Anyone who has studied geography a little should know that there are two of the most important canals in the world, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Among them, the Suez Canal runs from Port Said in the north to Suez City in the south, with a total length of more than 190 kilometers. Because it is located on the border of three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, its strategic position is very important.

The Suez Canal connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, connecting the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, greatly shortening the distance between East and West. Every year, goods transported through the Suez Canal account for 14% of the world's total seaborne trade.

Because of this canal, Egypt became the target of the great powers.

In fact, more than 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Sostris dug a canal on a tributary of the Nile, which was later called the "Pharaonic Canal". The potential economic and strategic benefits of this ancient canal have been coveted by various countries, and as a result, there has been a lot of fighting.

Later, Egypt filled the canal for military reasons.

Thus, until the 19th century, both Britain and France focused their expansion on the rich East.

France attempted to connect the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, to the east, and to break British control of the Cape of Good Hope. Britain, in order to defend its interests in the East, especially in India, opposed the construction of canals.

In 1854, France signed a concession contract with Egypt for the construction and use of the Suez Canal, and in 1857 established the "Suez Maritime Canal Company of All Nations".

Although the canal was jointly built by France and Egypt, the British government used various means to acquire shares in the Suez Canal Company. Eventually, the Suez Canal became the private property of Britain and France.

Later, Britain simply relied on its strong military strength to occupy Egypt by armed force in 1882, completely controlled the Suez Canal, and established the largest overseas military base in the canal area, stationing nearly 100,000 troops.

Until 1922, when Britain recognized Egypt's independence, it retained the right to garrison troops in the Canal Zone.

As a result, in the 30s, due to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Britain forced Egypt to sign the 20-year "Anglo-Egyptian Alliance Treaty" under the pretext of defending Egypt's "security" and "stability", stipulating that British troops would continue to be stationed in the Canal Zone, and Alexandria would remain a British military port.

Today, Egypt's Canal Zone is Britain's largest military base overseas.

At this time, the military base was in a lively and extraordinary scene.

On the tarmac, one bomber after another, in the final preparations before takeoff, it seems, there are dozens of them, it is so huge, but if compared with the German one, it is simply pediatric.

The German bombers, including the four-engine Junkers-290, the twin-engine Junkers-88, the single-engine Stuka, etc., are complete in light, medium and heavy, and have advanced performance.

And what about the British one?

There are many variety, however, most of them are quite old.

For example, on the farthest lawn, there is still a biplane bomber with an open cockpit canopy, a single-engine bomber that looks beautiful and is the main bomber of the British in the early 30s, the Buck bomber of the Hawker company.

This single-engine, biplane light bomber still exists in large numbers in the Royal Air Force, but this time, it did not participate in bombing missions.

Because its range is too short, less than a thousand kilometers, it can only be used for tactical bombing.

Therefore, the pilots of these biplanes could only look at the other bomber squadrons that were close to them with envy.

Next to them were modern monoplanes, "fighter" bombers of the Fairey company.

This aircraft was a single-engine, two-seater monoplane, an improvement over the bombers of the past, designed by Marcel Robelle and for the first time using light alloys and stress skins.

Historically, at the same time, this aircraft was equipped with Rolls-Royce's "Grayback Falcon" I 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, also known as Merlin engines.

However, Rolls-Royce has gone out of business, and the Merlin engine is stillborn, so this bomber has to use a 21-liter Kestrel engine, which is an old-fashioned engine with insufficient power, but because it is a liquid-cooled engine, the windward area is small, which is conducive to keeping the aircraft in a good streamlined shape, thereby increasing flight speed.

Now, more than forty "fighter" bombers of the 12th and 218th bomber squadrons are the main force of this offensive!

If you look at the British Royal Air Force before World War II, you can find an interesting thing, that is, the sun never sets on the empire, and it is really twilight.

In the 30s, although there were twin-engine heavy bombers such as Handley-Petti "Hayford" and Fairray "Henddon" in the RAF bomber force, they were scarce.

Most of them are equipped with single-engine biplane light bombers such as the Hawker "Buck" and the Vickers 131 "Warrior".

You know, the Royal Air Force is a staunch believer in Giulio Duhey's "Air Force Wins" theory, and they firmly believe that the Air Force will change everything. However, in terms of the state of their equipment, significant bomber units seem to be closer to a tactical air support force.

After World War I, although Britain won the war, Britain's national power declined greatly, and Britain's decline began at that time.

At the same time, the people are eager for peace and are reluctant to go to war, so that defense spending will be greatly reduced in a peaceful environment. In the case of insufficient funds, in order to maintain the appropriate size of the bomber force, the purchase of relatively low-cost single-engine light bombers has become an inevitable choice.

Although in World War II, Britain had a large number of advanced bombers, but these bombers were almost always in service 40 years later.

Carrying his flight cap, Philip, the squadron leader of the 12th Bomber Squadron, came to his own bomber.

The bomb bay of such a bomber was set inside the wing. There are two bomb bays in each wing. The bomb bay is equipped with a hydraulic lifting pylon. When loading on the ground, the pylons can extend out of the bomb bay and retract after the bomb is suspended.

In general, for the sake of convenience, the pylons are not included in the bomb bay after the bomb is hung, and the bomb is equivalent to hanging under the wings, so the aircraft can also carry out dive bombing, and in case of failure, it will not be able to bomb in the bomb bay, so it can continue to bomb.

He looked at the bombs under his wings, all of which were incendiary, and this time, they were going to set the entire Libyan oil fields on fire!

"Revenge on our navy!" Philip said to his crew.

The cockpit of this bomber, large from front to rear, with three seats and a crew of 3 people, consisted of a pilot, pilot/bombardier, and radio operator/gunner.

And now, Philip waved his fist and shouted to his crew, their eyes were very determined, this time, let the Germans know how powerful they are!

They are quite determined, but they don't know that this time they are embarking on a road of no return.