In fact, a ground crew's guess is really reliable. This new bomb is really similar to acetylene cylinders. This is a new type of fuel-air bomb. In the original history, such bombs did not appear until the Vietnam War. But to talk about its technology, it is quite simple, even at the level of technology during World War II, the first generation of primary level fuel air bombs are completely made. Because this thing, to be clear, is a large gas canister.

The body of this thing is not filled with explosives, but some fuel that is volatile and easily mixed with air to form an aerosol state. After being dropped, the bomb will explode twice, in the first explosion, the body of the bomb will be blown open, the fuel will be thrown out, and it will be well mixed with the air to form an aerosol state, and then the aerosols will be detonated to form a second explosion.

Since the fuel is completely free of oxidizers, the oxygen required in the event of an explosion comes entirely from the oxygen in the air. Therefore, the energy produced by the same weight of fuel after complete combustion is much higher than that of explosives with its own oxidizer. This also results in a fuel-air bomb of the same weight being much more powerful than a conventional bomb. At the same time, the aerosol fuel can easily penetrate into the internal explosion of various fortifications, and the strike power of fortifications, especially those in a closed state, is much higher than that of ordinary bombs.

In addition, because the explosion of the fuel air bomb consumes oxygen in the air, this also brings another new lethal effect to it. Fiction - Suffocation. A fuel-air bomb will quickly drain a sizable area of oxygen. If the meteorological conditions are right, its explosion will cause the explosion area to be severely deprived of oxygen for up to ten minutes. In this way, even if the enemy army escapes the explosion, he will die of suffocation due to lack of oxygen.

Because such bombs were so suitable for attacking fortifications, the biggest problem faced by the American troops when landing was the strong fortifications that the Germans had built on the "Atlantic Barrier" line. So, after making the decision to fight on the Western Front, Ron, who had a little knowledge of this weapon, came up with the idea of creating such a weapon. Unexpectedly, just over a month later, the big viper company actually took out the samples so quickly.

According to the Viper's side, this bomb achieved surprisingly good results in domestic tests. According to them, such a bomb has almost twice as much explosive power as an ordinary bomb. This test result scared the jaws of the US personnel in charge of the acceptance drop.

Ron knew that this power was still far from the power of the latest fuel-air bombs of his time. In that time and space, the best fuel-air bombs could even explode 7-8 times more powerful than TNT under the right weather conditions. Of course, to achieve such a level, the technology required is not something that the United States could have at the time of World War II. So, about twice as much power as TNT also made Ron feel satisfied.

Ron was more concerned with the bomb's performance when attacking various fortifications, especially pillboxes, rather than power. According to the engineer sent by the big viper, in the tests conducted in the United States, the performance of the bomb when attacking various pillboxes was what finally convinced the American military and made them willing to order the bomb at a price five times higher than ordinary bombs.

However, to be on the safe side, it was necessary to test the bombs in the UK after they were sent to the UK. And such tests should be carried out at least 4 times to test its performance in different climates.

Due to the modification of the P/A-38's skin hanger, the first test was to be conducted a week later, with the target set to be a fortification off the coast of Dover, England. The fortifications were built in 1941 when the British were under threat of Nazi invasion. The defensive line consisted of a large number of artillery bunkers and machine-gun bunkers of reinforced concrete structures. In these artillery bunkers were artillery of various colors ranging from 75 mm to 406 mm caliber. The thickest, 406-mm pillboxes could withstand a direct hit from a bomb weighing up to 6 tons. Even smaller gun bunkers armed with 127 mm guns were strong enough to withstand a direct attack from a 1-ton bomb or a 12-inch shell, while the most common machine-gun bunkers could withstand a direct hit from an 8-inch shell.

With such a defensive force, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would admit in his memoirs after the war, even though he spoke on the radio at the time that the German invasion was imminent. But in fact, he always believed that the chances of the landing of the Germans were minimal. The German Navy in 1941 was in a state of inactivity. The battleship Bismarck had not yet entered service, and the two Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers were overhauled in the shipyard because of battle injuries, and before September 41, with the largest in the hands of the German Navy, the largest was only about 12,000 tons, the guns were only 280 mm, and the armored defense was at most a pocket battleship at the level of a cruiser. Some of the spiritual Germans of later generations often liked yy1941 how Germany landed in England. But most of them didn't know that the German Navy at that time, even if the whole army pressed it, could not beat the British coastal defense batteries.

Now the coastal defense battery in Dover is of little use, so the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing can use it to practice the attack. Of course, the 406 mm, 380 mm, and 355 mm caliber batteries were still reluctant to be taken out by the British to blow up the Americans. Therefore, the largest artillery pillbox in the attack range of this test was only for 203 mm guns.

The guns in these bunkers were also removed, and in their place were caged animals, such as rabbits, sheep, pigs, and the like. The machine-gun bunkers did something similar.

……

The time has come for the first round of tests of fuel-air bombs. It was a good day, the weather was sunny and the visibility was very good. The only problem is that the wind is a bit stronger. According to the weather forecast, there will be winds of force 3 to 4 at the test site. But this kind of wind is quite gentle on the seaside.

Ron was now standing on a platform about two kilometers from the target, where a high-powered telescope had been set up, and he could clearly see the fortification they were going to attack. Next to Ron, there were several other officers. Some of them are the army, some are the navy, and some are the air force. Some are Americans, some are British. Ron knew that the new weapon's superior ability to destroy fortifications in previous tests had been able to dramatically change the tactics of landing operations, and this had attracted the attention of the higher-ups. I am afraid that these officers came to see what was going on on behalf of Eisenhower and others.

"General Ron, I heard that this bomb was your brainchild." An Army lieutenant colonel said to Ron, "What do you expect to be the result of this test?" ”

"Oh, I came up with the idea of this bomb. But I don't know anything about the whole process of design and manufacturing. Ron replied, "In principle, the power of this thing is obviously affected by the wind. However, it is not very windy today, and I think it should work well. ”

As they spoke, the sound of an airplane engine gradually came from the sky. The lieutenant colonel quickly craned his neck and looked in the direction from which the voice came.

After a while, 8 P/A-38s appeared in the field of vision. Ron held up the binoculars in his hand, through which he could clearly see a huge bomb hanging under the belly of the P/A-38. Judging from the size of this bomb alone, I am afraid it must weigh two tons. However, Ron knew that the thing was a little lighter than it looked, in fact, it weighed no more than 1.5 tons. The P/A-38 is still quite easy to hang on.

The pilot of the P/A-38 flying at the front was Major Malone, and in the coastal areas, the wind direction was normal under normal conditions. In general, the wind blows from the sea to the land during the day and from the land to the sea at night. Now the wind is blowing from the sea to the land.

Malone made a turn with the group of attack aircraft. Turned to the upwind direction of the target, then swooped down to the target at a small angle along the direction of the wind and dropped the bomb at an altitude of 800 meters.

As soon as the heavy bomb came out of the pylon, the plane automatically swooped upward. He also took advantage of the situation to pull up the plane and fly into the distance. Behind him, several other planes were dropping bombs almost simultaneously with him.

When these eight bombs fell to a height of about 200 meters, they opened a deceleration parachute, and the speed of the bombs began to decrease significantly, and when they fell to a place more than 20 meters from the ground, these eight bombs quickly burst open, and a large stream of milky white gas came out of it, and the entire defensive position was covered under this strange layer of fog.

"What is this for? Gas bombs? Next to Ron, a British Navy colonel said with wide eyes.

Before his words had dissipated, he saw a few flashes of fire in this strange layer of white mist, and then the entire white mist exploded violently. The observation platform was two kilometers from the site of the explosion, but after about a second, everyone standing on the platform felt a violent tremor of the earth.

"It's like how we feel when our Grand Slam explodes." said an officer of the Royal Air Force.

But his voice was immediately drowned out by the sound of a thunderous explosion. The sound of the explosion could be heard from the site of the explosion for several seconds, and at a distance of 2,000 meters, the sound of the explosion was still shocking. One can imagine how the Germans who are attacked by such bombs will feel in the future.

"Okay, let's go to the site of the explosion." Ron said. So everyone left the platform one after another and drove towards the target area.