The sky in this era can be said to be completely undefended, especially in such unprepared late nights. After the bombing started, the whole of London was in chaos. Even the generals who were awakened did not know what to do.
Well, everyone looked at the raging airships above their heads at a loss. It wasn't until some policemen blindly raised their pistols and fired into the sky that the British generals remembered what they should do.
There were a large number of new soldiers on the outskirts of London who were ready to be sent to France. These soldiers equipped with light and heavy machine guns were immediately ordered to move to the city and shoot at airships in the sky. Unfortunately, this order was given too late. Huo Huo
Colonel Er's mission for this bombing was to just drop the bombs into the city of London. Each airship only had less than a hundred bombs, and they were stored in two pods at the front and rear. Since there was no need to specifically bomb a certain
Target, then it only takes a few minutes to throw them all away.
By the time the British soldiers ran into the city from outside the city, twenty airships had completed their bombing and began to rise. Below them, a large area of London was burning in the fire caused by the bombing. They dropped more than just bombs.
, and some incendiary bombs.
The angry British soldiers could only hold up the light machine guns in their hands and helplessly pour bullets at the airships getting higher and higher in the sky. Of course, this would be of no help. In fact, although hydrogen airships are unsafe, they are definitely not said to be unsafe.
It is really just a hit with an air lighter. It is almost impossible to hit it with ordinary bullets. At most, it is just drilling a few small holes in the skin. Unless you use special incendiary bullets coated with white phosphorus, but at this time the British
People don't have such a thing.
Just as these airships were retreating, a group of British planes stationed nearby also received orders to take off and intercept. A dozen small wooden and canvas planes had to take off at this night under the moonlight, but they could only
They can watch these demons raging in their homeland in vain. After dropping all the bombs, these airships can not only fly to an altitude of five thousand meters that is out of their reach, but can even reach a speed of one hundred and sixty-seven meters that is out of their reach.
ten kilometers.
At this time, the speed of the aircraft was generally a little over 100 kilometers. It was not at the same level as the airships equipped with high-power gasoline engines made in China. These small British planes chased them for more than 100 kilometers with full of hatred, and finally
He had no choice but to return to his base.
The German bombing of London quickly caused an uproar throughout the world. Twenty airships dropped a total of 80 tons of bombs and incendiary bombs on the world's largest city and most prosperous commercial center, causing more than 500 casualties on the ground.
Although this number of civilian casualties is not large compared to the hundreds of thousands casualties on the battlefield, this is London, the capital of the British, and the rear area of the battle line, which means that the Straits will no longer be able to provide services to the British people.
To protect, the flames of war have reached the British mainland.
While the British angrily accused Germany of brutally attacking civilians, they could not help but begin to have a deep fear of this terrible weapon. What's more, if the Germans could bomb London, they could also bomb other British cities. For a time, the whole of Britain was in panic.
The grass and trees are all in turmoil, and I feel anxious even when I go to bed at night.
The day after the bombing, the British went crazy looking for ways to protect their skies. A large number of light and heavy machine guns were hastily modified so that they could aim at the sky and shoot. Even some small-caliber cannons were modified.
The elevation angle is increased to the extent that it can fire shells into the sky. Of course, this is better than nothing, just like those light and heavy machine guns, the main force of air defense. There is no threat at all to airships over one thousand meters. As for those small-caliber cannons, even the British themselves
They all felt that if these weapons with a single-digit rate of fire per minute could hit airships in the sky, then their luck would be a little too bad.
The task of developing special anti-aircraft artillery was quickly sent to major British arms companies. However, this will take a long time. It is estimated that in less than half a year, it will be difficult to see anti-aircraft artillery protecting the skies of London.
Of course the Germans would not wait for them. The use of airships had extremely high weather requirements. Taking advantage of the same good weather the next day, Colonel Hall flew to London again with his air fleet.
He didn't know that the British had already prepared a gift for him. This guy was about to order the airship to descend, when he saw a dozen firelights suddenly shining on the streets of London under the moonlight. He and the soldiers beside him looked at each other inexplicably.
, before he could understand what was going on, he saw more than a dozen fires suddenly exploding on the ground.
"Asshole, who told you to install a fuse!" He didn't know that at this moment, a British officer on the ground was roaring at the bewildered soldiers surrounding a 75-gun pointed at the sky. These Army soldiers
The artillerymen did not adapt to their new role, and as a result, all the artillery shells were equipped with impact fuses as usual. The artillery shells fired into the sky did not hit the airship, but instead blew up residential buildings on the ground when they fell.
Of course, this was just a small mistake, but this mistake made Colonel Hall in the sky alert. It was obvious that the ground in London was no longer without any resistance tonight. This guy carefully ordered the airship to start descending.
The height dropped to about a thousand meters, and countless light and heavy machine guns on the ground suddenly opened fire. The whole of London was filled with dots of fire. The dense bullets intertwined into a terrifying fire net under the airship, and then it was still unable to target the airship.
The airships posed a threat, but they were forced to stay at an altitude of one thousand meters. At the same time, the cannons pointing towards the sky also fired cannonballs into the sky from time to time.
"Drop the bomb, drop the bomb immediately!" Colonel Hall made a prompt decision. However, the accuracy of bomb dropping at such a height would be very poor, but fortunately, the city of London was below, and the target was large enough. After receiving his order, the airships on the airships
The crew quickly pushed out the bombs one by one. The roaring bombs quickly exploded into dazzling fireballs on the ground. Especially those white phosphorus incendiary bombs quickly formed blazing flames after they landed.
"British planes!" A soldier shouted at this time. Through the moonlight, we could see that the dozen or so small planes from last night were slowly flying over again.
"Quickly throw away all the bombs and then rise to a safe height." Colonel Hall immediately ordered. Twenty airships quickly pushed out all the bombs. Then the auxiliary airbags began to release air to control the lift. As the air decreased, the original
The volume of the squeezed hydrogen in the main airbag began to increase, and the corresponding buoyancy began to increase. The airship began to rise again, and at the same time the engine accelerated. The airship, which was originally flying slowly for bomb delivery, gradually accelerated.
However, compared with airplanes, the reaction speed of these huge aerial behemoths is obviously much slower. In addition, the British planes arrived a little faster this time. Before the airships could reach a safe height, the first batch of planes arrived.
Already arrived, the large-caliber machine guns equipped in each airship immediately sprayed out flames. The 12.7 mm machine guns purchased from China have a much farther range than the machine guns on British aircraft, and they are also equipped with ballistic markers.
Tracer bullets were fired, and soon the wings of an airplane that was about to pounce were broken and it fell to the ground.
However, this did not affect the courage of the British pilots. These pilots, who saw their homes turned into a sea of fire, bravely cut to the sides of the airships, braving the enemy's blocking fire, and the rear-seat shooters quickly fired revenge bullets.
Okay, this fighting method is indeed weird, but for classical small aircraft that have not yet solved the problem of machine guns and propeller shooting, this is the only fighting method they can adopt.
However, this air battle between aircraft and airships did not last long. Due to the speed gap between the two sides, the British aircraft could only keep up with the airships in the initial stage of acceleration. When the airships picked up speed and rose to high altitude, they
There was nothing much that could be done. But during this period, many aircraft still hit the target. After all, their targets were too big, but these attacks failed to cause real damage to any airship. Instead, the large-caliber aircraft on the airship
The machine gun, relying on the advantage of tracer bullets to indicate the trajectory, shot down two more British aircraft. In the end, the air battle ended with the defeat of the aircraft. The pilots once again watched their enemies walk away.
Of course, what they didn't know was that they actually destroyed an airship. Just as they were flying across the strait, an airship that was hit by too many bombs finally crashed on the sea due to its reduced buoyancy and strong winds.
.
Fortunately, the British's misfortune did not last long. By the third day, the weather was no longer suitable for airships. However, Colonel Hall actually still let his air fleet take off that night, but soon the strong winds
This forced him to return to the ground. The huge airship could not be controlled at all in the wind. He could not even fly forward. Bombing was definitely impossible in such weather.
The British, who were able to take a breather, began to study means of retaliation. Of course, they did not have the ability to use bombers. In fact, the French also carried out aircraft bombings at this time. A reconnaissance pilot, out of indignation against the Germans, took more than a dozen bombers with him.
A mortar shell went up into the sky, and then all the shells were thrown towards the German positions. Inspired by him, the French are currently developing the first dedicated bomber. It is said that it will be almost successful in a few months. Of course
Regardless of the bomb load or flight speed, they are incomparable to airships.
Therefore, the only way the British can think of to retaliate is to build their own airship and fly to Germany to drop bombs. (To be continued)