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In the face of the large-scale infiltration operations and mine blockade operations carried out by the surface fleet and submarine fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy in the waters around western and southern Europe, the alliance led by Germany quickly took countermeasures. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info╔╗

The alliance has laid a large number of mine obstacles and anti-submarine nets in the coastal waters of Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and other countries, and has also deployed a large number of coastal defense fortresses, and a large number of fortress guns are aimed at the coastal waters, forming a powerful coastal defense artillery fire, making it difficult for submarines and surface ships of the Chinese Imperial Navy to enter the coastal waters of Europe to carry out infiltration and mine-laying missions.

However, as the General Staff of the Chinese Empire formulated the tactic of attacking the east and west, that is, the high-profile announcement that it would carry out large-scale landing operations on the east and west coasts of the United States, the nerves of the US military were highly tense. As a matter of fact, the Chinese Empire felt that it would be able to achieve unexpected results by opening up a second battlefield in Europe first, and suddenly carrying out a landing operation in Europe at a time when it was paralyzing the Nazi countries in Europe, such as Germany, Italy, and Spain, and causing them to relax their vigilance.

Because the propeller fighters of the Luftwaffe were inferior to the jet fighters of the Chinese Empire, and although Germany had developed a variety of jet fighters, its production capacity was insufficient, and it could not compete with the quantity and quality of the Imperial Chinese Air Force in a short period of time, so in the first few months of the Chinese Empire's entry into the war, the German aviation force had been seriously weakened, and the air supremacy in the coastal areas of Europe had been firmly in the hands of the Imperial Chinese Air Force.

In this way, the conditions for the third-step operational plan of the General Staff of the Chinese Empire to use aircraft to carry out aerial minelaying were ripe, so the joint ** commander-in-chief Cai Yi decided to use the H7 Flying Fortress strategic bomber and the B2 Mustang tactical bomber to carry out this task. ╔╗

August 11, 1943. The Imperial Chinese Air Force dispatched 100 H7 and 70 B2 bombers to carry out aerial mine-laying operations over the Aegean Sea, successfully laying 993 mines into the coastal areas of Greece and Bulgaria, trapping the Bulgarian and Romanian navies in the harbor and causing damage to 11 enemy warships.

This was the first large-scale aviation minelaying operation carried out by the Chinese Emperor in World War II, and it was also an actual combat exercise for the upcoming large-scale offensive of minelaying throughout Europe.

The airborne minelaying operation is a key part of the Chinese Emperor's "hunger campaign" plan, and the H7 and B2 bombers that were tested for the first time have been specially improved in order to meet the technical requirements of airborne minelaying. Each H7 airborne mine-laying strategic bomber can carry 19 453-kilogram mines or nine 913-kilogram mines, and each B2 Mustang tactical bomber can carry eight 400-kilogram mines or three 882-kilogram mines.

The base of departure of the bomber group was the Raptor airbase on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean. In order to ensure the smooth completion of the air mine-laying operation and the successful actual combat. Two months ago, Raptor Air Force Base began various theoretical discussions and technical research. The General Staff of the Chinese Empire specially dispatched a group of 253 mine experts to the Raptor Air Base, where it set up a mine assembly center to adjust and improve the mine-triggered fuses in order to increase the technical difficulty and prolong the operation time of the enemy's mine clearance. ╔╗

At the same time, in order to meet the air mine-laying method of mines, experts specially equipped various mines with special parachutes. to slow down the falling speed during the airdrop and avoid exploding due to the high velocity when entering the water.

When everything is ready. Aerial mine-laying operations began in earnest on 17 August. The first phase will be until August 22. During this phase, the Chinese Emperor would usually organize large-scale air raids at the same time, as a feint to attract the attention of the allies, so as to cover the aerial mine-laying operations of the Chinese Imperial Strategic Air Force.

In the first phase, the Imperial Air Force of China flew a total of 5,246 sorties of H7 and B2 bombers and laid 12,030 mines. The mine-laying sea area is mainly concentrated in the ports of Kiel, Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Toulon and Dunkirk, where the main forces of the German Navy's High Seas Fleet live.

In addition to its strategic purpose, it also has a tactical nature of supporting the Battle of the Atlantic. Because the combined fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy and the British Navy was planning to completely annihilate the German High Seas Fleet. The air minelaying made it impossible for the German High Seas Fleet, which left port for the English Channel, to safely return to its home port for replenishment or rest in a short period of time, creating an opportunity and time for the Sino-British Combined Fleet to attack the German Navy. ╔╗

With the appearance of mines laid by the Allied forces on the main port waterways of the Allied powers. A large number of Allied coast guard warships, civilian ships, and merchant ships were hit by mines, causing huge losses and panic among the people, and more seriously, many large steamers sank in the main channel, seriously blocking the shipping lane, and not only could merchant ships not enter or leave, but even the German Navy could not return to port to take shelter from the storm or resupply and rest.

The German High Seas Fleet, which was heading to the English Channel, was the most nervous, because their original plan was to quickly attack the Allied anti-aircraft Aegis ships in the English Channel, and then quickly retreat to French ports to avoid a decisive battle with the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Nowadays, the Chinese Imperial Air Force has laid mines in major French ports, so that the German Navy cannot return to the French ports in time to take refuge after the attack, and it is easy to be surrounded and intercepted by the Chinese Imperial Navy if it returns, which makes the German Navy fall into panic, and even many officers and men suggest that they return immediately.

The Germans quickly took this serious problem seriously, and Hitler specifically instructed the German coastal forces in France to quickly clear the shipping lanes and ensure that the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet could enter the port for replenishment and rest.

The Germans immediately took countermeasures, but every time the Germans cleared a part of the mines, the Imperial Chinese Air Force would immediately drop another batch of mines to replenish it. This made the speed at which the Germans cleared the mines at all, and the speed at which the Imperial Chinese Air Force dropped the mines, and the major ports were never able to lift the mine blockade. ╔╗

During the mine blockade, although the German army's mine clearance speed continued to increase, the mine technology of the Chinese Empire was also constantly upgraded, and the difficulty of mine demolition was also increasing.

On August 20, the port of Toulon, France's largest port and naval base, was forced to close due to the sinking of several large ships. Meantime. The 1,000 sorties of fighter-bombers from the 1st Carrier Strike Group of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, which was assembling British, were carrying out surprise attacks on German and French mine-sweeping forces, forcing them to be unable to clear the mines in the waterway. And the port of Toulon was officially one of the ports where the German High Seas Fleet was ready to rest and replenish.

In the second phase, from 22 August to 30 August, the United Nations Air Force flew 9,233 sorties of various bombers and laid 10,422 mines. In order to make it more difficult for the German demining forces, the Allied forces began to use pressure-sensing mines with strong sweeping capabilities, and in addition to continuing to carry out supplementary minelaying in the English Channel, they also laid mines in the main shipping lanes of large and medium-sized ports such as the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The blockade of the main shipping routes in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and the cutting off of the sea communications of several large German industrial cities to seize resources from Norway, the biggest blow to Germany was the heavy water merchant ships that sailed from Norway to Germany, seven of which sank six, and was a major blow to Germany's development of nuclear weapons.

During this time, the German High Seas Fleet stopped in the waters near the Netherlands, and officials within the High Seas Fleet were at loggerheads. A group of people objected to going to war in the English Channel, believing that it would be a life-or-death event. Another group adhered to the Führer's orders. ╔╗ Insist on going to battle. And the German base camp also has a headache for this. The port was blocked, and even if the German navy reached the English Channel and won the victory, it would not be able to avoid a decisive battle with the imperial Chinese navy if it could not return to the port.

Obviously, neither the German top nor the German Navy were ideologically prepared for a decisive battle with the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

During the hesitation of the German Navy, the main forces of the Imperial Chinese Navy's Two Oceanic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet, as well as the main forces of the British Royal Navy, were rapidly assembling at the British naval base of Scarpa. Preparing for a decisive battle with the German Navy.

At the same time, the third phase of the Air Force of the Chinese Empire was launched. From September 1 onwards. The coalition forces flew a total of 14,209 sorties of bombers of various types and laid 21,013 mines. A full-scale blockade of major European ports began. The Bray region includes the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the English Channel, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, and parts of the Arctic Ocean.

During this period, the League had not yet developed an effective way to counter the mines of the Chinese Empire, and the Air Force of the Chinese Empire used another type of low-frequency acoustic mine with stronger sweeping resistance, which was more dangerous and posed a great threat to the ships of the Central Powers.

In view of the great threat of mines, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, and Norway were forced to close more than 90 ports, which caused a sharp decline in the volume of maritime traffic between the Central Powers, which was almost on the verge of stagnation. However, the capacity of the small ships was simply insufficient, and the huge material consumption of the Allied war machine could not be replenished, which plunged the Allies into a great crisis, and the effects of the Hunger Campaign were soon apparent.

During the same period, the Soviet army's shore-based aviation also laid 286 mines off the coast of Finland, mainly forcing Finnish transport ships to sail away from the coastal waters and into relatively open waters in order to attack them.

In order to cope with the coalition's air mine-laying operations, the alliance ** in order to restore its maritime traffic, invested more than 1,340 ships, more than 200,000 manpower to carry out mine-clearing operations, but due to the previous period due to the mine-sinking of more ships, many ships did not dare to risk the danger of mine-striking into the minefield, so the loss of the Allied ships has decreased, but the actual traffic volume has also been greatly reduced, taking the port of Kiel as an example, the unloading volume in August was 1.32 million tons, while in September it was only 24,000 tons, a decrease of 99%, Hitler was anxious about this, and a large string of fire bubbles formed at the corners of his mouth.

Since 15 September, the air mine-laying operations of the Imperial Air Force of China have been victorious. However, in order to consolidate the results of the war, the Chinese Imperial Air Force also had to dispatch 3,000 bombers a day to continue aerial minelaying operations in the waters of the major minelaying areas, mainly to replenish the mines cleared by the alliance.

During the four months of the main operational phase of the "Hunger Campaign" launched by the Chinese Empire, the Chinese Empire dispatched 51,028 bomber sorties and laid 112053 mines, including magnetic mines, acoustic mines, hydropressure mines, low-frequency acoustic mines, radio proximity mines, radio-controlled mines, and radar-sensing mines, excluding mines laid by planes and ships dispatched by the Imperial Chinese Navy, the British Navy, and the Soviet Navy Of the more than 2,670 Allied ships, including 175 warships, including the battleship, 2,431 were sunk or severely damaged beyond repair, with a total tonnage of more than 4.4 million tons.

The effect of the Chinese Emperor's offensive was very significant, with an average of 1 Allied ship sinking for every 41 mines, while the Chinese Emperor's losses were extremely slight, with only 15 bombers.

The successful implementation of the "Hunger Campaign" almost completely cut off vital sea transportation within the Allies, with a 99% drop in traffic in Wilhelmshaven almost equal to a disruption, and the Baltic Sea, the interior sea of the Allies, could only be navigated by small ships such as sailboats. The supply of various strategic materials urgently needed by Germany to maintain the war was interrupted by more than 40 percent, and the military industrial enterprises and civilian industries along the coast stopped production or closed down one after another due to the lack of raw materials.

The Chinese Empire's powerful industrial capacity produced more than 100,000 mines in just a few months, and successfully carried out large-scale aerial mine-laying operations against the whole of Europe, which shocked the whole world and greatly boosted the fighting spirit of the United Nations anti-fascist war.

Of course, this is not without its drawbacks. Until many years later, the mines laid by the Chinese Empire along the coast of Europe still exist, and the number is extremely large, these mines are easy to deploy, but it is very difficult to remove, this European coastal countries have brought huge navigation hazards, a mine worth only 8000 dragon coins, decades later, the cost of demining is as high as millions, this huge amount of money has become a huge financial burden for European countries. Every day, governments chase the ass of Imperial Chinese officials for demining funds, but the answer that awaits them is always the words – "We are looking for a solution!" ”

In this strategic offensive mine-laying operation, the Chinese Emperor was fully prepared, well-planned, coordinated with naval and air forces, concentrated troops, vast mine-laying sea areas, and intensive mine-laying intensity, which can be called unprecedented, especially in the last few stages, in less than a month, a total of tens of thousands of aircraft sorties, tens of thousands of mines, directly the entire European allies of hundreds of ports to completely blockade to death, received remarkable war results, and finally realized the campaign attempt to completely blockade European maritime communications. It dealt an extremely heavy blow to the entire Central Powers, including Germany, both materially and spiritually, and showed the tremendous role of this ancient weapon in modern warfare, which, combined with strategic bombing, greatly accelerated the process of World War II. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )