Chapter 722 Atlantic Strangulation War (31)

"Except for the combined attack aircraft, it would be difficult for other aircraft to fly so far, right?" Dönitz asked doubtfully, "And you ordered the heavy bombers to be used in the direction of Cape Verde."

Hoffman thought for a while and said, "General Ozawa probably intends to use the commerce raiding aircraft carrier formation to carry out cross-platform ultra-long-range operations and send the aircraft on the Azores through the transfer platform."

"Brilliant!" Jodl immediately thought of the ultra-long-range tactics that were successfully tested some time ago, and then checked the current position of the commerce raiding fleet, and proposed, "The two fleets are about 1,300 kilometers apart. Let the commerce raiding fleet maneuver at full speed to the southwest. Tomorrow morning, the distance between each other can be reduced to within 800 kilometers, and at the same time, the commerce raiding aircraft carrier is no more than 10 kilometers away from the Azores. 700 kilometers, totally feasible! "

Keitel added: "If the landing is successful tomorrow, can the Marines grab a piece of land on Newfoundland Island, so that the large transport aircraft and heavy bombers of Spain and Portugal can also be used."

Due to Hoffman's strong promotion and the learning and reference of the shot down B-29\B-17\Lancaster, the bomber B section (American bomber project) has been promoted faster than in history. A test flight team of more than 140 aircraft has been formed, including more than 70 Messerschmitt Me-264, more than 50 Junkers Ju-488, and more than 20 Heinkel He-277. Other models such as Ta-400 and Ju-390 have been eliminated. Among these three heavy four-engine bombers, the Me-264 has the longest range, the Ju-488 has the fastest speed, and the He-277 has the lowest price (mainly based on the He-177 structure, the original twin-engine combined engine is restored to a four-engine layout, and the ridiculous dive bombing function is cancelled).

The He-277 was not originally competing for the B segment. The target was originally the A segment (i.e. medium-range bomber), but this segment was taken by the Ju-188 and its upgraded version Ju-288. After the Ju-298 was finalized and put into production, its situation became even more embarrassing, because these are twin-engine bombers, the range can reach 70% of the He-277, but the price is much lower and the speed is faster. The Armament Department did not hesitate to cut off the four-engine He-277. Junkers' goal was to use the Ju-298 to squeeze out the Joint Attack Aircraft, and even eventually replace the Ju-188 and Ju-288 after upgrading, to achieve the unification of carrier-based and land-based medium bombers - this goal was strongly supported by Hoffman, because in this way, the transfer of air force attack aircraft pilots to the naval aviation would be faster.

But this would put Heinkel in trouble, because its main product He-218 would soon be squeezed out of the carrier-based aircraft team. If it was squeezed out of the army's equipment, it would have no room for survival in the future. Although it could license other types of aircraft based on technology, for the arrogant Heinkel company, how could it swallow this breath? Under Speer's guidance, Heinkel increased its research on jet attack aircraft while modifying the technical parameters of He-277 and replacing it with the latest BMW801 engine. With a carrying capacity of 6 tons, the maximum speed was increased to 525 kilometers per hour, and the maximum range was increased to more than 6,000 kilometers, successfully squeezing into the threshold of Section B.

At this time, the Ju-488 was somewhat embarrassed, because although its maximum speed could exceed 635 kilometers per hour and its carrying capacity was larger than that of the He-277, its range could only reach 4,500 kilometers after repeated upgrades, which was only slightly more than that of Section A, which really insulted Section B's reputation as an intercontinental bomber. The price was not cheap, 60% more expensive than the He-277 produced with mature components, but two Ju-488s could certainly not carry as much as three He-277s. Based on this situation, the Armament Department made a decision: to finally determine the target model of heavy bombers in early 1944. Germany is not the United States. It has no need and ability to maintain a large fleet of heavy bombers/transport aircraft. It is recommended that the Me-264 be used as a heavy bomber (compared to the B-2277 as a heavy long-range transport aircraft (the Me-323 is heavier, but the range is not enough, and this aircraft is comparable to the C-54 transport aircraft). This proposal is of course very sophisticated. On the one hand, it preserves the production capacity of Heinkel's most important flagship products, which is conducive to mobilizing its enthusiasm and creativity. On the other hand, Junkers has too many models, which is not conducive to risk diversification. Finally, the key point is that if the He-277 is used as a transport aircraft, its positioning overlaps with the Ju-290. It was beneficial for the Armament Department to lower the price of transport aircraft - the profit of one transport aircraft exceeded that of 10 single-engine fighters.

The Junkers representative questioned this, but Speer did not directly point it out. Instead, he said that Germany still lacked a low-cost, twin-engine medium- and short-range transport aircraft (comparable to the C-47 transport aircraft). Since Junkers had the foundation of the Ju-52 (three-engine), it could also consider giving it a try. The Junkers representative left happily. Unexpectedly, when they turned around, Speer told the Italians the same thing again, because the Joint Strike Fighter would soon withdraw from the mainstream stage, and he had to give the Italians an explanation, and the latter also left happily.

Capitalists are very smart. Germany is not only in a much better strategic situation than in history, but also richer and more capable of paying. As long as the mainstream channel of the National Defense Force is opened, the spillover effect will continue to come. Japan, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Iran, and even Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and France are waiting to buy the same products. Their selection criteria are very simple. They want to make whatever the Germans use. How can weapons that the Germans themselves do not equip be good? Tiger tanks, 262 jets, STG43 assault rifles, Panzerfausts, 88 guns, Tornado self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, etc. have been proven to be useful in actual combat, and they are all in high demand.

In particular, a group of younger brothers in the Middle East were extremely envious when they saw that the Iranians had obtained the Tiger battalion. They all demanded to be equipped with 1-2. They had sufficient means of payment: Iraq had oil, Egypt had the income from the canal, and Turkey had minerals. After getting the Tiger tanks, Pahlavi began to think about submarines and jets. He eagerly sent people to Germany to prepare to receive the ready-made German submarine and jet teams next year. Hoffman readily agreed to sell him 12 submarines and 48 jets. Pahlavi was also unambiguous and asked someone to send a huge diamond and several precious Persian tapestries to Eva, and then Once, when Eva called Hoffman, she casually said, "Well... the wife of the Iranian ambassador said that their king is also very interested in aircraft carriers. Can we sell one to them the year after next or the year after next?" Hoffman was so shocked that he couldn't say anything. He just told Eva to take good care of her pregnancy and stay out of this kind of thing...

"Then implement these two strategies and try to meet the combat needs of the front-line troops as much as possible. At critical moments, each unit must have a high sense of responsibility and courage!" After careful discussion, the Supreme Command agreed to the cross-platform reinforcement method and the strategy of calling heavy combat aircraft.

After nightfall, Newfoundland Island was like a catastrophe. It was horrible everywhere. A raging fire broke out near the airport and warehouse. Everyone was running away, trying to find a way out for themselves. Canadian officers and fire police tried their best to rescue, but they had no idea how to start in such a chaotic scene. Two waves of attacks completely destroyed the airport and a large number of public facilities. Until now, no one dared to believe that this was true. Didn't the Germans say they were going to attack the east coast? How did they hit Newfoundland? But there is no point in complaining about the Germans' betrayal. Germany and Britain were enemies to begin with. It was up to the Germans to bomb or not bomb.

Lord Thomas was anxious to arrange for the fleet to evacuate from the port, but the speed was not fast enough. Since there was no order to sail, most of the cargo ships only had a small number of personnel on duty, and the engines were turned off. The rest of the sailors lived on the shore. How easy was it to find people and start the operation at once? Traffic in the city was completely paralyzed, and now no one dared to run to the dock. The fierce attack of the German attack planes near the dock was still vivid.

After the second wave of German attacks could not find a suitable ground target, they also launched an attack on the ships staying in the port, sinking several escort warships, but leaving the cargo ships alone. The pilots all knew that these ships were loaded with a lot of supplies, and it was too extravagant to sink them. The Germans were distressed for a long time when they destroyed an oil depot in the attack just now. An armor-piercing shell originally used to attack warships penetrated a fuel depot, causing a huge explosion, and then a mushroom cloud rose in the same place. The sound was so loud that it could be heard clearly even more than ten kilometers away. If these things were preserved, they could be used by the landing troops after they came up.

Many sailors on cargo ships wanted to abandon their ships and go ashore to escape because their ships could not move for a while and they were afraid of the German attack and strafing. A bunch of people wanted to get on the ship, and a bunch of people wanted to escape. The dock was all knotted up in a mess, and the ships were stacked together. It was not enough for the ships inside to open, but the ships outside had to make way first. The warships struggling to sink exacerbated the chaos and congestion of the waterway. From the beginning of the attack to the return of the German planes after dropping bombs, there were only a few ships that could move.

"Evacuate, evacuate immediately, the sooner the better, if you don't want to be sunk by German naval guns or planes." Lord Thomas shouted at the top of his lungs on the phone, but the German army blew up the phone line halfway through his shout. He was so angry that he threw the phone down and walked towards the dock.