Red Moscow

  Chapter 527 The White Rose of Stalingrad (2)

Although Alexey was very enthusiastic, he was worried about these new female pilots. Regarding the oil pipeline they had repaired, he felt that it was necessary to let the skilled mechanics in the regiment check it out. Are there any security risks. He winked at the mechanic beside him, motioning him to check it out.

  The mechanic nodded when he saw Alexey's wink, walked to the plane with the toolbox, and began to check the damaged oil pipeline to see if Raisa had been repaired.

   After a careful inspection, the mechanic showed a surprised expression on his face. He turned to Alexei and said, "Comrade Captain, it's incredible that they repaired the blown oil pipeline."

   "Really?" Alexey also had an expression of disbelief when he heard what the mechanic said: "They were able to repair the blown oil pipeline, are you kidding me?"

   "How can I joke about this kind of thing?" Facing Alexei's doubts, the mechanic said with some dissatisfaction: "If the plane has hidden dangers, once it takes off, it may be life-threatening."

  After the mechanic’s explanation, Alexei believed that these female pilots who were not favored by everyone in front of him could actually repair the plane by themselves. He stared at Raisa with wide eyes, and said in surprise: "Comrade Lieutenant, this is really unbelievable, you can actually repair the plane by yourself?"

   "Comrade Captain, this is nothing!" Raisa said with a wry smile, "When we were in the 586th Fighter Flying Regiment, we had to refuel and reload the plane ourselves."

   "What what?" Hearing this, Alexei was completely stunned: "You still need to refuel and reload the plane yourself before you take off for combat?"

   "Yeah, what's so strange about this?" Raisa and others have suffered discrimination from male pilots since they joined the Air Force, so they feel that doing these things by themselves is a matter of course. Seeing Alexei's surprised expression at this moment, he felt very strange: "No one will help us, so we can only do it ourselves."

   Alexey took Raisa and the others to the prepared pilot dormitory, and then went to the regiment command post to find the regiment commander Khostnikov. Seeing Alexei go and come back, the head of the regiment asked curiously: "Comrade Captain, what's the matter?"

   "Comrade Commander," Alexey said to the Commander, "Maybe our perception of the new female pilot is wrong."

"why?"

"After their planes landed at the airport, they happened to be bombarded by the enemy. One of the planes' oil pipeline was blown up. When I heard the news, I took the mechanics to help them fix it. Guess what? ?” Alexey did not wait for Khostnikov to answer, but asked himself and answered: “They repaired the oil pipeline by themselves.”

  Khorstnikov heard the news and asked in surprise: "Before our mechanics arrived, they repaired the oil pipeline by themselves?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Aleksey nodded in affirmation, and continued: "And according to Lieutenant Raisa, not only can they repair aircraft by themselves, but also when they were in the 586th regiment, They refuel and reload the aircraft by themselves before taking off for combat."

   "Really?" As soon as Khostnikov asked this, he realized that he had asked wrongly. Alexey could not lie to himself with non-existent things, and everything he said might be true. But the captain is a stubborn person, not only what Alexey said, but he still preconceived that female pilots are unreliable.

After walking up and down the room a few times with his hands behind his back, Khostnikov stopped and said to Alexei: "Comrade Captain, anyway, I don't like them. What kind of combat missions do you plan to assign to them?"

"This is not very good, Comrade Commander." Alexey said with some embarrassment: "In any case, they are the reinforcements sent to us by the superior. If they are hidden in the snow, I am worried that the superior will find out if they find out. blame you."

"Don't assign tasks to them, as long as you and I know about it." Khostnikov said to Alexei: "Outside, we have to say that they are always on standby, as long as the time is right, Ready to go into battle at any time."

  Knowing that Khostnikov's statement is self-deception, Alexey is not easy to refute. One is that his position is too low, as a small captain, he has no right to command the colonel; the other is that the female pilots have just arrived, and he desperately speaks good things for them, which may attract gossip. So after careful consideration, he could only bite the bullet and nod, acquiescing to Khostnikov's arrangement.

  ...

   Khryukin learned that the Red October tractor factory was bombed by the German army, and immediately remembered the women's flight squadron that had been on standby, so he called Khostnikov and ordered him to let the women's flight squadron attack.

   After Khorstnikov received this order from Khryukin, he was really a dumb man eating coptis—he couldn’t tell the pain. Although he was always worried that Raisa and the others didn't have much fighting power, and if they rushed into the battlefield, they would be sent to their deaths, but since it was an order from the superior, he could only carry it out unconditionally.

  Since the female pilots arrived here, they have nominally been on combat readiness duty every day, but the regiment did not assign them any combat missions at all, so that the four of them stayed in the dormitory every day and stared at each other.

  On this day, Raisa felt that she might not have any tasks today, and was considering whether she should go to Khostnikov and ask him to assign tasks for herself. Unexpectedly, she hadn't left the house yet, when suddenly a staff officer on duty ran over and called her, "Comrade Lieutenant, I have your call."

   "My phone?" Raisa couldn't help being taken aback when she heard the staff on duty say this: "Here, who will call me?"

   "It's the head's call."

   "The head's phone?" Hearing that it was the head's call, Raisa immediately left the staff officer on duty and rushed to the duty room not far away. After she rushed into the room, she saw the phone's receiver on the table, quickly picked it up and stuck it to her ear and said, "Comrade Colonel, this is Lieutenant Raisa, what instructions do you have?"

"Lieutenant, listen." Khostnikov said coldly: "The enemy is bombing the Red October Tractor Factory, and the superior ordered us to send planes to drive them away. At present, only One of your squadrons will be dispatched, so I order you to take off immediately and rush to the Red October Tractor Factory."

  Knowing that Khostnikov finally assigned himself a combat mission, Raisa was overjoyed, and quickly agreed: "Don't worry, Comrade Colonel, we promise to complete the mission."

  Khorstnikov was always worried about this women's flying squadron, and he had to let them play. Hearing that Raisa agreed so readily at this moment, he asked a little nervously, "Comrade Lieutenant, can you deal with these enemies?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Colonel." Raisa said confidently: "We will let the Germans taste our power."

  Khorstnikov was about to put down the phone when he suddenly thought of a key question. The women's flight squadron just arrived, can they find a place? Quickly asked: "Can you find the specific location?"

   "No problem. We have been studying the map for the past two days." Raisa replied: "Even without the guidance of the navigator, we can find the combat area."

  Raisa ran back to the dormitory quickly, and before Lilia and the others could ask, she shouted excitedly: "Girls, the mission is coming, and we are ready to take off to fight."

  The three female pilots immediately cheered when they heard what Raisa said. When Lilia was changing her flight suit, she asked Raisa curiously: "Comrade Squadron Leader, where is our combat location?"

   "Red October Tractor Factory," Raisa took the opportunity to introduce the mission to her subordinates: "The enemy's dive bombers are bombing the factory. Our mission is to drive the enemy's bombers away from the sky above the factory."

   "How many planes does the enemy have?" Lilia asked.

   Lilia's question caught Raisa. When she answered the phone, she was so excited that she forgot to ask Khostnikov how many planes the enemy had. Seeing Raisa's silence, Katya interjected, "Don't worry, Lilia, we are fighter jets, and the enemy is bombers. Even if they outnumber us, we can still drive them away from the sky above the factory."

"During the battle, we are divided into two teams." Raisa recognized Katya's statement, and began to formally assign tasks: "I am in a team with Maria, and I am the host, and Maria is the wingman; Lilia and Katya One group, with Lilia as the host and Katya as the wingman." Seeing that everyone had changed their clothes, she waved her hand violently, "Let's go!"

  The female pilots rushed to the side of the runway and boarded the Jacques-1 fighter that had been fueled and loaded long ago. After launching the fighter jets, they ascended to the sky one by one. After Raisa and the others completed the formation, they knew that the place filled with gunpowder smoke in the distance was the battlefield they were about to go to without using any instruments or maps. So the four planes lined up and flew in the direction where the smoke covered the sky and the sun go.

Khostnikov stood in front of the regiment command post, looked at the four Yak-1 fighter jets going away, and said with some jealousy: "Damn, my regiment is still equipped with LaGG-3 fighter jets, and these girls They were flying Yak-1 fighter jets. If I gave all these planes to the real pilots under me, maybe they could shoot down more German planes."

The LaGG-3 fighter is a single-seat, single-engine piston fighter. Because the power of the engine is too small for the heavy wooden airframe, the designers have to try to reduce the weight of the airframe, including reducing the weight of the aircraft. to improve the performance of the aircraft. But even so, facing the German BF109 fighter, this fighter is always at a disadvantage.

  The Yak-1 fighter is currently the most advanced fighter of the Soviet army. Its main weapons are the 20mm cannon located in the center of the propeller and the two 12.7mm machine guns at the nose. It is fully capable of rivaling the BF109 fighter.

  When the Women's Flying Squadron arrived over the Red October Tractor Factory, the entire factory was being bombed by fifty or sixty JU87 dive bombers. The enemy not only bombed the factory buildings of the assembly workshop, but also other factories did not escape the bad luck of being bombed. The factory building where Peter was located was hit by three bombs, and the roof of the fifth floor was blown through. The factory where Guriyev was located was also turned into ruins under the continuous bombing of the German army. If his guards hadn't reacted quickly and dragged him away before the factory collapsed, the guards might have no leader at this moment.

Seeing the densely packed enemy planes above the factory, Maria, who participated in the battle for the first time, was so frightened that she couldn't stop shaking like chaff. She said to Raisa tremblingly through the radio: "Comrade squadron leader, the number of enemy planes There are so many that we may not be able to deal with them."

"Maria, rush up with me," Raisa simply ordered: "Pay attention to cover me." After she finished speaking, she pushed the joystick and rushed towards an enemy plane that had just dropped the bomb and was pulling up. . When the distance was three or four hundred meters, she used a machine gun to shoot at the enemy plane. Unfortunately, the distance was too far, and all the bullets she fired fell through.

  The combination of Lilia and Katya has fought against the Luftwaffe in the sky many times. They have rich combat experience, and the cooperation between them is also very tacit. Seeing Lilia speeding up, Katya quickly followed her to cover her back to prevent her from being attacked by enemy planes.

  Although there were targets everywhere, Lilia locked onto an enemy plane hovering at low altitude and swooped down towards it. After entering the effective range, she immediately fired with the cannon. After a series of cannons were fired, they accurately hit the tail of the enemy plane and smashed it to pieces.

  The enemy plane, which lost its tail, suddenly lost control, turned its nose down quickly, and fell headfirst to the ground, making an earth-shattering explosion. Because it all happened so quickly, the German pilot didn't even have the chance to parachute, and was smashed to pieces in the explosion of the plane.

  Seeing an enemy plane being shot down, Raisa immediately guessed that it was Lilia's masterpiece, and quickly congratulated her through the onboard radio: "Lilia, great job! Come on, try to shoot down a few more of them."

   Sokov, who was hiding in the basement, received a call from Briski. Briski said excitedly on the phone: "Comrade Brigadier, our plane has arrived. I saw with my own eyes a German bomber shot down a minute ago."

"Great, this is really great." Sokov, who was hiding in the basement after being bombed by the German planes, did not dare to show his face. When he heard that an enemy plane was shot down, he suddenly felt elated. He was in a good mood. He asked, "Comrade Captain, how many planes are here?"

   "Four, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Briski replied, "Four fighters are here."

"What, only four fighter jets came?" The smile on Sokov's face gradually disappeared. There were at least fifty or sixty German planes in the sky, while our air force only dispatched four. Come to die. However, he still asked unwillingly: "Comrade Captain, have you seen clearly? Are there really only four?"

   "That's right, Comrade Brigadier Commander, I can see clearly that there are indeed only four fighter jets!" Briski looked up into the sky and continued, "It's four Yak-1 fighter jets."

  (end of this chapter)