Just when Li Junhao's army aviation detachment was enthusiastically training, a new war broke out in Europe.

On August 13, Germany's "Sea Lion Plan" was officially launched, and this day was named "Eagle Day" by its air commander, Field Marshal Goering, and more than 480 bombers of the Luftwaffe launched an unprecedented fierce attack on nine airfields in Britain under the cover of more than 1,000 fighters.

Although the British army had been prepared for this, in the following days of fighting, they still lost 446 aircraft, 231 pilots were killed and wounded, and five airfields in southern Britain were severely damaged; To make matters worse, 6 of the 7 radar stations at the most critical positions deployed by the British army were bombed, and the entire airborne early warning system was on the verge of destruction.

It can be said that most of the countries of this world are closely watching this super-scale air war.

As the attacking side, the German army expected to destroy the British airport, barracks, military factories, transportation hubs and other important facilities with large-scale air raids, crush the British resistance, and force them to surrender;

Britain, as the defending side, under the leadership of its new Prime Minister Winston Churchill, fought tenaciously, even though its air force strength was less than one-third of that of the German army, but its pilots withstood the enemy's attack by virtue of the attendance rate of the German pilots three times that of the German pilots, and also won many partial victories in air battles, which greatly boosted the morale of the British military and civilians.

——

The battle situation analysis room of the headquarters in Jiaozhou Park began to be lively again, and the officers began to discuss the Great Air Battle of Britain again. The unanimous view was that, following the blitzkrieg and the concentrated use of armored forces, the German army had come up with a new method of warfare in which large groups of aircraft could be used to attack the enemy country purely with air power, but there was a constant debate about whether it would be able to achieve the goal of the war.

The original officers were all from the Marine Corps and the Army, and this time there were four Air Force flight instructors of four professions, so it was natural to draw them into the discussion, but these four instructors also had differences about the offensive effect of the Luftwaffe, and no one could convince anyone.

When the pros and cons were arguing, they invited Li Junhao from the office and asked him for his opinion.

Regarding the result of the air battle in Britain, Li Junhao said with a clear attitude: "I dare not say whether the air force can solve a country purely with the air force, but one thing that can be concluded is that at least, in this air battle of Britain, the Germans can't do it!" ”

"Commander, why do you say that?" An officer asked puzzled.

"Because their Air Force Commander is an idiot!" Li Junhao said unceremoniously, "You shouldn't have forgotten Dunkirk, right?" At that time, the German armored forces only needed to advance another twenty or thirty kilometers, and it would not take long to annihilate the Anglo-French troops on the beach, but the idiot demanded that the air force be used to solve the enemy, and the Führer, who did not know what to think, strictly ordered the armored forces to stop advancing......

"As you should all know, hundreds of thousands of British and French troops were brought back to the British Isles! The Germans behaved like a joke in that incident! It's the same this time, even if there are more Luftwaffe planes, under the command of a fool, they can't win! ”

"Hahaha......" Li Junhao's words caused everyone to laugh, and everyone thought about it seriously, things are really like this! Many people do not understand, how could Hitler, who seemed shrewd, not see the stupidity of Goering and insist that he be put in charge of the Luftwaffe? In fact, any change of air force general at the rank of major general or above and commanding the Luftwaffe, which has absolute superiority, will not fail.

Of course, there are also people who are not completely convinced of Li Junhao's judgment, although they did not refute it in person, but they secretly wrote it down in their hearts and prepared to verify it later.

After Li Junhao finished his judgment, he left the war analysis room and went to work on other things. He believed that Hitler's determination to destroy Britain was not strong enough at all, that the "Sea Lion Plan" that was hastily launched was itself very flawed, and that there was an unreliable air force commander who commanded blindly, and that failure was almost inevitable.

——

In the past few days, the training of the army aviation detachment has entered the stage of actual flight, and the ten trainees who had been on the seaplane before began to fly solo one after another, but they all only chose one model, or P-38, or F4F, and only the same "newly-learned" Chief Pan Sen can be equally proficient in piloting both models, which makes everyone, including the four instructors, admire.

However, after mastering the two models, Li Junhao rarely got on the plane again, and these two planes were far worse than the Lingyun fighters he had modified, and they were not able to fly. It's just that now these new professionals from Army Airlines and Hainan Airlines have not yet been accepted by him, and they still need to wait for a while before they can come up with good things.

——

During this time, Li Junhao's attention was occasionally focused on North China, where the Japanese North China Front was engaged in a series of battles with the Eighth Route Army, which was later known as the "Battle of the Hundred Regiments".

Beginning in the summer of this year, Japan stepped up its political inducement of the Kuomintang government on the battlefield in China, and at the same time continued to attack the underground party's anti-Japanese base areas with its main forces, especially in North China, it stepped up the implementation of the "Rectification and Construction Plan" and the "cage policy" put forward by Okamura Ninji, commander of the North China Front, and implemented "railways as pillars, highways as chains, and pillboxes as locks" in an attempt to destroy the anti-Japanese base areas in North China and consolidate the occupied areas.

In order to smash the Japanese army's "cage policy," the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army launched a large-scale strategic offensive campaign against the lines of communication and strongholds occupied by the Japanese army in North China.

In these areas and lines of communication, there were all 3 divisions of the Japanese army, 2 wings of each of the 2 divisions, all of the 5 independent mixed brigades, 2 brigades of the 4 independent mixed brigades, and 2 brigades of the 1 cavalry brigade, totaling more than 200,000 people, as well as 150 planes and 150,000 puppet troops.

The strength of the Eighth Route Army included 36 regiments of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, the 129th Division (including the 1st and 3rd Columns, etc.), a total of 42 regiments directly under the General Headquarters, and 27 regiments of the 120th Division (including the 2nd and 4th Columns), with a total of about 270,000 people in 105 regiments, as well as many local guerrillas and militia participating in the battle.

On August 20, the strategic offensive of the Eighth Route Army began, and the battlefield in North China was full of gunsmoke......

At the beginning of the war, Li Junhao wanted to help, although he could not directly support the front line because of the battlefield environment, but he sent a cash check of 200,000 US dollars to the office of the Eighth Route Army through Wen Qiang in Xi'an, and specially telegraphed Ambassador Jensen in Chongqing to allocate a large number of weapons and ammunition to the Eighth Route Army from the materials for aid to China to support the campaign.

(End of chapter)