Chapter 420 The Royal Air Force in the Western Mountains

Anyone with a little knowledge of geography should know that there are two of the most important canals in the world, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.

Among them, the Suez Canal runs from Port Said in the north to Suez City in the south, with a total length of more than 190 kilometers. Because it is located in the border area of ​​Europe, Asia and Africa, the strategic position is very important.

The Suez Canal connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, connecting the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, greatly shortening the voyage between the East and the West. The goods transported through the Suez Canal each year account for 14% of the world's total seaborne trade.

Because of this canal, Egypt has become the target of great powers.

In fact, as early as more than 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Sostelius dug a canal on the tributary of the Nile, which later generations called the "Pharaoh's Canal". The potential economic and strategic benefits of this ancient canal are coveted by all countries, and they are constantly fighting for it.

Later, Egypt filled the canal out of military considerations.

In this way, until the 19th century, both Britain and France focused their expansion goals on the fertile East.

France attempted to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea to the east, breaking the British control of the Cape of Good Hope Channel. In order to safeguard its interests in the East, especially in India, Britain opposed the construction of the canal.

France signed a concession contract with Egypt on the construction and use of the Suez Canal in 1854, and in 1857 established the "Universal Suez Shipping Canal Company".

Although the canal was dug jointly by France and Egypt, the British government used various means to obtain the shares of the Suez Canal Company. Eventually, the Suez Canal became the private property of both Britain and France.

Later, the United Kingdom simply relied on its strong military strength to armed occupation of Egypt in 1882, completely controlling the Suez Canal, and established the largest overseas military base in the canal area, stationing nearly 100,000 troops.

Until 1922, after Britain recognized Egypt's independence, it still retained the right to station troops in the Canal Zone.

As a result, in the 1930s, due to Italy's aggression against Ethiopia, the United Kingdom forced Egypt to sign a 20-year "Anglo-Egyptian Alliance Treaty" under the pretext of defending Egypt's "security" and "stability", stipulating that the British army would continue to be stationed in the Canal Zone, and Alexandria remained a port of call. British naval port, etc.

Now, Egypt's Canal Zone is Britain's largest overseas military base.

At this time, the military base was in a lively scene.

On the tarmac, bombers are in the final preparations before takeoff. It seems that there are dozens of them, which are so huge. However, if they are compared with Germany, they are simply pediatrics.

German bombers, including four-engine Junker-290, twin-engine Junker-88, single-engine Stuka, etc., are light, medium and heavy, and have advanced performance.

And what about the UK?

There are many varieties, however, most of them are quite old.

For example, on the farthest lawn, there is still a biplane bomber with an open canopy. This beautiful-looking single-engine bomber is the main bomber of the British in the early 1930s. bomber.

This single-engine biplane light bomber still exists in large numbers in the Royal Air Force, but this time, it did not participate in the bombing mission.

Because its range is too short, less than a thousand kilometers, it can only carry out tactical bombing.

Therefore, the pilots of these biplanes can only look at the other bomber squadrons that are close to them with envious eyes.

Next to them were modern monoplanes, Fairey's "fighter" bombers.

This aircraft is a single-engine, two-seat monoplane, which is not a small improvement over the previous bomber. This aircraft was designed by Marcel Roebel and used light alloys and stress skins for the first time.

At the same time, historically, this aircraft was equipped with the Rolls-Royce Merlin I 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, also known as the Merlin engine.

However, the Rolls-Royce company has gone bankrupt, and the Merlin engine is still dead. Therefore, this bomber has to use the 21-liter Kestrel engine. This old-fashioned engine has insufficient power, but because it is a liquid-cooled engine, it is windward. The small area is conducive to maintaining a good streamline shape of the aircraft, thereby increasing the flight speed.

Now, more than forty "fighter" bombers of the 12th and 218th Bomber Squadrons are the main force of this attack!

If you look at the British Royal Air Force before World War II, you can find an interesting thing, that is, the empire on which the sun never sets, has really set the sun.

In the 1930s, although there were twin-engine heavy bombers such as the Handlery-Petri "Heyford" and the Fairey "Hendon" in the RAF bomber force, the number was scarce.

Most of the equipment they are equipped with are single-engine biplane light bombers such as Hawker "Bucks" and Vickers 131 "Warriors".

You know, the Royal Air Force is a firm believer in Giulio Douhey's "air force to win" theory, they believe that the air force will change everything. However, in terms of their equipment status, the significant bomber force appears to be closer to a tactical air support force.

After the First World War, although Britain won the war, the national strength of the United Kingdom greatly declined, and the decline of the United Kingdom began at that time.

At the same time, the people yearn for peace and are reluctant to fight. In this way, national defense spending is greatly reduced in a peaceful environment. In the case of insufficient funds, in order to maintain an appropriate size of the bomber force, the purchase of relatively inexpensive single-engine light bombers has become an inevitable choice.

Although the United Kingdom had a large number of advanced bombers in World War II, the service of these bombers was almost 40 years later.

Carrying his flying cap, Philip, the squadron commander of the 12th Bomber Squadron, came to his bomber.

The bomb bays of this bomber are located inside the wings. There are two bomb bays in each wing. There is a hydraulic lifting pylon in the bomb bay. When loading bombs on the ground, the pylon can be extended out of the bomb bay, and retracted after hanging the bomb.

In general, for convenience, the pylon is not placed in the bomb bay after the bomb is hung. At this time, the bomb is equivalent to hanging under the wing, so the aircraft can also perform dive bombing. Moreover, in case of failure, the income The bomb bay will not be able to bomb, so it can continue to bomb.

He looked at the bombs mounted under his wing, all of them were incendiary bombs, and this time, he was going to set the entire Libyan oil field on fire!

"Vengeance for our navy!" Philip said to his crew.

The cockpit of this bomber is large from front to back, with three seats, and a crew of three, consisting of a pilot, a pilot/bombardier, and a radio operator/gunner.

And now, Philip waved his fists and shouted to his crew members. Their eyes were very firm. This time, let the Germans know how powerful they are!

They are quite firm, but they don't know that this time they have embarked on a road of no return.