Glorious Mission 1937

The Soviet Union actually negotiated peace with Japan, which shattered the glasses of many countries that were waiting for the Soviet Union and Japan to meet each other head-on, including Germany and China.

At this time, the air battle of Great Britain entered the most intense stage. Although Germany devoted all its air power to the bombing of the British Isles, the resistance of the British continued, which made Hitler extremely annoyed, but at the same time helpless.Therefore, Hitler believed that there was not much hope of forcing Britain to surrender by force, and it was unlikely that troops would be sent from Europe to attack the British mainland. In addition, the German navy was not an opponent of the British navy, so Hitler believed that Germany's attack on Western Europe should be That being said, it's time to reconsider the relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union.

In fact, before attacking Britain, Hitler still had a lot of confidence.The main reason is that the overall strength of the German Air Force far exceeds that of the British Air Force. First of all, Germany has a clear advantage in terms of the number of fighters.At this time, Germany alone had more than 850 fighter jets, 656 bf 109e and 168 bf 110, a total of 850 fighter jets were staring at the opposite side of the strait.In addition to these fighters, there are as many as 1200 bombers.

Secondly, Germany has occupied more than half of Western Europe at this time. Germany can launch air strikes on the British mainland from anywhere in France, Portugal, Belgium, and Luxembourg across the English Channel. In fact, the Germans did.At the end of March 1940, the German army began pre-war preparations. The aviation unit moved from the mainland to France, the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries, and at the same time concentrated a large number of engineers and young laborers.The front-line airport was extensively expanded, and materials transferred from Germany were continuously transported to the front line.

Although the mobilization and assembly of troops and the replenishment of personnel and materials all take time.But the Luftwaffe was unwilling to wait like this, and started a tentative attack with a small number of troops while preparing for the battle. At the beginning of April, the German army launched an attack targeting ships sailing in the southern ports of England and the English Channel. The German army had two objectives in combat. One was to understand the British air defense capabilities and find out the deployment of the British Air Force; the other was to lure the British planes into battle. Drain British forces in aerial combat.

to mid-April.The Luftwaffe is basically ready for war.And launched a large-scale air strike on the United Kingdom.However, the effect made Hitler extremely dissatisfied, and the German army suffered heavy losses in the first battle.On the first day of the war, the German army invested 4 sorties, assaulting seven airports in southern England during the day and attacking British aircraft factories at night.The British army dispatched 1485 sorties to meet.Fighting the Luftwaffe in the Portland and Southampton area.727 German planes were shot down in this battle. More than 47 aircraft were damaged, and the British army only lost 80 "Hurricane" and 12 "Spitfire". The loss suffered by the airport was negligible.

But in the next offensive, the Luftwaffe performed very well.In view of the resistance of the British Air Force, the German Air Force Commander-in-Chief Goering decided to conduct a large-scale air strike on the main base of the British Army in the south and the aircraft factory in southern England. In more than 1000 sorties, carry out devastating bombing on these important targets!

Bombing wave after wave, air battle after air battle, at this decisive stage, because the British pilots had been in a state of high tension for more than a month, and sometimes had to be dispatched several times a day, they were already very tired.Since the start of the air battle, 103 pilots of the British army have been killed and 128 seriously injured. The total number of casualties accounts for a quarter of all pilots!The British Air Force began to experience a shortage of personnel, especially the experienced backbone of the flight suffered a large number of casualties, and even some youths who were only about 20 years old were considered veterans.

At the same time, 295 aircraft of the British army were shot down and 171 were severely damaged. At the same time, the total number of new aircraft produced and repaired in the UK was only 269. The British Air Force was already seriously injured!What's more serious is that the five most important airports in southern England were severely damaged, and the most important command center of the British Air Force-the underground fan-shaped command center was also severely hit by the Luftwaffe.

The command center conducts a comprehensive analysis and assessment based on the enemy situation reports sent back by radar stations, ground air defense observation posts, and air combat pilots, and then uses radio to command fighter jets in the air to fight. The German army intercepted the communication between the command center and the pilots through radio monitoring. Realizing the importance of these command centers, they attacked such command centers with all their strength, and 7 of the 6 command centers in the southern region and near London were destroyed!

The command and communication system of the British Air Force has reached the brink of collapse. If this continues, the British Air Force will soon lose its resistance!The German army's superiority in numbers began to gradually come into play. During these two weeks, the German army lost 214 fighter jets and 138 bombers, but there was still enough power to continue the offensive.

In order to change this passive situation, the British had to make tactical adjustments, and an accidental event gave the British a very good opportunity. On April 1940, 4, 24 lost German bombers flew over London and dropped bombs in the city center.

On April 4, according to Prime Minister Churchill's instructions, the British Air Force dispatched 25 bombers to attack Berlin in retaliation.Although the material damage caused by the air raid was minimal, it shocked Germany greatly psychologically!

On the night of April 4 and August 28, the British army attacked Berlin twice again, which made the citizens of Berlin truly experience the war.Hitler was enraged and clamored to completely destroy London!

On May 1940, 5, Goering convened a meeting of the chiefs of staff and decided to shift the focus of the attack to London from September 3, 1940. On May 9th, Hitler claimed in his speech that he would repay the night attack with a night attack. The British dropped a thousand kilograms of bombs, and the Luftwaffe would return with ten, a hundred or even a thousand times more bombs!

Subsequently, the German army's large-scale air raid on London finally began. Goering and Kesselring stood on the hill on the coast of Calais, watching the 2 bombers and 625 fighters of the 648nd Air Force fly across the Channel and fly to London.The British army did not expect that the German army would attack London by air, and the fighter jets that took off to intercept rushed into the air, and the German plane dropped 300 tons of bombs and incendiary bombs on London.After nightfall, another 250 German planes attacked. There were no night fighter jets in London, and night air defense could only rely on anti-aircraft guns and searchlights. The air raids continued from 1300:300 pm to early morning. More than 1500 fires broke out in London, and many blocks became a sea of ​​flames. Even Buckingham Palace, where the King of England lives, was bombed.In the terrorist air strike that night, more than [-] London citizens were killed and more than [-] were injured.

In the following week, the German army carried out large-scale air raids on London day and night, causing London to suffer huge losses of personnel and property, in an attempt to destroy the city with brutal bombing and bring Britain to its knees.However, the British people did not succumb to such a heavy loss. On the contrary, they aroused hatred and determination to fight against the tyranny of the Nazis!

Of course, this huge loss was not in vain!Britain's success in diverting Germany's attention gave the air force a valuable respite to quickly restore combat effectiveness.

After the plan to force Britain to surrender went bankrupt, what the Germans most wanted to do was to attack their neighbor to the east, the Soviet Union. Hitler hoped that while the German army launched an offensive, the Japanese could launch an offensive from northeast China to the Soviet Far East and Siberia , The east-west attack of the two countries completely destroyed the Soviet Union.

However, at this time came news of the signing of a neutrality treaty with the Soviet Union and Japan, which made Hitler extremely annoyed.The German Foreign Office immediately called the Japanese government, hoping that Japan could terminate the neutrality treaty.

However, the Japanese government is now focusing on Southeast Asia, or Japan has now developed a slight sense of fear towards the Soviet Red Army in the Far East. The Battle of Nomenkan and the Zhanggufeng Incident have shown that the Japanese Army is not the Soviet Red Army at all. Opponents, soldiers armed with the spirit of bushido and soldiers armed with steel are simply not comparable.

Moreover, the Soviet Union now has more than 30 troops stationed in the Far East. Together with the National Defense Forces of its vassal Mongolia, the total strength has reached 45. The most important thing is that the Far East Red Army has far more heavy firepower than Japan, and even the Far East The Red Army had formed armored corps and artillery groups, which the Japanese did not have.

More importantly, Japan has learned from the representatives of the Soviet Union that they have reached a strategic agreement with China's Chen Feng. If Japan makes any move, the Soviet Union will use weapons, equipment and oil as bargaining chips to implore Chen Feng's troops to send troops to Northeast China. , I am afraid that only the Japanese themselves know how long the Kwantung Army can last.

Compared with the Soviets, the Japanese are more inclined to seize Southeast Asia, especially the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina. The Germans are gone, and it would be a fool not to take advantage of them.

More importantly, the Japanese are extremely dissatisfied emotionally with the Western powers, and it can even be said to have a deep hatred, mainly because the Western countries hurt the Japanese too much during World War I.During the First World War, out of the friendship of the Japan-British alliance and consideration of its own interests, Japan stood on the side of the Allied Powers to fight against Germany, and at the same time sent troops to seize the Jiaodong Peninsula.

Unfortunately, however, what Japan received from Europe and the United States after the war was a series of policies to oppress Japan.In particular, the United States, which has maintained unusually friendly feelings towards Japan and provided unsparing support to Japan since the founding of Japan due to Admiral Perry’s commanding ship knocking down the customs, suddenly became uncharacteristically at this time and acted as the vanguard of oppressive policies against Japan. . (To be continued..)