Five Hundred and Ninety-Eight Bombing of Sevastopol

On the coast of the Black Sea, the Crimean Peninsula can be said to be the home of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. The entire Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet Union, a new Soviet-class battleship and three cruisers constitute the core of the Black Sea Fleet. Although this fleet was blocked in the Black Sea by Turkey, it was not as honest as expected.

A few days ago, the fleet also rushed into the harbor of Odessa, an important Ukrainian port city occupied by the German army, shelling buildings and civilians there. Because of the support of Road Air planes in the Crimea area, the fleet retreated safely to Sevastopol after shelling for 10 minutes.

This is definitely provoking the bottom line of the German commander's patience. Although the German army is preparing for the battle in the Balkans, the Soviet navy must not be allowed to wreak havoc on the coast of Romania and the coastal waters of Ukraine. Since the ground attack could not be launched for the time being, retaliatory action was put on the agenda, and the navy was obviously powerless, so this time the task was handed over to Catherine's air force.

So this time, Dick was ordered to carry out an attack mission, and the troops performing this attack mission were the butcher bomber troops that hadn't been on the scene for a long time. After two months of accumulation, the size of the butcher bomber force has become even larger. The German army now has a total of 600 such long-range strategic bombers, which can be said to be a very large strategic bomber fleet.

"This bombing mission looks unusual." A ground crew lamented to the people around him while using a bomb-hanging machine to hang one after another aerial bombs weighing 500 kilograms into the bomb bay of the plane. road.

"Isn't that right? I heard that all 40 butcher bombers in the base are going to take off. Except for the bombing of Leningrad a few days ago, it has been a long time since so many bombers have been dispatched." A ground crew apprentice nodded in agreement: "I don't know where the bad luck will come again. Yes, all 500kg aerial bombs."

The ground crew next to them is identifying their bombing targets from the photos brought back from the long-range reconnaissance plane. There are ship repair factories, various forts and forts, airports and anti-aircraft artillery positions, and even waterworks and anti-aircraft artillery in several nearby areas. Power plants and more. The Butcher reconnaissance plane can bring back reconnaissance photos at an altitude of 15,000 meters, but these photos are not easy to identify and can only provide a rough terrain analysis. German pilots would fly low to 8,000 meters to take photos when they felt safe. At this time, the photos would be clearer, but they were vulnerable to the opponent's anti-aircraft fire.

"The accuracy cannot be guaranteed when dropping bombs at an altitude of 9,000 meters. Our bombs may miss the target by several hundred meters and pose no threat at all." A bomber of a bomber was discussing the attack procedure with the commander: "After aiming at the target, It is best to drop bombs at a height of about 7,000 meters, so that more than half of the bombs can hit the target."

"No need, Victor. The scale of the bombing is much larger than you think. You only need to use the most accurate bombing to attack the target. As long as you destroy about half of the targets, the follow-up bombing missions can take care of those who escaped your attack." Enemy." The commander waved his hand and said, "The bombing is done in a dense formation, just try to ensure the accuracy of the attack.

understand? "

"Sir, how many planes did we use to bomb the Soviet targets on the Crimean Peninsula this time? Why does it feel so mysterious, and the scale sounds bigger than the bombing of Leningrad?" The captains of several planes He looked at his ground tower commander with questioning eyes.

"Only General Dick knows the specific scale. I only know that the butcher bombers at the four nearby airports will take off to carry out missions. So, let's say at least 150?" The commander doesn't know the specific scale, but he went to participate in the battle During the mission deployment meeting, he saw the commanders of several nearby airports, so he knew that the air force dispatched by the German army this time was quite large.

"That's quite a lot." Several captains went to their own planes, and some bombers had already started to power the four huge engines on the wings. For a while, the entire airport was filled with the roar of machinery, and the pilot was reporting the amount of fuel, checking the pressure of the fuel tank and confirming that the communication was smooth.

"Tower! This is No. 141, everything is normal! Can you hear my voice?" The captain pressed the throat communicator to confirm to his ground commander whether his radio equipment was working normally.

"Aircraft No. 141, I can hear your voice very clearly. Everything is normal. Your takeoff sequence is ranked first. Please taxi to the standby runway." On the ground tower, the commander issued a loud voice with a communicator Following various orders, the planes began to taxi one after another. Soon, the first plane took off on the long runway, followed by the second plane and the third plane. In the end, all 40 bombers at this airport took off successfully and formed a rather spectacular formation in the sky.

Subsequently, the German fighter jets that took off from the surrounding field airfields joined the butcher bomber formation, formed their own cover formation not far away, and accompanied the bomber unit and began to fly towards the target. It didn't take long for the German pilots to see another batch of Butcher bombers taking off from a nearby airfield, also escorted by a large fighter force.

Immediately afterwards, more aircraft gathered together. After the long baptism of the Battle of Britain, the brutal rehearsal of the British air battle, and the accumulation of experience in bombing Leningrad and other areas, the strategic bomber force of the Luftwaffe now has This time they assembled more than 400 butcher bombers and escorted as many as 350 fighter jets.

There are more and more planes gathering in the sky, exceeding everyone's imagination. The pilots flying on the far left can't even see how many planes are flying on the right side of them. less than the edge of the cluster. The fighter pilots were stunned by the dense formation of bombers, and some even found that their hands were sweating.

Hartman, the fighter pilot who performed the escort mission for the first time, involuntarily swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He didn't know until now that besides the feeling of agility and freedom, flying can also have a feeling of solemnity and heaviness—the same feeling of agility and freedom. Elegant has nothing to do with it, it can only be described as hard and thick which seems to have nothing to do with flying. The huge flying formation displayed in his eyes at this moment reminded him of words such as steel and invincibility.

The stern air defense sirens sounded over the Crimean Peninsula. When the soldiers of the Crimea came out of the barracks and looked up at the sky, they were completely stunned by the scene in front of them. It was the first time for the Soviet Red Army to see such a scene. For the large-scale air strike, it was the first time that the planes were divided into upper and lower layers and flew densely in the air, and it seemed that the end of the formation of planes could not be seen.

Unfortunately, these planes are here to deal with them. Just above their heads, countless bombers have begun to issue orders and open the bomb hatches full of bombs. One bomb after another was bathed in the cold air at high altitude, and the sounding device above had begun to emit a slight shriek.

"I've found the target area! It's very clear, let's start dropping bombs!" The observer at the front reminded his comrades loudly, and then the bombardier's response orders came from the earphones one after another.

"No. 144 started to drop bombs!" "No. 142 started to drop bombs!" "The first bomb has been dropped!" "The second bomb was successfully dropped!" With one sound after another, the throwing action of the bomber rubbed against the body of the bomb. With a loud sound, the aerial bombs left the bomber's cabin like raindrops, and began to rush towards the Soviet targets on the ground relying on gravity.

"Boom!" Compared with the overwhelming bombers of the German army, the anti-aircraft artillery positions near the Sevastopol fortress fired back like screams and moans. They fired only a handful of shells, and they fell like raindrops in the sky. It is as helpless as a rifle facing dozens of machine guns.

The butcher bombers arranged by the German army to bomb airports, anti-aircraft artillery positions, and urban civilian facilities were loaded with 125 kilograms of aerial bombs, but they carried a larger number, which was used to cover the attack effect better, which also included a lot of napalm bombs , used to enhance the effect of bombing.

The German bombers attacking ports, military facilities, and fortresses were basically equipped with 500-kilogram aerial bombs, which were enough to destroy target areas with strong protection, mainly destroying military targets near Sevastopol and Chike. There are also two formations of butcher bombers specially carrying a large number of napalm bombs, covering several large fortresses attacking the Soviet army.

For a time, the entire city on the Crimean Peninsula seemed to have turned into hell. Buildings were destroyed by bombs and collapsed, barracks were on fire, and huge craters were blown out one after another on the streets. The anti-aircraft artillery positions were covered and attacked. After the butcher bombers passed by, a formation of 110 Stuka 2 attack aircraft visited these air defense facilities again, completely turning each Soviet anti-aircraft gun into piles of scrap iron.

The huge crane in the port was hit by a bomb, ignited a fire and collapsed, hitting a destroyer moored in the port. In an instant, the destroyer broke into two pieces and sank to the bottom of the sea, while the oil depot on the shore was also bombed. It detonated, ignited a fire that covered the sky, and smoke billowed out.

Because the Black Sea Fleet was near Chike, it escaped this unprecedented bombing. However, the bases of the Soviet Navy near the Black Sea were basically doomed. The Sevastopol naval port was almost in ruins. Lost its ability to serve as a port.

The power of strategic bombers was demonstrated again. With just this intensive attack, the German army basically destroyed the air defense system of the Crimea and forced back the arrogant Soviet Black Sea Fleet. An extremely solid foundation.