Rise from the sword

Chapter 616
"November attack?"

After the old fox suppressed his worries about the future situation of the empire, he suddenly noticed something wrong with the Eastern Front plan.

November is approaching winter.

Attacking at this time, what is the head of state thinking?

Don't you care about the weather?

Is it possible to forget the lessons of the Battle of Moscow?
The harsh winter on the vast eastern front belongs to the enemy and belongs to the Slavs. Germany’s adaptation to winter is far inferior to that of the Slavs. This is something they felt deeply during the two-year war on the Eastern Front. The winter offensive years ago , which again proves this point.

The Führer himself has summed up this point many times in meetings.

So why attack in winter this time?
"Because of those supplies."

Kesselin gave a wry smile:
"The Führer believes that as long as we are prepared to deal with the cold winter and have sufficient protection against the cold, we can defeat the enemy in winter."

"He wants to prove that in the face of the cold winter, we will not be inferior to the enemy, and we can even be better."

The corner of the old fox's mouth twitched.

racial supremacy.

It's all this time, and I haven't given up on this stupid idea.

However, this is indeed the so-called logic of the Führer.

Very reasonable.

"Fortunately, this time we have sufficient supplies to prepare for the winter."

Rubbing his forehead, Kesselin sighed and comforted himself:
"It's different from before."

"This time, we have sufficient fuel. While providing vehicles for use, we can also burn them for heating. There are sufficient warm clothes so that soldiers will not freeze. There are sufficient half-track transport vehicles to transport materials to the front line in time."

"and."

Kesselring continued, and he did not try his best to persuade the head of state for this reason, and then he added:
"Winter roads will be frozen. Compared with muddy summer, it may be more suitable for mechanized troops to maneuver, as long as tanks and other vehicles are prepared to travel on frozen roads."

"Too."

Although he agreed, the old fox didn't have much confidence in his mouth.

This time, Germany's supplies are abundant, and it is unprecedentedly abundant, but its military strength is indeed not as good as before, and it is also unprecedentedly scarce, and the state of the empire is also not as good as before.

The recent large-scale bombings by Britain and the United States have also caused considerable damage to the empire. A large number of residential buildings and factories were destroyed. Most of the factory workers were absorbed into the army, and those residents were also invested in the construction of Germany.

But the casualties caused by the bombing cannot be recovered.

In addition, Moscow, Stalingrad, the fortress plan, and the one-year defense are too painful for Germany, and the loss is too great, and it cannot be recovered in a short time.

Fortunately.

Germans are not happy.

The Slavs were no better.

Moreover, Germany is much better than the Slavs in terms of material adequacy, and can also use that mysterious warehouse to directly supply supplies.

······
The day.

[-] Downing Street,
"It's troublesome!"

Fatty Qiu was smoking a cigar, with worried brows:
"The loss is so big."

In front of his desk was a report on the loss of the strategic bomber fleet.

After the Overlord Project suffered heavy losses and failed to attack Cherbourg, that is, in the first ten days of July, in the face of huge casualties, he discussed with the lame man and reached a battle plan.

The British Imperial Bomber Fleet would join forces with the U.S. Eighth Air Force to launch a large-scale, unrestricted bombing of mainland Germany.

The two tried to deter Germany through this method, causing a large number of casualties and homelessness of a large number of people, oppressing Germany, strengthening its domestic anti-war forces, and reducing Germany's resistance.

During the bombing that lasted for one and a half months, Britain and the United States dispatched nearly [-] bomber sorties and dropped nearly [-] tons of explosives.

The effect of the bombing is temporarily unclear, and the investigation report has not yet come out, but the losses of the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Eighth Air Force are visible to the naked eye.

In fact, at the beginning, the loss was very low. In the first thousand-plane bombing, only five planes were actually shot down by the enemy. The rest were caused by mechanical failures, and those five planes were all shot down by anti-aircraft guns.

At the beginning of the Overlord Project, the European airspace already belonged to the British Empire and the Allied Forces. The resistance of the Germans was minimal, and a single squadron of fighter jets could fly in Europe unscrupulously.

But in the follow-up bombing, the German air defense strength suddenly increased.

Jet aircraft began to enter the battlefield, and other propeller aircraft also increased, as did anti-aircraft guns, with more and more barrels, and even new radio proximity fuzes appeared.

As a result, bombing losses suddenly increased.

After improving tactics, after bombing at night, and dispatching a large number of fighter jets to escort the whole process, the losses still only increased but not decreased. In the latest bombing with a thousand aircraft, a total of 190 aircraft did not come back.

The loss rate is as high as one in five.

As for the total losses, in the 1000 sorties of bombings, more than [-] or [-] aircraft were destroyed by the enemy, and the battle damage rate reached [-]%. This is an absolutely unacceptable loss for Britain and the United States.

According to the regulations of the bomber unit, after the bomber crew has carried out [-] bombing missions, they can apply for a rotation and fall to a safe post in the rear, such as logistics.

According to this battle damage ratio, it means that only a very small number of bombing crews can apply for rotation after completing [-] bombings.

The huge loss not only caused the morale of the bomber units to plummet, but even triggered many small-scale bomber units' anti-war sentiments.

If the current problems cannot be solved, the bombing mission will not be able to continue.

"Prime Minister, I suggest that the bombing of the German mainland should be temporarily stopped and the Normandy front line be bombed instead."

In front of him is the Royal Lord of the Great Empire, the commander of the Air Force, a die-hard supporter of the Douhei Air Force victory theory, an advocate of the bombing mechanism victory theory, and Air Force Admiral Harris.

Faced with a huge loss at this time, the most steadfast general of the Air Force's victory theory also counseled:

"Although the enemy has also suffered heavy losses, if the bombing continues, the morale of our bomber units will collapse first. Our boys cannot bear such huge casualties."

Two hundred of the 1000 were shot down, not counting mechanical failures. Including the forced landing halfway, all were shot down by enemy artillery fire or fighter jets. That is to say, more than 1 crew members were lost.

The aircrew is not like the infantry, just find a healthy person, train for two or three months and send them to the front line, and if they survive, they will be the elite.

Rather, at least one must have a high school education level, learn more than a dozen books on aviation professional knowledge and skills, and then go through various trainings for about a year before finally being able to fly an aircraft on the battlefield.

Of course, those machine gunners had to be removed.

Machine gunners are still easy to recruit.

"So, we should adjust our tactics, search for intelligence, and bomb after we find loopholes in the enemy's air defense,"

Although the losses were heavy and those who were beaten didn't even know his mother, Harris still insisted on his theory of air force victory, believing that only a strong enough air force and enough bombs could win the victory.

If the enemy still surrenders, it means that there are not enough planes and not enough bombs.

Now the Americans are making efforts again, preparing to produce more bombs, more bombers, and even preparing to mobilize the b29 fleet from Asia to Europe. This type of aircraft has a larger bomb load and a longer range.

Moreover, the new jet fighters of the two countries, as well as ultra-long-range escort fighters such as the P47N, are also gradually entering service. The future bombing of Germany will inevitably be larger and more violent.

"it is good."

Fatty Qiu finally nodded helplessly.

He would have liked the bombing to continue.

Although the bombing effect research report has not been released, it is visible to the naked eye that a large number of refugees have appeared in Germany recently, and anti-war sentiment has continued to rise because of these bombings. Obviously, the bombing is very effective.

This is the only way to support front-line operations before the German material channels are cut off.

But reality doesn't allow it.

"but."

Harris continued:
"We have to continue with small-scale bombing, especially fighter-bomber attacks, to wear down Germany's nascent air force and maintain our air superiority."

He is the commander of the strategic bomber, and he cannot call the shots for this kind of mission.

"I'll arrange that."

Fatty Qiu responded perfunctorily.

At this time, Fatty Qiu was very unhappy.

The Germans on the western front were as if they had taken gunpowder. The peninsula was the same. The offensive has been stalemate since June, and even affected the situation on the peninsula. The intelligence on the eastern front also came. The situation there is also very bad. changed hands.

Suddenly, the great situation for the Allies was gone.

Moreover, recent intelligence has shown that the Germans seem to be preparing to restart their plan to bomb England.

And it was bombing on a thousand-machine scale.Although Fatty Qiu didn't believe it, there were a lot of wonderful information from the Germans, and that Hitler obviously had a brain problem, but he also paid attention to it in his heart.

······
Also at the same time.

White House.

"president."

Director of Intelligence Donovan walked into the President's Office and reported:

"According to information."

His tone is very dignified:
"This bombing, the scale of the Germans may be much larger than we expected."

"Even beyond the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor."

"Beyond Pearl Harbor?"

The frowning president raised his head and looked at the director of the Intelligence Bureau, with a dissatisfied tone:

"you sure?"

Apparently, the president doesn't believe it.

What happened to Pearl Harbor?
It was a fleet attack.

Although the subject of the attack was aircraft, the attack aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier and bombed the port, destroyed the American warships and aircraft in Pearl Harbor, and then returned to the aircraft carrier to reload and launch another attack.

The distance between the mainland of Germany and the mainland of the United States is no closer than that of the Japanese to Hawaii.

Both are more than 6000 kilometers straight-line distance.

With such a long distance, even the most advanced bombers in the United States can only go one way without loading bombs. After landing, they need to be refueled before returning.

The German navy has long been wiped out.

Even the submarines were almost wiped out due to the strengthening of the anti-submarine force in the Atlantic Ocean.

Then someone told him now that the Germans are about to arrive, and the attack on the mainland of the United States may be larger than the Japanese?
No one will believe this.

"uncertain."

Donovan's tone was bitter.

Recently, to be precise, since June, his intelligence work and the intelligence bureau he leads have been in trouble. It's completely impossible to do anything, and the budget is No. 1.

The intelligence spying on the enemy before the Overlord Project reported that the enemy had no ability to resist on the western front. As a result, [-] tanks, a large number of anti-aircraft armored vehicles, and a large amount of heavy artillery fuel and other supplies suddenly appeared, and the landing troops were almost driven into the sea in a wave.

Investigated the source of the Germans' supplies, but found nothing.

Investigating the projects that the Germans are secretly researching, did not investigate any useful information.

Investigating that Chen Fan, let alone this, consumes the most resources, mobilizes the most manpower, consumes the most funds, and the resulting report is better than not investigating.

This series of failures made the president obviously disappointed in the intelligence agency.

So much so that he didn't listen to the detailed report of the information he reported now, and directly expressed doubts.

Although, this time, he himself expressed doubts about the intelligence.

It cannot be said that he has no self-confidence. In fact, the information this time is too outrageous. The Germans launched an attack on the mainland of the United States, which is larger than the Japanese fleet. This is really unbelievable.

"According to known information."

Donovan cleared his throat and continued:
"This attack on the mainland of our country is under the responsibility of that General Kesselring, who will report directly to Hitler."

"Kesserling is the Marshal of the Air Force, so the method of attack should also be an air strike."

"At first, we expected this air strike to be similar to the way we attacked the Japanese mainland in the early days of the Pacific War, sending a small number of bombers from ships to bomb."

"Either it is an aircraft carrier converted from a civilian ship, and medium bombers are secretly launched to carry out the bombing, or it is a seaplane, or a small aircraft is launched from a submarine."

"However, according to the monitoring of the flow of personnel in the German domestic air force, we found that a large number of pilots were secretly sent to the air force base for training. The total number is about [-]. The specific training items are unknown."

"Most of them are experienced pilots."

"In addition, intelligence personnel found a large number of closed airports in northern Europe, which were heavily guarded and guarded by a large number of antiaircraft artillery units. Aerial investigations found a large number of large closed hangars."

"Moreover, in some news leaked from the wolf protection, it is also mentioned that there will be a large-scale bombing of our homeland."

"in addition,"

"that's it?"

The president is clearly very dissatisfied.

Based on this intelligence that lacks strong evidence, can it be speculated that the United States will be bombed on a huge scale?
Intelligence work is so child's play.

Is it time to change the head of intelligence?
"Although from intelligence analysis and technical analysis, the possibility of Britain being bombed by the Germans on a large scale is higher, but the information obtained from the wolf guard is very accurate, so..."

Donovan's voice was very low, very low, but still clearly visible.

The possibility of intelligence is extremely low, but recently, have there been few unimaginable things that happened to the Germans?
"Notify the British of the information."

The president waved.

"In addition, focus on investigating the latest scientific research projects of the Germans."

"Yes."

Donovan moved his mouth, and finally left helplessly.

After that, in the presidential palace, the people in the wheelchair fell into a long silence.

It is impossible for the Germans to bomb the United States on a large scale. However, there is a fact that the recent German incidents cannot be speculated with common sense.

There is an extremely low, extremely low probability that this is true.

But now, the anti-war pressure in the United States is very high, and Congress has begun to show some resistance to him.

And war, a war that involves the whole world, is difficult, and requires huge sacrifices, requires an America that gathers all its strength.

So, he needs a factor to bring America together.

For example, an attack from the enemy that has a certain scale and caused relatively large losses.

With a distance of more than 6000 kilometers, how big can it be?America can afford it.

but.

"Let Major General Karod come over."

After thinking about it, the president called the commander of the Home Defense Air Force, that is, the commander of the National Guard Air Force.

Donovan has already reminded him, so he naturally has to make a certain response, otherwise he will be caught easily.

So he needs to remind the troops to strengthen domestic air defense. As for whether it is implemented, it is not his president's problem.

(End of this chapter)