Chapter 336: The Butcher

At night, on the edge of a quiet airfield runway, one Fw-190 fighter after another was parked. Not far away, a row of hangars was still brig

At night, on the edge of a quiet airfield runway, one Fw-190 fighter after another was parked. Not far away, a row of hangars was still brightly lit. This was a huge field airfield in the Netherlands. It had originally been a large airfield where the British and French air forces were stationed. Now, it had become one of the main airfields for the German air force units stationed in the Netherlands.

In the distance, a row of undulating black shadows was faintly visible. It seemed that something even more massive was parked there, exuding a suffocating and intimidating power. No one knew what these weapons were, because from the moment they had arrived at the airfield, this place had been garrisoned by countless soldiers.

“Heil Führer Akado Rudolph!” two mechanics who were busy at work saw the person walking over and quickly stood at attention. The two of them were still holding wrenches in their hands, and after a moment of fumbling, they finally completed the etiquette.

“Heil Führer Akado Rudolph,” the visitor returned the salute with his hand, looking very meticulous. After he had returned the salute, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the behemoth behind the two technicians, lost in thought.

This could be said to be one of the most terrifying aerial weapons he had ever seen. It could almost be said to be the backbone of the German Air Force’s offensive power in the next few years. This was the German version of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, which the German Führer, Akado, had personally named “the Butcher.”

This bomber was not to be underestimated. This was a German improved version of the American super strategic bombing weapon from another timeline, the B-17 Flying Fortress, a design in which Akado had personally participated. For this bomber to appear at this stage was not good news for its target, Britain.

It had a huge wingspan of over 30 meters, a massive fuselage a full 22 meters long, and was a huge plane almost three stories high. Even Dick had to admit the shocking power that this giant plane brought him. He had seen this plane fly to high altitude with his own eyes, but even he himself had never seen what a spectacular sight it was for a full 44 of these planes to fly in formation.

Before this plane had been produced by the German aviation enterprises, Dick had not believed that a bomber could contend with a fighter attack. But after seeing this huge guy, he had to admit—this plane did not need to rely on speed to evade any interception. It just had to rely on its own firepower to smash any fighter that came up to provoke it.

What gave Dick this confidence was nothing else but the fact that this plane was installed with thirteen 13mm machine guns and 20mm cannons that could fire in different directions, installed in all corners of the plane, and could fire in almost any direction. Such a massive plane was simply an aerial gunship, enough to destroy any fighter approaching from any angle in mid-air.

The interior of the spherical turret could accommodate one gunner curled up inside. The gunner would aim at the target through a sight in front of his left eye and use a control stick and foot pedals to control the rotation and elevation of the turret. Because the space inside the turret was very small, the gunners of the belly turrets of these 44 Butcher strategic bombers were all uniformly German female soldiers.

These female gunners entered and exited through a hatch at the back of the turret, which was also the emergency escape hatch in case of a malfunction. When the turret was turned to face downward, the hatch could be opened from inside the plane, and the gunner could enter the turret from inside the plane. When the turret was turned to a horizontal position, the hatch was completely exposed on the outside of the fuselage, and the gunner could also enter the turret from the ground.

But as soon as the gunner entered the turret from the ground, this meant that he could only stay inside during takeoff. When the plane was on the ground, the ground clearance of the turret was only 32 centimeters, and it was impossible to turn the turret to a downward position. The feeling of taking off or landing at a place only 32 centimeters from the ground was definitely not wonderful, and once the landing gear malfunctioned, the consequences would be unimaginable. So the Butcher’s user manual strictly stipulated that all belly gunners must enter the turret from inside the fuselage after the plane had taken off.

The premise was that there were planes that could fly to the altitude of this plane to intercept it. This plane could climb to an altitude of 10,000 meters and, at this altitude, could drop its bombs to attack ground targets. Although the bombing accuracy of doing so was not high, Germany had always had excellent performance in the research of bombsights, so they were confident that the new bombsight could compensate for the impact of high-altitude bombing on accuracy.

In addition, although this Butcher bomber was derived from the B-17, it had some slight differences from the B-17. For example, due to production process problems, Germany’s Butcher used a greenhouse cockpit with braced, flat glass, which reduced the use of most curved plexiglass.

And because of the performance problems of its engines and the consideration of pursuing range, this plane had given up 2 tons of effective payload. That is to say, when carrying out a long-range bombing mission of about 3,500 kilometers, the bomb load of this Butcher bomber was only 6 tons.

The only thing that made the air force commanders’ hearts pound was that this plane actually required a crew of ten. Although the five machine gun self-defense weapon controllers did not need any precise training, for Germany, the operating cost of this one plane was also too expensive.

One had to know that for this one plane to fly into the sky to carry out a combat mission was to send tons of expensive steel and alloy metals, as well as ten soldiers, into the enemy-occupied airspace. For a country like Germany, where every pilot was hard-won, this was actually a very risky move.

If it weren’t for the fact that the combat mission this time was too tempting, if it weren’t for the fact that the combat mission this time was of great significance, then as the deputy commander of the air force, Dick would not have agreed to organize such a crazy offensive plan so hastily.

“The bombs have all been loaded, General,” an officer following behind Dick reported. “The pilots of these bombers have all undergone strict night flight training. This flight mission will enter enemy airspace at night and return during the day.”

To prepare for this bombing, Germany had mobilized almost all the war machines in its hands and had drawn up a massive operational plan.

First was the arrangement of the flight time. These strategic bombers would take off and form up at night and then fly toward the British capital of London, which was to be bombed. These planes would rendezvous at sea with the naval fighters that had taken off from the aircraft carriers in the early morning and, protected by these escort fighters, would launch a surprise attack on London to carry out the bombing mission.

Then the naval fighters would begin their return journey due to fuel issues. The bombers would climb to an altitude of 10,000 meters to shake off the intercepting British fighters and begin their return journey. And on the way back, the escort mission for the bomber group would be taken over by the land-based fighter formations taking off from the Netherlands, and they would return to the Netherlands under the escort of the fighter groups.

Forty-four Butcher bombers would carry a full 260 tons of bombs and drop them on the British capital, bringing fear and disaster to the British government. This operation was named “Operation Samsara” by the air force. The purpose was very simple: to retaliate for the British spies’ assassination attempt on Akado Rudolph.

After learning of this operational plan drawn up by Kesselring, Akado was silent for a long time, because he knew that in World War II, the German Air Force had lost its tactical advantage in the Battle of Britain precisely because of retaliatory actions.

In Akado’s mind, the German Air Force should use its technological advantage to bomb Britain’s airfields and factories, to destroy Britain’s war potential, rather than baring its teeth at the useless civilian houses of London for the sake of a retaliatory action.

So Akado had told his thoughts to General Kesselring, hoping that he could understand him. General Kesselring had also, after hearing Akado’s concerns, expressed to the Führer that the German Air Force’s bombing in the future would absolutely take factories and airfields as its main targets, and that this retaliatory action was carried out entirely for Akado personally.

So Akado had no choice but to nod and agree, and to be on the safe side, he had ordered the air force and navy to fully cooperate with this air raid. Of course, to ensure the absolute safety of the navy and air force units, Akado had even personally ordered Dönitz to dispatch three submarines that were returning for replenishment to scout the naval route in advance.

Such an interlocking plan could be said to be seamless. The submarine force would scout the movements of the British navy and clear the way for the carrier fleet. The carriers would launch their carrier-based aircraft to escort the strategic bombers and then quickly gather their planes and return to the Netherlands. Then the bomber units would return to base, covered by the land-based fighter units as they left the battlefield.

Everything will begin tonight. It seems that everything will also end tomorrow, Dick thought to himself. He nodded, patted the shoulder of the air force colonel who was introducing the work progress, and said, “I know that tonight, you will create a miracle in the history of the German Air Force. I wish you success.”

“General, sir! We will do our utmost to complete the mission! The Führer will protect us!” the colonel said. “I will personally lead the air group to complete the mission. The British will pay the price for their act of assassinating the Führer!”

“Bring these excellent pilots… back alive,” Dick said softly, looking at the huge four-engine strategic bomber beside him.

Soon, Dick, escorted by his guards, returned to the control tower. There, with the help of the lights on the runway, one after another, the huge “Butchers” began to take off. The roar of their four engines could be heard clearly by General Dick even inside the control tower.

“Revenge 1, this is Revenge 2. I can see your night flying lights! The visibility is very good! No different from night flight training!” a pilot in his headset was trying to fly in formation.

A short while later, 44 planes had already completed their formation in the sky not far away. They maintained a safe flying distance from each other and, in the dark sky, relying on the command of their navigators, they flew toward the operational target of this mission.

“Flight formation assembled! Operation Samsara officially begins!” the colonel, as the frontline formation commander, reported to General Dick in his headset. “I hope we can complete the mission!”