When Richthofen wanted to show his skills in the construction of the bomber force, he encountered a problem, which was not a technical problem, but a problem of profit distribution, and the Junker Aircraft Factory, the Henschel Aircraft Factory and the Dornier Aircraft Factory all wanted a piece of the future Air Force bomber project. Because he knew that the bomber project was too big, and if any of the three wins, then it will be fatal for the other two. This means that the remaining two will be squeezed out of the market. As the holder of the highest power in Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II also did not want a monopoly to happen. "We have to give everyone a share of the benefits, and too much monopoly is definitely not a good thing," Wilhelm II said to Richthofen more than once. This is the attitude of the emperor, he must carry it out!

History repeats itself at this moment, and almost all of the twin-engine bombers that have ever appeared in Germany were manufactured by the Junkers, Henschel and Dornier aircraft factories. Among them, there are the following types of twin-engine bombers with relatively large output, namely JU88 series, HE111 series and DO217 series, which correspond to the above three aircraft manufacturers. The JU88 series became the model with the highest output of twin-engine bombers in Germany in World War II because of the production of tens of thousands. At the same time, it is known as a universal bomber because of its good bomb load and range, as well as good dive performance (it is said that it can dive bomb at a 65-degree angle). Although it may be inferior in terms of performance to the DO217 (the latter is larger, and the range and bomb load are also longer. But it still shouldered the heavy responsibility of the Third Reich's ground attack.

Of course, in addition to the above three aircraft, Juncker also has bombers like JU188, JU288, and JU388. And Dornier also has bombers like DO317, many of which are advanced in performance, but either because of the late production or the lack of production has no effect on the big war. In addition to being a bomber. Historically, Germany also used it as a night fighter aircraft in the middle and late periods. Both JU88 and DO217 have professional Night Combat versions. Equipped with radar and a large number of machine guns, these bombers turned into night killers.

In terms of performance, the performance of these bombers is similar, and the functions also overlap with each other. There is indeed a suspicion of wasting resources. After all, from the perspective of role, one JU88 can perform almost all the tasks, and there is no need for three factories to design three aircraft at the same time. From the point of view of feeding the other losers, it would be enough for the other two factories to share a portion of the production tasks.

Because in the future. Twin-engine bombers will become the main force of the Luftwaffe's ground-to-sea attack, so Richthofen and others are very interested in the tender for medium bombers, as early as the initial stage of the tender. The Luftwaffe had very clear requirements for the upgrade potential and versatility of the bomber. "The bomber had to have enough range to cover the entire continent of Western Europe from Germany. At the same time, the bomb load must be more than 1.5 tons. The interior space of the aircraft must be large enough, and the internal single layer can accommodate 500KG bombs. And there is an internal magazine, and there is also the potential to accommodate 800KG class bombs. The external pylons should have the ability to hang 1800KG bombs (JU88 really carried 1800KG bombs during the attack on the Sevastopol fortress in history). But the authors estimate this load case. It's almost impossible to dive. "In the Luftwaffe's tender for proposals, the medium bomber was defined in this way.

In addition to this, the German Navy wanted to request the development of a twin-engine torpedo bomber capable of flying torpedoes to carry out long-range attack missions on the basis of medium bombers. And this bomber can carry at least 2 torpedoes at a time. THE GERMAN ARMY IS CONSIDERING WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE TO INSTALL A 50MM OR EVEN LARGER CALIBER GUN FOR MEDIUM BOMBERS TO STRIKE AT GROUND POINT TARGETS, IF THE 20MM OR 37MM GUNS ARE NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH TO GUARANTEE THE DESTRUCTION OF TANKS, THEN THE TWIN-ENGINE AIRCRAFT WITH A 50MM OR EVEN 75MM CANNON WILL BECOME AN OUT-AND-OUT TANK OPENER!

On the one hand, the Germans realized that it was obviously beyond the technical requirements to let the big guys weighing dozens of tons dive, and on the other hand, Germany in this plane had enough materials for them to squander. Historically, the Third Reich emphasized blitzkrieg, and on the one hand, it emphasized the precision of ground attacks, which was dictated by tactical and strategic objectives. On the other hand, it is also because the resource endowment is too poor. Single-engine and twin-engine bombers dive bombing accuracy is higher, while four-engine bombers bomb horizontally even at low altitudes. The accuracy is still not comparable to dive bombing. In fact, the accuracy of the bombing of Germany by the United States and Britain was not too high. Even with the legendary Norton bombing sights, the accuracy is still not good, and the reason why the huge results can be achieved is completely due to the bomber bomb volume! It is different from the United States and Britain, which often sent hundreds or thousands of four-round heavy bombers to bomb in the middle and late stages. The production of the HE177, the only mass-produced heavy bomber in Germany in World War II, was only more than 1,000 in the end. Strategic bombing was really not something Germany could afford to play. And it's not just the production capacity that can't keep up, but the fuel can't keep up either.

Take HE177A0 as an example, the fuel carrying capacity of the aircraft varies between 8800L and 12660L according to the different bomb loads, that is, this bomber makes one sortie, and the fuel consumption is at least 6 tons or more! What is this concept? The FW190 fighter has a full fuel load of only 500KG, and the fuel consumption of one HE177 is at least equivalent to the internal fuel of 12 FW190s. With the maximum internal oil, it is even close to the required internal oil of 20 FW190s! How much jet fuel did Germany produce in a year at that time? Taking a step back, if there is no problem with Germany's industrial production capacity, it will be a thousand-plane bombardment. At least about 8,000 tons of fuel will be consumed! And if you consider the fuel consumption of long-range fighters that need to be coordinated with the bombing, then the cost of such a wave in the past is really high and terrifying, at least not what historical Germany can afford.

But this plane is different, not only did Germany not lose a large area of East Prussia, but even received a large area of land from the remains of the Normanov dynasty, and even the Caucasus oil fields were under the control of German allies. The other oil-producing countries of Iraq and Kuwait are also under Turkey's control. So Germany has three oil depots in Romania, Transcaucasia and the Middle East at the same time! Such an abundant supply of fuel can naturally meet the needs of Germany's foreign expansion, and at the same time, it also gives Germany's strategic bomber force a certain material basis! At the same time, because the strength of the Allies covered almost the entire European and Western Asian regions, and even Germany wanted to expand in the direction of the Indian Ocean, it also made it necessary for the German strategic air force to exist, and it was almost unimaginable to carry out combat missions with only twin-engine bombers in such a vast place!

When it comes to the HE177 bomber in history, the most influential thing is definitely the DB610 engine formed by two DB605 engines in parallel. In order to reduce wind resistance and have a certain dive capability, the Germans abandoned the conventional layout of 4 engines in favor of this somewhat non-mainstream arrangement. As a result, the problem is that the engine does not dissipate heat well. Then the guide is sometimes prone to failure when the engine speed is high, and the problem is not cleaned up in the end. Therefore, it is generally believed that the HE177 is not as good as the Italian P108. But if we talk about the number of jù on paper, HE177 is actually about the same as B17 and Lancaster of the same period. As for the later improvements, for example, the post-war HE274V1 engine because of the use of a 4-engine layout, the table xiàn is not bad, of course, at that time the United States already had B29, HE177 and B29 are definitely incomparable. In short, for Germany, which still has two engine technologies, there is no big problem in technology to build a strategic bomber, the key is design and industrial capacity.

After abandoning the need to require dive bombing, the Germans followed a relatively smooth path to strategic bombers. Messerschmidt, Juncker and Henschel simultaneously came up with their own bomber proposals. Originally, this matter was already done, but just a week before the strategic bomber tender, Wilhelm II suddenly summoned Richthofen and took out a document. "Both the Americans and China are engaged in a six-engine heavy bomber, and if they succeed, then the US Air Force can bomb Europe from the mainland, which is quite unfavorable for us. They call it an intercontinental bomber! And we should have such weapons as well. Wilhelm II said indignantly.

"It was definitely a nightmare. If they dare to do so. Richthofen's eyebrows jumped when he heard this. This was simply unimaginable for him. In terms of the complexity of the aircraft, as well as in terms of cost and efficacy, it is almost impossible to equip this intercontinental bomber in large quantities at present. Moreover, Germany does not have such a need at present, and the German General Staff has no intention of attacking the US mainland, so this plan is a bit chicken! "This could be the disinformation they unleashed." Richthofen said in his heart.

This time Richthofen guessed correctly, the Germans did have a problem with intelligence, the United States wanted to build a six-engine bomber, but gave up because of the technical difficulty, and Huaxia also wanted to build a six-engine aircraft, but this plane was not a bomber but a transport plane. If it weren't for the fact that the power of the engine is too small now and forced to make up for the quality with quantity, Huaxia would not want to make this kind of 6-round Dongdong.

"Your Majesty, this will be a very long process, we need experience and technology accumulation, if the four-engine heavy bomber can be successfully developed, I think the future six-engine bomber is still feasible." In the face of the Kaiser's request, Richthofen had no way to make a hard top, so he could only find a way to delay it first. The Kaiser knew that this plan was a bit too aggressive, and was quite satisfied with Richthofen's answer.

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