Chapter 1946： Strategic adjustment one

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"From now on, we are no longer the invincible aerial spears of the British Empire. We must be a shield to block the enemy's navy and army from the air. Although this is very frustrating, although this transition is very painful and helpless , But now, in order for the enemy of Great Britain to have a decent ending in this war, we must do this, and it will certainly pay a high price, but for all of this, we can only afford it!"-Trencha German Marshal

As an excellent combat-level commander of the Air Force, Trenchard still has a very clear understanding of the situation. If you have to describe the current situation, it is that the world is changing too fast. The huge British Air Force Prehistoric reptiles were unable to adapt to the current situation under the circumstances of sudden changes in the environment. Neither strategic objectives, tactical systems, nor equipment could cope with the current pressure from the Luftwaffe. Under such circumstances, Trenchard made a decisive choice. Temporarily avoid the edge and reorganize the Royal Air Force at the same time!

After the German bombers ended their first day of attack, the British counted the losses in the air and on the ground. At least 300 aircraft were destroyed and the crew killed more than 200 crew members. The ground crew is a complete mess. Several important airports that have been fully constructed and prepared in the frontier have been destroyed. This is not just a matter of replacing new airports. The deployment of materials, equipment, and personnel needs to be reintegrated. It can be said that after this battle, although the British frontline air power has not been destroyed, it has fallen into chaos.

At this time, continuing to fight the Germans is obviously looking for death. Therefore, Trenchard decisively withdrew all light bombers and medium bombers from the front-line airport to the second or third-line airport. On the front line, Trenchard only left 18 elite fighter units. Their mission was no longer to smash the German bomber units, but to harass and sneak attacks on the premise of saving themselves.

"General Wells, I now need you to immediately organize a dedicated technical team to choose a suitable model from our large number of light twin-engine bombers currently equipped and turn it into an interceptor similar to the German K4M aircraft. In the future , The strategic bomber against the Germans will be one of our most important tasks, and now, the aircraft in the Royal Air Force are not up to this task, even an excellent aircraft such as the DH9 is not good, our fighter's firepower is too weak "Marshal Trenchard said to Major General Wells, who is in charge of aircraft technology.

"If possible, I hope our fighters and interceptors can be equipped with weapons similar to the German 20MM machine gun. The 7.7MM machine gun is just a toy, and the French 13.2MM machine gun is not satisfactory." Trenchard Put forward his own ideas.

"It's probably difficult. The German fighters are equipped with 20MM cannons, because when designing the J4 fighters, they have reserved space for the cannons in the nose. They even installed the cannons on the engine. In the center axis. These are planned, and our fighter? The nose of the camel fighter is too small to hold 20MM cannon and ammunition. The DH9 nose looks very large, but it still wants to be inserted. It's not easy. The most important thing is that we currently don't have the ability to mass produce 20MM cannons." Wells said.

"What's the joke, we have produced tens of thousands of various aircraft, but we don't have the ability to mass-produce cannons?!" Trenchard said it was very difficult to understand.

"It's very simple. Ground air defense forces need a lot of 2-pounder guns, and Army combat forces need a lot of Lewis machine guns and Vickers machine guns. The large-caliber machine guns used by our air force are all provided by the French. The military industry department simply did not do it. Good preparation for the production of a small-caliber machine gun. If we want to arrange a production line, let alone the manpower and material resources consumed, it is too late in terms of time. The French 13.2MM　 machine gun cannot increase the caliber through expansion. . If we build a gun and ammunition from scratch, it will take at least 3 months for the event, and then about 2 months for the production line. I estimate that when our first 20MM machine gun comes out, the war is over... ..." Major General Wells said helplessly.

"So, we are going to make do with the French until the end of the war?" Trenchard said discouragedly.

"That's it. At least it looks like this for now." Major General Wells was also a little helpless. At first, when the German K6 bomber appeared, the Major General asked the British Air Force to pay attention to this excellent dual-engine medium bomber, and pointed out , The power of British fighter jets using 7.7MM machine guns is too small. But at that time such bombers mainly appeared on the Eastern Front, with very few on the Western Front. The British seriously underestimated the size of the German bomber fleet, so they did not upgrade their firepower when the industrial capacity allowed at the time. After the 13.2MM Haqikes large-caliber machine gun was good, I also purchased a batch. It was barely able to deal with the K6, but now, facing hundreds of K8 bombers, the power of Haqikes is not enough~www.novelhall .com~ In addition, I hope you can join me in requesting the Imperial War Department to stop the production of 4 large bombers and reduce the number of medium bombers like 0 by 60%. We need to put these manpower, resources and engines into the production of single-engine fighters and light bombers. "Trenchard said. The cost of an FB27 is approximately equal to three DH9s. And the cost of a V1500 is equal to more than five DH9s. If you replace it with a small aircraft such as a camel, the figure will be even more amazing. Now Britain’s industrial capacity has begun to decline. With the German Air Force under pressure, the British must adjust the product structure.

"I'm afraid I will have to discuss this with the Navy. It is not for us to decide. But in principle I agree with you. In addition, we have one more thing to note, that is, I recommend using all air-cooled engines on the 350 horsepower engine. , Especially the twin-engine bomber, because the air-cooled engine is more versatile and more resistant to damage." Major General Wells said. In fact, Wells even wants to replace some single-engine fighters with air-cooled engines, but considering that the cross-sectional area of ​​the air-cooled engine is somewhat large, it will increase the resistance, and the nose may not be able to accommodate it, so it can only give up.

"I think this is ok." Trenchard nodded and said. War always pays equal attention to quality and quantity. Although various liquid-cooled engines are excellent, their output is always limited by their complicated structure.

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