Volume 1: Entering the War of Resistance Chapter 64: Nighttime Strike
X-Ger?t can be said to be the world's first automatic navigation device. In this era, there were no geosynchronous satellites and therefore no GPS navigation. In the dark of night, only a handful of elite bomber pilots could find their targets with good luck, so nighttime bombing often ended in disorientation and misbombing. The appearance of X-Ger?t changed all that.
The He 111 bomber was equipped with the "X-Device" wireless navigation system. The bomber followed the directional radio beam emitted by the "Edda" navigation station on the French coast to its target. During this process, the pilot corrected his course based on the signals received wirelessly; when a short or long tone sounded in his headphones, it indicated that the plane had deviated from the course. If the plane was exactly on course, a continuous weak hum sounded in the headphones. On the ground, another navigation station was set up, which emitted radio waves that crossed the directional beam at an angle. Once this signal was received, it meant that the plane had reached 20 kilometers in front of the target. At this point, the communications officer pressed the button on the X clock, and the second hand began to count down. After passing 10 kilometers, the communications officer started listening for a third radio beam signal, the "main signal". Once this signal was received, the communications officer immediately pressed the button on the X clock again, and the first pointer stopped while the second pointer began to move. The pilot had to maintain his original flight speed, altitude, and course at all times; from then on, everything was fully automated. When the second hand of the X clock overlapped with the first hand, the circuit was closed, and the bombs were automatically released. This design was particularly ingenious.
Tonight, Major Johannes Fink led a squadron of He-111 bombers to London, of course, with two jamming planes that were indispensable for disrupting enemy radar. Because the British had set up a radar station on the Isle of Wight, these bombers flew together and the British received the message. The purpose of the two jamming planes was to prevent the British from distinguishing the direction of the bomber formation, so they could not arrange fighter jets for interception in advance. However, what they didn't know was that the British were now using high-power multi-cavity magnetron to produce microwave radar, just like the kind being tested by Germany. So the tin foil strips constantly thrown out by the jamming planes could no longer form large snowflakes on their radar screens, and the British could still judge the approximate direction and speed.
At this time, the British night fighter squadrons were not very numerous, with fewer than 10. The Fighter Command ordered half of the night fighters to take off and search for the enemy in a general direction guided by radar.
Xu Huan-Sheng's wait was finally rewarded, and he hastily took off with 10 "Handsome Fighters". Due to interference, the ground radar station only gave him a rough target location, but Xu Huan-Sheng had familiarized himself with the terrain outside London through day and night training. He accurately judged that the final target of these bombers was indeed London, so he led the planes in a fan-shaped search for enemy aircraft in the air.
In the darkness, Xu Huan-sheng flew his fighter to an altitude of 5,000 meters, heading in the direction of London to search for invading enemy planes. Liu Rong-guang, sitting in the rear seat of Xu's plane, nervously adjusted the onboard radar. Since it was a nighttime battle, it was difficult to maintain formation with two planes, so the 10 night fighters took off separately. Therefore, Liu also had to pay attention to the position of other fighters at all times to avoid colliding with friendly planes.
Several kilometers away, Major Johannes Fink was listening carefully to the wireless signal in his headphones. Tonight's sky had no moon and no stars, it was pitch black, and navigation relied solely on wireless signals. In the past, such weather would have made night bombing impossible, but with wireless navigation, carrying out a bombing mission on such a dark night was actually safer. This was the advantage brought by technology, but he did not know that Britain also had a technological advantage - radar had been miniaturized and installed on heavy fighters, which was equivalent to giving the fighters an extra pair of eyes in the dark.
"Right, the direction is correct." Captain Johannes Fink continued to fly in a straight line and just now the radio operator on board had heard the first signal from the navigation station and pressed the button of the X clock. Now there should still be 20 kilometers to London, and the next route must also ensure the same height and course.
"May God bless our bombing!" Major Johannes Fink thought silently to himself.
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"At 1 o'clock direction, 3 kilometers away, several medium-sized airborne targets were discovered." Liu Rongguang reported to Xu Huan in the headset, and he saw another wave pattern jumping on the oscilloscope. Since "Jingjun Warrior" was equipped with microwave radar, which shortened the detection distance and reduced the angle to ensure accuracy, the passive interference signal - metal foil had little effect on it.
Xu Huan-sheng quickly adjusted his course, first to the left and then to the right, circling around to get behind the discovered target. His task now was to confirm that the discovered target was a German bomber and not one of their own planes. Under Liu Rong-guang's guidance, Xu Huan-sheng reduced speed and slowly approached the target. It wasn't until he got within about 100 meters that Xu Huan-sheng confirmed the plane in front of him was indeed a German bomber, because from the faint navigation lights, this plane had a wider wingspan than the "Handsome Warrior" and the flashing pattern of its navigation lights was also different from those of the British air force.
"Damn it, if only they had installed an IFF system, it wouldn't be so troublesome." Xu Huan-sheng cursed in his heart as he opened the safety on his weapon. At this time, the British Air Force had not yet adopted an identification friend or foe device, so misfires often occurred. Xu Huan-sheng aimed the sight at the two navigation lights flickering with weak light, where the aircraft's position should be, and then pressed the firing button on the control stick. The four machine guns fired a short burst, and the fiery shells instantly hit the German bomber in front of him. The 20mm high-explosive shells pierced the fuselage and caused a violent explosion, and the last He-111 was blown up in mid-air, the explosive flames illuminating the He-111 formation while also exposing the silhouette of the intruder.
The flash of the shell's explosion and the firelight from the blast temporarily blinded Xu Huanzhang, who wisely gave up the opportunity to continue attacking and instead dove downwards, at which point several bombers' tail machine guns began firing at him.
"Hit it right! Great!" Liu Rongguang cheered with Xu Huan in the back seat, this was the first result of their night fighter squadron. Xu Huan didn't fly far, he circled around from below and bit again at the rear of the bomber formation. At this time, Major Johannes Fink was worried, one of his bombers had just been shot down, indicating that his formation had already been exposed. But now the clock had started ticking, they had to maintain their original course, otherwise this bombing would be in vain. He finally decided to continue the bombing, hoping that the night fighter had lost its target.
He didn't expect that Xu Huan would not only follow him again, but also call in several night fighters from nearby to hunt. With a single order from Xu Huan, these fighters dived towards their targets and opened fire, just like sharks smelling blood rushing towards their prey. The dark night sky was torn apart by the fiery rain of bullets, with explosions flashing here and there. The He-111 formation didn't want to be attacked either, and its defensive machine guns started firing fiercely with the help of the flames, but unfortunately, the brightness was limited, and those black-painted night fighters flashed by in the sight, with few bullets hitting their targets.
In the heat of the moment, Major Johannes Fink finally waited for the "main signal", the communication officer pressed the button on the X clock again, the first pointer stopped and the second pointer started to move. At this time, it was even more impossible to evade, and could only persist in the original route stupidly. One after another "handsome warriors" appeared suddenly from all directions like death gods in the dark night, giving a string of shells as gifts to these distant German bombers. And these German bombers persisted in their original route like sheep, and such a strange scene appeared on the battlefield.
When they arrived over London, the 50 bombers led by Major Johannes Fink were reduced to more than 10 planes, and most of the others became the results of the 57th squadron. Xu Huan Sheng even shot down 6 enemy planes in this battle. October 2nd! The night fighter squadron will remember this victorious day.
By the time the second hand on X's clock overlapped with the first, Major Johannes Fink couldn't be bothered to bomb accurately and instead let the control system automatically drop the bombs before ordering a dispersal return. The devils in the night sky behind him were too much pressure for him.
Xu Huan-sheng pursued them until they ran low on fuel and returned with his team, while the remaining 10 "Fine Knights" were ready to take over.
"Get me six bats painted on the side of my cockpit!" Xu Huan-sheng's first words to the ground crew after jumping off the plane. In today's 2-hour battle, he confirmed that he had shot down 6 German air force bombers, and the 10 fighter jets that took off had a total of 36, which is a big number, although it can't keep up with the 55th squadron, but it has already tied with the 56th squadron who arrived in the UK at the same time. Xu Huan-sheng's personal record has exceeded 5, according to the unwritten rules, he is already a ace pilot, and has the right to choose a pattern to record his shootdowns. Xu Huan-sheng had been eyeing the patterns on the side of the cockpit of those ace pilots in the 55th and 56th squadrons for a long time, and couldn't believe that he, a bomber pilot, could also have a day when he shot down enemy planes.
Patience is always rewarding, Xu Huan Sheng was very satisfied with today's first battle, and now it's just a matter of seeing how much the other half of the fighting machine can achieve. Today will be a sleepless night for their squadron.
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Although Major Johannes Fink was defeated over London, the results of night bombing were still outstanding, at least more effective than the previous large-scale bombing and tactical air combat. In particular, several British cities without key defenses, the night bomber formations almost returned intact to their departure bases, leaving a trail of destruction for the British, greatly damaging the British people's resistance enthusiasm.
The Luftwaffe command eventually confirmed this tactic and demanded that the scale of bombing be further reduced, with a formation consisting of about ten aircraft, and immediately abandoning the bombing after encountering an interception, through this tactic of fleeing upon sighting the enemy, they could effectively avoid being intercepted by British night fighters and suffering relatively heavy losses.
Coughing is going to cause insomnia, isn't it?
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