However, the sacrifice of the 17th Air Force Army was not worthless. Due to the two consecutive days of large-scale fighter jet combat, the Fourth Air Force stopped bombing near Tambov for safety reasons. Taking advantage of this extremely precious time, the Bryansk Front not only completely retreated Tambov, but also desperately built many barricades. However, the loss could not be concealed and was quickly reported to Moscow.

Tambov's air combat losses were alarmed, and he was ready to ask about the air force issues in person. Just as he asked about the production of Il-2 attack aircraft every day, he invited the deputy National People's Committee of Defense, who was originally in charge of the air force. General Alexandrovic Novikov, who had just served as commander-in-chief of the Air Force, asked in a head-on question as soon as he met:

"Comrade Novikov, do you know that the loss on the front line is so huge?"

"I know completely that I actually oppose them to be so reckless, but you know, now that the decision to issue combat orders is not in my hands, the Air Force Command is just a coordinated role," Novikov said calmly, but the dissatisfaction hidden in this calm made Stalin frown.

"Do you still think we should learn from the Germans, establish an independent air force system and command independently?"

"This..." Novikov was a little hesitant, not knowing what to say. He agreed with the next half of the sentence, but once he was labeled as "learning Germans", he could not say this. Although he did not have rich experience in political struggles, he still had the minimum ability to distinguish. He could only explain it lightly. "It is natural for the Air Force to cooperate with the commander of the Front Army to participate in the operation, and it is completely fine to accept the command of the headquarters and the General Staff. The key is that the British listened to the suggestions of the Air Force commanders and fighters in relation to combat missions. They should not act blindly, nor should they use the army's combat methods to arrange them on the Air Force. Comrade Leuter's expectations for this air battle were too hasty."

"Then tell me, what principle mistakes did Tambov make in air combat?"

"The large formation fleet should not be dispatched to actively fight the German army. The fighter troops should cover the Il-2 attack aircraft in multiple teams, small teams, and large-scale ways to launch assaults on the ground, forcing the enemy to run in the form of air combat guerrilla warfare. Our target is not the enemy's fighter or bomber, and our main target of attack should be the enemy's armored forces."

"Then why is the Germans' offensive target not our armored forces?"

Novikov was not easy to answer this question. He could not tell Stalin clearly: The Germans did not have to bother to attack the Red Army's armored troops. They did not use planes. The armored power alone was enough to clear the Red Army.

Stalin asked for a long time but didn't find out what he needed. He felt that Novikov's words made sense, so he waved his hand to signal the other party to stop arguing about this topic and asked him how he could change the situation where the Air Force was strong and we were weak.

Even Novikov did not make any moves to this point. In the early days of the war, the i-16 fighter commonly used by the Red Army was behind in performance and was beaten by the German army. Pilots were killed or captured in batches. After two years of the war, the Red Army finally had pretty good aircraft such as La 5 and Jacques 9, but the quality of the pilots was greatly reduced. Many people measured by German standards that were far inferior to the passing level of the aviation school graduation at most and could drive the aircraft at most, and they would fire at the target. Even the landing process was trembling so trembling that it was very uneasy.

Pilots of this quality currently account for the majority of Red Army pilots. A typical basis is that due to the decline in industrial capacity and resource limitations, in order to ensure production, these new aircraft have adopted many crude accessories and wooden structures to replace them. The overall failure-free time is no more than 50 hours, but the poor pilots cannot even fly the flight life of most pilots in these 50 hours. The combat effectiveness of the 17th Air Force Group is strictly above the average level.

The aircraft loss ratio between the two sides of the Eastern Front has always been between 1:7 and 1:8. At the beginning, the German aircraft production was less than half of the Soviet Union. At the same time, he had to be distracted by North Africa and could have the main advantage in the war in Western Europe. After the German Air Force increased the production to 3,000 aircraft per month (almost equivalent to the monthly output of the Soviet Union) and increased the proportion of fighter jets, the Il-2 attacker, which was originally awesome on the Eastern Front, was severely damaged and could not recover. The Tiger tanks were of no choice but to take down the Il-2, but the -219 could easily shoot down the Il-2. If it weren't for the average pilot of the 17th Army of the Air Force, it was still OK, and most of the equipment was new fighter jets, which was far from being able to stop at 150:800.

But when Stalin conveyed Novikov's opinion to Vasilevsky and Zhukov, he was seriously protested by both.

"Comrade General Secretary, it's not that I shirk responsibility, nor is it that the General Staff's random command. We unanimously discuss and recognize the policy of using the Air Force Group to fight for air supremacy. In the final analysis, it is because the current combat effectiveness of the Air Force is not good and the quality of the pilots is poor, so there are relatively large losses. But can we stop fighting because of the excessive losses?" Zhukov retorted, "No matter what, the German bomber was calmed down for at least two days, allowing the Bryansk Front to successfully withdraw Tambov and have the opportunity to build a defense line. If Comrade Novikov's opinion, we will fight the enemy tanks without paying attention to the enemy's planes, the enemy bomber can still blow us up to heavy losses. If Tambov is lost, who will I keep this Air Force Group for?"

"The German tanks are about 2,500. According to Comrade Novikov's opinion, how many tanks can we kill? 300? 500? I have never heard of a large-scale battle that can destroy 300 tanks with only a powerful attack aircraft. So what if 500 tanks are destroyed this time? The enemy still has 2,000." Huasilevsky's tone was quick and anxious, and his tone was very unpleasant. "After all, some air force comrades are afraid of death and dare not see the enemy's bayonets. They just want to fight tanks because they know that even in the worst case, enemy tanks will not pose a threat to our flight institutions."

Kutsnetsov followed and made a break: "Comrade General Secretary, I have always been in charge of the navy and don't know much about the air force. However, it is obvious that the air force of Britain, the United States and Germany is stronger than us. I only heard that they developed fighter jets or bombers, but I didn't hear that they focused on the air force's combat on the ground attack. An air force even dared not compete for air supremacy, so what's the air force?"

After hearing this, Stalin's face was unstable, and in the end he said nothing, he just signaled the three of them to retreat.

Novikov didn't know how much trouble he caused to him at the beginning. He thought that Leipzig was the moment he dispatched a large formation to fight, but he didn't expect that he had nodded by the base camp. Zhukov, Vasilevsky and Kutsnetsov all agreed with this opinion. He scolded all three of them with a "blind command". Of course, the others had to fight back.

If the matter is only here, it is still the boss who is right, but Novikov's luck is obviously brought home. That night, Vasily, the son of Stalin's Air Force major, suddenly came back, on the grounds that he reported the recent work situation to the base camp on behalf of the group army. In fact, the commander of the group army let Vasily see his father, and at the same time, he wanted to ask for more supplies and equipment for the group army. Who dared not to buy it if Stalin's son came forward?

When Stalin asked his son about his opinion on this matter, Vasily turned his eyes and replied softly: "Aircraft, especially fighter jets, must be built to deal with the enemy's aircraft. However, Commander Novikov said something reasonable. Many of our pilots are not good at skill, and they may not be able to hit the edge of the plane. Catching tanks may be more suitable, but using old pilots to hit tanks is a waste."

The front is quite normal and not offends, but the following words are intriguing: "Air combat experience can only be accumulated when face-to-face combat. The braver the pilot, the easier it is to survive and achieve results. Look at me, I have not shot down five enemy aircraft so far and are considered ace pilots? If I only dare to hide behind and fight tanks, when will I become an ace pilot?"

Of course, the result of Vasily's shooting down five aircraft is true. No one dared to lie about his military achievements. The problem is that when he was performing a mission in heaven, there were a bunch of excellent pilots next to him to escort him, and then he gave the target that was easiest to the "Crown Prince" to beat him. However, Stalin himself was at the center and didn't know that his son had made rapid progress.

As soon as these words were said, Novikov suddenly became "compromising and shaking, fearing difficulties" in Comrade Stalin's mind. Although it looked as always, it would be difficult to make up for this thing once it was broken.

Moscow was also preparing to transfer the 2nd Air Force Army to come, but Bagramyan reported that the assault forces were facing a serious air threat and hoped to make another turn on June 1. Huasilevsky considered it over and over again, thinking that the central front was also important, not to mention that Tambov's demand for air power was no longer so urgent, so he decided to draw two more air destroyers from Moscow to Leidel, and then temporarily give up Tambov's air supremacy over Tambov. But he never mentioned Bagramyan's request, but only told Leidel that the loss in the last air battle was too great, which was caused by Novikov's strong opposition. Leidel was so angry that he scolded Novikov in the headquarters for an afternoon, and he could only grit his teeth and defend Tambov.

Seeing that the Russians were not deceived, Model had to let the troops surround the gap first, but there was a disagreement on whether to attack Tambov immediately according to the original plan. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!