Luftrauser

First Successful Mission

As we exited to the airfield, Captain Galland walked up and put pilots into pairs for each plane. "Hans your partner will be Wilhelm Graf, a excellent pilot" "Hello" I said "No time for Hello's just get in the machine gun cockpit" Wilhelm said with a look in his eye. "Fine" I responded. In less than a minute we were almost ready for take off and feeling the air after lift off when you outside of the plane is so cold. Soon we were flying in formation with the other fighters, who trailed closely behind. We were probably in the air for more than half an hour in cold silence when out of nowhere Wilhelm yelled on the radio "We are almost reached your destination,prepare sirens for full power." "Hans"Wilhelm said "Get ready for the dive" and out of nowhere the plane dipped straight down and was practically falling. "Destroy the anti aircraft guns,then aim for the train" Wilhelm said. Suddenly we lifted up just in time to avoid the flak from the cannons. We then raced above the train and tail gunners which I was one were to destroy the flak can in with our heavy duty machine guns. After passing over a cannon I lifted the trigger and fired back. I aimed for the barrel of the cannon so that it was permanently taken out of action. Row after row we flew over the train a fired at the cannons. Finally the last one blew up and we could then aim for the train itself. Stuka pilots dropped there bombs on the train carts and all were on fire. Wilhelm was firing at the train from the back which has no effect and in the distance someone spotted a tunnel and if we didn't destroy the train quick,we would have lost the mission. "Wilhelm, aim from the front of the train" I yelled but completely ignored me. One thing about trains is if you hit them in the front engine, they will instantly explode and was going to aim for that after we passed over the train again. When it was our turn to fire, I loaded in high explosive bullets and prepared to fire. When we passed over the train I oped fore on it front right wheel. The train's wheels instantly feel off and it tipped over to its side and grinned into the cold frozen dirt and exploded. "Damn Hans did you do that?" Wilhelm said "Why yes it was me" I responded "Good job,I'll report this back to Captain Galland and see how he thinks of this". After the celebration we prepared for the long flight home to the airfield back to Berlin.