Chapter 374: Bombing London Again

The Butcher bomber could be considered one of the most advanced long-range strategic bombers in the world. The world’s first ultra-long-range strategic bomber force, which Akado had spent a fortune to build, had left an indelible and terrifying impression on the British after its debut.

And now, the Butcher bomber group, which had initially scared all of London with just 44 aircraft, had, excluding the planes in a state of repair, grown to a full 102 aircraft. It could be truly said to be a sky-covering force. These bombers were now dispersed among four airfields and were being intensively loaded with ammunition.

Bright lights made the entire airfield as bright as day. The ground crew, shouting slogans, hung 250-kilogram bombs inside the planes’ bomb bays. A special symbol was painted on these bombs, a thick red line that circled the entire body of the bomb, looking as if it were dripping with fresh blood, making one shudder.

“Be careful! Don’t let any problems occur! This is our army’s secret weapon! You must ensure that every single bomb will explode. Duds are not allowed!” a technician commanded loudly as he checked the screws on a bomb.

All the ground crew soldiers replied solemnly, “Yes, sir!” and then continued their inspection and loading with even greater care.

This was Germany’s napalm. As a new type of weapon, it was strictly kept secret. The bright red on the bomb’s body represented fire and was the distinguishing color of this new type of bomb. And for any such bomb, it had to be stored and guarded by a special unit. Until it was loaded onto the plane, it had to be registered and recorded, and not a single bomb was allowed to have any mishap.

It was precisely this new type of bomb that had completely destroyed the factories and equipment of Manchester. It was also this new type of bomb that had taken the lives of several thousand of Britain’s skilled technical workers in one go, causing Britain’s fighter production plan to instantly collapse by half its capacity.

It was because of the great bombing of Manchester that the number of Hurricane fighters the British could now muster was only 60, which was less than the number of strategic bombers that Germany could launch. What was even more tragic was that the British Navy had just suffered a disastrous defeat, which had made the German Navy attack the British coastal cities, especially Edinburgh, with even more impunity.

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland. It is close to the famous Firth of Forth and is one of the four major cities of Scotland. It is the center of Scotland’s judiciary, banking, insurance, and investment, as well as a center of academia and medicine. Its main industries include food, machinery, electrical appliances, printing, shipbuilding, and chemicals. Especially in the two areas of machinery manufacturing and shipbuilding, after being bombed by the German naval air arm, the British had lost even more of their foundation.

The shipyards and docks of Edinburgh had been bombed, and the equipment of the nearby chemical factories had also been destroyed, directly polluting the waters. The British Navy’s refusal to fight had accelerated the destruction of Edinburgh. The German Navy’s bomber units had spent three days air-raiding the shipyards and had, in one go, bombed an aircraft carrier that was under construction in Britain into a state of ruin.

To withstand the Germans’ frantic attacks, the British government had mobilized a full 200 P-36 fighters and 30 Hurricane fighters in an attempt to defend the facilities of Edinburgh. The two sides had engaged in a fierce air battle near the coastline. The British Air Force had shot down 17 German fighters, but had themselves paid the tragic price of 73 fighters.

It was clear that just relying on the navy to air-raid the British heartland was not the result that Akado wanted to see, nor was it the ultimate mission of the carrier-based aircraft units. So the German Air Force, at Akado’s suggestion, had prepared this large-scale air raid on Britain.

“Are we going to London a second time?” a pilot asked, taking the newly unsealed plan, reading a couple of pages, and then looking up at the overall commander of the bomber front, Colonel Niels, who was beside him.

Colonel Niels, who had already led his troops in two large-scale bombings of Britain, grinned. “This time, we are not actually going to bomb London, but to destroy these targets.”

As he spoke, he pointed to the areas around London. “Our spies have discovered that the British are developing equipment similar to our radar system here. Once this equipment is successfully put into combat, it will threaten the survival of our army’s bombers. So we will go to these areas and flatten their research bases and factories.”

“In addition,” Niels pointed to another place and continued his introduction, “here and here, the British are still producing planes, slowly accumulating the number of Hurricane fighters. Once the number of this type of fighter begins to increase, it will also be an unnecessary trouble for us.”

“We will drop our bombs densely here, here, and here,” Niels said, pointing to some marked locations and carefully arranging the mission for each crew. “Subsequently, we will take off at dawn, form up in the air, and then go around to the Dunkirk area of France and fly to London. If the bombing confirms the destruction of the targets, and there is still remaining ammunition that has not been dropped, then we will enter the airspace over London to drop our bombs!”

“During the day? Not taking off now?” a pilot asked with a frown. “If we bomb during the day, the other side’s fighters will be able to intercept more timely. What if we are intercepted?”

“They won’t. This time, we have a new partner,” Colonel Niels said, patting the shoulder of a new pilot and revealing the reason for his good mood today with a smile. “The combat engineers have repaired five field airfields in the Dunkirk area. This time, 50 Fw-190D fighters will provide us with an escort—if the Englishmen don’t come, that’s one thing. But if they do, our fighters will let them know what ‘no return’ means!”

Planes for escort? Hearing this news, the navigators and pilots of the bombers immediately relaxed a little and laughed and nodded. “If the Fw-190D can follow us, then we can rest assured! This time, let them see what it means to be overwhelming! Hahaha!”

How could they not be excited? The two previous bombings had been carried out without fighter escort, and both had been completed precariously, by luck. They had relied on frequently and irregularly changing their bombing locations, and also on the fatal weakness of the insufficient number of British fighters, to barely complete the feat of bombing.

But this time was different. This time, they were going openly and honestly, to destroy their opponent with the most brutal means, to make the British Air Force not dare to respond, to raze the British industrial facilities to the ground, and to take out all who came to block them this time, without any mercy.

“Do you all understand the mission?” Niels asked, standing in front of the line and staring at his subordinates.

“Understood!” everyone replied at attention.

“For the Führer!” Niels shouted at attention.

“Heil Führer Akado Rudolph!” everyone raised their arms and shouted, giving a German salute.

“All personnel, after you have taken care of your business, board your planes, start your engines, and begin to line up for takeoff!” After giving all the instructions, Niels looked at his watch and then at the sky. He saw that the sky was already showing the first light of dawn, so he waved his hand and gave the command loudly, “Dismissed.”

With the order to prepare for takeoff, many of the female gunners began to run toward the temporary toilets that had been prepared for them on the edge of the airfield runway. There, they could take care of their various problems—they were simple latrines like tents, with a wooden bucket inside. Before the planes took off, all of these would be moved away by the ground crew.

“Vroom! Vroom!” A dozen or so minutes later, Niels, sitting in his plane, could only hear the roar of the engines and the confirmation sounds from the various flight crews.

“Number 4 is ready! Requesting takeoff!” “Number 5 is ready, cleared for takeoff!” “Number 7 is ready, can take off at any time!” “This is number 11, ready!” One after another, the “ready” reports came through the headset. Niels nodded to the pilot beside him, signaling for him to increase the engine thrust.

The plane moved slowly forward, increasing its speed bit by bit, and also lining up with the long runway bit by bit. Subsequently, the huge power from the engines pulled the plane rapidly forward. All the way to the end of the runway, the plane’s huge landing gear finally left the ground, dipping slightly as it lost its load.

Following that, with the plane’s takeoff, the landing gear began to slowly retract into the plane. The gunners waiting in the cabin nodded their heads slightly with the vibration of the plane. They all had their own small seats to fix their bodies in when the plane took off.

Soon, all 27 planes commanded by Colonel Niels had taken to the sky. At an altitude of 6,000 meters, they had formed up into their own flight formation. Soon they discovered that another bomber formation was on their left flank. The two huge bomber formations converged, creating a sense of a dense swarm.

Soon, another huge Butcher bomber formation had also converged. There were a full 50 of them. The two huge aircraft formations merged together, finally and truly forming the bomber group for this mission.

One hundred and two bombers flew at an altitude of 6,000 meters, covering the sky. From a distance, it looked like a swarm of locusts passing through. On the German anti-aircraft positions they passed, several German soldiers standing by their 88mm anti-aircraft guns looked up. At this moment, their hearts were filled with incomparable pride. One must know that when they had seen this scene in another world, their mood had been quite a different story.

Over Dunkirk, the German fighter units that had just taken off were also densely packed. These Fw-190D fighters, with their drop tanks, had already climbed to a high altitude of about 8,000 meters. They saw the bomber formation they were to escort and were also so awed by the terrifying aura of the Butcher bomber group that they were speechless.

“God bless me! Those fair duels will never happen again. We are a deluge, enough to destroy everything,” a German pilot later wrote in his diary. “The British are finished!”

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