Hearing this, Hoffman couldn't bear it anymore. He suddenly opened the door of the conference room and strode in. He glanced at everyone with a gloomy face. Since it was an impromptu meeting, there were not many people in the conference room. In addition to Air Force Chief of Staff General Jeshunek, Air Defense Director Lieutenant General Joseph Kamhuber and Garland, there was another person he did not know. The officer he knew was a major based on his military rank. Lehmann told him in a low voice that this was Gerhard Schöpfer himself, who had recently become the new captain of the JG26 Wing.
Everyone did not expect that the head of state would suddenly open the door and come in. For a moment, they forgot to salute. It took them a long time to react, and they hurriedly arranged for the head of state and others to sit down.
"Gerhard Schöpfer?" Hoffman stopped the major who was about to retreat quietly, and said bluntly, "I heard your argument just now, and I am very disappointed with your performance."
"Dear Führer, I..." Schepfer knew that the situation was not good, and tried to explain a few words, but was interrupted by Hoffman shaking his hand, "The investigation of the responsibility for the failure of the air defense operation was not originally involved. An ordinary air force wing captain, especially when there are problems such as command and equipment, I don't want to be angry with an ordinary grassroots officer. But what I can't tolerate is that in the face of a powerful enemy, you lose at least one soldier. This is not a drill, this is a life-and-death struggle - either we step on the enemy's corpse, or let the enemy step on our corpse, there is no third way to choose. You Think you saved the lives of the flying boys? On the contrary, if the British bombs were allowed to fall, more German soldiers and civilians would have died."
Schaepfer's face turned red and his head drooped involuntarily.
"Since you love life so much, from now on, in the name of the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, I will relieve you from the post of captain of the JG26 Wing. You can report to Marshal Milch tomorrow. I hope the prisoners of war can feel your love for life. And improve survival rates."
Poor Schaepfer dragged his feet like an old dog with his backbone broken, and left the conference room in despair.
"Who recommended such an officer?" Keitel stared at Schöpfer's staggering back and said dissatisfiedly, "He has a weak style and no fighting spirit, which has brought down the entire regiment. The Führer is still too tolerant towards others. I would have kicked him out of the army directly."
Garland's expression seemed a little strange. This matter actually had little to do with him, and he did not recommend the candidate for the wing captain. Otherwise, Major Schepfer would not have dared to be so rude just now. Originally, he was going to follow Marshal Kesselring to take office on the Southern Front, but there was still some daytime air defense work that he had not completed to hand over to Lieutenant General Kamhuber, so he was stranded in Berlin for a few more days. This afternoon, the JG26 wing performed poorly in the face of an air attack by US Army Air Force aircraft. As a former senior commander of the wing, he lost face and specially called Schepfer to inquire about the situation and hoped that the other party could identify him. Wrong, to improve Jeshunek and Kamhuber's impression of JG26, they didn't expect to catch up with the arrival of the head of state. This was a good time. Everything was on the gun, and Major Schöpfer was killed without even a chance to admit his mistake. The head of state, who was also the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, resigned from his post.
Hoffman did not worry about everyone's concerns and only asked: "The latest model of American bomber was shot down this afternoon?" He was very nervous. Could it be that the Americans had invested in B-29 in advance, and those big guys were not easy to deal with.
"Yes, head of state." Jeshunek handed over a pile of photos, "These are photos of the wreckage of the downed aircraft."
After taking the photo, he only glanced at it briefly before Hoffman threw it on the table angrily: "This is clearly Boeing's B-17 bomber. The Americans call it the 'Flying Fortress' - but it is a new adaptation of ours." The name of the paratrooper armored brigade is exactly the same. What kind of new aircraft is this? I knew it two years ago."
Everyone looked at each other, and suddenly turned their attention to Jeshunek, as if blaming him for making such a fuss. The latter himself also felt that something was wrong, and suddenly recalled: On the eve of the mutual declaration of war between Germany and Germany last year, the German military attache in Washington Fu According to Riedrich von Boetticher, who had completed a detailed report on the development and production of American bombers, advertisements for new aircraft such as the B-17F and Mustang appeared in magazines, children's books, and cigarette packages. Yes, Americans have no sense of confidentiality at all. After reading the report, Jeshunek was extremely shocked. Four months ago, in May, he entrusted Boetticher to report to the head of state. Unexpectedly, the head of state simply refused to believe the data. In private, Jeshunek desperately told Boetticher that the war was lost, but in public he promoted the opposite view. At an internal exchange meeting of the Air Force Technical Department, an aerospace engineer tried to explain his views on the U.S. Army. The view that the heavy bombers of the Air Force were a growing threat was ruthlessly interrupted by Jeshunek: "Every time the Allies build a large four-engine bomber, I am happy, because we will shoot down those two-engine guys. We can shoot down these four-engine bombers all the same, and destroying a four-engine bomber is a greater loss to the enemy."
The Air Force officials were aware of the Führer's original attitude, but now the position has changed so quickly. Jeshunek didn't know how to smooth things out, so he could only reluctantly say: "It is indeed as the Führer said, The wreckage that was shot down was an American B-17, but it was not the old C-type, but the latest F-type. Compared with the model in our identification manual, it had a different nose, larger vertical tail and fuselage. The wing also has more cannons and more intense firepower, so the JG26 wing is very uncomfortable when attacking - the characteristics and data of the latest model have not yet had time to be distributed to the grassroots units."
"This is a dereliction of duty." Hoffman was not in a good mood at first, and because he was troubled by the JG26 alliance, his tone was very bad.
Jeshunek nodded silently. Kamhuber was afraid that the head of state would continue to anger the honest chief of general staff, so he quickly added: "The U.S. 8th Air Force has entered the British mainland and is rapidly increasing its strength. Last month, it started to fly alone Launched air strikes against us, but the number and frequency were not high, and they mainly targeted targets in France and the Low Countries. This afternoon was their first independent attack on the empire's mainland, and the scale also increased by an order of magnitude, with about 5 Continuous formations, each formation has 18 B-17s or B-24s. Their tactics and strategies are different from those of the British, so we have some problems in dealing with them - but I don't think the American threat is insignificant. UU Kanshu www.uｕｎshu.com On the contrary, they may bring us heavier pressure in the future."
This sentence made everyone nod. It seemed to be aimed at the head of state's previous attitude towards despising the American Army Aviation, and it vaguely meant to speak for Jeshunek. Of course, Hoffman was aware of this unusual atmosphere. He once again scolded the arrogant Hitler in his heart, and quietly changed the subject: "Let's put the B-17 matter aside for now. Let's do it first." Discuss what happened last night."
"Führer, I'm sorry for what happened last night, but we did our best." Lieutenant General Kamhuber has been coordinating the night air defense. "Yesterday, there were more than 400 British aircraft launching night attacks on us. The main types of aircraft were It's Lancaster, Stirling, Wellington and Halifax. The British are very cunning. Before bombing, they first interfered with our radar, and then carried out feints to deceive our air defense system, causing the enemy to lose control. Some of the intercepted night fighters were thrown into the air, so..."
"I want to ask clearly, did the British deceive our radar or did we not receive the radar warning signal at all?" Hoffman's tone was very serious. He did not want to hear the air defense director's slander.
"To be precise, the air defense radar was interfered with first, but we still took off night fighters to check and intercept. Then the large British group quietly changed its direction. Because the radar was generally interfered with, we were unable to detect this change, so the fighter jets They pounced in the air and only caught a few small fish." Kamhuber frankly told the story of the air defense operation, and Hofmann fell into deep thought.
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