At two in the afternoon on March 31, while the 4th Air Corps' German 41st Fighter Wing was escorting the 42nd Bomber Group on a mission, they suddenly spotted a large number of aircraft flying in from the southern sky.
Those aircraft moved at a snail's pace and looked extremely clumsy. They were clearly different from the German military's single-seat planes.
"Anglo-French Allied Forces aircraft spotted. We don't know whether they're French Farman F.20s or British F.E.2bs," said the Squadron Leader of the German 41st Fighter Wing.
The appearances of those two aircraft models were simply too similar. Faced with the immense pressure of the German Air Corps, Britain and France chose to
He immediately pulled out a flare gun and fired a signal flare. The flare meant that the bombers were to drop their bombs at once, then withdraw.
Although German aircraft were more advanced than those of the Anglo-French Allied Forces, bombers were undoubtedly extremely cumbersome. Using bombers to fight enemy fighters was clearly unwise.
Upon receiving the order, the bombers of the 42nd Bomber Group immediately released their bombs and withdrew from the battlefield. At this point, they no longer cared whether they could hit their targets accurately. Hastening away from the battlefield and clearing the airspace for the fighters was what mattered most.
After the bomber group began withdrawing, the Squadron Leader of the German 41st Fighter Wing fired another signal flare. It meant that every pilot in the fighter wing was to prepare for battle.
Since radio miniaturization technology had yet to succeed, air battles could still only be commanded through such old-fashioned methods. It was somewhat crude, but sufficient.
More than forty German Mark II fighter planes charged toward the incoming enemy aircraft.
Although the Anglo-French Allied Forces had deployed more than a hundred