Chapter Seventy-Six: D-2
"The President of France, Pétain, sent a telegram thanking the Führer for his generous and timely assistance to the French Navy, and Admiral Darlan sent a telegram to the same effect, requesting that we dispatch as soon as possible a batch of supplies and spare parts urgently needed by the French Navy, and that they would like to restore their ammunition production lines, if you allow them.
As a sign of good faith, the French submitted a list of their secret storage warehouses, which indeed contained many materials that we had not previously discovered, such as thousands of tons of industrial pure iron hidden in warehouses near the French Navy's Ordnance Factory, and a batch of rough naval guns stored in Lorient. Werler placed two copies of the telegram in front of Xu Jun, and his heart was now filled with admiration for the Führer.
The bold delivery of military supplies and the release of prisoners of war to the other side before the two countries had formally signed an agreement to end the war, and the use of this means to show goodwill to the French now seems to be nothing short of a stroke of genius, and the present wonderful relationship between the two governments, the Führer's plan has clearly achieved preliminary results.
Much of the private communication between Xu Jun and Petain passed through the hands of Werler, so the chief of staff knew very well how many means this apostle of God used, how many deals he reached, what price he paid, and how great the rewards were.
"The standards of these materials and equipment are all unique to France, and they are completely different from our system, and they cannot be used without drastic modifications, and reprocessing and smelting will waste a large part of them, and they will also occupy our production line in vain, and in general, the gains outweigh the losses.
But these things are invaluable to the French, whose factories are mostly in our occupied territories, and they are no longer able to make these equipment, so we simply give them them, so as to convey to them our sincerity. At the same time, it will also strengthen their power to target the greedy Italians for us.
This time the British made a stupid move, Churchill misjudged the current form, which was a disaster for the French, but a good thing for us. Order the Eye of Odin to launch an all-out internal line in France, and we must use all media and public opinion means to closely follow up on this incident, so that all French people know that they have been shamefully attacked by the British, and they have been betrayed by their allies. I still have some personal ideas on how to implement it. Wait a minute, I'll make a detailed plan. ”
Xu Jun's fingers tapped on the dining table, and the orderly stepped forward to remove the plate. Xu Jun picked up the napkin and wiped the corners of his mouth, then threw the napkin on the table, stood up and bowed his head to Weierle. "Weierle, take me outside."
"Yes, my Führer." Weierle quickly stood up, he collected the telegram on the table and stuffed it into the pocket of his uniform, and then ran a few steps to follow Xu Jun.
"The weather was good today, the weather report said. Tomorrow will be fine weather as well, so hopefully that won't change. ”
Xu Jun walked on the planked path, next to the flower beds built by the base camp guards, which were planted with a large number of flowers and plants transplanted from the fields on the edge of the base. Xu Jun was stunned for a long time and couldn't recognize a few, but the colorful ones were quite pleasing to the eye. So whenever he has free time, Xu Jun will run here to walk a few laps and get in touch with the natural atmosphere. Relieve mental fatigue.
"My Führer, the forecast given by the Meteorological Department is that tomorrow and the next two days will be fine, but a low-pressure air mass has already formed over the North Atlantic. Meteorological observation points along the coast are paying close attention to this phenomenon, and if the current trend is followed, it is likely to cause localized strong convective weather in the strait area within a week, and there may be heavy rainfall for several days, and the high command is formulating corresponding response plans. Weirle replied respectfully.
"So we don't have much time, tonight we are going to carry out the first wave of strikes against the British, the landing plan cannot be delayed, we must get enough men and supplies to the island before bad weather comes. Bad weather treats everyone the same and doesn't treat Brits well. It may have an impact on the advancement and replenishment of our front-line troops, but similarly, the movement and deployment of British troops will also be affected.
Of course, the landing force will temporarily lose air support, which is a problem, but in the same way, our soldiers will not be threatened by the air raids of the British Air Force, which is advantageous for us, because the British still retain a large bomber force, and our air force fighter force is too heavy to do everything.
Heavy rain will have a certain impact on the road traffic in the landing area, although the British road system is very good, but when we land, they will definitely destroy the roads and bridges, and the task of our engineering troops will be very difficult. If there is a lot of rainfall, the perimeter of the landing site will turn into a large mud pond, and our mechanized troops will be severely tested. However, these problems also correspond to the heads of the British, whose tanks are heavier than ours, and the mud should cause them more trouble than ours.
We need to immediately inform each participating company of this situation, so that they can be mentally prepared for this, and how to turn bad weather into our combat effectiveness depends on the flexible use of their wisdom by the soldiers. I believe that our brave German soldiers will be able to overcome all the difficulties. Xu Jun walked over to a cluster of small white unknown flowers, squatting down and playing with the emerald green branches and leaves. Weierle stood behind him, holding a notebook in his hand, and recorded Xu Jun's words one by one in the notebook.
"I will convey your views and opinions to the High Command, my Führer." Weirle nodded respectfully.
"Willle, tonight, tonight is the most critical night, the troops have already begun to board the ship, they have been on standby for too long, once the plan is launched, it must not be stopped, I can only pray now that everything will go smoothly according to plan. This time we mobilized all the forces we could, and if something went wrong, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to do it all over again. So Verle, I'm going to stay at the headquarters tonight, and I'm going to get the news of the successful landing as soon as possible. Xu Jun stood up and said to Weierle.
"Now, we all need some good luck, and look, I've found a four-leaf clover." Xu Jun shook a small grass with four heart-shaped blades and happily showed off to the chief of staff.
At this moment, there was a roar of engines overhead, and three HE111 bombers painted with special gray-white polygonal camouflage slowly flew over their heads in a tight three-plane formation. He slowly turned a corner in front of Xu Jun's eyes, and then swayed his wings and flew into the distance.
"This is the plane of a special bombing group." Xu Jun looked down at his watch.
"Operation Hammer? I wish them all the best on this flight. ”
"The altitude is three thousand three, the course is one hundred and zero, I see them." Sitting in the glass-like cab of the HE111 bomber, through the clear windshield, the navigator Lieutenant Aldrich searched for the target they were looking for.
"Send a scheduled signal to request to join the formation." The captain, Major Hendrek, pressed the microphone on his throat and said.
"Understood, sir." The Heavy reciprocated loudly, picked up a flare gun and fired a green flare in the direction of the approaching bomber group.
The gray-and-white Heinkel bombers, which belonged to the Special Bombardment Group directly under the High Command, slowly approached. Then they blended into the group of bombers that were advancing towards the British mainland.
"Be careful, the anti-aircraft artillery fire is intensive, pay attention to changing the altitude, no fighter interception was found, and all aircraft pay attention to observation." The voice of the group commander came from the headphones. Huge groups of German bombers, lined up in neat formation, roared over the enemy capital.
The British air defense command deployed three hundred large-caliber anti-aircraft guns in London and the surrounding area, and at the same time in the factory area along the Thames. A large number of arresting balloons and small-caliber anti-aircraft guns were also laid. A barrage of anti-aircraft artillery bombardments exploded around the bomber group, and black and white smoke clouds from the explosion of the warheads covered almost the entire sky.
The intensity of the artillery fire was almost as extreme as the pilots imagined, and they felt like they were flying on a carpet of barrage smoke.
But. Although the artillery fire was dense to the point of frenzy, it had little effect, because the British had lost the guidance of large radar stations, and the so-called anti-aircraft fire control radar was only a line on paper. Therefore, these anti-aircraft guns rely entirely on the human eye for visual aiming.
The target observers relied on ground-stabilized optical rangefinders to estimate the altitude and speed of the incoming aircraft, and then calculated the firing elements on the firing control table by a special person, and then transmitted them to the firing headquarters. The headquarters sent Zhu Yuan to each antiaircraft artillery position by telephone, and each position adjusted the position of the artillery, set the fuse of the shell, and then waited for the command to order a unified launch.
The British relied on this whole set of cumbersome procedures to manipulate their anti-aircraft firepower, once the group changed course or changed altitude, then the previous set of procedures had to be repeated again, it is conceivable that the effect of anti-aircraft firepower under this command system is very limited, and occasionally blind cats will run into dead rats and shoot down one or two German bombers who are too unlucky, but the air defense command itself knows very well that the London anti-aircraft artillery group is completely like a product, except for the barrage that looks spectacular, It simply did not play a fundamental role as an anti-aircraft weapon.
But there is no way, there is no radar guidance, relying only on the early warning of visual guard posts, most of the anti-aircraft artillery is just ready to shoot when the German bombers fly overhead, if it is at night, let alone rely on the listener to estimate the approximate distance and direction of the enemy aircraft, it turns out that none of them are reliable, but in order to show the resistance of the British ** team to the people, they can only wave the searchlight and fight indiscriminately at the sky.
During this period, civilians were injured and killed by falling anti-aircraft shrapnel in the city of London, and more Britishmen were killed by their own anti-aircraft guns than Germans were beaten down, which caused a very serious panic among the citizens, and once caused confrontation between the military and the people, and the anti-aircraft gunners were often attacked by angry citizens on the streets, and finally relied on government gag orders and arrest warrants to forcibly suppress them.
"Grizzly bear, you're ready to hit the road, good luck." The voice of the air commander sounded in the headset.
"Grizzly Bears understand, it's an honor to fly with you, good luck." Major Hendrek swung his joystick slightly, and the three gray bombers swung their wings a few times to greet their comrades, and then broke away from the bombing formation and flew towards the northwest of the city of London.
"Fifteen kilometers away, fly along that road, and soon you will see the target, look right there, in that woods." The navigator took a photo and compared it with the ground features, and soon found the target of the trip.
"There are no radars or anti-aircraft artillery nearby, it looks like an ordinary manor, they are well hidden, you must not have thought that we would come." Hendrek grinned and pressed the call button.
"No. 2 and No. 3, according to the plan, look for their respective targets, pay attention to aiming, and strive to complete the task in one attempt."
The three bombers lowered their altitude and flew almost close to the treetops, while slowly opening the bomb bay doors under the belly.
Beyond a grove, a small country house came into view, a two-storey Victorian townhouse with a red brick façade and spire, and three rows of timbered houses on the lawn on the side, from which several people could be seen running out and pointing at the plane.
German bombers lined up and dropped bombs downwards at half-second intervals. Bombs painted red with bullet belts fell from the sky, and the first round of six fell right in the middle of the boardhouse. After a dull explosion, a series of huge fireballs rose into the air, and the wooden house was plunged into a sea of fire, dozens of figures with flames on their bodies rushed out of the room, only to run into the scorching fire outside the house, the figures rolled and struggled, and finally quietly fell into the flames and turned into charcoal.
The second and third rounds of bombs fell on the main house and side houses of the manor one after another, and the beautiful two-storey small buildings instantly became a raging crematorium, and the tenants inside did not even have a chance to escape from the house, and directly turned into sacrifices to the god of fire, even if they ran out, it was useless, because the entire open space in front of the house and behind the house was shrouded in a raging sea of fire, and the whole manor was now like a burning crater.
"The mission was completed, and the new bomb showed much greater power in actual combat than during the range experiment, which was beyond my expectations, and a few more photos were taken to prove that Bletchley Manor had been completely destroyed." Hendrek stared at the hellish sight on the ground, nodded in satisfaction, and gave the order to the navigator.
The three bombers circled around the manor a few times, and after making sure that they had missed any ground targets, they slowly turned to climb and flew southeast before slowly disappearing into the sky. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)