"Here's your chance! Fly with me...... Remember, don't go near the shoreline! ”

Radesch knew it was time to see the flickering fires on distant land, so he cautiously piloted the plane as he reminded his men to stay away from the coastline through his throat communicator. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info This is not only to dodge the anti-aircraft artillery, but also to prevent the plane from crashing on the island of Trinidad after being hit - if the plane crashes on the island, the "Oyster Mine" on the plane will fall into the hands of the Americans, and by studying the "Oyster Mine", the Americans will quickly find a way to crack it, and they will also copy it.

The plane flew for a few more minutes, closer to the southern entrance of the Gulf of Paria, and the navigator suddenly reported in a shrill voice that the radar had detected two fast-moving ships at the entrance to the bay! Almost at the same time, a fan-shaped blue light from the searchlight was released from the sea, but the searchlight was too far away to reach Radsch's plane.

"That's supposed to be the entrance to the strait." Radesch pressed the throat communicator with his gloved fingers, "Attention 8th Squadron, you are laying mines 5,000 meters south of that American destroyer (which he guessed is a destroyer). ”

"Okay, okay...... It's a pity that there is no torpedo, otherwise it would have been killed. ”

The voice of the leader of the 8th Torpedo Bomber Squadron with some regret came from the headset -- just two American light ships would never be able to escape the pursuit of more than ten Ju188E-2 torpedo bombers!

However, in order to carry as many mines as possible - so that the blockade of Trinidad could be carried in as few missions as possible - none of the 100 planes of the 11th Torpedo Bombing Aviation Regiment tonight were torpedoes.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

At this time, the two American destroyers on the sea began to fire desperately with 10 127mm guns, as if trying to prevent the low-altitude German planes from rushing into the bay. Two low-flying Ju-188s were hit by shrapnel fired from 127mm, one of them turned into a fireball in the air, and the other had an engine that caught fire, so it had to throw mines and fly towards the nearby Amarcuro Delta region of Venezuela - a sparsely populated area full of swampy wetlands and rainforests, unsuitable for large armies, but American and German jungle warfare forces had established strongholds in the rainforest, and each used some bayonets, Gadgets like daggers bribed several Indian tribes to act as helpers. Therefore, it is still very likely that the German pilots will be rescued after parachuting or making a forced landing in that area.

The remaining planes, with the exception of 12 Ju11E-188E-188 belonging to the 8th Squadron of the 2th Torpedo Bombardment Aviation Regiment, which had dropped mines and left, all swept over the 2 American destroyers and rushed into the open Gulf of Paria.

"Do you see the fire on the right? Lieutenant Colonel? It seems that the bombers covering us have really hit a lot of valuable targets. At this time, Radsch's navigator found that Trinidad was full of fire and smoke, and it was clear that a number of missiles had hit targets that could cause fires. However, he did not know that the Luftwaffe had adopted the tactics of low-cost aircraft to guide missiles in this operation, and thought that the bombs dropped by bombers had achieved good results.

"At least there was a lot of movement that attracted the attention of the Americans." Lieutenant Colonel Radesch said, "Now it's time for us to show our hands!" ”

He pressed the laryngeal communicator again and began to assign tasks. The northern entrance to the Gulf of Paria was the main passage for American ships and had to be blocked with the most mines, so Radsch sent four squadrons to carry out the mission. The remaining three squadrons were spread out to lay mines in shallow waters in the bay near the coastline. The reason why all mines are not placed at the two entrances to the bay is to increase the difficulty of mine clearance.

The essence of mine warfare is not how many enemy ships are sunk, but how many enemy ships are blocked, making their ports unusable or unusable. Therefore, "sweep resistance" is a must be considered when laying mines -- the 180 "Oystermines" scattered in the bay are definitely a nightmare for the minesweeper units of the US Navy, and I don't know how many depth charges will have to be dropped to clear them!

While hundreds of "Oydivides" were thrown into the sea, more than a thousand night fighters were engaged in a melee over the island of Trinidad. The biggest difference between fighting at night and fighting during the day is that it is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe. Although there are radars and searchlights on planes at night, the radar cannot distinguish between friend and foe, and the searchlights do not dare to be turned on easily. So the dogfight between the night fighters of both sides was a great test of the pilot's nerves. In this kind of battle, where a mistake can occur at any time, skilled recruits who have not participated in any actual combat are sometimes more dangerous than the enemy. Because they are nervous, they tend to fire blindly when they are clearly distinguishing the target, and about half of the targets they hit are their own planes!

Most of the German night fighter pilots were veterans, who had competed with the British and Soviets in the night skies of Europe for nearly five years, and had long since developed a calm mentality, and would not fire indiscriminately in a night melee.

Because there are many American night fighter pilots who have been beaten down by their own people in a daze, the exchange ratio of this night air battle must have been greatly disadvantageous to the Americans. About 4 American planes were shot down in order to switch to 1 German plane. However, because the area of engagement was over the U.S.-controlled island of Trinidad, the American pilots were relatively easy to rescue, and the loss of the U.S. and German pilots was about 2.5:1, which was not too much of a loss for the United States. And because it was a night battle, and it was night fighters against night fighters (both sides were more flexible and easy to dodge), the intensity could not be compared with the daytime engagement, so the total number of losses was not too much.

But the next morning, the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were meeting in the Pentagon, were taken aback.

What surprised them was not the loss of night fighters, but the new tactics of "aircraft covering missiles" adopted by Germany. Although the missiles that hit Trinidad last night did not cause much damage, this tactic undoubtedly made it more difficult to intercept operations at night. Because it was not the clumsy heavy bombers that attacked, but the powerful and more agile night fighters and missiles that were difficult to shoot down.

This means that night fighters have lost the ability to protect cities from night bombing - because if they choose to attack missiles, they will become targets for enemy night fighters, which is equivalent to trading the pilot's life for missiles!

If they don't attack the missiles, then they will fall on American cities or bases, causing damage and causing panic.

In addition, there was another bad news that shocked the members of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff even more -- US military technicians on the island of Trinidad had found suspected radio-remote control devices on the German missiles they had picked up and had not exploded, while at the same time they had found no other guidance devices.

This shows that the incoming missiles are guided and remotely controlled by airplanes -- a guidance method that is more reliable than it can be used in an attack on a large city on the east coast.

A few Yankee generals, you look at me, I look at you, and when they were all a little overwhelmed, a Pentagon staff officer hurriedly walked into the conference room.

"Sir, the command of the Navy's 3rd Fleet (currently stationed in Port of Spain, Trinidad) reports that the Germans have probably dropped new mines in the Gulf of Paria."

"New mines?" Chief of Naval Operations Ernest Murphy. Admiral Kim hurriedly asked, "Blew up the minesweeper?" ”

The staff officer nodded and said: "Immediately after the end of the air raid, the Third Fleet Command sent 10 minesweepers to clear the channel with electromagnetic minesweepers and minesweepers. As a result, the mines were not swept away, but the minesweepers were blown up and sank 6 ......"

It is not uncommon for minesweepers to be sunk by mines, but six minesweepers were sunk at once, and not a single mine was swept away, so there is no doubt that they encountered new mines.

"Damn, the Bay of Paria is blocked!" Sitting at the head of the conference table, William presided over the meeting. Leahy understood immediately what was happening.

"William, when will the Gulf of Paria be open to traffic?" Army Chief of Staff Marshall asked with a frown.

If the Gulf of Paria is the main access to Trinidad, what will happen to the logistics of the island's nearly a few thousand aircraft and hundreds of thousands of American servicemen if it is blocked?

"It's hard to say," said William. Leahy shook his head, "If we can catch their new mines, maybe we can find a way to crack them in a few weeks." Otherwise...... If you don't know the principle of fuse detonation of this kind of mine, you can only use depth charges to blow up a channel. Not only is this a waste of ammunition, but it is also very time-consuming and requires repeated bombing. And in the process, the Germans are quite likely to lay more mines. ”

"And what about Trinidad's supplies?" Marshall asked. Of course, there are many reserves on the island of Trinidad, but due to the huge garrison on the island, the daily consumption is also astronomical, if the island is blocked for a few weeks, it is not a big problem, if it is blocked for a few months, the army above may have to surrender without a fight.

"Let's fly it first." William. Leahy glanced at Arnold, "Henry, can the Army Air Corps do this job?" ”

Henry. Arnold was stunned, there were so many people, so many equipment, so many planes on Trinidad, and the daily consumption was astronomical. The kind of spam canned luncheon meat that is hated by American GIs alone consumes hundreds of thousands a day, how can it be airlifted by air?

And Trinidad is so close to German-controlled Guyana, and the Germans Fokker 636, Fw190 and He219 can casually come to the door, and the kind of transport that can only fly slowly will not be sent to death?