Chapter 414 The Bombing Begins

Germany always keeps its word. 24 hours after the bombing warning, thousands of bombers flew across the channel under the escort of fighters and headed for the British mainland.

The escort fighters were BF109F and FW190, half of which were fighters from Italy and Vichy France. There were many types of bombers. In addition to Germany's He-177, Mosquito, Stuka, and A-1 attack aircraft, there were also French Amio bombers and Italian 79 "Sparrowhawks", "Stork" 20 bombers, etc. Nowadays, France and Italy (as well as other German occupied countries) are uniformly producing German standard weapons and equipment, so these bombers are usually placed in warehouses to take up space. Now there is such an opportunity to take them out for a stroll, and they can be thrown away when they are scrapped.

The observer at the British coast observation post looked at the fleet of planes covering the sky in horror, and his hand that picked up the phone kept shaking, and even his speech was a little stuttering. "Plane, there are German planes everywhere above my head, thousands of them!"

"..." Dowding in the headquarters listened to the reports sent from the radar station one after another, and looked at the dense enemy plane signs on the plane display table, his face was extremely gloomy.

Yesterday he asked Prime Minister Churchill whether the Air Force should take off to fight the enemy?

The answer he got was. "Decide at your discretion."

And he has not decided whether to take off fighters to intercept. He only has 600 fighters available, of which 200 need to be left as reserves and must not be used until the last moment when the German army lands on the British mainland. There are also 200 to defend London. Although London is still under bombardment at this time, it is 150mm artillery shells. It will take a year and a half to destroy London with such shells.

Bombers are different. Tons of bombs are falling down, and even the largest cities can't stand it.

In this way, the remaining 200 fighters may not even be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth. The situation is even more difficult than the original time and space.

In the original Sea Lion plan, the German Air Force planned to launch air strikes on important targets along the southern coast of Britain. The purpose was to destroy the main force of the British fighter force, then send bombers to attack the British fleet, and finally let the ships concentrated by the navy send the German army to the British mainland.

For this plan, the German Air Force concentrated 2,669 combat aircraft, while the British Air Force on the opposite side had only more than 700 fighters and more than 500 bombers.

In terms of quantity alone, Germany completely crushed Britain. Britain was not as good as Germany in terms of fighter performance. The Hurricane fighter was not the opponent of the German BF109 fighter, and the cutting-edge Spitfire fighter was less. To fight the German Air Force, it seemed like an egg hitting a stone.

But after a year of competition, the German Air Force returned with nothing. Due to the loss of too many fighters and pilots, and the inability to gain air supremacy over the English Channel, and the inability to disintegrate Britain's ground and naval combat power through air strikes, Germany had to abandon the Sea Lion plan to invade Britain and began to formulate the Barbarossa plan to invade the Soviet Union.

The reason is that in addition to the three magic weapons of the British Spitfire, Hurricane and air defense radar, the German Air Force also has serious problems of its own.

This problem has to start from the end of World War I.

After the end of World War I, Germany, as a defeated country, had to disband its air force, destroying and surrendering about 60,000 aircraft, retaining only 140 aircraft and 169 aircraft engines.

However, Germany has never stopped the development of advanced fighters. They secretly trained their own pilots under the guise of civil aviation companies and laid the foundation for the development of their own aviation forces. In 1935, Germany rebuilt its air force and developed rapidly under the connivance of the appeasement policy of Britain and France.

However, appeasement policy does not mean unlimited connivance. The fundamental purpose of appeasement policy is to protect the interests of the country. Therefore, Britain and France can tolerate Germany having a capable tactical air force, but will not tolerate it having a strategic air force that will pose a huge threat to itself.

What the German Air Force must also consider is that, limited by Germany's geopolitical and economic factors, strategic theory can continue to develop, but the priority is still to support army operations. Germany is a traditional land power country. The air force must first develop in the direction of supporting the army. An elite tactical air force is more suitable for the appetite of the German high-level.

At the same time, the German Air Force also faces the problem of insufficient resources. At the beginning of the reconstruction of the air force, the German Air Force faced a shortage of resources. Most of the materials imported by Germany are used to build the air force, among which rubber and aluminum are the most important. Oil is most likely to encounter blockades. In 1937, Germany imported oil equivalent to the sum of the previous ten years, but in 1938, it could only maintain 25% of the required oil.

In terms of steel, the resources obtained by the German Air Force are also insufficient. In the report of 1938, Goering reported that its economic situation is very dangerous and its industrial production capacity can only cope with 83% of the needs of the Air Force.

In addition, when Germany was preparing for war, the German Army, Navy and Air Force competed for resources, so the situation of the German Air Force was even more unfavorable. The reduction in the supply of raw materials has a significant impact on the Air Force, reducing about 30% of steel, 20% of copper, 47% of aluminum and 14% of rubber.

Under such circumstances, the German Air Force could not develop strategic bombers for strategic offensive capabilities. Just as Goering said to his subordinates, "The Führer will not ask how big the bombers are, but only how many there are", the German Air Force is desperately building its own fleet, mainly fighters, medium bombers and dive bombers. The number of advanced fighters is insufficient, the range of combat aircraft is generally short, and the bomb load of bombers is small...

And these main German fighters have many disadvantages. The bf109 fighter is easy to use but "short-legged". It takes off from France and has only 10 minutes of air combat time over London. The bf110 bomber has range and speed, but lacks maneuverability. The JU87 "Stuka" dive bomber is powerful, but its speed is only 370 kilometers. Germany's best medium bomber, the JU88, has just been mass-produced and has not yet formed combat effectiveness.

As the saying goes, "Man is iron, rice is steel, and if you don't eat for a meal, you will be hungry." The same is true for airplanes. Both British and German airplanes use aviation gasoline with an octane number of 87. In May 1940, the British Air Force began to use aviation gasoline with an octane rating of 100 provided by the United States. This increased the output power of the Merlin engines of the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters by 30%. This further improved the performance of the fighters.

Yannick certainly had to work on solving these problems. Relying on the advantages of being a time traveler, he first developed the Libyan oil fields and then developed all the resources he could find in the occupied countries. Although it was not rich, it was enough.

While Dowding was hesitating, the German fleet had already flown over the coastal towns and began to drop bombs.