Chapter 1192 Landing in North America 8

The Reaper 1E long-range cruise missile, which has a maximum speed of only 630 kilometers per hour, is indeed equipped with a high-power radio proximity fuse on the tail. As long as there is an enemy aircraft within 400 meters behind the butt, it will detonate the cruise missile. The warhead of the Reaper 1E long-range cruise missile is loaded with up to 600 kilograms of explosives. When detonated, it is powerful enough to shoot down or damage American fighter jets 400 meters away.

This design is actually not to turn the cruise missile into an air-to-air missile, but to increase the difficulty of shooting down the Reaper 1E.

Now the Americans' first round of "rear-end attacks" paid a heavy price with 51 P-51B/Cs shot down and 9 damaged. This shocked Major General McConnell, who was commanding this "aircraft-bomb war". Everyone was stunned.

But no matter how surprised he was, he couldn't cancel today's operation and let more than 200 death missiles fly to Boston. Moreover, he must also find out the reality of these damn death missiles - he must understand how they explode, otherwise he will be in trouble when encountering these things in critical air battles in the future.

"We must find out clearly," Major General McConnell gritted his teeth. "Ask the 120th Fighter Wing to... open fire at a distance of 400 meters." He paused, "Send a plane to try first, and fire at a distance of 400 meters. Fight, if that doesn't work, get another one and go 500 meters away..."

This is an experiment on human life!

Davy Jones was stunned, but did not raise any objection, but immediately issued the order through the radio.

Five minutes later, another 60 P-51B/C fighters cautiously approached the Reaper missile in flight. No aircraft dared to move forward 3,000 meters away... When the "tragedy" happened just now, the 120th Fighter Wing was nearby and everyone saw it. Who dared to get close to it? This is taking life for granted!

After a while, a P-51B/C reluctantly flew out of the fleet. It did not dare to fly within four to five hundred meters of the Reaper missile. When it reached 700 meters away, it stopped approaching the Reaper missile in front and began to use 12.7mm machine gun fire.

However, the distance of 700 meters is a bit far for air combat. It is difficult for a non-experienced bird to hit the target, so a string of bullets went out, and the missiles in front were still flying arrogantly.

"Let that plane come closer and fight!" McConnell was watching from less than 5,000 meters away. He was very dissatisfied with the cowardice of the P-51B/C and shouted an order.

But that P-51B/C let people go its own way and opened fire from 700 meters away.

"Damn it!" McConnell was a little annoyed. "Tell that bastard to stay 400 meters away, or I will have him go to court-martial!"

Under the threat of court-martial, the poor P-51 had no choice but to get close to the Reaper missile. As a result, it hit the missile's radio proximity fuse at a distance of about 400 meters. A violent explosion fired several shrapnel into the missile. The pilot was shot dead on the spot inside the cabin hood of the plane - if he had known this, he might as well have been court-martialed.

Looking at the plane dragging black smoke towards the sea, McConnell's face turned livid: "Get another one, get to a distance of 500 meters and then fire!"

"Yes!" Major David Jones gritted his teeth and nodded in response.

…

"Mr. Minister, we shot down most of the German missiles. In the end, less than 30 missiles landed in Boston..."

When Lieutenant General Carl Andrew Spaatz, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Air Forces, reported to Secretary of War Wallace, his face was so ugly that U.S. Secretary of War Wallace also became nervous.

"What's going on?" Wallace frowned and asked, "Did the missiles that landed in Boston have biological and chemical warheads?"

As soon as his words came out, everyone gathered in the Pentagon conference room was startled, and twenty or thirty eyes were all directed at Lieutenant General Spaatz.

These people all know that in addition to possessing atomic bombs, Germany also has powerful poison gas. If the Germans dropped poison gas bombs in Boston this time, the United States would be embarrassed. Is it better to retaliate or swallow your anger? If it wants to retaliate, the United States will use biological and chemical weapons to attack Europe. So will Germany intensify its retaliation for the use of atomic bombs? If this battle really ends like this, it will be the end of the United States.

"We lost 52 fighter jets to intercept these missiles!" Lieutenant General Spaatz said unexpectedly bad news.

"What?" Wallace was stunned again and again, "What's going on? Met a German jet again?"

"No, it's not." Lieutenant General Spaatz shook his head, "Our plane was shot down by a German missile."

Shot down by a missile? What kind of black technology is this? Did they encounter air-to-air missiles?

"The Germans may have installed radio proximity fuses on their missiles, and our aircraft will detonate the missiles when they get close to 400 meters."

Wallace relaxed a little, "Then don't get so close...I guess it's not a big trouble, right?"

"No, Mr. Secretary, this is a big problem," Spaatz said, "because the Germans are not always going to use these 600-kilometer-per-hour missiles against us during the day. They are more likely to use them at night. A self-destructing missile..."

It is easy to visually measure the distance of several hundred meters during the day, but it is not easy at night - in night air battles, aircraft collisions occur from time to time, not to mention missiles equipped with proximity fuses?

If the pilot wants to take more insurance, the firing distance is likely to be 800-1000 meters, which is not easy to hit in a night battle. If the distance is shortened, it is likely to touch the radio proximity fuse of the missile and get himself into trouble.

"If we want to ensure the safety of the East Coast," Spaatz concluded, "I am afraid we need to deploy more planes."

More planes? Wallace and Presidential Chief of Staff William Leahy looked at each other and saw a faint smile on each other's face. Where can we get more planes now? Newfoundland has suffered heavy losses and urgently needs to be replenished. Trinidad and Tobago are about to go to war, and fighter planes cannot be transferred from there. Bermuda Islands are also going to go to war, so naturally it is impossible to transfer fighter planes. And the number of fighter planes in South America and the Pacific battlefield is not large, and not many can be transferred.

"It seems that we can't send fighters to Newfoundland for the time being." William Leahy frowned, "Compared to Newfoundland, Bermuda is more urgent... Especially with the variable of jet aircraft, we must increase the number of fighters there as soon as possible to prevent the Germans from really occupying it!"

"Will they really occupy Bermuda?" Wallace looked at William Leahy, "Didn't you say there is no such possibility?"

"Originally it was impossible, but now..." William Leahy shook his head, "Now the Germans have put jet aircraft on aircraft carriers, which is a huge variable."

In fact, the result of the air battle on April 8 was mainly the result of the superb command level of Hessman Jr. and Molders, not that the Me262T was really invincible. But William Leahy and most members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attributed the tragic defeat of the air force on April 8 to the German jet aircraft. However, the conclusion drawn in the end was not bad. With an air combat commander like Hessman Jr. and the Bv138E and Me264H early warning aircraft, the carrier-based aviation of the European Community Joint Fleet can indeed suppress the US shore-based aviation on the battlefield in the Bermuda Islands. Moreover, the Germans now have a powerful battleship and missile ship force, and it is easy to destroy the US fortifications and turrets on the Bermuda Islands.

So the German army now really has the ability to capture the Bermuda Islands, but the Bermuda Islands are too close to the US mainland, and the land area itself is too small, too vulnerable to air strikes by US shore-based bombers, and not suitable for deploying long-range bombers and atomic bombs-it would be terrible if they were blown up!

Therefore, the German General Staff never thought of occupying the Bermuda Islands from beginning to end, but the US Joint Chiefs of Staff had to be on guard. Because once the Bermuda Islands fall, theoretically the entire East Coast will be under the threat of German bombers!

William Leahy continued, "According to the night reconnaissance of the F-13, a large-scale US fleet is currently heading to the Atlantic waters near the Bermuda Islands from the direction of South America. They should be the German fleet attacking from the Port of Belem. In addition, our intelligence personnel have also discovered that the battleships/missile ships of the European Community Navy have left Gibraltar and Brest."

"Battleships and missile ships?" Wallace took a breath, "Are they going to land?"

William Leahy nodded. Now the US Navy is simply unable to fight a decisive battle with the Germans with battleships, so the German battleships are used to bombard the beachhead. And the large-scale deployment of battleships is undoubtedly a sign of the active start of the landing.

"The target is... Bermuda Islands?"

William Leahy replied: "In order of probability, it should be Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda Islands and Newfoundland and its surrounding areas, and finally the east coast."

The possibility of Germany landing in the Newfoundland area cannot be ruled out, otherwise there would be no need to deploy troops and fortify Newfoundland. However, the US military strength, especially the air force, is now relatively tight, so it is impossible to deploy tight defenses everywhere. It can only prioritize and then focus on deployment.

The ranking given by William Leahy now (which is also the judgment of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) determines that Newfoundland and its surrounding areas will not receive any air force reinforcements for the time being, and it is impossible to even make up for the losses on April 8.

However, this does not mean that the operation to land on Newfoundland is foolproof, because the existing air force on Newfoundland is still enough to deal a heavy blow to the German transport planes carrying air assault troops.

Once the air assault fails, the operation to land on Newfoundland will also fail!