Volume 1: Initial Exposure! Chapter 24: Airport Defense War I (Vote and Collect)
In the following days, the small team continued to carry out patrol tasks in a southwest direction, occasionally encountering two enemy fighter planes. However, the rebel side would always probe and then give up because the firepower of the I-16 was really not satisfactory, so the initiative in each encounter was always in the hands of the opponent. Sun Xiang was also helpless about this.
These days, Sherry has been writing a letter every day to express her love. Sometimes there are even tears on the paper, which makes Sun Xiang's heart ache. He puts all the letters in an iron box with good sealing properties and places it next to his pillow.
October 21, 1936 was a terrible day. The sky was raining heavily and the clouds were very thick. Sun Xiang and three other team members were on patrol as usual in the southwest of Madrid to Toledo. Due to the rain, their plane deviated from the route and flew into the enemy's position. After two rounds of anti-aircraft fire, the four men finally came to their senses and hastily retreated!
Tularev: "We've landed ourselves in a fine mess, gentlemen! What's to be done now?"
Havie: "Captain! Fight first and run later!"
"Xun Xiang: 'Toreador! That's called strategic shift!!!!'"
Ponorsky: "On top of it!"
The four of them rushed to the enemy airfield at top speed. The anti-government military's airport was littered with planes that had not been returned to their hangars.
In such bad weather, the Italians gave up their plan to take off, which gave Sun Xiang and his team an opportunity. The four planes almost plowed through the airport, with the machine gun bullets on the I-16 pouring down on the planes at the airport like they were worthless, destroying a large number of planes on the ground. After succeeding, the four quickly retreated, and the enemy pilots who reacted quickly had already taken off in their planes. Sun Xiang shot down one plane in mid-air before leaving triumphantly.
The four men this time blew up more than 20 planes at the enemy airport, and suddenly this air force base closest to Madrid lost almost all its air power. The rebel side had to urgently allocate planes from airports in Taravera and other areas to support, and the situation in southwest Madrid became unprecedentedly tense.
The rebel side is much stronger than the Republican government in terms of firepower and supplies. With many interventionist troops participating, the military strength of the rebels completely overwhelms that of the Republican government. The entire Madrid does not have a single organized force, which makes Sun Xiang very worried... Indeed, in the following days, the rebel side continues to strengthen its offensive, with its target directly aimed at Madrid!!!
In the base, 4 people received heroic treatment. Newspapers in Spain and all over Europe reported on this battle. The media called this small squad the International Brigade, among them, Havi became the most important propaganda for the Spanish side. Letters from all over Spain with girls' body fragrance and kiss marks became the biggest capital of this Spanish boy's pride.
That evening, Sun Xiang drew a giant firebird on his own aircraft. Originally in the army, strict discipline did not allow scribbling on planes, but in this era, everyone's plane had some kind of logo painted on it. Harvey's plane had a portrait of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty. Ponorsky had a lightning bolt emblem, and Turiyev's plane was adorned with a large red star. It seemed like something was off if he didn't draw anything.
October 25, 1936, a light rain floated in the sky, and the unpredictability of the oceanic climate brought strong winds with salty wet rain into the Iberian Peninsula. Fortunately, there was no lightning in the sky, and as usual, four people were enjoying today's breakfast.
Under the busy ground crew, the plane was loaded with ammunition and fuel, making its final pre-flight checks. Suddenly, a loud explosion sound came from the airport broadcast, and the air raid sirens sounded mournfully in the base. The four men hastily pushed away their meal plates and rushed into the rain, boarded their respective planes, and started the engines, accelerating slowly amidst the roar of the engines.
"Control tower calling all pilots, large group of Nationalist planes approaching Madrid airport, 150km northwest of the airport, prepare for combat immediately! Please prepare for combat immediately!"
A distance of 150 km is not a long way, and within 15 minutes the enemy planes will appear in the sky above the base. At this point, everyone's nerves are tightened, the base is in chaos, all anti-aircraft guns are raised, pilots rush to take off, and the planes parked in the hangar are pulled out one by one.
Sun Xiang wanted to quickly pull the plane into the sky, but due to the congestion on the airport, the plane's speed couldn't pick up. The chaos on the airport disrupted Sun Xiang's plan. Turiyev and Khavi's planes were parked at the edge of the airport, without any obstacles, they successfully took off. Ponursky also rushed onto the runway, preparing for takeoff.
Depressed Sun Xiang directly piloted the plane, constantly dodging planes coming out of the hangar. Finally, after exerting himself, Sun Xiang broke through the encirclement and the plane began to accelerate. Most of the planes parked further away took to the sky, and a large fleet of Soviet-made planes appeared in the air above the airport, accompanied by a motley crew of other aircraft, making for an impressive and intimidating spectacle.
Su flew the plane to the forefront of the formation very quickly, followed by a bunch of non-mainstream planes, even in the fleet you can see Britain's SE.5, "Camel" F.1, F.2; France's Spad 13. These are all aircraft produced before 1920, and old-fashioned aircraft kept falling behind during flight.
More than 20 Soviet-made planes quickly broke away from the main force, with I-16s leading and I-15s following. This fighter group soon flew to the Kolodia area, where at an altitude of 4,000 meters they quickly discovered a mixed enemy aircraft group, which was a super-mixed aircraft group on the Spanish side, a behemoth consisting of thirty fighters and forty bombers. Enemy fighters broke away to intercept the Soviet-made planes, while large numbers of bombers roared towards Madrid.
Soviet squadron commander Viktor Dunayev led the fighters to meet the enemy, but due to language barriers between international squadrons, they split into two parts. Turyaev followed the squadron commander to meet the enemy, while Sun Xiang and Harvey Ponursky chased after the bombers.
Actually, under normal circumstances, there are still a large number of fighter jets intercepting in the rear, and the front fleet should entangle the enemy fighter jets, and then let the subsequent fleet solve the bombers. However, the Soviet squadron commander ignored an important issue, although they had an advantage in the number of fighter jets, but this time the Republican aircraft group was mostly some old-fashioned fighter jets left over from World War I, which made the problem more serious.
The fighter's firepower is as good as that of a bomber, but its speed is surprisingly slower than that of a bomber. And then the awkward thing happened...
