Chapter 417 Bombing

Hearing the news from the radar station, Dowding frowned in confusion.

The German army dispatched thousands of bombers to bomb indiscriminately during the day, so what did it mean to dispatch only nine at night? Moreover, some eyewitness reports said that "several bright horizontal flames were seen flying across the sky", which made him even more confused.

The enemy planes were very fast, exceeding 600 kilometers per hour. Judging from the speed, they should be the Mosquito bombers known for their speed. But what about the flames? How could the planes have flames? Could it be that those planes were on fire? If they were on fire, they would fall down.

But it was obvious that those planes did not mean to fall down; as the headings of these planes were constantly updated, Dowding's face became more and more ugly, they were heading straight for London!

"Take off the night fighters!" Dowding had to give the order. After all, he could not watch London being bombed by planes. Being bombarded and bombed were two different things.

The British night fighters were far less advanced than the Germans. Ordinary fighters plus pilots who were good at instrument flying were a night fighter combination. The fighters used were Hurricane night fighters equipped with four 20mm cannons. The biggest difference between this fighter and the daytime fighter is that the whole aircraft is sprayed with dark matte paint, and protective plates to shield glare are installed on the engine exhaust pipe and the cockpit windshield.

At this time, two more V-1 missiles in the formation fell and exploded due to malfunctions.

The remaining 7 missiles were less than 50 kilometers away from London. At their flying speed, they could fly into the city of London in less than 5 minutes.

In an air-raid shelter in the city of London, citizens Arnold and Carter walked out of the air-raid shelter quickly and ran not far away. They did not escape from here. After all, there was no safer place than the air-raid shelter at this time. They just wanted to go home and get some food. The food distributed these days was getting less and less, and they were not very full. Arnold thought that there was still some dry food at home, and Carter had some canned food at home. The two of them decided to go out together to get them back.

They planned for several days.

The Germans bombarded the city about every eight minutes. Arnold's home was five minutes away, while Carter's home was a little further away, about ten minutes away.

They planned to go to Arnold's home to get dry food and avoid a round of artillery fire, then go to Carter's home, avoid another round of artillery fire and return the same way.

They squatted at the entrance of the air-raid shelter and counted the German bombardment until the tenth shell fell, then walked out of the air-raid shelter and ran quickly towards Arnold's home.

Although the bombardment has not stopped in recent days, London is a big city after all, and it is only a 150mm caliber bomb, so it is far from being completely devastated.

However, their neighborhood was unlucky and was hit by five shells. Three shells blew out three small pits on the roadside, and the other two shells collapsed two houses in half.

Just as the two of them ran to Arnold's house breathlessly, ten Hurricane night fighters took off in the sky of the suburbs of London and arrived at the airspace where the target was about to arrive according to the guidance of the ground radar.

"God, what is that?!" John, a night fighter pilot, was shocked as he looked at several bright flames rushing past in the distance, and muttered subconsciously.

With the light of the flames, he vaguely saw that it was indeed the outline of the aircraft. Although it was not a Mosquito bomber, the opponent's speed was obviously over 600 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed of the fighter they were driving was only 540 kilometers per hour, which was impossible to catch up. "Command, command, interception failed! They are too fast, we can't catch up at all!! It's not a Mosquito bomber!"

"..." Dowding frowned even deeper. It's not a Mosquito bomber? That means the German army has developed a bomber with a speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour?

If the fighter can't intercept it, then it can only rely on the ground air defense position. But as mentioned above, due to the serious shortage of anti-aircraft guns in the UK, the defense of London and some other cities had to be temporarily sacrificed, and anti-aircraft guns had to be deployed in more important places.

There was only a small-caliber anti-aircraft gun position in front of the V-1 missile. The ground searchlight suddenly turned on, and a series of bright light poles shone into the sky.

In fact, there was no need to turn on the searchlight. The anti-aircraft artillery soldiers on the ground could see the tail flames of the V-1 missiles with their naked eyes. However, before a few rounds were fired, the V-1 missile formation flew over the anti-aircraft gun position and broke into the city of London.

The mechanical timer inside the missile activated the oil circuit cut-off device, cutting off the oil supply. The missile lost power instantly and could only fly forward by inertia. At the same time, the spoiler that was opened slowed down the missile significantly, and the missiles dived down one by one.

At this time, Arnold and Carter were putting dry food into the bag, and suddenly heard a strange sound from the sky outside.

They were startled, thinking it was artillery fire, but then they noticed that it was not the whistling sound when the shells fell. Thanks to the bombing day and night, many British people can now distinguish the sound of falling shells and even roughly hear the direction of the falling shells.

"What's that sound?" The sound sounded like a motorcycle with two motors running at full speed, but motorcycles can't run in the sky.

The two people curiously leaned to the window and looked out, and suddenly saw a bright flame falling from the sky and hitting the ground hard.

"Boom!!"

The 150mm high-explosive shell of the V3 cannon has a charge of about 6 kilograms, and the warhead of the V-1 missile is equipped with 850 kilograms of high-energy explosives. Its power can be imagined.

The earth-shaking explosion even woke up Prime Minister Churchill who was taking a nap in his basement office.

"What's that sound?!"

Churchill, who was suddenly awakened, heard explosions one after another, and the light bulbs on the ceiling flickered, as if they would go out at any time. He hurriedly picked up the phone and called Dowding. "What's the matter with this explosion? Is it a German bomber?"

Dowding was a little uncertain. "Well, it should be."

Hearing this, Churchill was so angry that he couldn't say anything. What does "should be" mean? Just as he was about to get angry, he heard Dowding's tone on the other end of the phone. "It seems to be a new type of German bomber. When our radar discovered them, there were nine of them, and two of them fell halfway. The remaining seven rushed into the city of London. Their speed exceeded 600 kilometers, and our night fighters could not catch up at all. But after they flew over London, they dived straight down, hit the ground and exploded."

"What?" Hearing this, Churchill was also a little confused. What's going on? "Could it be a malfunction of the aircraft?"

"It shouldn't be, Mr. Prime Minister. I think the Germans did it on purpose." If it was a malfunction, then the failure rate would be 100%. The Germans would be crazy to equip such an aircraft.

"Intentional? Was it a suicide attack?" After saying this, even he felt absurd. The Germans were now in a dominant position. How could they launch such a crazy suicide attack? "Is it a drone?" As the first country to develop a target drone, Churchill immediately thought of this aspect.