Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 699 Nighttime Airlift Upgrade, Dunkirk Finale (1)

3 pm.

The setting sun dyed the sea in the Ramsgate harbor area into molten gold, and small black dots appeared one after another on the distant horizon, like a flock of migrating waterbirds, slowly approaching following the navigation lights shining into the harbor area.

Fang Wen stood on the dock, clutching the list of aircraft models given to him by the dispatch officer. The paper contained a list of various seaplane models.

A few minutes later, the outline of the airplane in the sky gradually became larger and clearer.

Twenty four-engine 'Sunderland Short' military surface patrol and anti-submarine aircraft belonging to the British Navy were the first to land.

Because of its enormous size, it did not land in the port area, but instead landed on the sea outside the port, where a special shuttle ship picked up the crew members and brought them ashore.

Then, 10 Stranlar seaplanes landed on the water in the port.

This biplane seaplane is an old patrol aircraft of the British Navy, which has been gradually replaced by the Sunderland as military technology has changed.

Immediately afterwards, 10 more old-fashioned 'Sunderland London' seaplanes landed on the sea east of the port.

This aircraft is really old, with an all-wood fuselage. It seems the British Navy sent over all their most treasured inventory.

Fang Wen looked up at the sky.

There were only 3 planes left in the sky.

That wasn't a military aircraft, but rather a British Imperial Aircraft Company seaplane, 'Short Empire'.

This civilian version also has four engines and is even larger than the Sunderland Short military amphibious patrol and anti-submarine aircraft.

However, the fuselage is relatively short, so the model name includes "Empire" (short).

The aircraft was also unable to land in the port and landed on the sea outside the port.

As he watched the seaplanes landing one after another, Fang Wen couldn't help but ponder: a total of 43 seaplanes, plus the remaining 34 Maritime Cloud-1 seaplanes of his own side, had already reached the carrying capacity of the Ramsgate port area.

This also puts his command and coordination abilities to a severe test—these crew members come from different departments such as the Navy and civil aviation, including experienced military personnel and ordinary pilots accustomed to civil aviation flights. They have no training or coordination with each other. To get them to obey orders, the rules must be explained clearly and their hearts must be united.

Immediately, Fang Wen turned to the dispatch officer beside him and instructed: "As soon as possible, check the aircraft types and crew information according to the checklist. Pay special attention to the load capacity, range, and potential malfunctions of each aircraft, especially the 'Sunderland' and 'Short Empire' large aircraft. I need to test their maximum passenger capacity. Organize personnel to board and inspect them immediately. Also, notify all pilots and co-pilots to assemble at the port area in ten minutes. I need to speak with them."

"Yes, Mr. Fang!" The dispatching officer didn't dare to delay and quickly left with the list in hand.

Ten minutes passed, and the dispatching officer still hadn't returned.

A ferry ship docked, and the crew members, dressed in British military flight suits, disembarked, led by a lieutenant colonel with graying temples.

After he came ashore, he quickly walked up to him and extended his hand: "Mr. Fang Wen? I am Lieutenant Commander Hunt of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Force. I am here to report to you with the British seaplane patrol team."

Fang Wen grasped his hand. “Lieutenant Colonel Hunter, welcome. The situation is urgent, so I won’t stand on ceremony. Please assist the dispatcher in gathering all your pilots. We will meet in the port airspace and ground in twenty minutes. Also, notify your ground crew to immediately coordinate with the port logistics to ensure that maintenance, fuel, and life-saving equipment are all in place.”

"Yes, sir." The lieutenant colonel saluted and led his men away.

Fang Wen didn't need to do the rest. He took Gong Xiuneng and gathered the Taishan pilots in the airspace of the port area to wait.

Twenty minutes later, the British pilots came over and stood in a group regardless of height.

Fang Wen walked to the front and shouted loudly.

"After receiving your telegram from headquarters today, I did not immediately agree, because the difficulty is simply too great. Seventy-seven seaplanes, operating together at night—you all know how challenging that is. To ensure a safe and successful flight to Dunkirk, bringing back those soldiers from that desperate situation, I need your complete trust in me and your unwavering obedience to my orders. This is extremely important. If anyone cannot do this, you can request to withdraw now. If you agree but then violate my regulations, I will report you directly to headquarters and prosecute you for military crimes."

He paused, looking at the British pilots; no one stepped forward to withdraw.

Then, he continued, "Alright, now let's talk about how to proceed. First, I need to confirm whether you all have Taishan walkie-talkies?"

Lieutenant Colonel Hunt, representing all British pilots, replied: "Fully equipped."

Fang Wen nodded: "At night, with the lack of visual guidance, you must fly according to my requirements. My method is 'spatial layering + staggered time.' Spatial layering means dividing different aircraft types into three flight levels based on their flight altitude. Staggered time means that takeoffs and landings are carried out in batches, with each batch spaced 3-5 minutes apart."

He spoke loudly, and the British pilot listened attentively.

According to Fang Wen's requirements

The first batch ("Stranlar" and "London" types): flying at a low altitude of 600 meters, responsible for transporting people in shallow water areas. They used the stability and low speed of biplanes to get close to the beach and receive wounded people who needed to be transferred urgently.

The second batch (Water Cloud Type 1): At an altitude of 1500 meters, they will land in an area 200 meters from the beach to meet soldiers with good physical fitness who can wade across.

The third batch (Sunderland Short Empire): At an altitude of 2500 meters, they landed in water 500 meters from the beach, with personnel being transported to the aircraft by boat at night.

This grouping prevents pilots from being mixed up and causing confusion, thus enabling the possibility of formation flying.

Therefore, visual navigation lights for nighttime use need to be installed on all aircraft, which has already been done.

In addition, to ensure that no mistakes were made as much as possible, Fang Wen decided to take these pilots on a rehearsal flight.

4:50 p.m.

All the pilots reboarded, and Fang Wen also boarded the Shuiyun-1 he was piloting.

He picked up the microphone: "Now, everyone, imagine in your minds that it's already dark, and your vision is limited only to the navigation lights of the neighboring aircraft. My orders are the only thing you can rely on. Now, Taishan formation, first group, take off!"

Under his command, the Shuiyun-1 was the first to take off.

Then came the biplane seaplane.

Finally, there's the large seaplane with four engines.

After takeoff, all aircraft are at different altitudes and maintain their formation flight status.

In particular, to ensure that there is no collision between aircraft in the same formation at night, the distance between adjacent aircraft is doubled.

In this situation, it seemed that everyone performed very well, and they succeeded on the first try.

Fang Wen did not offer any praise, but simply announced the end of the rehearsal flight.

Nine o'clock at night.

This time of day is the aviation twilight over the Dover Strait.

Even when flying high in the sky, the sun had already set, and the sky was dark and invisible.

It was just the start of the night flight.

All aircraft are in position.

Fang Wen took off first and picked up the microphone in the air to give instructions.

The 34 seaplanes at Mount Tai had long been working together skillfully and successfully formed a formation in the air.

Fang Wen ordered, "Maintain your course and fly over there first."

The Taishan transport planes, which had been flying for several nights, still flew accurately to Dunkirk across the strait without Fang Wen's help.

Then, biplanes took off one after another, attempting to form formations in the air.

Even with Fang Wen's command, the accident still occurred.

The two walruses collided, their wings tangled, and both landed on the sea. Ships in the harbor immediately went out to sea to rescue them.

Fang Wen remained calm and continued to give instructions: "Don't panic. Pay attention to the navigation lights of your neighboring planes. As long as the distance between the navigation lights is maintained, there will be no accident. If you panic, you will actually stagger your positions, which will increase the possibility of a collision."

The biplane seaplanes in the air gradually stabilized and maintained a steady distance from each other.

Fang Wen continued, "That's good. It's the same as when flying during the day. The navigation lights are for friendly aircraft, and the formation is now biased towards flight."

Following his orders, two biplanes were grouped together and flew south across the Strait of Dover at an altitude of 600-700 meters.

Finally, there were 23 heavy seaplanes. Fang Wen continued to command.

One after another, four-engine seaplanes took off and formed a formation, maintaining a 400-meter interval at an altitude of 2000-2300 meters.

These pilots of the latest seaplanes were all highly skilled, making them the least troublesome for Fang Wen.

He then piloted the Shuiyun-1 ahead, turned on the navigation lights, and led the formation towards Dunkirk.

Dunkirk.

Gasoline torches were lit on the tires floating on the sea.

These torches serve as landing guides.

The MISS-1 seaplane landed in waters 200 meters from the beach.

The soldiers standing in the water immediately waded and ran towards it. After a few dozen meters, they switched from running to swimming and got closer and closer to the seaplane.

As they approached the Shuiyun-1 seaplanes to board, a second batch of biplanes arrived.

These biplanes, accompanied by the roar of their powerful engines, appeared hundreds of meters in the air, and with the help of their stable wings and low speed, landed in the shallow water not far from the beach.

The soldiers waiting on the beach immediately sprang into action, helping each other or being carried to the seaplane.

These old-fashioned biplanes have limited interior space, accommodating only 6-8 people, with a total capacity of about 120 people per trip.

Another few minutes passed.

Fang Wen led 23 heavy seaplanes to land on the sea 500 meters away.

At this distance, it's impossible to get close by wading or swimming; the only option is by boat.

Small boats, filled with soldiers, emerged from the beaches in several directions around Dunkirk.

The small boats approached the heavy seaplane and entered the aircraft one by one.

Each heavy seaplane was designed to carry 100 people.

Based on this calculation, a single air transport trip can carry 120 people by biplane, 2300 people by heavy seaplane, and 1700 people by the Shuiyun-1 type, for a total of 4120 people.

Compared to 50 MI6M1 aircraft, this represents an increase of 1600 transport units.

Ten round trips a night can transport an extra 10 people.

5 month 28 day.

Last night, 4 troops were airlifted away.

The remaining troops at Dunkirk numbered over 20.

Today is God's Blessing Day for the Allies.

Dense fog and torrential rain prevented German bombers from taking off, and only small-scale air raids were underway.

For the same reason, the rain made the ground near Dunkirk very difficult for mechanized troops to traverse, thus slowing down the ground forces' advance.

Faced with this precious opportunity, the British army seized the time to evacuate and sent more ships across the Channel for transport, but due to the impact of wind, rain and waves, the transport capacity did not increase much.

That night, air transport continued, but two accidents occurred. One heavy seaplane was unable to take off due to engine damage during landing caused by improper operation, and three old biplanes were scrapped due to malfunctions.

In the latter half of the night, a sudden downpour and storm surge caused air transport to be suspended.

Only 1 people were transported by air that night.

November 29st

In the afternoon, the weather suddenly cleared up, and the German army immediately launched a fierce air raid. 180 bombers, under the cover of Bf-109s, swarmed in, their target being the Allied convoy.

The sudden bombing caught many ships off guard, leaving them no time to escape.

The sea was littered with debris and wreckage from bombed ships.

More seriously, three British destroyers were sunk, seven were severely damaged, and five large troop transports were destroyed.

The Straits Queen alone carried 4,000 soldiers, but only 200 survived after it sank.

The nighttime airlift was disrupted by excessive debris on the water, resulting in the loss of two Shuiyun-1 aircraft and four biplanes. The flight crew were unharmed.

That night, the operation was constantly switching between clearing debris from the water and landing, resulting in a significant reduction in transport capacity.

2 people were transported that night.

5 month 30 day.

Dense fog enveloped Dunkirk once again, forcing the German air raids to halt.

The Allied forces seized the opportunity and carried out the evacuation operation at full speed, evacuating more than 50,000 people in a single day.

In addition, 3 people were evacuated by air that night.

Dunkirk's remaining army numbers only about 10.

After that day, the German army also discovered the anomaly at Dunkirk.

5 month 31 day.

German frontline command post.

A heated debate is underway.

After an argument, Air Force Commander Göring and his men left in anger.

Field Marshal von Lundstätter of Army Group A had a gloomy expression.

In the Nazi military command system, the Führer neither established a General Staff nor clearly defined the subordinate relationships between the military branches, but instead made the army, air force, and navy directly responsible to him.

The core purpose of this structure is to prevent any single service from becoming too powerful, but it also sows the seeds for infighting between services.

Thanks to his close relationship with Hitler, Air Force Commander Göring received far more resources than other branches of the military. In last year's military budget allocation, the Air Force accounted for 40%, exceeding the Army's 35%. This caused deep dissatisfaction among the Army's top brass, who believed that the Air Force's "overexpansion" came at the expense of the Army's armored forces and infantry's equipment upgrades.

Therefore, the two sides were fraught with contradictions and could have been at the brink of conflict, especially after Göring's promise to the Führer that he would use the air force to defeat Dunkirk failed.

Watching Göring and his entourage drive away outside the window, von Rundstedt said in a deep voice, "We've been fighting at Dunkirk for almost seven days, which is a serious violation of our initial blitzkrieg plan. The troops there haven't surrendered yet; they're still putting up resistance. What do you think?"

The chief of staff replied, “I think they must have hope. Soldiers are most effective when they are in a state of both hope and despair. And, based on my observation of the battle reports over the past few days, their troop strength seems to be decreasing. A considerable portion of their troops must have already retreated to the British mainland.”

This analysis made the marshal frown.

The tank commanders, led by Guderian, were even more impatient.

He shouted, "What we want is France. If the fighting continues like this, the French will recover from the chaos, and then we will face enormous pressure. Therefore, we must withdraw from Dunkirk as soon as possible and occupy Paris."

The marshal agreed with this.

"I will report to the head of state and let him decide."

The radio waves were then sent to Berlin.

The fiercest air battle will take place over Dunkirk.

(End of this chapter)