Chapter 38: Bombardment and Retaliation

  In the starry night sky, a large fleet of bombers formed a relatively neat formation and flew southwest like sardines. Colonel Williams was the airborne commander of these 81 British Air Force bombers, and he was now using the weak starlight to carefully identify ground landmarks, and with his rich navigation experience, he quickly found the correct direction and led the troops to secretly fly towards Berlin.

  Although several times to the superior application for the opportunity to strike, Colonel William did not expect to be approved so quickly. The reason is that yesterday, August 24th evening, 12 German bombers lost their way and failed to find their designated target - a British aircraft factory, but flew over London, mistakenly taking buildings in the city center as military facilities and dropping bombs. In the explosion's glow, the German bomber pilots discovered they had made a mistake and hastily fled the scene. Although this accidental bombing only destroyed several houses, killing 2 people and injuring more than 10 others, it undoubtedly gave the British Empire a slap in the face. Churchill demanded that the British Air Force immediately retaliate, so tonight Colonel William welcomed his first outing after the outbreak of large-scale air battles between Britain and Germany. Originally, there were to be 88 "Wellington" bombers participating in this action, but several returned due to malfunctions after takeoff. Even so, this was still the largest operation Colonel William had ever commanded.

  The Wellington bombers belonged to the light long-range bomber category, with a maximum range of over 3,000 kilometers. Of course, after loading 1-2 tons of bombs, the range was not that long, but it was still enough to complete the mission of bombing Berlin. To avoid the German air defense forces in France and Germany, the Bomber Command formulated an attack route that went around from the sea, so the distance for both the outgoing and return journeys would be 2,000 kilometers. In this case, the Wellington bombers on this raid only carried one ton of bombs. Although it was just a revenge action and not a large-scale bombing aimed at achieving strategic goals, Colonel Williams still carefully allocated routes and formulated an attack route map, hoping that the bombing he commanded could achieve the greatest possible results.

  What gave Colonel Williams such great confidence was a set of detailed maps of France and Germany, apparently obtained from somewhere within the bomber command. The many staff officers, Colonel Williams, and the squadron commanders spent one day identifying important bombing targets, with priority given to railway stations, power plants, and factory areas. They also carefully planned the routes of attack, to guide each bomber squadron in avoiding as much as possible the threats in the air after entering Germany from the coast, such as aerodromes and anti-aircraft gun positions.

  Everything has been going smoothly so far. Although the German cities have implemented blackout measures, they had already grasped the main geographical features from a detailed map with photos and Colonel Wilhelm quickly guided the bomber fleet to the northern suburbs of Berlin.

  "Attention all squadrons, we have reached the designated area. Each squadron disperse and attack." Under Colonel Williams' command, the 81 bombers dispersed into 8 bomber squadrons, respectively heading towards Berlin's power plants, factory areas, and railway hubs. The German army had set up a two-layered anti-aircraft defense circle in Berlin, but at this moment they did not play any role, as the bomber squadrons agilely broke through the gaps in the defensive positions.

  Hitler was in his office in the Reich Chancellery building in Berlin, discussing Operation Sea Lion with Field Marshal Hermann G?ring and other high-ranking officials when a sudden explosion interrupted their meeting.

  "The Fuehrer, Berlin is being bombed, please go to the air raid shelter." The secretary rushed into the room and anxiously told this group of Nazi leaders. So these people walked into the air raid shelter with a sullen face, if a bomb had visited the Imperial Office at this time, World War II might have ended ahead of schedule.

  After entering the underground bunker, Hitler's face was iron-green. Explosions continued to come from all directions for over ten minutes. The vibrations caused by the explosions shook off the dust on top of the bunker, and since Berlin had a high groundwater level, the air inside the underground bunker was already very humid. In such an environment, no one could be in a good mood. Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief G?ring's face turned red as he repeatedly ordered his aide to go out and gather information.

  In the air, Colonel Williams was delighted to see that most of the bombs had hit their intended targets accurately, Berlin was shrouded in a red glow and thick smoke from explosions, some bombs also set buildings on fire. Colonel Williams could even hear the crackling sound of burning coming from the ground. At this time, Berlin's ground air defense forces had reacted, searchlights pierced through the night sky, anti-aircraft guns began to fire one after another.

  "Attention all squadrons, return to base as scheduled." The mission to bomb Berlin is now complete. Although the 81 tons of small bombs did not cause much destruction in Berlin, it demonstrated Britain's determination and strength to resist. Now the task is to return home smoothly. The bombers of each squadron began to climb altitude, gather and prepare to return to Britain.

  The German Air Force would not let them return smoothly, and the enraged G?ring had ordered all night fighters to take off from airports along the way to search for enemies, even some airports without night fighters were required to select experienced pilots to drive bf109 daytime fighters. However, after these fighters took off in the dark night at great risk, they did not capture the shadow of the British Air Force bombers. Because Colonel Wilhelm did not return from the north or east, but led the bomber formation to make a big circle in the west and almost entered Polish airspace before flying northward. This route was also studied during the day after studying the defense map, and it indeed deceived the German Air Force's interception.

  The raid was a considerable success, bringing the threat of war to Berlin at the cost of one bomber and having more significance than previous symbolic raids in history. The raid lifted British morale. Prime Minister Winston Churchill congratulated Bomber Command, and Wing Commander Widdows was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for his leadership.

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  The next two nights, Colonel Williams continued to press the attack with a raid on Berlin. These three raids had a profound psychological impact on Germany and the citizens of Berlin truly felt the cruelty of war. Last year when Germany invaded Poland, although there was a blackout in Berlin, no bombs actually fell on the city.

  Hitler was thoroughly enraged, originally he had always believed that England and Germany were of the same race, hoping to join hands with Britain to deal with the so-called threat from the East. Even if he reluctantly launched a war against Britain, he still hoped that at critical moments the British people would force their government to seek peace with Germany. After the bombing of the British Isles began, Hitler once told G?ring: "The German Air Force is not allowed to carry out terrorist air raids on British civilians under any circumstances, even as a retaliation for the Royal Air Force's air raids on Germany, especially London". However, these three bombings changed his mind.

  He urgently summoned G?ring, Goebbels and Himmler. The fat G?ring was scolded by Hitler, who was a head shorter than him, and even Himmler, who was far away, could feel Hitler's anger. He smiled secretly while observing Hitler's expression, half an hour later, Hitler finally calmed down. "We must counterattack! Otherwise, Germany's dignity will no longer exist! Marshal G?ring, you need to guarantee me that there won't be any more bombs falling on Berlin!"

  "My Fuehrer, the bombing of the last two weeks has already greatly damaged the British air force and morale. As long as we continue, I believe that the British will soon choose to surrender. The bombing of Berlin is just a desperate attempt by them." After the bombing of Berlin, Goering, as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, was questioned from all sides, with some newspapers even using cartoons to mock the poor protection provided by the German air force.

  "Furthermore, Mr. Chancellor, most of the fighter planes are currently deployed at coastal airports in France. If we want to strengthen Berlin's air defense, it will inevitably have some impact on 'Operation Sea Lion.'" G?ring quietly reminded Hitler, who was furious, that he thought this useless bombing did not need to be invested with so much effort, and that ground-based air defense was enough, after all, Berlin was more than 900 kilometers away from Britain, and long-range bombers would not only reduce their payload but also have difficulty navigating. He didn't know yet that the British already had a complete defensive map and thought that the previous few times were just coincidences. "As long as we implement blackout measures throughout France and Germany, I believe this bombing will not be able to continue."

  "The Air Force of the Empire must be prepared! I need, not a single bomb to fall on Berlin. Berlin is the symbol of Germany, Berlin must be safe" Hitler roared. "Goebbels, the propaganda department of Germany will start with all its might. Propagandize those innocent civilians under air raids, boost the morale of the Air Force!"

  "It has begun, Your Excellency," replied Propaganda Minister Goebbels.

  "My dear Führer, the Gestapo has researched a method to counter British radar, which can help our air force launch a counterattack and conduct strategic bombing of Britain!" Himmler had already tested the secret formula provided by Qin Xiaofei, and indeed, the metal tin foil strips formed a huge reflective surface in the air, hiding the bomber's information with a large amount of jamming waves.

  "That would be wonderful. The Luftwaffe is making an effort, the Air Force must achieve something!" Hitler concluded his speech and ended the meeting for that day.

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  Hitler said in his speech the next day: "The despicable British have launched a bombing raid on Berlin, targeting women and children to create an atmosphere of terror. They are doomed to fail! We will retaliate with night raids for night raids, the British drop one thousand kilograms of bombs, the German Air Force will retaliate with ten times, a hundred times, even a thousand times more bombs!" The two countries became sworn enemies, heading towards mutual bombing of each other's cities and civilians.

  Have a great weekend!