The Rise of the Third Reich

"Major General, all the balloons have been inflated!"

Hearing his deputy, Lieutenant Commander François Bernard of the French Navy, report to him in French English, Major General Hans Langsdorf sighed softly and looked back at the dozens of people floating in the air. A huge rubber hydrogen balloon wrapped with a layer of aluminum foil.

These strange-looking hydrogen balloons are towed by small torpedo boats, and the current "flagship" of Major General Hans Langsdorff is also a small S-100 class torpedo speedboat - the majestic "Potsdam" The captain of the aircraft carrier, because he lost the aircraft carrier, has now become the captain of a torpedo speedboat detachment under the European Combined Fleet.

Not only was his official position reduced (this position should have been held by a colonel), but he was also assigned an inexplicable task. At the beginning of the Sea Lion Movement, dozens of torpedo boats leading this detachment dragged a strange hydrogen-filled balloon into the Strait of Dover.

"Let's go!" Rear Admiral Langsdorf missed his beloved aircraft carrier and whispered the order to attack.

The torpedo speedboat sailed out of the Port of Calais at a speed of about 15 knots, and then drove slowly on the French side of the Dover Strait, as if it was not here to fight, but to go fishing leisurely.

It's not that Langsdorf didn't want the torpedo boat to drive faster, but it was stipulated that it could only drive 15 knots, no more, no less. Although Langsdorff didn't understand what was going on, the order must be carried out.

"Major General, look over there, toward Dover."

While Langsdorff was leaning on the railing to look at the scenery, his French deputy, Major Bernard, suddenly shouted in English. Langsdorff turned his head and saw that it was almost completely dark now. A little further on the sea was pitch black, and only in the direction of the setting sun in the west could the red light of sunset shine out. Suddenly, Langsdorff saw patches of familiar red light flashing to the north at what might be Dover Beach...

"Is this...muzzle flash?" Langsdorff was stunned. "It seems like a cannon with a diameter of over 300mm is firing. But what do they want to hit?"

As soon as he asked the question, the answer came quickly. On the sea two to three hundred meters away from the torpedo boat on which Langsdorff was riding, it seemed as if a pot was boiling, and suddenly a dozen or twenty people dozens of meters high were stirred up. water column, and then the roar of the train passing by and the thunderous roar of the explosion.

"Major General, they are firing on us!" French Major Bernard shouted in French that Langsdorff could not understand.

The British coastal batteries are firing at us torpedo speedboats with huge guns over 300mm! ? Although Langsdorff didn't understand French, he knew what was going on.

But he didn't understand why these British people used huge guns with a caliber of more than 300mm to bombard a formation of torpedo boats sailing 28 kilometers away? The dozens of torpedo speedboats here are not necessarily as valuable as those shells. Is it worth attacking like this?

…

Of course, the British would not use huge guns with a caliber of more than 300mm to bombard dozens of torpedo boats. That would be no different from using a cannon to kill mosquitoes. But the problem is that those torpedo boats all towed balloons wrapped in aluminum foil. From the British radar screen, the light spots reflected by these aluminum foil balloons seemed to be a ship of several thousand to ten thousand tons. When dozens of such light spots fill a corner of the screen, it seems like a huge fleet is sailing.

Similar methods have been mastered by the Germans in history. In the Atlantic Operation in 1943, aluminum foil balloons appeared that could pretend to be the radar reflection signal of a floating U-boat. In this time and space, because of Hessmann, German radar experts knew a few years ago the "little secret" of using aluminum foil to disrupt radar.

That's why in "Operation Sea Lion" a group of torpedo boats were arranged to drag aluminum foil balloons through the Strait of Dover.

"There's no fire, it seems like it didn't hit the target!"

Dover Fortress Headquarters, Rear Admiral William Tennant, commander of the fortress group, could not help but frown when he heard the staff report. I've been playing for several rounds, but I haven't hit anything - isn't this 284 radar too bad? If this continues, the German fleet will be able to cross the strait.

"When will the Coast Air Force aircraft reach the target?" Major General Tennant asked loudly.

"I don't know, Coast Air Force hasn't gotten back to us yet."

No reply yet... The staff officer's answer made Tennant a little helpless. He was now the commander of the fortress, not the captain of a battleship. He could not send a seaplane into the sky with just one order. He could only contact the Coast Air Force and ask them to send a seaplane or some other aircraft. As for when the Coast Air Force would send it, it was none of his business.

However, the Germans now have night fighters equipped with radars. There are also German radars in Calais on the other side of the English Channel. It is hard to say whether the seaplanes sent by the Coast Air Force can drop flares on the heads of the German fleet.

Therefore, Rear Admiral Tennant could only bite the bullet and order the large-caliber artillery of the fortress group to continue blocking fire according to the instructions of the fire control radar, and did not care about the German high-altitude bombers hovering in the sky dropping wire-controlled glide bombs.

"Really opened fire!" Lieutenant Manfred Murray, who was flying the He-219 aircraft at an altitude of 11,000 meters, could see clearly that dozens of muzzle flashes appeared on the ground.

"Lieutenant Murray, we are about to start dropping bombs, please be alert." Captain Leatherman's order was transmitted to Lieutenant Manfred Murray's earphones through the airborne radio.

Both the Fritz X bomb and the Hs293 bomb require the aircraft to slowly circle along a specific route. At this time, the bombing aircraft is very vulnerable and can be easily shot down by enemy aircraft. Except for the initial use of the wire-controlled glide bomb to catch the opponent off guard, the subsequent attack operations should be carried out under the cover of one's own fighters as much as possible.

"Don't worry, the He-219 will guard the surroundings!" Lieutenant Manfred Mori made a promise without hesitation.

Although his He-219 night high-altitude fighter has not yet met the British "Mosquito", he already knows that the daytime model of the He-219 shot down more than a dozen Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft in today's daytime battle!

"Lieutenant, enemy aircraft is found! At 12 o'clock, 6,000 meters away, 10,000 meters in altitude!"

Before the 24 Ju.288s commanded by Captain Reitherman began to drop the Fritz X glide bomb, a He-219 reported that an enemy aircraft was found, and it was at an altitude of 10,000 meters. It seems that it is most likely a Mosquito night fighter.

"Just in time," Lieutenant Manfred Murray ordered, "The first squadron will follow me and show the British some strength. The rest of the squadrons will follow the Ju.288, maintain the escort formation, pay attention to cover each other, and keep an eye on your back."

After giving the order, Lieutenant Manfred Murray drove his He-219 and lined up three other He-219s in the air, swooping in the direction where the enemy plane was found.

It was already night, and although there was some moonlight, it was still difficult to see targets that were a little further away. Nighttime air combat relies on either searchlights or radars. Soon, Corporal Baker, the radar observer sitting behind Lieutenant Murray, found a target on the radar screen.

"Distance 4000, 1 o'clock."

"Okay." Lieutenant Manfred Murray slightly adjusted the direction and aimed the nose of the plane at the target.

"Distance 3000, 12 o'clock."

"Fire now!"

"Tutututu..."

At Lieutenant Murray's command, the machine gun and two 30mm machine guns fired at the same time. The shells with orange-red light flew all over the sky like raindrops, forming a fire net in the air, covering a Mosquito plane head-on, and then the Mosquito plane was shot into a ball of fire.

"Hit it!" Lieutenant Manfred Murray cheered. This was not his first victory, but it was the first time he shot down an enemy plane so easily.

Before, he was flying the Bf-110. Although it was also a good night fighter, its firepower, speed and flight altitude could not be compared with the He-219.

"Boom!"

Just as the He-219 was fighting fiercely with the incoming Mosquito plane, a Fritz X glide bomb with a glowing butt (there were several light bulbs to let the operator know the location of the bomb) had exploded on the ground.

Then the second, third, fourth... bombs exploded one after another, shaking the ground and sending fireballs flying high. This was an armor-piercing bomb weighing 1.5 tons. Even the Japanese "No. 1 ship in the world" Yamato could not handle it, not to mention the armored turrets built by the British on land.

These Fritz X bombs were all dropped on the firing turrets. Because they were remotely controlled to kill the target, the landing points were quite accurate. Even if they could not directly "penetrate the top" of the turret, they all exploded near the turret. Even if the turret could not be destroyed, some surrounding facilities could be blown up. After more than a dozen bombs were dropped, fires had already started near several armored turrets that had not been blown up. And these flames pointed the direction for an Fw-189 artillery calibration aircraft that was secretly circling around the Dover Fortress at an altitude of 6,000 meters.

At 8:35 p.m. on May 1, two cannons, "Dora" and "Gustav," placed near the coast of Calais, fired one after another.

On the sea farther away, the huge German landing fleet was approaching the entrance of the strait at a speed of 15 knots under the escort of the 5th Fleet of the European Combined Fleet.

At the same time, 120 Z.1007 medium bombers loaded with aluminum foil strips were taking off one after another from an airport near Brest.