Chapter 594: Extortion
The White House lost its external power supply, and its own emergency generator started running immediately. The maintenance personnel were preparing to replace the light bulb in the President's office, and the secretary ran over in a panic. "Mr. President, the motor of the ventilator is burned out. It can't be repaired for a while, so we have to leave quickly." The basement needs to be constantly supplied with fresh air to discharge the turbid gas inside and keep its air flowing, otherwise the people inside will easily suffocate.
Fortunately, the German bombers had left at this time. Not long after the group returned to the ground, Arnold hurried into the President's office. "Mr. President, the Germans left these things." He said and put a few black thin wires in front of the president. He picked them up on the way here, and they were everywhere.
President Roosevelt looked at these silk threads that were thinner than hair and asked puzzledly. "What is this?"
Arnold shook his head. "I don't know the specific composition, but I guess this thing is very conductive. The Germans used it to attack our power grid. Now there is a large-scale power outage in downtown Washington." Just when he said this, his face suddenly changed. He finally figured out why the Germans would split up the 30 bombers to bomb multiple cities.
I'm afraid the other cities also dropped this kind of highly conductive filaments?
On the other side, the German ambassador to Sweden found the ambassador to the United States. "Mr. Anderson, I don't know if you have heard the news from home. Our army has launched an air strike on your country again. But this time your country's losses may be a bit heavy, because our army has invested a new type of bomb."
Looking at the German ambassador's smug look, he looked like a villain; American Ambassador Anderson really wanted to punch him in the face a few times, so that even his mother wouldn't recognize him.
Just listen to the German ambassador continue. "It's not a good idea for your country to keep getting beaten like this. Why don't you just surrender? Your Highness is kindhearted and has no interest in ceding land. We will only take a little compensation from your country, such as 10,000 tons of gold."
Ten thousand tons of gold? Ambassador Anderson laughed in anger. "Mr. Eberle, if you are going to say these useless nonsense today, I'm sorry I can't keep you company. I have official business to attend to."
Ambassador Eberle tutted his mouth twice. "It seems that Mr. Anderson really doesn't know what losses your country has suffered. Otherwise he wouldn't say such a thing. If I'm not mistaken, your northeastern industrial zone has been severely damaged. Next we will bomb your western and southern industrial zones." At this, Eberle showed a smug smile on his face. "If your country is willing to pay, we can postpone the bombing. For example, if you want to delay for one month, you can pay 500 tons of gold, and 3,000 tons of gold for half a year. It's 6,000 tons a year. It's a good deal, right?"
Seeing that Ambassador Anderson's eyes were about to spit fire, Ambassador Eberle stood up and said goodbye. "I'll give you five days to think about it. After five days, we will bomb your country's western and southern industrial areas. I don't know how much gold this loss is worth. What a coincidence, that day is also your country's election day. It can be regarded as our small thought. I wish your country's election will be successfully completed. President Roosevelt has no hope of re-election. I don't know which unlucky guy will take over this mess." After saying that, he bowed and turned to leave.
Roosevelt in the White House was having a headache. The losses caused by the German special bombs were simply astronomical.
In addition to Washington, nine cities including Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore were visited by German bombers. Every city had a large-scale power outage, power plants and industrial parks were severely damaged, and in addition to the directly scrapped electrical appliances, there were countless fires caused by short circuits, and the losses were simply incalculable.
At this time, the ambassador to Switzerland sent a telegram to convey the meaning of the German ambassador.
"These damn Germans!" President Roosevelt cursed fiercely. "General Arnold, how long will it take us to intercept the German bomber formation?!"
"It will take at least a year to develop the 150mm anti-aircraft gun, and as for the fighter planes..." "Happy Arnold" has long been turned into "Sad-faced Arnold" these days. "To be honest, Mr. President, with our current fighter planes, we can't intercept the German bombers at all."
At this time, the US Army Air Force has several aircraft that are about to be put into service or have just entered the test flight; such as the P-39 fighter, P-40 fighter, P-43 combat reconnaissance aircraft, P-47 fighter, P-51 fighter, etc.
The P-39 "Flying Snake" is a single-seat, single-engine, straight-wing piston fighter developed by Bell Corporation of the United States. It has extremely strong firepower configuration and the top communication system during World War II. In addition to the above two advantages, the rest are disadvantages, so the P-39 is not popular in the US military and is only used as an auxiliary model. However, as the main model leased to the Soviet Union, the P-39 created its own glory in the hands of Soviet pilots. The P-39 became the aircraft of many Allied ace pilots, of course, they were Soviet pilots.
The P-40 "Tomahawk" is a single-seat, single-engine, straight-wing piston fighter developed by the American Curtiss Company. Its performance can only be regarded as mediocre.
The P-43 "Lancer" is a single-engine, all-aluminum alloy, low-main-wing reconnaissance aircraft developed by the American Republic Aircraft Company, mainly used for high-altitude reconnaissance.
The P-47 Thunderbolt is a single-engine straight-wing piston fighter developed by the Republic Aircraft Company of the United States. It was one of the main fighters of the US military in the middle and late stages of World War II and the largest single-engine fighter of the Allied forces. A total of more than 15,600 aircraft were produced. The P-47 was successively put into use in the European and Pacific battlefields. Especially in the Asian and Pacific battlefields, the US military finally had a model that could compete with the Japanese Zero fighter in large numbers. In the competition with the Japanese Zero fighter, the P-47 finally gained the upper hand. Throughout World War II, the P-47 created a brilliant record of 6:1. I am afraid that many of the records it created will be difficult to break in the future. The P-47 fighter played an important role in the victory of World War II.
Finally, there is the famous P-51 Mustang fighter.
But among these fighters, even the P-51 fighter that engineers had high hopes for could not climb to an altitude of 14,000 meters, let alone intercept the opponent's bombers.
"Can't we design a high-altitude fighter?"
Arnold sighed helplessly. "I believe it is possible, but it is just like the 150mm anti-aircraft gun. It cannot be done overnight. It takes time." It is not easy to launch and successfully develop a new fighter. It will take at least a year. During this year, the US airspace is undefended. The Germans can drop these special bombs every day. By then, the US may have to return to the Stone Age.