The Rise of the Third Reich

"Sir, our SBD severely damaged a German aircraft carrier, which has been surrounded by fire!"

The good news that Potsdam had become a "fire ship" reached the British Home Fleet flagship "King George V". The people in the command tower almost cheered - ever since the bombing of Scapa Flow, the British Royal Navy, the former maritime overlord, seemed to be on bad luck, with fewer and fewer ships fighting and more and more territory lost. Even when they sank German and Italian battleships, they killed three thousand enemies and suffered ten thousand losses.

"What's the loss?" Cunningham didn't cheer along with the others, but immediately asked about the loss - don't let an air raid lose two-thirds of the fleet or something like that, it would be more gain than loss.

"What is currently certain is that 11 F4F fighters and 28 SBD dive bombers were lost."

The aviation staff immediately reported the latest statistics on losses. Eleven of 24 F4Fs were lost, and 28 of 72 SBDs were lost. There are 39 planes in total! Cunningham finally showed a smile. The loss was not small, but it was not more than half after all, and he also severely damaged a 30,000-ton, suspected Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier.

This shows that the British Royal Navy is coming out of its trough, and the "Fokker Storm" that once swept Europe has lost its power. Under the entanglement of Mustang fighters, the Fokker Zero could no longer calmly deal with waves of British bombers and torpedo attack aircraft.

As the squadron leader of the frontline carrier-based fighter squadron, Captain Nowotny can be said to have a deep understanding of this.

His squadron participated in three air interceptions this morning, shooting down 6 P51s and 2 F4Fs. It also had 4 aircraft shot down, sacrificing 2 very excellent pilots.

"Their aircraft is too difficult to fight. It's incredibly sturdy and has more firepower than our Fokker Zero. It's also very flexible. As soon as you grab its tail, it dives..."

Nowotny, who came down from the sky and was almost too tired to walk, was eating a nutritious lunch specially provided for pilots in the officers' mess while complaining to his regimental commander, Major Heinz Bahr.

"But we still shot down at least 100 aircraft today!" Heinz Bahr smiled and comforted his old subordinates. "This is only the record achieved by the Fokker Zero on five aircraft carriers. If you include Bergen We shot down at least 180 enemy planes. And the airspace this time was over our fleet, it was impossible for them to salvage the pilots who fell into the water."

"But the Potsdam was severely damaged!" Nowotny said with some confusion. "I really don't understand why we are wandering near the Faroe Islands? Are we really going to seize the islands? But it doesn't look like it to me. We have no landing force, and the fleet has been sailing farther and farther north since morning!"

While Nowotny was speaking, someone suddenly shouted: "The Potsdam has been hit again, it is capsizing, my God! It is going to sink!"

Nowotny and Barr immediately ran to a porthole where many pilots were gathered. Others dispersed when they saw their captain coming. Nowotny and Barr looked outside and saw that several thousand meters away, the bow of the aircraft carrier, which was originally billowing with smoke, had been raised high, and the stern of the ship had sunk into the water.

"Oh God, it was hit by a torpedo!" Although Nowotny was not from a true naval background, he still had this vision. "Is there a British submarine nearby?"

"No, it was sunk by ourselves!" Major Barr did not see a destroyer dropping depth charges. "It was abandoned... This means that we will soon accelerate north to break into the Denmark Strait. Abandon the Potsdam In order not to be dragged down by it (the Potsdam's speed was severely reduced due to the fire, and the smoke caused by the burning was also a huge target, which could easily expose the fleet), the Potsdam was really unlucky and sank in the first attack. "

"Then what exactly did we do in the Faroe Islands?" Novotny muttered in a low voice without understanding.

…

"Jazz, what happened?"

In the War Cabinet Headquarters in London, British Prime Minister Churchill saw First Sea Lord Pound reading and reading a battle report again and again, frowning, and then asked questions.

"They are dozens of Italian P.108s. They are not going to bomb northern Scotland, nor are they going to bomb the Shetland Islands or the Faroe Islands... They have now crossed the Faroe Islands and are flying west."

"Beyond the Faroe Islands?" Churchill was also stunned. "What's west of the Faroe Islands?"

"There are several aircraft carriers and battleships from the Home Fleet!"

"Haha, Sir, are you kidding?" Fatty Qiu disagreed. "Use high-altitude heavy bombers to bomb a fleet in progress? If this works, it will be good news for our American friends. They have a lot of B-17s and B-17s. -24 Such a big guy.”

Dudley Pound shrugged, "Prime Minister, actually I think so too... It's not possible to use high-altitude horizontal bombers to deal with sailing surface ships."

"Is it necessary to take some precautions?" Churchill asked, "such as sending Mustangs and Mosquitoes to cover Cunningham's fleet?"

The current P51 fighter jet does not yet have a Merlin 60 engine, so its high-altitude performance is very poor, but it can still fight at an altitude of 8,000-9,000 meters.

In this time and space, Mosquito aircraft in service in the British Royal Air Force were equipped with machine guns and cannons, and could serve as heavy fighter aircraft - this was actually forced by German high-altitude fighters. Now Germany's BF-109, Fw-190 and Each of the Fokker Zero series has a high-altitude fighter. There are also two high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft/bombers that the British hate very much, the Ju86P/R and the Fw-200E (the high-altitude version of the Fw-200). This makes the Royal Air Force in urgent need of high-altitude aircraft with combat capabilities, so all Mosquitoes have certain air combat capabilities.

"It's too late," Dudley Pound shook his head. "The fourth attack wave of the Coast Air Force has already taken off. In northern Scotland, all the Mustang and Mosquito aircraft that can be deployed have been deployed. The aircraft mobilized from the south cannot catch up. And the Germans are now bombing ports and airfields along the English Channel."

Churchill thought for a while and smiled: "It's just a few dozen high-altitude bombers. They will definitely not threaten the fleet. Sir Cunningham can definitely handle them."

…

"Dozens of P.108s? Coming towards us? What are the Italians thinking?"

Cunningham was only amused when he learned that his fleet was about to be bombed by Italian high-altitude bombers. If it were a German plane, Cunningham might be a little worried, but he had already seen the virtues of Italians in the Mediterranean.

Cunningham thought for a while and ordered: "Let the F4F take off when they get close. Don't go above 10,000 meters. Just hold on to 6,000 meters." Then he turned his mind to the German fleet. "The German fleet is heading towards north?"

"Yes," Lister, chief of staff of the Home Fleet, replied, "They are heading north at a speed of about 10 knots."

"So slow?"

"It was probably dragged down by the heavily damaged 30,000-ton aircraft carrier."

"That means it hasn't been sunk yet," Cunningham said thoughtfully. "When the carrier-based aircraft come back, we will arrange another wave of attacks. No matter what, we will sink a German aircraft carrier!"

The two discussed for a while, and the radar officer of the King George V suddenly reported loudly: "A cluster of enemy aircraft was found, with a number of more than 30, a direction of 36, a distance of 100 nautical miles, and an altitude of about 10,000 meters!"

10,000 meters! What a lovely Italian…

Cunningham and Lister looked at each other, both showing a contemptuous smile.

…

"I saw the British fleet. They are so small."

"Where are they?"

"Direction 222, distance approximately 20,000 meters."

"Okay, let me take a look... Oh, I saw it. There are 4 motherships and 1 battleship. They are not even in an air defense formation, but there are direct cover aircraft above them."

"It's an F4F. Its performance at high altitudes is not very good. It flies very slowly at high altitudes and is easy to fight."

"I know, Lieutenant Colonel Castellana, give command to me now."

"Understood, Major Mussolini, you are now in command."

Although the Italian army is generally unreliable, the bombing aviation regiment commanded by Bruno Mussolini is an anomaly. This son of Mussolini was actually a very outstanding soldier. Under his leadership, the 10th Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Royal Italian Air Force also became the best bombing aviation group in Italy. In many aspects, it even surpassed the He177 and Ju. .89 and Do-19 German bombing aviation regiments. Moreover, the He177, Ju.89 and Do-19 were only produced in small quantities to maintain the factory's manufacturing capacity. The performance of the German heavy bombers was not as good as that of the P.108.

However, the Luftwaffe did not originally intend for the Italian P.108S to become the first aircraft equipped with the Hs293 glide bomb. The original plan was to use the German Ju.288 medium bomber (the speed and range of this aircraft on paper are very impressive, making it a more ideal carrier than the P.108) as the Hs239 and Fritz X. The main vehicle for controlling glide bombs.

However, there were some delays in the development of Jumo's 2,500-horsepower 24-cylinder liquid-cooled engine Jumo 222, which slowed down the progress of the Ju.288. Therefore, it was not until December 1941 that the Ju.288 was finally finalized, and the large number of equipped troops may have to be delayed until June 1942.

Therefore, the P.108, which has long been developed and improved, has been equipped with troops and has participated in actual combat, has become the only aircraft among the European Axis countries that can carry Hs239 glide bombs.

Note: In this time and space, because there is no raw material bottleneck, German aero-engine companies can obtain alloy materials with better performance, so the development work of Jumo222 is finally completed.