Chapter 1144: Air Attacks

  Chapter 1122: Air Attack
The soft sunlight’s poured onto the earth, the warmth was mesmerizing. On the docks, the boilers of the ships were already sounding, it was another busy day.

“Tom, did you know? We’re at war with the Austrians.”

The crowd was already surprised by the gray man’s self-questioning opening statement. The work on the docks was boring and tedious, so they had to have some fun to relax.

Gossiping is undoubtedly the cheapest way to relax. It so happened that the wharf was the most well-informed place with many people coming and going, so there were a lot of topics to talk about.

Tom rolled his eyes and put the goods in his hands on his lap: “John, you’re full of shit.

I also know that it’s not just war with the Austrians, and it’s also war with all the countries in Europe. From the start of work today, the big shots have been talking about it, and my ears aren’t deaf.

But what’s that got to do with us. It’s time to work or to work; do you want to go into the army?”

In Britain, there is a threshold for “joining the army”, and it is not just about being physically strong and clean.

In peace time, there are only a few lobster soldiers, so there is no need to recruit on a large scale; the navy has higher requirements, and illiteracy is basically out of the question.

Now that war has broken out, lobster soldiers have indeed begun to expand, but now they are just cannon fodder.

At the same time and the whole continent of Europe, the Royal Navy is not afraid of the sea war, but the land war is where to die.

The general public’s insight may not be high, but the most basic common sense cognition, we still have.

“Cut!” John said disdainfully, “Tom, that’s all you know. Do you think I’m stupid, joining the army at this time?”

Pause for a few seconds, see Tom did not reply, John said to himself: “Do not think that the war and we have nothing to do with, the war together with the price of goods will certainly rise.

Don’t forget, we have to import millions of tons of agricultural products from the Holy Roman Empire every year. Now suddenly gone, how can such a big gap be filled?
And with the war, our trade with European countries will also be interrupted. Odds are, there will be less work on the docks next.”

Other things are not important, prices are going to rise and the work on the dock is less, but the impact is deeply branded in the hearts of the people.

They began to calculate how much food they could hoard from their own family funds, and what they could do next with no more work at the docks.

The more they thought about it, the more serious they felt that the problem was, and for a while, the faces of the people were clouded over, and their interest in chatting was lost.

Suddenly, the sharp whistling sound rang out, answering the sound to go to the sky is a swarm of airplanes.

Restricted by technology, aviation fuel is also very expensive these days. Idle, the British air force will never concentrate so many warplanes to play.

Workers on the harbor have not reacted, but the Royal Navy, stationed not far away, sensed the problem.

I don’t know who shouted “enemy attack”, followed by a flood of explosions in the ears.

Bricks, dirt, tiles, and even human limbs flying in the air, cries, shouts, cries for help.

Looking down from the sky, the entire world was left with only three colors: the azure blue of the sea, the gray-black that was splattering everywhere, and the eye-catching bright red that was mixed in.

The scene that was happening in front of his eyes caused Rear Admiral Winston, who was on duty, to be shocked, and after reacting, he immediately ordered, “Quickly, order all boarding, sailing, and leaving the harbor!”

Organize air defense?

This was the port of Liverpool, located in the northwestern part of England, hundreds of kilometers away from the closest part of the European continent.

It never even occurred to anyone beforehand that this place would be attacked by air. Even if air defense preparations were made, it was London that was doing it.

However, the winter haze saved London, and Liverpool, a port city thought to be safe, was hammered heavily by the Shinra Air Force.

It couldn’t be helped, who made them fall right within the bombing coverage of the Shinra Air Force? If they were further away, say Aberdeen in Scotland, they escaped because of the distance.

If it was just the distance that was close, then Hastings and Margate, which were located in the Straits of Dover, were still less than a hundred kilometers away from the continent of Europe, and seemed to be even more deserving of being bombed.

Unfortunately, Hastings and Margate are small places in the countryside, not so much cities as larger towns, and simply not worth targeting specifically.

Liverpool, by contrast, was a different story; perhaps in later times when London was dominant, the port city was very insignificant; but now it was the core city of Britain, second only to London in importance.

As the commercial center of Britain, the second largest commercial port in the country, the volume of foreign trade accounted for 1/4 of the country’s total trade, the output of Britain’s first, second only to London in the input.

In addition to the commercial prosperity, but also Britain’s manufacturing center, especially the shipbuilding industry can be ranked in the top three in the world.

In favor of this heavy industrial city, or one of the main station of the Royal Navy. So many conditions come together, it brewed today’s tragedy.

Air defense is not counted on, with the few anti-aircraft guns, a few anti-aircraft machine guns, want to deal with the overwhelming bomber group, simply unrealistic.

The warships could run outside, and as long as they moved, their survivability would increase dramatically, but the docks and harbors could not run away, and could only remain in place as targets.

Telegrams asking for help had already flown out. Now Rear Admiral Winston could only pray for God’s blessing: the enemy’s aim was not enough to cause major damage to the harbor and shipyards.

Inwardly, Winston had already greeted all the defenders and bureaucrats of the cities along the way.

Hundreds of enemy planes had crossed the border, but they hadn’t even issued a warning, which was clearly dereliction of duty.

In fact, Major General Winston had thought wrong. The warning was issued, but it was sent to London, not Liverpool.

In the era of no radar, air defense everyone can only rely on the naked eye to see, or by ear to hear.

By the time enemy planes were spotted, the enemy was already overhead. Not everyone was a strategist, able to judge the enemy’s strategic objectives at a glance from the direction.

When an enemy aircraft is spotted and confirmed and a warning is issued, the bureaucrats also need reaction time.

Add to that the time it took to cascade up the chain of command and wait for the London government to make a decision, and the time consumed in that would be no faster than that of the enemy aircraft.

If Major General Winston had been willing to be patient, it is not unlikely that in a few moments he would have been telegraphed a warning of an enemy attack.

Of course, it might not have been received this time, for at the same time that Liverpool was being attacked by air, London fell into battle.

Although the presence of the haze made it unfavorable to launch an air raid; the political significance of bombing London was so great that whether or not it could be successful was rather secondary.

As the capital of the British Empire, London’s air defense force, naturally, is not without defense Liverpool can be compared.

Air-raid sirens have long been whimpering, accompanied by explosions of bombs and the roar of artillery, the whole city was thrown into chaos.

The effects of the haze are two-way, the Shen Luo air force can not accurately locate the target below, simply spell the character.

Throwing bombs down at super high altitude, what they hit counted, and the outcome of the battle all depended on God’s will.

Those in the sky can’t see the underground, and those below can’t see the sky either. The British anti-aircraft artillery and machine guns are also firing indiscriminately.

It is estimated that the result of the battle may not be as big as the loss caused by the shrapnel falling down after the explosion of the bombs.

However, it was impossible not to shoot, and everyone needed to be comforted in their hearts. Besides, only when the shells were fired could they prove that they were defending the air.

For the sake of small lives, the British government has been forced to move into the air defense shelter office. Originally, Prime Minister Campbell refused, but how could the enemy bombardment be so ferocious that a shell happened to land on the government office building.

Fortunately, the quality of the building was excellent, only the top was damaged, and there was no overall collapse.

Probably the capitalists knew what this place was and did not cut corners, otherwise the British government would have been wiped out.

Of course, it is the haze that gets the most credit. Because of the low visibility, it was impossible to accurately aim at the targets below, and the Shen Luo fighters that participated in the bombing were equipped with ammunition that all focused on killing ranges, and had limited lethality against single targets.

Having dodged one bullet, no one dared to guarantee that they would be able to dodge the next one. In front of the cruel reality, one had to move even if one didn’t.

Definitely not because of fear, mainly to ensure the smoothness of the British Empire chain of command, everyone had to sacrifice their personal ……

Gray face into the security zone, Campbell’s mood naturally not good to go, swept the air force minister a glance, sternly questioned: “Our air force, where is it, why has not lifted off to intercept?”

Facing the Prime Minister’s questioning, Air Force Minister Attilio helplessly explained, “London’s fog is too big, the city’s airports have long been closed, our air force can only move to the airports of nearby cities.

The combat order was given at the first moment of the air raid. Our fighters have already begun to lift off and are on their way.”

There was no way around it, London winters were such pits. Under a thick blanket of fog, planes flew out no problem, landing was awkward.

Even the most experienced pilots had no way to accurately find an airport to land in a world where visibility was less than fifty meters.

As a last resort, the air force could only place airfields in neighboring cities. No problem in normal times, but a problem in war times.

Whether it was giving orders or taking off to rush over, it all took time. Being able to arrive at the battlefield within an hour was all about high efficiency.

Every minute on the battlefield was precious, let alone an hour. With such a long period of time, the enemy had completed a round of bombing and ran away.

It was mainly due to inexperience and the lack of a perfect warning mechanism. But as far as the ghostly weather of London is concerned, in the era of no radar, it’s really not generally difficult to get an early warning.

The original time and space German airships were able to ravage the sky over London, and now replaced with airplanes, not to mention.

Although the actual lethality is not great, but bring spiritual damage ah! Such a wave of tossing down, estimated that the confidence of the citizens of London on the war is afraid to fall to the bottom.

Prime Minister Campbell said cautiously: “Order the air force at all costs, but also to give the enemy a head-on blow. Let the Austrians know that London is not a place where they can come and go as they please!”

……

Potentials are pushed out, and under the strong orders of the War Office, the British Air Force exploded with unrivaled potential, completing their liftoff in the shortest possible time, and rushing towards London as fast as they could.

The Third Air Force Regiment, led by Colonel James, was one of the best, and as the representative of the British Air Force, was the first to arrive over London.

However, he was greeted not by flowers, let alone applause, but by enemy planes coming at him head on.

There was no way around it, the orders from the War Office were so urgent that there was no time to assemble and rush to London in a flurry.

The Third Air Force Regiment, which was the closest and had the fastest reaction time, was left with a tragedy. Upon arriving at the battlefield, it was filled with enemy planes as far as the eye could see.

“Fark!”

After cursing angrily, Colonel James hurriedly ordered a retreat. There were often ten enemies, but a fighter plane that could fight ten for one had yet to be born.

At least the Third Air Force Regiment led by James did not possess such strength. If you can’t win, there is no shame in running away. Anyway, the fog in London is big enough that the people below don’t know what’s happening in the sky.

Unfortunately it was all too late, it took time for a fighter plane to turn around at high speed. In such a small amount of time, the enemy fighters were already close.

Seeing that things could not be done, Colonel James immediately ordered, “The enemy’s warplanes are faster than us, we can’t run away, prepare to fight!”

The exchange began, almost every British fighter plane, was surrounded by two to three Austrian planes, the scene was a grueling one.

Whistling bullets rubbed past his ears, and Colonel James, who had picked up a life from death, had not yet had time to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw that two fighters were missing from the group.

Immediately afterward, two waves of violent explosions were heard from below. The power of an airplane hitting a building was not something that could be compared to an ordinary bomb.

It was estimated that these should be the two strikes with the greatest explosive power since the air raid. Whether or not there was any success in the battle would depend on God’s will.

Not being able to worry about his compatriots below, Colonel James could only hope that his teammates would come faster, or else his Third Air Force Regiment would be in trouble.

The second round of engagement had already begun, there were more enemy fighters participating in the siege, and his teammates had not yet appeared, Colonel James was already filled with despair in his heart.

At the critical moment, the miracle did not appear. An absolute gap in strength could not be compensated by luck, not to mention that Colonel James’ 3rd Air Force Regiment was itself unlucky.

But where there was a shred of God’s favor, they wouldn’t have been the first to arrive, caught in the middle of the enemy’s siege.

After holding out bitterly for three rounds, by the time the fourth round came around, Colonel James’s Third Air Force Regiment, was left with only the last two fighters.

If one looked closely, one would realize that these two fighters, their shells were already filled with bullet marks. The fact that they were able to hold out until now was entirely due to their excellent professionalism and avoiding fatal wounds.

At this moment, the shadows of his teammates finally appeared in the sky, only that Colonel James was left with nothing but frustration inside.

“Another one to send to death!”

Even though he knew that he shouldn’t think that way, the true thoughts inside were not controlled by personal will.

(End of chapter)