fortunately, Lin Chen was gifted in this area. After several aerial exercises, his shooting results even surpassed those of the veteran shooters in the crew.

Since he could also skydive, the parachuting course was skipped. It seemed that everything was in place and all that was missing was the right time.

On the evening before the mission, Major Carl brought good news and bad news. The good news was that the latest P-51B fighter jets shipped from the United States had arrived, but the disadvantage was that the fighter squadron personnel had not yet arrived completely, so it might not be possible to send enough fighter jets for escort tomorrow.

"Major, can you let me go? I want to try! If I can fly, I'd be happy to escort the fleet."

Lin Chen knew too well the tremendous power of this fighter jet.

It was the most outstanding propeller fighter during World War II. It not only had a super long range and fierce firepower, but also had outstanding climb and level flight speeds.

In fact, Carl has been coveting this new fighter for a long time. Considering that he has to carry out the mission tomorrow, is it too late to try it now?

But this guy Lin Chen is really a monster. Maybe others can’t do it, but what about him?

Carl decisively called his superior, but the bomber group leader, Colonel LeMay (this person is very famous and will be introduced later), laughed after hearing it and claimed that if he could fly, he would set off on it tomorrow!

When Carl took Lin Chen to the base of the 354th Fighter Group - Greenham Common Airport in Berkshire, England, their group leader, Lieutenant Colonel Houghton, thought it was simply a fantasy.

"Even if you are a once-in-a-century ace pilot, you can't master our latest fighter so quickly!"

This was Lieutenant Colonel Horton’s reply to Lin Chen, but Lin Chen tried his best to try it. In the end, it was Colonel Li Mei who stepped in and made Horton reluctantly agree to give it a try.

There were many pilots watching, many of whom were aces, but they were not confident about taking off at night for training in the Mustang fighter jets that they were not familiar with.

After Lin Chen sat in the cockpit, he conducted a simple inspection, then slid the plane to the runway and, with full power, the silver fighter plane leaped into the air and quickly disappeared from people's sight at an extremely high speed. The people at the scene could only roughly discover Lin Chen's whereabouts through the monitoring of the tower radar.

Suddenly, the green light disappeared from the radar.

"What's going on?" Major Carl was a little anxious. After all, this person was recommended by Major General Richard, and it would be troublesome if something happened.

"It won't crash, will it? It's hard to see at night, and it's a new plane." Horton also felt that the situation was not good.

Only Colonel Li Mei showed a hidden smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Wow~"

Suddenly a silver fighter plane flashed past the tower.

The height is even lower than the tower.

"What on earth is this madman trying to do?" Horton was frightened by Lin Chen's dangerous operation and broke out in a cold sweat.

"Did you see that? He just flew at an ultra-low altitude, thus avoiding the detection of our radar!" Li Mei finally spoke. With his rich flying experience, he immediately saw the crux of the problem.

"How is this possible? Under these visible conditions, and at such a low altitude? Is this really something a human can do?" Horton broke out in a cold sweat.

"Everything is possible with this guy!" Carl was very proud. He didn't dare to say that this guy had only learned to fly for a few days, otherwise it would probably make everyone's jaw drop.

After a series of dazzling maneuvers in the air, he even tried a dive shot, and then flew back to the airport steadily.

Of course, he was greeted with applause from the entire base!

Many enthusiastic pilots of the 354th Fighter Group even shouted in unison, "Ace! Ace! Ace!"

Coming down from the cockpit, Lin Chen was all smiles.
"Well, sir, can I drive it tomorrow?"

Holden smiled awkwardly, “It’s really amazing, no problem, you are the ace of aces, you have the final say!”

(End of this chapter)