Which two goals does Li Xiaofeng think are more valuable? The first is the aforementioned Narvik, as a key node for Germany's iron ore imports, destroying the port of Narvik, and Germany's industrial production, especially arms production, will suffer a heavy blow. The second key target is the Knaben molybdenum mine.

Friends who know a little about the history of World War II and metallurgical knowledge know the value of molybdenum. To put it simply, molybdenum can improve the high-temperature performance, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of alloys. For example, alloy armor steel, without molybdenum, the toughness is miserable.

The most typical example of this is the German King Tiger tank, which is second to none in World War II with its weight and frontal armor thickness. However, after the Soviet Red Army captured the Tiger King and fired live ammunition in Kubinka, they thought that the Tiger King's defense was really false.

The quality of its armor is far from that of tigers and leopards, and it is simply a black-hearted bun. It stands to reason that with the meticulous character of the Germans, they will not make up the number with this kind of tofu scum armor, and the key problem is the lack of molybdenum!

Germany has almost no rare metals, such as molybdenum, which is completely imported, and Germany's molybdenum is mainly obtained from the Knapben molybdenum mine in Norway. Therefore, Hitler's invasion of Norway was really not a decision made by patting his head, steel and molybdenum have to rely on this unreliable country, how can he do it if he is not taken?

In World War II, in order to destroy the German army's sources of iron ore and molybdenum ore, the Allies carried out large-scale bombing, such as on November 7, 1943, 158 long-range bombers of the U.S. Eighth Air Force visited Knababen, almost flattening the entire mine area in one go. The most direct result of this was that the source of molybdenum ore in Germany was cut off, and the quality of the armor instantly became watery. You can only use the parallel Tiger King to fight the Red Army's increasingly powerful tanks. Naturally, the results were not good.

What Li Xiaofeng has to do now is to teach the Germans how to be a person in advance. Directly take down the Knaben molybdenum mine and destroy the port of Narvik. In his view, the bombing of these two places is a typical example of low cost and high efficiency.

So was the Red Army capable of attacking these two facilities? It should be said that there is, for example, the port of Narvik, in the previous Norwegian campaign, the Red Army grabbed a piece of land and stationed a considerable number of ground troops (a polar infantry corps, as well as an armored brigade and a cavalry division) in the north of Narvik, which could directly launch an attack on Narvik from the ground.

Of course. It must also be noted that the Nazis also stationed a fairly strong ground force in Norway (slightly more than the Red Army), and after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the two armies were in a state of confrontation with each other along the 69th parallel.

The experience of the First World War fully shows that trench warfare is not so easy to fight, and the Red Army is located in a relatively high dimension, and it is relatively difficult to replenish, so it has little chance of directly launching a ground offensive. However, it still works to use the Air Force to make a fuss.

In Tromsø, for example, there was the Red Army's naval and air base, which housed not only some destroyers and cruisers of the Navy, but also powerful naval aviation. Narvik was completely within the attack radius of the Su-1 and Ro-2. And even the short-legged Yak-1 can cover attack aircraft and bombers all the way.

Not to mention, in order to conduct the Barbarossa operation. The Germans withdrew elite troops from all fronts, Norway's Luftwaffe was relatively weak, and the equipment was old, a large number of fighters were BF-109D, and the latest FW-190 was nowhere to be seen.

However, it seems that it is a bit of a stretch to destroy Narvik by relying solely on the power of naval aviation, given that the Navy's attack aircraft and bombers have a limited and relatively small number of bombs. If you want to completely destroy a port, there are not enough of them, and Narvik's ground air defense is still relatively strong.

According to Li's vision, naval aviation and the air force's long-range aviation should work together, with the naval aviation's Su-1 and Ro-2 responsible for precision attacks on key facilities in Narvik, such as dock facilities. And the long-range bombers of the Air Force were responsible for laying mines and bombing the railways that transported iron ore. A two-pronged approach to completely trap Narvik.

This idea immediately received a positive response from Arksnes, and soon the plan was formulated, and the Air Force Long-Range Aviation Division took off from the Murmansk base, flew along the coastline in the direction of Tromsø, and after arriving over Tromsø, under the cover of the local HNA Yak-1K, broke into the Westfjord to carry out offensive minelaying. This task was mainly carried out by the Tu-3 and Pe-8, which had a larger bomb load. The long-range aviation groups of Il-4, Tu-2 and Ye-2 aircraft that took off from Murmansk entered Norway from northern Finland and were mainly responsible for bombing the railways. As for the port facilities and the ships in the port, they are mainly handed over to naval aviation to be responsible for strikes.

It can be said that the bombing of the Narvik Navy and the Air Force quickly reached an agreement, but the Air Force and the Navy were very different on the bombing of the Knababen molybdenum mine.

Arksnis believed that his long-range aviation could take off from the airfields of East Prussia and fly along the Swedish airspace towards Norway, destroying it in one fell swoop.

However, this plan was strongly opposed by Sukhoi, who believed that it would be too difficult and dangerous to take the Baltic direction to attack Knaben, firstly, the Germans had hoarded heavy troops in this direction, and the air power was very strong, and secondly, during the period, they had to cross the Kattegat Strait between Denmark and Sweden, and the Luftwaffe had plenty of time to intercept it. If you go in this direction, you will inevitably lose a lot!

Sukhoi believed that his aircraft carrier task force could do a better job than long-range aviation, going out of the Barents Sea, hiding outside the German air force in Norway and slowly approaching Knababen, breaking into the sea west of Stavanger in the middle of the night, and flying warplanes at dawn to raid Knababen and destroy it in one fell swoop.

However, Sukhoi's plan also had a lot of problems for Arksnis, and the air marshal said: "To completely destroy the Knapben molybdenum mine, a large number of attack aircraft are needed." Even if your navy ships five aircraft carriers are dispatched at the same time, at best there are 500 fighters, nearly half of which are fighters, and only 200 attack planes can be used to bomb Knaben. Moreover, the attack aircraft has a limited amount of bombs, so how can the bombing effect be guaranteed? ”

Again, this is the first, and Arksnes quickly came up with the second: "Five aircraft carriers." Plus the accompanying escort of battleships and cruisers, as well as destroyers. The size of the fleet must be at least dozens or hundreds, right? Such a large-scale sortie. Will the Germans not react? And the Yak-1K has a limited range, and your carrier group must go deep into Norwegian waters to attack, which will inevitably put the huge fleet within the range of the Luftwaffe, isn't this a small risk? ”

Arksnis's opinion is indeed reasonable, the Ro-2 is indeed very versatile, but the bomb load and range really cannot be compared with the Tu-3 and Il-4. When carrying 1,000 kilograms of bombs, its maximum range is only 1,000 kilometers, and the combat radius is actually 300 kilometers.

In fact, the maximum strike distance of the Red Navy's task force was less than 300 kilometers. The reason is that the Yak-1K has a shorter range, and the maximum range of the land version of the Yak-1 is about 650 kilometers, which means that its ideal combat radius is only 200 kilometers. The carrier-based version of the Yak-1K has shrunk in both mobility and maximum range indicators due to the increased weight of the strengthened structure, and the real combat radius is actually only 180 kilometers.

That is to say, unless the attack fleet does not want the Yak-1K escort, then it can attack at a distance of 300 kilometers, and if the Yak-1K escort, the maximum attack distance is 180 kilometers.

180 km is too short and is completely within the strike range of the Luftwaffe. If this is to be done, the risk of the task force is indeed even greater.

Time. Neither Alxnis nor Sukhoi could convince anyone, and in the end, the lawsuit went directly to Li Xiaofeng. As a supporter of the bombing of Narvik and Knaben, he must make a verdict.

However, Li Xiaofeng's ruling is a bit bizarre, because he rejected both Arksnis and Sukhoi's proposals, arguing that both plans were immature.

"We have only one chance, and if we can't take advantage of the fact that the enemy is not vigilant enough, we will destroy Knabaen in one fell swoop, and if our attack does not achieve the desired effect, the Germans will soon strengthen the air defense in the relevant area. At that time, a second and third attack will be even more costly! ”

After a pause, he said unusually sternly: "Therefore, in the first attack, we must achieve complete success, we must destroy Knaben in one fell swoop, and we must not engage in any second and third rework. So, if you can't guarantee absolute success, it's better to stay still for a while! ”

Because of Li Xiaofeng's insistence, Arxnis and Sukhoi could only go home and rework, and at this time, Li Xiaofeng also had a rough idea. And his idea is very complicated, including two aspects, involving the Air Force, the Navy, and the KGB.

The specific plan was this, the attacks on Narvik and Knaben, if they were to succeed in one fell swoop, could not avoid the problem of the Luftwaffe. In southern Norway and in the Danish seas, the Red Army could not gain air supremacy, so neither the Air Force's bombing plan to directly cross the Baltic Sea nor the Sukhoi task force sortie plan was too risky, and neither could guarantee the complete destruction of the Knapben molybdenum mine.

How to solve the problems of the Luftwaffe? Anyway, it will definitely be no fun to go directly to seize air power, Li Xiaofeng's idea is to deceive. If the Luftwaffe could be deceived from the vicinity of Knaben, wouldn't it be more likely to succeed?

And how to deceive, Li Xiaofeng also has a general idea, Ming Xiu plank road is dark Chen Cang. Again, there are two ways to do it. One was to bomb Narvik, focusing on Narvik, which would inevitably direct the Luftwaffe's attention to the north.

In any case, the strength of the Luftwaffe is limited, and it is necessary to pay attention to both the Barbarossa plan and the English Channel, and finally to be distracted by Narvik, then it is quite possible that there will be a gap in the Danish and Baltic lines.

This is not the case with the Red Army, the naval aviation of the Red Navy has been playing soy sauce in the Barents Sea before, and it is entirely up to them to put pressure on Narvik, cooperate with a part of the long-range aviation, and bombard Narvik day and night, and do not believe that the Germans are not fooled.

What's more, Narvik is only the first card that Li Xiaofeng threw out to deceive the Germans, and he has a second direction of deception - Berlin. Compared with the Luftwaffe, which did not attach importance to long-range aviation at all, the Red Air Force initially established a long-range aviation unit with a certain ability before the war, and the bombing of Berlin was not a problem at all. Whether it is the Ye-2, Pe-8 or Il-4, they can go to Berlin and drop bombs.

The only problem is that as mentioned earlier, this kind of bombing can only motivate morale and irritate Hitler, and there are too many other effects. But for Li Xiaofeng, it is enough to provoke the mustache. The Führer was furious. Fat Goering must be taken seriously. Whether it's a retaliatory bombing of Moscow or bolstering Berlin's air defenses, that fat guy will do it. What the Reds needed to do was to keep harassing each other with a small number of long-range bombers, so that they could always keep an eye on Berlin.

When the remaining German forces and fighters were dispersed by Berlin, there would be even more clearance over the Baltic Sea, which would allow long-range bombers from East Prussia to safely enter the skies over Knaben.

After Li Xiaofeng proposed this set of ideas, Arxnis quickly agreed, and only Sukhoi chirped a few crooked words. Mustache is a little dissatisfied that he continues to play a supporting role, why can he only harass Narvik and let the Air Force eat meat?

However, this is Li Xiaofeng's construction after all, and Sukhoi must respect it, unless he can come up with a more perfect plan. Obviously, Sukhoi did not have a more perfect plan, so he could only accept reality.

On the night of July 25, Sukhoi's task force secretly sailed out of Murmansk, which included four aircraft carriers, four battle cruisers, four Type 35 heavy cruisers, four Type 36 light cruisers, and eight Type 38 air defense cruisers.

Other battlecruisers, heavy cruisers and light cruisers are not too much to be introduced. A brief introduction to the Type 38 air defense cruiser, which is very similar to the American imperialists' Aldaran class light cruisers. Armed with 12 130-mm high-level dual-purpose guns. The maximum speed is 32 knots, the standard displacement is 6,800 tons, and it can sail 6,000 nautical miles at 18 knots.

The ship is equipped with full-fledged radar fire control equipment and a CEC command post, which is designed to act as a knife escort for the task force. Beginning in 1938, according to Li Xiaofeng's request, it was planned to equip each aircraft carrier with at least two air defense cruisers, preferably four.

Of course, the air defense cruiser also encountered strong opposition from the old navy, most of which believed that the ship had a huge displacement but weak armament, and was simply a showpiece and useless, and it was better to build a few more Type 36 light cruisers.

However, at that time, Li Xiaofeng firmly supported the ship, and as the strength of the naval aviation faction grew stronger and stronger, the traditional old navy could only stand aside.

After going to sea, Sukhoi's task force quickly disappeared into the fog of the Barents Sea, and a day later, when his formation suddenly attacked Narvik and the surrounding Luftwaffe bases in the form of a large group of aircraft, the Hanns were unresponsive and had to rush to the battle.

After a near-one-sided aerial massacre, the Luftwaffe in the Narvik region suffered heavy losses, and at one point was so embarrassed that it could not even put together a single intact fighter. After initially solving the threat of the Luftwaffe, Sukhoi ordered the formation to begin an attack on the port of Narvik, constantly greeting the port facilities and the German merchant ships in the harbor with heavy bombs for two days.

Even in the ferocious response of the German anti-aircraft artillery units, Narvik's losses were extremely heavy, and all the cargo ships waiting to be loaded with iron ore in the harbor were sunk, and for a time Narvik was almost turned into an iron-bottomed bay. Not only was the port hit hard, but some of the Air Force's Il-4s also began to patronize the iron ore routes, bombing Gabre to the Germans, and from July 27, Narvik's iron ore was out of steam.

Hitler was furious at the Red Navy's wreaking havoc, and under his strict orders, Goering sent a considerable number of fighters and bombers north to Narvik to prepare for a showdown with the Red Naval Aviation.

And just as Goering had just completed his transfer, something happened in Berlin. In the early morning of July 28, as the residents of Berlin were preparing to start a happy day with the rising sun, a sharp air raid siren suddenly sounded. A few minutes later, more than a dozen Ye-2 and Pe-8 began to drop bombs into the air, and strings of FAB-50 bombs rained down on the streets of Berlin.

There may be comrades who have questions, why only use the FAB-50 in the fifty kg class? Isn't that too powerful?

Hehe, don't say it, Li Xiaofeng doesn't care about the power of bombing at all, this kind of high-altitude bombing is harassment, and installing a few more bombs to cover a few more blocks is the right way. He was there to make all Berliners tremble. Not to mention that there are fewer bombs, and the fuel can be loaded a little more.

After dropping the bombs, the bombers could return home from the Baltic Sea instead of the same way, which was much safer.

Berlin was bombed, and although the damage was not large, Hitler was still furious, called the fat pig Goering and scolded him in front of him, and severely condemned the fat man. But the mustache's words of condemnation did not fall, and the next morning, the Red Army bombers came again uninvited, and this time close to fifty Tu-3s of the enhanced range type visited Berlin again, and once again rode on the neck of the Germans and pulled a soop.

This disgusted Hitler, almost flipped the table, and poor Goering was scolded as a punching bag again, and he was so angry with this fat man that he really had no face to be!

On the morning of the third day, when the Red Army bombers finally stopped, Goering was secretly relieved, and just when he thought he could sleep comfortably, in the middle of the night, hundreds of Tu-3, Ye-2, Pe-8 and Il-4 arrived in Berlin to deliver supper.

This one is so fried! This time the Führer gave a death order, the lives of Berlin residents must be ensured, and the Russians must not be allowed to continue to do whatever they want!

This time, Ge Fatzi went out, not only from the direction of the strait, but also from the Eastern Front battlefield a considerable number of fighters, that is really waiting for the Russian moth to put out the fire...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to the third-class cannon fodder soldiers of cjsky, nirvana, hzwangdd, KGB and Comrade Xuanyuan Extreme Saint Emperor!