Rokossovsky saw eight Soviet fighters appear in the sky through the telescope, and after flying over the German bomber formation, he immediately dispersed and dived down from a high place and pounced on the German bombers who were frantically dropping bombs.

As soon as the three unlucky enemy planes finished dropping their bombs and rose up, they were hit by bullets fired by Soviet fighters, and two of them exploded in volleys, while the other plane shook violently and then fled into the distance with a long smoke belt.

"Fantastic, our pilots are amazing." Seeing the first round of attack by the Soviet fighters, destroying two and wounding one, Krasnoretsky cheered excitedly, he waved his fists regardless of his image, and shouted desperately: "Fight, keep fighting, knock down all these fascist snitches raised by bitch!" ”

Compared with Krasnoretsky's agitation, Rokossovsky was clearly not so optimistic. He saw that although the Soviet fighters were caught off guard by the Germans because of the sudden attack, it was a pity that not only were the number of fighters limited, but they were also fighting alone, they were only staring at the targets in front of them to attack, and there was no decent cooperation between them at all.

After a brief panic, the attacked German bombers stopped bombing Shepetovka and turned around to deal with the Soviet fighters who had just arrived on the battlefield. Because almost all the bombs carried by the enemy planes were dropped, the weight of the fuselage was greatly reduced, and in addition they already had a high self-defense capability, after being shot down and damaging five planes, except for a small number of bombers who continued to carry out bombing missions, the rest of the planes launched an encirclement and suppression of the Soviet fighters.

If the Soviet fighters had adopted a two-plane formation, one with a long plane and one wingman, and cooperated with each other in combat, they would have been encircled by the German bombers in time, and in addition to having the ability to protect themselves, they might also be able to expand the results of the battle. However, because they were fighting on their own, they could not support each other, and as a result, in the encirclement and suppression of the superior German bombers, after shooting down an enemy plane again, they were defeated by the Germans one after another.

In less than 10 minutes, only one of the original eight fighter planes remained, and the pilot, with his skillful aircraft skills, rolled up and down among the many enemy planes. And the German bomber, which had almost dropped all the bombs and became lightweight, rolled and climbed around the only Soviet plane like a cat and mouse, dodging his attack very casually.

"Anti-aircraft artillery battalion, anti-aircraft artillery battalion!" Krasnoretsky rushed to the table, grabbed the phone on it, and shouted: "Open fire immediately and knock down all the enemy planes that are surrounding our fighters!" ”

The person who answered the phone replied in a hoarse voice: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I beg your pardon, I can't do it, I can't carry out your orders!" ”

"What?" When Krasnoretsky heard the other party's answer, he immediately burst into a rage: "I am Colonel Krasnoretsky, you dare to disobey my orders, if you can't do it, I will shoot you!" ”

"Hello, Comrade Division Commander!" When the other party heard Krasnoretsky identify himself, he hurriedly said respectfully: "The anti-aircraft artillery battalion was completely wiped out in the German bombardment two minutes ago, so we can't carry out your order!" ”

"The whole army is destroyed?!" When Krasnoretsky heard the news, he was dumbfounded. "Where are the remaining commanders and fighters of the anti-aircraft artillery battalion?"

"There's not a single one left." The other party replied in an indifferent tone: "The commanders and fighters of the anti-aircraft artillery battalion have all died!" All the anti-aircraft guns were lost in the bombardment of enemy aircraft. ”

"I see!" Krasnoretsky put down the phone, stumbled over to Rokossovsky's side, and said in a crying voice: "Comrade commander, our anti-aircraft artillery battalion, it's over!" ”

Such an outcome was expected by Rokossovsky for a long time, after all, in the contest between anti-aircraft firepower and aircraft, it was always the former who suffered. Moreover, using only nine antiaircraft guns to deal with more than 30 enemy planes was originally a method of hitting stones with eggs. At the moment, he was more concerned about the fighter plane that was still in the air, and he didn't know if there was any hope of protruding from the encirclement of the enemy plane.

The German bombers, perhaps tired of playing this cat-and-mouse game, several planes simultaneously concentrated their fire on him, and black smoke immediately rose from under the wings of the fighters.

"Skydive, hurry up and skydive!" Rokossovsky silently shouted in his heart: "As long as you parachute, I can send someone to save you." It is not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, and when there is a better fighter in the future, you will come to avenge today. ”

Just when Rokossovsky was in a hurry, he saw that the fighter plane, which was originally dragging a black smoke belt downward, suddenly raised its nose and crashed into the nearest German plane at the fastest speed it could achieve. A fireball exploded in the air, and a loud "boom" was heard into the observation post. The Soviet pilots ended this air battle with the most tragic impact.

After watching this air battle with a huge disparity in strength, all the people in the observation center were silent. In particular, Rokossovsky felt the deepest, he did not expect that the Soviet fighters would continue to use rigid tactics and adopt a heads-up form to deal with the German bomber formations when the number was not superior, and the result ended up with the whole army.

He slowly lowered his binoculars, turned to Krasnoretsky and said: "Comrade Colonel, just now I saw that the pilots of two fighter planes parachuted and landed in the forest in the distance, and you immediately sent someone to search and rescue them. ”

"Understood." Krasnoretsky agreed, walked over to pick up the phone, and instructed his subordinates: "We have two pilots parachuting out on the other side of the forest, and you immediately send a small team to search and rescue them." ”

After the German bombers had surrounded and annihilated all the Soviet fighters and dropped all the remaining bombs, they turned around and flew towards the west in a proud manner.

Watching the departure of the enemy plane, Rokossovsky secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then ordered Krasnoretsky: "Comrade Colonel, immediately count the casualties of the troops, and send additional men to the city to rescue the wounded citizens." ”