Chapter 669: German-Soviet War (23)

Stalin dispatched a group of B-24 bombers (three Army aviation squadrons) that had just arrived from the US Army to support the Western Front. Their mission was not to drop bombs, but to airdrop supplies to the Soviet troops in the German encirclement and establish communication channels.

Although Stalin wanted to send them to bomb Berlin, the top priority now was to rescue the troops trapped in the encirclement.

"B-24?" Timoshenko couldn't help but wonder after meeting the commander of this group, Major Elton, and having a general understanding of the performance of the B-24. "Since your country already has the B-17, why are you producing the B-24 with similar performance?" Isn't this asking for trouble? Or is it because of money?

The B-17 "Flying Fortress" and the B-24 "Liberator" are both four-engine heavy bombers. The B-24 bomber is faster than the B-17 bomber, and has a higher ceiling, range and bomb load than the B-17 bomber. Large; in terms of maneuverability, the B-24 bomber is also better than the B-17 bomber; in terms of anti-strike capability, the B-24 is far inferior to the B-17. The B-24's large aspect ratio (wing span and average The Davis wing of the B-17 bomber is easily broken when attacked, causing the aircraft to crash due to loss of balance. However, the B-17 bomber's body is notoriously strong and is known as the "Cadillac" of bombers.

On February 1, 1943, over the port of Tunisia, a Bf-109 fighter accidentally collided with the USS All American B-17 bomber. The fighter jet then disintegrated in the air, and the B-17's fuselage was almost cut in two, leaving a large hole nearly 9 meters long and 2 meters wide. The aircraft's left horizontal stabilizer and left elevator were severely damaged, and the vertical stabilizer and rudder were also damaged. Two of the four engines stopped working, and one engine began to leak heavily. The aircraft's radio equipment, electronic equipment, and oxygen system were all damaged to varying degrees.

What is amazing is that even in this state, the B-17 still completed the bomb delivery and successfully returned to the airport and landed safely. The ground crew couldn't believe that the plane could fly back successfully after experiencing such damage. The crew members only suffered minor injuries. For a while, the news spread throughout the rear area, and people were rejoicing.

However, the United States already had the B-17, a long-range, high-altitude bomber before the war, and it is indeed puzzling to mass-produce the B-24 bomber.

One theory is that the B-24 was produced because B-17 contractors were unable to mass-produce B-17s in sufficient numbers to support strategic bombing operations in Europe. There is also an argument to be made that the B-24 was produced in order to force a price cut on the B-17 by making it a competitor, thus keeping the costs of both aircraft low. And if there are multiple contractors producing thousands of aircraft at different locations, jobs and employment opportunities can be distributed across the United States.

After listening to Major Elton's explanation, Commander Timoshenko nodded silently. "Comrade Major, I'll leave it to you for this airdrop mission. As for the specific location where our troops are trapped, it's not clear because the radio has been unable to contact us. We can only make a rough judgment based on the previous attack route. It's already on the map. Marked out.”

"We will take action tonight." He also heard that the last time the 305th Bomb Group went to Baku to bomb the oil fields, it was intercepted by German fighter jets and was wiped out, so he chose to airdrop at night. But the Soviets didn't tell them that the German night fighters were equally terrifying. "Commander, please send someone to load the supplies."

Almost at the same time, the German frontline commander Kruger received a telegram from Berlin and learned that the Soviets were going to airdrop supplies into the encirclement. "Haha, these idiots don't know that their last unit surrendered this morning, right? Is this why His Highness asked us to keep it strictly confidential? I don't know how many supplies these idiots invested before they found out that they had been cheated."

That night, the U.S. bomber group took off to perform an airdrop mission. However, they were not intercepted by German night fighters. Even the anti-aircraft firepower on the ground was sparse, and the German positions were brightly lit, which became a guidepost for the U.S. bomber group.

In this way, the US bomber brigade dropped supplies back and forth and was busy until dawn.

After the sun rose, the German army began to pack up the airdropped supplies in the encirclement. A B-24 can carry 6 tons of bombs, and more than 80 bombers can airdrop nearly 300 tons of supplies at a time. They flew three times last night and dropped a total of Nearly 900 tons of supplies.

Boxes and boxes of ammunition, grenades, fuel, black bread, luncheon meat... piled up into several hills, as well as countless pigeon cages.

A staff officer ran into Kruger's office excitedly. "Commander, we will make a fortune now. Among the materials dropped by the Soviets, there are 300 tons of fuel alone. Except for the Soviet bullets, which we cannot use, the rest can be used. And the Soviets also A lot of homing pigeons were dropped.”

"Carrier pigeon? This reminds me of the last war." These Soviets are not very stupid, they even use carrier pigeons.

During the last war, because radio was not very reliable, the method of carrier pigeons to transmit information was developed to its extreme. At that time, the British army had more than 100,000 carrier pigeons.

The British also invented a mobile pigeon cage car, which perfectly combined the advanced cars and pigeon houses at that time, and equipped it to the communication troops to undertake the important task of battlefield communication. The British army's communication soldiers were also equipped with backpack pigeon cages. One soldier could control four or five pigeons. Such communication capabilities could be considered relatively powerful at the time.

In the later stages of the war, these carrier pigeons became the preferred communication method for tank troops. At that time, each tank had to carry a pigeon cage. When intelligence needed to be sent, the pigeons were released from the tank.

During World War II, military radio communications had developed, but radio waves might expose their positions, and there was no such concern when using pigeons. Therefore, the carrier pigeon communication system during World War II was still widely used. British carrier pigeons also carried reconnaissance aircraft to perform missions. After many planes were shot down, the pigeons were able to notify the command center of the crash location, and many pilots were rescued. The British army also airdropped pigeons to the French countryside, asking locals to record the actions of the German army and let the pigeons take them back to Britain. These birds were also airdropped into enemy-occupied areas with the troops, so that officers and soldiers could send back information from the landing site.

However, compared with Britain and the United States, which vigorously developed homing pigeons, the German army was not very interested in homing pigeons. They preferred to train messenger dogs to deliver information.

"Release those homing pigeons and tell the Soviets that most of the supplies they dropped fell on our positions, and ask them to send more supplies. Ask those Soviet officers if there are any secret codes or something."

"Yes!"