Chapter 909 Sea Lion Project

Judging from the current map, not counting the ongoing wars in Western Europe and the Balkans, as well as the still neutral Eastern Europe, the former German-Italian group has occupied almost all of Europe.

After taking over the entire three Nordic countries, the German government is very high-spirited and full of confidence in the coming war.

Where should the war be waged next?

The German Prime Minister studied the map of Europe for a long time, and finally pointed his finger at the huge island country in northwest Europe, Britain, under the surprised eyes of the generals.

Yes, Germany planned a direct attack on Britain to extinguish the flames of France's determined resistance to Germany.

According to the German Prime Minister’s original words: “France’s hope lies in the United Kingdom. Without the support of the United Kingdom, France would have surrendered long ago.

France had fallen, and now they were standing up again. The British only need to be anxious for France's continuous assistance, and the French who cannot see the situation clearly will continue to fight the war with excitement.

But if Britain were destroyed, France would lose all hope. By then, Germany will be the master of all Europe and the Balkans, so we must destroy Britain.

Folks, now is the time. Let us end this war, direct the war in Europe to the British Isles, and eliminate the culprit who has dominated and checked Europe for nearly a century! "

If Germany before had still pinned its hope on Britain to see the situation clearly and propose peace, then Germany now regards Britain as its biggest enemy and is doing its best to defeat Britain.

The German government also fully understood that if they could not defeat Britain, it would be difficult for them to end the war. Even if France failed, Britain could still continue to blockade Germany, which would be fatal for Germany.

At the insistence of the German Prime Minister, the German General Staff quickly formulated a plan to attack Britain. In order to keep intelligence confidential, this offensive plan was called "Project Sea Lion" within Germany and was mainly executed by the German Air Force.

The question is, since it was an attack on Britain, why was it handed over to the German Air Force?

In fact, the content of this Sea Lion Project can also be explained.

According to the provisions of the Sea Lion Project, starting from February 17, 1937, the German Air Force would launch a frantic air attack on the United Kingdom, and based on the results of the air attack, the specific landing time for the United Kingdom would be determined.

The Germans' attitude was also very clear. They would first use their air force to bomb a large number of important British facilities to weaken the British defenses on the coastline.

Why does Germany place all its hopes on the air force? Because before the specific content of the Sea Lion plan was formulated, the German Air Force Commander-in-Chief Goering assured the Prime Minister that the German Air Force would only need up to four days to defeat Britain like it defeated Poland.

The reason why Göring was so confident was that during this period, Germany had built a large number of aircraft.

Including the number of aircraft that can be mobilized from Italy, Germany can mobilize up to 3,500 aircraft for this attack on the British.

There are already a lot of such aircraft, even more than the total number of aircraft used by the Germans in France.

More than 3,500 aircraft attacked the United Kingdom, which was also a great test for the British. This was also the source of Goering's confidence.

On February 17, more than 1,000 German planes took off from the German-occupied areas and flew straight to the British coastline.

However, the targets of these aircraft are not only the British mainland, but also the escort and patrol fleets located in the English Channel.

At present, aircraft still pose a great threat to warships, and the Germans want to use such a large number of aircraft to cause as much damage to the British fleet as possible.

By coincidence, there was a British aircraft carrier in charge of cruising here, and it happened to collide with the German Air Force.

Over the English Channel, thousands of German aircraft and hundreds of British aircraft launched a fierce battle.

Although the German aircraft eventually won, the battle loss ratio between the two sides was almost the same. The Luftwaffe lost more than 170 aircraft and the British lost 140 aircraft.

This attack began on February 17 and lasted until early March.

After the British discovered the Germans' purpose, they secretly gathered a large number of aircraft to respond to German attacks at any time, and requested support from France and Australasia.

Australasia also attaches great importance to the British mainland. The security of the British mainland means that the European battlefield will not be too bad.

If the British mainland is in danger, it means that the situation on the European battlefield is likely to be controlled by the Germans.

In order to prevent such a situation from occurring, it is necessary to use a large amount of air force to support the United Kingdom.

The good news is that Australasia has invested nearly a thousand aircraft in Europe. Together with the French aircraft, it can produce more than 1,500 aircraft to help the British resist the German attack.

As for the British, their speed of building aircraft is actually not inferior to that of Germany.

However, because British colonies are spread all over the world, the number of aircraft in the UK is only more than 2,000, and they are still stationed in various places.

The number of aircraft that can actually be mobilized is only more than 1,000. Even if the number of aircraft supported by Australasia and France is included, it actually lags behind the Germans.

However, in the face of repeated provocations by the German Air Force, the British did not choose to make a hasty emergency response. Instead, they acted steadily and waited for the right opportunity before attacking.

Especially in some opportunities where the situation was not too good, the British would only send a very small number of aircraft to fight, and even if they were defeated, it would not have much impact on the air force.

On the contrary, Germany sent out large-scale aircraft every time, which was a severe test for Germany's ammunition reserves and oil reserves.

The air battle between the two sides lasted for nearly half a month, and the total number of aircraft deployed by both sides added up to more than 6,000.

In the half-month offensive, Germany dispatched more than 40,000 aircraft in total, dropped at least 50,000 tons of bombs on Britain, and killed and injured at least 60,000 British soldiers and civilians.

More importantly, Germany successfully bombed more than one million buildings in Britain and destroyed at least 6 military airports and 5 military radar stations in southern Britain.

The cumulative number of British people who suffered was as high as hundreds of thousands, causing the British to suffer a large number of casualties and countless property losses.

But these losses were not fatal to the British, and were basically a completely bearable price.

Mainly the British side, with a total of more than 2,700 aircraft, eventually lost 915 aircraft and 524 pilots.

The Germans had a total of more than 3,500 aircraft, lost 1,543 aircraft, and lost at least 5,000 German pilots.

Yes, the proportion of losses on both sides is so exaggerated. (The historical data is not much different. The British did win with fewer aircraft in air combat.)

What is even more surprising is that Germany only dispatched a total of 3,500 aircraft, but lost more than 3,000 pilots.

But if you carefully study the course of the Battle of Britain, you can understand why the German Air Force suffered such heavy losses.

In fact, in the first week of the air battle, the German Air Force still had the upper hand. Because at this time, planes from France and Australasia were still coming in a steady stream, and the number of aircraft in Britain was almost half of that of the German Air Force.

But starting from February 23, the situation changed a lot.

First, Goering, the British Air Force commander who loved to flatter, actually forced the German Air Force to carry out a large-scale retaliatory bombing of London in order to flatter his prime minister, attempting to destroy Britain's industrial production at one time and destroy the British people's resistance.

At this time, Goering was already overwhelmed by the victory that was about to be achieved. Because of the four-day limit promised to the German Prime Minister before, Goering was a little anxious for success.

He confidently believed that the British Air Force had lost its ability to fight back within this week, and they could only hide in the military base and rely on those poor air defense weapons for defense.

But what Goering didn't expect was that the British Air Force did suffer heavy losses, but the French and Australasia Air Forces were also arriving in a steady stream.

Two days later, in the process of Goering's planned fatal blow to Britain, more than 200 German bombers crossed the English Channel under the cover of more than 600 fighters.

Originally, the German Air Force thought that this was an attack without any resistance at all. They only needed to arrive at the designated location, press the button to drop the bombs they carried, and then they could easily return to the airport and have a glass of wine to celebrate the victory at this time.

But when they saw the planes of Britain, France and Australia approaching, the German Air Force realized the seriousness of the matter.

Looking at the different planes with the flags of the three countries in front of them, the German pilots swallowed their saliva and were a little overwhelmed.

This was completely different from the script they got. In the script, the enemy was just a soft lamb without resistance, but the enemy in reality was a tiger with fangs exposed.

Germany had more than 800 aircraft, and the British, French and Australian air forces that took off to intercept had a total of more than 600 aircraft.

Although the German Air Force still had a numerical advantage, it was actually only the more than 600 fighters that could cause damage to the enemy's aircraft in front of it.

The bombers became a burden at this time, which was why they needed fighter protection.

More importantly, the German Air Force was not prepared for the appearance of the British, French and Australian air forces, which caused the German pilots in the front to break up the formation of the German Air Force in a panic.

Once the formation was broken, the pressure on the German Air Force was even greater. Many guys who had just been trained to become pilots had obviously not experienced such an unexpected incident at this time.

In addition, they were not familiar with the aircraft in their hands, and it was inevitable that there would be chaos when driving in a relatively tense environment.

Unprepared for the battle, it also means that this war was basically a massacre without suspense.

In the end, the German Air Force left behind hundreds of bombers and more than 70 fighters and was forced to choose to evacuate.

On the British, French and Australian air forces, the cumulative number of aircraft destroyed was less than 30. This was definitely a hearty victory without any suspense.

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