Chapter 88 Air Combat 1

Just as the Berlin Games were in full swing, the Spanish Civil War also reached a small peak.

Before the outbreak of the civil war, the Spanish Air Force was still very weak. There were only 40 "Newport-Draghe" Nid-52 fighters, 60 "Breguet-19" biplane reconnaissance bombers and 20 torpedo bombers. These aircraft were all backward and old-fashioned aircraft, especially the bombers, which had a speed of only 120 kilometers per hour, a bomb capacity of 80 kilograms, and only one machine gun on board. Fighters were mostly products from the First World War. The only relatively advanced ones were the three "Fury" fighters that had been purchased not long ago.

When the war broke out, most of the Spanish aircraft were in the hands of the government army, and they effectively cooperated with ground operations in the initial counterinsurgency operations. However, 10 days after the outbreak of the war, Germany and Italy began to interfere in Spain's internal affairs and provided Franco with a large amount of weapons and equipment. Among them were 32 Junkers Ju-52 bomber transport aircraft aided by Germany, 12 SM·81 bombers and 25 CR32 biplane fighters and volunteer pilots sent by Italy.

Shortly after the war began, the warring parties first launched a struggle between air transport and anti-air transport. The government air force had not yet received a large amount of foreign aid, and the limited number of aircraft were almost all used to intercept enemy transport aircraft in addition to supporting army operations.

On August 8, according to reconnaissance reports, dozens of enemy transport aircraft transported troops to Spain, and there were few escort troops. The government army immediately dispatched 28 Nid-52 fighters to intercept.

Soon the fighter group discovered bright spots in the airspace ahead, and those bright spots were getting more and more!

The captain of the leading fighter group habitually shook the wings before giving orders to the radio. "Enemy planes spotted ahead, prepare to attack!"

This Nid-52 fighter jet was a product of the last war. The pilots could only sit in an open cockpit, wearing thick flight jackets and thick flight caps. Even the radio was installed with the help of France not long ago, and they are still not fully familiar with it.

Just as they were about to speed up and launch an attack, a torrential rain of bullets poured down from above them, instantly hitting six fighter jets, two of which were even directly blown up in mid-air.

The fighter jet group's radio instantly exploded.

"What's going on?!"

"Enemy attack!"

"Where are the enemies?!"

"The enemy is above us! Above!!"

The captain looked up suddenly and saw six slender monoplanes that he had never seen before swooping down from high altitude. The speed was unheard of and unseen! That lightning speed was not something they could expect from the biplanes they were driving!

"So fast!" Just as he was stunned, the six fighter planes with yellow noses spurted out flames again and easily shot down six fighter planes.

Watching the six fighter planes climbing at an incredible speed, the captain immediately shouted into the radio. "Evacuate! This is the enemy's new fighter plane! We are not opponents! Evacuate immediately!!" Just by looking at the opponent's terrifying climbing and diving speeds, he knew that the biplane he was driving was not an opponent at all, and staying here would only be slaughtered!

A full 28 fighter planes were killed by six fighter planes and fled in panic. Although he felt very aggrieved, the captain was not a reckless person and would not make fearless sacrifices.

Unfortunately, it was not easy to evacuate.

The fleeing Newport-52s were easily caught up by those fighter planes, and one after another caught fire in the air and fell down!

Listening to the cries for help and screams coming from the radio, the captain's heart was bleeding.

But before he could mourn for them, he heard a sharp sound of breaking through the air from behind.

Puff puff puff! Several bullets hit his wing, and in an instant, the wing was pierced with several holes!

The captain subconsciously pulled the control lever to avoid it, but the wooden wing made a crisp sound and broke into two pieces!

You should know that the upper and lower wings of the biplane are connected by struts and tension wires to form a load-bearing whole, forming a space truss structure. Now that a piece of wing is broken, the whole plane instantly loses balance and falls down in a spiral.

"Damn it!" The captain cursed fiercely and pulled the control lever hard, trying to restore the balance of the plane, but no matter how hard he pulled, the out-of-control plane did not listen at all, and the speed of falling was getting faster and faster.

Seeing that he was about to lose the best parachute opportunity, he could only helplessly climb out of the cabin, jump out of the plane, and pull the parachute.

When he was swaying in the air and landing, he saw that there was no plane left on his side, and the six fighters also flew away.

In this battle, the government army's 28 Nid-52 fighters were completely wiped out, which was a heavy loss. The government army was forced to suspend large-scale interception operations and use single or double small formations for harassment, but they were also wiped out by the escort fighters.

The aircraft that Germany and Italy provided to Franco immediately changed the comparison of the quantity and quality of the air forces of both sides after they were put into battle. Through two air battles, the Spanish government army suffered heavy losses in aircraft. Franco's army seized air supremacy in several important directions. With the cooperation of air power, the ground forces stepped up their offensive, and the government army was in danger. In order to win international support and assistance, the Spanish government appealed to the world, requesting countries to provide assistance to fight against the armed intervention of Germany and Italy.

The French government responded generously first and promised to provide 50 Portez-54 bombers to the Spanish government. The Soviet Union was invited to send volunteers composed of military advisers, pilots, tankmen, sailors and other professionals to Spain, and successively provided a large number of the Soviet Union's most advanced SB-2 bombers, P-5 reconnaissance bombers and I-15 and I-16 fighters. According to statistics, in the following two and a half years, the Soviet Union provided Spain with a total of 1,409 aircraft, 400 tanks and thousands of artillery pieces. In addition, 42,000 volunteers from 54 other countries also came to Spain to participate in this war.

This situation has led Germany and Italy to continuously increase the strength of the intervention army. While the German "Vulture Legion" expanded to 10,000 people, Italy also formed a new foreign aid aviation regiment to participate in the Spanish Civil War. Several fighter, attack, bombing and reconnaissance aviation squadrons were also handed over to Franco's army. In the first two years of the war, Germany and Italy provided Franco with 1,650 aircraft, 1,150 tanks, and nearly 3,000 artillery pieces.

In the first few months of Germany's intervention in the Spanish Civil War, German pilots only occasionally participated in the war without the official permission of the military. Franco was also provided with the not-so-advanced He-51 biplane fighter (which was still somewhat advanced compared to biplanes from other countries).

But Yannick was different. Although he sent a lot of fighters, all of them were piloted by German pilots. The bf109 team that shot down 28 Nid-52 fighters was German pilots.