At this moment, in the skies.
Harlamov personally led a squadron to execute this unprecedented bombing mission.
Before that, the fighter regiment pilots didn’t even know their Yak-1s were capable of carrying bombs.
The main Ant Air Force particularly emphasized specialization, with each plane designed for a specific mission, striving to perfect it for that purpose.
They even considered removing the rear machine gun from the Il-2, to save those two or three hundred kilograms of weight.
Under this design philosophy, why the Yak-1 could carry bombs was no longer a question. Pilots simply didn’t understand why a field mainly housing fighters would have both 100kg and 50kg bombs available.
The pilots were even excitedly discussing the possibility that a female pilot who flew the Po-2 bomber was going to transfer in—how else could the presence of these bombs be explained?
Until today, when they strapped on bombs and took off.
It was anticipated to be an easy job since most Prussians hadn’t been air-raided before, and those who had only experienced night raids by the Po-2.
Most Prosen soldiers had never seen a daytime air raid by the Il-2.
They hadn’t even bothered to camouflage; some Prussians waved at the passing Yak-1s, probably mistaking Harlamov’s squadron for friendly forces.
Over the radio, the number three of Harlamov’s squadron, the lead plane of the second pair formation—Captain Semyon—asked, “What should we bomb? It looks like there are targets everywhere.”
Harlamov, “We should bomb high-value targets, like adding another general to our respected Major General’s list of accomplishments.”
Harlamov always spoke of the “respected Major General” without a hint of sarcasm, but with an adjective to describe his admiration for Rokossov.
Captain Semyon grumbled, “Let’s not even talk about whether we can find the ‘antenna-laden’ house we’re imagining. Even if we do, and we spot a Prosen national flagpole outside with hundreds of people being awarded—Even if we find such a target, our bombs might not hit the mark.
“I’ve only received air combat training. At the aviation school, I did learn ground-attack, but that was in an Il-2.
“After joining the unit, I haven’t had any ground attack training. Since the war started, all I’ve done is strafe ground troops.”
Harlamov, “Stop complaining, everyone’s in the same boat. Let’s just focus on finding a target. Even if the bombs aren’t accurate, we can still strafe.”
At that moment, the number four of the squadron said, “I see a large house on our right, it may be Lord Boye’s estate. I bet there’s a division headquarters in there, at least one.”
Harlamov looked to the right and caught sight of the distant estate, which seemed to be slowly retreating because of the distance.
“Let’s circle around,” he said, “Break formation and operate in pairs. Semyon, maintain visual contact with me.”
Formation changes in a four-aircraft squadron were very complex, so pilots usually entered air battles in pairs, which made it much simpler to change formation.
Moreover, Harlamov couldn’t see Semyon’s plane during the formation change, so he had to remind him to keep visual contact. to ensure the pair didn’t get separated.
It was very easy to lose sight of targets in the sky—whether enemies or allies—and quite common to realize you can’t see your wingman anymore while flying.
So each pilot had their own map case to ensure they could navigate back to base using landmarks on the map if they were left alone with no contact with their squadron.
The map case also ensured that in case of an emergency landing, they could aim for areas controlled by friendly forces.
After completing the formation change, Harlamov called out on the radio, “Semyon! Do you see me?”
“I see you, don’t worry boss. Let’s go take a look at Boye’s estate. It’s definitely a division headquarters.”
A few minutes later, with his plane tilted, Harlamov circled the estate and cursed, “Who was it who said this was a division headquarters?”
The estate was empty, and the series of substantial craters visible in the yard told the pilots why there was no enemy division headquarters there.
Captain Semyon, “If you think about it, none of the Prosen Army we’ve flown past have been housed in buildings. So, what do we do now?”
Harlamov sighed, “Look for enemy tanks. Hitting a tank unit would also count as striking a high-value target.”
At that moment, the pilot of plane number two said, “Isn’t there any obvious target? I mean, don’t the enemy’s artillery fire? Hitting their artillery would count as a great achievement, right? Besides, artillery firing makes such a commotion, we should be able to see it from afar, right?”
You generally can’t see distant targets on the ground, due to the curvature of the earth.
But now as the Yak-1s flew low, around five hundred meters, their field of vision greatly expanded.
The pilots’ vision was well-screened, with the sharpest “hawk eyes” in Harlamov’s fighter regiment capable of spotting twin-engine bombers ten kilometers away.
However, there were too many varied ground targets, and even pilots usually couldn’t spot them from several kilometers away, which was why Harlamov chose to fly at a low altitude of five hundred meters.
But if the target was an actively firing artillery position, climbing to three thousand meters was also feasible, which would allow them to filter targets, as only heavy artillery fire would be visible from such a height.
So Harlamov said, “You’re right, let’s climb to three thousand meters and see if we can spot any enemy firing.”
After he said this, he glanced at the fuel gauge and muttered, “Fuel consumption is higher than usual…”
He started to pull back on the joystick, climbing steadily at a 15-degree angle while still vigilantly surveying his surroundings.
Unfortunately, the early versions of the Yak-1 had a hump behind the cockpit that blocked the rear view, so Harlamov could only rely on his rearview mirrors to watch his back, even though that was the most dangerous direction.
Suddenly, Captain Semyon shouted, “Look at the ground! They’re firing!”
Harlamov, “Where?”
“At 11 o’clock!”
Harlamov rolled the plane upside down so that with the glass cockpit rushing downwards, he could get the best view below.
He saw the artillery position that was firing.
“Everyone, drop bombs with me.”
Captain Semyon, “Damn it, I feel like I can only bet my life on faith now.”
“Who isn’t? Drop the bombs and pray to Saint Andrew at the same time!”
Harlamov directly went into a dive towards the ground, heading straight for the firing artillery position.
The Yak-1 was not a dedicated ground attack aircraft and had no ground-targeting sights.
So Harlamov simply aligned the gun sight’s crosshairs with a cannon.
The Yak-1’s sighting system worked like this: if an enemy aircraft with a length of ten meters and a wingspan of ten meters was locked by the crosshairs of the sight, then the enemy aircraft filling the first aiming ring indicated a distance of 500 meters, and filling three aiming rings meant the range was around one hundred meters.
According to Harlamov’s experience, firing when the enemy aircraft filled three rings had a high probability of hitting the target.
Now Harlamov was treating the enemy’s artillery position as an enemy aircraft, with the crosshairs set on it.
He fired a burst with his machine gun when the artillery position filled the first ring to observe the fall of shot.
The machine gun rounds landed ten meters “behind” the enemy’s artillery position, exploding on the ground, while a nearby Coachman clasping his chest fell over.
But the horse was fine!
Harlamov suddenly realized he didn’t have time to correct his aim, as he was diving at the enemy and the machine gun rounds hit the ground even closer than before.
In that instant, he simply pulled the trigger, spraying about ten rounds from his machine gun and cannon, then pressed the bomb release button and pulled up.
As he pulled up, he saw where his ammunition landed—the aircraft’s ammunition belt was mixed with tracer rounds, so he could precisely see the impact points.
This strafe mostly hit the artillery position, and the gunners who were focused on firing didn’t have time to take cover, several were knocked down instantly.
Harlamov couldn’t see exactly how many were hit, as he was pulling up and the aircraft’s wings blocked his view—whether it was a Yak-1 or another aircraft, the downward and rearward visibility of the aircraft of that era was terrible, he couldn’t see anything.
That’s why they needed to watch each other’s blind spots.
Harlamov couldn’t see where the bombs had landed, he could only hear the explosions behind him, and he could see the flash of the explosion when he looked back, but he didn’t know where they had hit.
All he could do was ask over the radio, “Did anyone see where my bombs hit?”
“Can’t see, we’ve also dropped bombs and pulled up, we just can’t see the results,” someone responded over the radio.
“Then let’s turn left, everyone turn left and confirm the results.”
Harlamov’s squadron all entered a left turn, and by this time their formation was completely scattered, but the wingmen managed to barely keep up with the lead aircraft.
From above, they clearly saw eight columns of dust, two of which were accompanied by flames. The entire artillery position had stopped firing.
But—at least from the air, the damage to the cannons seemed minimal.
Captain Semyon suggested over the radio, “Let’s call for an artillery strike!”
Harlamov, “Easier said than done, do you know where we are?”
Heavy bombers had specialized navigators who would estimate a flight path based on various instruments and the aircraft’s heading, which would give them an approximate idea of their position and guide the bombers back to base.
Therefore, heavy bombers could fly thousands of kilometers to hit a target.
But a fighter like the Yak-1 only had one pilot, and during the flight, they were entirely focused on surveillance, without time to plot their course on a map.
Fighter pilots generally used landmark navigation to determine their position based on distinctive features on the ground.
Therefore, even if the pilot saw the target, they could only remember the direction of the target relative to a certain landmark.
The Prosen Air Force’s reconnaissance aircraft could direct artillery fire because they had specialized observers who could determine the approximately location of the aircraft and then the coordinates of the targets they discovered.
But the Yak-1 had no such capability and couldn’t directly guide artillery fire in practice.
Unless—they got in contact with someone who had an “external plug-in.”
Just then, Harlamov heard the voice of General Rokossov over his headset, “Harlamov, I heard you’ve found the target. Harlamov, report your position!”