After nearly forty minutes of flight, Hartmann finally saw the island of Malta.

The sky is very clear, the visibility is excellent, and the whole island of Malta is in full view.

Two islands, one large and one small, are dotted on the blue of the Mediterranean Sea, and the green of the island and the blue of the sea make for a pleasing picture.

The larger island is Malta proper, and the smaller island to the northwest is Gozo, but most people don't know the name of the smaller island. The island is home to the larger city of Valletta, an important port on the island, an airport nearby, where British Air Force units are stationed, and an area that is under the responsibility of 22 Air Hunt Brigades. There is another British airfield on Gozo, and a larger air battle is also expected, and this area is under the responsibility of the 26 Air Hunt Group.

Hartman's 52 Air Hunt Brigade is primarily responsible for the airspace between the two friendly groups.

Although the division is divided in this way, in fact, it is difficult to ensure that you do not indiscriminately enter the airspace under the responsibility of friendly forces in air combat, and this division will soon lose its meaning after the start of the war.

Hartman licked his lips and glanced at the two photos clipped to the cockpit dashboard. One is his mother, a brave female glider pilot who ran a glider club in Hartmann's hometown of Weisszakh before the war, where she herself served as a flight instructor. The formal mother fostered Hartman's interest in flying.

The other photo shows Hartman's beloved girlfriend Ursula, a typical Aryan girl with shiny blonde hair and watery eyes.

Hartman assures the two girls who are vital to him that he will return to base safely—and not only that, but he will bring back the results that will make them proud.

At this time, the voice of the captain came from the radio: "Pay attention to the enemy planes, the enemy should have risen into the air, and we should meet the enemy in a few minutes, but rest assured, the enemy planes have no time to climb, theoretically we should have a considerable advantage, and the only thing that needs to be alerted should be those enemy planes that take off to carry out routine patrol missions." ”

Hartman bred his spirits and began to search the sky.

"There was an explosion at ten o'clock." Someone on the radio reported, "It looks like it's fighting." ”

Hartmann looked at Malta, which was still ahead, and estimated the distance to the main island of Malta at this time - it seemed that the British had taken off early and organized an interception.

"It seems that there are British spies on the shore of Sicily," the captain's voice came from the headphones, "we were seen when we left Sicily, or it could be that there were British spies near the airport, and the British got the news when we took off......"

Before the captain's words fell, Hartmann saw a flash of light in his direction at two o'clock, and the 26th Group, which was probably flying on the right flank, also encountered the enemy.

However, the 52nd Brigade did not seem to have been targeted by the British, and Hartman turned his head to see only the neat formation of friendly troops and the spotless blue sky.

Suddenly, someone in the headphones shouted, "Red Sun!" ”

The so-called red sun is the abbreviation of "organic shadow in the direction of the backlight".

"Prepare for battle!" At the same time as the captain's order came, the old birds in the fleet had already begun to make evasive moves.

Hartman turned his head and glanced at the long machine, and immediately rolled with the long machine.

At this time, the enemy planes opened fire, and tracer bullets swept through the scattered German planes, and Hartmann, while enduring the G-force brought by the maneuver, turned his head to look for the enemy's traces, and he saw two enemy planes passing by three or four hundred meters away from him, rushing downward. Then he saw a 109 with a white tail swooping down with two British planes.

"Damn! Leeds, come back! Someone shouted in the headphones, and Hartmann guessed that "Leeds" was the radio call sign of the 109 that had just swooped down with the British.

Hartmann's eyes chased after the 109, watching it quickly shake off by the British taking advantage of their speed, and then another group of British fighters roared down from the sky, biting the tail of the diving 109 and turning it into a fireball with a series of bursts.

"There are also enemy planes over our heads!" Bolt's voice came from the headphones, "Watch out for your back hemisphere!" ”

Hartman turned his head to warn the rear hemisphere, and due to the configuration of the cockpit, the vision of the rear hemisphere of the 109 was not good, so many pilots would carry a mirror to assist in observing the situation in the rear hemisphere. Hartman saw the reflection in his mirror—most likely the sunlight shining on the metal skin of the fuselage or the canopy.

"I see someone behind us!"

"Don't be nervous!" Bolt's voice was calm as usual, "Follow me to break S." ”

As soon as the words fell, Hartman saw the Bolt machine in front of him cut into the Breaking S maneuver.

He wanted to swing the joystick to follow the long plane, but something instinctive in his mind stopped him.

-- It's too early, and the enemy still has room to adjust his course.

Thinking so, Hartman slammed on the rudder while swinging the joystick to the side, and his plane cut into a counterclockwise barrel roll.

While the barrel was rolling, Hartmann took advantage of the tilt of the body to set his eyes on the original rear upper hemisphere.

He saw two enemy planes whizzing towards the Bolt plane, which had almost finished its maneuver -- the enemy still had room to adjust.

The maneuvering overload causes turbulence on the wingtips of the enemy aircraft, and the turbulence causes low pressure, which lowers the saturation temperature of the water vapor in the air, so that the water vapor in the air liquefies, forming two track clouds.

Two enemy planes dragged four trail clouds towards Bolt, who had finished breaking the S, and Bolt probably didn't notice this at the first time because of the impact of maneuvering overload.

"Usain Bolt!" Hartman yelled, "Get out of here! The enemy is rushing at you! ”

At the same time as informing Bolt, Hartmann cut out and rolled, and also entered a dive, chasing after the two enemy planes.

At this time, the enemy aircraft opened fire.

Hartmann saw that the wings of Bolt's plane were neatly cut off, and the body lost its balance, rolling and rushing towards the sea, and disappeared from Hartman's field of vision.

"Damn it!" Hartman cursed, and at this time the enemy plane began to pull up, and Hartman also followed the enemy plane to move together.

He estimated that he was only about 300 meters away from the enemy plane, and the enemy was within his firing range.

Hartmann did not open fire, but kept his eyes on the enemy, using a shallow dive to accelerate rapidly, quickly shortening the distance of the enemy aircraft that had switched to level flight.

Just like the 109, the American planes flown by the British had a huge blind spot in the rear hemisphere, and Hartmann was now convinced that he was in this blind spot, and he didn't want to start a snake with indiscriminate fire.

The British airframe was getting bigger and bigger in the sights -- there were no such convenient range-measuring tools in air combat in this era, and the estimation of the distance between the two sides was based on the pilot's experience, and second, by using the "ring" on the sight, the outline of the enemy plane "filled" the first ring about how many meters, and the second ring was about how many meters, which was a number that every pilot had to memorize.

When the enemy plane was only 150 meters away, Hartmann gently pulled the nose of the plane to take a pre-dose, and then pressed the fire button.

The 109's cannon shells drilled directly into the P40's fuselage, blowing off its tail entirely, and the plane immediately turned into a headless fly, tumbling and falling into the sea below.

The other enemy plane immediately rolled and wanted to get out of Hartman's firing line, but the 109 of this time and space was a product of Lin Youde's guidance, and the rolling performance was far better than that of the P40, so Hartmann easily bit the enemy plane that wanted to roll away.

During the maneuver, the enemy plane was out of Hartman's field of vision, but he still pulled the trigger - to pull the advance in air combat usually means that the enemy has to temporarily leave your field of vision, after all, the field of view of fighters in this era is too limited.

The flames of the explosion of the enemy aircraft illuminated Hartman's cockpit.