The Rise of the Third Reich

With confidence in the victory of "Project Liberty", General George Patton boarded the high-speed transport aircraft C-69 and flew back to his headquarters in Port of Spain. The day after Patton left, another giant of the U.S. Army, General Mark Wayne Clark, commander of the U.S. ground forces in Canada and commander of the 15th Allied Army Group, also rushed to Arlington, Virginia. County Pentagon.

Clark, who is only 47 years old this year, is the youngest general in the history of the U.S. Army. He was previously the youngest lieutenant general. He is the elite among the elites of the U.S. Army, recognized as the future Army Chief of Staff and an amphibious warfare expert - his title of amphibious warfare expert is very strange, because he is not a Marine and has never fought an amphibious warfare. In fact, he has not been on the battlefield since the end of World War I.

But the number one amphibious warfare expert in the US military is not Lieutenant General Richmond Turner, who specializes in landing operations in the Navy, nor Holland Smith, the Marine Corps' hero, nor is he with Turner and Holland Smith. George Patton, who had been fighting in the Hawaiian Islands for almost a year, was spotted by Marshall during an amphibious landing exercise in 1939. After that, he rose through the ranks. After the United States entered the war, he served as the deputy chief of staff of the U.S. garrison in Canada. Chief of staff and commander, General Clark is always ready to command a multinational coalition to counterattack the European continent.

In the past two years, in addition to preparing for the counterattack in Europe, General Clark has been formulating various operational plans to defend Canada. As an expert in amphibious warfare, Clark knew very well that defending Canada's eastern coastline would not be easy.

Because the coastline of eastern Canada is too long and has many bays. In spring and summer, when the climate is relatively mild, there are many bays suitable for landing and berthing large fleets. And what troubles Clark the most is that most of the bays in eastern Canada are in areas where land transportation is extremely inconvenient.

Although the extremely inconvenient land transportation is helpful for the defenders to prevent the landing enemy troops from developing in depth, it also makes it difficult for the coalition ground forces guarding Canada's east coast to launch a counterattack, and there is no way to deploy too many in those bays with inconvenient transportation. ground defense forces. Because the garrison needs logistical supply support, if the logistics cannot keep up, the troops will not be able to fight at all. In many remote bays, supplies cannot be transported by land at all and can only rely on sea transportation. The shipping lines are now threatened by German submarines. Once the Germans start landing operations, they will definitely be blocked by surface ships and aircraft carriers. Therefore, the shipping supply lines are simply unreliable.

Sea supplies were unreliable, and land transportation was unable to support large army operations due to road conditions and distance limitations. Therefore, Clark simply could not deploy his army on the entire eastern coastline of Canada - in fact, most of the eastern coastline of Canada was only escorted by a small number of Canadian militia and light ships of the British Royal Navy. If the Germans really landed in a certain bay, they would not encounter strong resistance at all.

"...They could land in any of the bays north of Newfoundland and certainly succeed easily because there wouldn't be much defense. The Germans would then be able to set up makeshift airfields and ports there and put their jets and Fw190s Or deploy the Fokker 636 to the North American continent and use it as a base to launch air attacks on Newfoundland. With the support of these shore-based aircraft, the German fleet can send landing troops to Newfoundland and New Zealand. Coastal Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands!”

In a conference room in the Pentagon, Clark, a recognized expert on amphibious landing warfare, was explaining his views to members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As an amphibious warfare expert, Clark knew that the bays along the long coastline of eastern Canada were actually "islands" and could not be defended without sea control. As long as the Germans capture one of them, they can obtain air bases near places such as Newfoundland and the Nova Scotia Peninsula.

Then there will be a war of attrition between shore-based aircraft and shore-based aircraft! If we refer to the exchange ratio of the air attrition war between the United States and the United States over Trinidad and Tobago, the Allied air power in eastern Canada will soon be unsustainable. By then, places such as Newfoundland and the Nova Scotia Peninsula will be hard to defend!

"If this happens," Marshall, who single-handedly promoted Clark, asked, "can your people hold places such as Newfoundland and the Nova Scotia Peninsula?"

"It's very difficult." Admiral Clark looked very worried. "The problem on Newfoundland is not big, because the coastline there is relatively difficult, with many cliffs, and there are not many beaches suitable for landing crafts. Moreover, these beaches, stones There are usually platforms and highlands tens of meters high near the beaches. They are all natural fortresses and cannot be conquered at all. Even the Germans' use of tsunami bombs was not very effective.

But the Nova Scotia Peninsula is a bit troublesome. There are a lot of sand forming beaches, and the island's terrain is relatively flat. There are also nearby Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island, which are also suitable for landing.

In addition, near Newfoundland, there is a small French territory called Saint-Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean about 20 kilometers away from the southwest coastline of Newfoundland, and there is also a very narrow island of Sable. . The terrain of these small islands is also relatively flat, with many beaches suitable for landing, and the area is not too small, enough to build a large airport. "

The current Secretary of War Wallace was also listening to the report in the conference room. As soon as General Clark finished speaking, he frowned and asked: "In other words, as long as the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton Island , St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands, and Sable Island fall, will there be a huge hole in our defense line in eastern Canada? "

"It's not a huge hole," Clark emphasized, "it's the collapse of the entire defense line... because those areas are less than 1,600 kilometers away from New York, and the farthest islands from New York, St. Pierre and Miquelon, are more than 1,500 kilometers away. The nearest southern tip of Nova Scotia is less than 800 kilometers away.”

This distance not only allows the Me264 bomber to fly to New York and drop atomic bombs, but even German missiles may be launched from the base in Nova Scotia to bomb New York and Washington!

Moreover, the United States’ method of countering the German atomic bomb—using B-29s loaded with bacterial bombs to launch one-way attacks on Europe will also be affected by the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, St. Pierre Island, and Miquelon Island. The fall of other places makes it impossible or difficult to implement.

After hearing Clark's words, the generals present looked at each other. This amphibious landing expert who has never fought an amphibious landing battle is absolutely right. Currently, the Allied forces (the United States, Britain, France, etc.) do not have adequate military strength, especially naval and air forces. They do not have enough force to deploy sufficient aircraft and warships on the east coast of Canada, the east coast of the United States, the Caribbean, and Bermuda Islands. .

Therefore, in terms of naval and air forces, the Allied forces are currently adopting a focused deployment approach, firstly ensuring sufficient forces in the Caribbean battlefield, and secondly ensuring the security of the east coast of the United States and the Bermuda Islands.

In order to ensure the absolute security of the Caribbean battlefield and the east coast of the United States (including Bermuda), the naval and air forces on Canada's east coast have been reduced in the past few months.

"It is said that the German attack target is Trinidad and Tobago," Wallace frowned and asked the generals present, "Can you be sure?"

The generals looked at each other, and no one answered Wallace's question. Although all current signs indicate that Germany’s target is Trinidad and Tobago, war is inherently full of deception. Who can guarantee that the Germans are not bluffing on the Caribbean battlefield?

There was a silence in the conference room, which seemed a little awkward. After a while, General Henry Arnold of the Army Air Force was heard to say: "Mr. Secretary, if we stop the bombing of Buenos Aires and the bombing of Santiago, The offensive will increase the number of 1,500 fighter planes on the eastern front of Canada..."

"No," Wallace immediately vetoed Arnold's proposal. "Our operations in Chile and Argentina are about to succeed. That will be decisive."

The generals all sighed inwardly. In fact, the United States was in a dilemma in both Chile and Argentina.

As early as last November’s general election vote, the U.S. government claimed to have invaded Santiago, the capital of Chile. This statement is not true in a strict sense, because the Santiago region is very large, not only the urban area, but also the area. Very rural area. The U.S. military reached the outskirts of San Diego before the voting day on November 6, 1944, and surrounded San Diego on three sides. The situation at that time did indeed look good, and the U.S. military seemed to be about to liberate Santiago.

However, after the election, the development of the situation disappointed Wallace and the new President Truman. Although they did their best to meet Eisenhower's request for additional troops, the offensive against San Diego proved long and bloody. The bloody battle began in mid-December 1944 and has continued until now, almost March 1945. Eisenhower's troops only captured less than one-third of the urban area of ​​San Diego, but suffered more than 100,000 casualties.

The air raid on Buenos Aires was also costly but had little effect. Although bombs and incendiary bombs dropped by American heavy bombers turned most of the urban area of ​​Buenos Aires into ruins, Juan Peron's regime has not been overthrown... At least so far, Peron Still hiding in the basement of the Rose Palace and giving orders. The Americans paid a huge price for the air strikes that lasted for several months. More than 2,800 fighter planes did not return after performing missions.