afterglow

Chapter 644: Export and self-use; the enemy can go there, and so can I!

Since the Eurasian Kestrel is unreliable, what should be used to replace it?

Faced with endless air threats, the Ming army's demand for powerful interceptors became increasingly urgent.

The Ming Air Force chose the Shanque without hesitation and required corresponding improvements to be made to it, developing an interceptor with fierce firepower that could efficiently kill invading heavy bombers.

The Type 2 fighter was positioned as a front-line fighter and airport defender, because it was well aware that the Ming Dynasty's aviation industry was inferior to that of Britain and the United States, and it was impossible to achieve perfection in all aspects for the time being. Forcibly pursuing balance would inevitably lead to being inferior to others in all aspects.

Therefore, the design team chose to give up some performance and focus on one aspect, at least to achieve the ultimate in this aspect.

The Titmouse is quite excellent in terms of power-to-weight ratio. Its small body and high horsepower design bring extremely terrifying climbing capabilities.

The double-row eighteen-cylinder radial engine can provide surging power. When using German C3 fuel and starting the water-methanol mixture afterburner, the engine has a power of 2300 horsepower. The combat take-off weight of the Jaguar is only more than three tons, the power-to-weight ratio is quite high, and the medium and low altitude climb rate is as high as 24~27m/s.

This climbing capability is very impressive, one-third stronger than the current Mustang and three times that of the Republic Thunder.

Because of this strength, the Chickadee is very suitable for the mission of interceptor.

When intercepting high-flying heavy bombers, the chickadees can climb to the predetermined altitude faster and prepare in advance, greatly widening the window period.

What's ridiculous is that the Germans acted even faster than the Ming Air Force.

The Ministry of War was still summarizing feedback and preparing to issue documents and give instructions when the military attaché of the German Embassy in Yingtian came to the door first.

The German side hopes that China will deliver 100 Tigris as quickly as possible - no more than one and a half months, and then deliver another 200 in batches.

The Ministry of War’s first reaction was surprise and vigilance.

No, why are you paying so close attention?
The Germans were also helpless. The oil leakage and resonance problems of their own Jumo-213 engine had not yet been resolved. As a result, the Fw-190D, which they had high hopes for, had been delayed in mass production. At the moment, there was really no good high-altitude fighter.

The strategic bombing of Britain and the United States can be said to have hurt 800 enemies and 1,000 of their own people. Hundreds of heavy bombers were shot down, but the large number of bombs they dropped did not cause significant damage to the military industry. It was a case of much ado about nothing.

However, this is difficult to explain to the public. Being bombed for a few months might be able to inspire people through propaganda, but if they are bombed every day like this for a year or two, it is unknown whether the morale of the military and civilians can be maintained.

Because of this, the anxious Germans wanted to buy hundreds of fighter jets as an emergency measure.

For the Ming people, it was indeed difficult to deliver the aircraft in one and a half months. The efficiency of the newly-commissioned production line was still very low, far from the theoretical production capacity. Moreover, not all the aircraft manufactured during this period could be used for export. After all, the Hawaii front was in urgent need of new aircraft that could compete with the Mustang and the Corsair.

But it can be seen that the Germans do have urgent needs, and they have even finally agreed to provide guidance on the manufacturing process of high-grade aviation gasoline, which they have been refusing for a long time. As for the specific payment method...

GBP?

Copper?

gold?

oil?

Apparently there was a more universally accepted equivalent during wartime - dynamite.

The German side proposed to use RDX as the settlement currency, which was actually barter. Each Jaguar was not equipped with weapons but came with two spare parts worth 1.2 tons. In addition, some spare engines were ordered. The rigorous Germans finally calculated the total weight to be 398.6 tons.

This can be said to be quite generous, and it can be said to be spending money lavishly.

RDX has excellent performance and its output is far lower than TNT. Deshet currently produces only more than 2,000 tons per month nationwide, while Ming only produces more than 1,000 tons.

The payment of RDX is secondary. It is good to have it, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have it. TNT, ammonium picrate and ethylenedinitramine are the mainstream explosives.

The Ming upper echelons were considering whether it was appropriate to delay providing new aircraft to the Hawaii front for more than a month.

C3 fuel is a high-grade aviation gasoline used by the Germans, usually only used for fighter jets; bombers are second, and are equipped with B4 fuel; trainer aircraft and service aircraft are the worst, and are equipped with A3 fuel.

如果按照英美划分标准，这种C3燃料理想状况下可以达到95/125水平，可是仍比不了英美使用的100/150优质航空汽油。

The best gasoline used by the Ming Air Force today is No. 94 aviation gasoline. The No. 100 gasoline imported from the United States before the war has long been consumed, and the gasoline captured during the war is generally provided to ace pilots first.

In order to catch up with the air combat situation, not only efforts should be made on the design of the aircraft itself, but fuel is also an indispensable part. After all, if the Mustang is filled with low-grade gasoline, its performance will probably plummet to the point where it will not even be able to beat the Type 36.

The Air Force discussed this for a long time, and finally the minority obeyed the majority.

From a long-term perspective, high-grade aviation gasoline is more important. Moreover, Hawaiian Airlines is only at a disadvantage in the war, and the exchange ratio is not good, but it is not on the verge of collapse.

On September 9, 13 Type 53 medium bombers took off from Dutch Harbor and attacked Nome, damaging and destroying several XB-29s, but also suffered heavy losses due to lack of fighter escort.

On September 9, the Ministry of War approved the export of the first batch of 16 Type 100 fighter jets.

On September 9, 17 Type 36 heavy bombers of the Air Force's First Heavy Bombardment Squadron moved to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.

Unlike the European battlefield, where air strikes on civilian industrial targets had long occurred, the war between Ming and the United States had always been relatively regular. Excluding accidental bombings and deviations, the war had never affected civilians.

The US military's air strikes on the Kuwu Island oil fields broke this fragile rule. Needless to say, the Ming army was now ordered to carry out a retaliatory counterattack.

Because they were too expensive, the Ming Air Force had only a few heavy bombers in service, totaling no more than a hundred.

These more than 100 aircraft are divided into two models, one is the first year model (C) produced by Shanghai Changyang Company, and the other is the first year model (Z) produced by Hangzhou Zhongsheng Company. The performance of the two is similar.

Changyang Company's product is a double vertical tail aircraft with a light load range of 6200 km and a maximum bomb load of 4 tons. The purchase price is 35.2 yen, and a total of 90 aircraft were ordered.

Zhongsheng Company's product is a single vertical tail aircraft with a light load range of 5400 km, a maximum bomb load of 5.5 tons, a purchase price of 38 yen, and a total of 42 aircraft were ordered.

Heavy bombers are expensive to manufacture, with one equivalent to five fighters or two medium bombers.

This also indirectly confirms the wealth of Britain and the United States - historically, more than 691 Avro-17 Lancasters were produced, more than 24 B-s were produced, and more than B-s were produced. During the strategic bombing of Germany, tens of thousands of these heavy bombers were damaged.

The Ming Air Force was essentially a tactical air force, and its combat strategy did not focus much on strategic bombing, so there was no plan to deploy too many of them.

The distance from the Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island controlled by the Ming army to Seattle is about 3,100 kilometers, which is just within the light-load range of the White Stork - Type Yuan (C) bomber.

After careful planning, the air strike was quickly carried out.

"The enemy bombed us, so they will definitely be on guard for revenge. This is not an easy mission for us, so we must be careful."

Lieutenant Colonel Hu Jian, who led the team personally, once again emphasized the nature of the mission to the pilots, and then finally reviewed the route, target, formation, and emergency plan.

After he finished speaking, he faced the dozens of pairs of eyes in front of him, put one hand on his waist and waved the other hand to encourage: "In short, if the enemy can go, why can't we? Everyone, take your positions and get ready to go!"

"Long live!" "If the enemy can go, I can go too!"

Everyone responded excitedly in unison, then trotted out of the house and ran towards the reinforced apron near the runway.

The mechanics completed the pre-takeoff inspection in the early morning, and the ground crew is now refueling the aircraft and mounting bombs.

In the early morning, the sun rises and the mist gradually dissipates.

Then, one white stork after another slowly drove from the apron to the runway under guidance.

The four engines were running at full capacity, and the three-bladed variable pitch propeller dragged the nearly thirty-ton behemoth to accelerate and glide, and finally left the ground and flew towards the rising sun in the east...

"This Zhou Kexing has been on the front line for too long and is full of resentment. He complains about this and that all day long."

Zhu Lingjing looked through the message sent back and said with a smile.

Because there is a time difference of more than ten hours with the West Nine District, it is almost late at night in Yingtianfu, the capital.

"Tens of thousands of troops are stranded on that island and are in a dilemma. The pressure is not small. Moreover, they can't eat or sleep well when fighting overseas, so anxiety is inevitable." Su Yiyi comforted.

While the two were talking, another servant came and knocked on the door.

"Enter."

The attendant bowed and reported: "Your Majesty, Dutch Harbor has sent a telegram saying that the long-range bomber group has set off and is expected to arrive in nine hours."

After the attendant left, Zhu Lingjing looked at the clock on the table and said leisurely, "That's great, let's go to bed early tonight."

Most bombers these days do not have a cabin pressurization system, and the temperature and air pressure inside and outside the aircraft are almost the same.

Because of the drag effect of thin air, flying at medium and high altitudes is more fuel-efficient, but it also means that crew members must endure severe cold and lack of oxygen.

Fortunately, the Ming Air Force had standard woolen hats and electric heating suits, which helped prevent crew members from frostbite. The downside was that they would become as fat as a bear and quite clumsy after putting them on.

After about nine hours of flight, the bomber formation flew over Vancouver Island at 16:35 local time in Seattle, and was only about 140 km away from Seattle.

"Look! The strait on the east side of the island leads to the American continent. To the south is Seattle, and to the north is Vancouver..."

"Enemy plane! Enemy plane! Eleven o'clock!"

For the purpose of homeland defense, the US military established a comprehensive radar warning network on the west coast early on, consisting of a large number of SCR-270/271 early warning radars, from Seattle in the north to San Diego in the south.

But what’s interesting is that the first to intercept was not the US military, but the Royal Canadian Air Force.

A dozen Hurricane fighters painted with red and blue concentric circle logos flew from the east of the formation. They climbed above the formation and then swooped down one after another.

Fortunately, the Hurricane, like many British aircraft, was only equipped with 7.7mm aviation machine guns. Although there were eight of them, their destructive power was indeed not enough to effectively deal with the tough and thick-skinned heavy bombers.

The American fighter planes arrived late, but the threat was much greater because in addition to the thirty or so P-40s there were also some P-38 Lightnings.

The high-explosive tracer bullets fired by the latter's 20mm aviation cannon on the nose had obviously a stronger effect. Four P-38s took turns firing fiercely at the wing of a white stork, and then passed through the Ming army's aircraft group at high speed.

I saw the wings of the white stork burst into dazzling flames, and the expanding fireball swallowed up half of the plane. The aluminum alloy quickly lost its strength under the high temperature, and then the wing beam twisted and broke, and the whole plane fell downward in a rotation...

U.S. fighter jets tried their best to stop these behemoths from flying towards Seattle. They attacked the fleet at high speed, firing and rushing around in an attempt to disrupt the formation.

The Ming army bomber formation fought hard and gradually approached the city of Seattle.

The No. 1 plane that Captain Hu Jian was riding in was lucky enough not to receive too much damage. There were many bullet holes on the fuselage that allowed air to leak out, and a row of clearly visible bullet holes was also made on the left main wing.

Two P-40s cut in from the four o'clock position, and the machine gunner on the right side immediately fired at them fiercely with a 12.8mm machine gun. The hot shell casings emitting blue smoke were thrown out with a clatter, and by the time they fell to the cabin floor, they were already cold.

In a flash, two P-40s also began to fire. The dense 12.7mm machine gun bullets instantly made dense small holes in the fuselage. The machine gunner screamed and fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.

The flight mechanic stumbled to find the first aid kit, tore open the machine gunner's bulky electric heating suit and tried to bandage him, but found that the latter had no breathing and pulse.

At this time, anti-aircraft fire attacked, and many black and gray smoke clouds suddenly appeared around the fleet.

A large number of M1 90mm anti-aircraft guns were firing fiercely - this type of gun was later also used on the M26 Pershing heavy tank.

"See! It's the shipyard!"

"Approach at a constant speed! Prepare to drop bombs!"

The Seattle Tacoma Shipyard is right in front of us, and everyone can clearly see that five escort aircraft carriers are being built simultaneously.

The bombardier leaned over the sight and aligned the crosshairs on the target of the shipyard.

"Aim! Get to work!"

"Blow it up!"

The bomb bay door opened and four aerial bombs fell one after another.

一共有14架白鹳向塔科马造船厂投弹，丢下了28枚250㎏航空杀爆弹和112枚50㎏稠油烧夷弹。

More than a dozen buildings collapsed, and many more were affected by fire and shock waves.

Because of the special wind resistance design, the anti-explosive bomb will land later, so the explosion shock wave will blow the flame of the incendiary bomb farther.

Prince William was the last of the Borg-class escort carriers. She was only a week away from completion when she was hit squarely by a bomb in the middle of the flight deck, which went straight into the interior and destroyed the steam turbine.

Because their formation was impacted by US fighter jets, several white storks were separated from the formation and attacked valuable targets on their own.

The Seattle Gas Company and the Army Recruit Training Camp were both bombed, but only a few buildings were destroyed, and the few casualties were concentrated among the onlookers.

Interestingly, Vancouver was also bombed - two White Storks fell behind and lost their way, mistaking Vancouver for Seattle, and then bombed the docks and shipyards, killing 6 people and injuring 25.

At this time, the moon was above the treetops in Washington, D.C., and the news that Seattle had been attacked by air was transmitted to the White House like lightning.

"Emergency! Mr. President, I have to tell you some very unfortunate news - just ten minutes ago, Seattle was attacked by no less than thirty Chinese bombers."

[The Type 2 fighter/fighter plane is finished. 】

(End of this chapter)