The Rise of the Third Reich

"Long live our Emperor! Long live our leader! Long live our empire!"

When a review convoy of 400 Panzer II tanks passed through the Brandenburg Gate in order, a bomber formation also passed through the sky at the same time. The Germans watching the military parade seemed to be intoxicated by the tanks and planes in front of them, and they cheered wildly like mountains and tsunamis.

German Emperor William, who was sitting on a makeshift parade platform under the Brandenburg Gate, also stood up excitedly, raised his right arm and performed the "German salute" like his people. Adolf Hitler, who was wearing a brown military uniform, looked even more pleased with himself, frequently raising his hands to greet the cheering crowd.

The German and international dignitaries sitting on both sides of the auditorium also stood up, cheering, applauding or pretending to be happy.

As a member of the British delegation, Lieutenant General Hugh Caswall Dowding even forgot to pretend to be happy. At this time, he was raising his neck, holding a Leica camera, and looking at a camera in the air that he had never seen before. The passing four-engine heavy bomber fired fierce shots.

He actually saw two new four-engine heavy bombers today! They should be the product of the "new heavy bomber" tender conducted by the Luftwaffe in 1932. It had been kept strictly confidential before, and not even a single photo was taken. I didn't expect so many people to appear at today's military parade.

After a burst of fierce shooting, Lieutenant General Dowding wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and ignored the cheers of the people around him. He just closed his eyes and began to relive the two new four-engine heavy bombers he had just seen in his mind.

He was a lieutenant general in the Air Force and a member of the Royal Air Force Commission since 1930. He was well aware of various aircraft models and technical routes. So he is different from the Germans who get excited when they see big airplanes. Those are just laymen, just looking at the basics. And he is an expert, and he can see the secret at a glance.

The two "new heavy bombers" of the Germans may not have made much progress compared with the J.28H if we look at the range and bomb load alone. Just look at their size. These two types of aircraft can only carry three or four tons of bombs.

To an outsider, it seems like the Germans spent a lot of money to develop two not very advanced aircraft - although there are still many improvements, such as the use of recyclable landing gear, the use of thinner and lighter high-strength aluminum alloy, improved Improved aerodynamic performance, etc., but the progress is not obvious. However, in Hugh Dowding's view, Ju.89 and Do.19 are two very terrifying weapons!

Because they use a new liquid-cooled engine! Hugh Dowding saw the appearance of their engines through the camera lens. Both aircraft are equipped with four liquid-cooled engines.

The Germans' technology in this area is not advanced and cannot be compared with their air-cooled engines.

According to the information obtained by Hugh Dowding, the stable output horsepower of the best in-line liquid-cooled engine in Germany is only around 1,000. The horsepower of their last air-cooled engine must have exceeded 1,600, and this is the performance indicator of the mass-produced model.

However, the Germans used liquid-cooled engines with obviously insufficient horsepower on their bombers. This is definitely not to improve the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft - the four-engine heavy bombardment does not care about the resistance brought by the large air-cooled engine.

So why did they install a smaller horsepower liquid-cooled engine on the bomber while leaving the air-cooled platoon unused?

Is it because the engines of Mercedes-Benz and Yumo cannot be sold?

Lieutenant General Hugh Dowding shook his head slightly and whispered one word: "Height!"

"Height?" British Foreign Secretary Eden and Hugh Dowding were sitting together. He also tilted his neck to look at the big plane. "It's not flying very high."

"No, the Germans used liquid-cooled engines that they were not good at. They had only one purpose..." Hugh Dowding saw another group of large aircraft coming in the sky, picked up his camera and continued to take pictures.

He continued: "It's high-altitude penetration! The high-altitude performance of air-cooled engines is very poor. In high-altitude environments, the power of air-cooled engines will decrease rapidly. Therefore, the J.28H equipped with air-cooled engines can only be used in For activities at medium and low altitudes, our ground firepower can easily bring it down.

Therefore, in actual combat, J.28H can only adopt night attacks. The accuracy of night bombing is very low. Although it may cause heavy casualties to civilians, the damage to our military bases and industrial facilities will not be too serious. These two German bombers are equipped with liquid-cooled engines, which shows that they are pursuing high-altitude penetration performance and are preparing to bomb us during the day! "

Of course, the Strategic Deception Bureau of the German General Staff would not tell Hugh Dowding that the German aviation industry is now looking for ways to make air-cooled engines have excellent high-altitude performance, and has found a very effective way, which is to install a turbocharger. device.

Historically, due to insufficient reserves of non-ferrous metals in Germany, it could not produce many high-temperature alloys with excellent properties. Therefore, German aero engines cannot withstand too high temperatures, and turbocharging will increase the temperature. Therefore, although Germany has mastered turbocharging technology, it has not made enough investment and accumulation in this area. Historically, in the middle and late stages of World War II, British and American aircraft were generally equipped with several superchargers, called "N" level turbochargers. pressure, while German aircraft usually only have one stage of pressurization.

In this time and space, Hersman had already begun strategic reserves of non-ferrous metals. Although it cannot be used open like the American emperor, it is still enough to ensure that some air-cooled engines are equipped with high-performance turbochargers and superchargers.

The Fokker F.3W700 series is a "proven product" equipped with both a supercharger and a turbocharger.

However, because this BMW700 is equipped with a huge supercharger (it is only the first generation product now), it is very large and cannot be installed on ordinary fighter jets - this requires continuous improvement and reduction of the size of the turbocharger. And designing a better cooling system (intercooler) can significantly improve performance.

In a sense, the Fokker F.36 only exists to improve the high-altitude performance of German air-cooled aero engines. In fact, the production of this aircraft is not very large, including verification aircraft, bombing type, reconnaissance type (long-range reconnaissance aircraft, prepared to be equipped with airborne radar to search for sea targets), transport type, attack type (prepared to be equipped with artillery for bombardment Including ground and water targets), there are only 90 of them.

And the 30 Ju.819s used to show off their muscles are not all bombers, they just look like bombers. After the military parade, except for the 10 Ju.819s that will be incorporated into the Condor Legion to bomb cities in Spain, most of the remaining 40 aircraft will be converted into passenger aircraft and sold...

Because in the plan of the German General Staff, there was no intention to actually use thousands of heavy bombers to force Britain and France to surrender. At present, they are developing four heavy bombardments precisely to deter the Soviet Union, a "red ally", in the future - the Baku oil field is the target that needs to be considered in the medium term.

Now Hessmann just wants to divert the attention of various countries from the German armored forces and tactical aviation by exaggerating the influence of the "bombing victory theory."

"Oh my God, how many four-engine heavy bombers do the Germans have?" Maurice Gamelin, vice chairman of the French Army's High Military Council, was also frightened by the German heavy bombers that covered the sky.

As the highest-ranking figure in the French military, he had long heard that the "bombing victory theory" was very popular in the German Wehrmacht.

This theory first originated in Italy and was proposed by General Douhet. Fascist leaders such as Mussolini and Balbo were very superstitious in this theory. In their view, the air force is the key to winning or losing future wars, while the army is just for show, and we cannot rely on them to fight the war. If a war really breaks out between major powers, the army can only squat in the trenches and defense lines to block the enemy - if there are really such stupid enemies who will hit the solid defense lines!

The real outcome will be determined by bombing the city with large planes! Thinking about how beautiful cities like Paris, Lyon, and Reims were reduced to rubble in brutal air raids, do the French people still have the courage to resist?

"General, they still have a lot of tanks!" Gamelin was reminded in his ear by an outrageously tall French army colonel named Charles de Gaulle. He is a figure from the Wei Gang and Reynaud faction (right wing, fascist, etc.). In today's French Army, he is not very successful, but he is not doing badly. Because he was considered an expert in mechanized warfare, Gamelin brought him to see the tanks in the German military parade.

Gamelin shook his head, "I saw them. They are very small and cannot defeat our tanks, and it is impossible to rely on them to break through the Maginot Line."

This is also true! De Gaulle's view of these German Panzer II tanks was the same as Gamelin's. They were certainly no match for French tanks, and they could not break through the iron-clad Maginot Line.

"What's there to worry about?" Gamelin glanced at De Gaulle, whose brows were still furrowed. "If they want to bypass Maginot, we and our British friends can defeat them with more advanced tanks and artillery. Charles, You don’t have to worry... I will support you. The idea of ​​a 100,000 mechanized professional army is a good one. We need to build such an army.”

The "100,000 Mechanized Army" was de Gaulle's idea, with a mechanized professional army of about 100,000 as the main strike force of the French Army. This view was not taken seriously by the French Army at first, but after Germany expanded its military preparations and organized a large number of mechanized troops. The French Army began its own mechanization process. They began to reorganize some infantry divisions into motorized infantry divisions (planning to reorganize 7 divisions), and also began to form light mechanized divisions (the First Light Mechanized Division was established in July 1935 ), and are currently preparing to form a powerful armored force - reserve armored divisions (planned to form 3 units).

"However," Gamelin shook his head, "Even if we have 100,000 mechanized professional troops, it is impossible to rely on them to break through the German's Siegfried Line of Defense." He pointed to the sky, "The war still depends on them. Came to fight, right?"