Chapter 310 Gibraltar Fortress (2)

The current air defense firepower in Gibraltar consisted of only a dozen Hurricane fighters and a few dozen anti-aircraft guns.

With great courage, the dozen Hurricane fighters took off to intercept the three times larger German Bf 109 escort fighters.

The result was self-evident. The Hurricane fighters, already inferior in performance, were overwhelmed in numbers, completely unable to resist. One after another, they plummeted to the ground and sea, turning into blazing fires.

The Bf 109 escort formation, which easily completed its mission, ascended to a higher altitude. The long-range bombers maintained a dense formation and carried out a carpet bombing on the critical defense positions of Gibraltar.

As mentioned earlier, after the British occupied Gibraltar, they expelled the original Spanish residents and introduced a large number of immigrants from England, Italy, North Africa, and other places, completely altering the local population structure. As a result, the German bombings didn't need to worry about causing harm to innocent Spanish civilians. Anyone remaining here was a law-abiding citizen of the British Empire, so they could be bombed indiscriminately.

Bombs ranging from 50 to 250 kilograms fell from the sky, turning buildings and streets into ruins.

On the anti-aircraft gun positions, brave gunners operated various calibers of anti-aircraft guns, firing shells into the air. Unfortunately, the flying altitude of the German long-range bombers far exceeded the range of the underperforming British anti-aircraft guns. Their bravery only exposed the positions of these anti-aircraft positions, and reconnaissance planes mixed in the bomber formations captured a clear picture of them.

After the departure of the long-range bombers, the massive bombing by the Mosquito bombers that followed caused about one-fifth of the Gibraltar Fortress's anti-aircraft positions to be lost in an instant. When the third batch of bomber formations flew over the fortress in the afternoon, the doom of these anti-aircraft positions also arrived.

This time, the famous Stuka formation, known for precision bombing, arrived.

Accompanied by the distinctive sharp and ear-piercing buzzing sound, Stuka dive-bombers descended almost vertically, conducting surgical and precise bombing on the exposed anti-aircraft positions.

In just one day, nearly all the anti-aircraft positions on the surface of Gibraltar were almost completely destroyed. Additionally, numerous minefield wire fences, machine gun emplacements, and various obstacles suffered the same fate.

The next day, the bombing continued.

All residential houses, roads, port facilities, trees, and even the rocks on the Gibraltar mountain couldn't escape the clutches of the German Luftwaffe's aerial bombs.

The German Luftwaffe, regardless of whether the bombing locations had British defense facilities, covered every spot on the Gibraltar Peninsula with aerial bombs. The only thing allowed to remain on the surface was craters.

Governor Liddell paced anxiously in the command room. The overhead lights flickered intermittently as if they could go out at any moment. Yesterday afternoon, a 500-kilogram aerial bomb happened to destroy Gibraltar's only power station, plunging the entire fortress into darkness. Fortunately, they were prepared for this, and there was a large generator inside the fortress capable of supplying power.

Liddell currently had no time to worry about these annoying light bulbs. What bothered him was that in just one day, the Germans hadn't suffered any casualties, only expended some ammunition, and wiped out all of Gibraltar's dozen or so fighter planes and anti-aircraft positions.

It's not an exaggeration to say that now Gibraltar's sky had no defenses. Even if the extremely fragile airships from the last war era flew over the fortress, they wouldn't be able to shoot them down.

However, he was only annoyed and not plunged into despair.

After all, as the governor, he knew everything about the fortress like the back of his hand. Even if the Germans had air superiority, what could they do? Could they take the fortress with airplanes? In the end, wouldn't they have to send infantry? By then, the craters in front of the fortress would become the graves of those Germans—bury as many as come!

Until the fifth day, a squadron of "flying tanks," Il-2 attack planes, circled in ultra-low altitude without facing any attacks from anti-air weapons. Mansdanin confirmed that Gibraltar's anti-air positions were completely destroyed.

"Since 500-kilogram bombs can't destroy it, what about a 10-ton bomb?" Standing on the mountaintop with binoculars, Manstein muttered to himself, looking at the distant iron-clad fortress.

A rumbling sound echoed in the sky as five modified He 177 heavy bombers flew slowly overhead, heading towards the fortress.

Each bomber carried a "Grand Slam" 2.0 version bomb in its bomb bay.

Version 2.0, because compared to the bomb used in the previous bombing of the Belgian Fort Eben-Emael, this batch of Grand Slam bombs underwent a series of improvements and upgrades. The bomb's rear section now includes the latest rocket booster developed. The free-fall speed of the Great Slam bomb itself can reach 1,126 kilometers per hour, and with the addition of this rocket booster, the speed can exceed 1,800 kilometers per hour, approaching twice the speed of sound. The potential energy can be imagined. Although the amount of explosive material has been reduced accordingly, the destructive power remains earth-shattering.

However, even if it's powerful, it's impossible to penetrate nearly a hundred meters of rock. Therefore, their target for destruction is the three fortress gun emplacements on the top of the fortress.

Soon, five He 177 heavy bombers approached the Gibraltar fortress, leisurely circling to find the right moment to release their bombs.

"Release the bombs!"

The bomb release operator on the first He 177 bomber pulled the bomb release lever with force, and the enormous Grand Slam bomb detached from its mount, causing the He 177 aircraft to suddenly jump upwards.

The bomb release operator closely monitored the falling bomb and the ground target through the sight, adjusting the bomb's posture based on the continuously blinking cross-shaped illuminated signal light at the tail of the bomb.

Once the trajectory of the falling bomb stabilized, the bomb release operator pressed another button, sending an ignition signal to the rocket booster attached to the bomb.

Boom!

The rocket booster erupted with a blazing flame, and the massive bomb sharply descended, instantly breaking the sound barrier, with a conspicuous shockwave appearing around the huge projectile. It viciously impacted the top steel plate of one of the fortress gun emplacements.

The earth-shattering impact echoed within the fortress, and everyone stopped everything they were doing in that instant, fearfully looking towards the direction where the impact sound came from. Even if British soldiers were shouting arrogantly about dragging twice as many Germans down to their graves, when it came to life and death, only a few could face it calmly.

In the moment of impact, if observed in slow motion, it would be possible to see the top steel plate of the gun emplacement, with the impact point as the center, beginning to spread out towards the surroundings. At the center of the impact point, the steel plate seemed to soften, denting inward repeatedly, and finally, the ten-meter-thick steel and concrete protective layer was breached!

In the horrified gaze of a group of British gunners, the massive projectile landed beside a 381-millimeter caliber fortress cannon, but its momentum was unabated, with half of the projectile embedding into the ground.

The shocked British soldiers had not yet recovered from their stupor when the time-delay fuse on the bomb was ignited.

"Boom!"