"Is this the gift you gave me for office?" When Lieutenant General Trenchard arrived in Athens, what was waiting for him was not the grand welcome ceremony of his subordinates, but a large pile of losses...

"The Germans launched a feint attack on Thessaloniki, but in fact, they were aiming at our air force and pilots. The Germans formed a strong strike team to track our retreating planes and then launched a surprise attack on the hidden field airport. Our planes and pilots suffered heavy losses." said a subordinate.

"This is no longer a heavy problem, it is already losing offensive ability!" Lieutenant General Trenchard shook his head and said, looking at a long loss table. In the operation code-named Thunder Strike, the British lost at least 52 various aircraft in the air combat, and 78 fighter jets and light bombers in the subsequent air strikes, which together 130 aircraft have. Now, how many aircraft does the entire British Army Air Force have in the entire Greece? There are only about 500 aircraft in total. On this day, the opponent's head-on attack was reimbursed by one quarter of the total number of aircraft and one-third of the number of fighters. According to the British estimates, the number of aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe was not more than 60! This also includes ground air defense!

In the following days of the Luftwaffe air strikes, the British no longer organized a large-scale aircraft group and the Germans' hard steel front in northern Greece. The number of aircraft was insufficient, which was indeed one aspect. But on the other hand, they did not dare to do so. These 500 aircraft were just transported by the British. In the foreseeable future, it would be good to add 80 aircraft next month. This situation of fewer and fewer aircraft naturally made the British feel banned.

"This is a tragic start." Admiral Trenchard burst into tears. However, since he has become the commander-in-chief of the air force in the Balkan War Zone, he must hold on even if he is sad. Therefore, the advocating practical work began to analyze the performance of the air forces on both sides and prepare for countermeasures.

"Overall, the quality of the Bavarian Air Force pilots may be worse than their colleagues on the Eastern Front. After all, they had low-intensity air combat on the Eastern Front before, and some flight squadrons used to fight on the Western Front and had very high combat effectiveness. However, because the aircraft are all J-3 fighters, overall, the enemies we face are much stronger than the Prussian Air Force of the same size on the Western Front."

"The new j-3 aircraft has a medium-to-high horizontal maneuverability, but its vertical maneuverability and high-speed performance are very good. This is almost the best fighter we have ever seen. Another heavy interceptor, the so-called Tracer of the Germans, has also improved significantly after replacing the new engine. In short, from a technical perspective, this is almost the air cluster of the Allied Powers we encountered." A British Air Force officer made a rough analysis for the new boss.

"However, the Germans still showed some discomfort or fear in the face of our air defense and response. Their tactical attacks are relatively conservative and they are not very determined when launching attacks in areas where we are focused on fortification. Their ability to withstand losses may be relatively poor." Previously, Major General Roses, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Balkans Air Force, expressed his views.

"They are going to fight a war of attrition with us." Lieutenant General Trenchard was not optimistic. The Bavarian Legion was not easy to match. The performance on the Western Front last year was vivid in my mind. In the next nearly 9 months, the Bavarian Legion carried out low-intensity operations on the Eastern Front, while military production hit new highs in succession. The accumulated power is really terrible! The emergence of a large number of air forces obviously means that the Bavarian Legion has begun to intervene in the battle situation in the Balkans on a large scale. The air force has come, is the army still far away?

"We must act immediately, otherwise, there will be no place for us to stand on the Balkans!" Lieutenant General Trenchard still had a general understanding of the situation. He had already vaguely felt that the Germans had reached the kilometer of the Allies in time. It was even possible that they would launch an offensive before the Allies.

"Concentrate all the aircraft at the second-tier airports in southern Greece, and the aviation troops are preparing to merge them in several large airports. The newly deployed field airports also choose to be near transportation hubs and ports. The troops are transferred to the defense. In addition, sending a report to the London headquarters, we need more fighter jets instead of bombers. At present, we must first block the opponent's offensive before we can talk about other things!" Lieutenant General Trenchard said.

However, at the same time, the Bavarian side also evaluated the British's air defense level. "General Harrel believes that there is no absolute generation difference in quality in terms of the troops of both sides. Moreover, the British's ground air defense is very good. Their air force relies on large and well-defended airports as support points, rather than setting up simple field airports like the Russians. Therefore, it is a bit difficult to forcibly destroy through air strikes. This will be a long-term process, but it is certain that our fighter troops can still take the initiative and effectively cover our ground units, and bombers' attacks on roads or ground troops in the field are also feasible. Because most of the British air defense firepower is almost fixedly deployed." In the report submitted by Harrel, he evaluated the British's air defense and air strength in this way.

"Take it slow, at least, we start with silver. This is a long battle. What determines the outcome or the loss of the two sides and the land offensive." The prince was quite satisfied with the air force's actions. To be honest, the southern terrain of the Greek Peninsula is not suitable for large-scale attacks, so the prince's strategy for the Balkans is to consume and restrain. It is more beneficial to the overall situation to keep the British in Greece than to drive them out. Turning the entire Balkans into a meat grinder and a huge "prison" is the most in line with the interests of the Allies.

After the air offensive is over, the ground offensive will also be launched. When the British are ready, they will take the initiative to attack. If they passively defend themselves, they will fall to the peak.

Judging from the current situation, the deployment of the British and Japanese army was almost along a long narrow area in northern Greece. The front was very wide, but it lacked sufficient depth. In addition, the terrain near the seaside was relatively flat, and this place was also the front line of the Allies' attack on Turkey, and a large number of troops were concentrated here.

"If we want to completely occupy this area, we have no strength to catch it, but if we only launch a short attack and use killing the opponent as the main target, then the problem is still not big." Kariput said.
Chapter completed!