Chapter 266: Churchill's Prophecy

The Spitfire in history is an excellent engine because it uses a liquid-cooled Merlin, and can even use the wings to dissipate heat, but the air-cooled engine can only dissipate heat backwards, and the back of the engine happens to be the cockpit!

This is a problem that almost all air-cooled aircraft encounter, especially with the use of high-powered air-cooled engines. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

So, the name of Spitfire, and so it came.

In fact, the name of Britain's finest Spitfire was suggested by Robert McLean, chairman of Vickers, as a metaphor for a girl who is easily agitated or hysterical, for example, he called his daughter "Little Spitfire".

At the same time, the name of the aircraft must also use the first letter of the Super Marin, which is the s, so "Spitfire" is used.

And now, the Spitfire is facing serious technical problems! If it weren't for the test pilot's whimsical move and opening the hatch, the test pilot might have been roasted to death by a fire!

Seeing that the test flight of this kind of aircraft has encountered serious problems, Air Force General Hugh Caswall Dowing, who was invited to come on the side, gave Mitchell a reassurance: "The overall performance of the aircraft is good, although the test flight of the aircraft has exposed the problems now, but we believe that the super marlin company will solve these small problems, we can order three hundred of this aircraft first, I hope you will revise these details as soon as possible." ”

In this case, the Air Force actually wants to order a batch! This almost brought tears to Mitchell's eyes! He couldn't believe his ears, and at this point, his abdomen began to ache again, and he clutched his stomach and looked at General Dowding.

General Dowding nodded, signaling that he was serious.

There's no way not to be serious, in terms of advanced aircraft, Britain is already lagging behind!

Originally, Britain still felt that the biplane had good circling performance and would have a certain role in the battle, but the Spanish Civil War, the battle that the whole world was watching, told them with bloody facts that the biplane was outdated.

In the future, it will be the world of monoplanes! Moreover, Germany is already at the forefront! In the skies over Spain, Germany's BF109 fighter has completely achieved air supremacy!

All-metal skin, lower wings, closed cockpit, retractable landing gear, these are the characteristics of advanced fighters, and Britain must come up with the corresponding model as soon as possible!

There is no more time to wait, and now, although this plane is defective, it must be equipped with a batch first!

General Dowding was the mainstay of Britain.

He was born on 24 April 1882 in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, England, to a family of primary school principals.

After the outbreak of World War I, Dowding joined the Royal Air Corps of the British Army, and for a short time served as the director of the "transport battalion" in Dover, the leader of the flight squadron, the flight observer, the staff officer of the Royal Air Force Command, the leader of the 9th Flying Squadron, and then the captain of the 9th Flying Group.

This flying group was directly controlled by the commander of the Royal Air Force, Trenchard, with whom Dowding had several disputes over operational guidance.

This also became a stumbling block on the road after Dowding, and although he made outstanding contributions, he never became a marshal.

In September 1930, Dowding became a member of the Air Force Commission in charge of supply and research, and he always paid attention to the development of Air Force weapons and engineering technology, such as the development and finalization of Hurricane fighters and Spitfires, the development and application of radar, and air-ground radio communication.

Last year, the British Royal Air Force set up several special commands: the Fighter Aviation Command, the Bomber Aviation Command, and the Coastal Aviation Command. Dowding became the commander of the fighter aviation force, and the headquarters was located in Bentley Priore, which was dedicated to the formation and training affairs.

Historically, he was supposed to retire in 38 years, but it was delayed until 40 years, after which the Battle of Britain broke out, and in this air battle, the fighter aviation commanded by Dowding was the main force to intercept German bombers.

And now, Dowding has deeply felt the backwardness of the equipment of the British Royal Air Force, and he attaches great importance to the matter of the Spitfire, which is related to the victory of Britain's future air battles!

Now, the situation in Europe is very unfavorable to Britain, after the First World War, Germany, as a defeated country, was seriously weakened, but now, Germany has become terrible to a terrible extent, Germany, bloodlessly regained Austria!

Hitler, will it stop there? Of course not! Hitler's appetite will never be satisfied!

"General, please go back to the Ministry of Defense." Just when he wanted to continue the investigation, the adjutant took a telegram and said to him.

Back to the Ministry of Defense? Is there something urgent? Dowding rode in his own car and headed for London.

"The Germans, definitely on purpose, wanted to carry out a large oil reserve in preparation for war." When he returned to the Ministry of Defense, Dowding heard the shouting inside.

It was a fat guy who spoke, and at this time, he was smoking a cigar in his hand, and the air was filled with a puff of smoke.

This man Dowding knew was none other than Churchill, a regular in the army, who had served as Secretary of the Air Force and had worked with Dowding.

"What's going on?" Dowding asked.

Churchill muttered, explaining the recent events that the Germans had monopolized all Romanian oil exports!

This meeting was initiated by Churchill, and he hoped that the army would pay attention to it, and then he could ask the government to take corresponding countermeasures.

He came in his private capacity.

Germany deliberately raised the price of Romanian oil, so as to snap up all the oil, and the Germans also opened up all the transportation channels, and now, the whole Romanian oil is being shipped to Germany in a steady stream!

This is absolutely not a no-no!

"Anyway, we are in the Middle East, and there are still a lot of oil fields, even if the Germans buy all the oil from Romania, it will not do us any harm." Said one of the admirals.

"No, haven't you all seen it? Germany has rearmed, and the goal of the Germans is to avenge the Great War for all of Europe! "Churchill was almost furious.

The First World War was a brutal world war, and after the First World War, the whole of Britain was in a state of pacifism, from the party leaders to the common people who believed that there would never be another brutal war, and that Britain was now in the midst of disarmament.

Only Churchill saw the problem acutely.

Later, Germany occupied the Rhineland Demilitarized Zone. This was a clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles, and as a result, neither Britain nor France expressed strong opposition, and only Churchill faintly saw the downside.

As a result, no one paid attention to Churchill, because Churchill was always telling bad news, and he almost lost his own position in the party.

Then, Germany annexed Austria.

Germany is gradually becoming stronger, but Britain is still fantasizing about peace, which is ridiculous!

The Germans, again began to carry out strategic crude oil reserves, this is a warning of the beginning of the big war, Churchill keenly felt this, came to the Ministry of Defense, wanted to unite and warn the government together, but unfortunately, no one supported him!

"Look at it, the expansion of the Germans will not stop, and their next step will definitely be the Sudetenland!"