"Mark, if Newfoundland is attacked by the enemy, I mean landing, how long will you be able to resist with the forces available on the island?"

On April 9, 1945, the day after the "First Great Battle of Newfoundland", Henry Brown, who went to Montreal to investigate the cause of the defeat in the air war. Admiral Arnold suddenly asked a question that surprised Admiral Clark a little. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Henry. Arnold is the commander of the Army Aviation, not the Chief of Staff or Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, and it seems that this question should not be asked that has little to do with the Army Aviation.

"Henry, what are you worried about?" Admiral Clark looked at a worried Arnold and asked.

"Mark, don't you think there's a big hole in the defense line in eastern Canada?" Henry. "In the original plan, the Air Force was an important force in defending Canada's eastern coastline," Arnold said. But now, the air forces in the northeastern part of North America have suffered heavy losses and may not be able to inflict heavy damage on the enemy attempting to land in eastern Canada. If the enemy lands on Newfoundland now, is there a chance of success? ”

"Oh," Clark nodded, seeming to agree with Arnold, "there are holes in eastern Canada, but not on the island of Newfoundland, but on the long coastline of the Labrador region. ”

Located in the northeastern corner of Canada, facing the Atlantic Ocean and across the sea from Greenland, the Labrador region has a long, winding coastline with many natural harbors. Moreover, most of the local residents made a living from fishing, so there were many fishing ports in the coastal areas of Labrador that could be used by the attacking European armies.

Due to the large number of natural harbors and fishing ports, Admiral Clark did not have enough troops to defend them, so he had to rely on minelaying and aviation to defend them. Now the Allied air forces in northeastern North America not only suffered heavy losses, but also proved that they could not defeat the German carrier-based air forces. So the defense of the coastal zone of Labrador is useless.

"Newfoundland really won't have a problem?" Henry. Arnold was still not reassured.

Unlike Admiral Clark, he was not too worried about the Labrador area, knowing that there were no readily available large airfields for heavy bombers and jets to take off and land. Even if the Germans landed there and established a stronghold, there would be no way to deploy Me264 and Me262 for a while.

Moreover, the harbors in Labrador are frozen for half a year and thawed for half a year, and as soon as the autumn equinox (September) passes, there will be ice floes everywhere in the harbors.

"No, there are no holes in the defense of Newfoundland, the terrain there is too good for defense." Clark assured Arnold that "there were now more than 250,000 heavily armed Allied officers and men defending it, with a large number of tanks, artillery, torpedo boats, and fortifications so strong that it would not have been possible for the Germans to land there without air cover." Moreover, our air forces can still play a great role, even if they cannot compete with the Germans for air supremacy during the day, they can also use the night to drop 'bat' bombs. ”

The "Bat" radar-guided gliding bomb became the darling of the US Army and Navy aviation after its "contribution" in Buenos Aires, quickly equipping all medium and heavy bomber wings. Although this radar-guided bomb has weaknesses such as insufficient power and poor reliability, it is still very useful to deal with unarmored or lightly armored transport ships and landing ships. It is only necessary to use the cover of night to drop the bomb horizontally at an altitude of 3,000 meters above the target. As long as the number of drops is large enough, it can severely damage the landing fleet on the sea.

The night fighters with excellent performance are usually twin-engine two-seat or twin-engine multi-seat heavy aircraft, which are difficult to change to carrier-based aircraft, and even if they want to be on the ship, they must be carried by a supercarrier like the "Midway" class. So it was impossible for the Germans to deploy too many night fighters near the landing grounds on Newfoundland. This made it difficult to defend against American medium and heavy bombers carrying "bat" bombs.

"Since that's the case, I'm relieved." Henry. Arnold exhaled softly, his brow still furrowed, and he didn't show much "reassurance".

At that moment, the ringing of a red telephone on Admiral Clark's desk suddenly rang. Clark immediately picked up the earpiece, and the voice of Lieutenant General Harmon, commander of the North American Northeast Regional Air Command, came.

"Admiral, they are sortie again, and the F-13 has found that more than 200 planes have taken off from the airfield in the Azores and are flying west. In about 5 hours, it will pass through the airspace 500 kilometers south of Newfoundland! ”

Admiral Clark put down the telephone receiver and looked at Admiral Arnold: "Henry, they are here again, more than 200 Me264s, and they will be engaged in 5 hours...... If we are also ready to intercept them. ”

"It seems that the Germans want to repeat yesterday's victory, but we won't be fooled again." Henry. Arnold stood up, straightened his military uniform, and then picked up his military hat on the desk and buckled it on his head, "Mark, I need to go to the aviation command." ”

……

Right here in Henry. Admiral Arnold traveled to the Northeast North American Regional Air Command to discuss countermeasures with Lieutenant General Harmon. In the Pentagon, US Secretary of War Wallace is chairing an emergency military meeting to discuss how to respond to a new round of missile attacks by the German army.

Thanks to the commander of the Army Air Corps, Henry Brown. Arnold was in Montreal, so it was decided by the Chief of Staff of the Army Air Corps, Carl Anderson. Andrew. Lieutenant General Spaatz attended the meeting on his behalf.

At the meeting, Lieutenant General Spatz made a formal proposal on behalf of the Army Air Corps. He told Wallace: "Mr. Minister, until we have found the cause of the defeat on April 8 and come up with a countermeasure, we should not again blindly dispatch our warplanes to intercept enemy bomber groups." ”

"Are we going to watch enemy missiles fly to New York and Boston?" Wallace asked, frowning.

"No," Mr. Spatz said, "we still have a lot of means of intercepting missiles, such as using fighter jets." We will send F-13 AWACS aircraft to detect the course of German missiles, identify their targets, and then mobilize enough fighters to intercept them. At the same time, a batch of anti-aircraft balloons will be urgently deployed, and air defense alarms will be sounded in the target cities of missile attacks......"

Thanks to the United States' own large high-altitude early warning aircraft F-13, the Americans can now determine the target by the position of the Me264 group and the direction of the missile flight when the German Me264 group launches missiles.

In other words, the Americans have at least 40 minutes to 1 and a half hours (depending on the missile model) to mobilize fighters to intercept layer by layer. And since the Me264 fleet was spotted by the F-13 (which took off from Newfoundland) a few hours before the missile was launched, the Americans had plenty of time to arrange for the fighters to take off. Before determining the direction of the missile's flight, theoretically all fighters in the northeastern United States can take off with full fuel and be ready in the air at any time.

"How many interceptors can be sent?" Wallace asked.

"At least 1,500 sorties can be made." Spatz replied, "On average, each German missile can be divided into 5-8 interceptors, and at least 30 F-13 early warning aircraft will be dispatched to direct the interception operation, which should be able to shoot down a considerable number of German missiles." ”

"How much is a significant portion?" Wallace asked.

"It depends on the speed of the missile." "According to our reconnaissance, there are two types of German missiles, fast and slow, and the maximum speed of fast missiles is close to 1,000 km/h, which is very difficult to intercept," Spatz said. The maximum speed of a slow-speed missile is only 600 km/h, and if 5-8 interceptors are used to intercept 1 missile, the success rate is as high as 80%-90%. ”

"That high success rate?" Wallace's brow furrowed.

He also knew that there were high-speed and slow-speed German missiles, and he also knew that the proportion of slow-speed missiles was as high as 80 percent, and that there were only a few fast-speed missiles -- this was related to the cost of manufacturing, and high-speed missiles used high-end jet engines, so the price was naturally not cheap.

"Yes." "Because the missile doesn't fight back," Spatz replied, "it's just a fast-flying target for an interceptor, and its direction is fixed." As long as it is detected, it is easy to shoot down if it is not fast enough...... If a slow-moving missile with a speed of less than 600 km/h is encountered, the aircraft can follow it and pull the distance to 200-300 meters before firing. ”

Wallace nodded, and then glanced at the president's chief of staff, William Brown. Leahy, Leahy said: "Mr. Minister, I agree with the plans of the Army Air Corps, now we have great losses in the strength of our aviation, although we have enough aircraft, but the pilots are not unlimited, especially experienced old pilots are simply a valuable asset. In the current situation, this wealth must not be squandered. ”

Fierce air battles in Buenos Aires, Trinidad and Tobago, and Newfoundland have left both the U.S. Army and Navy Air Corps a little overwhelmed. Although there are a large number of pilots in the Americans, they can't help but consume so much!

Moreover, the exchange ratio of air combat is too disparity, so that the United States is rapidly losing the air war.

Therefore, before the final decisive battle is approaching, the Joint Chiefs of Staff can only use air power cautiously and choose the location of the air battle as much as possible over the areas under its own control. After all, the missile will not open fire and counterattack, and the US fighter plane will fail to intercept at most, and it is impossible for the missile to be shot down...... Theoretically, there is absolutely no such possibility!