Chapter 986 "Air Raid"

Europe.

The important radar station at Ventno on the Isle of Wight was one of the targets of German attack, which was attacked by German troops and lost its combat effectiveness.

The weather conditions were terrible, the planned large-scale air raids of the Germans were canceled, and only part of the air squadron rose into the air. It was not until the 15th that three Luftwaffe air groups attacked at the same time, and 2,000 sorties were carried out against the British air that afternoon.

The 5th Air Force flew 169 bombers from Aalborg in Denmark and Stavanger in Norway to bomb Scotland and the northeastern part of England. Due to the distance of this operation beyond the combat radius of the single-seat fighters, the Germans escorted the bombers with twin-engine "Messerschmitt" BF110 fighters. However, the BF110 fighters were no match for the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters and could not complete the escort mission. Under the attack of the British 12th and 13th air forces, German bombers suffered heavy losses, 16 bombers and 7 BF110 fighters were shot down. Due to the lack of enough fighter escorts, the Luftwaffe 5th Air Force rarely participated in the "Battle of Britain" after that.

Throughout the afternoon of 15 August, 100 and 150 planes of the Luftwaffe's 2nd and 3rd air forces continued to cross the English Channel to attack Britain. If the Luftwaffe pilots did not know that they were in a fierce battle, then the events of "Black Thursday" convinced them. On that day, Britain lost 34 fighters, while Germany lost 75. Throughout the air battle, both the RAF and the Nazi Air Force overestimated their respective victories – which is understandable, and in an aerial dogfight, if two pilots hit a plane at the same time, they would both claim to have "shot down" an enemy plane. The huge number of enemy casualties will undoubtedly boost morale, but it is not the basis for a sound plan.

Similarly, the effect of bombing airfields, which is very spectacular from aerial photographs, is often superficial. The Luftwaffe planners accepted this information, but believed that the actual losses suffered by the Royal Air Force were much greater.

Believing that there were only 300 RAF fighters left on the front line, the Luftwaffe commanders decided to do everything in their power to destroy British fighter aviation in one fell swoop.

The Germans flew to Britain with a small number of bombers, trying to use this as bait to lure the Royal Air Force fighters to attack. As Spitfire, Hurricane and BF109 fighters competed in the air throughout the summer, more bombers took the opportunity to strike at key airfields such as Mount Mern, Holchurch, North Wilder and Simoring. N.ET/ *small* say net/no pop-up ads full text TXT download Royal Air Force losses began to climb. However, just as the Germans were about to achieve their operational objectives, the Germans turned their attacks to British cities.

Why did the Luftwaffe suddenly relax its pressure on the Royal Air Force? Perhaps because the German High Command believed that the main forces of the Royal Air Force had been eliminated. Another version is that the RAF air raid on Berlin on 25 August angered Hitler and prompted him to take a retaliatory decision.

In fact, the RAF raid itself was nothing more than a retaliatory response to a Luftwaffe Lost bomber, which mistakenly dropped a bomb on London's East End. However, the air raid on Berlin was not an isolated incident: the RAF had been carrying out small-scale air strikes against Germany during the war. The largest was on November 8, 1940, when the British sent 169 twin-engine bombers to bomb Berlin, resulting in the loss of 21 of them. From a military point of view, British air strikes had no effect. It was almost impossible to hit a target at night with the technology of the time, and the November airstrike killed only 11 people. …,

Whatever the reason, German air raids on British cities began on 7 September, beginning with the daytime bombing of London. In this air raid, the Germans sent 300 bombers and 600 escort fighters, and the operation was quite successful, and the entire London docks were in flames.

On 15 September, the Luftwaffe did not carry out its usual jamming attacks aimed at confusing British radar and ground command systems, probably believing that the Royal Air Force was no longer combat-ready. The Royal Air Force, however, was on the lookout.

The suspension of direct attacks on military airfields gave the RAF stationed in the south an opportunity to replenish its fighter strength. The air raid on London specifically provided a time-keeping guarantee for the 11th Air Force's fighters to take to the air, allowing General Parker to adopt the tactics of two-squadron joint operations, while General Leigh Mallory's 12th Air Force even formed a larger flight formation. On 15 September, the Luftwaffe was intercepted by a large number of British fighters, and by the end of the day, the Germans had lost 60 aircraft. The total number of aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe since September 7 was 175, and all of them were shot down by the Royal Air Force, which the Germans considered to have been defeated!

The Luftwaffe began to switch to night attacks, and as long as the weather conditions permitted, more than 400 bombers were dispatched to bombard London indiscriminately. This air attack continued until mid-November. In stark contrast to the pre-war theories of air raids, this kind of air attack, which the British people called "blitzkrieg", did not cause panic among ordinary British people, let alone destroy the fighting spirit of the country. There was a pause in the onset of attacks as we entered the depths of winter, but resumed after the New Year. During the offensive, which lasted until the end of May, Luftwaffe bombers also carried out air strikes on the cities of Liverpool, Birmingham, Plymouth and Brestol.

The "Battle of Britain" was the first major setback suffered by the German army. The British people's firm stance against Hitler and the Nazis remained unchanged even in the face of a greatly weakened force, and it can be said that Britain was a major force that led to the eventual defeat of Germany. However, the only means by which Britain could attack Germany at that time was by air, so the Royal Air Force maintained night air raids on the German mainland.

The RAF's initial targets were important industrial and transport facilities in Germany, but the pilots found it nearly impossible to carry out precise navigation and precision bombing at night.

Therefore, the British ordered bombers to bomb only the town. Reports of British pilots after their actions usually state that German towns have set fire to the ground and caused great damage, but reports of messages from neutral countries from Germany paint a different picture.

In order to assess the effectiveness of the campaign, the British government asked Wartime Cabinet Secretary Bout to carefully proofread more than 600 combat pictures and compare them with the pilot report and the bomber command evaluation report.

The results of Bout's report are very different from those of previous ones. Many bombers simply did not find the right target, and some did not even find the right town.

On average, only one out of three aircraft reaches within 8 km of their intended target, and only one in 10 aircraft approaches the target in the Ruhr industrial area, which is often shrouded in mist. In the night bombardment without moonlight, the rate dropped again to one in fifteen.

These pitiful results cost Britain the cost of destroying 700 bombers and killing or capturing thousands of pilots.

It is clear that the UK needs to come up with new measures. In 1942 Arthur. After Lieutenant General Harris was appointed commander of bomber aviation, the British bombing campaign began to take a new turn, and the new high-power four-engine bomber that entered service injected new vitality into the British bombing campaign. …,

Although aerial bombardment was the only means by which Britain could launch a direct attack on the Third Reich, British forces were unusually active in the Mediterranean.

In the Mediterranean, the main threat to the British army came from the powerful Italian fleet. Mussolini declared war on Britain and France on June 10, 1940.

On 9 July, the Italian fleet, which had completed its mission to escort the supply convoy bound for Benghazi, encountered the British Mediterranean Fleet in the Calabrian Sea off the coast of Calabria, which was preparing to escort two convoys bound for Malta. A melee began at 3 p.m., with the British battleship "Warweary" hitting the Italian battleship "Caesar" from a distance of 23,700 meters. This is the farthest distance ever seen in an attack of its kind.

The battle was evenly matched, and in the end, neither was able to control the sea.

Two months later, on September 13, 1940, Italian troops under the command of Marshal Graziani invaded Egypt from Libya.

The Italians engaged the British in a tentative attack, and finally suspended the offensive after capturing fortified positions near West Dubai Rani, while the British assembled at Port Matru, about 121 kilometers east of the Italian army. The Egyptian army was not involved in this conflict. Young nationalist officers, including Nazair and Sadat, made secret contacts with Hitler, hoping that Germany would maintain Egypt's independence in the event of British defeat.

While Britain and Italy were facing off in North Africa, the British Navy was also seeking to control the Mediterranean. On November 11, 1940, Admiral Cunningham led the Mediterranean Fleet in a surprise attack on Taranto, an important Italian naval base. Twenty-one old British Sailfish biplanes, taking off from the aircraft carrier "Excellence", attacked the Italian fleet with torpedoes and bombs, sinking or seriously destroying 3 Italian battleships and 2 cruisers at the cost of only 2 aircraft. This attack established the decisive superiority of the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean!

The German U-boat fleet, which roamed the depths of the Atlantic and constantly attacked British sea-going ships, was the greatest threat to Britain's survival during World War II.

In 1939, half of Britain's food came from overseas, and two-thirds of the raw materials needed for the war industry were imported. If the German Navy had been able to stop the flow of these goods into Britain by attacking Allied merchant ships, Hitler might have won the war. However, Hitler, like Napoleon, did not recognize the importance of sea power.

In 1936, Hitler briefly expressed his attitude towards the Navy. "Navy," he said, "what do we want the Navy for?" I can't imagine that the success or failure of a war in Europe would depend on a few warships. ”

However, as part of Germany's large-scale arms revival program in the 30s of the 20th century, Hitler proposed the then famous "Plan Z", that is, to build a large-scale modern surface and underwater fleet by 1944!

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