Before dawn the next day, Frank and the other fighter pilots were given a new mission to escort these Ju87 dive bombers to bombing runs to Mercadal, which was controlled by government forces. It was originally an ordinary Spanish town, but there was a military airfield stationed there with an air regiment supported from the Soviet Union. The enemy planes that have been hitting Luftwaffe ambushes from time to time lately have basically been taking off from there.
Although there were no losses, it wasn't pleasant to be ambushed one after another, and it was possible that one day they would accidentally fall into a ditch. Therefore, it was decided to destroy the airfield to teach a lesson to the Spanish government forces and some of their rivals.
After breakfast, the formation was ready to strike.
"Stuka 1st formation ready for takeoff." Edelman, sitting on a Ju87, reported to the tower.
The three-aircraft formation was the most basic unit in the German land dive-bomber force, with 4-5 three-aircraft formations forming a squadron, usually equipped with 12-16 aircraft and manned by 20-25 pilots and corresponding ground crews. A brigade is formed from 3-4 squadrons plus a 1 brigade section.
By now, the Yumo 211A1 liquid-cooled V-12 engine in the Stuka's engine had started up with one roar after another.
"Stuka formation 1, cleared for takeoff." With the tower's permission Edelman pushed the throttle stick to maximum. The engine roared and exploded with 1,000 horsepower, the propeller spun rapidly, and the Stuka slid forward down the runway, faster and faster.
Pulling the lever, the Stuka bomber broke away from the ground somewhat unwieldily, and although it possessed a modest-sounding 1,000 hp, it didn't have a lot of horsepower for a fuselage that weighed more than five tons.
Under Wilhelm's watch the Stuka Bomber skipped the more mediocre Ju87A early version and went straight into service with the Ju87B mature version. The standard load was one SC250 250kg bomb and four smaller under-wing SC50 50kg bombs. Sometimes only one SC500 500kg is mounted. (If there is only one pilot, the load capacity can be up to 1 ton.)
By the time the Ju87D was finally fitted with over 1,400 hp engines the maximum bomb weight limit had been raised to 1,800 kg, which speaks well for the design of the aircraft.
The first formation of Stukas lifted off, followed by the second formation, followed by ten Bf109s.
After takeoff the two formations of Stukas did not continue to climb, but flew forward at an altitude of a few hundred meters. This kind of ultra-low altitude flight is this is the Stuka's specialty, and this kind of bombing method to give the enemy a sudden blow has been to the later generations are not out of date.
However, the last Bf109s to take off began to climb, all the way up to 5,000 meters.
After all, bombers can fly ultra-low altitude, but not suitable for fighters, the escort of fighters, at high altitude is instead more appropriate, so that, when the situation is found, can always dive down from high altitude, to provide support!
The formation hadn't set off for a while before Edelman ran into see annoyance. "Fledgling Two, Fledgling Two, hold formation formation, you're flying too fast." Edelman covered his throat talker and turned his head to stare coldly at the wingman on his left.
Like fighter pilots, the land forces called those who had just graduated fledglings.
But this freshly graduated fledgling seemed to be overly energetic and even a bit unruly. Even if he kept a close eye on it, it could still make a mess under his nose. If it wasn't for the fact that pilots were an invaluable resource, he would have really wanted to kick this guy back to his hometown to farm.
Seemingly sensing Edelman's icy eyes or hearing the dissatisfaction in his words, Daisy Bird Two immediately reduced its speed and slowly returned to his position in the formation.
With this occasional tap of warning along the way, Edelman finally waited for a contact from the high-altitude Bf109 formation. "We have Mercadal in sight, good line of sight, no enemy aircraft in the air."
"Very well, Stuka formation idea, start climbing and dive bombing on the intended target!" Edelman gave the order over the radio, pulling the joystick to control the plane as it climbed upward.
Dive-bombing, that required altitude first, having just flown at ultra-low altitude all the way up, and even more so when approaching to the vicinity of the target, flying at almost ground level to avoid being spotted by the other side's lookouts, and now, needing to pull up!
The propeller at the front of the Stuka bomber was spinning at maximum RPM, and somewhat clumsily and slowly began to climb.
Fighter pilots would probably freak out on the spot if they were asked to fly such a slow airplane. The good thing was that for a professional dive-bomber, flight speed and altitude were not particularly important properties; longitudinal stability and the sturdiness of the fuselage during the dive were what had to be cared about. So these dive bomber pilots still love this bomber.
I don't know how much brain power the German aircraft designers had, but the stability of this airplane during dive was surprisingly high. This stability was due to the two huge fixed landing gears and the so-called "aerobrakes", the huge dive gears under the wings.
The huge landing gears acted as two vertical stabilizing surfaces in the dive, and the dive gears made this effect even more pronounced. However, this caused another problem: the Stuka's longitudinal stability was a little too good, so good that it became very difficult for it to make a sudden, slightly larger maneuver, which was often the most common way of avoiding attacks by opposing fighters.
The sturdy fuselage of the Stuka made it able to withstand the unimaginable torque of other airplanes, enabling it to change out of a dive immediately after a high-speed dive, in which the fuselage would have to withstand at least six g's of pressure, which would have shattered the bones of ordinary fighters before they could reach the halfway point of the change out of the dive process.
These remarkable performance of this dive bomber deserved to become the most outstanding early World War II ground support forces, its emergence made the German Army's mode of operation has fundamentally changed, some of the old methods of combat were abandoned in the past, in the use of this aircraft on the basis of the program to develop a new close air support tactics.
When the war began, the development of such tactics created by the German Land Air Forces was already far ahead of their counterparts in Europe. Especially in Britain, where similar theories had been proposed in the British Army when the Germans had first created the tactic, but had achieved the opposite result of the Germans. Due to the opposition of those old-fashioned and stubborn officers of the British Empire, even the troops were mercilessly reprimanded for practicing this tactic, and the British paid a heavy price for their short-sightedness.
Of course, this couldn't have come at a better time for Wilhelm and Germany.