Just after Drachenko had climbed to four thousand meters, his wingman Bayev shouted, "Is there someone down there?"
Drachenko banked his wings and sure enough, he saw the barely visible small tanks below.
The tanks had clearly stopped, so there was no dust being kicked up, making them very difficult to spot.
Ivan, on the number three plane, was somewhat worried, "Could it be our own troops?"
To be honest, it was simply impossible to distinguish from the air which side the troops were on; rashly diving down could indeed result in hitting the wrong target.
The reason Drachenko had been certain the targets attacking on the ground were the enemy was because friendly twin-engine Pe-2 bombers would climb after dropping their bombs and wouldn't strafe the ground with their cannons.
Facing the ground targets now, Drachenko found himself in a quandary. He decided to use the radio to ask.
