Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Thousands of fighter jets, bombers, and attack aircraft crossed the border in a mighty manner and violently bombed French airports, railway hubs, and heavily trooped areas, including the Sedan Fortress.

Listening to the shrill air defense sirens ringing in the fortress, Brigadier General Henri Jean Lafontaine, commander of the 55th Infantry Division, remained calm and composed. The Sedan Fortress is not like the Eben Emare Fortress in Belgium, which only has a few anti-aircraft machine guns. Air defense issues have been considered during the construction of the fortress, and a considerable number of air defense positions have been deployed to allow enemy bombers to carry out low-altitude bombing. High-altitude bombing has no accuracy at all, and there is no way to accurately hit fortress facilities.

Moreover, French senior officials unanimously believed that Germany's move was nothing more than a clumsy plan to lure the British and French main forces in Belgium to retreat so that they could attack Brussels.

Brigadier General Lafontaine was right. Horizontal bombing in this era was indeed difficult to accurately hit ground targets, but this time it was a Stuka formation that attacked.

When densely packed Stukas flew over the fortress, the fortress's anti-aircraft guns began to counterattack, firing strings of shells into the air desperately. Air-burst shells continued to shoot black "roses" one after another in the sky; unfortunately, these failed to stop the "cordial greetings" from the Stuka bombers.

One after another, the Stukas dived to the ground, the screams they made were breathtaking. Bombs of various types landed accurately on the fortress's air defense positions. Almost every time they dived, one of the air defense positions would misfire.

Listening to the successive reports of loss of contact from the air defense positions outside, Brigadier General Lafontaine's face became extremely ugly. "Damn it, when did the German bombers become so powerful?!"

In less than half an hour, the German bombers had not shot down a few bombers, and half of the fortress's air defense position had been lost.

The Stuka formations that had thrown away all their bombs walked away. Before the French troops in the fortress could breathe a sigh of relief, the second batch of Stuka formations came again and continued to dive and drop bombs to destroy the anti-aircraft positions.

In less than an hour, all the fortress's air defense positions were wiped out.

Brigadier General Lafontaine stared at the staff officer who came to report in stunned silence, not knowing what to say. Strong uneasiness surged in my heart. Without the air defense position, those bombers would be more unscrupulous? How long can this fortress last? "Where are our fighter jets?!"

The staff officer looked sad. "I've been here a long time ago, but I was intercepted by German fighter jets and couldn't get through at all!"

Brigadier General Lafontaine said with some disbelief. "Didn't we invest in the latest 520 fighter jets? Can't we beat the German planes?!" The previous air battles have proved that the 406 fighter jets are no match for the German fighter jets. So they hurriedly put in the latest production 520 fighter jets.

The 520 fighter is the best-performing fighter independently designed and manufactured by France. Although this type of combat performance is similar to the Zero fighter, its stability and protection are stronger than the Zero fighter. Its top speed reaches 534 Kilometers, the fighter's weapons are equipped with a 20mm cannon in the nose and four 5mm machine guns in the wings. It can be said that it is very powerful in terms of firepower.

However, compared to the German BF-109F, the 520 fighter only has an advantage in range (maximum range 1530km), and falls behind in other aspects.

As for the short leg problem of the BF-109, although aerial refueling technology came out as early as 1923, it is unrealistic to refuel hundreds or even thousands of fighter jets in the air.

With current technology, the only way to extend the range or stay in the air is to mount drop tanks to carry fuel.

This has to be said about the UK.

Although the various incredible black technologies of Germany during World War II are much talked about in later generations, the British also have a lot of good stuff.

Even Americans covet the Rolls-Royce Merlin liquid-cooled engine. If the American Mustang fighter had not been equipped with the British Merlin engine, it would not have become the pinnacle of piston fighters.

The British Gloster Meteor jet fighter was the only jet aircraft capable of actual combat by the Allies during World War II.

The British invented airborne jammers such as the "airborne cigar" and "aluminum foil jammer", which opened the prelude to electronic warfare.

The sonar, anti-submarine searchlights, and hedgehog bombs that terrified German submarines were all British inventions.

The British Army is no less impressive and has developed various types of tanks, including the Comet tank that can compete with the German "Leopard" and the "Centurion" heavy tank that served most countries in the West after the war. Britain's infrared detection and night vision technology has been applied in various fields. Weapons such as sticky anti-tank grenades and folding military motorcycles are the envy of other countries. In addition, the UK has also developed radar and radar beam-controlled surface-to-air missiles. It even started a nuclear weapons research and development project, but it was later merged with the United States' Manhattan Project due to security reasons.

In order to extend the flight time of fighter jets over the European continent, the British designed an ingenious paper auxiliary fuel tank.

The tank is manufactured from kraft paper impregnated with resorcinol glue and is divided into three main components: nose cone, tail cone and body. To ensure uniformity of the shell, the components were molded in wooden molds, using a manufacturing process similar to today's composite parts. After the auxiliary fuel tank is manufactured, it must be pressure tested. After passing the test, it will be painted with two layers of cellulose paint and two layers of metallic paint.

The paper drop tank produced in this way is not only waterproof, but also has excellent resistance to extreme cold and hot environments.

Although paper auxiliary fuel tanks have the advantages of low cost, weight and easy handling by ground crews, and saving a lot of metal materials, they are not without disadvantages. Because the glue in the fuel tank will slowly dissolve when soaked in gasoline, causing the fuel tank to leak oil after a few hours, the paper auxiliary fuel tank is a one-time use item and is only filled with fuel before takeoff. Moreover, the strength of the auxiliary fuel tank cannot support the landing of the aircraft with the aircraft mounted, so sometimes even if the pilot does not use up all the fuel in the auxiliary fuel tank, he must throw away the auxiliary fuel tank when returning to ensure safety.

However, in general, this kind of paper auxiliary fuel tank is quite suitable for Germany, which is not very rich in resources. It greatly increases the airborne time and range of the short-legged BF-109, and is very good at intercepting the French fighter jets that come to support, and with They fight together.

When the second batch of Stukas left and the third batch arrived, the French fighter jets failed to break through the interception of the German fighter jets. Brigadier General Lafontaine could only listen to the explosions one after another in depression, which was the sound of the fortress's firepower points being destroyed one by one by the Stuka.

At this moment, a staff officer ran over with a panicked look on his face. "General, general, no good! German armored forces!!"

"What?!" Brigadier Lafontaine was shocked. "German armored forces? Why are there Germans here? Where did they come from?!"

"The Ardennes Forest, they rushed out of the Ardennes Forest!!"