Chapter 377 Operation Starvation (1)

Previously, Germany announced that it would conduct unrestricted submarine warfare in British waters, leading many neutral countries to announce the suspension of flights to and from Britain.

However, British colonies naturally ignored this, especially Canada.

Canada was a traditional colony of Britain, with very close ties to the British and similar to overseas provinces of Britain. Except for Quebec, the local residents were almost all British, and staunchly pro-British. During the American Revolutionary War, most of the Loyalists fled to Canada, so Canada had a special sentiment towards Britain; they considered themselves a part of Britain.

In the original timeline of World War II, due to bombings on British soil, a large amount of capital, factories, and technical personnel from Britain and other European countries transferred to Canada. Orders from Britain and the United States also contributed to the rapid growth of Canada's industry and economy. By the end of World War II, Canada had become the fourth-largest industrial power in the world, dominated by heavy industry. It was Canada's rise that made it the "arsenal of the Commonwealth," continuously supplying various weapons and resources to Britain and becoming a solid rear area for the British.

To support Britain, Canada not only provided massive amounts of supplies but also dispatched millions of troops to fight alongside the British. The well-trained and brave Canadian forces were the backbone of the British Army. In battles like North Africa and Normandy, the Canadian forces always led the charge, performing exceptionally well, capable of confronting the German forces head-on.

On this evening, the German version of the "Operation Starvation" officially began.

A large number of aircraft, minesweepers, and submarines dispatched from Iceland, Norway, and Brest, France, began laying mines in British waters.

In the flight formation taking off from Iceland, Felix, the pilot of a Mosquito bomber, looked out of the pitch-black window, furrowing his brow slightly. They had undergone many night navigation exercises before, but this operation still gave him a completely new experience. During normal night navigation exercises, there were lights on the ground, but now, beneath the aircraft was pitch-black sea, with only scattered starlight in the sky.

This strange contrast gave Felix a feeling of disorientation, as if he were flying upside down. He felt tempted to move the control stick and flip the aircraft one hundred and eighty degrees.

In fact, this feeling of disorientation was quite normal; it was a typical phenomenon of spatial disorientation.

Just like a person spinning rapidly in place for dozens of rotations, when they stop, they're undoubtedly dizzy and disoriented, unable to distinguish directions. Although this doesn't qualify as an illusion, the discomfort caused by spatial disorientation itself is enough to make one uneasy for a while.

During the flying process, pilots may experience similar phenomena, which is known as pilot's spatial disorientation, something that makes pilots turn pale with fear.

It's when the pilot's perception of the aircraft's state doesn't match the actual state of the aircraft. Simply put, the pilot feels like the aircraft is climbing when it's actually flying level; or feels like the aircraft is flying upside down when it's actually right-side up. What's terrifying is not the occurrence of these illusions but the torment they inflict on the pilot's mind and body. The human body has its own "reflexes"; when an illusion occurs, it triggers corresponding mechanisms to counteract it. When the pilot feels a tilt, the body involuntarily leans in the opposite direction to maintain balance.

Fortunately, after observing the instruments, pilots can determine that they are experiencing spatial disorientation. At this point, as long as they continue flying according to the original plan, there won't be any problems. The difficulty lies in overcoming the psychological barrier. In the struggle between perception and reality, one often cannot control the initial reaction, leading to tragedies like the aircraft crashing into the sea.

In 1999, during a complex day-and-night meteorological flight, pilots of a certain country's aircraft experienced typical inverted flight illusion. When the aircraft descended from high altitude to about 1100 meters and flew out of the clouds, a routine turn revealed a sprawling array of lights on the ground. Instantly, the pilot thought they were upside down. According to the pilot's own account, they were extremely tense, breaking out in a cold sweat, feeling like time was crawling.

Fortunately, they promptly reported to the control tower and followed instructions to switch to instrument flight, eventually safely returning. From the onset of the illusion to its resolution, it lasted six minutes. The pilot said, "Looking back, it's still terrifying." Everyone who has experienced spatial disorientation during flight would say something similar. Flying is already defying gravity and escaping the laws of nature; pilots experiencing illusions will undergo a different kind of pain and struggle than usual and need strong willpower to overcome panic and physical discomfort.

Among the numerous cases of spatial disorientation, the duration of the illusion can range from a few minutes to several tens of minutes. There are also many inexplicable crash incidents where, even after checking all hardware indicators without finding any issues, experts are unable to determine whether the tragedy occurred due to the pilot experiencing inverted flight illusion.

After holding it in for a while, Felix finally couldn't help but turn his head to look at the co-pilot. "Hey Eric, do you think our flight status is normal?"

"Are you experiencing spatial disorientation?" Co-pilot Eric tapped a small device on the instrument panel. It was a device consisting of a red glass tube and a blue glass tube connected together, filled with liquid. When the aircraft is flying normally, the liquid remains in the blue glass tube, but when the aircraft is inverted, the liquid flows into the red glass tube.

At this moment, the liquid inside was still swaying in the blue glass tube. "Our flight status is perfectly normal. Want me to take over?"

"Uh, no, I'm fine," Felix glanced at the small device and shook his head. During training at the flight school, instructors often emphasized the importance of remaining calm and trusting the instruments when feeling uneasy in the sky, suspecting spatial disorientation. Because instrument failures are rare, especially the likelihood of issues with such simple devices is much lower than the likelihood of human error.

Seeing that Felix didn't show any major abnormalities, Eric didn't insist. He looked out the window and muttered, "Below is a big black patch, it's like the ground has disappeared, really scary to look at."

After flying forward for a distance, Felix's strange feeling gradually dissipated. Suddenly, the buzzer on the instrument panel sounded, signaling a message from the navigation beacon.

Eric went to the bomb bay and carefully inspected the parachutes on the mines.

Surface vessels can simply drop mines into the sea for laying, but aerial mine laying is different; to prevent accidents, especially at night, aircraft cannot fly too close to the sea surface. Once the aircraft exceeds a certain height, the impact force of the water surface is not much different from that of concrete, causing the mines dropped directly to either explode or fail to trigger, becoming inert.

Therefore, parachutes need to be attached to the mines, using the resistance of the parachutes in the air to reduce the descent speed of the mines, ensuring that the structure of the mines remains intact upon entry into the water.

"Start bombing!"

Upon receiving the bombing order, Eric pressed the bombing lever, watching as the four big boys in the bomb bay fell down one by one.