Lin Yan lay on the bed tossing and turning for several hours without falling asleep, until the day, he closed his eyes in a daze, but as soon as he was about to fall asleep, the assembly number sounded outside. Wu Linchan reflexively bounced up from the bed, and then rushed out. The pilots in the other dormitories also came out, and when Wu Linfang noticed that the sun had just risen, a base orderly sent a message that Luo Yunchong had arrived, and summoned the pilots to gather in the warehouse where the ammunition was stored.

By the time Wu Linfang arrived at the ammunition depot, a huge bomb had been placed in the open space in the middle, and Luo Yunchong, who was wearing a military uniform without a military rank mark, was standing next to him. Wu Linchan first noticed that the military uniform on Luo Yunchong's body was actually the regular uniform of the school officer, not the regular uniform of the general in line with Luo Yunchong's identity. This made Wu Linqian feel a little strange, even if he had the impression that Luo Yunchong was a raunchy person, he would not wear clothes casually, and he still had no military rank. Then, he noticed the bomb next to Luo Yunchong, relatively speaking, Wu Linyan was not very unfamiliar with this kind of bomb that looked a bit like a downed beer keg, because the bomber he was piloting took off from the airport on Oahu with this kind of bomb.

This cylindrical bomb was actually first developed by the British, who originally developed this bomb with the aim of blowing up the Ruhr Dam in Germany. To this end, the British have also invested a lot of manpower and material resources.

The Ruhr is one of the most important industrial regions in Germany. This is a bit similar to the Great Lakes region of the United States, which is the most important coal and steel producing area in Germany, and also concentrates the production of German tanks and fighter jets, such as Mercedes, which provides the main fighter jets for the Luftwaffe. Arguably. The entire Ruhr area is home to Germany's largest arsenal. At that time, the main facilities for the supply of electricity and water to the Ruhr area were the three dams of Møller, Pso and Edel. As long as these three dams can be blown up, they can hit Germany's local military industry and thus weaken Germany's overall war strength, which is of considerable significance.

Then. The British tried their best to blow up these three dams, and the first thing they encountered was the huge problem of not having the right ammunition. For example, at that time, the base of the Mai Nai Reservoir Dam was 34 meters wide and the width of the dam crest was 8, so it was necessary to destroy such a dam. It was necessary to use a 10-ton bomb to drop it from a height of 12,000 meters. And hit accurately. But the problem was that there was no bomber that could carry a 10-ton bomb at that time, and the altitude of 12,000 meters was absolutely impossible to make the bomb accurately hit the target. In other words, it is impossible to blow up these dams by conventional methods, and it is for this reason that Germany is not very protective of these three dams.

After much research, the British found the dam's dead end. At the same time, an effective way to blow up the dam was found. At the time, all three dams were stress dams, not gravity dams. The so-called stress dam is to use the stress of the dam itself to support the dam, rather than using the gravity of the dam itself to achieve the purpose of blocking the river water. In other words, the stress dam itself is a complete stressed body, and if the dam body has a problem, its mechanical stability foundation will be lost, and the dam will collapse as a result. This is precisely the fatal problem of the Ruhr dam. The bomb does not need to destroy the entire dam, or even penetrate the dam, as long as it can destroy the load-bearing structure of the dam. If the dam loses its mechanical stability, it will collapse on its own under the pressure of the water. So as to achieve the purpose of destroying the dam.

In this way, the solution of destroying the dam will be easy to achieve. After a systematic analysis, British engineers finally determined that as long as they could accurately detonate more than 3 high-energy explosives at the base of the dam, they could destroy the stability of the dam and thus destroy the dam. At that time, the British "Lancaster" bomber could carry 9 tons of bombs, which was enough to carry bombs that could destroy the dam. But the question is, how do you get the bomb to hit accurately? You know, the base of the dam is below the surface of the water, and it is impossible for an ordinary bomb to hit. In addition, if the bomber drops bombs at too high an altitude, then the hit rate will be much lower, and how can you ensure that you can destroy the dam with as few bombers as possible?

Unfazed, British engineers came up with a solution that could solve both problems at the same time, that is, using the surface tension of water, allowing bombers to fly at high speeds at ultra-low altitudes, and then drop bombs. The bomb will begin to spin at high speed as soon as it exits the bomber, and then crash into the water, and the surface tension of the water will allow the bomb to bounce into the air without causing the bomb to sink to the bottom quickly. In this way, not only can the bomb have a relatively stable trajectory, but at the same time, after several rebounds, as long as it hits the dam, the bomb will stop, and sink below the water surface, and then use the hydraulic fuse to detonate the bomb at a precise depth, which can achieve the purpose of destroying the dam.

It can be said that this method is quite ingenious, and no one has really come up with this kind of bombing method before. As soon as the RAF confirmed the feasibility of this type of bombing, it organized personnel to begin designing and building this unique bomb, and at the same time began to solve the related problems.

The design work on the bomb was not complicated, the difficulty of creating it was not great, and the first bombs were quickly in place. This kind of bomb has a diameter of 1.8 meters, a length of 2.6 meters, and is filled with 3~: can explosives, and its total weight exceeds 8, before the B-29 and the Tang Empire's "Peng" bomber entered service, only the "Lancaster" bomber of the British Royal Air Force can carry such a heavy bomb. Immediately, the RAF formed a secret unit of more than 20 bombers to conduct intensive training in the northern part of Scotland. During the training, the unit found more problems.

First of all, in order to make the bomb bounce off the water several times and then hit the target accurately, the flight speed of the bomber, as well as the flight altitude, must be strictly limited. The flight speed was easy to solve, and the speedometer at that time was basically able to meet the requirements. However, at that time, the altimeter equipped on the aircraft generally used air pressure to measure altitude, and when the flight altitude was below 100, it was impossible for the altimeter to accurately measure the altitude, and this bombing mission was to be carried out in the blind zone of this altimeter. What's more, the pilots at that time, as well as a group of researchers, determined after careful study that the best height for dropping bombs was 18 meters above the water

, how can you be sure that the bomber is exactly 18 meters above the water? It is important to know that TI did not have the radar altimeter that was commonly used later, and even if it did, it would be difficult for the radar altimeter to measure such an accurate distance.

The problem of measuring height was finally solved by a rather ingenious approach. That is, two searchlights are installed under the nose of the aircraft, and there is a certain angle between the two lights, and when the lights of the two searchlights converge on the water, the height of the aircraft from the water surface is exactly 18 meters. Through training, pilots also quickly mastered the method of judging altitude with this method, and at the same time confirmed the effectiveness of this method.

However, as the training progressed, the pilots discovered more problems, and one of the most important problems at that time was how to aim at the target. The bombing was definitely carried out at night, and if it was during the day, carrying more than 8 bombs, and flying at ultra-low altitudes, heavy bombers would have been ideal targets for German anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft fighters. And at night, even if there is bright moonlight, the pilot can only see the blurred shadow of the dam at most, and it is impossible to aim at the target accurately, so how can the bomb accurately hit the target? Moreover, the distance of the bomb must be strictly controlled, whether it is too far or too close, the bomb is unlikely to pose a threat to the dam.

In the end, British intelligence helped a lot at this time. At that time, the Germans deployed a large number of anti-aircraft gun positions along the banks of the river, and each anti-aircraft gun position had a watchtower. The distance between these watchtowers is about 100. The British quickly came up with a simple sight, which was actually an isosceles triangular plank with a round hole in the top. Using the two vertices below to aim at the watchtowers of the German anti-aircraft gun positions, while fixing the triangle at an angle, the pilot was able to determine the distance to the dam as soon as it appeared in the round hole above. Then the bomb was dropped.

After the last problem was resolved, the RAF took active action. The first was that the pilots conducted intensive training and even simulated bombing with a dam in Scotland. In the end, the RAF dispatched only more than 10 bombers and destroyed two dams in the Ruhr area with seven "barrel" bombs, causing the German Ruhr to be flooded and most of the factories without electricity. Thousands of civilians were drowned, millions became refugees, and Germany's industrial production capacity was reduced by a third of the time in a matter of months. It can be said that before the advent of the atomic bomb, the damage caused by these seven bombs was the greatest.

After the defeat of the British, the expeditionary force of the Tang Empire. And the first to arrive in the Marines was the first to control the British scientific research institutions, while sealing the British classified documents. Several special operations units of the Marine Corps and the Expeditionary Force also obtained a list of important British personnel at that time, and quickly put British scientists and engineers under house arrest who did not have time to escape from the United Kingdom, or went into hiding. It was at this time that the Tang Empire obtained detailed technical information on the British "barrel" bomb, and obtained the detailed combat history of the British Royal Air Force bombing the Ruhr Dam. Most importantly, a group of British engineers who were involved in this bombing campaign at that time were controlled.

The bombing of the Ruhr Dam in Germany also gave a huge shock to the Tang Empire, and at the same time made the Tang Empire realize. Attacking the enemy's basic power and water projects will deal a huge blow to the enemy. Therefore, at that time, some people in the Imperial Army Aviation proposed to use the same method against the enemy. But the problem is that there is no suitable target, so the relevant research work is not carried out. It was not until the dust of the Pacific War was basically settled and Luo Yunchong became the commander of the army aviation that these secret research and development plans were rediscovered, and among the several plans that Luo Yunchong attached the most importance to at that time, the plan to use the experience gained by the British in actual combat to attack the water conservancy facilities of the United States in a similar way was one of them.

At the end of 27, the engineers of the empire basically figured out the "barrel" bomb theory. Subsequently, with the assistance of several British engineers, these engineers in the service of the Army began to equip the Imperial Army with the ground. As well as the modification of the British "barrel" bomb by the heavy bomber that was about to be equipped. The main improvements were to modify the design and size of the bomb, adjust the charge amount, use better materials to make the bomb body, and use a more accurate water pressure fuse to improve the detonation accuracy of the bomb.

After these improvements, the new "barrel" bomb could not only be dropped by the faster "Peng" bomber, but also more stable when rebounding on the water, in fact, this was also a major defect of the "barrel" bomb at that time, when the British bombers attacked the Ruhr dam, several bombs jumped over the top of the dam, thus not hitting the target. In addition, with the use of better materials, the body is tougher and deforms less after hitting the dam, which reduces the chance of duds and allows the bomb to sink more smoothly. The effect of the new fuse is also huge, which allows the bomb to explode at a more precise depth with maximum destructive effect.

Now, the weight of this new "barrel" bomb that has been manufactured has been reduced to 7 tons, but its charge has been increased to 4.5 tons, and the use of more powerful ~ ammunition is used, and the charge of 4.5 tons is equivalent to the destructive power produced by 6 tons of yellow explosives. On top of that, later engineers installed a rotation angle controller on the bomb, that is, the angle at which the bomb was detonated could be controlled by this controller. Coupled with a directional explosive device, the energy generated by the bomb explosion can be concentrated in a specific direction, thereby doubling the shock wave generated by the explosion and increasing the destructive power.

After this series of improvements, the engineers first calculated that such a bomb could also destroy gravity dams that were not too strong, and not just stress dams. Of course, in order to completely destroy the gravity dam, the number of bombs that need to be used is definitely higher, and it is best to have more than two bombs hit the same part in order to achieve the best results. Immediately, Luo Yunchong was ready to organize personnel to conduct a practical test of the engineer's calculations, but before he could assign this task, Gu Xunlei sent a request for support, and Luo Yunchong had to test this theory in actual combat. Anyway, for Luo Yunchong, even if he fails, there won't be much negative impact!