In 1941, the weather was rare in the meteorological history of Europe, and the weather was so cold that the Russian army did not want to move, so the entire front finally ushered in a period of real calm, in mid-January, the daily battle damage report submitted by the German statistics department, the number of casualties was once reduced to less than 1,000, and most of them were frostbite or non-combat attrition caused by various cold diseases.

After February, the strength of the cold wave began to weaken rapidly, and as the weather warmed, the number of casualties skyrocketed. However, the Germans were accustomed to this situation from top to bottom, and even the civilian population became accustomed to the fact that the army issued a long list of the dead every day.

During this winter, the Germans received a number of new equipment, including mass grenadiers and napalm, individual stun grenades, and new anti-armor/battle queen rocket launchers, etc., and the Tiger tank also began to enter mass production, and the military industry believed that the production of the Tiger could be increased to the point where it could arm the entire army in 42.

In terms of artillery, the German army began to install 200 mm heavy rocket artillery, and the military industry originally designed a rocket weapon close to another time and space, but Lin Youde willfully increased the caliber to 200 mm. In addition, 210 heavy guns were also delivered to the front in large quantities to deal with the street fighting in the city of Rostov-on-Don, which "had to be attacked".

The Luftwaffe received a new four-engine large bomber, and in 1942 it planned to form three flying wings that would force Russia to abandon resistance in the form of strategic bombing, at least in Lin's plan.

In addition, the Air Force's existing aircraft have been upgraded, and on days when they could not fly because of heavy snowfall, a large number of fighters returned to the factory, replaced with more powerful engines, and equipped with better communications equipment.

In contrast, the Russian army has received a rather limited boost.

According to the intelligence provided by the Eye of Odin and the confession of the Russian army captured on the battlefield, the Russian army began to be equipped with an automatic rifle that imitated the German standard assault rifle, but the production was insufficient, so the Bobosha submachine gun was still mass-produced and became the main combat weapon of the Russian army. In addition, the Russian army has also installed a new type of anti-armor artillery with a caliber of about 85 mm. In addition, the goods provided by the Americans also included a series of new gadgets, including bazookas.

But apart from this, the Russian Army did not receive more new equipment.

In terms of the Air Force, the Russian Air Force's own work to develop new aircraft is going very poorly, and the main problem lies in the engine, which is almost exactly the same as the problem encountered by the Soviet Union during World War II: during World War II, most of the Soviet Union's self-developed fighters used British engines or American engines that were authorized to be produced, and the engines developed by themselves were completely ignored because the technical indicators were too poor to meet the Air Force's demand for performance.

Because of this, the supply of engines in the Soviet Union during World War II in that time and space has been very tight, and there have been many embarrassing incidents of several models grabbing engines. Among them, the aircraft designer Ilyushin had a better personal relationship with Comrade Steel, so the designed Il-series aircraft could be given preferential treatment when choosing engines, while the designer of the La series, Lavochkin, was more unlucky and could not use the liquid-cooled engines licensed from Britain at that time. Originally, the La-series fighters he designed were liquid-cooled, and their body shape was as slender and graceful as other fighters with liquid-cooled engines, but because there was no engine available, he had to change the nose to a thicker shape and replace it with an air-cooled engine copied from the Yankees.

And this time and space, because of one reason or another, Russia's engine supply is even worse, this time and space, Russia's aviation industry is already backward than another time and space, and it is already a super-level performance to be able to build the Il-16, and now the steel Ji is forcing Russian aircraft designers to build fighters comparable to BF109, and the designers really have no way to come up with qualified products - the reason is in the supply of engines.

Therefore, the Russian Air Force can only continue to use the loans given by the Americans to purchase a large number of American-made fighter planes to enrich the Russian sky. So now the Luftwaffe's opponents in the air are all American, not only the P39 and P40, which are the "old opponents" who meet BF109 on the Eastern Front in another time and space, but even the wildcats of the US Naval Aviation have also appeared in front of the Luftwaffe.

Compared with the heavy firepower of the P39 and P40, the sturdiness of the Wildcat left a very deep impression on the German pilots, and after encountering the Wildcat, the Air Force soon put forward a request to increase the firepower of the BF109, as a replacement for the new aircraft with enhanced firepower before it was put into service, and the Air Force used the aerial gun pod for ground attack as an air combat weapon.

The Russians also discovered the characteristics of the wildcat, and the Russian pilots began to show their racial talent as a fighting people. The Russians began to make extensive use of the "ramming and cutting" method of warfare, using the Wildcat's sturdy fuselage and the P40's unique 5-main beam wings to counteract the German superiority in shooting technology with close-range "combat".

According to the Russian war report intercepted by Odin's Eye, in the air battle in early February, a Russian pilot piloted a P40 and first used the left wing to tear the tail horizontal rudder of a BF109, and then used the right wing to cut off the wing of a BF109, and then the Russian pilot drove the P40 with broken wings and staggered back to the base.

Compared with fighter jets, the "changes" of the Russian army in attack aircraft made Lin Youde even more laughable. In another time and space, the Russians are all kinds of low-flying "licking the ground" of all kinds of thick-skinned and fleshy Il, and all of them are gone, replaced by the SBD dive bomber developed by the US Navy and the A20 attack aircraft of the US Army Aviation, and the Eye of Odin also believes that in a few months, the latest B26 Liberator bomber bombers of the United States will also join the air battle on the Eastern Front.

After Lin Youde knew these situations, he muttered in his heart: People who don't know this Nima probably think that this is a scene in the game "War Thunder", and when the British come to their aid, there will be a few more Spitfires in the sky, it will be more like.

However, although the Russians got so many new models, the Luftwaffe still held air supremacy, in addition to the gap in experience and air combat tactics, a very important reason was the assistance of the Luftwaffe radar, which allowed the Luftwaffe to always occupy a numerical and energetic advantage on the battlefield, and few German pilots encountered the enemy in the case of energy disadvantage.

But the Russians also took countermeasures, and the Russian pilots were more persistent in fighting at low altitudes, braving ground anti-aircraft fire to carry out ground attacks.

Throughout the beginning of '41, the battle loss rate of both air forces increased significantly, and the number of pilot deaths increased significantly.

However, Lin Youde has long established a pilot rotation system that is modeled after the US military in another time and space, and constantly transfers outstanding pilots with combat experience back to educate new recruits, so that the front-line flight team can maintain a mixed state of new and old pilots.

Russian pilots, by contrast, had to fight until they died on the job, allowing the Luftwaffe to continue to maintain an overall advantage in pilot experience.

But over time, Russia also has a group of pilots who have survived many air battles and mastered superb combat skills.

In other words, the top pilots of the two countries are starting to sit on an equal footing, except that Germany has an advantage in average pilots.

At this point, the development of a new fighter with better performance became urgent—and the improvement that could be achieved by replacing it with a more powerful engine was limited.

So at the end of February, several plans for the new fighter were put in front of Lin Youde.

Lin Youde, as a veteran player of "War Thunder", recognized at a glance that the first plan was the TA-152 fighter of another time and space, and the number of high-altitude and high-speed performance was excellent, but it was obvious that the aircraft designers had strengthened the low-altitude performance according to the characteristics of the current Eastern Front battlefield, so the high-altitude and high-speed performance did not reach the number of panels in the game in Lin Youde's memory - of course, it may also be that the number of jù in the game is out of business, then it is a game after all.

The second plan Lin Youde was even happier when he saw it, this is another time and space and TA-152 to grab production resources ME262 - another time and space The most famous jet fighter of the Third Reich.

"Can our jet engines be implemented on conventional warplanes?" Lin Youde couldn't help but ask when he saw the No. 2 plan.

"Yes sir, we have collected enough technical numbers on the sea female fox, and at the same time, with the help of the chemical research institute, we have made alloy steel suitable for the high-temperature part of the engine, of course, with the current processing technology, the engine thrust of the 262 will not reach the point of the special engine of the sea female fox, but it is enough for this aircraft to have better performance than the piston engine."

"Okay," Lin Youde pouted, "I have another question, how is the take-off and landing performance of this aircraft?" ”

Lin Youde clearly remembers that in another time and space, ME262 needs a long runway to take off, so before the attack, aircraft such as FW190 and TA152 must be deployed in the air to guard and escort them to take off and climb. That's why Lin Youde asked such a question.

"Well, if we don't make it and actually test it, we can't say for sure, but our tests in the wind tunnel show that it may require a long take-off runway......"

Lin Youde nodded, and then fell into thought.

In fact, the ME262 was a very restrictive fighter - the original jet fighters of various countries at that time had problems of one kind or another, so the British did not rush to put their jets into front-line combat, but continued to use the P51 Mustang and the "Spitfire MK-XIV" to protect their bomber fleet.

At that time, Germany was almost a new weapon, which was used as a lifesaver, but it made the TA152 with excellent performance useless.

So Lin Youde made his own decision.

"Priority is given to the development of the first program, with the main purpose of forming combat effectiveness. The second option continues to be studied, with the main purpose of manufacturing a technology verification machine and improving and perfecting the design. ”