"Damn it, the German aircraft are flying too high. We can't reach them at all!" a Bolshevik Air Force pilot said helplessly. Although he had already climbed to an altitude of eight thousand meters, he was still a long way below the German Air Force bomber formation.
"Try again and see if you can climb a little higher. If you can get above nine thousand meters, perhaps you can use the machine guns to attack the undersides of the German bombers!" an officer said.
"Comrade Major, if I keep risking a climb, the engine may stall. Then I'll fall out of the sky!" the pilot said in Panic. He had no desire to attempt such a dangerous maneuver. One slight misstep, and he could plummet straight down.
"Carry out the order!" the major said coldly.
They were flying American-supplied P-40 fighters, equipped with radio communications that allowed the Commander's orders to reach every pilot. Had they been flying I-16 fighters, they would have had to rely on signal flares to relay commands.
Yet even the American P-40 fighters were still powerless against the German Air Force bomber formation flying above ten thousand meters.
Though deeply unwilling, the Bolshevik pilots continued climbing. He watched the altimeter anxiously, terrified that the fighter's engine would fail because of the excessive altitude.
When he reached nine thousand meters, the engine immediately began making strange noises. Then even the propeller stopped turning. Having lost power, the aircraft instantly plunged toward the ground.
"Damn it, my engine has stalled!" the pilot screamed in Panic.
To save his life, the pilot chose to bail out. The aircraft crashed to the ground and became a heap of scrap metal.
Seeing this, the other Bolshevik Air Force pilots immediately descended and no longer dared to climb. They did not