Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Germany has always kept its word. Twenty-four hours after the bombing warning, thousands of bombers, escorted by fighter jets, flew across the Channel toward the British mainland.

The escort fighters are BF109F and FW190. Half of these BF109Fs are Italian and Vichy French fighters. There are many types of bombers. In addition to the German He-177, Mosquito, Stuka, and A-1 attack aircraft, there are also French Ameo bombers and Italian 79 "Sparrowhawks" and "Storks". Type 20 bomber and so on. Nowadays, France and Italy (as well as the other German-occupied countries) are uniformly producing German-standard weapons and equipment, so these bombers are usually kept in warehouses to take up space. Now there is an opportunity to take them out and throw them away until they are scrapped. .

The observers at the British Coast Watch looked at the fleet of aircraft in the sky in horror. The hand that picked up the phone couldn't help shaking, and even the words were stuttering. "Planes, there are German planes everywhere above my head, thousands of them!"

"..." Dowding in the headquarters listened to the reports sent one after another from the radar station, and looked at the densely packed enemy aircraft signs on the flat sign table, his face became extremely gloomy.

Yesterday, he asked Prime Minister Churchill for instructions. Should the air force take off to respond to the enemy?

The answer was. "At your own discretion."

And he still hasn't decided whether to take off a fighter jet to intercept. He only has 600 fighter planes available, 200 of which need to be kept as reserves and must not be used until the last moment when the German troops land on the British mainland. There are still 200 to defend London. Although London is still under bombardment at this time, those are 150mm artillery shells. To destroy London with this kind of artillery shells, it would not take more than a year and a half.

Bombers are different. They drop tons of bombs, and even a large city cannot withstand them.

Based on this calculation, the remaining 200 fighter jets may not even be enough to fill people's teeth. The situation is even more difficult than in the original time and space.

In the original Sea Lion plan, the German Air Force planned to launch air strikes against important targets along the southern coast of England. The purpose was to eliminate the main force of the British fighter force, then send bombers to attack the British fleet, and finally allow the navy to concentrate its ships to send the German army to the British mainland.

For this plan, the German Air Force concentrated 2,669 combat aircraft, while the British Air Force opposite had only more than 700 fighters and more than 500 bombers.

Just looking at numbers, Germany completely overwhelms Britain, and Britain is not as good as Germany in terms of fighter performance. The Hurricane fighter is no match for the German BF109 fighter, and there are fewer cutting-edge Spitfire fighters. Fighting against the Luftwaffe seemed like an easy matter.

But after a year of competition, the German Air Force failed. Due to the loss of too many fighter planes and pilots, the inability to gain air superiority over the English Channel, and the inability to disintegrate Britain's ground and naval combat capabilities through air strikes, Germany had to abandon the Sea Lion plan to invade the United Kingdom and begin planning Barbarossa to invade the Soviet Union. plan.

The reason is that in addition to the three magic weapons of the British Spitfire, Hurricane and air radar, the Luftwaffe's own problems are also serious.

This issue has to start after World War I.

After the end of World War I, Germany, as a defeated country, had to disband its air force, destroying and turning in about 60,000 aircraft, leaving only 140 aircraft and 169 aero engines.

However, Germany has never stopped developing advanced fighter aircraft. They use civil aviation companies as a guise to secretly train their own pilots and lay the foundation for the development of their own aviation forces. In 1935, Germany rebuilt its air force and developed rapidly with the connivance of British and French appeasement policies.

However, appeasement does not mean unlimited indulgence. The foundation of the appeasement policy is to protect their own interests. Therefore, Britain and France can tolerate Germany having a capable tactical air force, but they will not tolerate it having a strategic air force that poses a huge threat to itself.

Moreover, the German Air Force must also consider that, limited by Germany's geopolitical and economic factors, strategic theory can continue to develop, but the priority is still to support the army's operations. Germany is a country with traditional land power. The air force must first develop in the direction of supporting the army. An elite tactical air force is more appealing to the top brass of the German military.

At the same time, the German Air Force also faced the problem of insufficient resources. At the beginning of the reconstruction of the Air Force, the German Air Force faced a shortage of resources. Most of the materials imported by Germany are used to build the air force, of which rubber and aluminum are the most important. Oil was the most vulnerable to blockade. In 1937, Germany imported oil equivalent to the sum of the previous ten years, but by 1938 it could still only maintain 25% of the oil it needed.

In terms of steel, the resources obtained by the Luftwaffe were insufficient. In his report in 1938, Goering reported that its economic situation was very dangerous, and industrial production capacity could only meet 83% of the air force's needs.

Coupled with the resource competition between the German army, navy and air force when Germany as a whole is preparing for war, the German air force will be in an even more unfavorable situation. The reduction in the supply of raw materials has a major impact on the Air Force, with a reduction of approximately 30% of steel, 20% of copper, 47% of aluminum and 14% of rubber.

Under this situation, it is impossible for the German Air Force to develop strategic bombers for strategic offensive capabilities. Just as Goering said to his subordinates, "The head of state does not care how big those bombers are, only how many there are." The German Air Force is desperately building its own fleet, mainly fighter jets, medium bombers and dive bombers. . The number of advanced fighter jets is insufficient, the range of combat aircraft is generally short, and the bomb capacity of bombers is small...

Moreover, these German main fighters are full of shortcomings. The BF109 fighter jet is easy to use but has "short legs". It took off from France and only had 10 minutes of air combat time over London. The bf110 bomber has range and speed, but it lacks maneuverability. The JU87 "Stuka" dive bomber is powerful, but its speed is only 370 kilometers. Germany's best medium bomber, the JU88, had just been mass-produced at this time and had not yet formed combat effectiveness.

As the saying goes: "People are like iron, and food is like steel. If you don't eat one meal, you will be hungry." The same is true for airplanes. British and German aircraft use aviation gasoline with an octane rating of 87. In May 1940, the British Air Force began to use aviation gasoline with an octane rating of 100 from the United States, which could increase the output of the Merlin engines of the Spitfire and Hurricane fighter jets by 30%. This move further improves the fighter's performance.

Of course, Yannick had to start solving these problems. Relying on the advantage of being a time traveler, he first developed the Libyan oil fields and then developed all the resources that could be found in the occupied country. Although it is not rich, it is enough.

While Dowding was hesitating, the German fleet had already flown over the coastal towns and began to drop bombs.