LRAB Chapter 654: Crazy Bombing Plan 613
Chapter 654: Crazy Bombing Plan 613
Chapter 654: Crazy Bombing Plan 613
“Hurry! Hurry! Move faster!” clutching his parachute, a pilot sprinted forward while urging the ground crew following him.
The young members of the ground crew held bright orange life jackets and fuel sticks that could burn intensely as they ran towards their planes.
As they ran, they donned their gear with the base’s alarm blaring shrilly; all the duty pilots were already preparing to strike.
On the runway, one plane after another was being fueled, with ground crew members running back and forth with hoses.
Special vehicles laden with ammunition for the bombers trembled as they drove past the planes being prepped, as ground crew awkwardly removed 500-kilogram aerial bombs from their racks.
Technicians constantly checked the condition of their aircraft; all instruments had to function normally, and engines had to be in good working order to carry out bombing missions.
...
Shouts were everywhere, people used hand signals to pass messages, and the first planes prepped were being pushed to the long takeoff runway.
The Stuka Dive Bombers were ready—though their range was not as far as the Flying Fortress and they had smaller payloads, they had one advantage: precision!
In an age without missiles, how to accurately drop bombs on the enemy’s head from high altitude was always a topic, a tough one that made countless engineers scratch their heads.
To solve this, dive bombers were introduced, minimizing the bombing distance, lowering the altitude, and aiming at the target with the nose of the plane—the dive bomber was the most accurate air-to-ground attack solution of its era.
The same was true for naval combat! Dive bombers could drop bombs as close as possible to warships, with a precision that was noticeably higher than that of the Flying Fortress.
However, this time, the Flying Fortress would also participate in the attack, these massive planes were to launch an attack in a rare, desperate manner against the enemy.
“Let the Stuka Dive Bombers attack first! If they cripple the enemy fleet, our low-level bombing can proceed more easily!” an officer under the wings of the Flying Fortress stressed the discipline of this bombing run to all the participating pilots.
The tactic they were adopting was insane, reliant solely on the enemy’s lack of serious anti-aircraft firepower.
“All flying altitudes are set at 1,000 meters! Keep formation! If the enemy has anti-aircraft weapons firing, do not make evasive maneuvers!” he said, demonstrating with gestures and repeatedly stressing the importance of maintaining formation.
Carpet bombing, covering the enemy fleet with a rain of bombs, might be an insane early aerial naval combat tactic.
After finishing his briefing, the officer also comforted the somewhat anxious pilots, “Theoretically, the enemy doesn’t have powerful anti-air weapons! The Maxim gun is the best they can find!”
You see, the Flying Fortress was not designed for low-altitude bombing; such tactics certainly ensured coverage efficiency but also meant significant risks for these large aircraft.
The ground crew member laughed and patted the pilot on the shoulder, “Heh-heh-heh-heh! If you are afraid of dying, fly back here, bomb our enemies into the sea, and let them feed the sharks!” After finishing, he turned to help the machine gun operator, or perhaps the navigator, behind him.
“Right! Let them feed the sharks!” The navigator echoed loudly with a laugh.
“Hahaha!” The pilot also started to laugh.
On another Stuka plane nearby, the pilot had already pressed the transmit button and loudly tested, “Radio check!”
The voice from the tower came through clear and distinct, “Radio check complete! Communication normal! The channel is very clean!”
The pilot was also very satisfied with the signal, “I can hear you! Command tower, command tower, the signal is very clear!”
Since the plane could trail a very long communications antenna on its back, and because the interference was relatively weaker in the sky, the aircraft’s radio communication was actually much less disturbed than that of the Tank Troops.
From the tower, permission to take off was transmitted, “You are cleared for takeoff! Pay attention to the radio navigation signals.”
“Understood!” The pilot adjusted the plane, aligning it with the runway. The engine roared laboriously into life, and the propeller, spinning rapidly, vanished from the pilot’s view.
“The lead Flying Fortress is at your 3 o’clock!” At the same time as this plane shot off the runway and left the ground, the reminder from the tower reached the pilot’s headset.
“Climb! I’m in front of you!” The lead plane was already waiting in the air, “Climb, climb! Begin formation!”
“What a joke, do we have fighter escorts?” The Stuka pilot muttered as he climbed, spotting the formations of Butcher Fighters in the sky.
“They’re not escort fighters; they’re on attack missions like you guys, just responsible for cover,” the navigator behind him explained.
“Cover?” the pilot mumbled in surprise, not believing these fighters had any offensive capabilities against naval targets.
“Yes, cover!” The navigator affirmed with a nod, not caring that the pilot couldn’t see him.
“Hope they don’t get in the way then,” the pilot gave up on questioning and controlled the plane to catch up with the lead aircraft. A dark mass of Stuka Dive Bombers surged towards the distant horizon of the sea.
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