Chapter 826 They Can Stop Any Enemy
Normally, the airport's cordon should be 50 kilometers away.
In this way, when an enemy plane approaches at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, the airport has about 20 minutes to react.
(Note: At this time, many fighter jets can reach a maximum speed of about 190 kilometers per hour, but it is difficult to always maintain the maximum speed. Most of them fly at cruising speed and then fight at the maximum speed)
During these 20 minutes, the airport can urgently launch fighter jets and prepare for combat.
Therefore, even if there is no war, the airport will send fighter jets to patrol from time to time. Once they discover the enemy, they will immediately return and warn with flares.
However, once all patrolling fighter jets are shot down, there will be a fatal window of gap in the airport's vigilance.
Therefore, on rainy days with poor visibility, airports usually need to dispatch fighter patrols more intensively to guard against possible sneak attacks by the enemy.
The problem is…
The British Air Force has been in "comfort" for too long.
Nearly two years have passed since the war began, and France and Britain have always maintained air supremacy on the Western Front, and the "Camel" fighter is considered to be the most advanced fighter in the world.
All British commanders, including Colonel Hubert, did not believe that the four patrolling fighters would all be shot down.
Therefore, no one took the warning seriously.
…
The rain kept falling, making a "rustling" sound, like a bead curtain drawn down from the sky.
Occasionally there are rumbling thunder, but strangely there is no lightning.
Then Hubert frowned.
It wasn't thunder, it was supposed to be the roar of an airplane engine.
Because the sound of thunder changes, sometimes louder, sometimes smaller, and sometimes intermittent.
But the sound continued and gradually became louder, as if telling Hubert that they were approaching.
Hubert habitually picked up the telescope around his neck, looked up at the sky, and searched carefully in the aperture.
Nothing at all.
Just as Hubert was secretly relieved, suddenly a red fuselage swooped down from the clouds at a speed that made Hubert gasp.
Hubert hoped it was his plane, but he could clearly see the black cross on its wing.
"Enemy planes!" Colonel Hubert turned around and shouted, "Alert, fighter planes take off, now!"
The staff officer was stunned for a moment, but then he reacted immediately. He rushed to the command desk in a few steps, grabbed the microphone and shouted:
"Enemy attack, take off immediately, take off immediately!"
"Attention, this is not a drill!"
"All units ready for air defense!"
…
The shrill air raid alarm sounded and the pilots ran hurriedly towards their planes, putting on their flight suits as they ran.
The ground crew shouted and lifted the raincoat draped over the fighter plane, and hurriedly pulled it aside to prevent it from being caught in the propeller.
The anti-aircraft unit loaded its machine guns with bullets and pointed them upwards towards the sky...
But it was too late.
A "Camel" had just entered the runway and started to taxi and accelerate when two red fighter planes swooped down like lightning and strafed the plane.
The bullets created splashes of water in the mud and water of the airport, heading straight for the "camel" that was trying to escape.
With a loud "bang", it seemed that the engine was pierced and caused an explosion. The "Camel" fighter instantly turned into a fireball and crashed into the plane parked on the side of the runway at high speed.
There was a series of "boom boom" explosions and the fire quickly spread throughout the plane.
The airport was in chaos in an instant, with people trying to put out the fire, try to seize the planes, and clear the runway. Machine gun bullets were fired into the air in rows, but they were just a drop in the bucket.
The German army was unwilling to let their opponents go easily. The red fighter planes swooped down one after another and strafed the "Camel" fighter planes below.
The German army adopted a very clever strafing tactic. Their planes formed a circle in squadrons and dived and strafed repeatedly.
If the front fighter plane fails to hit the target due to high angle, the rear fighter plane will slightly raise the angle along the same route, otherwise it will lower the angle.
That is to say, you can rely on the more accurate strafing of the fighter planes in front.
Then, row after row of bullets poured down, knocking the busy British pilots and ground crew below into a pool of blood, or smashing the "Camel" into a pile of scrap wood.
Some of the Camels had their fuel tanks pierced, and gasoline leaked out from the bullet holes and flowed toward the fire along with the rain.
With a "bang", the flame followed the gasoline back and ignited the fuel tank, causing another series of explosions.
Colonel Hubert stood on the tower and watched all this in disbelief.
This is impossible. There are at least 60 German fighter planes here. How could they suddenly appear over the airport without any warning?
What about the patrol? Where are they?
At this moment, a red shadow swooped towards the tower.
“Da da da!”
Bullets flew everywhere with broken glass, and Colonel Hubert felt a pain in his chest and lost consciousness.
…
It was only then that Haig received the intelligence.
"General." The staff officer reported: "The Rambeville Airport was attacked by German fighter planes, causing heavy casualties. Colonel Hubert was seriously injured!"
"What?" Haig didn't believe it. "How is that possible? That's our Camel fighter!"
If there was one thing in the British Expeditionary Force that Haig could be completely confident in, it was the Air Corps.
But now I heard that it suffered "heavy losses" and even the commander was seriously injured!
"General," the staff officer explained, "It's a new German fighter, a triplane. Its performance may even be better than the Camel."
In fact, this had nothing to do with the "new fighter planes" but was entirely due to the British Air Corps' underestimation of the enemy.
But of course, the British won't say that, they will find more reasonable and publicly acceptable reasons.
Haig knew it, but he didn't say it out loud, and he was happy to accept this answer.
"How much damage?" Haig asked sullenly, "How many fighters do we have left?"
"I'm not sure, General." The staff officer replied, "The battle is still going on. The only remaining fighters may be those parked in the hangar and not discovered."
Haig's eyes went dark. The Rambeville Airport was newly built and the hangar could only accommodate more than 30 fighter planes.
This means that more than a hundred fighter planes were destroyed in this battle alone?
The actual situation was worse than Haig had imagined. The hangar was affected by the fire and caught fire. An oil depot was also blown up. In the end, only 7 "Camels" were rescued.
After a moment of silence, the staff officer cautiously suggested: "General, perhaps we should ask Charles for help..."
"No!" Haig rejected the suggestion without thinking.
When the colonial army "mutinized" and hoped that Charles would command them in battle, asking Charles for help would be a slap in the face.
"We can solve this problem." Haig said coldly: "It's the rainy season now, and the planes won't have much impact on the war situation!"
He still didn't expect the Germans to launch a full-scale attack.
Or in his mind, he thought that even if the German army launched a full-scale attack, even if the colonial army refused to follow orders and was in chaos, there were still more than 200,000 British troops on the second line and more than a thousand heavy artillery.
Haig was convinced that they could stop any attacking enemy!
(End of this chapter)
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