into a reconnaissance plane, was almost as fast as the Messerschmitts, but they still had to run away twice at full speed and even to shoot. They, of course, brought back some pictures, but Kalina himself clearly understood that, by and large, this flight was in vain.
And now he has to fly again, diving into that cloudy mess again, taking fire from the ground and constantly fearing attacks from enemy fighters. And then there's that special representative…
The hum of the engines distracted the Lieutenant from his thoughts. A PS-84 transport plane, escorted by three fighters, was coming in for a landing. To the Lieutenant's surprise, the Yaks did not leave for their airfield, but began to approach after the transport plane.
“This is your cover, Lieutenant,” said the squadron commander, who approached discreetly from behind, and nodded toward the Yaks.
“And why should I be honored like that, Comrade Captain?” Kalina pulled off his flight helmet and ruffled his hair.
“It's not for you,” said the commander, with a chuckle, “you're under the command of the senior lieutenant of state security for the duration of the flight. You and I are better off not knowing the name of this comrade, but any order he gives you is a law.”
A rather young officer in a NKVD uniform was heading toward them at a brisk pace from the transport plane. Kalina put his helmet back on and prepared to report in full form.
The commander of the German African Corps, General Erwin Rommel, watched grimly as his divisions were loaded onto transport ships. The port of Tripoli was full of tanks, guns, tractors and other military equipment. The infantry divisions from France and Italy were to temporarily replace his troops, which had already gained experience fighting in the desert. They had to make a long journey to Russia, to the Eastern Front.
The Führer's order was a thunderbolt from a clear sky for Rommel. In Africa, a real success was emerging. The morale of British and Australian soldiers was shattered by the crushing defeats of the spring-summer campaign, they were forced to leave Benghazi, Sidi Omar and Al Saloum, German-Italian troops took the deep-water port of Tobruk under tight siege.
And now he could just forget all these victories. There will be no new offensive in Egypt, no decisive storming of Tobruk. Despite the unambiguous order received from Berlin, Rommel did not know how to look the Italian generals in the eyes. He felt like a traitor, even though it was not he who made the decision to replace his tanks with infantry. And besides, the General couldn't shake the feeling that he had had a victory stolen from him, a real big victory, which might have been the pinnacle of his military career.
Well, he guessed that one could see better from Berlin, and Moscow really was much more important than Tobruk, Al-Alamein or even Cairo, but at the moment Rommel was in no way relieved by this understanding.
Chapter 2
The Pe-2 took off when it was no more than a couple of hours before sunset. A bomber converted for air reconnaissance purposes, was gaining altitude easily.
I pointed out the course to the crew commander and took the gunner-radio operator's seat.
Pe-2. Soviet World War II dive bomber. In the Soviet Air Force it had the nickname "Pawn". It was originally designed as a high-speed high-altitude fighter. The Pe-2 was used not only as a bomber, but also as a reconnaissance aircraft. Maximum speed 540 km/h. Practical ceiling: 8,700 m. Practical range 1,200 km. Bomb load up to one ton. Firearms (1941) – four ShKAS machine guns (7.62 mm).
The three fighters that made up our cover stayed slightly above our Pe-2, keeping a close eye on the aerial situation. We flew directly over the clouds, which had become a little less dense by evening, and sometimes we could see the earth between the clouds. At times the cloud cover became multi-layered, and then we lost sight of our escort for a while.
We passed the front line more or less calmly, but then the problems began immediately. Neither Lieutenant Kalina nor fighter pilots saw any danger yet, but the enemy air surveillance service was well organized, and our flight over the forward positions of the Germans did not go unnoticed.
Four Messerschmitts were approaching us from the southwest. They were still quite far away, but they were flying confidently, and it was never in my plans to meet them.
“Course north-northwest,” I ordered the pilot and duplicated the command over the radio to the Yaks.
Of course, I wasn't going to actually scout the area – satellites were much better for that, but I had to at least visit the areas that would later be bombed, otherwise I would have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions again. Naturally, no one knew about it except me, and everyone else involved, including the Germans, took what was going on with complete seriousness.
The enemy was extremely negative to the idea of our reconnaissance flight over their territory. We changed course, and this resulted in the Messerschmitts sent to intercept us just not finding us. Nevertheless, more and more ground observers saw us, and soon the computer alerted me to the appearance of three more pairs of enemy fighters in dangerous proximity.
Of course I was jamming, but frankly, I didn't want to jam the Germans' communications at all. I had already abused this opportunity several times when there was simply no other way out, but the Germans are not idiots, and are quite capable of putting two and two together and realizing that their problems with communication occur exactly in those places, where this strange Russian appears. However, I was going to remedy this situation by arranging a dozen other similar anomalies a little later in various places, including not only the Eastern Front, but also Europe and even Africa. This, of course, should have been taken care of earlier, but…
After about half an hour, it was clear that we couldn't dodge another unpleasant encounter. We were almost caught in a pincer movement between the enemy planes, and now all that was left was to choose the most inconvenient course for the Germans, which I did. As a result, the main part of the pursuers stretched after us in a long chain of planes flying from different directions and at different altitudes, but we had no way to dodge a pair of Messerschmitts, which flew almost toward us.
“"Blackbirds", attention! Enemy at two o'clock. Height two and a half,” I warned our escort. “Don't change the course.”
“Comrade Senior Lieutenant of State Security, maybe it would be better to change course?” the crew commander had not yet seen the enemy, but he did not dare to question the information about him, “If we are discovered, there will be a whole crowd of Messerschmitts here in ten minutes.”
“The course is the same,” I repeated calmly. “The Germans already know about us. We don't have much time, and I haven't seen everything I need to see.”
“Yes,” Kalina thought it best not to contradict the NKVD special representative, but it was obvious that in his mind he had only strengthened the thought, that this flight was a meaningless adventure. I understood the crew chief perfectly. Cloud breaks were rare, and he, as an experienced aerial reconnaissance man, knew very well, that it was completely impossible to get a picture of the situation on the ground from these fragments.
“I see the enemy!” a report came in from one of the "Blackbirds". “A pair of Messerschmitts. We've been spotted. They are in no hurry to attack – we outnumber them.”
“If they go on the attack, bind them up by battle.”
“Copy that!”
I understood
