The Rise of Australia

Chapter 864 Air Raid on the Airport

The German army's offensive was very rapid. It took only one week after the outbreak of the war to capture the northern town of Ust in the Czech Republic and advance towards Prague, the administrative center of the Czech Republic and the seat of the Czech government.

The Czech region, known as Bohemia in German tradition, has been a very important part of Germany since the time of the Holy Roman Empire.

What is more difficult for the Austrian Empire is that once Prague is captured, the entire Czech region will completely lose its fighting spirit.

As an important part of the Austrian Empire, if the Czech Republic is lost, Austria will no longer have room to fight back in this war.

In order to keep the Czech Republic, the Austrian government urgently dispatched the newly formed Sixth Army northward to the Czech region.

This Sixth Group Army is composed of a small number of grassroots officers composed of veterans and most recruits. It is a comprehensive mixed group army.

They have only one mission, which is to defend Prague and rely on the terrain north of Prague to try to keep the Germans out of the defense line.

Before the Sixth Army arrived in the Czech Republic, even worse news came. That is, the Germans set out from Regensburg and were advancing toward Vienna in the east.

Which is more important, Prague or Vienna? The Austrians did not hesitate too much and immediately ordered the Sixth Army to go south to return to Vienna.

This also caused the Czech region to appear somewhat powerless when facing the German army's attack.

The Austrian Empire's army numbered over one million, and the vast majority of them were deployed in the Austrian region. In addition to Austria being the central area where the imperial government was located, another point was that Austria was facing a north-south attack from Germany and Italy.

But this also means that the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which are relatively far away from Austria, have relatively small Austrian troops deployed.

In addition to a small number of Austrian troops, there are only regional armed forces composed of pure Czechs and Slovaks commanded by their respective governments.

The total number of troops in the Czech Republic is less than 400,000. When facing the attack of a larger German army, it is inevitable to fall into a disadvantage.

If the Germans had not wanted to quickly take over Czech industry and thus not destroy the Czech industrial base and transportation hubs, I am afraid that the Czech army would never have persisted for such a long time.

Currently in the Czech Republic, the Austrian Fifth Army and the Czech Armed Forces are fully resisting the German Third and Fourth Army's offensive.

There is a big gap between the weapons and equipment of the two sides. After the German army gained experience in fighting Poland, it was generally equipped with a large number of tanks and aircraft.

As for the Austrian army, although it also has tanks and aircraft, the number is still far behind.

There is nothing that can be done about it. For the Austrian Empire, the focus of defense must be the Austrian region. Although the Czech Republic also has armed forces, the armed forces in these regions will certainly not receive equipment comparable to the Austrian regular army.

While Austria was struggling to cope with the attacks of the German and Italian armies, the supply of weapons and equipment received by the Czech region was much less than before.

Among the battles between the German and Austrian armies, the most intense battle was actually the battle for air supremacy.

In terms of the number of aircraft on both sides, Germany has more than 2,500 aircraft, of which nearly 1,000 are the latest fighter jets.

As for the Austrian Empire, by the time the war broke out, they had less than 1,000 aircraft. After receiving support from Britain and France, the number of aircraft in the Austrian Empire increased to about 1,500.

But as mentioned before, in order to prevent German air attacks, Austria deployed most of its aircraft near Vienna and on battlefields in the Austrian region.

The number of aircraft allocated to the Czech and Slovak regions was less than 500, which was no match for the thousands of German aircraft facing them.

After experiencing several rounds of relatively fierce air battles, the German army gradually gained air superiority and launched fierce bombings against the Austrian troops on the ground.

Although the Austrian army also has a certain number of anti-aircraft weapons, it has no good way to deal with these new, faster aircraft.

Although it was possible to shoot down a few with anti-aircraft weapons, that was only when the enemy bombers lowered their flying altitude and bombed our own troops.

This often also means that the enemy's aircraft has dropped bombs and caused huge damage to our own troops.

April 27, 1936, German Fourth Group Headquarters.

The German general who was the general staff officer of the Fourth Army at the time was introducing his plan to the commander of the Fourth Army with an excited face: "Based on our reconnaissance in recent days, we have initially determined the distribution of military airports deployed by Austria in the Czech region.

If we can destroy these military airports as soon as possible, we will no longer have any enemies in the sky. After completely gaining air supremacy, it will be time for us to launch a general attack on the Czech region. "

The commander of the Fourth Army nodded and did not have many objections to the general staff's plan to attack the enemy's military airport.

Although the country has ordered that the Czech industrial base and railways should not be destroyed as much as possible, military airports are obviously not within these limits.

As long as the enemy's military airport is completely destroyed, it will take a long time for them to rebuild.

During this period, it was the best time for the German army to attack. With its own air superiority and air force support, the Austrian army will be suppressed by the German army from both sides, and defeat will become inevitable.

No matter how elite the army is, it is destined to be unable to withstand the huge bombing for several days. In such a long battle, the German army had already figured out the combat effectiveness of the Austrian army.

Although there are some elites in the Austrian army, most of the Austrian army are just barely qualified ordinary soldiers, and have not participated in a war for a long time. They are obviously not mentally prepared for such a large-scale war.

Don't underestimate the impact of psychology on a soldier. With good psychological preparation, soldiers will not be too panicked on the battlefield and can display strong combat effectiveness.

But without adequate psychological preparation, facing such a cruel real battlefield all of a sudden will have a huge psychological impact on these soldiers.

After all, soldiers are also ordinary people. They are flesh and blood and can be injured and die. Once fear far exceeds their passion for the country, the impact on soldiers and even the army will become an unpredictable problem.

"If we want to attack all military airports in the Czech Republic, how many aircraft will we need to dispatch?" After a brief thought, the commander of the Fourth Army asked aloud.

"At least 120 bombers, and each bomber needs at least 3 fighter jets to escort it." The Chief of Staff of the Fourth Army said calmly: "This is just the most basic number. We cannot guarantee how many enemy forces are left in the Czech Republic. If we want to ensure that the plan is foolproof, we must dispatch at least 500 aircraft." "Contact the Third Army." The commander of the Fourth Army nodded, his eyes showing enthusiasm and determination: "We must clear everything at once. There are air hazards, and I hope we are the first troops to enter Prague.”

The coordination and execution strength between the German armies is far inferior to that of the Austrian army.

After formulating the plan, the Third and Fourth Group Armies quickly cooperated and dispatched more than 600 aircraft to make full preparations for bombing.

In the early morning of April 28, after careful preparation, hundreds of bombers formed a group, escorted by three times as many fighter jets, and headed for various regions in the Czech Republic.

At this time, inside an Austrian military airport in the Czech Republic.

Andrew Thiemann is a radar monitor at a military airfield in Austria. His task is simple, that is, keep an eye on the airport's radar data and report any anomalies as soon as possible.

Although it seems that he needs to maintain concentration at all times, for Andrew Thieman at this time, it is not as nervous as imagined.

After all, more than half a month has passed since the war. The location of this military airport is very hidden, and no enemy reconnaissance planes have been found around it.

At this time, the radar screen was obviously blank, and no suspicious flying objects were seen.

This also allowed Andrew Thieman to relax and engage in the most exciting moment of every night shift, which is to take a nap secretly.

After many tests by Andrew Tieman, there will be no problems if you take a nap quietly after midnight every night.

After all, radar monitors like them are also ordinary people, and there is no way to avoid the fatigue caused by using their eyes for a long time.

But today is obviously different. Just as Andrew Tieman was taking a nap as usual, a warning sound that had never appeared on the radar suddenly woke up Andrew Tieman.

"Damn, what's going on?" Andrew Tieman cursed quietly and quickly looked at the radar screen.

After seeing a few small dots appearing on the edge of the display screen, Andrew Tieman rubbed his eyes in disbelief. After confirming again that it was correct, he shouted with some surprise and sharpness: "An enemy attack has been discovered! An enemy attack has been discovered!" "

While shouting loudly, Andrew Thieman manipulated the phone next to him and quickly dialed the military airport command room.

"Andrew, what problem did you find?" the guard at the military airport asked.

"Enemy attack discovered! Enemy attack discovered!" Andrew Thieman shouted twice, then carefully observed the number of dots on the display screen, and said nervously and horrified: "A total of seven dots were discovered. Point, four of them are larger flying objects, damn, these must be German planes, they are coming for an air attack!"

The Guards League conveyed the news to the ears of Major Gordon Kaufman, the general director of this military airport.

"Damn it, all fighter jets take off immediately to intercept this group of German planes. Others quickly clear the runway, and all anti-aircraft weapons enter combat readiness." Gordon Kaufman quickly issued this order.

For this military airport, this was the first time it faced German bombing. But as an Air Force officer, Gordon Kaufman still has some experience with such scenes.

"Major, there are only seven German planes. There is no need to be so nervous." The staff officer next to him smiled and said: "Believe me, we only need to dispatch ten planes to intercept these German planes."

Hearing what the staff officer next to him said, Gordon Kaufman quickly calmed down, but still said with some caution: "The Germans have more planes than us. Before we are sure of the specific number of German planes, we should be careful. For good.”

"By the way, how did the Germans determine our location?" The staff officer next to him was a little curious and asked with a hint of surprise: "Judging from the intelligence we have so far, the German reconnaissance plane did not approach our airport.

Do these Germans have the ability to obtain intelligence without on-site investigation? This is incredible. "

"We don't have time to think about that now." Gordon Kaufman said with a serious face: "We can't be sure whether the German attack was accidental or premeditated.

If it's the former, it's fine. We only need to deal with this wave of German attacks and don't need to worry about anything else.

But if the Germans had premeditated it, I am afraid that other airports at this time may also face German attacks. "

"You mean?" The staff officer looked at Gordon Kaufman with a hint of surprise and astonishment in his eyes.

"Yes, I'm afraid the Germans have already planned it. We must remind other airports to avoid being attacked by the Germans and causing heavy losses."

For these military airports, facing attacks is still very troublesome. It takes a certain amount of time for aircraft to take off from airport warehouses and runways, and enemy attacks are often sudden and will not be discovered until they are within the radar observation range.

Although this airport uses Austria's most advanced radar, the detection range is only about 35 to 40 kilometers.

Such a distance may seem far away, but for an aircraft that is already flying at high speed, it actually only takes a few minutes to reach it.

But how many planes at the airport can take off quickly in a few minutes? After all, those pilots cannot stay on the plane anytime and anywhere. They also need to eat, sleep, rest and other things.

Especially at night, those pilots wake up from their sleep, carry their weapons and equipment and rush to where the plane is,

To allow the plane to fly into the sky in an orderly manner, a few minutes is obviously not enough.

Especially if you want multiple planes to take off at the same time, it will take even longer.

Even for pilots who have received relevant training, it usually takes at least ten minutes from being notified of the attack to flying the aircraft into the sky.

And these ten minutes are also when the airport's defense strength is at its weakest. In the face of a sudden enemy attack, the only thing the airport can rely on is the air defense weapons deployed around the military airport.