But even so, the Wegener fleet still suffered considerable losses. The "Kaga" aircraft carrier purchased from Japan, a heavy cruiser and two destroyers were sunk, and no less than 10 warships were injured to varying degrees.
, and 105 aircraft were shot down or destroyed. It is said that it was thanks to the low accuracy of horizontal bombing, and Roosevelt was
On the spur of the moment, I didn't have time to make special modifications to these b-24s, which were originally used to bomb ground targets. Therefore, although the load capacity was amazing, the single bomb they carried was not very large. Otherwise, the losses to the Wegener fleet would definitely be greater.
.But precisely because this tactic is completely unreasonable, even a famous general like Wegener suffered a loss if he was careless.
However, the losses of the US military were equally astonishing. According to post-war statistics, a total of 562 B-24s were shot down, and another 71 barely flew back but could not be repaired because they were too seriously injured. You must know that a B-24 long-range bomber
The cost is as high as 300,000 US dollars, which is equivalent to the cost of six of the most advanced fighter jets or dive bombers in the United States. It also has a lot more crew members. The Americans paid
The price paid can be imagined. In fact, only the rich and powerful United States can afford such a crazy tactic. You must know that all the long-range bombers currently owned by the Axis camp do not add up to this number (except for the United States in history, only
The British built thousands of strategic bombers. Other countries did not have the financial and industrial capabilities.) The Americans simply used money to beat the Germans to the ground.
And more importantly, Roosevelt's desperate move forced the Wegener fleet to withdraw to the country to repair the injured ships and resume shipping in the North Atlantic. Although the threat of German submarines was still a headache, at least it was better than before.
It would be much better if the German main fleet was completely intercepted. At the same time, the "victory" of this battle made the Americans fully aware of strategic bombardment.
How terrible it was to bomb the aircraft in large numbers. Soon after, the modified P-51b fighter jet, which was replaced with the British Merlin engine, entered service, giving the United States an extremely high-altitude "performance" and super endurance.
With powerful fighter jets, the conditions for the U.S. military to conduct large-scale strategic bombings in the hinterland of Western Europe and even Germany have initially matured.
Although the British Royal Air Force bombers came from time to time to attack before, they were basically "harassment". Therefore, when the U.S. military's huge bomber groups, often thousands of them, appeared in the skies over Western Europe, the German forces everywhere were generally unprepared, causing the U.S. military's second attack
A massive bombing campaign achieved considerable success.
However, the Americans who are very excited about this do not know that in fact, strategic bombing in history has achieved greater results and smaller losses. However, in this time and space, the Germans have obtained the technology of proximity fuzes and rod-type warheads. Moreover, their national strength has also become stronger.
As a result, the U.S. military's strategic bombing suffered much greater losses than in history, especially after the Germans took precautions. When Mustache transferred more of the main air force on the eastern front, the losses of U.S. strategic bombers increased.
Bigger, even with the P-51B combat
The average number of aircraft lost every day was hundreds of aircraft escorts. And because the air battles all took place on the Western European continent. After parachuting, only a few of the Allied pilots were rescued by the resistance organizations and returned safely, while almost all others
They became prisoners of the Germans. On the contrary, even if the German pilots were shot down by the enemy, most of them could return to the sky. This was simply like the situation when the Luftwaffe bombed London, and the air superiority of the Americans was far less than that of the Luftwaffe at the time.
obvious.
As a result, the exchange ratio of pilots reached a peak of 5:1, which put Roosevelt under tremendous public pressure from domestic and allies. However, Roosevelt still withstood the pressure from all parties and persisted in this strategy. In his opinion,
, as long as the United States can only bomb Germany and Germany cannot attack the United States, victory will only be a matter of time. At the same time, strategic bombing will also contain the main force of the Luftwaffe.
, allowing Germany to take advantage of the hard-won sea control to recapture the recently lost Shetland Islands and Faroe Islands. This gave the Allies more than a dozen usable airports. The number of aircraft that could be put into the battlefield naturally increased.
.And one thing that cannot be ignored is that as the main force of the German Air Force returns westward, the pressure on the Soviet Union will definitely be greatly reduced, which is quite beneficial from the overall perspective of World War II.
World War II has become a veritable meat grinder. By the end of 1942 alone, the total number of civilian deaths in various countries in the world exceeded 30 million. This was much more than the same period in history. However, the turning point of World War II was still unknown.
It is far from coming, which means that more people may die in the future.
"The course of World War II is completely different from that in history. I am afraid that even the United States will have to lose its skin this time. As for the Soviet Union, it would be good if it can maintain its status as a first-class power after the war. A superpower cannot even think about it; the United Kingdom is completely disabled.
, it will be completely reduced to a second-rate country within ten years after the war.
Let’s go home. If this development continues, China will also hope to get a share of the pie, but the premise is that we must seize the time. The more our national strength becomes stronger, the more likely we will win in the future." Hu Weidong, who is in a secret research institute in the northwest, read this
I thought to myself after getting the latest information.
Compared with the great powers involved in the war, the Chinese people who can enjoy peace are undoubtedly much happier. However, the whole country does not dare to relax at all, because history since the Opium War tells everyone a truth, only when one is stronger can one
truly ensure peace. Therefore, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee, the whole country
The people have invested in production and construction with high enthusiasm. Although Hu Weidong, as a veteran, knows that this enthusiasm cannot last long, but if used well, it can still greatly advance China's industrialization process in at least ten years. This is important for
The ending of World War II, which we will participate in in a few years at most, will be very important.[
Despite this, 1942 was the slowest year of development since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the industrial growth rate was only 11%. As a result, China's total industrial output value can only continue to rank behind Japan, which has greatly increased its strength due to large-scale expansion.
.This is first of all because of the severe drought in 1942, which not only caused a large-scale production reduction in Henan, China's largest granary, but also caused the occupation of industrial water, which also caused China's most important Central Plains Industrial Zone to be greatly affected.
The more important reason is that due to the lessons learned in 1941, Taizu specifically instructed to increase the localization rate of various major industrial products as soon as possible. Strictly speaking, with China's current industrial base, this is simply impossible to achieve.
, after all, the number of domestic skilled workers is only so small, and scientific and technological experts are
There are fewer; but Hu Weidong understands Taizu's idea, which is just for precautionary considerations, so factors such as performance and quality need to be considered, and the "have" problem can be solved, so that he will not worry about others getting stuck.
, and Chinese workers are still capable of achieving this level of localization.
ps:
Thanks to the book friend "Yunlong Fengxue" for the reward, please continue to ask for votes^_^