Chapter 104 Discussion

　　Just as Wilhelm and the others were discussing the war situation in Spain the British Empire's military hierarchy across the channel was doing the same thing.

　　In a wide conference room, the military top brass looked at the pictures thrown out from the slide projector.

　　Next to them, an expert from the Air Force Intelligence Department narrated. "These two airplanes are Soviet-supported fighters for Spain, the biplane is the I-15 and the monoplane the I-16," and then he told the general performance data of the two fighters. Because the French aided the Spanish government forces (selling weapons directly at first, then not after the embargo, but still supplying them through other countries.), so this information was easy to obtain.

　　The current commander of the Jagdtiger Air Force, Hugh Caswall. Dowding spoke with some disbelief. "That means the Soviets' I-16 has comprehensively surpassed our Bulldog fighters in terms of performance?" The British Empire had always prided itself on being an old industrial power (which was also an indisputable fact), but now even the Soviets had come up with fighters that were more advanced than theirs, which was really hard to accept.

　　He muttered somewhat self-deprecatingly. "It's a good thing we didn't support Spain, or else these backward fighters wouldn't be laughed at?" Because of the economic crisis in the country, the parliament did not pass the program to support Franco, and now it seems that this decision has preserved the face of the British Empire, and does not fall into ridicule.

　　That expert consoled. "His Excellency Commander Dowding, you don't need to worry too much, don't we also have several types of fighters that are about to enter service?" The words were true, but everyone could not help but feel a little depressed in their hearts, the British Empire was seldom overtaken in terms of military equipment. The British Empire is still the first naval power, the army is also the world's strongest, but the air force equipment is already lagging behind?

　　The deputy commander next to Dowding muttered depressingly. "I have said that I want to develop a new type of fighter, but a few years ago, even the gc-type fighters have not been developed in depth, and now it's good to be pushed head and shoulders above the others, isn't it?"

　　Dowding shook his head. "Forget about that gc-type fighter, it's obvious that the air war nowadays can't be solved by old biplane fighters." The gc fighter they were talking about was formerly a Waterbird III biplane fighter, whose main improvement was the switch to a Jupiter 6 air-cooled engine (425 hp) to drive a wooden two-bladed propeller, as well as improved ailerons and making the fuselage more streamlined, but it obviously couldn't be adapted to today's aerial warfare either.

　　The expert changed the picture, compared to the previous I-15, I-16, this picture is very fuzzy, can only see the general characteristics, such as slender fuselage, closed cockpit, and single-winged structure, and so on. "This is a German-aided fighter to Spain, but it's all piloted by Germans and maintained by German ground crews, so it's hard for outsiders to even get close, let alone pry into specific performance data."

　　"Because the pilots on the Soviet side lied about their performance, we can't find out the exact exchange ratio either, but it's safe to say that its performance isn't below that of the I-16, and it even has some momentum to crush the I-16."

　　At this the officers present were all moved. "Are you saying that this I-16 fighter that can fly up to 350 kilometers still can't beat the Germans' fighters?!" It seemed to them that the Soviets' I-16 fighters were advanced enough, but they didn't realize that the Germans' fighters were even more perverse! Then wouldn't the German fighter be considered a super fighter?

　　The intelligence officer said by way of introduction. "The intelligence we got from the spies we deployed in Germany is not much, it only mentions that Germany's Bavaria Aircraft Factory has developed a new fighter, officially codenamed the Bf109 fighter." After a pause, pointing to various parts of the airplane on the slide, he continued to explain. "The plane is supposed to be an all-metal structure with a fully enclosed cockpit and terrific aerodynamics. According to our intelligence team in Spain, and our people within Franco, this German plane has been flying faster than anyone could have imagined, and many say that this plane is going over 500 kilometers per hour."

　　Someone picked up on the exclamation. "My God! You mean to tell me that both the Soviet Union and Germany now have fighter planes that we can't match?"

　　Dowding also sat up a bit. "What are the new airplanes we can put into production immediately now?!"

　　The adjutant next to him immediately returned. "Your Excellency Commander, we now have the Hurricane-type fighter that can be put into production immediately. Its technology is already fully mature.

　　There is also a Spitfire fighter which has been test-flown several times since last March with no major problems.

　　The Dreadnought fighter with its omni-directional rotating turret will also make its first flight in the second half of the year."

　　Dowding nodded, setting the tone for this discussion. "Put the Hurricane fighter into production immediately, and speed up the rest of the aircraft."

　　One of the aged generals spoke up with a worried look on his face. "This is not a good phenomenon, now the Germans are becoming more and more disobedient, their armament strength is also getting stronger and stronger, maybe someday ... " In case these guys start to go crazy again someday, then again I don't know how many people will have to die.

　　Dao Ding sighed helplessly. "The Navy's attention is now on the Soviets' side, the Empire's military spending has been tilted toward the Navy, we want to make another enemy, the Parliament will not agree." The drawings of the super battleship brought over from Germany last time had really calmed down the people on the navy's side. What's worse is that it didn't take long for the secret report of the Soviet side starting to build this super battleship to come in, which further put the military brass on edge.

　　If the first ship fails, it may discourage the Soviets from continuing to build. But if the construction is successful, the Soviet Union will certainly continue to build this terrible warships. The British Empire's naval power would be greatly challenged.

　　The best way to defend against this threat was for Britain to also build this super battleship, after all, they had the same drawings.

　　Unfortunately, the British Empire now could be said to have the will but not the power. The last world war cost Britain a heavy price, and after the war, Britain's economy was weak, unemployment was serious, workers went on strike frequently, and society was in turmoil. the world economic crisis of 1929 was even worse, and the impact on Britain was even more difficult to estimate. after 35 years, Britain's economic situation gradually recovered, but it was still in the middle of the recession.

　　Britain's military spending last year was one-third that of Germany and one-fifth that of the Soviet Union. Because most of the military expenditure was spent on the navy and air force, there was no army with the ability to intervene, and they could not even afford to intervene in the Spanish Civil War, so they could only implement the policy of non-intervention.

　　Seeing that everyone else's faces were hard to see, Dowding steeled himself and said confidently. "It doesn't matter, what we need to do is very simple, prepare and then knock the Germans down once more, that's it."