"Hell. Can't those medium bombers fly slower? A pilot of the Lancer Strategic Bomber Wing looked at the formation of medium bombers flying in front in the distance and cursed involuntarily. The Luftwaffe had done a lot of homework to arrange this air raid, but because there were more airfields and more complex aircraft involved in the bombing, the confusion was greater than the last time the Lancers were on a solo mission.

First of all, more than 30% of the bombing force this time are twin-engine bombers, and the range of these bombers is not as good as that of strategic bombers, so they need to take off from the higher bases to save fuel, and in order to load more bombs, these bombers must fly at the most suitable altitude and at the most suitable speed. (The optimal cruise speed for an airplane is not as low as possible.) And by the same token, the strategic bombers of the Lancer Wing had to fly at the most economical speed at the most suitable altitude for the same reason...... In this way, the two sides directly caused a certain speed gap, and the twin-engine bombers flew really faster than the heavy bombers, which would undoubtedly break up the formation, and the fighters serving as escorts could not abandon the twin-engine bombers. So it must also be protected separately. As a result, the formation of the German bombers was even more messy..........

If it's just this problem, I'll put up with it, anyway, it's all brothers in the same country, and the two sides can coordinate it, but it's still an international formation, and there are long-range bombers and fighters from Austria-Hungary in it, so it's troublesome! Although, theoretically, the majority ethnic group of Austria-Hungary was also Germanic. However, it is inevitable that there will be a large number of people of other nationalities, so when the communication equipment itself is relatively backward, it is necessary to communicate with foreigners who do not understand the language. Then the pressure of the person in charge of liaison can be imagined. And because of the uneven technology. And there has never been a large-scale formation operation, so it is conceivable what this formation can fly into.

This is true for bombers, and the same is true for fighters, originally Richthofen kindly added some long-range fighter formations to him in order to increase Grim's strength, and then Austria-Hungary kindly provided a batch of fighters. As a result, all kinds of fighters with different altitudes and different cruising speeds were scattered around the bombers in a messy manner, and there was no longer the strict formation of the first bombing. This gave Grim a lot of headaches.

"Formation or speed? This is a question worth pondering. "Looking out the window, it's a sad formation. Grim's face turned blue. As a veteran strategic bomber commander, he knew that the indestructibility of strategic bombers depended on the tightest possible formation to cover each other. So after a few hesitations, Grim decided to reduce his speed and keep the formation as rigorous as possible. At the same time, it is emphasized again before re-entering the Italian mainland. The formation needs to be readjusted. (Historically, the U.S. Air Force has also encountered the problem of uncoordinated fighter speed and bomber speed when bombing Germany, but people have a solution, and the side position is now sold here, which will be mentioned in a future article.) ）。 …。

"Damn, this is herding sheep, right?" Just as Grim was laboriously regrouping, a twin-engine plane flew through the clouds, and the Huaxia liaison officer above saw the somewhat chaotic German bomber force out the window. If the formation of the German bomber units last time could be described as a military parade, then this time it can only be described as a herding of sheep.

"There seems to be a new type of plane over there. It is not known whether those twin-engine aircraft were fighters or bombers. Can you go over and have a look? The Huaxia liaison officer patted the British pilot in front of him on the shoulder and said.

"No problem, there is no plane in this world that we can't shake off!" The British pilot said unhesitantly, and then pushed the lever and flew straight out of the clouds and straight towards the target. …。

"Hurry up. That's a fighter! Soon, the German twin-engine fighter also spotted the uninvited guest, and then decisively surrounded him, while the British pilot smiled, pushed the throttle valve, and then turned on the supercharger. The twin-engine aircraft got rid of the pursuit of the opposing side with a decisive dive.

"It's fast. How do you do that? Looking at the German plane with the auxiliary fuel tank hanging in the distance and eating exhaust in the back, the Huaxia liaison asked curiously..........

"Keywords. Weight reduction, new engines, and supercharging. The British pilot said comfortably with three fingers. If Xu Jie sees this aircraft, I am afraid that he will immediately think of the most classic DH98 mosquito multi-purpose aircraft in the British World War 2 Air Force in the future. This aircraft set a record and was one of the aircraft with the lowest battle loss rate in the entire 2 World Wars! (It is said that the overall battle loss rate is only 2%, which is not guaranteed to be accurate.) The plane, known as the Miracle of Wood, had almost the fastest speed of its contemporaneous twin-engine aircraft, and was not even weaker than the speed of the German single-engine fighters of the same period, that is...... As long as you don't deliberately seek death, you can almost run away as long as you want to run after spotting the opposing fighter.

The shape of this aircraft is already very close to the mosquito, but as a full-time reconnaissance aircraft, this aircraft has no magazine, the wooden structure allows it to save a lot of weight, and the new Morin engine and the newly installed one-stage two-speed supercharging equipment make it have a better performance in medium and high altitudes, not to mention that the German engine itself is not as good as the British V12 Morin liquid-cooled engine, and there is no supercharging equipment for German aircraft in this era, so Naturally, it was impossible for the German twin-engined planes with auxiliary fuel tanks to keep up with the reconnaissance plane, and in order to reduce weight, the British plane did not even bring weapons, which saved a lot of weight. In addition, the fuel tank of the flight from Italy was already dissatisfied, and almost a third of the fuel had been used. So the British pilots dared to conduct close reconnaissance ......... on the periphery of this huge formation.

Some people may ask, why is there a Chinese liaison on this British plane? The reason is simple. The main force responsible for attacking the bomber formation is the Haidongqing interceptor formation in Huaxia, and in order to ensure that there are no accidents in the guidance, it is natural to need a liaison officer in Huaxia. The task of this reconnaissance plane was to keep track at all times in order to guide the interceptor formation to launch a deadly attack on the German strategic bombers at the right time.

This plane is only a part of the Allied air reconnaissance force, there are other reconnaissance planes responsible for tracking and transmitting information, when Grim set off in the sky over the Balkans, the fighter units in Italy also entered a state of imminent battle, and even the Italian Navy aircraft carriers and fighters in the Huaxia fleet are ready to fight, yes, you read that right, at this time the Huaxia Mediterranean detachment is ready to intervene in the battle. And one of the very important reasons is that Huaxia's carrier-based aircraft are equipped with two 20mm guns and a machine gun. The Italians thought that the firepower of such an aircraft was superior to their own, and then they reached out and asked for it!

This time, although the aircraft carriers of Huaxia did not play. But the fighter units above were decisively sent to the hangar of the Italian aircraft carrier, Tycho decided to put all the capital on this time, the three aircraft carriers did not bring a single attack aircraft, with 240 fighters to the coastal area of Naples, in this position, his 240 fighters can completely cover most of the opponent's possible targets! The maneuverability of his carrier-based aircraft unit is ......... relative to immovable land-based airfields.

To say that the Germans did not know anything about the deployment of Italy and the Entente would be underestimating the capabilities of the Germans, and that Germany had not paid attention to Italy for a day or two, and that there were many spies and Italian lead party that had been planted. Therefore, in preparation for the second strategic bombing, the Luftwaffe also made a special assessment of the mobilizable air forces that Italy possessed. A detailed reconnaissance of the situation and the number of aircraft at various airfields in the target area was carried out. The final results are relatively accurate, with a difference of less than 15% in quantity. Moreover, an appropriate estimate was made of the attendance and the number of available aircraft of the enemy's air forces, as well as the reaction time, and the number and composition of escort aircraft were arranged on the basis of these data. …。

Even the Luftwaffe also internally deduced the possible tactics adopted by the air forces of Italy and the Entente, and formulated countermeasures one by one, so this time the Germans were still very well prepared, and even Grim himself believed that although the formation and command were a little troublesome, but with the reinforced air defense forces and sufficient reconnaissance, this operation was not a big problem.

But the Germans still missed the naval ...... under Tycho You can crouch at the airfield to reconnoitre, but what about a moving battleship? You can see them in the harbor, but if you go out, you can't drive a speedboat and follow behind! So when Tycho's carrier fleet left Messina under the cover of night, the Germans lost control of this force. And with the speed of an aircraft carrier of more than 30 knots, it can advance more than 50 kilometers in an hour. So even before the Germans flew to Naples, Tycho could already put his fighters into anti-aircraft support. And the Germans thought that the Italian naval forces might go ashore to fight, but they did not expect Tycho to use his aircraft carriers in this way! …。

"Marshal, the Germans have already flown over the center line of the Adriatic." A staff officer whispered beside Tycho. "I see. Let the pilots prepare. Tycho nodded. At the same time, the airports in mainland Italy were also busy, and groups of planes began to take off and flew to the predetermined battlefield under the command of ground guides after air formation, and an air battle of unprecedented scale was about to break out!

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