Nine Hundred and Eighty-Five Night Raids on Norway

Flying in formation in the dark night sky is not an easy task. If it is daytime, the pilot can use his line of sight to adjust his flight speed and altitude, as well as the distance from other surrounding aircraft. But at night, the vision is very blurred, and maintaining flight formation is a technology worth studying.

The first is the navigator with the best technology. They will fly in a three-plane formation at the forefront of the entire bomber formation. Then there are more aircraft, using a three-aircraft formation to follow behind these three aircraft. The rest of the planes extend to both sides of this central axis, forming a larger triangular flight formation. Such a huge formation is to keep their respective planes from getting lost in the night sky. When they fly close to the Norwegian coastline, they will be divided into several formations and attack the entire Norwegian steel processing enterprises and mining enterprises at the same time.

In the dark night, one after another B-17 bomber bumped in the air current. In order to carry as much fuel as possible, these planes only carried a small amount of aerial bombs, and the excess load was carried with fuel so that these planes could return to the Icelandic naval base.

The pilots are nervously driving their planes, maintaining their flying attitude in the huge formation. Because they only need to fly with the pilot plane, most people don't have to care about their own flight direction. They just need to concentrate on controlling the plane and keep the relative position with other planes.

These planes are equipped with large-caliber self-defense cannons, and the numerous barrels make these planes look like dense hedgehogs. When flying in a dense flight formation, they can effectively deal with the threat of German aircraft. This is also the main reason why the US military is determined to bomb Norway. They are full of confidence in these modified bombers.

The roar of the engine seemed monotonous and obvious in such a quiet and dark night sky, and almost no one spoke, because they knew that what awaited them must be the bombardment of the Germans. It was a test of life and death, and it would test whether everyone would be pitied by the goddess of fate.

"Keep on course!" In the leading bomber, the pilot looked up and said to the senior pilot who strictly controlled the speed of the plane after comparing it with the compass and the chart: "We will reach the sky over Norway in 35 minutes."

On the rough sea, on the conning tower of a German submarine, 8 style_txt; the sailor on duty wearing a leather trench coat looked up at the starry sky. He could see the warning lights clearly with his binoculars.

"We have found the target! Send this information back to the Norwegian command immediately! Hurry up!" The first officer on duty ordered loudly to the non-commissioned officer beside him. The water splashed on the non-commissioned officer's face, bringing a icy coldness to his bones.

"This is submarine u-40! We found planes! Lots of planes! They're flying in the direction of Norway! Repeat! Here's submarine u-240, lots of American planes! Heading for Norway! Heading for Norway!" The telegraph operator frantically sent out coded messages,

I hope that I can send everything I find to my headquarters as quickly as possible.

In the interim air defense headquarters of the German army in Norway, a naval liaison officer snatched the torn-off message code from the telegraph operator, and rushed to the code translation room on the side, where the translator used The emergency information was translated as quickly as possible.

Then the naval liaison officer frantically ran to Admiral Catherine and Kleist, commander of Army Group I: "The target was found! The u-240 submarine found the target!"

"Mark their positions quickly! Immediately!" Catherine ordered loudly. Not far behind him, a female sergeant holding a huge putter neatly stuck a red marker on the map next to the location of the u-240 submarine.

"The Americans are approaching the coast of Norway! They will reach our core air defense position in 20 minutes." Catherine looked at the map and deduced the speed and route of the American bomber: "If it is daytime, we are now It is already possible to take off fighter jets to intercept. It is a pity that it is night and there is still a long time before daytime."

General Kleist put his hands behind his back, and after listening to Catherine, a professional air force commander, analyze the enemy's possible moves, he asked: "Have the Air Force's anti-aircraft artillery units been deployed? Can it be possible to disperse the bombs dropped over the protected area?" Enemy plane?"

"Only relying on anti-aircraft firepower is not the answer... What we can do now is to pray for our night fighter force to achieve a better record!" Catherine glanced at General Kleist and answered his question: " This is their first large-scale dispatch, and I hope that our previous huge investment will not be in vain!"

After Catherine finished speaking, she asked General Kleist again: "In terms of air defense, I have tried my best. Now my biggest question is, how did the Americans survive in such a dark place in a mountainous place like Sweden?" Under the environment, find the ground target they bombed!"

Kleist is also struggling with this matter. His troops have been fully mobilized. Hundreds of thousands of German troops are looking for anything suspicious in the dark forest area. To be sure, he even dispatched helicopters and accessories Give him a small amount of special forces.

If you want to indicate the target for high-altitude bombing, the only way you can use it now is to light a fire or provide lighting. As long as you prevent the opponent from doing this, the effect of the bombing will be greatly reduced, and even completely lose your target.

...

Just as General Kleist called again to urge his ground troops to search suspicious areas as densely as possible, a German helicopter on the edge of the mountain was rapidly passing through a dense forest. This is the second time it has passed through this woodland, and the searchlights found nothing here last time.

But this time it obviously found something, so after skimming the woodland, it turned the nose again and flew back quickly. The huge searchlight swept back and forth on the ground, hoping to encounter the suspicious spot that reflected light just now.

"There is a suspicious object below! Lower the altitude! Lower the altitude!" The soldier controlling the searchlight on the helicopter loudly reminded the companion who controlled the machine gun to aim at the well-camouflaged cabin. After the pilot heard the reminder from the radio, he also started to slow down. The altitude of the descending aircraft.

Not far away, the sound of wolf dogs barking came over, and a group of nearby German patrols rushed over quickly. The signal soldiers with radios on their backs reported the situation to nearby friendly troops, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense. After all, this is what they discovered The first suspicious building.

"Boom!" In the hut that looked like a trench with a cover added, there was a sudden gunshot, and the bullet hit the helicopter, splashing sparks. The huge searchlight was smashed into pieces, and the machine gunner on the side pulled the trigger under his finger without thinking.

"Thu! Thu! Thu!" The machine gun spewed flames fiercely, and the dense bullets hit the roof of the hidden house. The dead branches and leaves scattered on the roof were scattered around by the huge force. For a while, the sound of the planks breaking covered the screams of the people inside.

The German patrols in the distance had also arrived. They approached the room with rifles under the cover of machine guns, and then the machine guns suddenly stopped firing, and they took the time to enter the house from the camouflaged potholes around them. Inside lay three or five corpses in civilian clothes, surrounded by scattered British Lee Enfield rifles.

Thankfully, the Germans also found several barrels of gasoline in storage recesses dug out of the pit walls, theirs not being ignited by the machine guns fired from the helicopters. Apparently these men intended to use the barrels of gasoline to designate ground targets for the American bomber force.

"Report immediately! Say we have found some armed saboteurs hiding around the mine!" A leading officer yelled loudly at the signal soldiers: "Quick! Notify the headquarters! Let them focus on the mountainous forests that are easy to hide!"

"Woo... woo..." The rough iron ore processing factory in the distance sounded a sharp air defense siren, and the order for all personnel to turn off the lights was repeatedly played on the radio speakers in the factory area. Martial law has begun, and all areas, including cities, must turn off power and lights to prevent being discovered by American aircraft.

"Quick! Time is running out! Let all troops be on alert!" The officer heard the air defense siren sounding in the distance and knew that the American plane was approaching the airspace near Norway. So while he gave the order, he raised his head and looked at the starry sky with his deep eyes.

At this moment, when everything was about to fall silent with the extinguishing of the air defense siren, gunshots suddenly came from all directions. Those saboteurs hiding in the dark finally launched their deadly attack.

The officer of the Wehrmacht looked into the distance in surprise, and now he knew how large-scale the sabotage was tonight. Hearing the dense gunshots, he drew a pistol from his waist, and then glanced at his subordinates: "Close to the martial law area immediately! If you encounter any suspicious elements, open fire!"

After giving the order, he quickly moved towards the place where the gunshots were the most dense, pushed aside the branches around him, and walked into the dense forest. Behind him, the Wehrmacht soldiers with rifles carefully followed not far behind him. The helicopter that lost its searchlight rose to a safe height and returned to the base for repairs.