Chapter 641 "UWD" Seaplane

In mid-February in Germany, the weather warmed up and the snow melted.

The North Sea experienced a big storm not long ago. Waves as high as more than ten meters swept through the villages and towns along the coast, burying all the crops under thick sand and silt.

A large number of houses were destroyed, and many civilians were homeless and could only beg for a living as refugees.

This made the already scarce supplies in Germany even worse, and there were signs of riots in some places.

Admiral Scheer had no time to pay attention to these. He stood on the viewing platform of Wilhelmshaven, staring at a plane towed out of the port by a tugboat.

It was a large seaplane converted from a Gotha G.1 bomber, and Admiral Scheer named it "UWD".

(The above picture shows the "UWD" seaplane converted from a Gotha G.1 bomber in Germany.)

The reason for the modification was that Admiral Scheer believed that the performance of the Gotha bomber was still not enough to meet the needs of the navy.

Its speed is similar to that of Charles's "Caproni" bomber, which can reach 135 kilometers. The downside is that the total range is only 520 kilometers, and even with auxiliary fuel tanks, it can only reach 800 kilometers.

This may allow the "Gotha" bomber to fly to the northern part of the North Sea, but it can only take a glance and then return, otherwise it will never come back due to insufficient fuel.

And this reconnaissance time may not even see the shadow of the British main fleet.

"This is not what we want." Admiral Scheer said to the staff worriedly: "Our goal is to break through, which requires us to keep abreast of the movements of the main force of the British Royal Navy. But now, the bombers we have can't do this at all."

Admiral Scheer received 6 Gotha G.1s from Falkenhayn. Although Falkenhayn promised to speed up production and maintain supply in the future, this is far from enough.

Staff officer Maximilian analyzed: "The problem is that these planes have to return to the airport to refuel every time they go out for reconnaissance, so a lot of time and fuel are wasted on ineffective flights."

"You mean..." Admiral Scheer looked at Maximilian, and then he understood: "You mean to convert them into seaplanes?"

"Yes." Maximilian nodded: "Once converted into seaplanes, they don't need to return to refuel. We can set up several supply points at sea and let submarines carry fuel to supply these aircraft."

Admiral Scheer nodded in agreement: "This can even make up for the defect of Gotha's insufficient range and further expand our reconnaissance range."

So, Admiral Scheer took advantage of the dangerous sea conditions in the North Sea in January and February to urgently upgrade the Gotha bombers and convert them into seaplanes.

The staff report brought Admiral Scheer, who was wandering in his trance, back to reality: "General, it's ready."

Admiral Scheer then noticed that the "UWD" seaplane had been parked at sea, the tugboat made way, and the patrol boat cleared a "runway" a few hundred meters ahead.

Admiral Scheer nodded slightly and ordered in a deep voice: "Let's start!"

As the signalman sent out the flag signal, the engine of the seaplane began to roar. It was like a monster roaring on the sea. The two propellers under the fuselage ran at high speed, turning faster and faster, and soon turned into a residual image. The sea water below was stirred up by the strong wind.

Then, the plane moved forward slowly, and the buoy pushed the waves to accelerate with difficulty. The resistance seemed to be getting bigger and bigger, and the waves were getting higher and higher.

The speed was getting faster and faster. Finally, in the eyes of everyone's expectations, the bomber got rid of the shackles of the sea water and took off.

The officers and soldiers below cheered unconsciously, and some people applauded to celebrate.

Admiral Scheer exhaled lightly, nodded with relief, and ordered Maximilian: "You are responsible for their reconnaissance work, Colonel, we must find the enemy's weaknesses as soon as possible and launch an attack."

At this time, Germany needed victory very much, at least to let people see hope, even if it was just a little bit.

Otherwise, the hungry people would overthrow the emperor's rule.

...

Charles has been staying in Antwerp recently.

With Hasselt's successful penetration and the capture of 200,000 German troops, Antwerp has completely become the second line.

To be precise, it is not the second line, but the rear, a large rear area more than 60 kilometers away from the front line.

The main force of the British army has been transferred from here, including Lieutenant General Avis, who was transferred to the Somme River to participate in the battle.

The British stubbornly believed that this was meaningful and hoped to win a remarkable victory there.

This approach is more like a gambler.

Kitchener did not want to get nothing after investing so many sacrifices, or thought that the Germans on the opposite side were about to collapse, and the British army only needed to work harder and invest more to defeat the enemy and win a brilliant victory.

So, they kept piling people, supplies, and ammunition to the Somme River.

However, the Germans opposite them were also piling people, supplies, and ammunition.

But the fact is that the defense line slowly moved back and forth, and only supplies and soldiers were reduced.

Charles still set up his headquarters at the airport.

No mistakes, just go to the 6-9 book forum!

Unlike before, the airport has added 12 "Caproni" bombers, which are bombers that can carry torpedoes after being improved.

The director of the aircraft research and development department, Dorn, personally led the team to be responsible for the logistics and technical guidance of this batch of bombers.

Dorn took the schematic diagram and said to Charles:

"After our test, the speed should not exceed 100 kilometers per hour before throwing torpedoes."

"In addition, the aircraft must maintain a stable attitude, otherwise the torpedo will roll in the air due to inertia, resulting in failure to launch in the correct direction."

"It is best to keep the altitude at about 20 meters."

Charles sighed in his heart. As expected, there are requirements for speed, attitude, and altitude, which seem to be more demanding.

(Note: Most torpedo attack aircraft in World War II required an altitude of 10 to 30 meters.)

But this does not seem strange. The industrial level during World War I was always different from that in World War II.

The road to be taken must be taken. It is not that it can be easily solved by considering it in advance, not to mention that the research and development time is only more than one month.

"This has high requirements for pilots." Dorn reminded: "This is a large bomber, attacking enemy warships. It is difficult to pull up in time after dropping bombs."

Charles said "hmm".

Charles is not worried about this. The air regiment has trained a large number of experienced pilots since the air battle.

In addition, although the "Caproni" is a large bomber, its speed is maintained at about 100 kilometers. There is more than a minute of reaction time for throwing torpedoes at a distance of two kilometers, which is enough for the pilot to pull up.

The problem is that the pilot may throw the missile as close as possible to increase the chance of hitting the target.

Those who like to take risks always like to challenge their limits, just to cheer in the sky after success. Even Carter, the head of the aviation regiment, is one of them.

Just as Charles and Dorn were discussing the details, the guard came forward and reported: "General, Lieutenant General Geplat has arrived and he wants to talk to you."