Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 701 Lone Dragon in the Sky, Rabble Squad's Surprise Attack

Hundreds of planes were engaged in a chaotic battle in the skies over Dunkirk.

While piloting his Spitfire fighter to break away from the German attack, Fang Wen was also using his mechanical senses to scan the entire battlefield.

Now, due to the collapse of his British air squadron, he can only fight on his own.

Accurate and timely understanding of the combat environment data will be of vital help in the subsequent battle.

With the infusion of faith energy, he entered a transcendent state, and all the unsecured objects in the cockpit floated up.

Like a god, all-knowing.

Fang Wen's consciousness suddenly detached from the Spitfire fighter jet, transforming into an invisible torrent that swept across tens of kilometers of airspace above Dunkirk.

An invisible sense permeated every part of the space, extending to every corner of the battlefield.

At an altitude of 8000 meters to the northeast, dozens of He-111 bombers were breaking through the weak British interception line in dense formation. The bomb bays under the fuselage were unlocked, and aerial bombs were falling one after another, with the landing point pointing directly at the convoy point of the evacuation ships on the west side of the beach.
3000 meters to the southwest, two BF-109Es were using the cloud cover to adjust their flaps in preparation for a surprise attack on a British Hurricane, while the Hurricane was attempting to attack a German dive bomber.

At a low altitude of 1000 meters below, three broken British Spitfires were being entangled by four BF-109s. One of the pilots made a mistake due to nervousness, pulling the aileron too far, causing the aircraft to stall slightly. The machine guns of the other aircraft were jammed, with only two still able to fire.
On the ground, on the sandy beach.
The large-caliber 88mm anti-aircraft guns ceased low-altitude firing and instead targeted German bombers that were still dropping bombs at high altitudes, thus avoiding accidental damage to friendly aircraft engaged in low-altitude dogfights by shrapnel from the large-caliber shells.

Only the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun, with its high rate of fire and high aiming accuracy, was still adjusting its muzzle to track the trajectory of the German warplanes and firing.

Fang Wen could sense even more distant areas, but now, he was not the air commander. All he could do was fire all the ammunition on the plane and shoot down as many enemy planes as possible.

This is such a rare opportunity to make a move!
The excitement of that moment was so intense that even a superhuman state couldn't conceal it.

He found his first target.

The BF-109E, poised to bite the tail of the Hurricane-style aircraft to the southwest, is like a mantis stalking a mantis, while it is the oriole unaware of the mantis.

At that moment, the German pilot was so focused on locking onto his prey that he didn't even notice a silver shadow rapidly approaching from 1500 meters above his head in an extremely cunning manner.

Fang Wen pushed the control stick, and the Spitfire suddenly performed a half-roll inverted turn, its fuselage weaving through the gap between the two fighter jets like a swimming fish.

The excellent air suspension of the Spitfire wide wing makes this flight maneuver even smoother, allowing the aircraft to easily adjust its position and appear on the side of the target.

Before the enemy could react, Fang Wen pulled the trigger, and the eight machine guns on the left and right wings of the flamethrower, which were still in the flipping state, fired a spiral barrage.

The dense hail of bullets covered the German warplane, and it was riddled with bullet holes in an instant.

The moment the plane hit, the German pilot was killed, and the out-of-control aircraft plummeted into the sea below, trailing black smoke.

The first enemy plane was shot down!
Seeing its companion shot down, another BF-109E angrily abandoned its pursuit of the Hurricane fighter and turned to attack.

Unfortunately, his reaction was far too slow.

While the enemy plane was still turning, Fang Wen had already pulled up altitude and headed to the other side, causing the German fighter plane to miss its target and not even be able to find Fang Wen's whereabouts.

Fang Wen's second target was a BF-109E that had just passed by.

The climb and turn aligned the fuselage precisely with its rear.

Without any aiming required, eight machine guns fired bullets, tearing its tail fins to shreds.

The enemy plane, having lost its balance, landed nose-first on the beach, bursting into a huge flame.

After easily taking down two fighter jets, Fang Wen checked the aircraft's payload.

Before departure, the ground crew loaded the ammunition, with 300 rounds of ammunition for each machine gun, for a total of 2400 rounds.

With so many bullets, it should be enough for a saturation air battle.

But the reality is not like this.

The eight machine guns are in a coordinated firing configuration.

In other words, when the pilot presses the firing button on the control stick, the signal is simultaneously transmitted through electrical circuits to the firing mechanisms of all eight machine guns.

Although each machine gun is equipped with an independent firing mechanism, they are all activated by the same control signal, achieving millisecond-level synchronized firing.

This ensures a wide firing range and a high rate of fire, thereby improving the hit rate in air combat.

However, for Fang Wen, this design actually limited his abilities.

A single firing, with eight machine guns firing in unison, can consume hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

They had only shot down two German warplanes when they had used up one-third of their ammunition.

The consumption is too fast.

Therefore, he decided to reduce the firing rate and change the burst fire to single shots.

Of course, it's not the kind of burst fire where you fire a few bullets at a time, but rather a burst fire mode where a single gun fires 30 rounds at a time.

This requires precise control over the timing of pressing and releasing the firing button to ensure the duration of the electrical signal's effect.

With his extraordinary supercomputing abilities, he precisely calculated the rate of fire, firing interval, and electrical signal transmission delay of each Browning machine gun.

Each machine gun has a rate of fire of 1100 rounds per minute, or approximately 18.3 rounds per second. To achieve a burst fire of 30 rounds per gun, the duration of the electrical signal action needs to be precisely controlled to 1.638 seconds.

His fingertips rested on the firing button on the control stick like precision instruments; he could even feel the elastic deformation of the contact point beneath the button.

The next target was a BF-109 1000 meters below that was locked on a stalled British Spitfire fighter, and the plane swooped down.

The instant the guns are within firing range, a light touch of the fingertip causes the button contacts to precisely engage, transmitting electrical signals to the eight machine guns on time.

The flames beneath the wings were short and sharp, the previous roar of rapid fire gone, replaced by a series of tight "rat-a-tat-tat" sounds.

1.7 seconds later, Fang Wen released his fingertip with perfect precision, and the machine guns stopped firing instantly. Each machine gun fired exactly 30 rounds, for a total of 240 rounds from all 8 guns, no more, no less.

At that moment, the barrage of bullets, calculated with precision, landed precisely on the side of the BF-109's engine nacelle. The German pilot had just finished pushing the left stick when the aircraft crashed into the area covered by the bullets.

The aluminum chassis was torn open with countless bullet holes, the engine block was punctured, and the engine oil leaked out instantly, turning into a black oil mist.

Then, flames erupted, and the aircraft's fuel tank exploded, turning into a fireball.

The third enemy plane was shot down!
After shooting down three German warplanes in succession, the airspace became much more relaxed.

The stalled British Spitfire below was given a chance to catch its breath, and the pilot, still shaken, pulled up and kept a safe distance from the heart of the battlefield.

Fang Wen didn't stop; his mechanical senses had already locked onto the next target—next to the British Spitfire whose machine guns were jammed and only two were still firing, a BF-109 was strafing indiscriminately. The German pilot clearly believed that his opponent was powerless to resist, and his flight attitude was extremely arrogant.

Fang Wen maneuvered his Spitfire into a diagonal loop, using the crosswind to quickly gain position, forming an optimal firing position at a 30-degree angle with the enemy aircraft's flight path. This time, he shortened the interval between bursts to 0.8 seconds, not by reducing the ammunition capacity of a single gun, but by anticipating that the enemy aircraft would soon perform a roll maneuver, requiring two short bursts to cover its trajectory.

The first burst of fire was fired, and the bullets grazed the enemy plane's wing, forcing the German pilot to roll ahead of time.

Just as the enemy plane was halfway through its roll, at its weakest point, Fang Wen pressed his finger again, unleashing another precise burst of fire in 1.7 seconds. The barrage of bullets pierced the fuel tank behind the enemy plane's cockpit. "Boom!" A burst of fire erupted, and half of the enemy plane crashed onto the beach like a kite with a broken string.

The fourth enemy plane has fallen!
Seeing this, the remaining two BF-109s finally realized the terror of the Spitfire aircraft in front of them, dared not engage in combat any longer, and turned to flee towards the German aircraft group.

Fang Wen would not give them a chance. He followed them closely with his aircraft, using mechanical sensors to calculate in real time the escape routes, speed differences, and even the subtle effects of airflow on the ballistics of the two aircraft.

Just as they were about to be caught up, the two German pilots suddenly and in unison performed evasive maneuvers.

One dives to the lower left, the other climbs to the upper right.

This kind of two-way split-flight means it's impossible to deal with both at the same time. Fang Wen decisively abandoned the one on the right and dove to chase the one on the left.

With a press and release of the fingertips, a hail of bullets swept from the elevator on the enemy aircraft's tail fin all the way to the cockpit, leaving dodge holes in the back of the aircraft.

Unable to maintain its balance, the enemy plane plunged headlong into the waves off Dunkirk.

In just five minutes, five BF-109s fell one after another! Fang Wen glanced down at the ammunition table, and his mechanical senses simultaneously performed calculations.

A total of 1300 rounds of ammunition were used, which is slightly more than half of the total ammunition reserve. Compared to the previous situation where shooting down just two aircraft would consume one-third of the ammunition, the ammunition consumption has been greatly reduced.

His attack also wiped out almost all the German warplanes in that airspace, and the rest fled.

British pilots in this airspace were astonished to find that the enemy had vanished.

The company commander's voice came through Fang Wen's radio.

"Ghost, I saw it. You're amazing. Thank you."

Fang Wen replied, "Squad leader, what should we do next?"

After a moment of silence, the other person asked, "What do you think we should do?"

Clearly, he was impressed by Fang Wen's strength and believed the legends, which is why he set aside his authority as a squad leader to question Fang Wen.

The situation was critical, and Fang Wen didn't mince words, replying directly: "Our mission is to stop the air raid. We should now gather our available fighter jets and attack the German bombers."

The squadron leader, somewhat timid, replied, "Are our few fighter jets capable of handling this?"

"Currently, German warplanes are not specifically targeting us, which means this is a gap, a very good opportunity."

Fang Wen's words were an inspiration to the company commander.

The German escort fighters were limited and had to be deployed around the bombers. When German fighters that attacked their own squadrons were shot down, this direction was naturally left undefended.

But there's another problem.

The squadron leader asked, "My radio communication frequency can only be used within the squadron; other squadrons' fighter jets can't contact me either."

Yes, the squadron has been scattered. Currently, only Fang Wen and the squadron leader are in this airspace; the rest are aircraft from other British air squadrons.

It was impossible for the squadron leader to reunite these scattered fighter jets.

He couldn't do it, but Fang Wen could. He developed the Taishan walkie-talkie, and all the walkie-talkies exported had a common frequency, which was provided to senior military officers for unified command.

Communication transmitted on this public frequency can be heard as long as the other party's walkie-talkie is on.

Immediately, Fang Wen adjusted the frequency of the walkie-talkie on his right hand to the common frequency.

"Attention all aircraft, this is Squadron 230. We are currently the only aircraft with free movement, and there are no German escort aircraft in this area. I hope everyone can unite and launch an attack on the German bombers. Time is of the essence. Those who wish to join, please follow along voluntarily."

He repeated those words aloud, then took the lead and flew toward the German bomber formation.

The 230th Air Squadron followed in their aircraft.

Two Hurricanes and three Spitfires that survived the previous air battle followed closely behind.

Seven fighter planes, belonging to different air squadrons, formed a makeshift combat team at this moment and charged toward the German bomber formation.

This bomber formation is structured into an outer escort layer, a middle bombing layer, and an inner precision strike layer.

The outer escort layer consisted of 36 BF-109s protecting the bombers in a mixed arrowhead-fan formation.

Vanguard: 8 fighter jets, responsible for clearing British interceptor aircraft and suppressing ground-based air defenses.

Flanking Fan Formation: 28 fighter planes, divided into left and right wings, accompanied the bombing formation, with a fan-shaped coverage area of ​​about 5 kilometers, to drive away British fighter planes that were attacking at close range.

To build an "air shield" for the bombing group.

The bombers, which were protected in the middle, were also divided into two layers.

The middle bombing layer consists of 40 He-111 bombers.

Using a dense diamond formation, they carried out "carpet bombing" targeting large areas such as beachhead troop assembly points, transport ship anchorages, and temporary piers.

The inner precision strike layer consisted of 16 Stuka dive bombers.

Employing an "echelon-following formation," the bombers were dispersed 1000 meters below the horizontal bomber formation, forming multiple parallel echelons. After the He-111s dropped their bombs horizontally, they used dive bombing to precisely strike any remaining point targets such as ships, anti-aircraft gun positions, and armored vehicles.

The current situation is as follows: the eight fighter jets of the Vanguard Team have just launched an attack, five of which were lost in Fang Wen's hands, and the whereabouts of the other three are unknown.

To compensate for the lack of defensive formation, eight BF-109 fighters on both flanks were separated to form a new forward spearhead.

This increases the distance between the defenses on both sides.

Fang Wen, with his global perspective, naturally discovered the loophole.

He led six fighter planes to the right flank of the German bombing formation and then communicated via walkie-talkie.

"Attention all aircraft, I will launch a surprise attack to create chaos. When their escort fighters pursue me, you will immediately attack the gap. Remember, you only have one chance. Use up all your bullets, regardless of the effect. After the attack, retreat immediately."

“Ghost, be careful.” The squadron leader of the 230th Air Squadron said with concern. Fang Wen, who was now using the alias 'Ghost', was a member of his squadron, and this operation also represented the honor of the 230th Squadron.

Fang Wen did not answer, but simply turned off the communicator, pushed the control stick, and the aircraft climbed in altitude and increased speed, rushing towards the gap in the German bombing formation.

(Air raids and anti-aircraft guns)
(End of this chapter)