Chapter 138

The war is going on. The large caliber howitzers provided by Italy to Franco are the most popular support weapons for German armored forces. Although these slightly bulky howitzers are not as light as Krupp's new howitzers, they save the trouble of transporting guns from Germany, and the disadvantage of not being easy to maneuver is not unbearable in positional warfare like Madrid. Another round of new shelling began. The shells cut through the air and made a sharp whistling sound. They fell on the street, bringing the soil and gravel to the sky tens of meters high. The building was blown upside down by shells, the streets were covered with smoke and dust, and the bodies lying on the streets were no longer cared for. People wandering on the edge of hell were no longer in the mood to bury the bodies for others. One time Franco bought the he-51 fighter from Germany to carry out the bombing mission (because I-16 and ME-109 joined the war, this old fighter can only do such auxiliary tasks now). The bombing lasted only eight minutes, but when we came back, we found that almost every plane had bullet holes in its fuselage. The Soviet air force spared no blood over Madrid. They took off one after another to intercept the bombed he-51 and do-217b. As a result, these poor I-16 fighters were slaughtered by ME-109 hidden above the sky clouds. In a few days, the Soviet air force was shot down a total of 29 planes over Madrid - although most of the pilots parachuted to escape, they still suffered heavy losses. The German and Italian air forces, which had gained partial air control, began to bomb Madrid fiercely. At the beginning, they were careful to avoid civilian facilities, but after the ban was lifted, they began to attack any target they could reach. Because of the precision of bombing, numerous civilian facilities were damaged. The do-217 bombers of the German air force and the "Marquis of Sava" bombers of the Italian Air Force visited Madrid together. In order to reduce the losses caused by the ground fire of the Republican Army, the bombing was usually carried out at night. These attacks destroyed hospitals and tall buildings, and injured countless civilians in Madrid. In order to improve the accuracy of bombing, three new German planes, named Stuka and military code name ju-87, were secretly sent to Spain for testing. The aircraft uses an ugly but practical curved wing of seagull type, carries two improved 20 mm caliber machine guns as continuous ground attack support fire, and can carry 900 kg bombs, including a 550 pound bomb hanging on the belly of the aircraft. The head of state akado ordered to install strange whistles on this kind of dive bomber, so that it can make a shrill scream when diving at high speed. With the subsequent huge explosion, it can easily disintegrate the will of the enemy forces to resist. As soon as the three Stuka bombers entered the war, the battle of Barcelona, one of the most important battles in the Spanish Civil War, was pushed to a new stage. The three Stukas also lived up to expectations, destroying four large blockhouses and cutting off two roads outside Barcelona. Three days after the fierce battle, the German armored forces successfully won the port of Barcelona. This successful assault shortened the voyage of German and Italian supplies to Spain by nearly twice, and correspondingly forced the Soviet supplies to Barcelona to Valencia, increasing the transportation time and distance. Barcelona's fall has made the Republic's nearly collapsed defense in Madrid even worse. For a moment, gandesa lost, binaros lost, Luther lost, even the port of Valencia, which should have been far behind, became in danger, and the balance of victory in the Spanish Civil War began to tilt towards the Franco Legion. At this time, another piece of good news came back to the residence of the head of state in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Soviet marshal Tukhachevsky was arrested for the crime of espionage and treason. His elaborate scheme of framing succeeded, and the Soviets themselves got rid of the pillars of their army! Akkado was in a good mood when he learned that the Great Purge of the Soviet Union was in full swing. In the evening, he asked Mercedes and his daughter to have dinner together. This "quasi husband and wife" like German stars ate together in the most luxurious hotel in Berlin. By the way, he calculated the overseas assets of the white orchid group that he was going to sell.