Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

At this time, the German engineers on the front line were still struggling to build a pontoon bridge on the Maas River under the illumination of searchlights.

When the original time and space attacked France, the main force of German tanks was still No. 2 and No. 3 tanks, and there were even many No. 1 tanks. When they crossed the Maas River, they built a sixteen-ton pontoon bridge that was enough to allow the armored troops to pass.

Now the German Jackal tanks weigh more than 20 tons. If you want these big guys to pass, you have to build a 30-ton heavy pontoon bridge.

Although it slows down the erection progress, it is not without benefits. The current of the Maas River is very fast, and the light pontoon bridge has a large swing. A heavier pontoon bridge can bring better stability and allow armored troops to pass safely and quickly.

At this moment, the shrill air defense siren sounded again in the sky, and a staff officer hurried into the frontline headquarters. "General, our mines have detected the incoming aircraft group! It should be a medium-sized bomber group of the coalition forces. It seems that there is no fighter escort!"

Although war is cruel and logically war destroys civilization, war is often a catalyst for technology and civilization, such as radar, computers, and nuclear energy.

It is difficult to say who was the inventor of the first radar, but later generations generally believe that the earliest military radar put into use was developed by the United Kingdom, in which British scientist Robert Watson Watt played a key role.

In the 1930s, as the German Air Force grew stronger, the Empire on which the sun never sets across the sea felt obvious pressure. Britain must come up with ways to check and balance this menacing air power. They intended to create a very effective air defense force. A "death ray" that can incapacitate a pilot, stop an engine, or simply blow up a plane.

The British authorities approached Watson, an expert physicist, hoping he could find a solution. Watson also painstakingly conducted some research and found that it is theoretically feasible to use electromagnetic radiation to kill enemy pilots. But he also discovered that although magnetrons could be used to emit microwave radiation into the sky, it was difficult to penetrate cumulus clouds and the energy beam was difficult to hit enemy aircraft. If it hit, it would not be enough to kill the pilot because of the energy attenuation.

The principle of this "death ray" is similar to that of a microwave oven. The difficulty faced by Watson was that he could not build a huge "microwave oven".

So Watson came up with another idea: Let the magnetron emit radio waves and install a device that can receive the reflected waves, so that the movement of the aircraft can be detected at a long distance. Following this line of thinking, the equipment he studied can detect enemy aircraft 100 miles away. This is mankind's first radar.

Although Germany also attaches great importance to radar, it is a pity that the magnetron technology is not up to standard and the radar cannot be miniaturized, and its display and detection range are not as good as British products.

Fortunately, Yannick had prepared for this early and hired many talents from the United Kingdom and the United States. Currently, Germany's radar has been motorized. The "Hawkeye One" vehicle-mounted radar, which is also a modified Jackal tank chassis, was launched this evening. It drove out of the Ardennes Forest and deployed on the nearby highlands. Although the power of this kind of vehicle-mounted radar is far inferior to that of large radar stations, it still has a detection range of 60 kilometers, which is quite good.

"These guys won't let you rest for a while." Guderian, who was standing in front of the map to study the nearby terrain, frowned and couldn't help but frown. "Is Troop X in position?"

"Already in place."

Guderian nodded with satisfaction and issued the order to implement light control.

The reason why the British and French forces wanted to bomb at night was because they were forced to do so.

During the day today, a large-scale air battle broke out over the Sedan Fortress. The German aviation forces dispatched more than 800 sorties in total to intercept the surprise attack by the British and French coalition forces.

Under the interception of BF-109F fighters, Mosquitoes, and ground anti-aircraft fire, the British and French forces lost nearly two hundred fighter jets, and the bomber group was completely wiped out.

At this point, of the 474 Royal Air Force aircraft stationed in France, only 206 aircraft were left for combat, and bombers suffered particularly heavy losses.

Hugh Dowding, commander of the Royal Air Force Fighter Wing, and Arthur Harris, commander of the Royal Air Force bombers, received this loss report and almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

You must know that as long as the resources can keep up, the factory can continuously produce aircraft. But pilots are different. Pilots need to learn all kinds of knowledge and spend a lot of money on various trainings. In some cases, the training cost of pilots is even more expensive than that of fighter jets.

What's even more heartbreaking is that if an air battle occurs over one's own control area, as long as the parachuting pilot is not injured, he can immediately fly a new aircraft and return to the battlefield. But so far, the two large-scale air battles have occurred over areas controlled by the German army. As a result, when an air battle broke out, the German ground troops were all around looking for the parachuting coalition pilots.

These coalition pilots who fell from the sky were either captured or injured during resistance, and very few of them could escape. These pilots were all elites who were trained with high standards and strict requirements before the outbreak of the war. It was not easy to replenish them. Losing so many at once would seriously damage the vitality of the British Empire Air Force.

Royal Air Force bomber commander Arthur Harris looked at the intelligence officer expectantly. "The bombing achieved the expected results, right?" But even if the bombing achieved the expected results, they still lost blood. After all, the pontoon bridge is not a stone bridge or a steel bridge. Even if it is blown up, it can be repaired quickly.

"A certain effect has been achieved..." The intelligence officer hesitated before giving such an ambiguous answer. "However, the specific situation needs further confirmation."

In the sky, Mosquitoes, as light as swallows and fierce in firepower, chased the coalition bombers, while the anti-aircraft fire on the ground intertwined a dense firepower network. Even if the bombers of the British and French coalition dropped bombs, they dropped bombs indiscriminately, and the bomber group was completely annihilated in the end. , no one can tell whether it hit the target or not.

"!!" Arthur Harris, heartbroken, simply ordered the bombers of the French troops to be dispatched only at night, because they could no longer bear the huge losses caused by such a suicidal battle.

Gamelin of France almost fainted when he received the report of the results of the battle. "God, why is this happening?!" Compared with the losses of the British Air Force, France's losses were even more horrific. France has lost more than 700 aircraft so far, and many more crew members.

But no matter how shocked or regretful they were, the German pontoon bridge on the Meuse River had to be destroyed, and the British and French forces could only bite the bullet and carry out night bombing.

This is really tough. You have to know that the current bombing accuracy during the day is poor enough, let alone bombing at night when you can't see your fingers. The most terrible thing is that the target is not a city, but a pontoon bridge with a width of less than four meters on the river. If this can hit, it will be a blessing from God.

But they had no choice. Once the main armored force of the German army crossed the Meuse River, the winner of the war would be almost decided. The loser was of course France. After all, the British army could still return to the mainland and stand firm.

As the blackout order was issued, the German landing area instantly fell into lifeless darkness.

This made the pilot of the coalition bomber group very difficult.

There was darkness ahead, and no target signs could be seen!

The biggest advantage of night bombing is that you don't have to worry about interception by the opponent's fighter jets. After all, slow bombers are like fish on the chopping board in front of fighter jets.

However, the biggest problem in night bombing is finding the target.

"Continue to lower the altitude." The air commander gave the order decisively. "Descent to a height of one thousand meters."