Chapter 228 Interception

"Boom!" A 40mm shell hit the cockpit of a Blenheim bomber by chance. The bomber, which lost control, immediately fell headfirst and crashed into the ground in the distance, emitting a ball of flames.

This scared the other bomber pilots. "Oh, damn! The enemy's firepower is too strong! This is not a good job!"

But at this time, the voice of the bomber formation commander came from the headset. "Prepare to lower the altitude, and drop bombs at an altitude of 1,500 meters."

"What?!" Now, both the French and British pilots were unhappy. The anti-aircraft fire below was so fierce, and they were asked to lower the altitude? "The enemy's firepower is too strong, and going down is to die!"

The commander of the bomber formation said unhappily. "If you don't lower the altitude, it's useless to drop bombs. Follow the order!"

They didn't know that this was just a prelude. With the addition of the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, the disaster of the British and French bomber formations officially began.

The 88mm anti-aircraft gun is another famous "artifact" in World War II. It can be used to shoot down planes when it is erected, and to shoot down tanks and bunkers when it is laid flat. It can even be used as a howitzer, with a range longer than the German 105mm howitzer; but doing so will not only reduce the accuracy, but also damage the barrel, so it will not be done unless it is forced.

There is a joke circulating on the Internet in later generations. The German army was helpless when facing the British thick-skinned tank Matilda II in North Africa, because their main anti-tank weapon, the 37mm gun, could only make a noise against the 78mm armor on the front of the Matilda. At this time, Rommel had an idea and fired the 88mm gun for air defense flatly, and he became famous in one fell swoop.

Of course, this is a joke. The armor-piercing shells used by the 88 gun for anti-tank are not the same as the high-explosive fragmentation shells used for air defense. If you want to fight against tanks, you have to use special shells. And using large-caliber armor-piercing shells to shoot down planes? The logistics uncle can hammer the gunner to death.

At the beginning of the development of the 88 gun, only air defense was considered. However, as a high initial velocity, large caliber direct-fire artillery, it naturally has anti-tank properties, so the Germans had already equipped it with armor-piercing shells. After the outbreak of World War II, when the Germans found that the 37mm gun could not deal with the British Matilda, the French B1, and the Soviet T34/KV1, they happened to have such a magical weapon at hand that could be used to great effect, thus creating the legend of the 88 gun's anti-tank.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The first 88mm anti-aircraft position opened fire. This is the Flak37 single-purpose anti-aircraft gun, which is equipped with the übertragungser37 new data transmission system.

The operation of this transmission system is that an operator operates a tracking and ranging instrument to capture the flight status of the aircraft. The built-in mechanical computer can calculate the anti-aircraft gun azimuth, pitch angle and other shooting parameters and the best explosion height of the shells based on the aircraft's flight speed and flight route.

Then the data is transmitted from the position command post to the secondary position command post through electrical signals. Each secondary command post can command four 88mm anti-aircraft guns and communicate with the position command post equipped with a mechanical computer. Finally, the secondary position command post transmits the shooting metadata to the two scales that control the elevation and azimuth of the anti-aircraft gun through the distribution box. Each scale has two scales. After the data is transmitted, the colored pointer will automatically move to the scale corresponding to the data. The two gunners who control the elevation and azimuth operate the gun to align the pointer on the second set of scales with the colored pointer to complete the positioning. Finally, according to the optimal explosion height of the ammunition, the appropriate fuse can be selected to shoot, thus greatly improving the air defense performance.

Facing the dual interception of the two rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns, the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun and the 88mm anti-aircraft gun, the bombers of the British and French coalition forces were in a desperate situation.

What's more terrible is that Britain and France don't have dive bombers like the German Stuka that can deliver bombs accurately. If they want to use horizontal bombers to blow up the floating bridge in the river, they can only lower the flight altitude to ensure the accuracy of the bombing.

In this way, these bombers are simply fish on the German knife, at the mercy of others.

An unlucky Amio bomber was directly hit by an 88mm artillery shell, turned into a ball of fire at an altitude of one thousand meters, and exploded into a pile of parts.

The 88mm anti-aircraft gun is not only lethal if it directly hits the enemy aircraft. After all, this kind of coincidence is a rare low-probability event. Usually, bombers fly at an altitude of several thousand meters or even ten thousand meters. From the ground, they are very small and difficult to observe, let alone accurate hits.

Therefore, the most effective tactic is to use multiple anti-aircraft guns to shoot at the airspace where the enemy aircraft passes through the flight route, and use time fuses to make the shells explode at a predetermined height, forming a barrage full of smoke, debris and shock waves within a certain range.

As the bomber group approached the Meuse River, their casualties began to increase sharply. In just a few seconds, several bombers fell down with billowing smoke. The German anti-aircraft firepower formed a dense anti-aircraft network above the pontoon bridge. Every British plane that hit this huge network was instantly shattered.

"Oh my God! We can't get through at all!!" Seeing the friendly planes in front of them being shot down one after another, some people finally collapsed. "Hell is ahead! I want to go home!" A young pilot shouted with tears in his voice. Before others could react, he pulled the joystick hard, and the bulky bomber began to turn.

"Don't!" The co-pilot on the side tried to stop him with a wild look on his face. There were friendly planes around them, and any maneuver could lead to a collision.

Boom!

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the bomber hit another bomber hard. The bombs weighing several tons in the two bombers exploded violently, and an unprecedented fireball appeared. The shock wave of the explosion even affected several friendly planes around.

Finally, a Blenheim bomber broke through the dense anti-aircraft firepower network and dropped their first bomb of the day. Unfortunately, the bomb was at least 100 meters away from the pontoon bridge, and even the rising waves failed to touch the pontoon bridge.

The next second, several Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns swept towards the bomber and directly blew it up in the air.

At this time, the bomber formation had lost nearly one-third of its troops. Looking at the German fighter formation coming to reinforce from a distance, the commander of the bomber formation could only order a retreat with hatred. "Retreat, get out of here!"

"God!" The bomber pilots couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but soon found that it was not easy to leave.

Although the anti-aircraft guns on the ground stopped firing, the German fighters had already caught up.

"Drop the bombs! Throw away all the bombs!" The British and French bombers threw bombs randomly, preparing to escape lightly. Unfortunately, how could the bombers escape at that speed.

The BF-109 formation that caught up was not polite and launched a fierce attack. One bomber after another was shot down, some exploded in the air, or burned and rolled and fell to the ground...