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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 650 (Part 2) There is a successor to the fallen sky

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    On April 21, 1918, Manfred chased the Camel fighter piloted by Wilfred May deep into the British-controlled area.  This was only three months ago. At that time, the Luftwaffe had to face more and more Allied aircraft and increasing losses on its own side. The "Red Baron" also felt that the original excitement of hunting enemy aircraft was gone.  All that remains is restlessness, anxiety and pain.

    "Allied aircraft are becoming more and more difficult to deal with," Manfred wrote in his own handwriting. "Unless they are tracked and pursued to the enemy's positions, it is difficult to shoot them down." This time he pursued his prey into the dangerous area again, and May's flight  The technique sucks - he never flies high and is wobbly, which makes it difficult for Manfred to catch him.  "It saved my life," May admitted after the war.

    Manfred, over the British position, stared closely at the strange enemy aircraft. At this moment, a bullet came from behind him and flew out of his chest obliquely through his heart.  And it was Brown who shot the bullet.

    (According to later documentaries, it was not Brown who hit the Red Baron. He was unable to hit the Red Baron with a machine gun mounted on the engine at such a distance. The final ballistics study showed that the person who hit the Red Baron was an infantryman.  , named Snowy Ivan (transliteration), an ordinary soldier who had no heirs throughout his life. He became a homeless man after 1925, but there is no evidence because there were no photos at the time, only oral accounts. His death was purely bad luck.  , because it was very difficult for either Brown or the ordinary soldier to shoot the Red Baron at that time, sadly)

    No matter what, the "Red Baron" could no longer control his beloved machine, and he crashed in a field next to the Corby-Bray road.  Afterwards, many Allied soldiers came to pick up the red fragments of his plane as a souvenir.  When the pilots from both sides heard the news, they unanimously expressed their disbelief that the "Red Baron" had been killed, because to them it had become a myth.  It is rare that the death of a pilot will make the people in the center of the warring parties far more sad than the ecstatic guys. The Red Baron is such a hero.

    The British, who pay attention to gentlemanly manners and adhere to the code of air combat knights, held a grand funeral for the "Red Baron": in order to correspond to Manfred's military rank, six Allied captains carried the coffin of this great enemy under the guidance of a clergyman.  Go forward slowly;

    When the coffin entered the tomb, soldiers on both sides fired shots into the air to show their highest respect!  Then, an Allied pilot flew into the sky and dropped photos of the flower-filled cemetery and obituaries onto the German positions.

    The bad news reached the German army, causing even greater shock. They could not believe that Richthofen would be shot down, and some people even made crazy plans to use 20 divisions and 5,000 cannons to retrieve his body.

    The Germans later built a museum for Richthofen, and the building materials were all pieced together from loot.  When the Luftwaffe was rebuilt in 1935, the first fighter wing jg132 was named "Richthofen" in memory of the World War I hero Baron Manfred von Richthofen ("Red Baron").  ", because jg132 is the number one in the German Air Force, and many famous pilots during World War II received training in the team.

    In the new German Air Force rebuilt after the war, his name was used to name the first jet fighter wing, the 71st Wing. Erich Hartmann, the Germans' top ace in World War II, served as the first captain.  The team still remains in the order of the unified Luftwaffe.

    In Wang Geng¡¯s previous life, after World War I, Manfred¡¯s body was transported back to China from the war zone.  The Red Baron, the creator of the legendary myth and the highest aerial ace in World War I, rested forever in the Severhof Cemetery in the Wiesbaden area. His final record was to shoot down 80 enemy planes.

    Close your eyes and let the image of the blond young man sitting in the red fighter plane appear in your mind, with his confident smile, impressive achievements, heroic ending, white scarf fluttering in the wind, circling like a dance, the boundless sky is him  On the stage, freedom is his dream.

    Manfred Alberich Frech von Richthofen was an idol and role model for all pilots of this era, and the current commander of the German 1st Fighter Wing is no exception. In July 1918  On the 28th, the fighter wing commander stationed in Ukraine is also an ace pilot who is only 25 years old!

    July 28, 1918 10:00 German Field Airport 1st Fighter Wing Headquarters in the southern suburbs of Kharkiv

    The 1st Fighter Wing of the German Army Air Force was the first flying wing established in the history of the world's air force. Prior to this, the flying squadron was the largest formation and combat unit of the air force's combat aircraft. Each fighter squadron had 34 four-aircraft formations.  , and for dive bombers, it is 46 three-plane formations.

    As early as April 1917, in this month known as "bloodyapril", the Imperial German Army Air Service (imperialgermany'sarmyaieice) believed that its luftstreikraefte had been greatlyAs a result, they gained control of the air superiority on the Western Front.  During these 30 days, the German army had achieved air superiority on the battlefield, but at this time the German army was facing new problems.

    First of all, since the "Fukkecourge" occurred 12 months ago, the Allied Powers have equipped the new "Newport 17" and D.H.2 fighter jets. The equipment of these new models has reduced the Allied Powers'  The difference between fighter jets and German fighter jets.

    The Allies are gradually replacing new generations of fighter jets, including S.E.5 and Sopwithtriplane. This seems to indicate that the Allies are beginning to regain air superiority from the German Alvatrosdiii.

    The emergence of this situation made the Director of the Flying Troops (idflieginspectorateofflyingtroop) suffer from the reduction in inventories of the major aircraft manufacturers (as can be seen from the reports submitted by Alvatros to the relevant agencies in the following months).  ) began to consider ways to increase the probability of German pilots winning battles to ensure the German air superiority.

    In other words, the German Air Force, like the Army, must use effective organization and combat methods to make up for the lack of aircraft numbers. The leading edge in performance is gradually losing these problems. The first measure taken by the top German military officials is to start increasing aircraft numbers.  Expand the number of single-seat fighter squadrons (jagdstaffeln, more commonly known as jastas) under it. By the end of the year, the number of fighter squadrons increased from 9 to 37.

    By the end of April 1917, the German army already had four fighter squadrons (3rd, 4th, 11th and 33rd Squadrons) fighting against Allied fighters for air supremacy.  Although early British statistics showed that the number of combat losses between the two sides was basically similar, this did not prevent the Germans from merging these four fighter squadrons to form the world's first official fighter wing.
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