Before dawn, the valley airstrip was already dark and crowded with people. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although yesterday's German air raid on Recife caused great losses there, at least the pressure on Patton to withdraw was reduced, and yesterday the largest number of people retreated and the least number of aircraft lost.

The success of the third day also gave the Army Air finally the courage to persevere, and batch after batch of pilots were transferred from various air bases in the Caribbean and Central America to build an air retreat bridge for Patton's headquarters -- this is also the reason why Rommel agreed to Galland's air raid on Recife and temporarily spared Patton's headquarters.

It is certainly enjoyable to cut off the other party's way of life at once, but this is too dry and fishing, how can you let a steady stream of US military pilots pounce on you and send them to death?

Not only did the navy officers and men evacuate on this day, but also took with them more than 2,000 wounded, which was a great encouragement to the other soldiers who held out in the valley, who gritted their teeth and withstood the German onslaught, but in fact Rommel did not let his troops use all their strength, and he did not have enough heavy equipment in his hands, and he could not afford to lose too much strength to storm these Americans - he had taken enough prisoners, and when the grizzly bears armed with 150mm self-propelled howitzers caught up, the Americans would suffer.

Inspired by the trapped U.S. officers and soldiers was their commander: George Patton. Patton personally summoned the battalion officers and explained to them the situation of the trapped and the order of retreat, and said, "As for myself, I will be the last to go, and I will not leave without watching everyone get on the plane!" In addition, I repeat that anyone who deviates from the order of retreat and tries to retreat first will be regarded as desertion from the battlefield and will be punished as a deserter! ”

Not only did Barton say that, he did.

He took the three infantry battalions and gendarmes left behind by Roosevelt Jr. to keep the retreat firmly in charge, and he even went to patrol the defensive positions in an open-top jeep at night, so that the soldiers could see that the Supreme Commander was with them, and did everything they could to cheer them up.

In enforcing discipline, Patton also intimidated the whole army with his merciless iron blood.

Two lieutenant colonels and a major were obviously only slightly wounded, but they deliberately pretended to be seriously injured and tried to retreat first, and were pulled out by the gendarmes. One of them is the son of a congressman, one is the son of a major Texas real estate developer, and the other even has a little connection to the Patton family.

It was assumed that Barton would only reprimand him for a meal, after all, they were not small, and they were indeed injured - just exaggerated, not particularly excessive.

But it didn't take long for the shocking order to come down: "Open shooting!" Set an example! ”

"But...... They ......"

Patton said with tears in his eyes: "When the national disaster is at the head, the officers should lead by example, what do their brothers think?" What would others think? Can't be appeased! ”

"Sir......" one of the staff officers whispered, "This is not good for your future......

"Future?" Barton shook his head, "I don't have a future......

When the shots rang out, everyone turned their heads and didn't dare to look, but the order and speed of the next boarding were much better, and anyone who dared to challenge the order and try to run ahead of the curve had to weigh his weight and Patton's determination.

As the sky darkened, the first plane began to take off, and the pilot, Lieutenant Johnson, carefully adjusted the throttle valve to make sure that the two engines of the C-47 were getting enough power, and he had already flown three transport missions and knew how to get enough speed quickly and get out of the valley quickly, so he was identified as the lead aircraft for the day.

The navigator, while paying attention to his surroundings, reported to him: "Fly at 60 mph...... 70…… 80…… It's a red light! ”

A red light means that the plane is fast enough to leave the runway and take off, and by the time everyone in the transport compartment feels a jolt, the plane has risen steadily.

"Prepare to put away the landing gear!"

Although the altimeter is still showing zero, the entire formation has 16 planes left the runway in turn, Johnson gently adjusted the throttle valve, increased the engine speed to more than 2300 rpm, the flight speed has risen to 230 km / h, he raised the nose and began to climb. The numbers on the altimeter keep climbing, 500 meters, 800 meters.

"Quickly form a boxed formation, the navigator is on alert, and the machine gunner is ready!"

He issued orders through the microphone in an orderly manner, and the planes that were originally at the end of the line increased their horsepower to increase their speed and form a formation, and soon turned the original long snake formation into a two-layer box-like structure: 6 planes on top and 10 planes below.

This was explored in practice, and it was conducive to better building up its own anti-aircraft firepower -- although a few 12.7mm shots hit the German plane, it only scratched the other side.

After the reorganization of the box formation was completed, 24 P-51 fighters pounced on the left and right flanks to cover it.

According to the combat experience of these two days, the Germans are generally the easiest to attack transport planes that have just taken off or are about to land, because the latter is slow and has poor maneuverability, and it is very easy to succeed. And after the fighter escort is 200-250 km, the Germans will not come to entangle. Therefore, the tactics of the army aviation are very simple, gather a larger number of fighters for cover, generally cover 200-250 kilometers, and then the transport aircraft flies to the destination alone, and the fighters continue to turn around to cover the next batch of transport aircraft.

It would not hurt if some German fighters harassed them along the way, because in addition to the earliest and latest batches, there were usually many groups of fighters escorting them in the air, and in the event of an emergency, other waves of fighters could be immediately added to the combat patrol system. Relying on the advantage of fighting more and fighting less can repel enemy troops.

But what they didn't know was that Garand's tactics had changed again today.

Almost at dawn, German fighter jets began to take off, and today for the first time, they brought auxiliary fuel tanks.

The target of Garand's attack today is neither Recife nor the airstrip of the American Valley, he is going to hit a transport plane without fighter protection!

The sky was getting brighter, the sun was slowly rising, and Johnson, who was flying in the forefront, could only see everything in front of him, and he could even see the undulating hedge walls of the underground hills, and the criss-crossing rivers or streams, so calm that it didn't seem like a war.

"Sir, the fighter jets are signaling to us that they're ready to return!"

Johnson looked up, and sure enough, several fighter jets next to him had begun to adjust the nose, and he stretched out his thumb, regardless of whether the other party could see it or not, he stretched it out and shook it.

The whole process is almost as easy as yesterday, are the Germans going to deal with Recife again today? Those poor kids.

The entire formation continued to fly forward for more than 20 minutes, and as long as it continued to fly at this pace for another two hours, the mission would be considered a successful completion.

A ray of sunlight projected through the glass of the cockpit, making the cockpit feel a trace of warmth, Johnson, who got up early in the morning to carry out the mission, even felt a sense of sleepiness, and had the urge to continue to sleep, but he knew that it was impossible, the whole plane - the entire crew, 14 seriously wounded, 5 lightly injured The lives of all the crew members were tied to him, how could he have such a thought? He immediately suppressed this emotion and continued to concentrate on the plane.

Suddenly, a hurried voice came from his headphones: "Fighter, 1 o'clock." ”

This was the news reported by the machine gunner, and neither Johnson nor the navigator noticed the situation, and the navigator immediately searched around, and even put on sunglasses to avoid the interference of the sun's rays.

Still nothing has been found.

"Did you really see that?"

"See, there are a few little black dots, but it seems to be at 3 o'clock now."

Johnson immediately looked back to the right, and as his gaze elevated and the distance approached, he finally saw small black dots swooping down, and the outline became clearer and clearer.

"Oops, it seems to be Ta-152! Yes, it must be him! The head is pointed and fast! ”

The navigator was nervous: "We're in big trouble now!" ”

"Members of the formation pay attention, if there is an enemy plane, immediately tighten the formation." While greeting the members of the formation, Johnson urgently greeted the fighter group in the rear, "Borg, Borg, I'm the blue team, I'm the blue team, we were intercepted by enemy planes and need support!" ”

"I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

Eight Ta-152s, which had been lurking and hovering at high altitude, immediately pounced in the air after discovering the target, approaching from the flank hemisphere of the US formation--the heavy machine gun fire net in the rear hemisphere was not fun, and as the distance continued to approach, four 20mm machine guns began to fire fiercely.

"Ah...... I was hit ......"

"Boom!" The fuel tank of one plane was directly ignited by the MG213 cannon, and in the midst of everyone's exclamations, the whole plane turned into a raging fireball and fell, and it seemed that only the pilot had successfully parachuted - not to mention that more parachutes were not used for passengers, but there was, how could these wounded and sick people parachute?

When the US fighter planes that heard the news arrived at the scene, all 16 transport planes of this formation were shot down, except for Johnson, who skillfully escaped from the encirclement, and the whole process took less than nine minutes.

On the fourth day of Patton's airlift, in the face of Garland's carefully prepared ambush tactics, the Americans suffered a great loss, losing 127 transport planes and 28 fighters in one go, while the Germans themselves lost only 9 planes.

The Americans not only lost so many planes, but also lost the wounded and sick who had managed to rush and succeed.

When the report returned to Washington, Arnold was pale and faltering - the war of attrition in the Pacific was over for the time being, but the war of attrition of South American aviation continued to devour the essence of land aviation, and after only a few days of airlifting, his squadron of medium transport planes was broken - some of them were even temporarily drawn from bomber posts to carry out missions.

By now, the number of experienced crews in his hands has dropped to less than 2,500 (excluding strategic airlifts), and if this continues for a few more days, the entire South America and the Caribbean will completely become a black hole for the US Army Airlines.

That night, he approached Truman and made a earnest statement of the reasons why he could no longer continue to fly by air.

"If you insist on doing this, I will have no choice but to resign! I can't watch the young man die like a moth to a fire, the war is fought to this extent, our army aviation has the highest casualty rate among all arms, Patton's men are American soldiers, aren't my men American soldiers? ”