Chapter 34 The Probability of Death without Life
Hoffman patiently explained: "I told you last time to study General Ludendorff's "Total War" seriously. I don't know if you have read it. In such a battle, which will set the future for the German nation, In a national war for a thousand years of destiny, all forces should be used by us. Facing the resources and population of the Allies, the empire does not have an advantage. Only by mobilizing the most basic and broadest people can we win. Women have been allowed to serve, and it is natural to have some female officers. This can not only boost morale and inspire fighting spirit, but also enhance the close relationship between the entire nation. Stalin had a large number of female soldiers and officers, and none of his men expressed any objection. People and Americans have female officers and officers, and their military also accepts it. Why can’t our German nation do the same?”
When he said these words, Hoffman thought to himself: Could it be that I really have the potential to be a politician? I actually learned these speeches with great righteousness, occupying the commanding heights of public opinion, and full inflammatory power in just two days.
After listening to this long speech, Keitel was a little frightened and thought: This matter cannot be simply compared. The British, American and Soviet countries do not have the constraint of a strong officer corps, but this cannot be said in front of so many people. exit.
During the stalemate, Helen suddenly interrupted: "Führer, can I really have a chance to become an officer?"
"Of course. You see, women were not allowed to go to college before, but now there are not only college students but also female scientists; women were not allowed to be in politics before, but now women not only have the right to vote, but there are also female politicians." Hoffman elaborated , giving another vivid example, "Do you know Hannah Lachey?"
Upon hearing the name, Helen's eyes sparkled and she nodded heavily. This was a famous female test pilot of the Third Reich. In 1941, Goering awarded her a diamond-level air force pilot certificate on behalf of the Air Force. The next day, Hitler announced that she would be awarded the honorary air force captain rank and the Iron Cross Second Class. Jeshunnek next to him thought to himself that he was lucky that he didn't say anything stupid just now, otherwise he would be embarrassed now.
"Women like him who have made outstanding contributions are qualified to become officers. If you continue to work hard, you will also have the opportunity." Hoffman glanced at the senior generals who still had hesitant expressions on their faces. After understanding the resistance, he sighed and said, "Forget it, let's communicate first according to Marshal Keitel. We have broken many traditions to win the war. I hope the generals can understand my painstaking efforts."
"The Führer is wise."
"By the way, what is the current position of Captain Becker, who shot down three enemy planes today?" Hoffman also did not forget the Air Force hero who scored three consecutive victories today.
"He is the captain of the 4th Group of the NJG1 Wing, our ace pilot. Counting today's results, he has more than 30 kill records." Kamhuber quickly expressed his credit for Captain Becker.
"The Air Force needs such brave and resourceful commanders." Hoffman later learned that when Becker was chasing the third plane, he waited until within 200 meters before firing to ensure the hit rate. Phil's cowardice is a stark contrast. He turned his head, and this time he said to Jeshunek: "Let's examine it. If the situation permits and the conditions are met, we can consider him as a candidate for the new co-captain of JG26."
Although the head of state said that he would "check it out", this was just a routine matter. Everyone knew that Captain Becker's promotion was a certainty. Kamhuber was very happy about this. He originally wanted to promote this combat hero who saved face for the Air Force. Now it would be best if the head of state directly spoke out. He glanced at Jeshunek, who also nodded repeatedly. Obviously Strongly agree. At this time, news came again that the Lancaster that finally escaped was shot down by another night fighter. In order to escape this last fish, Colonel William mobilized 5 fighter jets to pursue and intercept it.
"Gentlemen, after watching today's air defense operations, we need to reflect on the situation of counter-air attacks." Hoffman said, "Intelligence shows that the British side has clear regulations that bomber crews can retire from service as long as they complete 30 bombing missions. And their internal ability to withstand battle losses is about 5% each time. I have people calculate based on this probability, the survival rate after executing 30 combat missions is still 21%. If we can improve the air defense efficiency, the enemy's loss rate will be reduced. Increase it to 10%. According to the calculation results, it should be..." At this point, he got stuck. It was now 1942, and he couldn't take out his mobile phone to calculate at any time, so he had to turn to Speer for help.
Although the architect's mathematical skills were very solid, he could not calculate the results for a while, but he immediately thought of Helen. Isn't this a ready-made mathematics college student? It only took Helen two minutes to calculate the result: "My head of state, according to the survival rate of 90% each time, performing 30 missions is 90% to the 30th power. After 30 missions, the survival rate is still about 4%."
"Very good, with a 4% survival rate plus accidents, mechanical obstacles and other factors, the British basically cannot complete this mission. The so-called retirement after completing 30 missions is a complete scam. At that time, Dr. Goebbels can start the propaganda machine to let them resist this mission with no life or death, so as not to be deceived by Churchill." Hoffman thought about it and asked Helen to calculate the 12% and 15% war damage figures. The result surprised everyone: if the war damage was 12%, the survival rate after performing 30 missions was only 2%, and if the war damage was 15%, the survival probability was even less than 1%. Obviously, as long as the loss exceeded a certain limit, the British air strikes would be unsustainable.
"I hope there will be more guys like Major Schepfer who value their lives too much, so that our pressure can be relieved."
"It is not advisable to pin our hopes on the enemy's cowardice. We should take the initiative to improve our tactics. I observed today's air defense and it is obvious that there are two problems." Hoffman raised two fingers, "First, there are problems with our anti-aircraft guns, or more precisely, there are problems with the fuses. I have read the intelligence. Britain and the United States have developed a complete radio proximity fuse, which they call VT proximity fuse..."
"Proximity fuse?" Keitel and Garland don't understand this thing, but this does not mean that Jeshonnek and Kammhuber don't understand it. Proximity fuses are actually a large category of fuse action methods, which mainly use the characteristics of the target or the characteristics of the target's surrounding environment to work. Together with trigger fuses, delay fuses, etc., they constitute different explosion methods for artillery shells (including bombs, torpedoes, and mines), mainly including various media such as radio, light, sound, and magnetism. In 1940, Britain developed a prototype of a radio proximity fuze based on the same principle as radar. After the United States entered the war, it completed the design of the radio proximity fuze through the US Science and Research Agency: the main structure is to use the shell as an antenna, and the fuze contains a vacuum tube radio wave transmitter, which emits 180 to 220 MHz radio when powered on. When the projectile approaches a reflective object, part of the radio wave is reflected. As the distance between the shell and the target decreases, the Doppler effect causes the reflected radio wave to cause a low-frequency signal of 200-800 Hz in the current of the transmitter. This signal is filtered and amplified, and when the signal strength exceeds a certain limit, it will be detonated.
The advantage of the proximity fuze over the trigger and delay fuze is that it can automatically explode according to the changes of the target object, can cause maximum damage to the target, and can greatly improve the hit rate of the shell. The difficulty lies in that the entire device must withstand the acceleration of more than 20,000 times the earth's gravity and the spin of 500 revolutions per second when the artillery is fired, and it must also be small enough to be placed in the warhead of the shell. Because of the advantages and difficulty of the VT fuze, the British and American Allies classified it as top secret and kept it strictly confidential. The Germans didn't know, but Hoffman spoke out. He also knew that Rheinmetall was developing proximity fuzes in the 1930s. The electrostatic proximity fuze they intended to use was more efficient and cheaper than the radio proximity fuze invented by the Americans, but it could not solve the problem of too small an effective distance. Later, they were forced to stop research and even believed that the Germans could not make such a thing, and the British and Americans were the same.
Jeshonnek thought for a while and said, "I know similar projects and can understand the value of this fuze for anti-aircraft guns. If the Allies have developed similar products, we must also have them."
"This fuze is very important. It is not only used in anti-aircraft guns, but also in other occasions, so it should be given the highest priority. I will let the Imperial Security Bureau find a way to produce the finished products of the British and American proximity fuzes." After talking about the fuze, Hoffman sighed, "The second problem is the radar-guided operations that seem to be very successful today."