The Battle of Newfoundland on 8 April 1945 (the actual battle was not over the island of Newfoundland, but was relatively close) is generally regarded by later historians as the beginning of the landing of European forces in North America. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Moreover, the result of this great battle in the sky was undoubtedly a crushing defeat on the part of the Allies and a complete victory for the side of the Coalition.

However, on the evening of April 8, U.S. time, when Secretary of War Wallace and the Presidential Chief of Staff William Brown. When Leahy reported to President Harry Truman in the newly built White House bunker, he described the just-concluded air battle on Newfoundland as a draw.

"Mr. President, although our losses are large, 95 F7Fs, 67 P-47s and 87 'Firmament' have not yet returned. However, we managed to prevent the Germans from firing missiles at the big cities on the east coast......"

"Henry, we lost 249 fighters! In just one air battle, we lost 249 fighters! Truman, apparently frightened by the loss figures, interrupted Wallace in a loud voice, "How many planes have we sorted?" Why are there so many losses? ”

Wallace looked at William, whose face was pale. Raisi glanced at Admiral Leahy and said in a somewhat hoarse voice: "Mr. President, we have dispatched a total of 525 fighter planes......"

"Nearly half lost?" Truman shuddered, his eyes fixed on Admiral Leahy.

Leahy went on to say: "The losses were so great because of the encounter with more than 100 German Me262s and about the same number of Fokkers. ”

“Me262…… Isn't this a jet? Truman's small round glasses shot a panicked gaze, "How could such an airplane fly near the island of Newfoundland?" Their range is not ......"

Because of the technical information provided by the British, Truman knew that the reason why the range of jet aircraft was not large was due to the high fuel consumption of jet engines. But now Me262 is near Newfoundland! The distance from the Azores, the base of the Germans, is more than 2000 km, how can it be within the combat radius of Me262? Could it be that the Germans made some big breakthrough in jet engine technology?

"Presumably carrier-based aircraft." Admiral Leahy said.

"Carrier-based aircraft?" Truman's face became even more gloomy, "Jet carrier-based aircraft? The Germans have already put jets on aircraft carriers? ”

William. Leahy nodded: "That's the most reasonable explanation...... The Naval Operations Department estimates that the two 60,000-ton German aircraft carriers previously spotted were jet-based. ”

Truman breathed a sigh of relief slightly: "Only 2 aircraft carriers can be carried? ”

"It should be...... "William. Leahie's answer is also uncertain.

It is no small matter that several aircraft carriers can carry jets, and the current defense deployment of the United States in the Caribbean and eastern Canada is based on the fact that German jet fighters cannot reach the airspace above the theater of operations.

If this premise changes, it is difficult to say whether the defenses of the Caribbean and eastern Canada can be relied upon. In particular, the aviation forces in eastern Canada are relatively weak, and now they have lost so many fighters, which is really a bit frightening......

"Mr. President," Wallace still looked optimistic, "the German Me262 is a very large aircraft, about the same as the F7F. It is difficult for such an aircraft to get on an aircraft carrier even if it is not a jet, and an aircraft carrier of ordinary size cannot fit at all, it must be a supercarrier. So the Germans had at most 2 aircraft carriers that could accommodate the Me262. The more than 100 Me262s that appeared near Newfoundland today should be all the carrier-based Me262s they can get their hands on. ”

Truman just sighed softly, "More than 100 Me262s are not easy to deal with......"

"President, the jets of the Germans are not so terrible." Wallace told Truman, "They just have a great performance advantage at very high altitudes, and our planes are not afraid of them as long as they avoid extreme altitudes." ”

There is some truth in his words, the Me262 is indeed not that scary, this aircraft is only part of the Luftwaffe/Naval Aviation combat system!

Due to the emergence of primitive AWACS aircraft, the air forces of Germany (European Community) and the United States (Allied Forces) are now developing systematically, and a system with AWACS aircraft as the command center has been established. Therefore, the result of the air battle on April 8 was not only how powerful the German Me262T was, but also the result of a more complete German air combat system and a more intelligent command level.

And the United States is not very bad in this regard, if today's opponent is not Germany but Japan, it can definitely be a one-sided hanging!

"Admiral Arnold has personally rushed to Montreal to investigate the cause of the defeat in the Great Battle of Newfoundland." William. "He believes that in addition to the appearance of the carrier-based Me262, the fact that our air commanders did not make good use of the command and early warning capabilities of the F-13 is also an important reason," Leahy said. He also believes that as long as we can make full use of the reconnaissance capabilities of AWACS aircraft and ground and surface radar systems, it is entirely possible to detect the German Me262 fleet in advance and guide the fighters to evade it...... After all, there are just over 100 of them. ”

In the end, Admiral Arnold is the person who led the US Army Air Corps in fierce battles with strong enemies for several years, and he really has real skills. When I saw the report sent by Lieutenant General Hamon by telegram, I knew what the problem was, and I also thought of some countermeasures.

At the same time, in the Joint Intelligence Command Center of the German General Staff in Tsosen, Imperial Field Marshal Hersmann was also analyzing the battle report on the "air battle on Newfoundland Island" that he had just received with the heads of the navy, air force, and naval aviation.

There are two battle reports, one is "Adolf. The "Hitler" aircraft carrier was sent out by Hersmann Jr. One was sent from the Herosmo Air Base in the Azores and was written by Major General Moldes.

According to Hersmann Jr., in the April 8 air battle on Newfoundland, German naval air carrier-based aircraft shot down a total of about 250 American/British (Canadian) shore-based fighters. The loss of its own is only 15 Fokker 636 and 9 Me262T, of which 4 Me262Ts crashed due to malfunctions and landing accidents, and only 5 Me262Ts were actually shot down by enemy aircraft in combat.

The reason why the exchange ratio between the two sides is so different is not entirely because of the excellent performance of the Me262T, but because of the air combat command system with the Bv138E and Me264H as the core. This gave the Germans a real coordination between more than 270 fighters and more than 300 bombers, as in the battles on land. Therefore, he was able to win more with less, shooting down almost as many enemy planes as himself.

In Moldes's report, however, he focused on the fact that the fighters on the US side also had a fairly strong command -- it was easy to see that although the Americans had lost the battle, their fighters advanced and retreated in an orderly manner, and they were able to pursue the German aircraft group beyond their sight, and it was obvious that there were AWACS planes in command. It was only due to a mistake in command and at the same time not anticipating the appearance of the Me262T that such a serious setback was suffered.

Therefore, Molders predicted that the command of the US air force should be improved soon, and that Germany would not be able to achieve too much disparity in the next air battle on the island of Newfoundland.

"When's the next time?" Hersman asked. Of course, the Great Air Battle on the island of Newfoundland could not be fought only once, but at least four or five times before it was possible to exhaust the American fighters in eastern Canada.

"Tomorrow morning." "The 3rd Fleet's 301st and 302nd carrier groups will join up with Task Force 20 tonight, which have four Kesselring-class carriers," Raeder said. At that time, Task Force 20 will concentrate 12 aircraft carriers, and the number of Fokker 636 fighters will increase by 96. ”

Kesselring added: "It is expected that this time our Me264 will be able to launch the missile, this time we will launch the latest model of the Reaper 1D long-range air-launched cruise missile, the range of this missile will be increased to 700 km, the weight of the warhead will be reduced accordingly, and the speed will be reduced to about 600 km/h." ”

Hersman nodded, he didn't care if the Reaper missile could kill a few Americans, but the attack was still necessary, otherwise it would not be possible to pin down the American fighters on the east coast.

So he gave an order a few months ago to study long-range air-launched cruise missiles, and now the refinement has been completed (this is a very easy improvement), and there are also the first live shells.

"What about the attack on Bermuda?" Hersman then asked, "Is it still necessary?" ”

The attack on Bermuda was a feint and was also aimed at weakening U.S. air power in the North Atlantic. According to the "Great Triangle Plan" for feints to attack Bermuda, more than 20 German aircraft carriers will concentrate more than 1,000 warplanes to bomb Bermuda indiscriminately and completely destroy the US air force and US airfields there. To this end, it is also planned to put in the 10th Task Force (which is the main force of the 1st Fleet) with 8 Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers to attack together with the 20th Task Force, but this "big triangle plan" is only an alternative plan and may not actually be implemented.

"There is no need, the Navy and the Air Force do not think it is necessary." "Because the exchange ratio of air engagement near Newfoundland is ideal, we should continue to engage the American Air Forces off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in order to achieve the goal of utterly depleting the enemy," Raeder said. ”