"It's going to be on the Dutch coast soon, good luck to you." When Mime-sama's voice sounded on the radio, there was an instant wail in the internal communication of the Morpheus Macho.

"Well, now we're on our own." Mueller whispered.

The oxygen mask made his voice a little urn-like.

At this time, the B17 formation had climbed to an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, because the B17 fuselage was unsealed, so the crew members must wear oxygen masks to ensure breathing. At this time, the temperature had reached about minus 20 degrees, and the machine gunners had to wear gloves to touch the machine gun to avoid their hands being glued to the machine gun.

The group members were not allowed to cough or sneeze because any water that entered the tube of the oxygen mask would quickly freeze and plug the tube.

When Müller looked out, he could see a trail cloud left by the pilot plane flying in front of him to his right - Müller knew that there must be such a trail cloud behind his plane.

Mueller once asked the ground crew sergeant major about the formation of this track cloud, and the sergeant major said, "Probably water vapor liquefaction", and then Mueller asked his bombardier, Steven, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, Steven told him that this was because of the low-pressure turbulence formed by the engine or something else that reduced the critical value of water vapor saturation in the air, so part of the gaseous water that was originally in the air precipitated out of the air and turned back into liquid water, and then the liquid water was frozen, forming a fog composed of ice crystals. This is the track cloud that Mueller sees now.

Muller didn't know if this was right, his family ran a furniture factory, and after graduating from high school, he went home to learn the management methods of the furniture factory, preparing for his son to inherit his father's business, and the causes of the track clouds were too far from his originally planned life.

"I saw the Dutch coastline." The navigator's voice drilled into Müller's ears, "We're heading for the right thing." ”

The navigator is in the nose part of the cockpit just like the bombardier, and they have a perfect forward vision, allowing them to clearly see the ground in front of the aircraft.

Mueller said to the co-pilot: "You come and maneuver for a while, I'll rest." ”

In this era, there is no such advanced thing as fly-by-wire control, whether it is a "little mosquito" like a fighter or a big guy like B17 that can bring 10 people, they all use "wire control", so it takes considerable power to control the aircraft.

Take the B17 as an example, if the big guy cuts into a dive, as long as the speed is slightly faster, it will be difficult to pull it up with the strength of the captain alone - the "power" in the literal sense of the word is arm strength: when diving, the elevator becomes extremely difficult to maneuver as the speed increases, and it takes a lot of force to get it moving.

Because of this, flying an airplane in this era actually requires a lot of strength.

After the co-pilot took control, Muller took off the oxygen mask, took out his thermos pot, used the lid of the pot as a cup, poured himself a small cup of hot soup to drink, and put on the oxygen mask immediately after drinking.

"Captain, did you get the hot soup from Miss Martha near the base?" The navigator stuck his head into the cockpit and teased as he sniffled and made an exaggerated noise, "That's nice, but what about that girlfriend you have in Morpheus?" ”

"You don't know the reason why I changed the name of this plane from 'beauty' to 'macho'. Also, don't wear an oxygen mask and smoke your nose, and be careful that your nose blocks the oxygen hole. ”

"Don't get aside, don't you write to that Morpheus girl every week?"

"First love is always charming but short-lived." Eric said beside him, "It's reluctant, but it's helpless. ”

"you, Eric. Wide-eyed warning enemy planes, we should have entered the German air defense circle, if they really have a plane that can detect us hundreds of kilometers away, then they should act now, 109 will appear soon. ”

"Discovery 109! Seven o'clock! Substantial! ”

Short shouts were heard over the radio.

"Prepare for battle!"

That being said, Mueller couldn't do anything but hold on to the steering stick. The B17 has the pilot and co-pilot as the two idlemen in the fight, while the bombardier and navigator have to operate the machine guns mounted on both sides of the nose, while the radioman has a machine gun mounted on the back of the fuselage facing the rear upper hemisphere.

Soon the sound of machine-gun fire resounded in the cabin of the B17.

"I saw one at five o'clock." The tail gunner's voice was loud, "I'm shooting him...... He's going to pass us to the left, and the left machine gunner is leaning on you! ”

Not long after the words fell, Müller saw the 109 entering his course from five o'clock, it swept past the right side of the nose, and the tracer bullets from the nose machine gun controlled by the navigator followed it, but did not catch up.

But then its wingman was unlucky, and it got straight into the barrage of tracer bullets, and Müller saw that a hole had been punched in its wings, and something was beginning to leak out. However, there was no problem with the German's flight attitude, and it seemed that the plane could still be controlled normally, and he followed his long plane all the way away.

At this time, there was a firelight illuminating the cockpit of the Morpheus Macho, and Muller hurriedly looked in the direction where the firelight came, and saw a B17 in the queue burning, slowly falling downward, and a person on fire was jumping out, but Muller estimated that he would not be able to pull the parachute when he jumped out - it is difficult to say whether he had a parachute or not.

"Another wave!" Or the tail machine gunner reported.

At this time, Müller suddenly heard a voice on the left flank.

He immediately turned his head, only to see something spewing out on the left flank.

"Our left wing fuel tank is leaking and the auto-close function is not working! Start the oil pump immediately and pump the oil to the right! ”

"When the oil pump is working, the pressure of the oil pipeline is normal."

Mueller continued to observe the breach in the left-wing tank until nothing was more spraying out of the gap.

As soon as Müller breathed a sigh of relief, the spherical turret shouted in his headphones: "I saw a German plane heading towards the nose!" He's going to attack the cockpit! ”

It was too late to say that it was too late, and then it was too fast, and the enemy planes were roaring.

The red liquid squirted onto the windshield in front of him.

"Eric has been shot! Come and help him! Mueller yelled.

"I wasn't shot!"

"No, you're shot, you're paralyzed and you can't feel it!"

At this time, the navigator appeared with a first-aid kit: "Have you been shot?" Let me see! ”

"Don't pull me, I didn't get shot!"

"He's paralyzed, he can't feel it."

"I feel normal, it's your blood!"

"I didn't!" Mueller also said categorically, "I wasn't shot!" I'm pretty sure. ”

"I'm sure of it!"

"And whose blood is this...... Mueller stopped abruptly and picked up his lunch box from above the dashboard, "Damn, it's the tomatoes I brought." ”

As he spoke, Muller showed the bullet holes in the lunch box to his comrades.