The next day, the U.S. bomber group went on sortie as usual, but it was not attacked again by that particular rocket plane. On the third and fourth days, the rocket interceptors did not appear again. Some people in the U.S. military have already begun to mumble, is it because the effect of the last attack was not necessarily very good, so this thing was abandoned by the Germans?

On the afternoon of the fourth day, however, a set of photographs caught the attention of the Allies.

"You see, marshal, the Germans have carved out some roads here, here, and in the forests here. These positions are very close to the V1 launch positions that we have recently determined. In addition, members of the Resistance had seen heavy vehicles passing on these roads in the middle of the night. The MI6 spy sent us some photos via carrier pigeons, but unfortunately the photos were blurry. ”

Arthur of the RAF?? Field Marshal Harris calmly raised his head and said to the staff officer who reported to him: "Oh, Charlie, show me these pictures. ”

The staff officer named Charlie handed a stack of photographs to Marshal Harris, "Marshal, these are the forest roads taken by our Air Force reconnaissance planes, and these are some new suspicious buildings in the woods. These are photos of enemy vehicles that our intelligence officers have sent back. ”

"Are these these?" Marshal Harris asked, pointing to a few pictures.

In these photos, you can see some heavy trucks, the trucks are loaded with some tarpaulins (1) (Ben ~ read (novel) ybdu wrapped tightly like a Chinese thing called zongzi, look at the shape, some of the things have something that sticks out like wings, it looks a bit like an airplane, but it is obviously too short.

Harris looked at it carefully and said to Charlie, "Ah, please bring me the information that the Yankees sent us two days ago about the new German interceptor." ”

"Okay, Marshal!"

……

"You're saying that, after comparison, our intelligence officers have decided that the contents of these two blurry photographs, if stitched together, are the same thing in the American photographs?" Marshal Harris asked.

"Yes, Your Excellency."

"Ah, that's right!" Field Marshal Harris stood up and picked up the coat and hat that hung on the wall, "Charlie, go and call General Doolittle, and say that I have an urgent matter to discuss with him in person." ”

……

Ron was in the war room, watching the day's air battles. At this time, a staff officer walked over.

"General, General Doolittle's phone."

"Okay," Ron nodded at him, and walked over to the next door.

After a while, Ron returned to the war room, temporarily granted various rights to his staff officers, and hurried out the door.

……

Another day passed, and the RAF bomber group set off early in the morning to bomb the possible V1 missile launch positions.

In the past, British bombers, due to the lack of escort forces, always made sorties at night. This also makes their strike accuracy far inferior to that of the US Army Air Corps, which operates during the day. Recently, due to the introduction of box formation tactics and the reduction of Luftwaffe's operations during the day, the risk of sorties during the day has become a little less than at night (the effectiveness of anti-aircraft artillery during the day is much greater than that at night), and the efficiency of attacks is far greater than that at night, so now, the bomber units of the Royal Air Force have chosen to go out during the day to bomb the enemy.

……

"Colonel, the radar unit has spotted a group of British bombers." An officer reported to Colonel Thomas.

"Okay! Fuel up the plane and get the lads ready! This time we're going to play big! ”

Yes, Colonel Thomas's team is going to play big this time. Although he lost nearly half of his pilots in the last operation, he was immediately replenished - a group of cannon fodder with no more than 80 hours of flight. Now, his forces have expanded rapidly, and under his command there are already a full 100 interceptors and 120 pilots who have never flown such dangerous interceptors. Colonel Thomas was going to put all the chips on at once.

"As long as the number of inputs at one time is sufficient, then the problem of not being able to form a complete formation due to lack of training, and therefore not being able to ensure the density of rocket strikes, is not a problem. So, either don't play, or play big. ”

In the forest, the camouflage on the launchers for the BA349 rocket-powered interceptor to take off has been stripped of their camouflage, and in order to avoid being detected by Allied reconnaissance aircraft, these launchers are usually camouflaged with a large number of branches, which look like an ordinary big tree from the air.

There are two or three launchers on each position, and in the forest, dozens of launchers are scattered around.

The crew has erected the BA349 rocket-powered interceptor on the launch stand, and now they are carefully refueling it. This is an extremely dangerous job, the T fuel tank (hydrogen peroxide and stabilizer) and the C fuel tank (hydrazine/methane hydrate), once mixed, will spontaneously ignite, plus they are very corrosive, so great care must be taken. Otherwise, it will be a great disaster.

……

A fleet of P-38 fighters was flying at low altitude, their wings covered with rockets and two 500-pound aerial bombs under their bellies. Such a load reduced the range of the P-38 a lot, but considering the relatively close distance of the target, the range was really not a problem. In the other direction, there was also a group of Mosquito bombers of the British. These planes are all flying at extremely low altitudes.

On a mosquito bomber, navigator Tusk, a Pole who came to England with the government-in-exile after Poland's defeat and joined the Royal Air Force as a volunteer.

"From the map, we have crossed this mountain beam and we have reached the suspicious area."

"Okay, help me keep an eye on the ground! Don't miss the goal. Pilot William replied.

In front of them, there was a high mountain beam, and William carefully controlled the plane, climbing up the hill at an angle to it. After a while, the plane crossed the mountain beam, and a wide river valley appeared in front of them.

The valley is covered with lush trees, and everywhere you look, you can see a mesmerizing dark green. A small river with a silky sheen looms in and out of this dark green valley, and sometimes the sun shines golden on it.

But there's something else in the valley. In this carpet of dense broadleaf forests, you can see many scars that look like they have been eaten by insects. That's exactly what the firing positions have been stripped of their camouflage!

"Discover the target! All Assault! William broke the radio silence, gave the command, and quickly turned to the nearest target. Tusk, on the other hand, steadily pressed down on his target with his bombing sight.

"Da-da-da" anti-aircraft guns of the ground-based air defense forces of Germany began to fire at them. It was a FLAK38 20mm anti-aircraft gun, a quadruple anti-aircraft gun with quite ferocious firepower. But the appearance of the Mosquito bomber was obviously a surprise to its controllers, so the first few shuttles at the beginning of it were very far away. By this time, William had already dropped a string of bombs.

This string of bombs accurately covered the launch tower. In a violent explosion, one of the launch towers, along with the interceptors on it, was blown to pieces. The bombardment caused a large fire, which quickly spread to another nearby launch tower, followed by another violent explosion.

After dropping the bomb, William began to pull up the plane, when another FLAK38 20mm anti-aircraft gun hidden in the shadows opened fire on him, and the dense shells pounced on him like a swarm of fire bees. Before William could make an evasive move, the plane was hit.

A 20-mm shell entered the cockpit, cutting off one of William's legs. Blood gushed out like a river that had opened its floodgates. William knew he was dying.

"Tusk, skydive, quick!"

"William, I jumped, what are you going to do?"

William struggled to prop himself up and control the plane, "Don't be verbose! The plane can't fly back, jump fast! ”

The Mosquito bomber had only two crew members, and when parachuting, the general order was that the navigator jumped first. So Tusk hurriedly unbuckled his seat belt, opened the canopy, and jumped out first.

When the parachute opened, Tusk turned to look at William's bomber, only to see that the bomber had made a sharp turn and crashed headlong into a launch position.

……

At the same time that the British Mosquito bombers were attacking the Germans, the American P-38s were attacking the Germans in another place not far away.

Unlike the Mosquito bomber, the P-38 was not a professional bomber, although it had an astonishingly large bomb load, and in terms of maximum bomb load, the P-38's maximum bomb load was comparable to that of the four-round B-17. But it has only one pilot, unlike the Mosquito bomber, which has a full-time bombardier, and a specialized bombing sight. So the P-38 attack relied more on the rockets it carried and the 20-mm Gatling in the nose.

Originally, both rockets and Gatling guns were relatively limited in power, and it was difficult to destroy a firing position at once. But in this attack, the rockets and cannons were surprisingly effective. Almost every accurate shot brings a huge explosion. ……

When the attack by the American and British planes ended, the entire valley was filled with smoke and flames.

"Colonel, we lost 48 aircraft!"

"Are the rest ready?" Facing the flames and smoke in front of him, Colonel Thomas didn't seem to be touched at all, but said coldly: "When you're ready, launch them immediately!" ”