Breakthrough (The Red Gambit Series) (9 page)

The RAF’s 616 Squadron had spent its last few months like nomads, moving from base to base with the German withdrawal and now, falling back with the
Soviet
advance. Having received attention from ground attack aircraft on the 6th August
,
they had left their field at
Lubeck
and fallen back to Quackenbrück, southwest of
Bremen
, a former base
that
they knew was adequate for their needs
.

Reorganising the ravaged squadron took time, especially as they could not call upon other fighter units
to scrounge
spares a
nd compatible equipment, for 616
flew the
Gloster
Meteor,
Britain
’s first operational jet fighter aircraft.

This morning
,
616
Squadron
was
tasked with flying
top
cover to a large air raid tasked with striking the rail yards in Winsen, and also knocking down a number of bridges spanning the
Luhe River, from Winsen south through Roydorf and Luhdorf down to Bahlberg.

The mission had been thrown together quickly in response to the huge
Soviet
attack
,
and it had all the hallmarks of
Fred Karno’s circus
,
as different squadrons
jostled to secure
their places in the grand scheme.

RAF Bomber squadrons
,
who
normally flew at night,
were accompanied by NF30 Mosquitoes whose
normal
working day
also
started when the sun went down
.

The ground attack squadrons flew ahead, savaging static and mobile anti-aircraft positions, beating up anything
that
might stop the bombers.

An attempt to keep some sort of formation had been given up as a bad job and so the six heavy bomber squadrons flew more as gaggles than an organised stream, each aircraft seeking out its objective indi
vidually, although pathfinder
Mosquitoes were tasked to mark the main targets.

616 Squadron had nine airworthy Gloster Meteors that morning
,
and every one of them was committed to this maximum effort call.

Ahead of the bomber force
,
the ground attack boys were having a field day
,
and at higher levels
,
the RAF Spitfires and Mustangs were having good success against the
Soviet
aircraft
trying to respond to the incursions
.

Flight-Lieutenant Pieter De Villiers was a South-African who had shipped to
England
when the mother country called
. He had
served with distinction throughout the conflict, accruing four kills and thousands of flying hours in his five years of war, all but the last ten months flown in various marks of Spitfire. Now he rode the sky in a Meteor F3
jet fighter, the best that
Britain
could provide, flying shotgun on a squadron of
Lancaster
’s due to visit hell upon Bahlberg.

Scanning the sky left and right, high and low
,
he spotted the dots to the southeast. Focussing in
,
he counted at least twenty and confirmed they were inbound, all in a matter of two seconds.

“Gamekeeper, Gamekeeper, twenty-plus bandits inbound, two o’clock
,
level
. Type unknown.”

The Squadron commander rattled off his instructions
,
and the nin
e Meteors accelerated and
manoeuvred
to attack.
Immediately one aircraft fell out of formation spewing smoke as its portside Rolls-Royce Derwent engine objected to the stresses of full-power and broke down.

The other eight prescribed a steady
upward
curve
, gaining height before charging
down upon their enemy,
‘
matter of factly
’
identified as
La-5’s by the Squadron
‘
know-it-all
’
,
Baines.

The
Soviet
pilots turned and rose to meet the aggressor’s, climbing at an impressive rate as their big radial engines poured out the power, some firing their 20mm cannon in short bursts to distract their enemy.

In turn, the Squadron Commander employed his own Hispano cannon and was rewarded with an immediate kill
,
as shells tore through
a
La
5
’s wing and sent the aircraft spinning away
.

Having disrupted the initia
l attempt to get at the bombers,
616
Squadron
concentrated on ensuring none broke through.

By comparison to the Lavoc
h
kin, the Meteor
enjoyed
advantage
s in nearly every department. True to their teachings
,
and on this occasion
,
the attack plan,
the Russian pilots tried to draw their enemy downwards where low altitude was normally an equaliser for them. Not so against the Meteor
,
and four
Soviet
pilots were already under silk as their abandoned aircraft crashed beneath them. A fifth La-5 carried its pilot into the ground.

The
Soviet
pilots did not lack courage
,
but the La-5 was
a short-legged aircraft at the b
est of times, and combat
manoeuvres
were always heavy on fuel.
They broke off the attack and di
ve
d
for the ground as they fled eastwards
. Ordering Blue flight to pursue
,
the Squadron Commander took
the
remaining five aircraft back to their position above the bomber force, just in time to spot the approach of
a large force of fighters from the northeast, which Baines believed to be the latest Yakolev’s.

By design
,
the
Soviet
air commander had used the La-5’s to draw off the escorts and delayed sending in his high-altitude Yak-9U’s to give them a clear run at the bombers.

It nearly worked, but for the Meteor’s excellent climb rate and higher speed.

Despite that
,
one
Lancaster
fell victim to a speculative burst at range, the Yak’s
20mm
ShVAK
cannon striking home and reducing the
nose and
cockpit to a charnel house. T
he hug
e bomber f
ell
away as the living attempted to escape
,
leaving dead men holding shattered controls. O
nly four white mushrooms marked
successful bail outs.

Summoning back Blue Flight
,
the Squadron Commander led his men into a side attack, disrupting the Yak’s and chopping three from the sky before they could properly react.

Below
,
De Villiers drove his own flight upwards, throttles to the max to get back to his charges.

His eyes focussed on the battle above
and
he saw the orange blossom of a
large
explosion
, not realising that his commander and a junior
Soviet
pilot had come together in the melee, both aircra
ft
disintegrating in a fireball,
both pilots instantly dead.

A
nother
M
eteor was falling from the sky, one wing removed at the fuselage, rotating madly like a sycamore seed pod,
a
victim of cannon fire. The G forces held the wounded pilot in place all the way to its end.

Two more Yak’s were going down, one falling in a huge fireball to explode two thousand feet above the ground.

De Villiers throttled back and swept in behind a pair of Yaks intent on breaking through to the
Lancaster
’s
of 460 Squadron.

His four Hispano cannons dispatched the first with ease, the heavy shells knocking the tail assembly into pieces, the Yak simply
dropping
away and rotating uncontrollably
all the way to its end
.

The second aircraft suddenly slowed
,
and De Villiers overshot his prey, registering the lowered undercarriage as he went and
mentally
congratulating his opponent. A steady rattle told the South African
that his aircraft had been hit. H
is controls seemed fine
,
and he recovered his position in time to watch his wingman dispatch the second aircraft.

Probably a dozen Yaks had now been downed for the loss of two Meteors, plus one
further
jet staggering away streaming smoke from a damaged engine.

None the less
,
the Russian pilots drove in hard
once more
and succeeded in chopping a
nother
bomber from the sky before the remaining Meteors reorganised and
forced
them off again.

A pair of Yaks limped away
,
smoking badly, damaged and out of the fight, only to be chopped from the sky by a flight of Typhoons returning from savaging the Flak positions around Bahlberg.

Anxious to
join in further
,
the four Typhoons applied power and rose higher, clawing another Yak from the sky before they were spotted.

Their arrival was enough for the
Soviet
Regimental Commander and he called off the attack, satisfied that his last burst had damaged another of the huge British bombers. The Yaks hauled off and dived away for the relative safety of their own lines.

Flying Officer Baines slid in behind the fighter that had just knocked lumps off a
Lancaster
and sent a stream of
cannon
shells into it, transforming the aircr
aft into a flying junk yard in the briefest moment
and killing the pilot instantly.

The now leaderless
Soviet
Regiment withdrew to lick its wounds.

Realising that he was now the
senior man
, De Villiers organised his surviving aircraft, positioning the group correctly once more, just in time to watch 460 Squadron drop their bombs and turn for home.

The damaged
Lancaster
struggled to keep up but fell out of the
bomber
stream
,
as more smoke and then flame leapt from its starboard inner engine
and wing
.
AR-L lost height
,
and De Villiers watched as parachute canopies started to appear.

Fascinated though he was
,
he dragged his eyes away to survey the sky. With no threat apparent
,
he
returne
d to the stricken bomber. With
detached professional interest
,
he watched the
fire grow and engulf the inner starboard wing. He also counted six canopies floating in the breeze.

The
Lancaster
bled height as the pilot struggled to land his charge, and all the time the fire developed.

Reaching a critical point
,
the wing failed and folded at the junction with the fuselage. In
the
Lancasters
, Typhoons and Meteors
above
, numerous watchers spoke
many a word of prayer
in recognition of
the brave man
,
who died as the inferno struck the ground and exploded.

Tearing his eyes away from the crash site
,
De Villiers assessed the mission.
Of nine meteors
,
two had been shot down, including the Squadron Commander.
Another two had limped away, leaving a grand total of five, including his own craft.
The T
yphoons, whoever they were, had not lost an aircraft
,
which was a positive
,
but that was balanced by the loss of at least three
Lancasters
that he knew of.