Chapter 641 "UWD" Seaplane

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

The North Sea experienced a severe 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 became homeless and had to beg for a living.

This made the situation in Germany, which was already short of supplies, even worse, and there were signs of riots in some places.

Admiral Scheer had no time to pay attention to all this. He was standing on the observation deck in Port Wilhelm, staring at an airplane that was 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 picture above shows the German "UWD" seaplane converted from a Gotha G.1 bomber.)

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' "Caproni" bomber, which can reach 135 kilometers. The disadvantage is that its total range is only 520 kilometers, and even with auxiliary fuel tanks, it can only reach 800 kilometers.

This might allow the Gotha bombers to fly as far as the northern North Sea, but they would only be able to take a quick look and then return, otherwise they would never return due to lack of fuel.

With such short reconnaissance time, they might not even be able to see the shadow of the British main fleet.

"This is not what we want." Admiral Scheer said to his 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 six Gotha G.1s from Falkenhayn. Although Falkenhayn promised to speed up production to maintain supply, this was 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 they are converted into seaplanes, they will not need to return for refueling. 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 lack of Gota's range and further extend our reconnaissance range."

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

The staff officer's report brought Admiral Scheer back to reality: "General, we are ready."

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

Admiral Scheer nodded slightly and ordered in a deep voice: "Begin!"

As the signalman gave 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, spinning faster and faster. Soon, they turned into a residual image, and the sea water below was stirred up by the strong wind, creating ripples.

Then, the plane moved forward slowly, and the buoys 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, and finally, under the expectant gaze of everyone, the bomber broke free from the constraints of the sea water and took off into the air.

The officers and soldiers below cheered unconsciously, and some even applauded in celebration.

Admiral Scheer breathed a sigh of relief, nodded with satisfaction, and ordered Maximilien: "You are responsible for their reconnaissance, Colonel. We must find the enemy's weaknesses as soon as possible and launch an attack."

Germany really needed a victory at this time, at least to give people hope, even if it was just a little bit.

Otherwise the starving people would overthrow the emperor's rule.

…

Charles was recently in Antwerp.

With Hasselt's successful penetration and the capture of 200,000 German troops, Antwerp has completely become a 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 have all been transferred to the Somme River to participate in the battle.

The British stubbornly believed that this was meaningful and hoped to get a spectacular victory there.

This approach is more like a gambler.

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

So they continued to pile people, supplies and ammunition into the Somme River.

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

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

Charles still set up his headquarters at the airport.

What was different from before was that the airport had 12 more "Caproni" bombers, which were improved bombers that could carry torpedoes.

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

Dorn held up the diagram and said to Ciel:

"After our tests, it is best not to exceed 100 kilometers per hour before throwing the torpedo."

"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 height at around 20 meters."

Charles sighed inwardly. As expected, there were requirements for speed, posture, and height, and they seemed to be more demanding.

(Note: During World War II, most torpedo attack aircraft required an altitude of 10 to 30 meters.)

But this does not seem surprising, as there was always a gap between the industrial level during World War I and World War II.

We still have to take the path we have to take. It’s not like we can easily solve the problem by considering it in advance, especially since we only have more than a month for research and development.

"This places high demands on the pilots," Dorn reminded. "This is a large bomber, attacking enemy warships. It's difficult to pull up in time after dropping the bombs."

Charles said "hmm".

Charles was not worried about this. After so many air battles, the aviation regiment had trained a large number of experienced pilots.

In addition, although the "Caproni" is a large bomber, its speed is maintained at around 100 kilometers per hour, and there is more than a minute of reaction time for dropping a torpedo at a distance of two kilometers, which is enough for the pilot to increase the speed.

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

Those adventurous guys always like to challenge their limits in a heart-pounding way, just to cheer at the sky after they succeed. 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 Gaiplat has arrived, and he wants to talk to you."

(End of this chapter)