Volume 1 Chapter 51 Bombing Antwerp (Part 1)

  On September 16, London's newspapers published the good news of "185 German planes shot down" in large headlines (it seems that exaggeration is not a patent of our country). The people of London, who had suffered from bombing, rushed to buy newspapers and celebrated with great fanfare. People spontaneously formed procession teams, celebrating victory around the main streets of the city. Every household hung up the British flag, indicating their determination to fight against the German army. The strategic bombing by the German air force did not destroy the morale of the British people, but instead stirred up their determination to resist, and the honor of Great Britain would not be violated.

  A sedan pulled over to the side of the road, a Chinese man in a suit and glasses got out, bought a newspaper at a newsstand, then returned to the car and read it line by line.

  "Shot down 25 German planes, including 9 bombers! These boys are great!" The National Government's ambassador to the UK, Guo Taiqi, found the achievements of Squadron 55 in the newspaper and a smile floated on his face. "Let's go, to the Foreign Office." Guo Taiqi ordered the driver, he needed to discuss some matters with British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin, such as reopening the Yunnan-Burma Road.

  "Good morning, Mr. Beiwen, you seem to be in a good mood today!" Guo Taiqi greeted Beiwen, whose round face looked even rounder.

  "Oh, dear Ambassador Guo, I'm sure you've come to share some good news with me. You know we defeated the Germans yesterday!" Bevin had learned of the outcome earlier and was overjoyed, just like an ordinary Englishman.

  "Yes, as far as I know, this should be the best battle result since the war began?"

  "Of course, my friends. Especially you Chinese, the wonderful Chinese flyers. God, they've almost everyone of them shot down an enemy plane." Bevin learned through Labour Party internal channels far more than was in the newspapers.

  "Today I have some good news. More than sixty Chinese pilots who are going to England have already set off." Kuo Tai-chi handed over a big gift. As the situation between China and Japan had stabilized, the Japanese army had stopped implementing Operation 101, allowing China to dispatch more pilots to Britain to participate in the Battle of Britain and gain experience.

  "My God, I swear this is the best news I've ever heard. I must inform the Prime Minister at once. Sincere thanks to you, dear Ambassador Guo." Bevin was overjoyed when he learned that two more squadrons of Chinese pilots were on their way to Britain. It's worth noting that Britain had suffered heavy losses in air battles earlier, and despite blood transfusions from various colonies, it was hard to continue. Volunteer pilots from the United States, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and other countries played a significant role in Britain. Now with China, the most populous country, joining in, Britain felt more confident in the Battle of Britain.

  "But I heard that our pilots' equipment is not very good, as we have a saying in our country: 'A clever woman cannot cook without rice.' They came to the UK to fight against the invasion of the evil Axis powers. Please help them more, Mr. Bevin!" Guo Taiqi also mentioned the issue of equipment to Bevin.

  "I'll definitely report this to the Prime Minister." Bevin said as he stood up, having barely managed to secure foreign aid, and the air force wasn't making good use of it.

  "Furthermore, I would like to ask Mr. Bevin to reconsider the matter of reopening the Burma Road. According to our intelligence, Germany, Italy and Japan will soon sign a tripartite alliance treaty, posing a major threat to world peace from Asia to Europe. The materials we have purchased are currently piling up at Rangoon Port in Burma, awaiting transportation back home. Our country has tied down most of the Japanese army, and if we were to lose this war, it would have a significant impact on your country's interests in Asia!

  Mr. Kuo came today mainly to bring up the matter of reopening the Burma Road. Although China can now transport accumulated materials back home through air bases and export necessary materials to Rangoon, reopening the Burma Road would be seen as a gesture by the US and UK, putting pressure on Japan. Moreover, this approach is expected to force Japan to adopt a southern advance policy rather than a northern continental one, drawing the US and UK into the water, allowing China to muddy the waters. This is the purpose of Mr. Kuo's visit and also the goal of the National Government."

  "Your Excellency, rest assured. The reopening of the Burma Road is already under discussion and the British Empire will find an opportune moment to announce it. Your Excellency can inform your country to prepare for transportation arrangements." Bevin replied confidently, having anticipated that Guo Taiqi had come today for this very matter. In fact, the reopening of the Burma Road was a gesture to show Japan the attitude of the British Empire, and they had been waiting for the announcement of the Triple Alliance to make it public at the most opportune moment.

  "That's great, in that case. I can now inform the domestic side of this good news!" Guo Taiqi got a hint from Bevin and knew that this matter was already being considered by the British government, so he felt relieved.

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

  Originally thought today was a cloudy day and wouldn't take off, Ryu Chul-soon had already called in the ground crew to prepare for the conversion of the Hurricane fighter. This type of fighter is still made with a metal frame and canvas covering, and it's relatively easy to replace the machine guns on the wings with larger ones. The Spitfire is an all-metal fighter, and modification isn't easy, not only does the shape need to be changed, but weight distribution also needs to be considered.

  But just as a few people had started discussing it, Major Pike came running over to inform him that he was needed for a mission today.

  "What? Are the Germans bombing today in this weather?" Liu Zhe Sheng was shocked. To think that now the cloud layer had already covered the entire sky, bombers would have to fly low to find their target, and that would make them a target for ground fire. How could the Germans be so stupid.

  "Not so, today's mission is escort duty, protecting our bombers on a raid over Germany." Colonel Pike panted heavily, "You made a name for yourselves in yesterday's dogfight, Bomber Command's Potter personally telephoned General Doolittle to request your escort, this is the first time for our fighter squadron."

  When Liu Zesheng took off in his Red Dragon No. 1, Colonel Williams' more than 60 bombers were already airborne. This time the 55th squadron dispatched all 29 aircraft to participate in the escort mission, and the 85th and 501st squadrons also participated in the escort mission. These two squadrons were ace squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF), equipped with Spitfires, which made Liu Zesheng envious, just like his red aircraft nose.

  More than a hundred planes converged in the air and flew towards the East Coast under the guidance of ground radar stations, their destination being the port of Antwerp in Belgium. The second-largest port in Europe is now filled with transport ships, even the upper reaches of the Scheldt River are packed to capacity, with a total of over 600 ships. These were all collected by Germany from various European countries for the landing operation in the Sea Lion plan.

  It seems that the pollution over the UK is still more serious, and the sky cleared up when the formation flew to the surface of the sea. The English Channel was originally not wide, and at this time, it was already possible to see the coastline on the other side from a distance of 5,000 meters in the high altitude. In order to achieve the effect of a surprise attack, Colonel William led the formation to make a small circle over the sea, aiming at the mouth of the Scheldt River and rushing towards Antwerp.

  Liu Zhesen looked down at the 3000-meter-high bombers below, these "Wellington" bombers, although they had fallen behind the times and were inferior to Germany's Ju-88 and He-111 in performance, but they were already the best bombers that Britain could muster. New bombers were being developed, but it was too late this year. Even such bombers would be treasures in China, Liu Zhesen still remembered the scene of Zhou Zhuyou rushing to Base No. 1 in Bishan to receive those captured 96-style land-based attack aircraft. Originally, the Chinese Air Force only had some Soviet-aided SB-2 medium bombers, and suddenly having 36 more bombers made Zhou Zhuyou feel like he had gained a treasure. Now, looking at the British mobilizing dozens of bombers at a time, and Germany even mobilizing hundreds of bombers at a time, Liu Zhesen felt the power of these old capitalist countries.

  As several warships appeared on the horizon, Ryu Je-seong realized that he had arrived at the coast of Belgium. Now all of Belgium was occupied by Germany and its military and industrial facilities became tools threatening Britain itself.

  The German Air Force had a squadron of JG51 fighter planes stationed in Antwerp. Due to the defeat in yesterday's air battle, the mood of failure was prevalent among the German Air Force. Moreover, today's weather was not good, so the German Air Force did not prepare for takeoff, and even daily patrols were arranged. When General Kesselring received a telegram from the Belgian Coast Guard Fleet, Colonel Wilhelm's bombers had already approached Antwerp along the estuary.

  "Bombers dive-bomb ships and port facilities. Fighters stand by to repel German fighters, suppress anti-aircraft fire." Colonel Williams is the air commander of this raid, issuing orders from his command plane in the air.

  After receiving the task, Liu Zheseng led his four teams of red, blue, green and black to the airport near Antwerp Port. At this time, only a few BF109s had taken off from the airport, while other BF109s were anxiously queuing on the runway like their buttocks were on fire.

  "Red, blue, green and black teams attack in sequence." Ryu Chul-soon briefly assigned tasks over the wireless and then led the charge himself. As he flew low along the runway, Ryu fired a long burst of gunfire, hitting eight BF 109s lined up on the runway with his eight Browning machine guns. He then slightly raised the nose of his plane, reducing the angle of his dive while maintaining continuous firepower as he flew forward. The P-51's eight Browning machine guns had a high rate of fire of 1260 rounds per minute, or 168 bullets per second, which kicked up clouds of dust and smoke on the runway and planes. In his sight, Ryu saw that several German fighter pilots had abandoned takeoff and were sliding their planes into revetments beside the runway. By the time Ryu quickly flew over the runway to the end, he had hit more than a dozen fighters and also shot down a BF 109 that was already airborne and accelerating, causing it to explode in mid-air.

  The red and green dragon squadrons following behind him attacked the other BF109s and BF110s on the airport, successfully suppressing the takeoff of German air force fighters. Werner M?lders, who was wounded in the seat, lay helplessly in the anti-aircraft trench watching the British planes wreak havoc in the sky. He noticed that the tail wings of these fighter jets had a different coat than other Royal Air Force fighter jets, and their tactics were also different. Two more squadrons came down from high altitude one after another, two by two, shooting down several German fighters that had taken off but not yet climbed to altitude, apparently using the same dual-machine tactics as the Germans. Where did they come from? Were they from Canada or Australia? Werner M?lders was full of doubts, and at this time he had already shot down 39 Royal Air Force planes, ranking among the top three German aces, about to receive his second Oak Leaf Knight's Cross, but now lay in the anti-aircraft trench watching British fighters slaughter his comrades.

  "I'll remember you!" Werner Molders muttered to himself, gazing at the fighter planes still circling and firing in the airport sky above, he firmly remembered the "Dragon" type of paint on the tail wings of these fighters.

  Liu Zesheng was in a very good mood at this time, since Colonel William was still busy with his bombing work and had not summoned the 55th squadron, he was happy to let his team members practice their ground attack skills here. In the more than a year since the capital moved to Chongqing and fought against the Japanese air force, Chinese Air Force pilots were still rare in ground attacks, now it's just right to practice. Of course, Liu Zesheng also didn't forget to take care of the high-altitude machine gun positions next to the airport, after several Immelmann turns and dives from high altitude, these machine gun positions lost their function. The fighter squadron led by Werner M?lders was suppressed on the ground under the surprise attack of the 55th squadron, without even having a chance to take off, they could only watch as the fighters on the ground were blown up one by one like in a competition by the British Air Force flying in the air.

  Click, collect, recommend, thank you for your support!