Guernica, a city of little military importance in Spain, is home to a small bank, a candy factory, several chapels and a few small hospitals. If there are some important targets here, they are the railway station, the small arms factory outside the city, and the road bridge to Bilbao.

At 4:30 p.m. on this day, when farmers and merchants were exchanging cattle, sheep and agricultural products in the market center, the church bell was ringing, and some clergy saw the plane in the distance and alerted the people to the plane.

People were so frightened that they took refuge and hid in cellars and under bridges and in dug holes. Just two minutes later, the D0-217 bomber dropped six bombs.

This time it wasn't the rags in Franco's hands, it was the bomber unit of the German "Vulture Legion" that flew in, and a full 34 DO-217 bombers bombed Guernica for a full three hours. The front wall of a local hotel called Julián was shattered, revealing four floors of rooms inside. Juan Chirique, who volunteered to put out the fire 100 meters away, was knocked down by the aftermath of the explosion.

He tilted his head and saw his broken arms, legs, and heads flying in the air. Later, a large number of incendiary bombs were dropped in the wooden house residential area of these plane cubs, and the fire spread in all directions by the wind, engulfing everything that could be burned. All the hospitals were destroyed, and the sick children and the wounded, as well as the doctors and nurses who cared for them, were all reduced to cold corpses.

Low in the air, several old HE-51 fighters piloted by Franco's National Army took on the role of ground attack. A Basque priest, Alberto Odina hid in the woods on the outskirts of the city, and witnessed the He-51s swooping down, their machine guns firing tongues of fire, killing all those who stayed in the clearing.

Mothers, the elderly, children were all beaten to death and "fell in piles like flies." Odina later recalled: "There were rivers of blood everywhere, explosions caused fires, and smoke billowed from them. What he said was corroborated by the records of the other side: the Luftwaffe reported that the plane had to lower its altitude because of the smoke to see where the city was and where the suburbs were.

The last planes of the bombardment at 10 o'clock slowly left, and by this time most of Guernica was already in flames. The next morning, when reporters from all over the world arrived with their cameras, the ruins were still smoking.

Journalists saw helpless people searching for their loved ones and belongings in the rubble and rubble. More than 600 bodies of civilians were piled up in a farmland not far from town, and the final death toll will never be counted, but at least 2,000 were killed in the strike.

The bombing leveled the centre of the town, completely destroying 70 per cent of the houses and damaging another 20 per cent. The entire city was almost wiped off the map, but the small arms factory and the road bridge were unharmed.

Hundreds of years ago, Guernica was the center of the region, a sacred place for the Basque spirit of freedom and independence. Under an oak tree here, the monarch of Spain once promised to respect the rights of the natives. Today, however, the city has fallen victim to the scourge of the war, and many newspapers around the world have harshly criticized the brutality of the Franco National Army and its German accomplices.

However, the German government issued a statement in which it publicly denied any responsibility. In her speech at the regular meeting of the Greater German Party, Fanny said that the German people were peace-loving, but even if they opposed the atrocities, they would firmly support the Spanish people's protocratic war. She also claimed that the Guernica tragedy was the work of ******** elements.

But the air force of the Vulture Legion, which is still on the front line, knew in their hearts that they did not want to mention Guernica, and they never boasted of the devastating bombing, and one pilot even refused the Spanish medal awarded for the bombing.

Regardless of the international impact of the Guernica airstrike, it did weaken the Republican junta's defenses in the region. A month later, the National Army swept through Guernica and marched on Bilbao from there. In the second month, a fierce attack was launched on Bilbao.

The strategic bomber faction represented by the Führer felt that long-range bombers should be developed as the ultimate means of attack to destroy the enemy's Forte, and there were not many supporters of this faction, but they included the chief of the general staff of the Air Force; however, the senior generals of the Air Force, including Air Force Commander Catherine and Deputy Commander Hulk, were sent tactical bombers, and they felt that bombers such as the Do-217 were sufficient, and there was no need to rush to develop long-range bombers, because they now needed to equip more fighters to defend German airspace。

At the Führer's residence in Berlin, every discussion about the future of the Luftwaffe ended in a bad one, and this one was no exception.

"Führer, it's not that we are not optimistic about the prospects for strategic bombing. In front of the Führer's desk, Catherine spread her hands helplessly: "It's that we can't afford to raise such an expensive high-grade weapon now." "He was extremely loyal to Accardo, and Accardo rewarded him with listening as much as he could to the Air Force Commander's advice.

Dick also sighed helplessly: "Yes, Führer, our air force lacks the basic number, that is to say, if we want to maintain air supremacy on the front line, we must have at least 2,000 ME-109 fighters, but so far, we have only more than 370." ”

Catherine then poured cold water: "Our fighter production is far from meeting our needs, and I hope to have at least 2,700 fighters of all types in 1935 to ensure the safety of our airspace." But the head of the production department told me that at that time they could only give us 920 planes. ”

Now the tank force is clamoring for more tanks, the air force is also competing for raw materials for production one by one, and the steel in the navy is even more out of stock by thousands of tons. Accardo misses the strategy games of his old life - as long as there is wood and gold, any high-level class can be produced.

"Then isn't it okay to produce a small amount now?" Accardo sighed helplessly and said, "Even if you only equip one squadron, you can still accumulate experience, not to mention ...... Moreover, we may really need to use such weapons on a large scale in the future. ”

"My Führer, according to your request, four aircraft engines are needed for one strategic bomber! If there are four engines, we can configure four more ME-109 fighters! In this way, we can deploy the air force more calmly! It is much stronger than that bomber!" Dick said stubbornly.

Catherine is also obviously not a fan of strategic bombers, and he also adds fuel to the fire: "Führer, such an aircraft needs 10 pilots of various specialties, 5 machine gunners and 2 aircraft pilots, as well as navigators and bombardiers, and once the plane is shot down, we will lose the pilots of 10 fighters." ”

"But aren't we going to develop long-range strategic bombers? This will definitely not work! Time will prove that what I said is right! We must have such large bombers! It is not enough for an air force to have tactical bombers!" Accardo said, pointing to Wen Jiàn on the table.

"If you insist on doing this, I can only agree to allocate four engines at most for a real aircraft. Still, I insist that the Stuka bomber is up to the Air Force's ground attack mission, even if it needs to attack targets farther away, and the latest Dornier DO-217 bomber is more than enough. ”

"I'll say it again! The DO-217 bomber is a medium bomber! The future attack method of my air force must and must be a four-engine heavy bomber! You know?" Accardo finally said with some annoyance: "That's it! Transfer eight BMW engines from next month's engine production to carry out the four-engine strategic bomber!"

Catherine and Dick stood and saluted, "Yes! ”

......

Sending off the generals of the Air Force, Accardo must meet with Raeder and Dönitz and other admirals, these are more genuine big stomachs than the Air Force, as soon as they open their mouths, they are hundreds of tons and hundreds of tons of steel, and a boiler is worth more than 300,000 pounds, and people dare to ask for 20 in one go.

Compared with the dozens of fighters of the Air Force, the requirements of the Navy are the real bottomless abyss. Dönitz hoped to equip 80 ocean-going submarines by 1936 to strangle British supply lines. If Accardo meets his demand, then Germany will have to maintain the pace of building three submarines a month in the coming year.

And Commander Raeder is even less expensive than Deputy Commander Dönitz. He hoped that Germany would have four aircraft carriers and more than 500 carrier-based fighters by 1936 -- not counting the 1,500 aircraft of all types planned to be deployed by shore-based naval aviation. Most of these things are not available at the moment, and they are only stored in Accardo's naval development plan.

Accardo felt a little like crying, he even hated himself a little now, if he had been a little sensible and a carefree rich man, there would not have been all kinds of things that gave him such a headache. It's a pity that now he has no way to retreat, because there are countless people and countless pairs of eyes staring at him, counting on him to continue walking with Germany. So now he is helpless, even if it is a point of no return, he still has to go on without hesitation until the last moment.

Fortunately, under his management, Germany entered the preparation stage of World War II more powerful than expected, and now he is like a gambler, sitting on the huge table of history with more chips.