The Rise of the Third Reich

On the morning of May 1, the German Air Force, which rarely entered the skies over the British Isles to fight during the day, departed from its normal practice and began an unprecedented daytime bombing campaign against 10 counties along the southern coast of England.

Starting at 9 a.m. that day, a group of more than 3,000 bombers took off from air bases in northern France and Belgium, escorted by Fokker Zero, Fw-190 and the multi-purpose fighter He219 that had just entered mass production not long ago. 20 assault waves were launched, attacking all airports, roads, coastal forts, and areas that may be troop gathering areas from Cornwall to Norfolk.

The top priority of these German aircraft bombings was the line from Dover to Folkestone, close to the Dover Strait. Of course, this is also the area with the most stringent air defense on the entire north coast of the English Channel, bar none.

The British intelligence department is famous for its high efficiency. In this time and space, due to the emergence of the Stasi (the predecessor of the German Central Security Service) and Hersman's hiding of the Enigma telegraph machine, the British MI5 and MI6 didn't have much success, but pinpointing where the German landing convoys were gathering was a piece of cake.

In fact, even without the contribution of MI5 and MI6 agents, the British High Command could have guessed that the German landing fleet must pass through the Strait of Dover. Because all the shipbuilding bases of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark are east of the Strait of Dover.

Although the shipbuilding bases of France and Italy are either on the Atlantic coast or the Mediterranean coast, they are not blocked by the Strait of Dover. However, France had an ambiguous attitude before the Battle of Hawaii and was not determined to land German ships. It was impossible to build military ships for Germany.

Although Italy has long been a loyal ally of Germany, the Italians have their own shipbuilding plans. After the victory in the Mediterranean Campaign, the ambitious Mussolini ordered the resumption of the shipbuilding plan that had been interrupted due to the world war. At the same time, he started construction of two battleships with a standard displacement of 45,000 tons (an improved version of the Veneto class). Gustus class), 2 aircraft carriers with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons (improved on the basis of the Seydlitz), 3 heavy cruisers with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons, and 6 light cruisers with a standard displacement of 10,000 tons , as well as 20 destroyers, 20 torpedo ships and 60 submarines.

Therefore, the slipways of Italy's own shipyards are now filled with their own warships, and there is no spare capacity to build ships for Germany.

Therefore, German landing ships, especially large landing ships (a 1,500-ton T-type ship is considered large) will inevitably be built by shipyards in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. It is impossible for these large landing ships to enter the Atlantic Ocean through the Denmark Strait unless the Germans build high-speed landing ships with a maximum speed of 278 knots at all costs. Otherwise, this kind of slow boat with more than ten knots will have no choice but to risk breaking through the Strait of Dover!

The focused bombing of the Dover area by German aircraft immediately gave the British base camp an ominous smell - the Germans either wanted to attack Dover directly, or they wanted their landing fleet to pass through the narrow strait.

No matter which possibility it is, it means that the battle to defend the British homeland has begun!

"Have the reconnaissance planes discovered it? Can they find the German landing fleet?" Fatty Qiu, who was personally sitting in the wartime cabinet headquarters, immediately asked the question.

Although the British have now lost air superiority over the Channel, they still have huge air power. The British high command has not given up the idea of ​​launching an air strike against the German landing fleet. If they want to launch an air strike, of course they must first find the German fleet and find out the situation.

"Something has been discovered," Viscount Portal, Chief of Staff of the Royal Air Force, immediately replied. "Our Mosquito aircraft discovered the German fleet north of the Dutch territorial waters. The fleet is currently not far away from the Strait of Dover. To 80 nautical miles, it is expected to pass this evening.”

"The Grand Fleet? Passing through the Strait of Dover tonight?" Churchill immediately asked, "Are there any battleships and aircraft carriers?"

He now knows that the main force of the German High Seas Fleet has crossed the Denmark Strait and entered the Atlantic Ocean, but who can guarantee that no newly built battleships and aircraft carriers have joined the German Navy in the past few months?

The Germans now own almost 70% of Europe's shipbuilding capabilities! Although it cannot compare with the United States, it is no longer an opponent that the UK can compete with.

"I still do not know yet……"

Viscount Porter's answer stunned Churchill, "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Mr. Prime Minister, our reconnaissance planes have no way to get close to the German fleet now. They can only conduct reconnaissance on the periphery..."

"What, what?" Churchill was shocked, "Can't get close? What's going on? Can't mosquito planes even work?"

"Prime Minister, our Mosquito aircraft seems to have encountered a strong opponent today." Viscount Porter said very helplessly, "Germany has a twin-engine high-altitude fighter with powerful firepower and has shot down many Mosquito aircraft. Unless we send out a large number of aircraft to break through, it will be difficult to break through the obstruction of German aircraft."

He paused and then said: "But dispatching a large number of aircraft means launching an attack, and now is not the time. The Royal Air Force is preparing to wait for the German fleet to pass through the Strait of Dover before attacking, because the Dover Fort and the Royal Navy's submarines The German fleet will be weakened first, and our Royal Air Force will be responsible for the final blow."

Churchill had already known the plan mentioned by Viscount Portal, and he originally believed that the Royal Air Force could make achievements in anti-ship warfare in the English Channel. But now the Germans suddenly came up with a new fighter jet that could defeat the Mosquito aircraft, which cast a shadow on Churchill's mind.

The British Mosquito was probably the only ace in the Royal Air Force's hands in early 1942. Although it cannot be said that it can come and go at will, the three German high-altitude fighters cannot do anything to it.

The three first high-altitude fighter aircraft equipped by the Germans, Bf-109G, Fw-190B and Fw-190C, are all emergency models (the Fw-190D in the previous article was changed to Fw-190B/C, and the Fw-190D was changed to test flight , Ta-152/153 is changed to the early stage of development). The ceiling and speed at very high altitudes are not as good as the Mosquito, so it can only barely attack the Mosquito, and it is difficult to shoot it down.

However, this situation has fundamentally changed with the entry into service of Germany's new twin-engine heavy fighter He-219. The He-219 is equipped with the DB603 series of high-power engines developed by Mercedes-Benz. In particular, the high-altitude model of the He-219 is equipped with the DB603G liquid-cooled engine with a three-speed supercharger. The ceiling has reached 12,700 meters, exceeding all models of mosquito aircraft currently in production. The He-219 is also faster than the Mosquito aircraft at high altitudes. It can fly at a speed of 700 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 8,900 meters (without weapons and less fuel).

Moreover, the He-219 series of high-altitude fighters also have a cannon and two 30mm cannons (the main mass-produced firepower configuration), and the firepower is so powerful that it is outrageous. Not to mention the wooden-shell Mosquito, even the B-17, known as the Flying Fortress, cannot withstand the attack of the He-219.

In addition, the He-219 has a very long range, reaching 2,000 kilometers. The range is not insignificant for this kind of high-altitude and high-speed interceptor aircraft, because the German Air Force now needs to protect a large area of ​​the sky. When it is not known where the enemy bombers will break in, the long range is given to He- The possibility of centralized use of the 219 fleet - Historically, because there were not enough high-altitude fighter jets with long range, the Germans were unable to gather a sufficient number of high-altitude fighter jets to intercept the large Allied fleet.

In addition, the long-range He-219 can sometimes serve as an escort aircraft, and it also has good night combat capabilities.

For example, today Lieutenant Manfred Murray, the squadron commander of the 10th Night Fighter Regiment belonging to the 12th Luftwaffe of the Luftwaffe, led 16 He-219 aircraft to cover two squadrons of Ju.288 night high-altitude bombers. At dusk on May 1st, when it was almost dark, we flew over Dover on the north coast of the English Channel.

At this time, the daytime air battle has ended, and now it is the turn of the night aircraft equipped with the radar FuG212 "Richstein" C1 airborne radar to show off its skills.

"The current altitude is 11,000. The Dover Fortress Group is below. Can it still be seen?" Lieutenant Murray turned on the airborne radio and began to talk to Squadron Leader Hein of the 8th High Altitude Bombing Aviation Regiment, which also belongs to the 12th Air Force. Captain Rich Leatherman called, the latter was the commander in chief of today's air raid.

"The outline of the fortress can barely be seen clearly, but the armored turret cannot be seen clearly... The British seem to have camouflaged the turret, and maybe there are a few false targets."

It was almost dark now, visibility was not high, and the distance of 11,000 meters was too far. From this height, the huge armored turret was about the size of a matchbox.

"Would you like to fly lower?"

"No need," Captain Leatherman replied. "We'll wait for the Brits to fire. If they fire they'll be exposed, and then we can attack with wire-controlled Fritz X-bombs."

Fritz Armored turrets and armored targets such as battleships are very effective.

"Fire? Will they fire on their own initiative?"

"Yes! It will definitely happen if it says it will. We will just wait."