The Rise of the Third Reich

"What is this?"

"Rudolph, what does it look like to you?"

"Like a balloon." Little Hersman stayed on the Mizuho seaplane carrier for 8 days. On the night of February 22, he was taken to the seaplane deck by Minoru Genda.

The time has finally come to reveal the mystery!

There was no seaplane on the seaplane deck, but there were many sailors inflating what looked like balloons.

"It's a sailboat bomb." Minoru Genda said with a smile. "It's just a hydrogen balloon with bombs and incendiary bombs attached to it. It flies to the west coast of the United States. If it's lucky, it will fall near Los Angeles and drop the bomb. On top of Americans’ heads!”

While Genda Minoru was talking, a balloon filled with hydrogen gas had already flown into the sky, and there was a black thing hanging under the balloon, which should be a bomb.

"Genda-kun, are you kidding me?" Little Hersman raised his neck and looked at the balloon flying higher and higher under the moonlight. "This thing is a balloon, and it has no engine or propeller. Are you sure it will fly to the United States?"

"Yes!" Genda Minoru smiled, "Because at an altitude of about 9,000-11,000 meters at the top of the Pacific Ocean, there is a stable upper atmosphere jet stream heading eastward. Once the balloon enters this air stream, it can fly at a speed of 160-300 kilometers per hour. . We are 500-600 nautical miles away from the west coast of the United States, which means that the sailboat bombs we release will reach the United States in 4-6 hours.”

The person who discovered this high-level atmospheric jet stream was named Toshimi Arakawa, a doctor of meteorology in Japan. In the original history, he proposed the idea of ​​bombing the United States with balloon bombs, which was also adopted by Japanese high-level officials. In the end, 9,000 balloon bombs were made, killing 6 Americans...

But that was a balloon release from mainland Japan, which would have to fly almost 10,000 kilometers. Now, because Japan controls the Hawaiian Islands and most of the sea power in the Pacific, it can send seaplane carriers to release balloons less than 1,000 kilometers away from the mainland of the United States. If the distance is 10 times different, the accuracy will be completely different.

"Is there such a thing?" Little Hersman saw another balloon with a bomb rising into the sky. "How many balloons will we release tonight?"

"600." Genda Minoru replied, "Each seaplane carrier carries 200 sailboat bombs, and each sailboat bomb carries a 150-kilogram bomb and two incendiary bombs."

That is 1,800 bombs and incendiary bombs! It's not a lot, but it can cause a lot of panic.

Genda watched the sailboat bombs flying into the sky one after another, and smiled slightly: "We will often release sailboat bombs in the future... Now we use seaplane carriers, and in the future we will use special sailboat carriers. Modified with commercial ships, we can release 300 pieces at a time. With dozens of ships, we can release sailboats every day. It’s very pleasant to think about it!”

Bombs are falling every day, and there is no way to defend against them. This is really hard for Americans!

Little Hersman thought to himself that now the Japanese had found a way to torment the Americans. He really wanted to see Roosevelt's expression when he knew that his west coast was being attacked by balloon bombs every day.

…

When 1,800 bombs and incendiary bombs were hung on balloons and flew towards the United States at a speed of about 200 kilometers per hour. President Roosevelt was meeting with Soviet Ambassador Litvinov. Now that Britain had knelt down, there were only two major powers left in the Allied camp: the United States and the Soviet Union. Naturally, the relationship between the two sides suddenly became much closer.

Litvinov came to discuss with Roosevelt jointly supporting the Indian revolution.

Those Brahmin revolutionaries who had to be served by servants even to wipe their butts have now been cordially received by the great leader of the Soviet Union and have now arrived in Afghanistan accompanied by Serov.

On the soil of Afghanistan, more than 200,000 heavily armed Soviet Red Army troops are already in place, ready to launch an attack on the northwest region of India to liberate the various untouchables there who have been oppressed for thousands of years.

Now Litvinov came to seek Roosevelt's support for the Soviet Red Army's just action of liberating the untouchables in India.

Of course, Litvinov did not come empty-handed. He also brought good news to Roosevelt. The Soviet Red Navy's Atlantic Fleet would sail to the Pacific via the Arctic Ocean route in the summer of 1943.

"The time will soon be ripe for the liberation of India," Roosevelt said to Litvinov with a smile. "According to the exact information we have, the British-Indian authorities supported by Germany have rejected the demands of Mahatma Gandhi. And the German Chancellor Hitler also made a speech in the European Community Parliament, claiming that he would like to hear the news of Mr. Gandhi's death from starvation. I think if Mr. Gandhi dies of hunger, the Indian people will be excited. We will all support you.”

Litvinov smiled bitterly, then shook his head and said, "Mr. President, I'm afraid Gandhi will not starve to death."

"No?" Roosevelt asked puzzledly, "Why? He is on a hunger strike. It is said that he has been on hunger strike for several days. He should be dying soon, right?"

Mahatma Gandhi went on a hunger strike for "British withdrawal from India". He believed that the new British government would be afraid that he would starve to death and would make some concessions on the issue of withdrawing from India. However, he did not expect that when Hitler delivered a speech in the European Community Parliament, he publicly declared that "Gandhi is welcome to starve to death." Hitler also said: "No matter how many Indians starve to death, Germany will not be afraid, and it can't think of any reason to be afraid."

"Because according to the intelligence we have," Litvinov said with a regretful expression, "the day after Hitler declared that he hoped Gandhi would starve to death, the Mahatma of the Indian people was already feasting and drinking in prison."

The intelligence of the Soviets was of course very accurate. Comrade Stalin even obtained the recipes of Mahatma Gandhi in prison - although they were all vegetarian dishes and not much oil or water, they would definitely not starve to death.

"Ah?" Roosevelt was stunned. "Mr. Gandhi is not going to starve himself to death?"

"It seems like this," Litvinov nodded and said, "Mr. Gandhi believed that the brutal Nazi regime would not care if its opponents died on hunger strike, and might even be happy, so he could not do anything to make the enemy happy. things.”

Roosevelt tilted his head and said: "I have to say that this is a very wise approach. Mahatma Gandhi is indeed a wise man. And he has high prestige among the Indian people. If India gains independence and freedom in the future, , Mahatma Gandhi should be India’s Washington and India’s Lenin!”

A hunger-striking Washington? A nonviolent Lenin?

Litvinov was very disapproving, but he nodded frequently. Treating Gandhi as a banner to deceive Indians was Stalin's decision after understanding the current situation of the Indian revolution.

"Yes, Mr. Gandhi can become the future President of the Republic of India!" When Litvinov spoke, the scene of a half-naked, thin old man on hunger strike in the magnificent Presidential Palace had already appeared in his mind...

"Does the Soviet Union also support Gandhi?" Roosevelt asked further.

"Yes, we support Gandhi." Litvinov said, "We hope that a coalition government including various progressive forces will emerge in India in the future."

This was of course deceptive, and Roosevelt did not believe it at all. But politically, this is correct - an India that includes progressive forces from all sides, is free, democratic, peace-loving, and so on, is good anyway. In this way, the U.S. Congress and the people at home will no longer care about how much the United States suffered in aiding the Indian revolution.

As soon as Litvinov left with a satisfactory answer, Colonel Cotton, the aide-de-camp to the President of the United States, walked in quickly.

"Mr. President, the Army Staff just called. The West Coast Air Defense Command reported that radar has detected a large number of UFOs approaching the west coast of the United States."

"UFOs?" Roosevelt immediately became nervous. "Is it a Japanese bomber group?"

"It seems not...because the speed of those UFOs seems to be very slow, less than 200 kilometers per hour."

"Less than 200 kilometers?" Roosevelt breathed a sigh of relief. Even a bomber at this speed would be looking for death.

Due to the fall of Hawaii, the U.S. Army Air Force has already deployed defenses on the west coast of North America (not just the west coast of the United States). It has deployed a large number of P51s, P38s, P40s and P47s, as well as a lot of air search radars, all the way from Alaska to Alaska. Panama. Moreover, in the major cities on the West Coast, there are also a large number of anti-aircraft artillery groups belonging to the National Guard, with tens of thousands of anti-aircraft guns of various calibers deployed.

Unless it is a bomber like the Ju288 that can penetrate at high altitudes and at high speeds and can penetrate at night, it will not threaten the big cities on the west coast of the United States at all.

So Roosevelt did not take these "UFOs" seriously and went to sleep with peace of mind - he and Litvinov discussed for almost a whole night about the freedom and independence of the Indian people, and they were really tired. .

However, the President of the United States' sleep did not last long, and he was awakened by a surprising news.

Because many areas on the west coast of the United States were bombed! Among them, dozens of bombs and incendiary bombs fell in Los Angeles and nearby San Diego, causing more than 20 casualties and damaging more than a dozen buildings.

These casualties and losses were actually nothing. The American people were not that vulnerable. What was really surprising was the way the Japanese conducted their air raids.

What came was not a bomber, but a balloon with a bomb on it! And these balloons are unmanned.

In other words, the Japanese (because the balloon flew from the Pacific direction, so the U.S. Army Air Force estimated that it was the Japanese) caused zero casualties to the United States, causing loss of personnel and property. This is really shocking and worrying. things.