When the "owl" heavy bombers take to the skies, those real owls hidden in the woods may wonder in their little minds why there are such huge flying objects in this world. Even if the pterosaur is reborn, it will probably be dwarfed in front of such a bomber.

With a wingspan of 35 meters, a length of 23 meters, a fuselage weight of 2.5 tons and a maximum take-off weight of 6.5 tons, the "Owl" is enough to make all Germans proud. It is built in a traditional wooden structure with cloth skin, its main wings with upper reverse angles can be folded back, the fuselage is rectangular in cross-section, and each set of main landing gear includes two wheels, and the tail is equipped with a skid-type landing gear. The "Owl" is powered by a 300 hp Sunshine engine produced by the Gigi Aviation Group, which is housed in an armored engine nacelle. The crew is seated in an open cockpit with the pilot and navigator/mechanic seated side-by-side and the shooter/bombardier in the nose, and a new radiator has been added to the water-cooled engine.

By the time the Luftwaffe 17th Bomber Squadron completed its assembly over Cherbourg, it was already a quarter past two in the morning, and there was still more than one hour before the start of the airborne landing. The squadron's navigator was 36-year-old Wringel, whose flying career dates back even before the invention of the first airplane, when he flew ******. After the establishment of the "Thomas Post Office", he became one of the many pilots recruited and trained from the civilian sector, and flew the postal plane to and from the English Channel more than 100 times before the war.

The Luftwaffe flew in large formations of more than 50 aircraft several times after the start of the war, but this was the first time that the Luftwaffe had fought at night. In view of the fact that the navigation and communication tools of the aircraft were not developed at this time, the more than 800 aircraft participating in this airborne mission will fly over the strait in squadrons. The fact that the airborne landing site was only a hundred kilometers from Cherbourg, and that the airborne location was almost due north of Cherbourg, greatly reduced the likelihood that the German pilots would lose their way. Of the other 42 squadrons, 42 navigators as good as Wringel still had to take on the responsibility of leading the group to the right place.

"We were supposed to fly at 1,300 meters, now it's only 1,100 meters, climb up a bit!"

After Wringer yelled at the pilot next to him, he used the arc light above the cockpit to signal the plane behind him. The arc lamp had proven to be a very convenient and effective tool for field communication in the ground combat operations of the German Army units, and this time the Luftwaffe moved them to the aircraft for the purpose of liaison between the pilot aircraft and the aircraft behind them.

After the "climb with me" signal was issued twice from Wringel's 17-01, the 19 planes behind followed him upwards one by one, and the brightly lit airfields and the obscure silhouette of the French coast faded behind them.

The noise of 20 "Owls" 40 300-horsepower engines was enormous, and the whole air seemed to be full of terrifying swarms of bees. Large and small planes fluctuate slightly due to the action of the air current, and they are like a huge fleet moving rapidly and orderly on the invisible sea. People look at their planes, there are groups of black shadows everywhere in front and back, up and down, left and right, the arc lights of the navigators are flashing, and the recently installed anti-collision lights on the tail of each plane make the space here full of orange "stars". These anti-collision lights, combined with the differences in the order of lift and the intended flight altitude of each fleet, are enough to ensure that a large number of aircraft fly safely and orderly to the UK.

"The direction is well kept!" Wringer turned on his flashlight and glanced at the compass, where the direction of the group was due north.

Soon, the arc lamp was again signaled on 17-01:

"The first heading point is ahead, and each aircraft maintains altitude!"

From afar, the pilots saw conspicuous points of light in the sky ahead, and those were the heading determination points composed of naval navigation airships. On the route from Cherbourg to the landing site, there were lighted airships every five miles, and these almost stationary airships served as beacons in the sky, ensuring that the following German fleet was flying on the correct course. From above, the airships form an incoherent and straight line, but the other end of the line points squarely to the landing site.

With the dual insurance of navigator and navigation airship, none of the 860 planes that took off that day were lost. However, the use of navigation airships is limited to situations where the air force of the country has absolute superiority, and a very important task of those fighter-bombers that take off first is to ensure that their navigation airships will not be threatened by British fighters.

Knock knock knock......

Although the knock on the door was not loud, Chen Tian still woke up from his dream all of a sudden, and the feeling of being suddenly woken up was really bad (friends who stayed up late to watch the game should have experienced).

"Got it!" Chen Tian answered, and then got up from the bed with a sleepy face, and after washing his face with cold water, he finally woke up.

Chen Tian picked up the watch on the bedside table and walked out while wearing it. At 2:25 a.m., it seemed that the fleet had arrived at its destination.

After opening the door, Chen Tian no longer saw Rainey's familiar face. Replacing Rennie as the chief of the guard is 29-year-old Brech, who has been with Chentian for 8 years, and is considered a veteran of the close guard.

"Your Highness, I'm sorry to disturb your rest! The Admiral has just sent someone to inform us that we have arrived at the intended shelling site 10 nautical miles south of Bonemouth Beach! Bretch, who was standing outside the door, said apologetically, as if he thought it was a bad thing to disturb someone's sleep.

"It's okay, even if you don't wake me up now, the cannon will make me jump out of bed in a while!" Chen Tian patted Bretch on the shoulder to show comfort, this old guard was somewhat restrained in front of him, especially when the two were alone, which could only say that he took the identities of both parties too seriously.

When Chen Tian walked into the command room, the main admirals of the shelling fleet, as well as Hoffmann, Guderian and others were already waiting there, and Scheer and Hoffman were still talking about something with great interest. Seeing Chentian's arrival, they all stopped talking and faced this heavyweight with a dignified military posture.

"Everyone's worked hard!"

It can be seen that most of the people here have not rested before. Admiral Scheer's eyes were still attentive, but the exhaustion on his face could not be completely washed away by cold water, and as for Hoffman and other army generals, they must have no intention of falling asleep at this time. As for Tatsuten himself, he was convinced that rest was for better fighting, and he had always tried to instill this idea of health in Hoffman, but this diligent staff officer insisted on working like an engine until the end of the war, and he would hide and sleep in the dark.

For the selfless spirit of the generals, Chen Tian had to repay the standard military salute. As long as it is not a military parade, he is still happy to salute this kind of German military salute, and this simple action is a symbol of honor for German soldiers (certainly not a Nazi-era hand salute).

"Your Highness, I'm going to disturb your rest! According to the plan, we can now start shelling! Schell still does not smile, and most of the German generals have this kind of expression on such occasions, although the atmosphere is a little serious and dull, but the Germans are indeed this kind of character, unlike the smug Americans, who can be accompanied by hot and cold humor at any time.

"Excellent! Is Bonemouth Beach right in front of you? Chen Tian took the telescope handed by Hoffman and walked to the window of the command room to observe. Apparently the British had spotted the unscrupulous German fleet by this time, with the pillars of a dozen searchlights pointing to this side, and the various fortifications on the beach still hiding under the night, and at this time only the vague outline of the British coastline appeared from the battleships.

Looking at the upward searchlight column, Chen Tian found that there were several other zeppelins in the sky, which seemed to be at an altitude beyond the reach of British fighters and anti-aircraft guns. By this time, the airships had stopped moving, and the searchlights of the British were shining on their bellies, and they were ready to drop not bombs, but flares to indicate targets for the shelling fleet.

"Is there any movement in the British fleet over there in Plymouth?" After scanning back and forth between the beach and the air a few times, Tatsuten put down his binoculars and asked.

"The British warships have all set fire to anchor, but not a single warship has sailed out of the harbor yet!" Hoffman's unthinking answer proves that he did stay up all night paying attention to all aspects of the situation.

Chen Tian nodded with satisfaction, but with the development of technology, this era of parking one's own airship over the other party's port for reconnaissance is gone. However, in the future, there will be more advanced alternatives such as unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and spy satellites, and it can only be said that the times are always advancing.

"For British submarines, it's better to be careful!"

"Your Highness, rest assured, our destroyers have been deployed around the battlefleet, and it will be difficult for British submarines to cross their cordon and attack the battleships directly! According to the intelligence of our Admiralty, there are now less than 5 submarines that the British can dispatch, the others are either sinking or damaged, and many have to stay in the harbor and rust because of the lack of parts! In this case, we will try to minimize the threat of British submarine forces to landing ships! ”

Scheer's confident but not frivolous words made everyone's hearts feel reassured.

For Chentian, the German navy, which was based on veterans such as Escher, did not become complacent after a huge victory, and this was the most important point. In stark contrast, the Japanese Army, which lost its cornerstone in a one-day coup d'état, has now lost its way like a soulless walking corpse.

"Good!" Chen Tian raised his hand to look at his watch again, and at 2:30 in the morning, it was already the scheduled time for shelling.

After taking a deep breath, Tatsuten officially announced the start of the landing operation.

"Let's start shelling according to the plan!"

A red flare rose from the Frontier Governor, but the earth-shattering roar did not immediately ring out. The German airships that stayed over the beach immediately dropped flares one after another, and the entire beach was suddenly clear, and the British searchlight watchtowers and beach fortifications were all exposed to the eyes of the German bombardment fleet.

After three minutes of final firing adjustments, the shelling alarm finally sounded in the main turrets of dozens of battleships, and the whirring wind and the snorting of flares made the sea before the shelling storm even more silent.

"Your Highness, the salvo is about to begin, and the sound will be loud!" Scheer reminded calmly, his deep gaze fixed on the sea on the starboard side of the battleship. At this time, the bow of the battlefleet was lined up to the west, and the main guns of the battleships fired a salvo from their starboard side.

Chen Tian did not speak, but stood next to Sher and looked at the sea together. During the exercises on Calais beach, he had already seen the power of many battleship salvos, and that humans were always able to create weapons far beyond their own strength, but these weapons were always used against themselves in the end.

The stormy sea was terrifyingly quiet, and Jaia, who was hiding in the defensive line of Bonemouth Beach. Sugish and many other Indian soldiers were at a loss for what was going on. They don't like to take a boat, especially if they come to England on a boat that takes dozens of days; They also don't like winter, especially when there are several swans and heavy snowfalls; They did not like the sea even more, especially with a large number of German battleships floating.

Sugish is 23 years old, and his companions are mostly young Indians between the ages of 16 and 25, who are supposed to stay at home and work hard to reproduce their families, but they are here with cold rifles blowing the sea breeze.

Sugish joined the local police force in Britain and India last year, and by the time of the war, his weapon was a baton, and a gun was a distant and foreign thing to him. In September of this year, the situation at sea changed dramatically, the invincible British navy collapsed in front of the Germans, the English Channel was no longer a barrier for British insurance, and Sugish and hundreds of thousands of other Indian youths were conscripted into the British and Indian colonial army. Not all of the British and Indian colonists were able to cross the ocean to Britain mainland, and Sugish was able to become one of them, but he never felt even the slightest bit lucky. Fighting for the British was a silent allegiance to the suzerainty for Sugish and the other Indian soldiers, but more practically, the British could pay them and keep them alive without starvation and cold.

Even after joining the Anglo-Indian colonial army, Sugish fired only once, and it is unknown whether those two bullets hit the target. Sugish and most of the Indian soldiers had no idea of the fierce fighting, and they didn't know if the five rounds in their rifle bays and the 10 rounds in their magazines could handle an anti-landing operation. As long as it wasn't a flintlock musket, the Indians seemed satisfied, and as for the machine guns, they didn't even dare to think about it. Of the more than 100,000 Indian troops deployed in Britain, there were only a little more than 100 machine guns, a figure that was a bit low even for the Japanese Army.

The bunkers of the Indian soldiers stationed on Bonemouth Beach were either trenches dug directly on the beach, others in concrete or wood forts, while the British mostly hid behind breakwaters and steep slopes of hills. Sugish and his companions were somewhat glad that the trenches they were in would not collapse as soon as they did on the sandy beach, as they did on the sandy beach. These trenches, which are up to 2 meters deep, reinforced with wooden and bamboo fences, and in some sections are made of wooden frames and earth and stone to prevent shelling observation posts, were learned by the British from the French battlefields, and the actual combat proved that the trenches of this structure have a good survivability under the bombardment of rapid-fire guns and howitzers, and both French and German troops like to dig well into the flat ground like this.

Unfortunately, this was the beach, and the British were faced with heavy shells from naval guns, at least judging from the previous shelling of Brighton and Dover, most of the people in such trenches could not survive the continuous bombardment of German battleships, but the poor Indians knew nothing about it. They didn't know that where they could carry bullets might not be able to carry shells, and that what could carry shells might not be able to carry heavy shells, and in these trenches with seawater at the bottom, Indian soldiers like Sugish had no idea that death was approaching.

In a Southeast Asian country like India, storms are a common occurrence, so when the roar of the familiar and unfamiliar sound came from the distant sea, Sugish wanted to shout:

"Thunder! It's raining and you're getting dressed! ”

Particularly loud thunder came one after another, which was denser than a rare series of thunder, and coupled with the flares that constantly drew white dazzling light overhead, the scene was indeed very much like a midsummer rainstorm. But the cold air reminds Indians all the time that it is a cold winter!

Many Indian soldiers poked their heads out of the trenches and bunkers in curiosity, and their companions at the Brighton and Dover checkpoints did not dream of telling them that it was deadly, but it might be worth it to trade their lives for a moment to see the most spectacular of spectacle.

Flares more brilliant than ceremonial flowers give light to these humble beings with large turbans on their heads, the sickle of death is often the most splendid beauty, and the Indian soldiers cannot help but marvel at the greatness of the creator god amid the sharp boos that make the heart aroused. Countless red dots flew from the distant surface of the sea, and these small dots dilated in the pupils of the Indians, and the closer they got to the beach, the more dim they became under the light of the flares, but the moment they hit the beach, they burst out ten times more dazzling with the light of the flares.

At 2:37 a.m. on December 27, 1914, Bonemouth Beach in the south of England was greeted by the earth-shattering meteor shower that arose millions of years ago. Before dawn, at least 30,000 red objects with short tail flames fell on the beach for several kilometres of Bonemouth, and the explosion did not stop for almost a moment, and all life on the beach evaporated like snow here, and even the water near the beach became warm.

About half an hour after the start of the shelling of the Scheer fleet, another shelling fleet under the command of Prince Heydrich arrived at Brighton, nearly a hundred kilometers away, and shelled there with the same intensity, and the whole British Isles seemed to tremble under the guns of these German battleships.