Iron Cross

At about 1 pm on December 10, El Alamein time, a German reconnaissance aircraft discovered the British Mediterranean Fleet that was rapidly advancing westward in the northern waters of Al Alamein and immediately sent a telegram: 4 large ships, suspected to be battleships; 2 medium-sized ships, Suspected heavy cruisers; 8 small ships, all destroyers, acted immediately according to the aerial strangulation plan formulated in the A4 plan.

At 14:38, the British fleet sounded the air defense alarm, but after checking the approaching German aircraft, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They were all Fw-190s and did not carry bombs. Andrew asked doubtfully: "Sir, have the Germans lost their minds? Can they sink us with just fighter jets?"

"They can't sink us, but the ones above us are in danger." Harwood pointed to the P-40 or Tomahawk in the sky. "With the air cover lost, do you still dare to move forward?"

"I..." Andrew wanted to dare, but when he thought of the two battleships of Fleet Z sent to the Far East that were quickly sunk by Japanese bombers without air cover, he felt that he could not be so rash.

"Then we can only ask the headquarters to send more planes to cover us."

"This wastes time, doesn't it?" Harwood frowned and said, "What we lack most now is time. Every extra minute will increase the strength of the Germans."

"Why doesn't General Alexander send us more planes? Even if Cairo and Alexandria don't have them, General Ted's Desert Air Force should have no shortage of planes."

Harwood didn't say much, just sighed. He knew the truth better than Andrew: Although Ted's Desert Air Force had a large number of fighter planes, its aircraft losses had skyrocketed since the two sides fought in Tobruk at the beginning of this month. In just ten days, More than 600 aircraft have been lost. Although more than half of them are bombers, the losses of fighter jets cannot be underestimated. The P-40s do not have an advantage in combat, and their battle damage rate is quite high. The more critical point is that now the desert The main force of the Air Force is still in the west, and it will take time to mobilize it back to respond. Although Alexander assured him that as long as there are P-40s, they will be sent to the fleet to cover them, but he does not know when they will come.

No one was ready to go to war in early December, not the Eighth Army, not the Egyptian side, and not the Mediterranean Fleet - everyone originally expected the warships, aircraft and land forces in Operation Torch to come to Egypt to reinforce them, but they did not expect support. The Germans attacked first before the force could reach them.

"This is really bad..."

The pilots of both sides quickly approached, and 32 P-40s bravely rushed forward to fight with the Fw-190 on the opposite side. The sailors on the warship deck kept cheering for their comrades in the air, and always clapped their hands whenever a plane was shot down. They cheered and cheered for victory, but everyone was shocked when the plane landed on the water - most of the planes that fell were British planes.

17 minutes later, 36 Fw-190s relied on clever tactics and superior aircraft performance to shoot down all 32 P-40s, losing only 9 of them. It is worth mentioning that even if the P-40s were always at a disadvantage, no pilots fled the battlefield. Everyone fought until the last moment until they were shot down.

"Prepare anti-aircraft firepower." Looking at the swooping down German planes, shrill sirens sounded on the warships. Considering that the fighter jets did little damage to the warships and in order to prevent accidental strikes, most of the anti-aircraft guns did not fire just now. Naturally, they will not fire now. There was this concern, and streaks of fire flew up from the warships and headed towards the German aircraft fleet. Unfortunately, the accuracy was poor, and most of the shells missed. Instead, the decks of each ship were strafed by the Fw-190, and there were casualties and casualties on the open-air gun emplacements. Dozens of sailors.

Fifteen minutes later, the Fw-190, which had finished venting, took the initiative to pull up and break away. Andrew held the telegram and said to Harwood thoughtfully: "Sir, the second batch of cover aircraft will arrive in 30 minutes. General Alexander hopes that we will continue to persist - as long as Everything will be easier when it gets dark.”

Harwood looked at the sky and then at the wall clock on the wall. It was now less than 3:15, and there were still 3 hours until dark. He sighed: "That's all we can do. The course and speed remain unchanged." , all ships maintain a high degree of vigilance against air fire."

At 3:27, before our covering aircraft arrived, the British Mediterranean Fleet sounded the air defense alarm again. The lookout post reported that enemy aircraft appeared again in the northwest sky: 4 He-177s under the cover of 12 Bf-109s. down, rushing towards the British Mediterranean Fleet.

"Attention all ships, the enemy planes have bombers this time."

Seeing that it was a large aircraft like the He-177 and there were not many of them, Andrew felt much more relaxed. What he was most afraid of was the large group of Stukas that would pounce on them, which would pose a great threat to the fleet, but the He-177 was not ready for him yet. In the eyes, as long as the officers at the helm are smarter, they will not cause substantial damage to the warship.

But the fleet that came this time was a bit weird. They had been flying at an altitude of more than 5,500 meters, and the altitude did not drop, and the speed was very fast. Looking at the He-177s that kept flying high, Andrew asked doubtfully: "They fly so high Is it useful? Do you really think that high-altitude bombing can hit us?”

Harwood didn't know the whole story, but his intuition told him that the incoming plane was very dangerous, so he once again reminded the ships to pay attention to air defense.

His intuition was right. These He-177s led by Captain Uber were not carrying ordinary aerial bombs, but the latest technology of the Third Reich - the remote-controlled bomb Hs-293.

This is a new equipment developed by the research team led by Junkers engineer Professor Wagner in 1939. It was originally based on the unpowered glide bomb concept proposed by Gustav Schwarz Propeller Factory. By equipping ordinary aerial bombs with light The Hs-293V2 glide bomb was made of high-quality alloy wings and tail fins in May 1940. In view of the fact that the trajectory of the gliding bomb was uncontrollable and the range of action was too short, radio command receiving and transmitting systems were later installed on the bomb and its carrier aircraft, giving the bomb the ability to maneuver and attack, and then the Hs-293V3 controllable gliding bomb was successfully developed. The test results showed that the unpowered Hs-293V3 lacked sufficient speed to penetrate the battleship armor, and it was decided to add a rocket booster to increase the speed and range. The improved model was called Hs-293A0. In January 1942, the improved Hs- 293A1 was put into production, and the KG100 and the French KG40, which have been stationed in the Mediterranean, were the first two units to be equipped with this weapon.

Under Hoffman's request to accelerate missile development, German engineers further increased the improvement of this guided bomb. The engineers improved the new model and called it Hs-293A2, which can be easily hung on an external hardpoint. , the aircraft uses a dedicated engine exhaust duct to preheat the rocket engine before launch. For this kind of smart bomb weighing nearly 600 kilograms, a He-177 can carry four at the same time. In addition to the He-177, the Fw-200, He-111H, Do-217K and Ju-290 can all be carried. The difference is only in the number.

"Sir, the British fleet has been discovered." The navigator shouted excitedly. At this time, the small gray clouds in the sky had gradually dissipated. Looking through the porthole, Uber could clearly spot more than a dozen irregular streaks on the sea northwest of Alamein. Regular parallel tracks - the British fleet has set up a wheel-shaped anti-aircraft array. He moved the wings, and each of the fleet selected a battleship/battlecruiser as the target and began to fly in a straight and level direction. At this time, the aircraft was at a very high altitude and was not afraid of surface anti-aircraft firepower.

"Report, the bomb is ready."

"Very good, 10 seconds to prepare." Captain Uber said as he increased the throttle. The speed of the aircraft became faster and faster until it exceeded 425 kilometers per hour - the minimum speed of the carrier aircraft during launch in order to provide sufficient power for the bomb. It must be more than 400 kilometers,

"10, 9, 8...drop the bomb!"

An Hs-293 ​​immediately fluttered down and almost at the same time, the other three aircraft also dropped a remote-controlled bomb each. Uber could see clearly that the bomb immediately fell downwards in a parabolic trajectory, and he closed the throttle and lowered the flaps as required to reduce the speed of the aircraft to 200 kilometers per hour and maintain level flight, so that the bomber could observe the whereabouts of the bomb. On the track, 12 Bf-109s were guarding the surroundings vigilantly. This was the most dangerous moment for the aircraft.

Under the operation of the bomber, the He-177 sends instructions through the FuG-203 "Kiel" radio transceiver, and the receiver on the remote-controlled bomb adjusts the rudder surface according to the instructions to follow the trajectory of the warship. In order to facilitate visual guidance , there is also a red tracer light on the tail of the bomb that flashes continuously to aid observation. The speed of the bombs was getting faster and faster, getting closer and closer to the ships. Andrew, who was observing on the flagship Renown, was horrified to find that the German bombs could actually turn - he saw that the Rodney on the far right had just turned to the right. The temperature increased by 15 degrees. As a result, the bomb turned dexterously in the air and continued to fly towards us. The Renown also heard shouts one after another, "Damn it, there is a bomb coming towards us!"

"What kind of monster is this..." he cried out in despair. The anti-aircraft gunners sprayed dense fire at the bombs, but could not catch the Hs-293s with strange speed and flexible steering. At this time, the falling speed of the bombs had exceeded 650 kilometers per hour. Facing the white arc waves formed by the evasive movement of the battleships, and the smoke of anti-aircraft shells in the air. The bomber stared at the tracer light on the tail of the Hs-293 ​​while correcting the trajectory and reading the seconds loudly: "...30 seconds, 31 seconds, 32 seconds..."

The first bomb penetrated the front starboard side of the Rodney and exploded violently with a "boom".