Chapter 226: Eisenhower's Order to Retreat
And at this time, Eisenhower, Lieutenant General Smith, General Alexander, Commander of Spatz Aviation, Hewitt; Admirals Eck, Admiral Anderson, and Admiral Jimmy Doolittle, as well as the commander of the 3rd Bomber, Admiral Curtis Lewan, and the commander of British Air Mallory, were all shocked, stunned, speechless, and messy in the wind. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
At the same time, it was heartache and discomfort, and there were many high-ranking officers of the British and American Air Force, whose hearts were dripping with blood.
The reason is very simple, I originally thought that this time it was a thousand-plane operation, and a lot of advanced P-51 fighters were deployed; and Typhoon and other fighters went to the town, covering the bombing army, and carried out carpet-style bombing.
Although their bombing campaign was very smooth at first, and the results were good.
In the face of such a successful bombing, many high-ranking British and American aviation officers cheered; They clapped each other's hands and praised each other, and even opened champagne on the spot to celebrate.
In less than ten minutes, all the achievements were fleeting before their eyes.
Instead, they were bombarded with more than 100 aircraft in just five minutes by the Germans' huge anti-aircraft guns and self-propelled guns.
But tragedy continued, because more than 300 bombers and fighters were destroyed by the Germans' new missiles, and those missiles in their eyes were the Pomak missile group, which were shot down accurately one by one.
"How can this be! Our 1,000-plane bombardment not only did not inflict heavy losses on the Germans, but they were also ambushed by them! ”
British Air Admiral Charles Potter muttered in disbelief as soon as he received the report of their heavy losses at the headquarters of the Verdara Palace in Malta.
"It must be a traitor! We must have a traitor here! Otherwise, it would be impossible for the German army to mobilize so many anti-aircraft guns and self-propelled artillery groups at one time for air defense! And those unknown new anti-aircraft rockets were deployed early in the morning! ”
As soon as the words fell, in the silent headquarters, Arthur Harris of the British Bomber Command immediately burst into a rage and scolded.
"That's right! I also think that there are traitors in our ranks, and we must find out these German traitors as soon as possible! Otherwise, it will definitely be a time bomb for all our large-scale operations in the future! Commander Eisenhower! ”
Hearing Arthur Harris's invective, General Alexander immediately turned to Eisenhower beside him and said solemnly.
"Hmmm! I'll take care of that! Now I am only more concerned about whether we should evacuate all the air forces that are still fighting bloody battles over Berlin at once! ”
Eisenhower said worriedly.
"Yes! Must be evacuated immediately! Otherwise, we will lose even more planes and pilots! And even if we can bomb Berlin to pieces now, we will have to pay a heavy price! And the Germans have not yet sent a single fighter to meet them! ”
"If we wait for their fighter group to come out, then our air force will be in danger!"
"We can't afford to lose more casualties, and it takes a long time to train a good and qualified pilot! It's not the same as training the Army, they only need a few months! ”
Before General Alexander could reply, Hewitt hurriedly spoke.
"I agree with General Hewitt, and I feel that we have to stop the rest of the group of planes and continue to Berlin! The planes we are sending now are a little too far to get there! In the event of an interception by a large number of German fighters on the way, we will lose a lot! ”
As soon as Hewitt finished speaking, Lieutenant General Smith also suddenly stood up and hurriedly agreed.
"But there are more than 2,000 of our back flying team waiting for orders to go to Berlin! We now have such a large fleet of aircraft, I don't think we should be so afraid of the Germans! I don't feel like we should retreat right now! Moreover, we should increase the number of air raids to boost the morale of our allies! ”
But as soon as he finished speaking, the commander of Spatz Aviation retorted disagreeingly.
Although this person was also very sad about the battle loss rate of his Eighth Air Force, he also knew that if he evacuated immediately, he was afraid that it would not only hit the morale of their air force immediately.
Moreover, it is not easy for them to gather such a large-scale aircraft to carry out a thousand-plane bombing operation against Berlin, the capital of the German army.
"I thought the same way, or I would have personally piloted the plane to lead the team to continue the bombing of Berlin, the capital of the German army! Because once our morale is crushed, I'm afraid it will be a big blow to our next war! ”
Jimmy? Admiral Doolittle also said suddenly.
"Nope! I'm against it! We have more opportunities to compete with the German army in air combat, especially in air combat! Because the air supremacy of the whole of Europe to be taken is the overall goal of our allies, it will not change! It's just that this time we bombed Berlin, the capital of the German army, we just deterred Germany and let them know that we are also capable of bombing their capital, or even the whole of Germany, at any time! ”
"Let their morale and popular hearts be scattered, so that they may fear us and surrender to us!"
"But now that our aircraft have suffered such serious losses, if we continue to engage in a war of attrition with the premeditated defense of the German army, I am afraid that it will be a great blow to our strategic air supremacy!"
"Because our overall focus now should still be on destroying their heavy industrial plants, oil refineries, and aircraft factories, and their bearing factories, and all submarine factories, and shipbuilding factories."
"In short, all industrial factories in Germany, whether light or heavy, will become strategic bombing targets for our long-term destruction!"
But in the end, Eisenhower made up his mind very decisively and resolutely.
Because at this moment, he received a telegram from the telegraph operator to report to him the situation at the front, and their air force that bombed Berlin had again lost more than 100 planes, and their intelligence network also discovered that a large number of German fighter groups were emerging in all directions, and they were rushing to Berlin for support operations.
But this is not fatal news, the most fatal thing is that the German airfield has now been spotted in Berlin and is preparing to take off hundreds of long-awaited fighters, ready to meet the British and American air fleets that have been caught by surprise by anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled artillery groups, and Pomak missile groups, and have suffered heavy losses.
"Withdraw! Evacuate me immediately! Fast! If we don't evacuate, our losses will be even greater! At the same time, I also ordered all the planes on standby in Tunisia to go to the rescue of the air force that was fighting hard over Berlin! ”
Eisenhower, who had just said a lot in one breath, did not wait for others to object, or say anything, he again resolutely commanded loudly.
After hearing this, the heralds around him hurried out to deliver the order.
The entire headquarters of the Anglo-American Allied Forces fell silent for a moment, and everyone stared at Eisenhower anxiously and worriedly.