The First Volume Enters the War of Resistance Chapter 50 The Battle of Britain

  The fierce battle in the sky is still going on, from a few hundred meters to 6,000 meters above the ground, chaotic scenes are everywhere. The sounds of gunfire, explosions and whistling fill the air, fighter jets from both sides are flying up and down, planes keep falling down, black smoke pollutes the sky, the sun seems to be scared away by this brutal scene, hiding in dark clouds and refusing to come out.

  Due to the Bf 109's notorious short legs, it was already hard to spot them in the air at this time, and most had returned. The battle began to turn in favor of the British, with Spitfires and Hurricanes seen everywhere shooting down German bombers and Bf 110 fighters. As a heavy fighter, the Bf 110 was no match for British fighters during the day, and even Hurricanes could easily shoot it down. Seeing that breaking through was hopeless, the German air commander ordered his planes to return, and the German bombers immediately dropped their bombs to lighten their load and escape.

  The British Air Force, however, did not want to miss this opportunity to annihilate the German army and launched a pursuit of the returning German planes. However, most of the British Air Force's fighter jets had been fighting for a long time and their airtime was up, so they could only pursue for a while before returning. Only the 55th squadron and other fighters deployed at southern airports continued to pursue.

  Liu Zhesen locked onto a Junkers-88 medium bomber, which had a beautiful appearance and an intimidating presence. Liu Zhesen shot out eight lines of fire that whipped across this masterpiece of the Third Reich, hitting its oil tank and engine. The other pilots in the 55th squadron also seized this opportunity to attack the German planes, shooting down several aircraft one after another.

  Lin Heng and his wingman jointly shot down a Dornier Do-17, which was very fast and had strong firepower, with eight self-defense machine guns. Lin Heng's two-plane formation chose to attack at a small angle, and it took two rounds of shooting to bring it down.

  The pursuit continued until the middle of the English Channel, with only the 55th Squadron led by Ryu Sae-jin still in pursuit. Ryu's last target was a damaged Heinkel He-111 medium bomber, which made up the majority of the incoming 200 bombers. This one, unknown to who had shot it, had black smoke billowing from its left engine and was attempting to sneak back at low altitude near the surface of the sea. The rear gunner of the He-111 had already been killed, rendering it unarmed. Ryu dove down at a high angle, hitting the right water-cooled engine with a short burst, causing the He-111 to lose power and crash into the sea, soon leaving only its tail standing upright in the water like a cross before slowly sinking beneath the surface.

  "Bingo!" Liu Zesheng exclaimed excitedly, looking up to see a large group of German fighter planes flying in from the distance. He then looked down at the fuel gauge and reluctantly said over the radio, "Let's head back, guys. The German air force has come to send us off." This message was relayed back to General Parker's command center, where he excitedly high-fived his aide.

  "Get me the returns as soon as possible. I want to announce this news at once!" Churchill stood on the second floor balcony of the command post, witnessing the entire battle process. Although he was not very clear about the meaning of the battlefield situation represented by several female staff members using push rods from time to time, he already knew that today's victory belonged to the British side.

  Under the guidance of the ground, Liu Zhesen quickly found his own airport, and the remaining fighter planes followed one by one to land. Thanks to the team's training, none of the 55 squadron's fighter planes got lost.

  Liu Zesheng had just jumped out of the plane, and the ground crew immediately came over to tow the plane to a designated location for maintenance and refueling. Zheng Songting rushed up and gave him a bear hug.

  "How about driving a Spitfire?" Zheng Songting felt extremely frustrated that he couldn't pilot an airplane into the sky.

  "Don't worry, you'll have yours soon. How about our losses?" Liu Zhe Sheng didn't forget He Juncai's request for him.

  "You're telling me, as soon as the dogfight started you forgot about everyone else and only focused on your own target." Zheng Songting said with a tone of complaint. Liu Zhe Sheng was more like an ancient swordsman than a commander, having very high martial arts skills but neglecting to coordinate the overall situation. That's why He Juncai sent careful Zheng Songting to assist him. "This time we had two Hurricane fighters shot down, but the pilots both parachuted successfully and are now on their way back, with some minor injuries. Another Spitfire was hit in the oil tank and returned early. The rest all followed you in landing."

  "That's great, have the results been counted?" Liu Zhe Sheng was delighted to hear that there were no casualties in the first attack, and since the damaged plane wasn't his own, he didn't need to worry.

  "Let's go back to the waiting room and tally up, you tell me about your results first?" Liu Zhe Sheng was China's top ace pilot, Zheng Song Ting was very eager to know how he did today.

  "Haha, today I shot down 6 planes, including three BF110s, one BF109 and two bombers. Also knocked down another damaged bomber. Let's count it as 6.5. Ryu Zesheng is satisfied with the result. It goes without saying that the entire 55th squadron must have achieved a lot. Today's success was mainly due to the fact that the 55th squadron was well-rested and entered the battle after the German army had been exhausted from prolonged air battles."

  Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding and Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park reported the final outcome to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In the defensive battle on September 15, not a single German bomb hit London, while more than 70 German planes were shot down, including 40 bombers, with others damaged but not counted. The British Royal Air Force lost 20 Hurricanes and six Spitfires in the air battle, with seven seriously damaged beyond repair. Overall, today's results are very outstanding. Through today's counterattack, the German Air Force finally realized that it did not have control of the skies over southern Britain and could not launch a daylight raid at will, and the British Royal Air Force was not only not annihilated but still very strong!

  In the dispatch, Air Vice-Marshal Park made special mention of the newly formed No. 55 Squadron under his command, which had shot down 25 German planes, including nine bombers. These results were confirmed and accounted for nearly a third of all British fighter aircraft claims, despite being less than one-tenth of the number of British fighters in action. In particular, a Chinese ace named "Liu" had shot down six German planes in one sortie, enough to qualify him as an RAF ace.

  Park, of course, made no mention that the original 10 Hurricanes were allocated to 55 Squadron and the remaining 21 aircraft were repaired from damaged fighters by themselves. He attributed the excellent performance of 55 Squadron to his own excellent command, and the fact that he had not ordered 55 Squadron into action for some time was explained as waiting for a reserve force.

  The Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, has sent the following message to the Commander-in-Chief of the Fighter Command and to all who took part in the operations: "The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unbroken by their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." He has also decided that September 15th shall be celebrated as Battle of Britain Day.

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  Just like in China, at dusk, the relaxed pilots were summoned to the waiting room for a summary of today's battle. The Chinese Air Force formally relied on this system to slowly grow up.

  "I'll go first." Lin Heng, who was participating in an air battle for the first time, not only shot down a German fighter plane today but also collaborated with Zhang to shoot down a bomber. He felt extremely excited. "The Hurricane is much easier to operate than our I-16, and we no longer have to worry about entering a spin during a sudden climb. However, although there are many machine guns, the caliber is not large. Originally, when the I-16 changed its machine gun, it didn't notice that now the machine gun is difficult to pose a threat to the bomber. When attacking that Do-17, I hit at least 80 rounds of bullets and saw with my own eyes that his fuselage was torn open, but fortunately, Zhang hit the oil tank from the other side, so this result should be counted as Zhang's, not half mine."

  Jiang Dongsheng, the former fifth team leader, took over Lin Heng's machine and said: "It can't be said that way. If you hadn't attracted the enemy plane's defensive fire, I wouldn't have been able to hit its fuel tank smoothly. To be honest, this dual-machine tactic is very effective, more flexible and efficient than the original solo or large formation battles. We covered each other and avoided many dangers."

  When it comes to double machine tactics, all the pilots discuss enthusiastically and feel that this tactic is indeed suitable for the high-performance fighter planes they are driving now.

  "There is a problem, now there are too many fighter planes in the air, and the radio is noisy. Now these radios feel like they can't compare to the ones we used before in terms of clarity and distance, and their volume has also increased." Liu Zesheng blamed the ineffective command on the radio, but in fact he didn't even have time to listen to the messages on the radio.

  "Speaking of which, we should establish a call sign as soon as possible, otherwise it's too troublesome to call out. Zheng Songting had already spoken with Major Packard and knew that the British army was widely using a call sign system, which not only shortened communication time but also effectively kept secrets."

  "I think it's okay, our squad's emblem is a dragon, so the base can be called 'Dragon's Den'." Lin Heng suggested, and indeed having a master of classical learning at home made a difference.

  "The four teams were called Red Dragon, Green Dragon, Black Dragon and Blue Dragon, and then numbered. The fire-breathing one was called the Red Dragon, I like red, so each team's aircraft nose was painted with corresponding colors." Liu Zhe Sheng was very excited about this proposal, and said excitedly. And thus, the Dragon Team that made the German Air Force tremble in the Battle of Britain was born.

  At this time, Colonel Park led a British Air Force colonel in and introduced him to Liu Zesheng: "This is Colonel Liu, the captain of Squadron 55." Then he pointed at the newcomer and said: "This is Colonel Crossley, today's air commander." Liu Zesheng saluted Colonel Crossley with his hand. Colonel Crossley hurried forward and shook his hand, saying: "Liu, thank you for saving me today. If it weren't for your timely shot, that BF109 would have shot me down."

  Liu Zhe Sheng only then realized that the "thank you" was said by this person in front of him. He blinked his eyes and replied, "Oh, don't mind it. To say today's battle was indeed intense."

  "Who says it isn't? It's been 10 days since we've had a battle on this scale. Your squadron was fierce today, and the snake with four claws and whiskers on your red tail wing left a deep impression on me!"

  "General, that's a dragon! It's our Chinese totem!" Liu Zhe Sheng corrected discontentedly.

  "Ah, sorry, forgive my ignorance. By the way, General Parker asked me to ask if you need anything?" Colonel Crosley hastily changed the subject.

  "What's needed? Fighter jets, preferably a lot of Spitfires, I like this kind of plane."

  Colonel Crossley shook his head, "I'll try my best, we all like this plane."

  "Right, large-caliber machine guns, bring more of them, we need to modify them. The current machine guns are not powerful enough."

  "This is okay, there are large-caliber aircraft machine guns in a batch of US aid materials, but are you sure you can complete the modification yourself?"

  "Haha, no problem with this one, you didn't see how we fixed those planes." Liu Zhe Sheng said happily.