"Red Three, find them, look down at us at three o'clock." The voice of the fourth squad leader came from the headphones.

The radio signal was slightly disturbed, and there was some inexplicable static noise after flying over the Aostahl peak. Hans. Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang poked to the side of the cockpit, looking for friendly troop tracks reported by his subordinates.

"It's indeed them, let's go up and say hello." Wolfgang reached out and tightened the straps of his oxygen mask, swaying his wings from side to side twice, signaling his men to prepare to change course and altitude with the long plane.

The 54th Wing had only been transferred to Austria a week earlier, and it was not as easy as one might think.

The Luftwaffe's flying brigades basically had their own airfields, where they could recruit soldiers and receive daily provisions, and in peacetime the three brigades of the wing were scattered and only concentrated together during combat.

The main reason was that the German air bases were not very large at that time, and only a few bases could supply the troops at the wing level, because this required the concentration of a large number of material reserves and ground service personnel, and at the same time added additional pressure to the administration.

In fact, most of the European air forces at that time were the same, and the air force units were dispersed as much as possible, which not only reduced the burden on the airport infrastructure and logistics system, but also ensured the normal life and training of the troops.

The transfer of the flight team is a very test of the ability of the officers of the administrative and logistics system, which is not just a simple job as arranging a safe and convenient route, the ground support and administrative personnel will take the spare parts and technical equipment of each team to the destination airport to prepare for stationing, and at the same time, the teams also need to contact the airport where the stopover is arranged for recuperation, and arrange the local accommodation of the pilots. In addition, navigation, communication, safety and other issues should be arranged in advance, such as applying for a special frequency when transferring flights, arranging the guidance work of each navigation station along the route, confirming the command and delivery locations of each air traffic control area, and selecting a bunch of alternative airports that can be selected when problems occur on the way.

The report application and the forms to be filled out alone were enough to make the wing's administrative officers look black and their heads swelled. But once the team starts to move, the whole operation can't be stopped, so it's important to be prepared for anything before something goes wrong.

Since most of the ground support equipment and supplies could not be transported by air, the large force of the 54th Wing occupied two full trucks, from the warm French coast to the cold Austria, almost half of Europe, and after arriving in Innsbruck, Austria, it took almost a whole day to mobilize two automobile regiments of the army to transport all the supplies and personnel to the airport outside the city, the whole journey exceeded 1,200 kilometers, and it took almost two weeks on the road.

In order to accommodate the 126 planes of various types of JG.54, the Air Force's base construction engineer regiment has been busy here for more than half a month, and finally before the arrival of the wing, three brand-new field runways and a whole row of tall hangars were built around the original airport, because the priority was to build military facilities, so until the outbreak of the war, the camp for the wing personnel to live was not completely completed, so that at this time, a considerable number of logistics personnel could only live in tents set up on the side of the runway for the time being.

This is just the JG54 wing, in the battle plan of the high command, almost half of the air force was mobilized, and it is conceivable how much manpower and material resources the Third Reich will expend in this work.

Austria's aviation force itself is very weak, and it basically relies on technical support from the German side, so there is not much difference in the basic supporting facilities, and the Luftwaffe does not need to deliberately renovate it, which finally saves a lot of effort.

This time, the Germans deployed four fighter wings in Austria, numbered JG3, JG26, JG53 and JG54, all of which were the main wings that had participated in British air battles, and the number of ace pilots produced could add up to a group.

These units are generally armed with Mercedes-Schmidt 109 fighters, and most of them have been upgraded to the latest E11, a designation that has never appeared in history and in some ways looks like a primary version of the historic F-type.

According to the Air Force's internal sources, the next version of the Legend 109 will be replaced with a new engine, and compared to the [Emily] (Type E) that everyone is used to, the [Frederick] (Type F) will be a big change, and it can almost be seen as a brand new model.

Due to the limited production volume, at present the Luftwaffe only has the JG2 Richthofen Wing equipped with two F190 brigades, and the second wing remains on the Western Front at this time, and they will take off from their bases in France to attack the western coast of Italy, and the Roman capital area is within their attack range.

The Luftwaffe General Staff estimated that the struggle for air supremacy in the Po Plain was sufficient with only four wings, and it turned out that their judgment was generally correct, but it was suspected of overestimating the combat effectiveness of the Italian Air Force.

In this war, for the first time, the German Army Aviation unit officially appeared on the stage, and the Army finally had close ground support firepower that could be easily dispatched. The pilots still wore Air Force uniforms, but they had Army style ranks on their shoulders.

These air units have been transferred to the army establishment and have begun to receive monthly salaries in accordance with their status as officers and men of the army, and the army attaches great importance to this newly created branch of the army, so they are as equal in welfare as possible to the air force, and the salaries of some personnel have even been increased.

However, at present, this unit can only operate in the area where the air force occupies air supremacy, and they lack independent combat capability, and they need the air force's fighter units to provide cover for every sortie.

Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang was leading a squadron of fighters tasked with escorting a squadron of Army Air Force, which was going to provide air support to German troops in the fierce battle near Venice, while the fuselage and wings were covered with bombs of various types.

These Stuka who seemed to be obviously overloaded flew very slowly, this was when they were most vulnerable and vulnerable, the heavy load made them lose the ability to maneuver, sluggish like a flock of ducks that had eaten up, and if they encountered the Italian fighter force at this time, they would not need too many of them, only three or four MR.42s would be enough to eat them all.

"Green Elf, this is Firefox Four, we're in the direction of your six, let the lads take their fingers off the machine gun trigger, we're leaning over." Wolfgang tuned the radio to the predetermined frequency and liaised with the command aircraft of the Stuka squadron.

"This is the Green Elves, we've already spotted you, and it's a pleasure to fly with you." The voice of the commander of the Stuka squadron sounded happy.

Sixteen ME109s lined up in two rows, skimmed one side of the Stuka squadron at high speed, and then made a sharp turn in front and circled back to the other side of the dive bomber squadron, reducing their speed to pass side by side with the Stukka.

The pilots waved to friendly troops in the cabin, all of whom had been part of the Luftwaffe a few months ago, and many of them were probably still training at the same junior aviation school.

"It's already in the Italian air defense zone, and it's likely that Italian fighters will be encountered, so it's great that you can get there in time." The commander of the Stuka squadron was visibly relieved.

"Now we are in charge of escorting the escort, and we hope that everything will go well." Wolfgang raised his hand and saluted the opponent's cabin, and then swung his wings to lead the squadron to climb upwards, and there was still a long way to go to reach the target area, and Squadron 109 must maintain a high degree of vigilance.

The 2nd Squadron began to follow standard escort procedures and danced a figure-of-eight dance over Stuka.

The lieutenant colonel of the air force did not know at this moment that right in front of them, a fighter group of the Italian Air Force was rushing towards them, and two units that had fought side by side were about to fight fiercely for their own dignity and glory.

PS: The network is down, and it finally comes up. (To be continued.) )