Chapter 478: Devil
Above the white clouds, 20 Soviet fighters formed two formations at different altitudes. This was the largest fighter force the Soviet Air Force on the Eastern Front could muster. This unit was composed of elite pilots drawn from various units. Their mission this time was to lure the German Air Force into battle and, with an unexpected technical advantage, win a morale-boosting victory.
In truth, the commanders of the Soviet Air Force had been so pressured by Stalin that they had been forced to come up with this plan. Because the plane carrying the special envoy sent by Stalin had been shot down near the front, the fact that the Soviet Air Force had lost air superiority could no longer be concealed. So Stalin had ordered the execution of several directly responsible air force generals and subsequently ordered the Soviet Air Force to retake control of the skies.
“Calling, calling. Red Star 1, this is Red Star 2. All normal here, no German fighter units sighted,” the captain’s voice came through the headset. Klinovich had survived the battle a few days ago and had thus been selected as an elite this time. He was flying his fighter, following behind a lead plane.
Only those who have experienced a slaughter by the German Air Force can know how terrifying it is. Klinovich naturally knew the horrifying combat effectiveness of the Third Reich’s air force, so while he flew his plane in formation, he kept praying that the German fighters would not appear.
But his prayers seemed to have had no effect, because soon a fighter spotted German planes high in the sky. He looked up in the direction his comrade had reported and saw two small black dots high above him.
Those were German Fw-190D fighters! Klinovich knew at a glance that they were the best fighters in the German army. However, this time the opponent was flying a bit too high; it was clearly not the altitude the Fw-190D was accustomed to.
“Enemy aircraft are diving! Enemy aircraft are diving! My God, they’re too fast!” the pilot of a Soviet plane shouted repeatedly. “Break! Break formation!”
In the blink of an eye, the German planes had charged in. Klinovich quickly pushed his control stick to the right to get his plane out of the way of the diving German fighters. But it was only then that he realized that the two German fighters were not the familiar Fw-190Ds, but a model he had never seen before.
The wings of this fighter were longer, and its fuselage was much longer than the Fw-190D’s. The engine noise was louder, and it seemed to have a more powerful output. The plane had a strange protrusion on the right side of its fuselage, which looked like an air intake of some kind.
Of course, as he was taking this in, Klinovich realized a problem that made his blood run cold: the speed of these two planes was simply too fast. These Soviet pilots had all seen the German Fw-190D before, and a few of them had even shot one down. But in their minds, the German planes were clearly not this fast.
“Red Star 1! Red Star 1, this is Red Star 5! That’s not an Fw-190D! That’s not a German Fw-190D! It’s a new model! A model I’ve never seen before!” Klinovich shouted. “It’s too fast!”
“I see it! Red Star 5! 7 and 9 are down! 7 and 9 are down!” the captain’s reply was frantic, and the entire Soviet fighter formation seemed to have fallen into disarray.
After one dive, the two fighters did not immediately climb but, with a shockingly tight turning radius, carved a graceful arc and charged in horizontally again. The Soviet pilots had clearly not expected the German planes to come back so quickly. In just a moment of distraction, two more of their planes were shot down.
“Break!” Red Star 1’s voice screamed hysterically. The Soviet fighters began to scatter, but the two German fighters were already climbing. Klinovich was in despair, because he saw that the climbing German fighters’ speed was ridiculously fast.
Don’t the German fighters have any weaknesses? he thought bitterly. But thoughts were thoughts; he still adjusted his plane, maintaining his distance from his lead. Through the headset, the pilot of Red Star 11, who had experience shooting down German planes, was repeatedly emphasizing tactics: “Wait for them to dive! Wait for them to dive! We can’t catch up to their speed! We can only wait for them to lose altitude, then use our performance to dogfight them at medium and low altitudes.”
Soon, the eagle-like German fighters in the sky began a new round of attacks. It was clear that this aircraft’s firepower was even more ferocious than the Fw-190D’s. In another brief engagement, the 30mm cannon shells fired by the German fighters were devastating, directly blowing the two Soviet planes they hit into pieces in mid-air.
As if they were testing the performance of their fighters, the two German planes once again did not immediately climb but used their incredible turning radius to quickly return to the vicinity of the Soviet formation. The Soviet fighter pilots felt that their chance had come, so they began to circle and engage the German fighters in a dogfight.
Klinovich’s lead plane had just been hit by the German attack. He had personally watched his leader disintegrate and explode in mid-air, so he was in no mood to go looking for trouble with the German fighters. Instead, he flew his plane, trying to get out of the battle as quickly as possible.
The facts proved that his choice was the correct one, because the moment the dogfight began, the several Soviet fighter pilots discovered that even at medium and low altitudes, this new type of German fighter had a performance advantage that put it in a class of its own. After a brief dogfight, the German fighters calmly shot down four more improved Soviet I-16s, then once again gained altitude and prepared for their next attack.
The Soviet flight leader, Red Star 1, went mad. Twenty battle-tested veteran pilots, including several aerial combat experts who had shot down German Fw-190Ds—such an impressive lineup—had lost half their number in just two passes by two new German fighters. How could it not be heartbreaking?
So, having lost his senses, Red Star 1 constantly climbed, hoping to catch up with the two German fighters. As his altitude increased, he was shocked to see the needle on his altimeter point to the astonishing number of 9,000 meters. As his plane lost power and began to slowly fall, he looked with unwillingness at the German planes in the distance, which had flown to an altitude of at least 12,000 meters.
The German planes clearly had no intention of letting the rookie Red Star 1 go. The two planes, one after the other, began to dive again. With the roar of their engines, the two fighters rapidly approached Red Star 1, then aimed and opened fire at close range, using only a few cannon shells to finish off the Soviet flight leader.
Klinovich heard Red Star 1’s mournful roar in his headset and felt his palms were covered in sweat. He would never forget that dying shout, would never forget the final cry of his captain, Red Star 1: “Why? Why can they fly at 12,000 meters? How can they fly so high?”
With the explosion of the leader’s plane, the Soviet formation became even more chaotic. Following Klinovich’s escape, two more planes broke formation and fled into the distance. But compared to Klinovich, who had had the foresight to escape early, these two planes were not so lucky. They were quickly caught by the German fighters and easily shot down.
The two German fighters were like sharks circling a school of fish, constantly swimming around the perimeter and attacking the poorly positioned prey, sending them to hell one by one. This battle was less an air battle and more a thorough hunt. The German pilots seemed to be testing the performance of their fighters, constantly changing their attack maneuvers, blowing one Soviet plane after another into pieces.
When only two Soviet fighters were left in the sky, the new German planes arrogantly departed. They did not continue the attack but left the despairing Soviet pilots and flew away, as if they had lost interest in slaughtering the unresisting enemy.
“Red Star 5! This is Red Star 18! I’m still alive!” After a long time, Klinovich, who was hiding in the clouds, received a call from his comrade. “Red Star 10 and I are still alive! The German fighters have left! They’ve left.”
Klinovich flew his plane a little lower but did not change his course back to base. “I’m lowering my altitude a bit. You should be able to see me. We’re returning to base! Immediately!”
“Alright! I’ll follow you! I don’t want to stay in this damned place for another second,” the pilot of Red Star 10 said, his voice trembling with fear. “Why did they let us go?”
“How should I know? Maybe they were out of fuel, maybe they were out of ammunition. Maybe they wanted to leave us to go back and spread the word about how terrible they are. Who knows,” Klinovich replied. “But we have a lot to report. For example, that the Germans have a new type of fighter, one that can fly as high as 12,000 meters.”
“I heard it too. That’s what the captain shouted before he died. He said it was 12,000 meters high…” Red Star 18 said, his face pale. He didn’t mind that Klinovich had run away early. In fact, if he could have, he would have run away long ago. It was only after seeing his comrades who had run away late get riddled with bullets that he hadn’t tried.
The three Soviet planes flew back to their base, alone. The ground crew stared in disbelief at the returning planes. No one had expected that this sortie, which had been launched with such high hopes, would end in such a disastrous defeat. The three pilots who disembarked from the planes all said the same thing: they had encountered a new German fighter, something more terrifying than the devil.
Published: 2025-08-28T05:13:51.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-23T12:22:04.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c478-devil-137526722
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