Untimely losses, p.33
Untimely Losses, page 33
part #3 of Yesterday's War Series
The warmth of the Egyptian springtime was a welcome sensation even as the young pilot ran towards the reinforced concrete aircraft shelter. Inside were two oddly shaped small aircraft. On top of the fuselage, there was a single turbojet engine just behind the bubble cockpit. The aircraft had shoulder-mounted swept wings that were gull-shaped in that the outer third of the wing was angled slightly downward while the inner wing panels were angled upward. The jet exhausted between the fighter’s V-shaped tail fins that served as both vertical and horizontal stabilizers as well as combination rudder and elevator.
Bahadur quickly climbed up a small ladder to get inside of the Heinkel’s cockpit. Just as soon as he sat in the cockpit, a waiting German technician strapped Bahadur into the aircraft’s rudimentary ejection seat. Another technician then hooked up a small tractor to tow the fighter out of the shelter and next to a waiting starter cart.
In less than thirty seconds, the fully armed and fueled jet had its engine running and was ready for takeoff. Bahadur gave a quick salute to the German technician before advancing the throttle slightly, releasing the brakes and beginning to taxi to the end of the nearby runway for takeoff.
Bahadur’s wingman, Mulazin Tani (Second Lieutenant) Nadim Malouf, was close behind in a second Heinkel. They quickly taxied together as they had been trained in Germany. Bahadur could see another ten similar fighters also in various stages of movement towards the staging area at the end of the runway. After receiving permission from the control tower, the squadron of Heinkel HE-162C jet fighters quickly took off from the Abu Sueir military airfield west of Ismaïlia, Egypt
The Egyptians had also purchased a sextet of another German jet fighter design to complement their new Heinkel HE-162C force. This was a stretched two-seat version of the Junkers EF-128. Like the Heinkel, the Junkers design had its origins in the late-war emergency jet fighter design program. Also, like the Heinkel, development was continued on the Junkers design after the war
These two-seat Junkers aircraft were an early all-weather interceptor that already served in the Luftwaffe. This design took advantage of one of the Abwehr’s first post-war successes, the successful of a cavity magnetron, one of Britain’s key radar technologies of the war. As a result, the Junkers carried a millimeter wavelength radar in a streamlined nose instead of having large external aerials like the wartime German aircraft equipped with radar had.
The French heavy bombers were on their final approach to their first target when some of their crewmen saw something unexpected approaching the bomber formation.
“What the hell are those, Mon Capitaine?” Sergent Peter St. Ives, the Stirling’s nose turret gunner called out over the intercom as he saw the approaching Heinkels for the first time. He tried to track the incoming jet fighters with his turret-mounted twin 7.5mm MAC 1934 machine guns that had replaced the Stirling’s original Vickers .303 machine guns. But the high closing speeds of the Heinkels made it impossible for the French turret gunner to bring his weapons to bear before the jets zoomed past.
Streams of tracers flew closely past several of the Sterlings as the Egyptian pilots fired their cannon at the incoming bombers. The word quickly spread among the French bomber crews that enemy jet fighters were attacking.
“The enemy fighters are coming around for another pass.” Sergent Charles Lumet called over the intercom from his rear turret position.
“Be ready to engage them, Mes Amis.” Capitaine Fournier told his crew as he focused on keeping the big bomber steady for its bombing run.
Bahadur cursed loudly after missing with his first burst during his head-on attack against one of the French heavy bombers. He and his wingman sped through the formation so quickly that the gunners on the bombers were unable to get a single shot off. Now, the Heinkels made a hard turn to get into firing position on the rear of the French bomber formation.
But this time, the Egyptians were going to use another weapon for their next attack instead of cannons. Hung under the wings of the German-built fighters were a pair of ungainly-looking missiles.
The Ruhrstahl-Kramer RK 344 had been originally designed in Germany towards the end of the war but never saw service before the end of the war. But development work continued on the missile. A heavily modified version of the missile called the RK 345 was successfully developed and put into service in the Luftwaffe and made available for export to certain special clients like Egypt.
This wire-guided missile was guided by a pair of wires that unwound as the missile traveled. The wires led back to the firing aircraft so that the missile could be maneuvered to its target by a joystick controller slaved to the fighter’s standard gunsight. The key differences between the RK 355 and the original missile were that the production weapon used a solid fuel motor instead of the original volatile liquid-fuel rocket motor and a key change to the proximity fuze used to detonate the ten-kilogram warhead. Instead of using an acoustic proximity fuze, the RK 355 used a radar proximity fuze. This technology had also been clandestinely obtained from the Americans by the Abwehr also, making the weapon far more deadly.
Bahadur lined up his gunsight on one of the French heavy bombers. As soon as the bomber was in the Egyptian pilot's sights, he fired one of his RK 355 missiles from outside the range of the rear gunner’s automatic cannons. Bahadur watched the missile fly quickly towards the targeted bomber in a cork-screw path. He made small corrections to the missile’s path until the weapon detonated less than two meters from the Sterling’s right wing. The wing was torn nearly in half by the missile’s explosion. Bahadur fired his second missile, but it narrowly missed its target, only slightly damaging the bomber.
Half a dozen other Sterlings were soon falling in flames after the Egyptian’s fired their missiles into the French bomber formation. But the French doggedly closed their formation and continued towards their target.
Bahadur and his fellow pilots then used their speed to rapidly close the range and began to engage the bombers with cannon fire. The jets’ twin Mk-108 30mm automatic cannons were fired in short bursts at each targeted bomber. While the rate of fire and shell velocity was relatively low, the impact of even a single round was devastating. Bahadur called out “Allahu Akbar!” several times as he saw his shells slamming into one after another French bomber, tearing huge chunks of each aircraft away and starting fatal fires aboard them.
But while the attacking Heinkel’s zoomed in for their attacks, the bombers’ gunners bravely fought back. Sergent Lumet fired numerous bursts of cannon fire back at the attacking Egyptian fighters from his twin Hispano-Suiza 20mm automatic cannons. Charles could see the tracers from the attacking fighters’ gun racing towards his bomber, sending chills down his spine. But he continued to fire back as the Heinkel’s flew through and past the bomber formation.
Whenever one of these powerful 30mm shells from a Heinkel’s guns hit a bomber, it would do tremendous damage. It only took a handful of hits to tear even one of the tough Sterlings apart. Capitaine Fournier’s heart sank whenever he saw one of the French bombers begin to fall out of the sky in flames. These were his friends and fellow aviators that were dying in front of his eyes.
Jacques was determined that their deaths would not be in vain. So he pressed on towards his target.
The newly purchased German jets were not the only weapons that the Egyptians were employing against the French. Egypt had also openly purchased a few squadrons of ex-Luftwaffe Messerschmitt ME-109G propeller-driven fighters from Germany. They took to the skies to try to intercept the French bombers too. But because of their slower speed, the older fighters soon faced another threat. The Dewoitine D.790 fighters from Jean Bart finally arrived in addition to a squadron of Mills Brothers-built Dragonfly tandem-wing fighters that had been launched by the Royal Navy aircraft carrier Ark Royal in support of the French. But neither the French nor the British could immediately deploy a jet fighter at the time that could counter the German-supplied Egyptian jets in Egyptian airspace.
RAF Gloster Meteor and De Havilland Vampires were unable to provide escort for the French bombers because they could not be operated from Royal Navy aircraft carriers. While the French had offered to allow the RAF fighters to be temporarily based at southern French air bases, these early jets were still very range-limited. This meant that RAF jet fighters could not yet intervene over Egypt.
However, the Fleet Air Arm had started to deploy Miles Brothers-produced Dragonfly-J jet-powered tandem-wing fighter-bombers. A squadron of these twin-engine jet warplanes was working up onboard the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier Ark Royal. She was the largest aircraft carrier in the fleet and incorporated all of the latest design features including an angled flight deck and deck edge elevators to save hangar space. But these jets were not ready for launch yet, while the older piston-engine Dragonfly fighter-bombers that were still operating from Ark Royal were already on the flight deck ready for combat and were immediately launched.
The Dewoitines and Dragonflies immediately engaged the Egyptian Messerschmitts, keeping the latter from attacking the surviving French bombers. But these older fighters were simply no match for the Heinkel jets.
The intervention of the carrier-based fighters saved the other French bomber groups though. They only faced anti-aircraft fire from the ground as they attacked their targets. Capitaine Fournier’s group took heavy losses from the defending jets, but a third of those bombers, including Capitaine Fournier’s, were still able to hit their target at the Deversoir, now called Abu Sultan, military airfield south-southeast of Ismaïlia
The other French bomber groups were able to successfully bomb the Almaza joint civilian-military airfield near Cairo and the Fayd military airfield south of Ismaïlia. They also hit several Egyptian Army bases as well. But they also took significant losses due the Egyptian fighters and anti-aircraft guns.
Following the bombers, were dozens of C-47 Dakota transports and more than a dozen ex-RAF Stirling bombers that had been converted to paratroop transports during the European war.
Bahadur and the other Egyptian jet pilots were soon running out of both fuel and ammunition after their attacks on the French bomber formations. They had to return to Abu Sueir to refuel and rearm. What they did not count on was that their airfield was targeted by the French also, but not for bombing.
Bahadur and his fellow pilots tried to find another airfield to land their fighters, but a quick call over the radio quickly revealed that all of the other available bases had been knocked out of action by French bombers. He and his wingman had no choice but to land in the middle of the airdrop on his home airstrip.
Other Egyptian pilots tried landing at the bombed airfields, but the damage to the airstrips was so bad that all of them crashed or were so badly damaged upon landing that they could not be flown back out.
The French paratroops were soon landing all around the Egyptian airfield at Abu Sueir and setting up to capture key base facilities. Automatic weapons fire sprayed the Egyptian airfield, driving all of the Egyptian aircrew and maintenance personnel to cover. A few Egyptian soldiers tried to fight back, but they were quickly being overwhelmed by aggressive Legionnaires firing rifles and submachine guns while tossing scores of grenades at the defenders.
Bahadur had no idea what to do. He didn’t have enough fuel to fly his Heinkel anywhere else. All of the ground crew were now busy trying to avoid being shot by the attacking French paratroopers. Unfortunately for Bahadur, he was caught out in the open and cut down by French rifle fire. His wingman did not survive much longer than Bahadur with the French paratroopers shooting at anything that moved.
The six Junkers jet fighters had not gotten a chance to take off before their base at Abu Sueir was captured by French paratroopers. A couple of the jets had been damaged on the ground by French paratroopers, but the other four were captured intact after French officers ordered their men not to destroy the invaluable aircraft.
Soon after the airfield at Abu Sueir was secured, dozens of additional transport aircraft, both French and British, began to land and disgorge hundreds of additional troops and tons of supplies. They also brought in artillery pieces and other support weapons to reinforce the troops that had landed there.
Jacques and the rest of his crew onboard their Shorts Stirling had their hands full with other matters. They had successfully dropped their bombs on their target, but had been badly damaged by a combination of anti-aircraft fire and a couple of Egyptian fighters. The Messerschmitt’s had managed to avoid both the British and French fighters and put several dozen rounds of machine gun and cannon fire into Jacques’ bomber.
The attacks left them with two wounded crewmen, a damaged engine and severe damage to their port wing. Now, Jacques had to struggle with flying their battered bomber back home to France. But they were the lucky ones. Of the more than eighty heavy bombers that flew from France to hit Egyptian targets that day, more than thirty were shot down by Egyptian defenses. So as Jacques and his bomber crew struggled to get back home, many of their fellow Frenchmen would never get home at all.
During all of this, the fighting extended to the sea as well. The Egyptians had a pair of new German-built corvettes that had sailed from their home port of Alexandria as soon as French and British warships were spotted heading towards the Egyptian coast. These two diesel-powered light warships were mostly armed with conventional guns and torpedoes when they were delivered to the Egyptian Navy. But the two boxy-looking missile launchers that they now carried amidships had not been added until recently. The missiles had each replaced a pair of twin-torpedo launchers.
But the French had no clue just how deadly those shipboard missiles would be.
As soon as one of the Egyptian corvettes got into range, it fired both of her missiles at Jean Bart. The huge warship opened up with every anti-aircraft gun that it had as soon as her radar detected the incoming missiles. But Jean Bart’s guns were simply not sufficient to defend it against this new threat.
One of the missiles hit Jean Bart just aft of the warship’s large island structure, starting a massive fire in the hangar deck. Scores of French sailors were killed instantly while many others suffered terrible burns from the flaming aviation fuel. The other missile hit her just above the waterline near her forward main turret. In this case, the hybrid battleship-carrier’s heavy belt armor was able to defeat the missile’s warhead with relatively little damage though.
A second Egyptian corvette also engaged the French naval formation. He fired his missiles at the French battle cruiser Strasbourg and one of her escorting destroyers. The destroyer immediately began a series of hard evasive turns that confused the Egyptian missile and caused a narrow miss.
The missile aimed at Strasbourg stayed on course. But the battle cruiser had been rearmed during the Pacific War with a combination of 25mm gatling guns and six-pounder automatic cannons by the Cavill Shipyards as part of the upgrade of her anti-aircraft battery. Even though the gatlings did not have radar control, the sheer amount of fire coming from the three such weapons on Strasbourg’s starboard side was able to hit and shoot down the incoming missile before it could do any damage.
At the same time that the Egyptians were attacking the French task force, a pair of RAF Vampire jet fighters were flying south over the Mediterranean. They had just staged out of the French airfield at Nice after a hurried deployment there. Even so, the two fighters were nearing the edge of their range when they saw the Egyptian cruise missile racing towards the huge French warship.
The RAF Vampire flying closest to Jean Bart was unable to intercept the Egyptian missile. But the British jet’s pilot saw the smoke trail leading back to the Egyptian warship. The pilot called out over the radio to his wingman.
“Look at that bastard over there. I don’t know what the hell he fired, but we need to keep him away from our landing ships. Otherwise, I’m afraid a lot of our lads are going to die.” Flying Officer Anthony Tomkins reported.
After, Anthony’s wingman acknowledged, then both of the British jets swooped down and started a strafing attack upon the Egyptian corvette. Each Vampire was armed with a quartet of Hispano-Suiza 20mm automatic cannons. Scores of shells hammered into the frantically maneuvering corvette. At the same time, it fired back with its own anti-aircraft guns. Anthony saw smoke trailing from his wingman’s Vampire after it had been hit by at least one 30mm shell fired from the corvette’s quadruple Mk 108 automatic cannon mount.
But the Egyptian corvette had been hit hard too. Fires had broken out in several places aboard the unarmored warship. Apparently, she had also been heavily hit in her engine room because the corvette was now rapidly slowing as well.
Anthony quickly radioed a warning to other RAF pilots and allied ships about the Egyptian warships while escorting his damaged wingman back to Nice. More French and British warplanes began to scour the Mediterranean for other Egyptian vessels to prevent any more missile attacks. The second Egyptian corvette was soon located and sunk as a result.
At the same time all of this action was happening in the air and on the high seas, the Israelis were pushing a combined arms force across the Sinai Peninsula towards the Suez Canal. The shock of being hit by a combination of French, British and now Israeli forces paralyzed the Egyptian troops on the ground.
The British delivered a final two-pronged punch to crush Egyptian resistance. First, the British task force already in the Mediterranean was escorting a group of LST’s or Landing Ship, Tank. These vessels had been designed during the war and first used in the invasion of Italy. The six LSTs landed on the Egyptian coastline after a brief naval bombardment and disgorged dozens of vehicles, including more than a company of the British Army’s latest tanks. They began to push towards the canal, cutting off thousands of Egyptian troops and forcing them to surrender.
