The Rise of the Third Reich

When the Italian 10th Bombardment Aviation Regiment commanded by Major Mussolini completed the first round of attacks (that is, each aircraft dropped one Hs293 bomb), there were still 58 P.108S left in the sky. One aircraft was directly hit by a 4.5-inch anti-aircraft gun shell and exploded into pieces. Another aircraft was damaged by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft gun shell and had an engine damaged and a fuel tank leaked, forcing it to return early.

And the "artificially guided" Hs293 glide bombs dropped by these P.108S bombers are not 100% accurate. After all, the current "artificial guidance" cannot be compared with the GPS guidance of later generations. 59 bombs were dropped, about 40%, that is, 24 bombs hit the target, but they still caused a lot of scars on the British fleet on the water.

The battleship King George V was hit by five Hs293 bombs. Except for one that did not explode, the other four exploded. One of them hit the Y turret at the stern of the ship, causing the secondary battery commander at the stern of the turret to malfunction; one penetrated the upper deck of the ship's bow and exploded between the upper deck and the middle deck, causing a small fire. There was a big fire; one bomb hit the conning tower protected by strong armor without causing any damage; another bomb got into the water before hitting the battleship and hit the stern of the battleship before exploding. A large hole was blown in the thin mine protection armor of the King George V class. However, such damage was not fatal to the King George V class.

But the four aircraft carriers, HMS Illustrious, HMS Victory, HMS Formidable and HMS Indomitable, were not so lucky. The Hs293 glide bomb is actually a 500-kilogram semi-armor-piercing bomb. The penetration performance of this bomb is not as good as that of armor-piercing bombs. It is a bit difficult to use against battleships like the King George V class. But it is more than enough to bomb the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

Even an armored aircraft carrier like the Tejas class cannot stop an attack from a 500kg semi-armor-piercing projectile. Because the so-called armored flight deck does not mean that the entire flight deck is armored, only a section of the flight deck (which can meet basic take-off and landing requirements) has relatively strong armor, otherwise the armored deck of this class of aircraft carrier would be too heavy. That's true. In the remaining parts, there is either only a thin layer of steel plate, or simply a wooden deck, which cannot withstand the impact of Hs293.

In just the first round of attacks, the Glorious was hit by four bombs. The first bomb penetrated from the unarmored bow flight deck and penetrated several decks before detonating in the inner officer's cabin. The shock of the explosion was astonishing. The fire caused damaged many pipes and lines, and temporarily disabled the radar; the first bomb hit the Glory's chimney, blowing up the thick chimney on the spot and causing the steam pipe to rupture. The speed dropped to 15 knots and exploded at the same time. The shrapnel produced swept across the deck like raindrops. Fortunately, all the planes had already taken off and there were not many maintenance personnel on the deck, so no major casualties were caused; the third bomb penetrated the lifting platform near the bow of the ship. (also a weakly armored area), and then exploded outside the hangar. Although it did not penetrate the hangar bulkhead, it completely destroyed the bow lifting platform and caused a fire; the fourth bomb fell on a strongly armored ship. On the flight deck amidships of the ship, although a 500-kilogram semi-armor-piercing projectile dropped from an altitude of more than 5,000 meters was enough to penetrate 185mm of armor, this far exceeded the thickness of the Glory-class flight deck armor. However, because the Hs293 is a glide bomb, it does not fall as fast as an ordinary bomb, so it cannot form a penetration. Instead, it gets stuck between the steel plates and wooden boards of the flight deck, causing a big explosion. It also opens a huge hole on the flight deck. hole.

Victory's luck was slightly better than that of Glory. Two of the five Hs293 glide bombs that hit it were duds. The other three Hs293 glide bombs that exploded hit the aircraft carrier's bridge, stern flight deck and a twin 4.5-inch secondary gun turret in the middle of the port side. Although a fire was caused and a 4.5-inch artillery shell exploded, the aircraft carrier's aircraft deck function was not lost, and the power system remained intact.

The Formidable was the most unlucky of the four Illustrious-class ships, with 6 Hs293 glide bombs hitting it. Moreover, one of them hit the bottom of the stern of the ship, which is not the key protection area of ​​the Tejas-class aircraft carrier at all. The huge power generated by the explosion of 250 kilograms of explosives immediately opened a big hole in the formidable stern of the ship, and even the nearby engine room was Cracks were blown out of the bulkheads. A large amount of seawater poured into an engine room, quickly flooding it and causing the aircraft carrier to lose one-third of its power. The other five bombs hit the bow deck, midship deck, stern lifting platform, upper part of the bridge and bottom of the chimney respectively, causing huge damage! In particular, the bomb that hit the bottom of the chimney penetrated into the engine room and exploded, destroying another engine room and damaging the pipes transporting steam, completely losing the power of the aircraft carrier and making it impossible to perform drainage operations. If not Restore power as soon as possible, and this aircraft carrier will be dead!

The Indomitable was also lucky. Four Hs293 glide bombs hit its flight deck, three of which penetrated and destroyed the petty officer's cabin, the bow elevator platform and several less important cabins in the stern. , causing a fire. Another one hit the flight deck in the middle of the ship at a relatively small angle. It did not penetrate the ship and did not blow up the deck.

"God, are you going to abandon the British Empire?" Cunningham stared blankly at the aircraft carrier that was swaying on the sea and still on fire. He listened to Chief of Staff Lister reporting the damage in a trembling voice. The heart is there.

It was obviously dozens of four-engine heavy bombers dropping bombs horizontally at an altitude of 9,000 meters... This must have been completely inaccurate. With great luck, one or two bombs were hit. How come you are so "always on target" now? In the blink of an eye, all four aircraft carriers were severely damaged!

Is the British Empire really going to end?

"The enemy plane is coming, approaching us!"

Just when Sir Cunningham could hardly think anymore, 24 F4Fs serving as direct cover missions finally received the order to climb to an altitude of 9,000 meters. For a carrier-based fighter that focuses on medium and low altitudes, it is very difficult to fly that high - this requires a specially designed supercharger and aerodynamic shape. The supercharger used at high altitudes is purely cumbersome at medium and low altitudes. The aerodynamic shape is good for climbing but is detrimental to maneuverability. Therefore, there were no high- and low-altitude models in World War II (but a large series of high- and low-altitude models did exist). , such as the P51 series, which has high-altitude models and low-altitude models).

After hearing the report from his subordinates, Major Bruno Mussolini did not want to take risks and quickly ordered the flight altitude to be increased by 2,000 meters to an altitude of 11,000 meters. Of course those F4Fs can climb up, but their engines don't have turbochargers, and their power output drops drastically at altitudes like 11,000. The aircraft seemed to be in slow motion and became very easy to hit. In front of the 58 P.108S heavy bombers that maintained a flying formation to cover each other, the machine guns of the 24 F4Fs, which were panting and struggling to maintain altitude and lacked firepower, opened fire. The Fokker Zero is a huge threat, but the solid P.108S is not enough) It really doesn't pose much of a threat.

"Continue to maintain the formation and pay attention to covering each other." When all the planes climbed into position, Bruno Mussolini had already ordered loudly in a tone of irrepressible excitement, "Continue to attack the British aircraft carriers and battleships on the water, for Italy and The Roman Empire, we will sink them all!"

…

"Commander, that's a kind of bomb with wings and tail and trailing wires!"

The staff officer who was sent by Lister to see the bomb was already out of breath and ran back to the command tower and began to report his findings to Cunningham and Lister.

"Drag wires?" Cunningham turned to look at the fleet's communications officer, Major Jackson. If there was anyone in the Home Fleet Command who was most familiar with things like wires and signal transmission, it would undoubtedly be Major Jackson.

"Commander, I think the Germans have invented a bomb that can fly by remote control!" Major Jackson immediately guessed what was going on. "No wonder they are so accurate..."

"A bomb that can fly remotely?" Cunningham immediately asked, "Is this kind of bomb difficult to make?"

Cunningham has already thought of imitating this kind of bomb with "eyes". If such a bomb can be dropped by a mosquito plane, then the defense war for the British mainland may still be fought.

"Theoretically it's not difficult, because it's controlled by wires and it's technically feasible." Major Jackson replied, "I think we can make the same weapon soon. But this kind of bomb must be difficult to operate. It won't take more than a few months." It’s impossible to hit the target with it.”

His prediction was correct. The Hs293 glide bomb is very difficult to control, and its operator must undergo at least 6 months of rigorous training before being able to take up the job.

"How many months?" Cunningham smiled bitterly, "I hope that before then, the Germans will not rush across the channel in millions and tear our empire into pieces."

"Bomb, it's here again!" Suddenly someone shouted, interrupting the conversation between Cunningham and Major Jackson.

The 58 P.108S heavy bombers in the sky have set up a new attack formation at an altitude of 11,000 meters, and a new round of remote-controlled gliding bomb attacks has begun!

Seeing the small black dots gliding down in the sky, Sir Cunningham sighed bitterly. He knew that his fleet was finished, and the British Empire would be finished soon. The sunset of the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets would soon come.