The Rise of the Third Reich

April 11, 1945, Reykjavik Port, Iceland.

The weather was not very good. It had been drizzling since the evening of the 10th, and there was a little wind and waves in the North Atlantic. In the midst of the storm, neat Russian troops were silently boarding the Bremen and Europa.

On the starboard amidships of these two giant ships with a standard displacement of more than 45,000 tons, a huge hatch was opened, and a gangway for driving vehicles was lowered. Under the gangway, a long queue of vehicles were waiting to board the ship. They were mainly trucks, wheeled command vehicles, wheeled armored vehicles, and a small number of "Oliga" tank destroyers, but there were no heavier ones. of tanks and other tracked combat vehicles.

The Steyr wheeled command vehicle that Ribbentrop Jr. and Reinhardt were riding in was also in the queue, waiting to board the Bremen amphibious assault ship. Reinhardt, who knew nothing about the "Iceberg Project", was looking around, looking at the troops and equipment boarding the ship. He also noticed that not far from the dock where the Bremen was docked, another dock was docked with the Bremen's sister ship Europa. There were also many vehicles and soldiers waiting to board the ship. Reinhardt discovered that those people belonged to the SS. Military Finnish Brigade - all wearing the unique military uniform of the SS Finnish Brigade.

The SS Finnish Brigade was a well-known winter combat unit. During the Soviet-German War, it had been fighting the Red Army in the alpine zone north of Petrograd (Leningrad), earning its reputation as the "Winter God of War."

How could such a unit be regarded as Marines and put into the Caribbean battlefield? It's a tropical place there. Will the God of War not suffer from heatstroke if he goes there?

Just when Reinhard was wondering, the Steyr armored command vehicle he was riding in started to move, rumbled over the steel plate, and drove into the "belly" of the Bremen. When the car stopped in a parking space near the bulkhead, Reinhardt asked little Ribbentrop: "Rudolf, are we really going to the Caribbean? I just saw the 'Winter Ares', there won't be any above." Send them to fight in the tropics?"

"Of course not." Little Ribbentrop opened the car door and got out of the car with his luggage. "We are not going to the Caribbean, but to the coast of Labrador."

Now that Ribbentrop Jr. and Reinhardt were on board the Bremen, according to regulations, they could give the latter military secrets about the attack on the coast of Labrador.

"Coastal Labrador?" Reinhardt thought hard, "Labrador Peninsula in North America?"

"Yes!" Little Ribbentrop nodded, "It's the east coast of the Labrador Peninsula...it's very cold there."

"Oh God! We are going to land directly on the east coast of North America!" Reinhardt took a breath, "Now there will be a real hard battle."

Although there are actually no American soldiers defending the coast of Labrador, no one dares to take the landing on the North American continent lightly.

"Yes, there will be a hard battle!" Little Ribbentrop raised his finger and pointed to a passage in the cabin, "But before that we have to live on this ship for a few days... This is a very good ship. , it was converted from a super cruise ship. Reinhardt, let me take you to the cabin to settle down."

At the same time, in the joint intelligence command center on the island of the amphibious assault ship Bremen, Marshal Graeme, commander-in-chief of the German Wehrmacht Marine Corps, was talking to Admiral Burchardi, commander of the landing fleet, and the commander-in-chief of the landing operations, En. Vice Admiral Ste. Xue Allen discussed the upcoming battle.

Both intelligence and reconnaissance by the Me264H-2 long-range reconnaissance aircraft showed that there were no signs of heavy troops stationed along the coast of Labrador. So the danger of the landing was not in the landing itself, but in the journey to the Labrador coast. Or, to be more precise, just off the coast of Greenland and Labrador.

According to the "Iceberg Plan", the landing fleet will join the 21st Task Force off the coast of Iceland, and then be escorted by the 21st Task Force to land on the coast of Labrador.

The main force of Task Force 21 is four Wilhelm II-class guided missile cruisers (modified from P-class armored ships). Two of them participated in the Battle of Bermuda, but they underwent a minor modification after the battle. The W-10 "Waterfall" ship-to-air missile was installed - a twin missile launcher was installed on the original missile deck amidships. The other two William II-class ships, which had not participated in the Battle of Bermuda, had already been equipped with W-10 "Waterfall" missile launchers before completing the major modifications.

In addition to the "William II" class equipped with ship-to-air missiles, ship-to-ship, and ship-to-surface missiles. Task Force 21 also has three Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers and one Deutschland-class heavy cruiser. They also underwent minor modifications and were equipped with twin W-10 "Waterfall" ship-to-air missile launchers - installed on the original seaplane deck, which is now a missile deck.

In other words, there are a total of 8 twin ship-to-air missile launchers on the 4 guided missile cruisers and 4 heavy cruisers, which can launch 16 W-10 "Waterfall" ship-to-air missiles at the same time.

In addition, Task Force 21 also has two "Kesselring" class aircraft carriers and two escort aircraft carriers (C ships). Together with the two "Bremen" class amphibious assault ships, it carries a total of 216 carrier-based fighter jets.

Among them, there are 144 Fokker 636s (configured on 2 Kesselring-class aircraft carriers and 2 C aircraft carriers), and 72 Fokker Zero Ds (configured on 2 Bremen-class aircraft).

However, eight ship-to-air missile launchers and 216 carrier-based aircraft are not the only air defense forces that the 21st Task Force and the European Joint Landing Fleet can rely on. There are also two entire regiments of shore-based fighters (one of which is a night fighter regiment) deployed to the Nuuk base in Greenland.

Taken together, the number of German fighter planes that can be used in combat over the Atlantic between Greenland and Labrador reaches more than 450.

On April 12, two brigade-level groups, the 1st Armored Grenadier Brigade of the Russian Royal Guards and the Finnish SS Brigade, all completed boarding operations, with more than 10,000 officers and soldiers and most of their weapons and equipment ( carrying no heavy armored vehicles), all aboard Bremen and Europa.

That night, more than 20 ships, including two Bremen-class amphibious assault ships, took advantage of the darkness to leave the port of Reykjavik in Iceland. And they joined the 21st Task Force off the coast of Iceland, which had been waiting there for a long time, forming a huge formation of hundreds of ships, and then headed west.

On the night of April 14, when the fleet passed through southern Greenland, the radar of an F-13 long-range reconnaissance aircraft patrolling nearby discovered the huge fleet heading westward on the sea.

The news reached the Pentagon. Wallace and William Leahy, who had just finished their day's work and were about to get off work, felt that the situation was serious - the German fleet was only more than 400 nautical miles away from the coast of North America, so they immediately took a car to the nearby area. of Washington, DC.

The capital of the United States of America has entered spring and has become even more depressed. The roads are empty, with almost no pedestrians or vehicles. All the houses on both sides have their doors and windows closed, and most of the shops have been closed.

The reason for this is of course not because of the economic depression. On the contrary, the United States is now in a "super boom cycle" driven by the need for war. But the fly in the ointment is that the enemy is approaching the US border step by step, and they also have atomic bombs.

The capital of the United States of America is undoubtedly the city most likely to be bombed by an atomic bomb. So starting from January 1945, when Truman was officially sworn in, Washington, DC, began to be evacuated.

Most government departments now only have ministerial offices in the capital, and the main staff have gone to Chicago. The U.S. Congress is also ready to move to the Museum of Fine Arts building in Chicago at any time. The "Pentagon" led by Wallace himself has also prepared a relocation plan. Once the Germans successfully land on Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, or somewhere in eastern Canada, they will move to Catoctin Mountain Villa. . The President of the United States will also go to Catoctin Mountain Resort with the "Pentagon".

By then, Washington, D.C. will truly be a ghost town!

But even if Truman stayed in the White House, there was no need to worry too much about him being killed by a German atomic bomb. Because the White House bunker has been built and can be used at any time, the president can work and live underground more than ten meters deep.

On the evening of April 14 (US Eastern Time), Wallace still saw President Truman, who looked very haggard, in the Oval Office.

"What? Another German fleet was discovered... only a few hundred nautical miles away from the North American continent?" After listening to Wallace's report, Truman took a breath, "Is the German target Newfoundland?"

"It's possible." Wallace nodded. "The enemy's target may also be the coastal areas of Labrador. Of course... this possibility is not high. Because the temperature there is very low and many bays are still frozen. among.”

He paused and then added: "Newfoundland is also unlikely. The terrain there is too dangerous. If the Germans want to land there, they will definitely suffer heavy losses."

"Then, where is their target?" Truman felt a little strange.

"It may be a feint attack," William Leahy said. "This is the most likely possibility, but it cannot be completely ruled out that the Germans will attack Newfoundland."

"So do we need to strengthen the defenses of Newfoundland?" Truman asked.

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that Newfoundland's defenses are adequate," William Leahy said, "but it is very likely that the Germans will land in the Labrador area north of Newfoundland and establish a permanent stronghold."