Some comrades may wonder that the B17 does not have a model with M62, what the hell is this? Let's put it this way, the historical B17 naturally did not have the M62 model, and this model did not exist at all. And in this time and space, because of the insistence of a certain immortal and Arxness, it took two years of hard work to finally get through the work of the Military Commission and the Politburo, and carry out the work of B17 localization.

Among them, the B17-M62 type is actually a domestic version with the Soviet M62 star-type air-cooled engine, as we all know, the original B17 engine is not very powerful, and it cannot reach the height of the later "flying fortress". After the introduction of the B17, Tupolev immediately began the replacement project at the request of Li Xiaofeng. With the M62 engine finalized and put into production (later called the Ash-62 according to the new naming convention), this improved version of the 1,000-horsepower Wright Whirlwind R-1820 was not only equipped with the I-15 and I-16, but also used in the B17 domestic version.

Because of the greatly improved engine power, the performance of the B17-M62 began to reach the level of the later YB17A, anyway, the bomb load in those years was to Tukhachevsky's dumbfounded, this cargo can carry two tons of bombs and fly 3800 kilometers. Moreover, the maximum flight speed of the cargo is 436 km/h at sea level, and it can reach 475 km/h at an altitude of 7,000 meters. This heavy long-range bomber like Nima flies faster than even the earlier Bf109 models!

Even Tukhachevsky, who was very disagreeable with Arksnis because of the previous conflict of ideas, had to admit that the B17-M62 was very good and powerful, and if the potential of the M62 engine was further explored. This one might even be even stronger!

Anyway, compared to the SB-2 developed at the same time. That's really a comparison of goods to throw away. The SB-2-M105 with two 920 horsepower initial M105 engines has a bomb load of just over 600 kilograms under normal mission, and a B17-M62 can top at least three SB-2s, and the B17-M62 is stronger, has stronger self-defense firepower, higher survivability, and flies faster than the SB-2.

Well, the SB-2, the so-called fast bomber, really has no face on the B17 side of what speed.

According to Tukhachevsky's request, in this attack on Ferrol, the B17 will appear as the absolute main force, and 24 B17s will drop 48 tons of bombs in one go. Not to mention the complete destruction of Ferrol's coastal batteries and fortresses, but also to make the other party look good!

Not only did the B17 have to be fully dispatched, but the SB-2 could not be idle, and each SB-2 carried a 500-kilogram aerial bomb to join the bombing, which was another 26-ton bomb. As for the Su-1 dive bomber, which had just arrived in Spain, Tukhachevsky was of little interest, its range and bomb load were too small, and it did not fly particularly fast. Today, Tukhachevsky has taken the B17 as a benchmark, and any bomber that does not reach this level will not arouse much interest in him.

On this day of fighting, the Su-1 will carry a 1000-kilogram FAB-1000 aerial bomb into battle. This is close to the maximum bomb load of the Su-1, and the task given to them is actually to test the effectiveness of the FAB-1000. But it turned out later. This unintentional move saved the attack.

The battle began in the air, and the B17s flew in dense formation over the Ferrol naval base, dropping eight FAB-250 aerial bombs from the magazines before the Spanish anti-aircraft artillery units could react. The 192 bombs were still quite shocking, at least Tukhachevsky, who was watching the bombing with a telescope on the ground.

Carpet bombing was almost the equivalent of ploughing, and when the Spanish fortress was completely covered in smoke from the explosion, Tukhachevsky almost wanted to look up to the sky and shout: "What a cool!" ”

If in the past Tukhachevsky still had a lot of criticism about strategic bombing ploughing, then today the B17 told him with practical actions how cool this bombing method is, and how cool it is to bomb the enemy into scum with people and houses, and this kind of retaliatory pleasure is too much in line with the temper of a polar bear.

Anyway, after witnessing the bombing, the first thing Tukhachevsky thought about was - more B17s must be obtained, the more the better!

As long as he thinks of the scene of the hordes of B17s flying over the enemy in the sky and on top of the enemy's head, Tukhachevsky can't help but twitch, no way, it's so cool!

It's cool, and the effect of B17's appearance is really shocking, but after it's cool, as a military expert, Tukhachevsky also immediately found the problem.

What's the problem? The accuracy of high-altitude horizontal bombing is really miserable, and it is normal for the wind to be a little stronger, or for the bombardiers to deflect a kilometer or two. For example, today, because the wind is relatively strong, and most of the bomber crews are participating in actual combat for the first time, that hand is indeed relatively trendy. Most of the bombs were missed, and the blow to the naval fortress of Ferrol was almost minimal.

Tukhachevsky looked at Gamarnik beside him, both of them had similar expressions, and after a while the latter held back a sentence: "This accuracy is too poor!" ”

It's really too bad, but it's not just the B17, the SB-2's surface is not bad, as a supplement to the bombing in the later stage, they also deflected most of the aerial bombs.

"High-altitude horizontal bombing, I'm afraid it needs a huge scale!" Tukhachevsky pointed out the problem with a burst of blood.

Indeed, judging from the strategic bombing of Germany by Britain and the United States in World War II, in order to achieve the goal, dozens of heavy bombers are simply not enough, and at least a large formation of more than 100 bombers, or even thousands of bombers must be dispatched together to achieve the goal. Now there are only 24 B17s, which is really only enough for itching.

"If you don't lower the height, maybe the accuracy will be better?" Gamalnik built yì road.

Tukhachevsky shook his head and refused: "Then our bomber formations will be exposed to enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire, which is not cost-effective!" ”

"However, this effect is too poor, and the enemy's fortifications have not been destroyed at all, and at this time, if the ground troops are put in, I am afraid that the casualties will be very large!"

Tukhachevsky frowned. Of course, he also thought about this question. If now let the ground forces go on the offensive. It would have been a bloody blow in front of the Spaniard's fortress. Or, let the bomber formations bomb once or twice more?

And just when Tukhachevsky was thinking about continuing the bombing without stopping, the Su-1 dive bomber, which he had not favored at all, flew slowly over the Spanish fortress and began to dive towards six different targets in a formation of three.

Speaking from the heart, Tukhachevsky was a little unimpressed at the time, even the attack on a strong fortress like the B17 was not ideal, what can a small aircraft like the Su-1 do?

But then the Su-1 took Tukhachevsky by surprise. This small plane swooping and whistling to drop bombs is amazingly accurate! Almost all pilots dropped bombs within a radius of 15 meters around the target, and the more skilled pilots had an accuracy of up to 5 meters!

The 1,000-kilogram bomb is no joke, and the six targets attacked by the Su-1 quickly collapsed or collapsed directly under the power of the bomb.

Tukhachevsky and Gamarnik looked at each other again, and only then did they realize how accurate the dive bombing was, almost killing the target at a fixed point.

"Yay!" Tukhachevsky cheered and quickly gave the order: "Let the Su-1 continue to sort, well, in this way, let the B17 and SB-2 also make sorties again!" ”

There may be comrades who don't understand. Obviously the Su-1 attack is effective, why did Tukhachevsky carry out horizontal bombing with poor accuracy? The reason is simple. Tukhachevsky soon realized that although dive bombing was highly accurate, it was also more risky, and if the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery fire was not suppressed first, the losses would be relatively large if the dive bombers were thrown directly into it.

What Tukhachevsky meant was to scare the enemy back with horizontal bombardment, and then the dive bomber could swagger in and snipe the enemy with precision.

Sure enough, when the second wave of bombardment began, the Spaniards almost collapsed, they had never seen such a fierce and unreasonable air attack, and many national troops were immediately frightened.

"Damn it! Where is our Air Force? "Colonel Rodriguez, the commander of Ferrol's city defense, was furious, and if he continued to be bombarded by the enemy, the morale of his troops would soon be broken.

So where is the Air Force of the National Army? Part was destroyed on the airfield, and the other was shot down in the air strangulation of the international column. The Yak-1K and Ro-2, which took off from the aircraft carrier Raider, did a good job of suppressing the airfield and fighting for air supremacy. Let the I-15 and I-16 on land be able to devote more ground support, such as strafing the panicked National Army.

"The enemy's ground forces are up!"

While Rodriguez was agonizing over the loss of air supremacy, Tukhachevsky finally threw in his ground forces, and under the cover of tanks, hordes of infantry began to clear the Nationalist army. Yes, you read that right, it's a purge of plucking. Because the poor creatures were frightened by the previous bombardment, most of them hid in the fortifications in a trembling state and did not dare to show their heads, and the soldiers of the international column had to drive them out with bayonets and flamethrowers.

"Damn it!" Faced with the gradually occupied positions, Rodriguez couldn't sit still, grabbed the telephone and roared: "I need artillery support, the navy will fire immediately and blow up those dog monggrels!" ”

After receiving the order of Rodriguez, the cruiser Republic and the battleship España, which were moored in Ferrol for repair, slowly turned their turrets and began shelling in the direction of the breakthrough of the international column.

With the smoke billowing from the surroundings, the fighters of the international column who launched the first wave of the offensive were gradually driving the national army away, when the heavy artillery shells that were whizzing down exploded around them, and the soldiers of the international column were constantly torn to pieces. And the Spaniards, who had seemed to be very poor before, finally came back to their senses a little, and continued to shoot strings of deadly bullets from some of the "bunkers" that had been kissed by aerial bombs. Under the blow of double fire, the assault forces had only the option of retreating.

After Tukhachevsky put down the binoculars, he was not angry, because the fire of the enemy's naval heavy artillery was indeed an unexpected factor. Previously, according to the reports of the Popular Front agents lurking in Ferrol, the Spanish and the Republic should have been ineffective, so in the initial air raids, they were spared.

"Sue the Raider, knock out the enemy's warships as much as you can!" Tukhachevsky gave the order quite calmly, presumably in his opinion it could not have been easier for the powerful Red Navy.

But the truth was unexpected. The Spaniards are a little more savvy than they think. They placed a large number of anti-aircraft balloons and anti-aircraft guns in the vicinity of the USS Republic and HMS España. This made it difficult for the Ro-2 pilots, who had only mastered torpedo attacks, to find a route to launch an attack, and after an attempted attack, one was shot down by the Spanish anti-aircraft guns.

"It's better to do dive bombing."

This is the construction given by Kuznetsov, and now it is possible to hit enemy ships only if you enter vertically, and this task again falls in front of the Su-1.

Turn the day and follow the previous routine. The B17 and SB-2 were the first to enter from a high altitude and dropped countless FAB-100 bombs, which were used to harass them. After the rain of bullets, 18 Su-1s were divided into four formations and launched in two waves.

It has to be said that the Spaniards were still more cunning, and after repelling the torpedo attack of the Ro-2 the day before yesterday, they transferred the Spanish and the Republic overnight. Sure enough, the Russians came again the next day, but the scale of the attack was a bit scary, and the Russians seemed to want to blow up the entire port in one go?

The only thing the Spaniards were thankful for was that the Russians' bombing accuracy was as bad as ever, and most of the bombs were missed. Just as the roar of engines in the sky began to subside, the Spanish probe began to look out.

That's just at this time. The Su-1 began to attack, they almost dived vertically from the air to kill the Spanish and Republic, and when the heavy FAB-1000 aerial bomb was thrown out of the pylon, you can see the Su-1 pull up abruptly, quickly get rid of it and fly away from the scene.

"Air strike!"

The weakened sirens of the Spanish and the Republic suddenly rose an octave, but that didn't help them get out of the bomb. A FAB-1000 accurately hit the España's turret No. 1 and effortlessly slipped into it, penetrating several decks before exploding in the ammunition depot!

A fireball jumped out of the foredeck of the España and flew straight up hundreds of meters into the air, the power of the explosion was quite amazing, the pierced No. 1 turret was blown away, and a twisted 305 mm gun barrel flew directly to the shore and inserted into a building.

At that time, the foredeck of the España broke rapidly, and the bow of the ship, about 35 meters long, broke away from the hull, flipped on the surface of the sea, and then sank to the bottom of the sea in minutes. Boiling water poured in from the bow fracture, pouring nearly 500 tons of seawater in a matter of minutes.

And this was just the beginning, as another FAB-1000 also hit the middle and rear of the Spanish hull accurately, destroying part of the boiler compartment and deforming the starboard hull. The sea rushed in, and a few minutes later the España sank in the harbor.

Not only did the Spanish sink, but the Republic was even more miserable, its small body was directly broken in two by a FAB-1000, and quickly capsized in the harbor.

The attack was so efficient that the remaining two groups of six Su-1s preparing to supplement the attack had nothing to do, and the pilots who did not intend to bring the bombs back could only scatter their "gas" on other targets in the harbor, and were buried with the destroyer Velasco and the armed fishing boat Martin River Plate.

When the Spanish and Republic, the only ones that could restrain the attack of the international column, were destroyed, the fate of the Ferrol National Army was decided. Early the next morning, stepping on the first rays of the morning sun, the fighters of the international column once again picked up their weapons and began to fight, and Tukhachevsky gave a death order the night before: "At any cost, we must achieve a substantial breakthrough in the enemy's defensive line!" ”

At that time, the lower-level commanders of the Red Army were still quite sensitive to such orders, and understood that this battle must not be sloppy in the slightest, otherwise it would be difficult to protect their heads. Again, the BT-5 tank covered the infantry and launched a charge.

However, the Nationalists also seemed to realize that this was the final decisive battle, and under the encouragement of the fanatical fascists, they finally came out of the shadow of the air raids, showing the courage of men and doing their best to withstand the coordinated onslaught of the opposing infantry.

The soldiers on both sides are more often in close combat, and the battle line full of cruelty and blood is showing a white-hot trend everywhere. In the afternoon of the same day, after withstanding the repeated charges of the international columns, the defense line of the Nationalist Army, which had no follow-up, was finally torn apart!

Tukhachevsky was overjoyed to finally chisel a breakthrough, and he did not hesitate to throw a few valuable reserves into it, and even a few rocket artillery pieces into it.

The rocket artillery sounded the death knell of the Nationalist army's defeat with a perfect salvo, and then the Ro-2 and Su-1 also rushed to the vicinity of the breakthrough and repeatedly dropped bombs and strafed them, pushing back the most fanatical fascist death squads in the Nationalist army. In the face of the surging BT-5 tanks and hordes of infantry, the defense line of the National Army finally collapsed!

Fernández, a second lieutenant of the National Army who participated in the final battle, recalled the final scene: "We were ordered to garrison the naval building (the last position of the National Army)...... Cannonballs and bombs kept falling, and I could feel the ground shaking...... Led by Major Francisco, we were ready for a final counterattack. The enemy must be repulsed, this is the death order of Colonel Rodriguez...... All of them screamed with rifles and grenades in their hands, and rushed out of cover and straight towards the nearest tank...... Our actions quickly caught the attention of the tankers, and its turret quickly turned, first with a loud bang, grenades exploded in our midst, and several brothers fell in an instant, and then two tongues of fire, the side-by-side machine gun and the course machine gun whipped us all like whips, and I felt a shock from the steel helmet above my head, and then I fainted...... When I woke up, my ears were buzzing, and when I barely opened my eyes, I saw the scene of Colonel Rodriguez surrendering with the other senior officers bowing their heads...... These bastards sent us to our deaths, and they surrendered in the end! Since then, I have never believed in the fascists......" (to be continued......

PS: Bow and thank you to the parasite Schistosomiasis, Millions, Instant Kill Potato, Armored Train, agz00025 and Comrade Juventus!