Chulenev's concern lies in the air force. Since the German army entered the Middle East in early January, the reconnaissance activities of German aircraft have begun to increase significantly. Some come from Turkey and some come from Persia. The scope of reconnaissance is very wide, including Baku and the major defense areas of the Transcaucasus. He has to read a large amount of intelligence summary about German reconnaissance every day to speculate on the German operation goals.

He asked the Air Force to send additional forces to shoot down German reconnaissance aircraft more than once, but the worst thing was that the Air Force had no way to deal with these German aircraft that were reconnaissance. The Caucasian Front had almost no radar, and all air defenses needed to be vigilant. When speaking to the General Staff, someone proposed to ask Moscow to support some radars. Qiulenev decided repeatedly and refused. It was not that he did not know the benefits of radar, nor that he did not want new things, but that he knew very well how precious these things were to the current Red Army, and it was likely that they would not be able to open the mouth. Finally, except for the Baku Oilfield that arranged several radar stations that were better than nothing, the air defenses in the other directions needed to be visually guided and intercepted by the ground.

The best fighter jet used by the Caucasian Front to intercept is the Jacques-1 or MiG-3, with only a few La-5s. It encountered great difficulties in facing Germany to form a reconnaissance combination with the B-219 and -190. The German army usually undergoes reconnaissance transformation by the B-219 and senior pilots perform missions. They swagger to take photos and reconnaissance at low altitudes, and it is not difficult to find out. The problem lies in the interception whether Jacques-1, MiG-3 or La-3 is not a b-21 when it is one-on-one at low altitudes.

If the opponent of 9 is two-to-one, or even many-to-one, the b-219 slips away quickly, and only pulls-5 can barely keep up. Once the other planes are thrown away, they will only leave and pull-5 when they are pulled-5, either the b-219 will turn around and eat-5, or the -190 will take advantage of the situation and pounce on the way to eliminate pull-5. In more than half a month of reconnaissance, during the anti-reconnaissance operation, Germany not only completed the reconnaissance mission as scheduled, but also shot down 14 Soviet aircraft, and its own losses are only 3.

Chulenev did not blame the Air Force too much. He knew they had tried his best, but he asked to record the German reconnaissance situation in detail and report it every day. According to his experience, in modern wars, areas with relatively high frequency and density of enemy aircraft reconnaissance are generally the direction of the enemy's main attack. He paid close attention to the movements of German aircraft, but after watching for a long time, he still felt that there were German aircraft here and there, and he seemed to be very interested in everything, and he could not see what the area he was focusing on at once. For this reason, he could only worry and demanded that the following be vigilant.

One thing is even more strange. Although German aircraft often come to reconnaissance, they did not bomb the Caucasus and the Baku oil fields. He could understand that the Germans wanted to keep them for themselves, but he really couldn't figure it out if they didn't blow up other places. Someone once suggested taking the preemptive approach and dispatching large bombers to bomb Iraqi oil fields, but was rejected by Qiulenev after much consideration. Now there is not enough bombers, and it is difficult to achieve results in the German interception. It is impossible to get a bargain except for the vain loss. On the other hand, if the oil field group was really so easy to destroy, the Proshina oil field in Romania would have been blown up by the Red Army for many times. So in the Caucasus, a very strange situation of the Soviet-German Air Force "settled" and German bombers were only devoted to bombing the British and Indians in Persia.

But the new German aircraft has always been the biggest threat to the Caucasian Front. As far as Chulenev knows, the situation encountered by the Caucasian Front is far from an isolated case. Red Army pilots encountered more and more B-219s on various battlefields. This aircraft is slightly slower than the B-109 commonly used by the Germans, but it has very good low-altitude maneuverability and flexibleness. No Soviet aircraft (whether it is Jacques-1, MiG-3 or La-3) is its opponent, the British hurricane

The wind performance was even worse, and the newly-served La-5 was slightly inferior. The B-219 only needs to be careful when facing the P-39. Because this type of aircraft supported by the US is not only strong but also operated by veterans of the Soviet Air Force. Unfortunately, the P-39 is too small, and with the -190a partner, he firmly took up various other Red Army aircraft. This type of aircraft is so popular that most of the B-109 pilots of the Eastern Airlines Corps are willing to queue up to wait for the replacement of this new aircraft.

Of course, the Russians also discovered that once the b-219 entered medium and high altitude, there was no such advantage. The problem was that except for some novices with fever, others were reluctant to keep up. It was obviously still waiting for the -190 on it, which made the Red Army pilots very difficult to deal with. What made the Red Army even more hated was that this kind of aircraft could actually reach 1,500 kilometers when it was not hung with the secondary fuel tank, which was almost twice that of the b-109, and it was much better than the Red Army's short-legged aircraft. Therefore, the Red Army's bombers or attack aircraft, whether it was a PE-2, SB-2 or Il-2, they could basically not escape the shooting down as long as the B-219 is bitten by the b-219.

So, like the Tiger tank, the b-219 has become the most unwilling target that the Russians are currently facing. Although the exchange of the b-219 is not as terrifying as the Tiger, it is easier to build aircraft than the tank. The Tiger started production in October and the monthly output was only more than 170 vehicles in January. It was already early December that the official mass production of the b-219 was in early December. In just over a month, the output suddenly exceeded 400, and it is expected to exceed 800 by March. If HNA had not given priority to guarantee the demand, there would be more b-219 on the Eastern Front.

The challenges brought by b-219 deeply reflect the crisis faced by the Red Army's air force in recent months. This difficulty is caused by many factors:

First, because the aid materials from Britain and the United States were not in place. Since November, the Soviet Union's cumulative demand of more than 50,000 tons of aluminum ingots were not obtained. The reality of lack of metal materials directly restricted aircraft production, forcing the Russians to make aircraft with wood, which is certainly not enough to make good aircraft. However, they never expected that the Americans actually sent out all aluminum ingots. Unfortunately, these materials either sank in the Indian Ocean or turned into German trophy in Egyptian docks and warehouses. The total number of aluminum ingots up to nearly 30,000 tons is currently being transported to Germany nervously. In a month, they can turn into aircraft and meet the Russians again.

Second, Germany has invested a new model. The new aircraft represented by the b-219 has fully utilized its advantages of long range, outstanding low-altitude performance and high level of fighting in the Eastern Front battlefield, which made the Red Army miserable. In addition, the newly launched aircraft also include the he-218, which is more troublesome than the b-219. In the past, Stuka slowly threw bombs and then flew back slowly, with enough time for Red Army fighters to shoot targets. The Germans could only bear it with their strong bodies. Now the new dive bombers almost "brushed" the bombs, but

Then he ran away "swoosh". The pilot of the interceptor who reacted slowly could not even see what the opposite looked like, so that the first version circulated within the Red Army was that the Germans developed a new type of fighter with dive bombing capabilities. The he-218 was enthusiastically sought after by the Stuka pilots. Of course, the bomber should be as strong as Stuka, but it would be better if there were bombers that could not touch the edge of the enemy. Some people called this the real "lightning bomber". The former blitz king Stuka was run and could only serve as a ground attack aircraft.

In fact, the Russians don't know that the first modification of the he-218, equipped with m-50 (methanol and water mixture injection device), has appeared. It can provide an additional 200 horsepower to the engine in an emergency. At this time, the he-218 can fly out at a high speed of 632 kilometers per hour (the carrier-based aircraft is slightly heavier, and the speed can only reach 619 kilometers per hour), which is faster than the b-219, but it lasts only 15 minutes, and it will damage the engine after multiple uses.

At the same time, thanks to Hoffman's vigorous guidance and the successful use of the B-219 and -190a high and low combination, and the technicians of Daimler-Benz have finally learned the idea and no longer try to make an engine take into account the performance of high, medium and low airspace. Therefore, installing a first-stage two-speed supercharger on the DB605d (db605 is an upgraded version of the DB601 series) engine, quickly matured and put into mass production (mainly taking into account the performance of medium and low altitudes)

The engine has a horsepower of 1,700 horsepower, and its size and diameter are slightly larger than the current db601e series, and its weight will be nearly 200 kilograms. Henkel's technicians are re-improving the body structure and adjusting the center of gravity distribution based on the new engine. According to their optimistic estimates, after the engine is successfully installed, the he-218 can fly to more than 615 kilometers per hour without taking drugs, and the take-off and landing performance at low speed will become better.

Another commendable progress is that since Hoffman and Sperer collected a large number of rare metals, German researchers no longer worry about material shortages. In addition, referring to the design details of the British Merlin engine and the technical exploration of high-temperature alloys in Japan, they made rapid progress in related fields. After controlling the Middle East oil fields, according to Hoffman's approval, German aviation no longer uses coal-to-oil fuels and they can finally open the No. 963 fuel with wealth. Farbour and other companies began to vigorously study fuel standards and additives above No. 110, so these experts will not be worried about taking care of the low-grade fuel of No. 87. Therefore, the installation of a two-stage three-speed turbocharger (focusing on high altitude performance) on the db603aa series engine has finally come to an end. The number obtained in the laboratory is 1,850 horsepower, but it will take a little time to be practical. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!