Battle of the Third Reich

On the evening of August 19th, the Luftwaffe uncharacteristically carried out an unprecedented night bombing of towns in southern England. From 9 o'clock that night, the bomber groups that took off from various air bases along the French coast attacked all important coastal towns and ports on the front line from Portsmouth to Dover, and some of them also penetrated into the British inland. The farthest flight group even reached Coventry.

It was a crazy bomb night, looking down from the sky. On the southern coastline of the United Kingdom, there were stars and dots, and there were dazzling explosions of fire everywhere, and the thick clouds of smoke, just like the end of the world.

German bombing secrets, like swarms of locusts, flew over the city. In the eyes of the citizens who fled, the dense bombers almost covered the moon.

The Germans showed no mercy and dropped bombs on all the cities and towns marked on the target list. In addition to the conventional heavy-duty blasting grenades, there were also some new types of incendiary bombs. The latter caused more damage to the villages than the former.

Most of the old towns in Britain are made of brick and wood structures, especially coastal towns and villages. A lot of wood and gravel are used for building. Once it is on fire, it must be the result of the collapse of the wall. British villages and towns generally have a long history. Because they have not been invaded by foreign enemies for a long time, and there is no earthquake or natural disaster, a building can often be traced back hundreds of years. The central area of ​​these towns still maintains the pattern of centuries ago, and the facilities are aging. The streets are narrow and there are almost no gaps between the houses. Once it catches fire, it can stretch out several blocks in a few minutes.

What they are experiencing now is not an ordinary residential fire, but a professional arson weapon filled with a special combustion aid. An arson bomb can turn a 50-meter-square empty space into a sea of ​​fire. The temperature can melt steel, Burn out the cement.

Under the bombing of the German bombers, these old villages and towns were plunged into extinction. Many villages and towns’ fire brigades had no chance of being dispatched, and were directly trapped in the fire station by the fire. The fire spread unscrupulously on the roof of the street, burning from one house to another. Residents scrambling to escape were surrounded by flames on the narrow streets, struggling to survive in the smoke and heat.

Some residents made according to the provisions in the anti-aircraft brochure, and took the whole family to hide in the air-raid hole dug in the backyard. Even the sewage in the sewer has started to boil, and the streets of villages and towns are filled with a terrible smell of meat.

Portsmouth had just gone through a catastrophe. The last resistance of the French fleet caused the military port to suffer heavy losses. The berths in the port area were full of semi-floating ships and ships. The most striking are the two huge French battleships, one showing half of the scorched black warped bridge on the water, and the other turning over the belly to reveal the red bottom covered with holes.

The block near the port area was attacked by a large number of stray bullets. It is difficult to say that the French did not deliberately do it, but the initiators have sunk to the bottom with the battleship, and the British can only drink this glass of homemade bitter wine alone.

Just as the Royal Navy and the Army worked overtime and night to clean up the wreckage and salvage the sunken ship, the German bombers suddenly arrived and hit the most important military port once again.

The three large-caliber anti-aircraft positions in the military port were bombarded by the main gun of the battleship in the previous conflict, most of which had been turned into twisted metal.

After the German bomber entered the original air defense circle. However, it is found that today’s air defense is weak, and the bomber group can completely enter the long drive, as if entering a no-man's land. The air defense gunners in the military port had been killed and wounded in the previous conflict, and the remaining two or three kittens could only fire the shells with the surviving two anti-aircraft guns. There is no ranging or height setting, just to show the commander in a hurry, so that this guy who is already on the verge of madness will not target them on the spot.

Hundreds of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns in the military port are very active. Under the guidance of the searchlights, they blasted shells into the sky. Red and blue tracers flew all over the sky like fireflies in summer nights, but these machine guns had too close range. The aircraft, which could not threaten the heights at all, could only watch the German bombers drop a huge bomb over their heads.

The Germans seldom conducted large-scale night air raids before, even if the targets were limited to air bases and some military industrial enterprises, such as lower London and the areas along the Thames. The South Line radar network was completely destroyed, and now the British can only rely on coastal air defense observation posts and listeners for primary warning. At night, the observation post is almost useless, and the listener can only hear the general direction of the enemy aircraft, but it is impossible to judge the number of high-level aircraft. confusion.

That night, the air defense post on the British coast was caught in this chaos. A variety of messy information poured into the air defense sector command posts everywhere. The local command post had no other sources of information and could not be screened. The verified label is reported to the British Fighter Command. The fighter command suddenly fell into chaos, Dover, Westphalham, Cabral Rafal, Folkestone, Haizer, Alkham, Hawking, Sandgate, Newin Dayton, Gretston, Hastings, Eastbourne, New Haven, Brighton, Portsmouth. . . . The southern coastline is in an emergency.

Most of the cities here are close to the seaside, and there is no warning time at all. When the observation post notices that the enemy planes, most of the German bombers have already flown overhead. When the first bomb hit the ground, some cities did not even have air defense warnings. With some noise, some residents were blown to pieces in their sleep.

There was a lot of smoke on the south bank of the strait, and the operator at the command post was crying with despair and whistling at the coast observation post on the phone: "Aircraft, I have German planes all over my head, there are thousands of them!"

Almost all observation points issued reports of German bomber incursions, ranging in number from hundreds to thousands, and the direction was 360 degrees. Doudin, who rushed to the command post on the spot, was stunned by the enemies of planes on the table. The Germans had so many bombers, could they not reproduce on their own like locusts.

The Germans have never launched such a large-scale night offensive. This quantity and quality is obviously very abnormal. Doudin did not dare to take it lightly, because with the power currently possessed by the British fighter command, it is impossible to cover such a wide battlefield.

If these German bomber fleets are escorted by a large number of German fighters, then the dispatch of those heavy twin-engine night fighters can only be sent to death. and. Perhaps some of these fleets are directly fighter fleets. The Germans haven't played this one or two times, and each time they let the Royal Air Force corpse run wild.

Doudin felt the possibility more and more, otherwise it would be impossible to explain the seemingly unscientific number of German aircraft in front of him, which must be mixed with the huge German fighter corps. Doudin came to his judgment, and he was even more afraid to dispatch the fighters he had left.

There are only more than 300 fighters left in Douding’s hands, and 80% of the pilots have not been trained in the system of night flight, which can ensure that the night takeoff and landing is a test for them, not to mention let them fight in the air at night. The Germans clearly have mastered the skills of night combat. This can be proven from the wreckage of British bombers floating in the strait.

The old bird under Dowding has been exhausted to the extreme, and most of them have been forced to take off forcibly, retaining their energy for the most critical battles, but now it seems that the most critical time has come.

Before the Royal Air Force had suffered too much blood lesson, thousands of aircrews who died in their lives proved that dispersing their forces and trying to break the tactics was a delusion, a trap for murdering British pilots, and ultimately only let themselves be The Germans broke through. A piece of news from Ashford made Dottinger even more determined, and a huge bomber group with fewer than a hundred aircraft was passing through the suburbs of Ashford. The direction should be directed at London.

Before this, the Luftwaffe had not stopped the harassment and bombardment of London, but it was only on the scale of 30 to 40. The bombing area was also concentrated in the slums and on both sides of the river. At night, there are at most a dozen large-scale raids. Overall, the damage to the city is not as great as the British anti-aircraft guns.

But this time, Douding smelled something wrong. The Germans seem to be bad comers. The blows caused by hundreds of large aircraft groups are completely different from the previous squadron bombing. This scale of coverage bombing can easily level the entire city center. The commander of the Air Force hurriedly issued the order. Give up supporting coastal towns, gather the main forces, and defend London with all your might.

Dowtin is very clear that it doesn't matter if other British cities are razed to the ground, it will only cause British hatred of the Germans, inspire the morale of the people, and become another blood debt owed by the Germans to the British. Some people may accuse him of negligence or incompetence, but Dowding believes that the Prime Minister will keep him. Churchill knows his ability, and only he can control the Air Force for Churchill, or order the Air Force to complete all reasonable and unreasonable orders issued by Churchill.

But once London was devastated, no one in the world could save him. The national capital, the heart of the United Kingdom, the glory of the empire, the British royal family and important government agencies, parliaments, and military command are all in this city, as well as the UK’s most influential media, newspapers, foreign news agencies, and several Millions of urban residents, various scholars, experts, professors, generals, lawyers, bureaucrats, bankers. There are also a large number of military factories, shipyards, research institutes, and technical institutes. Once the city was severely damaged by the German bombing, let alone the politicians, the group of pens on Fleet Street alone was enough to make him stink for years, and even Churchill would not be able to keep him, even to protect the Prime Minister and the war When the authority of the cabinet, he personally sent him to the military court.

Dowding was determined. He dispatched all the planes that the Twelfth Air Force could take off. The mighty hurricane and more than two hundred hurricanes and one hundred spitfire fighters completely blocked the airspace of London.

The Germans were very cooperative and did not touch the cordon in Sir Dowding’s heart from beginning to end. Whenever a German bomber group approached London, the British fighter group swooped like a bloodthirsty shark, and The German bombers behaved like a frightened herd, and they dispersed at a distance, turning their noses to flee in the direction of the strait. But then there will be another group of aircraft slowly approaching to London, and start again and again, without end. So Douding could only let the fighter jets land and refuel at the temporary airport around London, and the rest circulated and drove around London to ensure the safety of London’s airspace that night.

"By 2 a.m., the latest report from the Coastal Observatory and the Army showed that Folkestone suffered heavy losses, the Dover Fortress was being bombed for the second time, all anti-aircraft artillery positions had been destroyed, and the entire town center of Haizer was lit. There was a sea of ​​fire there, and the casualties were very serious. Hawking, Sandgate, and Newington were being bombed. The fire in New Haven was severe, and the Portsmouth Military Port was also bombed, and contact with us has been interrupted. Now, the headquarters is trying to find a way to contact them again." The Army Liaison Lieutenant stood in front of Churchill tremblingly and reported the latest battle report to the Prime Minister.

At this time, the heavy explosion-proof door was pushed open, and the British Army Chief of Staff Ismay hurriedly entered the meeting room.

"Your Excellency, the situation is very critical now. I think the members of the cabinet should be called for an emergency meeting immediately. I have just talked with Douding by phone. He has already repelled five German bomber attacks on London. According to him, there are still many The unclear German bomber is flying towards London, and he and his men will vow to defend the city and the safety of His Majesty the King."

Churchill appeared to be awakened from his sleep. He wore pajamas, a checkered bathrobe was granted outside, and he wore slippers with bare feet. He sat on the sofa and the whole person fell into a cushion.

Previously, the H fleet was severely hit by the whole annihilation and the Portsmouth fleet conflict. He looked even more haggard, his sparse hair was messy against the greasy scalp, his brows were tight, his face was pale, and his sagging eyes were in his room. The cold light under the top shot was big and dark.

"It's too late. The blond kid can't help it anymore. This is an invasion. They are ready to land and immediately announce to all army troops in my name, "Cromwell."

"Cromwell? Your Excellency, we have not received a report of the discovery of the German ship. Do we have to confirm it again?" Ismay did not expect Churchill to make such a judgment.

"Cromwell", which is a cipher word confined to the British Army, means "invasion has begun." (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and faster!