"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard! ”

Spruance, who had been waiting for Cranc's turn in the waters south of Brazil, did not wait for the news of the German fleet's turnaround, but received a telegram from the Army Airlines, and on the night of 30 March, the German Navy attacked the Army Aviation Base, causing damage to more than 200 planes of varying degrees and more than 40 pilots and more than 300 other support personnel to varying degrees of casualties. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThis was not the biggest loss, the biggest loss was the destruction of an oil depot with 40,000 gallons of aviation fuel by the Germans, and the scene was in flames like a volcanic eruption - at least half of the loss of personnel and equipment was attributed to the serial explosions caused by this bomb. The Germans lost a total of only 6 aircraft!

Together with the losses caused by the previous air raid on Rio de Janeiro, the Allies have lost more than 300 aircraft, more than 30 ships (together with the losses in the port of Rio de Janeiro) and more than 2,000 personnel, while the German side has only lost a dozen planes, and what is worse is that there is no way to take the Germans.

The day after the German air raid, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs urgently summoned the Argentine ambassador to protest, threatening: "If your country accommodates the German fleet any longer, we will take resolute measures in our opinion that your country has violated neutrality." ”

The Argentine ambassador unceremoniously retorted: "Why don't you ask what you mean by the presence of so many US troops and aircraft in your country?" If you want to destroy neutrality, you will also destroy it first! As for drastic measures, do you want to fight? Believe it or not, tomorrow I'll pull the German Panzer Division over and land? Let you see whether the American soldiers are powerful or the German soldiers are powerful! ”

In the Battle of Cape Verde, the news that the US military assembled two divisions, together with the fleet and planes, could not defeat only 5-6,000 German troops, but the news of the final "uprising before the battle" has long been spread throughout South American countries, and the prestige accumulated by the US military in using gunboat diplomacy over the past 100 years or so is very prestigious, and many Brazilians even think that if Brazil also has the equipment of the US military, its combat effectiveness will definitely surpass that of the Americans! No one is blind, and you can see the strength of the American GIs by looking at the US troops stationed in South American countries.

What is even worse is that the United States, out of various concerns, has not declared war on Argentina for a long time, while Brazil and Germany have declared war a long time ago, and the Germans have attacked Brazil several times on this basis, and even the little strength left in the Brazilian Navy has been wiped out.

Now, as soon as the Argentine ambassador said that war was going to be declared, the Brazilian foreign minister retracted - who knows if the Americans will follow up after Brazil declares war, and if they do not, will not Brazil be beaten by the Axis and the La Plata group alone? Don't dare to take this risk.

In desperation, Spruance could only hope that the main force of the Atlantic Fleet, which departed on April 1, would be able to stop the pace of the German fleet.

As a sign of solemnity, Nimitz personally led the expedition and, uncharacteristically, did not choose the New Jersey as the commander, but instead took command with Cunningham on the Hornet, which became Cunningham's flagship after the Unicorn was transferred to the TF44 fleet.

The Hornet was not a whim of Nimitz or wanted to seize command with Cunningham, he had deep considerations: first, Cunningham's appointment as commander of the aircraft carrier fleet was sponsored by Nimitz at the beginning, Cunningham could not buy other people's accounts, and Nimitz still had to give face; Second, this operation is very important, and it is related to whether the British and American navies can save their reputations, and in the face of this situation that can only be fought well but cannot be defeated, Nimitz must personally go into battle and coordinate with Cunningham.

On the afternoon of 3 April, the fleet had reached the sea more than 500 kilometers north of Puerto Rico, and the two were speculating with their staff officers on the possible whereabouts and hiding places of the German fleet, when Rear Admiral Macmillan, the new chief of staff of the Atlantic Fleet, suddenly stumbled in, waving a telegram in his hand: "Oh no, something has happened to Britain!" The Joint Chiefs of Staff asked us to abandon our mission and immediately return to Great Britain! ”

"What?" Nimitz stood up in shock.

Cunningham's confidant telecommunications officer also whispered in his ear: "After receiving a secret telegram from Marshal Pound, the homeland has encountered a fierce attack by the German army, and there are suspected signs of landing, so be sure to rescue him, and act decisively at the critical moment!" ”

Cunningham nodded quietly, indicating that he understood. Then the two looked at each other, and both saw a look of shock in each other's eyes - the Germans were about to land in Great Britain?

Nimitz gritted his teeth: "The fleet turned around and went to Great Britain!" ”

At this moment, Churchill, Field Marshal Brooke, Field Marshal Pound, and even a large number of high-ranking people hid in the basement of Downing Street to hold an emergency meeting.

On the morning of 3 April, the Germans suddenly launched a fierce offensive against Great Britain, and after more than a year of silence, German planes that had barely crossed the center line of the channel to attack suddenly came in overwhelming the sky, and what made the pilots flying Spitfire, P-51, and other fighters on interception missions even more shocked that they could not stop the enemy planes on the opposite side at all. After months of production and preparation, Hoffman finally amassed 400 Ar-234 jet bombers and began to carry out the lightning bombardment he had always dreamed of.

The Ar-234s have a maximum level flight speed of nearly 900 km/h and a range of nearly 1,000 kilometers while carrying 1.5 tons of bombs, and the 400 Ar-234s are accompanied by more than 200 Me-262 aircraft with 500 kg bombs, and more than 600 planes form a mighty first attack wave towards their respective targets. Ignoring all interceptions, they roared over the heads of the Royal Air Force at incredible speed, and then attacked airfields, radar stations, railway trunk lines and key factories in southern Britain with bombs or incendiary bombs, blasting dozens of important targets in the south into ruins or a sea of fire.

After the bombs were dropped, these lightning attack planes continued to rise and fall, leaving a string of exhaust clouds in the air, and the intercepting fighters could only look at their figures with admiration. Although the United States has begun the production of Meteor jets, the United Kingdom has not yet obtained it, and even the pilots have only trained dozens of them, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Many British fighters who rose into the air were unwilling to fail, gritted their teeth and pursued behind, and even pursued across the strait, wanting to hit the weak section of this batch of jets when they landed, but they were intercepted by the German Fw-190 \ Do-412 \ Ta-152 and other fighters who had been prepared for a long time, hundreds of fighters fought in the air, and the German army with more Germans obviously had the upper hand, and the German pilots were very advantageous that even if they were shot down, they would have the opportunity to parachute in their own control area, and it would be a good man to change planes tomorrow, And the British pilots had only one way to die in battle or become prisoners of war.

When the first batch of British fighters ran out of fuel and made a forced landing or landed in other places, and the British air defense interception force was greatly weakened, the second German attack wave came one after another, and the main force of this bombing was Ju-188, He-218 and Do-412, numbering nearly 1,000 planes. Although the Ju-188 and He-218 are not as large as the B-29, they are surprisingly efficient and not weakly destructive.

This was not the most devastating fact for the British side, and in the afternoon, the German radio suddenly announced, "Our army will launch epoch-making new weapons!" The British people, especially the citizens of London, are requested to take shelter in bomb shelters to avoid accidental injury. The British did not believe this, and the BBC broadcast that the Germans had made false accusations and intimidated them, and that by evening they had reaped the consequences.

But soon the Germans told them with facts that this was not a pale intimidation, but a German killer weapon, the weapons-grade V2 missile.

In the evening of the same day, the launch positions secretly deployed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other territories received orders to start firing at the same time, and a total of 34 rocket companies and 119 launchers participated in the launch, and a total of nearly 500 V2 missiles were launched.

Unlike in history, as Hoffman emphasized the spirit of scientific research in his speech at Penemünde, while interrupting the development and mass production of the V1 rocket, the team led by Braun focused all its attention on the short- and medium-range V2 and long-range V6 missiles. In addition, due to the cessation of the Anglo-American strategic air raids and the great abundance of raw material supply guarantees in Germany, Peneminde has made more and faster technological progress than in history! By the end of 1943, the range of the V2 missile using kerosene liquid oxygen engine had exceeded 450 kilometers while carrying 800 kg of explosives, and the guidance method combined gyroscope inertial guidance and radio hyperbolic positioning. Although the accuracy deviation is still more than 1 kilometer, it is basically enough for a large city like London.

These 500 missiles are the stocks that have been continuously produced in the past few months, each of which sells for more than 60,000 Reichsmarks, but for Hoffman, the 30 million marks are worth the money, and the weapons must be tested in actual combat to see if they are effective, and he will not regard V2 as the only means to determine the outcome of the war, but at least he can tell some of the leading figures in Britain who are still hesitating that he has a way to deal with Great Britain, and the result of not surrendering is total destruction.

Senior General Jeshunek, who was inspecting the front line, watched one after another missiles dragging orange flames into the sky in the twilight, and he knew that these missiles would eventually land and explode at a speed of more than Mach 4, and they could not track, intercept, or defend themselves, and he couldn't help but feel that an epoch-making war change was coming -- the V6 missiles developed by Braun were said to be able to reach more than 2,800 kilometers in the future, and could even be installed in the giant submarines currently being built by Germany!

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