Chapter 227 Enemy Aircraft Attack

Most of the Belgian soldiers, frightened by the German "Hellfire", fled in disarray, leaving only a few determined ones to resist the German onslaught. It was impossible for them to withstand the powerful German offensive.

Protected by artillery fire, the river crossing assault boats successfully reached the opposite bank of the Meuse River. German soldiers swiftly stormed the riverbank, launching an attack on the Belgian positions and quickly driving the remaining Belgian soldiers out.

Engineers began constructing a pontoon bridge since rubber boats and assault boats could only transport personnel, and armored units still required a bridge to pass.

In less than half an hour, the pontoon bridge was approaching the middle of the river. General Rauschert stood by the riverbank, watching the engineers diligently building the bridge when suddenly, a piercing air raid siren echoed in the sky.

The air reinforcements from the Anglo-French coalition were arriving belatedly.

His adjutant quickly advised, "General, it's too dangerous here. You should return to the headquarters."

However, General Rauschert was completely unconcerned, pointing to the nearby 88mm anti-aircraft gun emplacement. "What danger? I think this is the safest place." As he spoke, the sound of aircraft engines reverberated in the air, and swarms of Bf 109 planes advanced to intercept the incoming enemy aircraft.

The majority of the Anglo-French coalition's planes were French MS.406 fighters and British Hurricane fighters, along with some Bristol Blenheim bombers (British) and Amiot bombers (French).

Soon, the aircrafts from both sides engaged in a fierce battle.

Heinrich Echler focused on a British Hurricane fighter. As the distance between them decreased, he noticed an unusual bulge at the rear of the Hurricane's cockpit, which seemed strange.

"?" Could it be a new improved model?

However, he had no time to think further; the Hurricane had entered his targeting range, preparing to squeeze the trigger. Suddenly, Heinrich Echler felt a slight twitch in his eyelids, a sense of unease washing over him. Almost simultaneously, a startled cry from the airborne commander sounded in his earphones. "Damn, it's not a Hurricane! Everyone, don't tail it!!"

"!!" Heinrich Echler instinctively pulled the control stick to the right, and the aircraft rolled suddenly, narrowly avoiding the bullets raining down like raindrops.

It was only then that he realized the transparent and strange "bulge" was actually a turret carrying four machine guns.

"Be careful, this is the British's 'Daffy' (Boulton Paul Defiant)!"

In the late 1930s, monoplane and power-operated turrets became two very fashionable trends in aircraft design. Responding to the requirements of the Royal Air Force, renowned for developing aircraft guns, the Bolton Paul Company designed a unique "Undaunted" fighter. Its sole firepower configuration was a hydraulically driven turret mounted behind the cockpit, equipped with four 7.7mm machine guns, operated by a gunner in the turret, covering the entire upper hemisphere.

Since the Undaunted's appearance closely resembled the Hurricane, German fighter pilots, as a convention, attacked from the tail. Little did they know that this was the optimal position for the Undaunted to unleash its firepower. Just as the German pilots secretly rejoiced over their imminent prey, they suddenly faced a head-on barrage from the four machine guns. This tactic, known as the "Drag and Bag", proved highly successful, with the Undaunted downing 65 German planes in the first three weeks.

However, Wilhelm had long distributed information on the current fighter planes of each country to the air force units, so the Undaunted had no chance to employ its "Drag and Bag" tactic.

"Approach and open fire from behind and below the Undaunted; that's its blind spot!"

Carrying two pilots and a heavy turret, the Undaunted had extremely poor maneuverability, earning it the nickname "Daffy" even among British pilots (implying foolishness or madness).

Such fighter planes are no match for agile and exceptional fighters like the Bf 109.

Soon, Heinrich Echler engaged another Undaunted fighter, cleanly shooting it down from behind.

The battle intensified, with occasional sightings of planes trailing thick, black smoke falling from the sky—both from the Anglo-French coalition and the German side. The Anglo-French coalition had numerical superiority in fighter planes, but German fighters outperformed them in aircraft capabilities and pilot experience. Moreover, with the ground already taken by the Germans, Anglo-French pilots forced to land or parachute could only become prisoners.

Amidst the ongoing dogfight between the fighter planes, the Anglo-French coalition's bomber fleet approached the Meuse River, heading straight for the nearly completed German pontoon bridge.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" They were met by the well-prepared ground anti-aircraft emplacements. The first to open fire was the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun group.

Although both were 40mm in caliber like the British "pom-pom" guns, the performance between the two was worlds apart.

After World War I, as a defeated nation, Germany was restricted by the Treaty of Versailles from developing any new high-power weapons. In the 1920s, the renowned German company Krupp acquired some shares of the Bofors company and adopted certain production techniques, collaborating with Bofors in Sweden to design and develop various new artillery. Swedish designers gained new design concepts and valuable experiences from German designers.

However, there were differences in their design philosophies. Swedish designers focused on developing light artillery, while German designers leaned toward heavy artillery. Later, the German company Krupp developed the 8.8cm Flak 36, which played a significant role for the German army in World War II, while Bofors developed the famous 40mm Bofors L/60 anti-aircraft gun.

The Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun had a firing rate of 120 rounds per minute, with a muzzle velocity of 854 meters per second. It could shoot a 0.9kg projectile to an altitude of 7200 meters. After firing a round, the next projectile would automatically be chambered until the ammunition was depleted. It was a fully automatic weapon.

The ammunition supply mechanism above the chamber had three rows of rails, each accommodating a magazine with four rounds. The magazine was automatically removed, and only one round was chambered at a time. After firing, the recoil opened the breech, ejecting the spent cartridge case and allowing another round to enter the chamber. The breech would then close again, repeating the cycle for fully automatic loading and firing. Except for the first round, which had to be manually loaded by the loader, all subsequent rounds were automatically chambered. Despite being limited by the loading speed, the actual maximum firing rate could reach 80 rounds per minute.

All of these features made the 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun one of the most outstanding and well-known anti-aircraft guns of World War II.

As Sweden was a permanently neutral country, Bofors could easily sell various weapons to both warring parties. This led to the appearance of "Bofors" anti-aircraft guns in various theaters of World War II, whether used by the Axis powers like Germany or the Allied powers like Britain and the United States.

This situation annoyed Wilhelm considerably. Therefore, early in the development of the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun, he invested heavily to acquire all related patents and production rights. Consequently, the current Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun became exclusive to the German forces, while the British and French continued to use their own moderately performing anti-aircraft guns.

The Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gunners stepped on the firing mechanism, and the barrel roared continuously. Projectiles of 40mm anti-aircraft shells surged toward the Anglo-French coalition's bomber formation.

Bombers loaded with bombs were quite cumbersome, appearing as live targets to the ground anti-aircraft troops!