The German army attacked quickly, and in just a week after the outbreak of the war, they conquered the northern Czech town of Ust, and advanced towards Prague, the administrative center of the Czech Republic, where the Czech government was located.

The Czech region, known in German tradition as Bohemia, has been a very important part of Germany since the time of the Holy Roman Empire.

What was more difficult for the Austrian Empire was that once Prague was breached, the entire Czech region would be completely demoralized.

As an important part of the Austrian Empire, if the Czech Republic was lost, Austria would no longer have any room to fight back in this war.

In order to keep the Czech Republic, the Austrian government urgently sent the newly formed Sixth Army north to the Czech region.

This Sixth Group Army is composed of a small number of veteran officers and a large number of new recruits, and is a comprehensive mixed group army.

They had only one task, and that was to hold Prague and, relying on the terrain north of Prague, to keep the Germans out of the line as much as possible.

Before the Sixth Army could reach the Czech region, worse news came that the Germans were marching from Regensburg towards Vienna in the east.

Is Prague or Vienna important? Without much hesitation, the Austrians immediately ordered the Sixth Army to move south to aid Vienna.

This also led to the Czech region being somewhat powerless in the face of the German army's attack.

The Austrian Empire had more than one million troops, the vast majority of which were deployed in Austria. In addition to the fact that Austria was the center of the Reich's government, Austria was facing a north-south attack from Germany and Italy.

But this also meant that the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were far away from Austria, had relatively few Austrian troops deployed.

In addition to a small number of Austrian troops, only the regional armed forces of the respective governments, composed of pure Czechs and Slovaks, remained.

The total number of Czech troops was less than 400,000, and it was inevitable that they would be at a disadvantage in the face of an attack by a much larger number of German troops.

If it weren't for the fact that the Germans wanted to quickly take over Czech industry and thus not destroy the Czech industrial base and transportation hubs, I am afraid that the Czech army would never have held out for such a long time.

Currently in the Czech region, the Austrian Fifth Army and the Czech regional armed forces are fully resisting the offensive of the German 3rd and 4th armies.

There is a big gap between the weapons and equipment of the two sides. Having gained experience in fighting against Poland, the German army was generally armed with a large number of tanks and aircraft.

On the part of the Austrian army, although it also had tanks and aircraft, it was still much inferior in numbers.

This can not be helped, for the Austrian Empire, the center of gravity of the defense must be the Austrian region. Although the Czech Republic also has armed forces, the armed forces in these areas will certainly not be equipped with equipment comparable to that of the regular Austrian army.

While Austria was struggling to cope with the German and Italian attacks, the Czechs were supplied with much, much less weapons and equipment than before.

In the battle between the German and Austrian armies, the fiercest was actually the struggle for air supremacy.

In terms of the number of aircraft on both sides, Germany has more than 2,500 aircraft, of which nearly 1,000 are the latest fighters.

As for the Austrian Empire, by the beginning of the war, they had less than 1,000 aircraft. It was only after receiving support from Britain and France that the number of aircraft in the Austrian Empire climbed to about 1,500.

But as mentioned earlier, in order to prevent German air raids, Austria deployed most of its aircraft near Vienna and on the battlefields in the Austrian area.

The number of aircraft allocated to the Czech and Slovak regions was less than 500 units, which was not at all an opponent of a thousand German aircraft on the opposite side.

After several rounds of fierce air battles, the German army gradually gained air superiority and launched a fierce bombardment on the Austrian army on the ground.

Although the Austrian army also had a certain number of anti-aircraft weapons, it did not have a good way to deal with these new, faster aircraft.

It was possible to shoot down a few with anti-aircraft weapons, but that was when the enemy's bombers lowered their altitude and bombed their own troops.

This often means that enemy planes have dropped bombs and inflicted heavy casualties on their own troops.

April 27, 1936, German Fourth Group Command.

The German general, then the General Staff of the Fourth Army, was excitedly presenting his plan to the commander of the Fourth Army: "According to our reconnaissance in the last few days, we have preliminarily determined the distribution of military airfields deployed by Austria in the Czech region.

If we can destroy these military airfields as soon as possible, we will no longer have any enemies in the sky, and after complete air supremacy, it will be time for us to launch a general offensive on the Czech regions. ”

The commander of the Fourth Army nodded, and did not have much objection to the plan of the General Staff to attack the enemy's military airfield.

Although the country had been instructed not to destroy the Czech industrial base and railways as much as possible, military airfields were clearly not within these ranges.

As long as the enemy's military airfields are completely destroyed, they want to rebuild them, and it will take a long time.

And this period of time was the best time for the German army to attack. With its own air superiority and air support, the Austrian army would be suppressed by the German army on both sides, and its rout would be inevitable.

Even the most elite army is destined to be unable to withstand the huge bombardment for several days in a row. In such a long engagement, the German army had already figured out the combat effectiveness of the Austrian army.

Although the Austrian army had some elites, most of the Austrian army was just barely qualified ordinary soldiers, and had not participated in a war for a long time, and was obviously not mentally prepared for such a large-scale war.

Don't underestimate the impact of psychology on a soldier. With good psychological preparation, the soldiers will not be too flustered on the battlefield and can exert strong combat effectiveness.

But if they are not fully psychologically prepared, they will suddenly face such a brutal real battlefield, and the psychological blow to these soldiers will be huge.

After all, soldiers are also ordinary people, they are also flesh and blood, and they will be injured and die. Once the fear far outweighs their passion for the country, the impact on the soldiers and even on the army becomes an unpredictable problem.

"How many planes do we need to attack all the military airfields in the Czech Republic?" After a short period of thought, the commander of the Fourth Army asked aloud.

"At least 120 bombers, and each bomber needs at least 3 fighters for escort." The chief of staff of the Fourth Army said calmly: "This is only the most basic number, we cannot ensure how many enemy planes are left in the Czech area, if we want to ensure that the plan is foolproof, we must at least send more than 500 aircraft." ”

"Contact the Third Army." The commander of the Fourth Army nodded, his gaze showing fanaticism and determination: "All air hazards must be cleared at once, and I hope we are the first army to enter Prague." ”

The coordination and execution of the German armies were far superior to those of the Austrian armies.

Once the plan was formulated, the Third and Fourth Armies quickly coordinated and deployed more than 600 aircraft to prepare for the bombing.

In the early morning of 28 April, after careful preparations, hundreds of bombers marched to various parts of the Czech Republic, escorted by fighters three times their size.

And at this time, in one of the Austrian military airfields in the Czech Republic.

Andrew Timan is a radar monitor at a military airfield in Austria. His task is simple: keep an eye on the airport's radar data and report any anomalies as quickly as possible.

Although it seems that he needs to pay attention at all times, for Andrew Timan at this time, it is not as nervous as he imagined.

After all, more than half a month has passed since the war, and the location of this military airfield is very hidden, and no enemy reconnaissance planes have been found in the vicinity.

At this time, the radar display screen was obviously blank, and no suspicious flying objects were seen.

This also made Andrew Timan start to relax and carry out the most exciting moment of every night shift, which is to secretly nap for a while.

After Andrew Teemann's many tests, there will be no problems with quietly napping after the wee hours of the morning every night.

After all, these radar monitors are also ordinary people, and they can't avoid the fatigue caused by long-term eye use.

But today is clearly unusual. Just as Andrew Timan was taking a nap as usual, a reminder sound that had never appeared on the radar suddenly woke Andrew Timan up.

"Damn, what's going on?" Andrew Teman cursed quietly as he quickly looked at the radar display.

After seeing a few small dots on the edge of the display, Andrew Teman rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and after making sure that it was correct again, he was a little surprised and shouted sharply: "Found the enemy attack!" Enemy attack spotted! ”

While shouting loudly, Andrew Timan manipulated the phone next to him and quickly dialed to the command room of the military airport.

"Andrew, what's wrong?" The guards at the military airfield asked.

"Enemy attack spotted! Enemy attack spotted! Andrew Teman first shouted hard, and then carefully observed the number of dots on the display, and said nervously and frightenedly: "A total of seven dots have been found, and four of them are large flying objects. Damn, this must be a plane of the Germans, they are coming for an air raid! ”

The Guards Union brought the news to the ears of the head of the military airfield, Major Gordon Kaufman.

"Damn, all the fighters took off at once to intercept the planes of this group of Germans. Others quickly cleared the runway, and all anti-aircraft weapons were brought into combat readiness. Gordon Kaufman quickly gave the order.

For this military airfield, this was the first time it had been bombed by the Germans. But Gordon Kaufman, as an officer in the Air Force, still has some experience with such scenes.

"Your Excellency Major, it's just seven German planes, there's no need to be so nervous." The staff officer next to him smiled and said: "Believe me, we only need to dispatch ten planes, and we can completely intercept these German planes." ”

Hearing the staff officer next to him say this, Gordon Kaufman also quickly calmed down, but still said with some caution: "The Germans have more planes than us, so it's better to be careful before you are sure of the specific number of German planes." ”

"By the way, how the hell did the Germans determine our position?" The staff officer next to him was a little curious, and asked with a little surprise: "Judging from the information we have so far, the German reconnaissance plane has not approached our airfield.

Could it be that these Germans possessed the ability to obtain intelligence without the need for field reconnaissance? It's just incredible. ”

"There's no time to think about that right now." Gordon Kaufman said with a serious face: "We cannot be sure at all whether the German attack was accidental or premeditated.

If it's the former, it's okay, we only need to deal with this wave of German attacks, and we don't need to worry about anything else.

But if the Germans had premeditated, I am afraid that other airports at this time may also face attacks by the Germans. ”

"You mean?" The staff officer looked at Gordon Kaufman with a hint of surprise and amazement in his eyes.

"Yes, I am afraid that the Germans have premeditated, and we must warn the other airfields to avoid heavy losses from the Germans."

For these military airfields, it is still troublesome to face attacks. It takes a certain amount of time for planes to take off from airfield warehouses and runways, and enemy attacks are often sudden and only detected when they are within radar observation range.

Although the airport uses the most advanced radar in Austria, the range of detection is only about 35 to 40 kilometers.

Such a distance may seem like a long distance, but for an aircraft that is already flying at high speed, it actually only takes a few minutes to reach it.

But how many planes in an airport can quickly take off in a matter of minutes? After all, those pilots can't stay on the plane all the time, they also need to eat, sleep, rest and other things.

Especially at night, those pilots wake up from their sleep, carry their weapons and equipment and rush to the place where the plane is,

To get the plane to fly into the sky in an orderly manner, a few minutes is obviously not enough.

In particular, if you want multiple planes to take off at the same time, it will take longer.

Even for pilots who have been trained in relevant fields, it usually takes at least 10 minutes or so from being notified of the attack to flying the plane into the sky.

And these ten minutes are also the time when the airport's defense is at its weakest. In the face of a sudden attack by the enemy, the only thing that the airfield can rely on is the anti-aircraft weapons deployed around the military airfield.

(End of chapter)