Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 702 Ace vs. Ace, Former Defeat, The Battle of Dunkirk

The silver Spitfire fighter jet, like a sword drawn from its sheath, pierced through the clouds and rapidly ascended under the halo of sunlight and water vapor.

In his superhuman state, Fang Wen had an intimate knowledge of the aircraft's condition.

Its engine has high and stable output power, and its reasonable body design gives it an excellent power-to-weight ratio.

*Power-to-weight ratio: The ratio of an engine's output power to its own weight, it is a key indicator for measuring the core performance of aero engines (especially fighter jet engines). Simply put, a higher power-to-weight ratio means that the engine "outputs more power with less weight." For fighter jets, this directly determines the aircraft's maneuverability, climb rate, acceleration, and maximum speed, and is the core technological support for "tailing, escaping, and gaining position" in air combat.

The flamethrower has a maximum power of about 1030 horsepower and a weight of about 1000 kilograms, so its power-to-weight ratio is ≈1.03 hp/kg.

The DB 600Aa engine used by the German BF-109E had a maximum power of about 1100 horsepower, but weighed 1100 kilograms, with a power-to-weight ratio of ≈1.0 hp/kg.

Therefore, the Spitfire fighter jet was slightly superior to the BF-109E in terms of horizontal maneuverability and climb rate.

In other words, Fang Wen can take advantage of the flamethrower's faster ascent, more flexible maneuverability, and more rapid acceleration, and combine it with his own superpowers to make the most of it.

However, the drawbacks of the flamethrower are also obvious.

When a vehicle flies at an altitude of over 15000 feet (4600 meters), the efficiency of its engine's single-stage supercharger decreases, thus affecting engine power.

Fang Wen is now facing this situation.

The altimeter needle is steadily pointing to 4500 meters. Above that, the Merlin III's single-stage supercharger will become less effective due to the sudden drop in air density, and power output will decrease.

Ahead lay a gap of nearly 1200 meters created by the German escort fighters' dispersed defenses. If they couldn't maintain their speed and rush in, the German fighters at the edge of the gap might close in to intercept them.

Fang Wen, in his superhuman state, is performing high-speed calculations.

Airflow disturbances, gravity effects, and the power decay curve at the booster's critical altitude—all these variables are transformed into precise flight parameters.

He slammed the stick, and the Spitfire suddenly tilted slightly, its wings almost touching an updraft. Instead of decreasing, its speed increased, instantly exceeding 600 kilometers per hour, and it hurtled towards the defensive gap like a shooting star.

A shadow flashed past the German escort pilot on the right flank, and he immediately realized that an enemy plane had broken through their defenses.

The closest German pilot quickly pulled back on the stick to turn and attempt to intercept.

The other BF-109e fighters on the right wing also quickly changed course, attempting to encircle and shoot down Fang Wen, this uninvited guest.

But their movements were as slow as snails in Fang Wen's eyes.

Fang Wen lightly pressed the control stick, and the Spitfire made a very small lateral movement, just enough to avoid the firing trajectory of the enemy aircraft behind.

The fuselage then tilted, with the left wing pointing down and the right wing pointing up, and it nimbly passed between the two BF-109s like a bird spreading its wings.

The excellent maneuverability provided by the wide wings was on full display at this moment. The fighter plane flew past the wings of the German fighter plane, and the interaction of the air currents caused the German fighter plane to shake violently, and the pilot's hand on the stick trembled involuntarily.

Fang Wen rushed into the German bombing formation without stopping, his eyes fixed on the middle bombing formation.

With his X-ray vision, he saw three He-111 bombers on the outer edge of the bomber formation conducting emergency air defense, with machine gunners inside frantically adjusting their guns and firing outwards.

The bullets came from the bomber's direction, their trajectories chaotic, but they blocked Fang Wen's attack route.

Behind Fang Wen, nine BF-109 fighter jets were rapidly approaching.

In response, Fang Wen made adjustments, diving his aircraft nose downwards and directly penetrating beneath the formation of horizontal bombers.

This is not a safe location. If it were to collide with an aerial bomb dropped from a bomber overhead, it would certainly result in the destruction of the aircraft and the loss of life.

But this also prevented the Germans from launching attacks against Fang Wen.

At this time.

Six British fighter planes also rushed into the undefended gap on the right side.

The squadron leader of the 230th Squadron saw the movement of the German escort fighters through the porthole, roared excitedly, and took the lead in piloting his plane toward the German bombing formation.

Two Hurricane fighters and three Spitfire fighters followed closely behind, charging toward the gap like wild horses.

They knew how precious this opportunity was; it was an opportunity that the pilot known as Ghost had risked his own life for, and it was their only hope of getting close to the German bombers.

Six British aircraft broke into the gap in the German bomber formation without any interception.

They unanimously chose the nearest He-111 bomber.

A hail of bullets rained down on the He-111, and due to the angle of fire, a significant number of bullets struck the bomber's left wing.

"Boom!" A burst of fire erupted from the bomber's left wing as its left engine was destroyed in the explosion.

With its left engine gone, the He-111 tilted violently and could no longer maintain level flight, instead stalling and plummeting downwards.

The six British fighter jets following behind continued to pursue relentlessly, seemingly determined to destroy it completely.

This prompted the German escort fighters to react, immediately turning back to attempt to destroy the six British fighters.

Fang Wen, observing through mechanical perception, immediately seized the opportunity.

At this moment, he was still directly below the German bomber formation, with a dense formation of He-111s overhead, and bombs dropped by the bombers occasionally whistling past his sides as they crashed toward the beach.

Unfortunately, the bomber did not have machine guns on its belly, so Fang Wen could easily dodge the falling bombs.

Fang Wen's X-ray vision penetrated the aluminum fuselage of the He-111 and he could clearly see the German bombardier looking at him through his bombardment observation scope. He could even see the astonishment and panic on the other's face.

Attacking the bombers from below is a good method.

He pulled up the control stick, and the plane climbed. As it approached the altitude of the German level bomber, he made a slight adjustment to the fuselage direction and aimed the eight machine guns at the belly of a He-111 bomber above and in front of him.

Its belly bomb bay was slowly opening, and half of the aerial bombs were already exposed, indicating that it was about to complete the preparation for bombing.

Fang Wen pressed the fire button, and all eight flamethrower-style twin-wing machine guns simultaneously spewed fire.

At such a distance, and on the large belly of the aircraft, nearly 80% of the bullets hit the target.

Some of the bullets even hit the bomb bay, directly detonating one of the aerial bombs.

The bomb exploded, triggering a chain reaction that caused the bomber to explode in mid-air.

The scattered wreckage of the plane shot out in all directions, even affecting the bombers on the left and right.

In response, Fang Wen took precautions in advance, turning the aircraft to the side and changing from ascending to descending, thus avoiding the rain of exploding fragments.

The aircraft then emerged from beneath the horizontal bomber and rendezvoused with friendly aircraft.

The bombing formation was in the airspace to its right at this time.

After shooting down a German He-111, six British warplanes were instead entangled by German fighters.

With the score tied at 6-6, they were both still intact.

Wasn't it supposed to be nine fighter planes? Where did the other three German fighter planes go?
The three planes were flying in from Fang Wen's side, attempting to attack the Spitfire that Fang Wen was piloting.

What they thought were blind spots turned out to be completely useless.

With a gentle push of the throttle valve, Fang Wen's Merlin III engine instantly revved to 2600 rpm. The 1030 horsepower was transmitted to the propeller through the seven-bearing crankshaft. The fighter jet glided sideways like a fish, just avoiding the dense hail of machine gun fire.

The excellent lift-to-drag ratio brought by the wide wings is brought to its fullest potential at this moment. Even in this combat range where it is sandwiched, it can still make a sideways movement with a very small radius, which is an advantage that the narrow wings of the BF-109E cannot match.

The German pilots, unwilling to give up, still wanted to pursue Fang Wen.

The three aircraft executed a perfectly synchronized roll maneuver, quickly changing their noses and continuing to pursue Fang Wen's fighter jet. Faced with the performance of the three German aircraft, Fang Wen's fighting spirit soared.

He came here to challenge stronger pilots, and the strongest fighter pilots in all of Europe are naturally from Germany.

I didn't expect to be so lucky; I ran into someone right away.

He pulled the stick to the left, causing the aircraft to roll, and simultaneously steered in the other direction, bringing the vertical stabilizer to its full extent.

The plane suddenly veered out of the German pilot's line of sight.

In response, the three BF-109 fighter jets quickly rolled in the same direction and continued to pursue.

But then, they couldn't keep up with the flight rhythm described above.

Fang Wen controlled the aircraft to perform a 180-degree descent roll, causing the fighter jet to rapidly decrease in altitude and create space again. He then reversed the roll and pulled the control stick back to bring the aircraft to a horizontal position.

At this point, through a series of rolls and S-shaped maneuvers, he successfully evaded the pursuit of three elite German pilots and charged toward the battle group to his right.

A dozen seconds later, Fang Wen's flamethrower approached the target, and bullets rained down on the tail of a BF-109.

The BF-109 crashed while billowing black smoke.

"Disperse and retreat." Fang Wen communicated with the right-hand aircraft via the public channel of the walkie-talkie. Shooting down two bombers was already considered an overachievement of the combat mission. The aircraft's ammunition and fuel were almost exhausted, and it was time to retreat.

Upon hearing Ghost's voice, the pilots of the six British warplanes were surprised. They hadn't expected that Ghost, who had been luring the enemy alone, would be unharmed. Without much thought, they obeyed Ghost's orders and scattered.

Fang Wen also chose a position to retreat.

But then, the three BF-109s came chasing after them again.

Ignoring the other planes, they focused solely on the one piloted by Fang Wen and continued their relentless pursuit.

Fang Wen pulled back on the stick abruptly, and the fighter jet made a horizontal turn, a sharp turn with a radius of only 800 meters that caught the BF-109 behind him off guard.

The Merlin III engine's dry sump system proved its advantage at this moment, maintaining a stable oil supply even under high-G maneuvers, with no risk of oil shortage.

Using the centrifugal force of the swirling aircraft, Fang Wen seized the tail of a BF-109, a distance of 300 meters, which was the optimal effective range for the flamethrower machine gun.

"Boom!" A huge fireball exploded in the formation of aircraft. The wing of the He-111 was blown off, and half of the fuselage, engulfed in flames, crashed into another bomber next to it. The two planes lost their balance like billiard balls colliding and both fell towards the sea.

The shockwave from the explosion caused Fang Wen's jetpack to bounce violently. He gripped the control stick tightly, using his extraordinary senses to predict changes in airflow. The aircraft navigated steadily through the turbulence, and even used the thrust of the shockwave to increase its speed.

The planes ran out of the airspace where the bomber formation was located.

He used his supernatural ability to observe the rear. This time, the three German warplanes that had been pursuing him did not chase after him. Instead, they turned around and returned to the formation to continue escorting the enemy.

Fang Wen was curious about what these three highly skilled German pilots looked like; perhaps he would meet them someday.

He used his X-ray vision to see through the outer wall of the plane and memorized the faces of the three pilots.

One of them surprised Fang Wen.

Isn't this the same Condor Legion pilot I encountered a few years ago during the Spanish Civil War?

At the time, he joined the International Brigades under the name of the Asian Air Force. In an air battle, he encountered German pilots from the Condor Legion, eventually damaging their aircraft and forcing them to land and capturing the pilots.

The plane and the pilot were later sent to the International Brigades base, and Fang Wen never saw this person again.

Unexpectedly, he returned to Germany unharmed and even rejoined the air force.

No wonder his flying skills are so good.

Shaking off his thoughts, Fang Wen piloted the plane across the Dover Strait and flew towards Hornchurch Airport.

Half an hour later, the plane landed on the runway at Hornchurch Airport.

Fang Wen maneuvered the aircraft into the parking area, and ground crew pushed the boarding ladder over.

He opened the hatch and stepped off the plane down the boarding stairs.

Just as I got off the plane, another Spitfire fell from the sky.

The plane was parked next to Fang Wen, and after the boarding stairs were set up, the pilots got off.

He is the squadron leader of Squadron 239.

After getting off the plane, he ran straight to Fang Wen, his face beaming with excitement.

"Ghost, you are the best pilot I have ever seen."

Wearing a mask, Fang Wen calmly replied in a London accent, "You flatter me. There are many capable pilots; I've met three today."

“But none of the three of them could stop you. Ghost, I look forward to continuing our cooperation,” the squadron leader replied, having been impressed by Fang Wen after the aerial battle.

Unfortunately, this was not Fang Wen's war. Fighting a battle under the name of Ghost was enough to learn about the British and German fighter jets. Continuing to fight would easily expose his identity.

Therefore, Fang Wen shook his head: "I'm afraid that won't work."

"Why?" the squadron leader asked in surprise.

Fang Wen did not answer, but waited silently.

The officer who brought Fang Wen arrived at the runway ten minutes later.

He asked the company commander.

"How did your operation go?"

The squadron leader reported: "After our squadron arrived in Dunkirk, we were attacked by German fighter planes. Two planes crashed and made an emergency landing on the beach. The condition of the pilots is unknown. The other planes have returned to base."

This situation didn't sound good. The officer turned and glanced at Fang Wen, who was wearing a mask. "Explain the details."

"The specifics are quite dramatic." The squadron leader smiled slightly as he described the whole process.

Although he couldn't see the Ghost's entire combat process from his perspective, he did see Fang Wen shoot down five BF-109s in a row and lead scattered friendly fighters to successfully attack the German bomber formation.

The officer was quite surprised: "It's really dramatic. You were defeated, but you were still able to fight so well. Ghost played a very good role in it."

The squadron leader nodded: "Yes, he has very strong individual piloting skills and is also good at commanding. I hope to keep him in the squadron to continue fighting."

"No," the officer insisted, demanding a refusal.

He then took Fang Wen and left the airport in a military vehicle.

After arriving in London, the military vehicles did not go to the Air Force headquarters, but stopped at an intersection.

He looked at Fang Wen, who was wearing a mask: "My orders are to let you get off the car here, not to ask you anything, and not to follow you."

Fang Wen nodded and replied in a London accent, "Goodbye."

After saying that, he opened the car door, got out, watched the car drive away, and then turned into an alley.

When they came out again, they had changed completely and headed to Taishan's London branch.

(End of this chapter)