The Rise of the Third Reich

The weather is good over the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the English Channel. There are a few thin white clouds floating at low altitude. At an altitude of 4,000 meters above the clouds, the warm sunshine in early summer shines through the bright airplane cabin glass, giving people who have become cold due to the low temperature at high altitude. There was a bit of warmth inside the cabin.

Major Johannes Steinhoff held the control stick with both hands and carefully drove the aircraft while observing the surrounding situation through the huge semicircular glass cabin on the nose of the aircraft.

What came into his eyes was an unforgettable spectacular scene. A huge formation composed of 162 Ju88s, S.M.79s, Fw-190s, Fw-200Cs, He-115s and Fokker Zeros had already covered the sky and the sun. Feel. Wherever Major Johannes Steinhoff looked, there were densely packed planes, layer upon layer, vast and majestic.

This is only the first assault wave, there will be second and third assault waves later! If all the planes of the three assault waves were gathered together, the scene would be several times more spectacular than the current scene!

Major Johannes Steinhoff thought to himself: "There is no fleet in this world that can compete with our Luftwaffe and naval aviation! Air superiority is now the most critical factor in determining maritime hegemony. , and Germany was lucky enough to seize the opportunity of the naval military revolution this time..."

"Major, reconnaissance aircraft No. 087 sent a telegram and found that the enemy ship formation has been disbanded!"

At this time, Major Johannes Steinhoff's navigator/telegraph operator Carl Miller loudly announced the intelligence he had just received.

"The formation was disbanded? When did it happen?" Major Johannes Steinhoff asked.

"Just discovered," Carl Miller said, "The telegram said it was just discovered, but the enemy fleet must have been disbanding for some time. Currently, there are only 4 enemy ships tracked by the No. 087 reconnaissance plane, which are a large transport ship and 3 destroyers.”

Reconnaissance aircraft No. 087 is an Fw-200C equipped with a FuG200 radar system. It took over from another Fw-200C to track the British Fleet (E Fleet) three hours ago. However, the detection range of the FuG200 radar system is limited and the accuracy is not very high. This aircraft No. 087 was afraid of being discovered by the British fleet (many British warships also had radars), so they did not dare to follow it too close. As a result, it was discovered at dawn that the following British fleet had "shrunk" from at least 30 ships to 4 ships. It must have been that the following German reconnaissance aircraft were detected by radar at night, so they disbanded the formation and ran away.

However, this is not a big problem for the first assault wave commanded by Major Steinhoff, because there are 9 Fw-200C and 9 He-115 in the formation of the first assault wave. Come to search for the enemy fleet.

"Attention all reconnaissance planes, I am Major Steinhoff, commander-in-chief of the first assault wave." Major Steinhoff turned on the communicator and began to issue orders, "I order the reconnaissance planes to start searching for the enemy fleet..."

…

The hum of aircraft engines came from the sky. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the field of vision was very good. The air defense lookout of the battlecruiser "Reputation", the flagship of the E fleet that had been disbanded, soon discovered through the eyepiece of the telescope that it was approaching. of the UK fleet.

"Bearing 050, more than 30 aircraft in number, all single-engine aircraft! They should be our aircraft!" the lookout post loudly reported. Although the specific model of the aircraft is still unclear, it can be confirmed that all the aircraft flying over are single-engine aircraft. The bombers and torpedo bombers deployed by Germany in Brest were twin-engine and three-engine aircraft. This shows that there are no bombers or torpedo bombers among the aircraft flying over now, so they are basically British aircraft.

After hearing the report from the lookout post, Vice Admiral Phillips, the commander of Fleet E, breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, the 279 radar on the "Reputation" had already discovered these aircraft, but the radio on the "Reputation" was delayed. Contact the other person.

At this time, the communications officer on the "Reputation" suddenly reported loudly: "Sir, they have been contacted. The fighters from the 71st Squadron, the 121st Squadron and the 123rd Squadron are flying in!"

It turned out to be three "Eagle" squadrons. No wonder we couldn't contact them at first! Vice Admiral Phillips thought to himself. The so-called "Eagle" Squadron is actually a fighter squadron composed of American volunteer pilots.

With Britain's own fighter pilots having suffered heavy losses over the past year or so, there is a serious shortage of experienced veterans. So they had no choice but to turn to the United States for help. Under Roosevelt's arrangement, some experienced pilots were recruited from the U.S. Army Air Force to form three "Eagle" squadrons.

However, these pilots from the United States had just arrived and were not very familiar with the situation here in the UK. They always had problems when cooperating with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

"Great, let three Eagle squadrons cover our retreat to the west." Lieutenant General Phillips immediately issued an order to the communications officer of the "Reputation".

These three "Eagle" squadrons dispatched a total of 12 P-51s and 24 P-40s. A total of 36 aircraft circled the "Reputation", another large oil tanker used to pretend to be an aircraft carrier, and a light cruiser. , three destroyers, but the cover is quite tight.

However, to Lieutenant General Phillips's expectation, these 36 "Eagle" squadron fighter jets were discovered and tracked by an Fw-200C equipped with radar while flying over the "Reputation".

"Major, reconnaissance plane No. 082 reported that it discovered a British battleship and a British aircraft carrier, and there were also about 30 British fighter jets providing air cover."

Major Johannes Steinhoff, who was leading a fleet of aircraft circling in the air, received the report and immediately led an attack fleet of 144 aircraft (minus 18 reconnaissance aircraft) to swoop over. In fact, the distance between the two sides was not very far, less than 120 kilometers. Ten minutes later, the 279 radar on the "Reputation" discovered the German fleet.

"The radar room reported that enemy aircraft were found, with a number of more than 100 and a distance of 50 kilometers, flying towards us!" the first mate of the Renown shouted loudly.

"Sound the alarm and prepare for air defense operations." Phillips has long expected this situation. In fact, this is also the meaning of the formation of Fleet E - without the sacrifice of Fleet E, there will be no victory for Fleet C!

"Okay, now let's see how powerful the German plane is!" Lieutenant General Phillips walked to the side of the command tower, picked up his telescope and looked into the sky.

A fierce air battle had already begun. 32 Fokker Zeros and 32 Fw-190s faced off against 12 P-51s and 24 P-40s!

However, the current P-51 has not been equipped with Rolls-Royce's "Merlin" engine, but relies on a 1,150-horsepower Allison liquid-cooled engine with only a first-stage and one-speed supercharger. , the power is not even as good as the Fokker Zero. The reason why the Royal Air Force purchased it was because of its "laminar flow wing" and better aerodynamic layout, which gave the P-51 extremely excellent mid- and low-altitude performance, and it seemed that it could compete with the Fokker Zero.

But there are only 12 P-51s in the air today. How can they be the opponent of 32 Fokker Zeros? Every P-51 was besieged by at least 2 Fokker Zeros! At medium and high altitudes, 24 P-40s were also no match for 32 Fw-190s. The P-40's performance was not as good as the Fw-190's, and its numbers were at a disadvantage, so it was quickly defeated.

The air battle quickly turned into a one-sided massacre. The American planes flown by the "veterans" from the United States either turned into turkeys and fell straight down, or they fled the battlefield desperately. In less than 10 minutes, there were no P-51s or P-40s in the sky.

Seeing that the German fighter jets easily eliminated these "American Eagles", Lieutenant General Phillips felt his stomach swelled and his whole body felt weak.

"Lieutenant Admiral, what should I do?" the captain of the Reputation asked in a dry voice while handing a helmet to Phillips.

"The primary target of these aircraft may not be the Renown, but the tanker!" Lieutenant General Phillips gritted his teeth, pushed away the handed helmet, and began to issue orders to the panicked captain. "They will probably regard it as an aircraft carrier... This is our opportunity, the whole ship has a left rudder of 45 degrees! Start doing S-type evasive maneuvers!"

Phillips's guess was indeed good. The appearance of a large oil tanker and an aircraft carrier were relatively similar. Moreover, the oil tanker was camouflaged, with a layer of wooden planks covering the flight deck. Johannes Steinho was preparing to dive and drop bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters. As expected, Major Hu mistook the oil tanker next to the "Reputation" for an aircraft carrier, and dived down first with his Ju88 bomber!

1000 meters! 900 meters! 800 meters…

The altimeter on this Ju88 aircraft keeps rolling, and the numbers are getting smaller and smaller, which means the altitude is getting lower and lower! Suddenly, a shrill bomb siren sounded, and everyone on the plane felt the plane, which was diving at a 60-degree angle, jump upwards. This was a signal that the 1,000 kilogram bomb was successfully dropped.

"Pull up!" Major Steinhoff shouted, and at the same time pulled the aircraft's control stick hard to pull up the nose of the Ju88. At this moment, a loud noise came from the sea below.

"Hit!" Major Steinhoff glanced at the sea through the transparent cabin photo below, and immediately shouted excitedly. All I could see was that on the sea below, a huge plume of smoke and flames were emitting from the middle of the huge "aircraft carrier". It was obviously hit by a 1,000 kilogram bomb!

This "aircraft carrier" is finished! Major Steinhoff glanced at a "Prestige" class battlecruiser performing an S-type maneuver on the sea.

That's the next target!