Iron Cross

After hearing that the two front-line commanders not only agreed but also added footnotes, others quickly reacted and started to echo and praise. Hoffman was made dizzy by their extravagant words, his face turned red involuntarily, and he quickly said: "You still need to experiment to know the appropriate tilt angle and layout position, and you also need to re-research the tactics. It's not as simple as me just drawing it on the map."

"The most important thing is creativity. With creativity, it is not difficult to take action." Camhuber patted his chest and assured, "Please rest assured, head of state, I will arrange engineers to design and verify tomorrow, no! Tonight, and I guarantee that within two weeks Complete the modification task of an aircraft within 10 seconds, just this, this..."

The dignified Air Defense Director and Air Force Lieutenant General actually became coquettish: "...can you give me this design drawing?"

Hoffman looked at the sketch he had made casually, and at Kamhuber's helpless expression, and suddenly felt dumbfounded. He felt that the design sketch looked a bit funny no matter how he looked at it. I thought so, but the pen in my hand did not stop. I signed my name and handed it over. Kamhuber carefully took it and put it in his briefcase. Before he could sit down, his adjutant suddenly knocked on the door and walked in, muttering in his ears for a while.

Kamhuber's eyes changed again and again, and his face was a little ugly, but he decided to tell the truth: "The Air Defense Command reported: A large group of British aircraft have crossed France and headed straight for the Ruhr Industrial Area. We are ready to respond. However, there was a group of about 4 bombers that might have gotten lost, and their route was very strange. Judging from the route, they were heading towards Berlin. Considering that there were not many bombers, in order to avoid panic among the people, they were not going to sound the air defense siren and directly called in the night fighters. If you go with the anti-aircraft artillery group to kill them, of course Berlin’s security will not be a problem.”

Jeshunek said quickly: "For the sake of caution, would you like the head of state and everyone to take shelter in the air-raid basement for a while?"

"Not going!" Hoffman waved his hand and laughed, "There are only four aircraft, what threat can they pose? I don't have even this little confidence in the Air Force. If an air attack comes, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force will be the first Running into air raid shelters, what do the German people think of us? Go to the nearest command center and see for yourself how you conduct operations. It would be ridiculous for me to be the commander-in-chief of the Air Force but not understand anything about air force operations."

Surrounded by the guard flag, everyone quickly rushed to Du Belize near Berlin. This is a very typical air defense combat headquarters. Day and night air defense rely on command orders here. The main building has a construction area of ​​2,500 square meters per floor and a height of 12 meters. There is an annex building with a height of 9 meters next to it, and a 4-meter-deep underground floor below. These buildings are all constructed of high-grade reinforced concrete. The thickness of the cement layer reaches 1 meter, which can prevent direct hits from heavy aerial bombs. The amount of concrete used by a single command headquarters is as high as 33,000 cubic meters. Now Hoffman finally understood what Jeshunek meant when he said that there were not enough resources: because this kind of headquarters is not just one or two, but is located all over the main areas of Germany and the Western Front. So far, more than 20 of them have been built. , according to Kamhuber's plan to build a tighter air defense network, the density will continue to increase.

After receiving the news, Colonel William, the head of the command center, had already greeted him at the door with several main staff officers. Under his leadership, everyone went directly to the basement, where the core command hub was located. Walking into the hall, Hoffman promptly stopped Colonel William's idea of ​​announcing the arrival of the head of state, and just watched with his eyes. Soon everyone was intimidated by the huge posture inside: in the middle of the hall were 6-7 rows of theater-like stepped seats, each distinguished by a different number. It was full of people, and everyone was wearing headphones. , and there is a phone in front. With Kamhuber's introduction, Hoffman learned that these are called guides, each responsible for contacting the radar station in charge, and then using light point projection to mark them on the map. The red light point represents the enemy, and the blue light point represents the enemy. It represents our own fighter. A huge aviation map was displayed on the wall in front of them, 12 meters long and 9 meters high. It was clearly labeled and everything was very clear. Hoffman took a closer look and found that the key points included cities, airports, radar stations, rivers, core factory areas, etc. Another area of ​​the hall is the deployment area for command officers. The deployment and preparation of night fighter units is recorded on the blackboard and map, including important information such as base location and takeoff time.

Everyone was busy working. Although the phone kept ringing, it was in order and no one seemed to notice the arrival of Hoffman and his party. Seeing such a scene, Hoffman couldn't help but think of the working scene of the stock exchange. The two were so similar, of course, the latter would be more fanatical.

Hoffmann found that there was a woman next to the young soldiers in many seats, also wearing a military uniform. Kamhuber explained sheepishly: "Since the Führer personally ordered to expand the scope of women's participation in military activities and provide human resources for the empire, Later, we recruited volunteers from the Air Force Women's Auxiliary Corps, hoping that they would be qualified to take on the role of command instructors. We conducted a week of surprise training for them in the early stage. What you see now are the outstanding students in the training. First. The batch passed the assessment and came to the command center for one-on-one practical learning. Facts have proved that the head of state made a very wise decision. The ladies got started quickly and gave full play to their skills of meticulousness and patience. They can do better than men if there are enough manpower. , I plan to replace all the guides with women’s auxiliary members in a while.”

Keitel and Speer held back their laughter, while Jeschonnek and Galland turned a blind eye and were not surprised.

"You did a great job, Kammhuber. The women of the empire are our precious wealth. We must make full use of them after the general mobilization." Hoffman affirmed his approach, "Stalin had already put women into the war. In this regard, we are late."

As they were talking, a female guide suddenly discovered Hoffman and others. She covered her mouth in surprise. After a while, she reacted and reflexively put her legs together, raised her right hand and saluted: "Hi~Hitler!"

"Helen..." A man next to him made a dissatisfied voice, "Don't make a fuss. Just salute when you meet an officer. There is no need to salute. If everyone does this, the order of the command center will..."

Before he could say the word "chaos", his head turned around involuntarily and caught a glimpse of Hoffman and others. He was immediately shocked and jumped up like a spring, with his legs stretched straight and his right arm raised high. "Hi~Hitler!" The sound was so loud that it startled the entire command hall. Now everyone noticed that the Führer had come, and they all stood up in a hurry to salute, shouting incessantly. Even the officers in the nearby combat command area were alarmed and ran over in a hurry. Now the scene was really chaotic, and Hoffman had to raise his right hand to respond.

Kamhuber, who was not sure whether to laugh or cry, glared at the young sergeant with dissatisfaction, raised his voice and said to the audience: "It is a great honor for the Führer to come in person to inspect the air defense command work. Now please keep quiet and return to your position to continue working..."

The Germans' discipline and obedience spirit are very outstanding. Kamhuber gave an order, and the entire command hall immediately returned to calm. Now everyone knew that the Führer was watching them, and they worked harder. Looking at the young and enthusiastic faces, Hoffman made up his mind in his heart to rescue these young people from defeat.

At this moment, in the night sky at an altitude of 5,500 meters, four Lancaster heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force were flying alone in a formation, each carrying 3,000 kilograms of aerial bombs in its belly. Their original goal was to bomb the Ruhr industrial area, but now it seemed that they were obviously lost, because their route was heading straight for the core of the Third Reich - the Berlin air defense network.