Chapter 731 Atlantic Strangulation War (40)

"Are they planning to reinforce Sal Island? For example, airdrop troops?" Ingersoll asked doubtfully.

"This..." Turner hesitated. This was obviously contrary to common sense. Sal Island was not large in size. Airdrops at night were more likely to fall into the sea. After thinking for a while, he replied, "It may be airdropped materials or supplies. After all, the German army has been fighting for several days and the consumption is not small."

"Let the army on the island pay attention." Ingersoll smiled bitterly. He thought that the 3rd Division would be the last straw that broke the camel's back for the German army. Unexpectedly, although more than half of the territory had been occupied, the German army was still resisting in the depths. Because it was difficult for the naval guns to cover the central area of ​​the island, the 3rd Army Division advanced more slowly.

After a few minutes, the radar room continued to send out alarms: "The German route remains unchanged and continues to fly towards the fleet. Air defense preparations are recommended."

"Okay..." Turner sighed, "Level 1 combat readiness..."

"Do the planes need to take off to meet the enemy?"

"No need. It is difficult to find the enemy at night and it is difficult to take off and land safely. Don't waste your energy." Turner smiled bitterly, "Don't have too high expectations of them."

This is a big truth. Today alone, 4 planes crashed into the sea because the pilots did not control them well during landing. Although the people were rescued, the planes were destroyed. It is better to expect these rookies to fight at night than to expect the Germans to attack with a little less accuracy.

A staff officer muttered: "We have implemented strict blackouts, I don't believe the Germans can find us."

At this moment, Major Richter, the leader of the Night Owl Team, sneered: "Of course I can see you..." The reason why he was so confident was entirely because the newly developed radar: FuG-300 was generally installed on the planes. This is an air-to-sea scanning radar used to detect and locate surface ships. It is an upgrade of the FuG200 Hohentwiel radar developed by C. Lorenz. The detection range of the FuG-200 is about 120 kilometers at an altitude of 5,000 meters. The Fw-200C was equipped with this radar and became known as the "Atlantic Vulture".

However, the German side has always been dissatisfied with the performance of this radar, because it is not only large in size, but also has a limited search distance and poor accuracy. It has always suffered from the lack of a good replacement. After its invention in 1941, it could only go around on the original basis until Hoffman instructed the introduction of multi-cavity magnetrons from Japan, which began to make rapid progress.

Magnetrons have existed since 1921, but multi-cavity high-energy magnetrons were not invented until 1939 by Randall and Butt of the University of Birmingham in the UK. Shortly after the British invented it, the Japanese side also independently developed the technology. The two sides started from similar positions, but unlike the British side, which attached great importance to it, Japan basically ignored this invention and kept it on the shelf. Japan's attitude is not surprising. The Yagi antenna invented by Professor Yagi did not receive any response in Japan until the Japanese army conquered Singapore and saw the Yagi antenna from the captured British facilities and learned about its value.

Japan paid no attention to it, and Britain developed rapidly. More than a year later, the Battle of Britain reached its climax. The British gave the multi-cavity high-energy magnetron technology to the United States. At this time, British products could emit 3000MHz microwaves with a power of 10KW. However, Japanese technology still remained at the initial stage of 2KW. After another year, the British invented the heterogeneous coupling technology between the cavities of the multi-cavity magnetron, which bound the alternating teeth of the magnetron together to constrain it for stability, and obtained an output power of 50KW at 3000MHz. This power is enough for microwave radar, not only greatly reducing the size, but also reducing the weight a lot. However, Japan is still standing still - the gap between the two sides is now 25 times.

After Germany introduced this technology from Japan, and found the real thing from the British and American heavy bombers shot down, and thanks to Hoffman's unremitting efforts, by August 1943, Germany finally achieved mass production of multi-cavity high-energy magnetron replica products, reaching the level of Britain and the United States at the end of 1942, successfully narrowing the technological gap between the two sides from 4 years to about half a year. The new FuG-300 air-to-sea radar can detect fleets over 200 kilometers at an altitude of 6,000 meters, and the accuracy has been improved by one order of magnitude.

Hoffman also let Lorenz and another German radar technology company, Telefunken, form a joint research body (in China, telephones were called telefunk in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China), to explore the research of other types of radars. Telefunken has successfully developed the FuG-312 radar based on multi-cavity high-energy magnetron technology. This product is mainly used for air-to-air detection of night fighters. It can detect large targets such as B-29 within a range of 8 kilometers or small targets such as P51 within a range of 5 kilometers. The positioning accuracy can be as accurate as more than 200 meters - completely within the visual observation range of the pilot.

After the failure of the US daytime strategic air raid, the British side was unwilling to fail and sent Lancaster bombers to continue the night air raid, but they were often shot down by German night fighters equipped with FuG-312 radars, resulting in heavy losses. Later, even the night air raid had to be stopped.

Now the Night Owl Squadron is equipped with these two latest models of radars, but there is one thing that Richter obviously over-concerned. The US military had no intention of sending fighters to intercept, and simply believed that the German army could not find themselves.

"Found the main force of the US military... Wow, so many ships."

Richter was very satisfied: "Attention, all units, keep the course unchanged, drop the altitude to 6,000 meters, and prepare to turn on the Mammoth system."

Mammoth is their name for the large infrared irradiator. This huge searchlight makes the Night Owl unit obviously different from other aircraft. It is very dazzling during the day, but at night...hehe, infrared rays are not visible!

Since the Germans did not drop bombs or flares, the anti-aircraft guns on the US destroyers and cruisers had a tacit understanding not to fire first, so as not to expose their positions due to fire and ballistics. However, they did not know that the German aircraft above had quietly begun to use The Mammoth system scans the U.S. warships below.

Watching German planes flying overhead, neither dropping bombs nor launching flares, everyone was thinking: These idiots above can't find us, right?

Turner issued instructions to each ship. If the German aircraft lowered their altitude to 3,000 meters, all firepower would be used to shoot down these daring German aircraft.

"Found it, sir, Unit 3 saw a light aircraft carrier..."

Richter nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, let him come first."

The No. 3 aircraft skillfully descended in altitude. The US military radar soldiers stared at the screen. They watched the aircraft drop to 5,000 meters and did not move. They not only thought to themselves: What can you see clearly at 5,000 meters? It's better to come down obediently and wait for the anti-aircraft gun to greet you. Who would have thought that the No. 3 aircraft has firmly locked the USS Midway (Casablanca-class escort aircraft carrier) with the Mammoth system.

"Go, baby!" As the operator murmured, an Hs-393 detached from the hook and began to flutter down. The small lights on the wingtips shone brightly. It was particularly clear in the night. The guidance on the front of the missile The head is equipped with a passive infrared detector called "Kiel", which was developed by Zeiss. It weighs 19 kilograms and has a maximum design detection distance of 2km. It can detect the radiation signal emitted by the ship's flue exhaust. Its core sensitive element is a diameter of 12 cm lead sulfide detector.

When falling from an altitude of 6,000 meters, the infrared seeker was not able to function. Now the operator relies on the Mammoth system and the wingtip lights to correct the missile's course so that it can fly to the target. Now the Hs-393 is completely controlled by wire. Worry that the enemy will interfere with the control signal.

"Very good, keep the altitude and distance..." Then, Unit 4, Unit 5, and Unit 8 all found their respective targets, and also activated an Hs-393 and launched it.

Seeing more and more shining things appearing in the sky, the officers and soldiers of the ship below instinctively felt that something was wrong. Turner also had a vague sense of uneasiness and immediately approved anti-aircraft fire retaliation, but this was of no use. On the contrary, in After anti-aircraft fire is fired, its temperature is higher and the thermal radiation effect is more prominent.

When the system prompted that the missile was less than 2 kilometers away from the target, the operating sergeant prayed secretly and immediately activated the infrared seeker. After making sure that the guidance was working, he cut off the wire.

"Ah... that thing is coming towards us... avoid it, avoid it quickly..."

It's a pity that no matter how the Midway dodges left and right, the bombs above its head are sucked to the ground like a magnet. It can also adjust its posture according to the movement of the warship. Compared with the warship's painstaking maneuvers, the Hs-393 only needs to use its posture lightly. It can be achieved with a slight adjustment. Now the passive infrared detector called "Kiel" is firmly focused on the thermal radiation near the smokestack of the USS Midway - the faster the ship maneuvers, the greater the amount of radiation.

With a "boom", the missile finally successfully penetrated into the warship. The impact of its huge weight of more than 700 kilograms and nearly 400 kilograms of explosives (equivalent to a 500 kilogram aerial bomb) exploded violently, directly pronouncing the verdict. The execution of an escort aircraft carrier. Subsequently, such instances occurred many times...

8 Me-264s carried a total of 32 Hs-393s. In the end, 10 successfully hit the target. The hit rate was only one-third, but the results were extremely brilliant. 4 escort carriers, 2 freighters, 1 oil tanker, One landing ship was blown up and sank, and even the battleships Iowa and New Jersey took two bombs.

After the Night Owl team left with satisfaction, there were still traces of the burning oil tanker on the sea...