The Undaunted (Book 2 of The Undesirables)

Chapter 20: The Bell Over Stalingrad

Recoil from the heavy automatic cannon made the Yak-1 shudder underneath her. An instant later, Bel saw the JU-88 Stuka dive-bomber burst into flames. She knew there was a pilot inside that German aircraft, a dead man possibly leaving behind a widow, or orphans, or a grieving mother and father. Bel knew it, but she didn't feel it. She felt joy. It wasn't the joy of victory, it wasn't the joy of scoring her first combat kill, it wasn't the joy of success. It was the joy of fighting back, of helping to protect the lone man with the rifle on the rooftop, and protecting the other brave men defending the ruined apartment building below. They were Russian soldiers, defending Russian land. Until today they had been defending her. And now, finally, she was returning the favor.

Another Stuka dive bomber was hit, and it spun out of control. To her right a third lost its wing, shorn off by high-explosive shells from Lenka's cannon, and Bel saw a parachute bloom as the pilot ejected. Then the remaining bombers were past them, their number already cut in half, hopelessly outmatched against the Russian pilots' agile Yak-1 fighters.

Bel, Lenka and Katia had arrived across the river from Stalingrad more than two weeks ago, on October 10. They'd been re-assigned to 437th Fighter Regiment, a unit that had, until that day, been all male. But so many Russian men had already died in the skies over Stalingrad that Stavka had become desperate for pilots. They decided that since the Army was already integrated, the Airforce should be, too.

The male pilots hadn't been welcoming to the women. They gave the girls the cold shoulder, barely acknowledging their presence. At first the chill reception angered Bel. She took it for sexism and vowed with Lenka that the two of them would prove they were the equal of any man. But as they began to settle in, they realized it was not misogyny that had motivated the unfriendliness, but pessimism. The few pilots that remained in 437th were haunted survivors of a terrible defeat. They, alone, had managed to live when most of their comrades had died. They'd seen new recruits join their regiment, and they'd seen those new recruits murdered as they flew sortie after sortie against dwindling odds. The veteran pilots didn't ignore Bel and her friends because they were women, they ignored them because they were green. They were fresh meat about to be thrown to the German wolves. They were unlikely to survive. The veteran pilots had learned that befriending new recruits only made the pain of their deaths that much more difficult to bear. That realization made Bel renew her vow with Lenka. Together they may not survive, but they promised each other that they would none the less find a way to help turn back the German assault.

Now, more than two weeks later, they'd fulfilled that vow. They'd each downed a Stuka dive-bomber, probably saving the men defending that apartment building. Now, no matter what else happened, they could die with the satisfying knowledge that their lives had had meaning.

The remaining Stuka pilots knew they were outmatched and began a laborious turn to escape. Bel's little patrol of six Yaks could easily run them down and destroy them, but the voice of her male commander, Major Volkov, squawked over the radio in warning. "Messerschmitt," he announced, "ten o'clock high."

Bel looked up and to her left. Sure enough, six black shadows dotted the gray sky. She couldn't tell what they were at this distance, she couldn't even tell that they were planes. But she trusted Volkov's experienced eye, and it made sense that that they would be Messershmitt, anyway. Messershmitt was the nickname given to the infamous Bf-109, German's famed fighter that ruled the skies from Paris to Stalingrad. Unlike the Stukas, which were designed for ground attack, Messershmitt were dog-fighting specialists, at least the equal of Russia's agile Yak-1s. They were coming to protect the dive-bombers and re-establish German air superiority.

At Major Volkov's command the Yak-1s snapped into formation and began to climb. Height had been a tactical advantage since before the time of the ancient Pharoahs, and modern air combat was no different. As fast as a Yak could fly, it could fly faster in a dive with the hand of gravity pushing at its back.