At the same time as the Icelandic campaign was underway, in the north of Austrian Libya in North Africa, not far from the port of Brega, a military station.

Although there were constantly armed patrol officers and soldiers walking around the platform, there was no noise on the platform, only a few words of command could be heard occasionally, and everywhere inside and outside the large warehouse where the station could accommodate several military vehicles could be seen in and around the station, heavily armed officers and soldiers in desert combat uniforms, most of them carrying new automatic rifles that only the elite troops of the empire had begun to equip. On the platform near the carriage, more than a dozen technicians in white overalls are directing the service personnel of the base, carefully lifting and unloading several large cylindrical equipment on the flatbed truck onto the flatbed train car.

Special equipment, special crowds, and tight protection all tell people that a very secret military operation is going on in the station.

A few hours later, on this calm summer evening, a secret military train loaded with Imperial officers and equipment quietly left the O'El O'Gel military base and headed south along the African Railway between Tripoli and Dar es Salaam. A few hours later, the train turned into a military line on the edge of the Lanshu Gobi and drove into the Empire's largest weapons test base in the deserted northern Lanshu Desert.

If anyone pays a little attention, they will find that this special military train has been raised to the highest level of security compared to the usual artillery and tank tests, and almost all stations along the line have been alerted to the normal traffic of the train before it arrives.

"Woo......"

At dawn, with a long whistle, the special train consisting of 6 passenger cars and 24 special carriages loaded with "A-5" rockets and a large number of instruments, ground equipment, special vehicles, and launch test personnel stopped at the platform of an improvised station at the Imperial Desert Secret Weapons Test Site at the remaining veins of the Black Haruj Mountains, near which several teams of base guards were on guard.

After the train came to a standstill, Major General Booker, deputy commander of the Austro-Hungarian Strategic Air Force, opened the curtains. Look out the window. The eastern sky was already a milky white, and the train stopped outside a hidden cave, with endless gravel Gobi in the distance and only a few sparse and low desert plants on the ground.

The entire secret weapons test site is located in a circular valley with a diameter of about 10 kilometers, and with the faint light of dawn, you can see that the surrounding hills are scattered with the base's guards and soldiers and some military vehicles. It's not far from this makeshift station. There is also a small airfield belonging to the Army Air Corps.

"Professor, we're here!"

Academician of the Imperial Academy of Engineering, head of the expert group on the long-range rocket project of the Strategic Air Force, chief scientist of the long-range launch vehicle project Alexander ? Perish turned his gaze away from a scientific journal in his hand. At this time, the guards had already set up a strict guard, and the base staff in dark blue overalls were unloading from the train three newly developed "A-5" rockets, 16 meters long, and weighing 15 tons, various test instruments, and ground equipment from the train under the command of technicians. Load on a couple of large flatbed trailers and some trucks.

German scientist, "father of modern rockets" Hermann? Dr. Aubert proposed the idea of a launch vehicle back in the early 20s, after which Jurgen? Sanders, Alexander? Perish and a group of scientists who love astronautics have put forward new ideas: how to use carrier rockets to realize the dream of sending human beings to outer space?

At the same time that a new "rocket fever" was set off by the "father of rockets" Aubert, the military authorities of Germany and Austria realized the important military role of carrier rockets, which is a new type of weapon capable of striking at the enemy at long range, destroying the enemy's military and industrial potential, and disintegrating its will to fight. For this reason. In the late 20s and early 30s, the military authorities of Germany and Austria invariably began a secret program to develop rocket weapons.

End of 1929. The Austro-Hungarian Emperor specially issued an order to Admiral Kesselring, commander of the newly formed Imperial Strategic Air Force, demanding that the strategic air force weapons and equipment department immediately increase research on new rocket weapons and set up a special project team to study and verify the possibility of carrier rocket applications in the military field. At the same time, the designation by the Wolfgang of the Army Armament Department? Dr. Booker is the project leader.

Under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Booker, the Imperial Air Force Rocket Program Research Group in its first years mainly carried out some basic research work. By 1932. The project team has made breakthroughs in some key technologies of rocket engines, and has been able to achieve the initial goal of launching the rocket, but there is still no clue in the field of rocket control.

Booker realized that the launch vehicle project was a huge systems project, which required the concentration of talents in the fields of engines, materials, and radio control, and was possible with the full support of the Emperor. Promoted to Air Force Colonel, Dr. Booker began to recruit a wide range of talent. With the key support of the emperor, the rocket development project was classified as a top national defense secret by the imperial military, and priority was given to research funding, which was fully supported.

With the strong support of the military, the Imperial rocket program developed rapidly, and in 1935 it achieved a successful short-range launch test, but encountered many difficulties in the development of a wirelessly guided rocket with a range of more than several hundred kilometers.

After dozens of failed tests, a breakthrough has now been made in the Imperial rocket test project, and the latest rocket engine has been able to launch a warhead weighing more than a dozen tons with a warhead charge of 1,200 kg to a distance of 350 kilometers, and as for the control accuracy, the last launch test failed, and the impact point deviated from the target by almost 10 kilometers.

"The Germans have come ahead of us, and in the last month, by von? The project team led by Dr. Braun has successfully test-fired a V-2 rocket with a range of more than 300 kilometers, and the Air Force Command has asked us to complete the final test work of the A-5 rocket as soon as possible. We need to use it to undermine the confidence of the British so that the present war can be ended as soon as possible. General Booker accompanied Dr. Perrish and Dr. Scheer, who was in charge of the design of the rocket engine, to get out of the special train and give an update on the news received from the Imperial Air Force Command.

"The failure of the last test launch was not due to a design problem, but to the radio manufacturing process. Because it could not withstand the vibration of the rocket during high-speed operation, several solder joints on the circuit board fell off, which caused the final loss of control of the rocket during operation. After redesigning the circuit board and adopting the ruggedization soldering process, this trial should not be a problem. Dr. Perish said as he walked, and after several people got out of the car, they took several cars and drove to the rocket launch site more than ten kilometers away from the base.

On 4 May, three assembled A-5 rockets were safely transported to the rocket launch site, and at 7:15 a.m., the launchers used an overhead crane to lift the 16-meter-long rockets onto the cable-stayed launch frame. Then, the lifting bracket carrying the rocket slowly drives to the launch position, and then the hydraulic device on the lifting bracket places the rocket on the launch pad in a vertical launch state.

Operators in white overalls climb onto the platform and begin the final pre-launch inspection and pre-launch preparations.

It was not until near the evening that after the last inspection, two tanker trucks drove into the launch site, and the operators began to fill the missiles with high-purity alcohol and high-purity liquid oxygen two propulsion fuels.

"Launched promptly at 7:35 p.m."

Looking at the tall, mighty dark green ballistic rocket standing on the launch stand, Dr. Perish said to General Booker with a slight smile of relief in his eyes.

"Yes, Doctor, 350 kilometers away, the area around Mount Ma'ruf has been completely sealed, in fact, the entire Tibesti Gravel Desert has been blocked, and the Air Force Commander has ordered this experiment to be strictly secrecy, and thousands of officers and soldiers from the North African Corps stationed in Libya have been specially transferred to participate in this experiment." Booker said that although the Reich's A-5 rocket was still in the experimental stage, the Germans had already begun to fire several V-2 rockets at the English Channel, which caused panic in Britain and the United States, and ordered a large number of European spies to hurry up and gather information about it.

On the evening of 4 May, Major General Booker, who was the commander-in-chief of the launch, gave the order to ignite.

With an earth-shattering roar, a puff of smoke rose around the launch pad, and a huge white flame erupted from the tail of the rocket, and the rocket more than ten meters long let out a huge roar, slowly rising into the air, and began to gradually accelerate.

The weather over the launch site was clear and visibility was good. More than ten seconds later, the vertically rising rocket began to deflect southeast according to the predetermined program, like a bright light, streaked across the night sky and flew into the distance. At the same time, the radio stations in the command center were constantly transmitting telegrams from the tracking stations.

"Target found, flight normal!"

"Track the target, fly with a good attitude!"

8 minutes and 47 seconds after the rocket ignited and took off, the base station near the target at Mount Ma'ruf sent back an exciting message: "The warhead fell within 150 meters of the center of the circle of the intended target, congratulations on success!" Repeat ......"

When the news broke, the entire launch base was boiling...... (To be continued.) )