Red Moscow

  Chapter 534 Assault on artillery positions

  Just as Katya was happily accepting the plane on the runway, Khostnikov received a telegram from Sokov's order, which indicated in detail the location of the German artillery positions.

  Seeing that Sokov figured out the location of the German artillery position so quickly, Khostnikov couldn't help but doubt it. He thought he had sent people to search nearby many times, but found nothing. It took Sokov only one night to know where the German artillery positions were.

  At this moment, Alexei walked in from the outside and reported to him: "Comrade Commander, the Yak-1 fighter jet that the superior gave us has arrived."

   "Oh, the fighter jets have been delivered, and the movements are quite nimble." After Khostnikov finished speaking, he asked back: "Comrade Captain, have you notified Katya to receive the plane?"

"Yes, I just received it." When Alexey was speaking, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the telegram in Khostnikov's hand, and asked curiously: "Comrade commander, this is Sokov." A telegram from the Lieutenant Colonel?"

  Hearing Alexey ask this, Khostnikov couldn't help blurting out: "How do you know?"

"Since yesterday, our regiment has been placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Sokov." Alexey explained: "During this period of time, the original superior will definitely not give us orders, so I boldly speculate that, It must have been a telegram from him."

"The analysis is correct." Khostnikov nodded, handed the telegram in his hand to Alexei, and then said: "Then you analyze it again, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov's telegram Is your information reliable?"

After reading the contents of the telegram, Alexei couldn't help but frowned slightly, and asked back: "Comrade commander, I remember that you sent small teams many times to find the location of the German artillery positions nearby, but they found nothing. .And Lieutenant Colonel Sokov found out the German artillery positions in just one night, which is simply unbelievable."

   "This information came too easily." Khostnikov pointed to the telegram in Alexei's hand and said: "I can't believe it is true."

  Aleksey stared at the telegram for a while and considered, and then said to Khostnikov: "Comrade commander, I think the situation of Lieutenant Colonel Sokov should be trustworthy."

   "Can you trust it?" Khostnikov asked curiously: "Tell me your reasons."

"Do you remember that I came to you with Lilia yesterday?" Aleksey saw that Khostnikov nodded in affirmation, and continued: "Before I came to you, I heard Lilia say Lieutenant Colonel Sokov sent a unit deep behind the enemy to carry out reconnaissance and attack missions. Judging from the information in this telegram, it should be provided by this small unit, so I think this information is completely accurate. "

"Comrade Captain, since this information is true." After Alexey's analysis, Khostnikov felt more confident: "I think we should take some action to eliminate the enemy's Artillery emplacement."

"Comrade commander, if you trust me, give this task to our squadron." Seeing that the regimental commander planned to send planes to destroy the enemy's artillery positions, Alexei volunteered and said, "Our squadron still has nine planes." Lager 3 fighter jets, each with six unguided rockets, fifty-four rockets are enough to blow up the German artillery positions into a sea of ​​​​flames."

  Khorstnikov did not immediately agree to Alexei’s request, but after thinking for a while, he replied: “I think this task should be handed over to the third squadron.”

   "Third Squadron?" Alexey was taken aback when he heard this number, and then remembered that this was the new number of the Women's Flying Squadron, and asked, "Do we need to cooperate with them?"

"Comrade Captain, have you forgotten what I said?" Khostnikov said with some displeasure: "Didn't I tell you that every time the Third Squadron attacks, you have to send four fighters to accompany it?" ...Since they are going to carry out the task of bombing the German artillery today, you should naturally go together."

   After Alexey accepted the mission, he turned back to the pilot's dormitory and informed Raisa that they were going to take off to fight. Unexpectedly, when he came to the dormitory of the No. 3 Squadron, he found that it was empty. He went outside and asked the administrator, "Where are the girls from the Women's Flying Squadron?"

  The administrator explained to Alexei: "I heard that the plane to replenish them has arrived, so all the girls have gone."

   When Alexey came to the runway, he saw Raisa and the others surrounding the new plane. Seeing that Alexei was walking towards her, Raisa quickly went up to meet her, and asked with a smile, "Comrade Captain, we have a new plane now. I don't know when we can take to the air to fight?"

   "Comrade Lieutenant," Alexey quickly came to Raisa, and said to her, "I came to you because I have a combat mission to assign to you."

Hearing that there was a combat mission, Raisa's eyes lit up immediately, and she quickly turned around and shouted to her subordinates who were still watching the new plane: "Girls, don't look, come to us quickly, Comrade Captain Combat missions are assigned to us."

  The three girls walked over quickly when they heard Raisa's shout. Among them, Katya couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Captain, tell us quickly, what is the combat mission?"

   "Do you still remember the German artillery positions that often shelled us?" Alexey said to the female pilots with a serious expression: "Your task today is to blow up the enemy's positions."

Raisa knew that the flying regiment had always wanted to destroy the enemy's artillery positions, but unfortunately they couldn't find them. Now that they heard that the regiment had handed over the task to her squadron, she quickly asked, "Captain Alexey, do you know the details of the enemy's artillery positions?" location?"

"I know." Alexey took out a folded map from his briefcase, unfolded it, and pointed out the location marked on it to Raisa: "According to reconnaissance, the enemy's artillery position is at here."

  Raisa looked at the map in Alexey's hand, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Captain, may I ask, where did you get this information?"

Alexey glanced at Lilia, and said meaningfully: "This information was provided by Lieutenant Colonel Sokov. According to my analysis, it may be that he ordered a small army behind the enemy to conduct reconnaissance. It's very high."

   After Raisa looked away from the map, she asked tentatively, "Are we the only squadron to attack?"

"I will personally lead four planes and go with you." Alexey looked at his watch and said to Raisa, "Let your girls get ready. I'll let the ground crew bomb the plane first." , leave in half an hour."

   Half an hour later, eight fighter planes took off one after another, and after completing formation in the air, they flew towards the position of the enemy artillery position. Since the performance of the Yak-1 fighter jet is superior to that of the Lager-3 fighter jet, the four planes of the women's flight squadron are in front, and the four planes led by Alexei are behind.

   It was an artillery battalion of the German army that bombarded the airport. Seeing that the time was about the same, the commander of the artillery battalion ordered the artillery to push the artillery out of the hidden woods, and built an artillery position near the forest. Seeing that the artillery was in place, the artillery battalion commander issued an order to bombard the Soviet airport.

  Unexpectedly, the first round of shooting had just ended, and the roar of an aircraft engine suddenly came from the air. Some soldiers on guard looked up into the air, and saw a few black dots flying towards the location of the artillery positions. He stared intently for a moment, and recognized that it was a Soviet aircraft, and quickly blew the whistle hanging around his neck to warn the artillerymen who were shelling.

The artillery battalion commander, who was squatting in the trench and observing the effect of the shelling with a gun scope, also spotted the Soviet fighter plane in the sky after hearing a sharp whistle, and quickly issued an order: "Stop shelling, stop shelling, take cover, immediately Give me cover."

  But his shout was shrouded by the rumbling artillery, and few artillerymen heard his voice, so that most of the artillerymen were still shelling non-stop.

Raisa, who was flying in the air, was always worried that the information provided by Sokov was inaccurate. After her plane arrived at the place, she couldn't find the enemy's artillery position. But when she saw the smoke rising from below, she knew she had found the place. He hurriedly called through the radio: "Attention all, German artillery positions are found ahead. The third squadron is in front and the second squadron is behind. All attack immediately, all attack immediately!"

   Following Raisa's order, eight fighter jets swooped down towards the enemy's artillery position in a formation of four. Once within striking distance, all aircraft fired unguided rockets at the artillery emplacements on the ground. The rocket bombs landed on the artillery positions and exploded, blowing the cannons apart. The martyred shells threw the stumps and broken legs of the artillerymen near the explosion point into the air, and scattered them down like heavenly maidens.

The first time they dived, all the fighter jets shot out the six unguided rockets they carried. They pulled up into the air, circled around, and dived down again. This time, they used machine guns to destroy the surviving cannons. Machine guns fired at the fleeing German artillery, knocking them down one after another.

   After completing two consecutive attacks, the German artillery positions have been shrouded in smoke. Seeing that the smoke affected her vision, Raisa knew that if she continued to attack, it would be difficult to increase the results of the battle, so she issued another order: "Attention everyone, our attack mission has been completed, now return, return!" The eight fighters circled in the air After a big circle, they still divided into two formations and flew back along the route they came from.

  The news of the destruction of the German artillery position soon spread to the regiment command post. After hearing this, Khostnikov couldn't help but slapped the table and applauded repeatedly. He didn't expect that the German artillery position that had troubled him for many days was just finished. He stood up and loudly ordered the officers in the room: "Except for those on duty, everyone follow me to meet our hero."

   When the ground crew at the airport is bombarded by the enemy, they will hide in the bunkers near the shells. Today's routine shelling by the German army stopped abruptly after only a few minutes, which surprised the ground crews hiding in the bunkers. They were still asking each other: "It's strange, the Germans shelled the airport for more than half an hour every time, why did it stop after only a few minutes today?"

   "Could it be that the enemy has no shells?"

   "This is impossible, and the enemy's supply line has not been cut off by me, how can they have no shells?"

  While everyone was discussing, suddenly someone with sharp eyes saw Khostnikov leading a group of officers from the regiment command post, striding towards the runway. Just when everyone was wondering whether Khostnikov had taken the wrong medicine today and dared to walk towards the runway swaggeringly when the German army was shelling, wasn't he afraid of being bombed to death?

  Before everyone figured out what was going on, they heard Khostnikov shouting loudly: "Comrades, come out, the enemy's artillery position has been wiped out by our third squadron."

   "Third Squadron?" Hearing this number, the ground crew couldn't help but look at each other: "Didn't the Third Squadron be wiped out in the previous battle? When will a new Third Squadron appear?"

  An insider quickly said: "Have you forgotten the women's flight squadron? They are not living in the dormitory of the third squadron now, they should be the third squadron that the leader said."

A ground crew member said: "Comrades, comrades in command are outside, I don't think there will be any danger, let's also go out to welcome the victory of the third squadron." Crawled out of the bunker and walked towards Khostnikov.

   Everyone stood by the runway for a while, and then they saw the roar of the aircraft engine coming from the sky, and then several black spots appeared. Immediately, someone said loudly: "Look, everyone, the plane of the third squadron is back!"

  Everyone looked up to the sky and saw eight planes approaching the airport, they circled the airport, and then began to land one by one. Raisa's No. 01 plane landed first, followed by Lilia's No. 02 fighter plane with a white lily painted on its outside. After all the planes of the women's squadron had landed, the four planes led by Alexei landed in sequence.

  After the eight planes came to a complete stop, the eight pilots opened the hatches of the cabin at the same time, and got out of the plane with the help of the ground crew. The eight people lined up in two columns and came to Khostnikov with neat steps. After several people raised their hands and saluted, Raisa reported to Khostnikov: "Comrade commander, Lieutenant Raisa, the captain of the third squadron, reports to you that we have completed the task of air strikes on the German artillery positions. Please give instructions!"

"Well done, Comrade Lieutenant." Khostnikov raised his hand in return, took two steps forward, grabbed Raisa's arm, patted it twice, and said with a smile on his face: "You and your men The girls are all good, and I am extremely proud that we have such excellent pilots as you in our regiment."

  (end of this chapter)