The Rise of the Third Reich

"What? The Germans' target might be Newfoundland?"

Washington, D.C., White House. President Truman, who was having breakfast, heard the bad news that frightened him as soon as he got up.

"Will it be a feint?" He asked Wallace and William Leahy who came to the White House to report.

"There is a possibility of a feint, but we cannot ignore the danger." Wallace's eyes were red when he answered the question, and it was obvious that he had not slept all night. It turned out that he had a meeting with the top military leaders in the Pentagon until midnight last night. Just after the meeting, he wanted to take a nap, and the report of German bombers taking off from the Azores arrived. So Wallace was busy arranging interceptor missiles and air defense work for major cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. When he was busy until five or six in the morning, worse news came again!

William Leahy looked as haggard as Wallace, his old face listless. He frowned and said, "Mr. President, the German air raid is large-scale. According to the report of the early warning aircraft, they dispatched at least 1,200 fighters, of which about 900 were fighters." "900 fighters?" Truman took a breath, "Have their aircraft carriers arrived near Newfoundland?" William Leahy nodded, "It should be... So their targets are likely to be Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, St. Pierre or Miquelon, or Sable Island, 160 kilometers away from Nova Scotia in the Atlantic." Because the United States lost its sea control in the Atlantic after the Battle of the Bermuda Islands, and lost the air control of the Nova Scotia Peninsula-Bermuda Islands in the Newfoundland Air Battle. Therefore, it fell into a very passive defense on the eastern coast of North America, and needed to defend the long coastline and many islands. The Germans can use their sea and air superiority to attack any point at will. As long as one point is broken, the entire defense line will face collapse - this collapse is certainly not the German armored forces killing New York and Washington, but the departure base for Germany to drop the atomic bomb! Now, the Allied defense line in the direction of Labrador is already in danger. If there are problems in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, St. Pierre, Miquelon and Sable Island, then the United States will really be in big trouble. Because that area is only more than a thousand kilometers away from the most prosperous area in the eastern United States, not only can the Me264 bomber cover it, but even a considerable number of German fighters have enough range to escort the Me264. In addition, once there is an island cover close to the US mainland, the German aircraft carrier will be easier to approach the eastern coast of the United States. This means that the carrier-based model of the Me262 jet can also escort the Me264 carrying the atomic bomb! "Can we hold it?" Truman asked, "Do we have enough troops there? Should we send reinforcements?"

"Not yet," William Leahy shook his head, "We have enough ground forces there, and the sea forces can also cope with the landing."

The ground forces seemed to be enough. On the island of Newfoundland, which has a rugged terrain, the total number of various ground forces reached 250,000; there were tens of thousands of elite French troops (Free France) on the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon; more than 350,000 ground troops were stationed on the Nova Scotia Peninsula and Cape Breton Island, where the terrain was more conducive to landing; an elite Marine Division was also stationed on Sable Island, which was 160 kilometers away from the Nova Scotia Peninsula, with a narrow terrain and a land area of ​​80 square kilometers. More than 30,000 magnetic mines and anchor mines were laid around the island, completely blocking all possible landing beaches. For this reason, even the sea transportation on the island was interrupted, and all supplies relied on air transport.

In addition to these troops already deployed on the front line, the Northeast Command of the Allied Forces in North America also has a large number of reserve forces, including 4 armored divisions, 12 infantry divisions (American mechanized infantry divisions) and 4 airborne divisions, a total of 20 divisions.

In addition, the US Navy Atlantic Fleet has deployed the 1st Fleet (home port in New York) on the northeast coast of North America. Although there are no large ships, there are still enough destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines and various troop transports (including landing ships) and transport ships.

The British Royal Navy (Canada) has also deployed a powerful Canadian Fleet (home port in Quebec City), which is a main fleet with battleships and heavy cruisers. Although it cannot fight a decisive battle with the European Combined Fleet in the ocean, it can rush out of the St. Lawrence River when the German army lands to give the German landing fleet that is currently landing a hard blow.

"What about the air force? Do you need to increase it?" Truman also knew that the land force in the northeastern North American theater was sufficient, and the sea force was not lacking either - there was no way to do it even if it was lacking, and what could really be considered to increase was the air force.

William Leahy replied: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that it is necessary to be prepared to withdraw aircraft from the Caribbean and the East Coast to reinforce at any time. There will be no problem." Now the US Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have much reserve air force available, so they have to tear down the east wall to repair the west wall. And this "east wall" cannot be torn down casually, what if the Germans' actions on the northern front are bluffing? After all, the Germans basically have no way to deploy shore-based fighters on the northern front, which means they can only rely on carrier-based fighters to fight for air superiority.

Moreover, the distance from the Azores and Iceland to Newfoundland is too far, and most shore-based bombers cannot reach it. Only a small number of Me264 can be used in air attacks on Newfoundland.

As for the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Cape Breton Island and Sable Island, even the Me264 is not big enough.

Therefore, even if the Germans can use carrier-based aircraft to gain air superiority, there are not many bombers to drop bombs, which greatly reduces their air superiority.

In addition, the American F-13 reconnaissance aircraft has not been found on the Atlantic Ocean near Newfoundland, Nova Scotia Peninsula, Cape Breton Island, St. Pierre Island, Miquelon Island and Sable Island. A very large fleet.

If the Germans want to successfully land in the above-mentioned areas, they will have to transport at least 100,000 well-equipped officers and soldiers ashore at one time, which will require at least hundreds of transport ships and landing ships - it is not an unguarded Labrador area, and there is no huge Without the strength and firepower to support the fleet, it is impossible for the landing to succeed.

It is impossible for such a large fleet to escape detection by the S-band radar on the F-13. Their absence indicates that large-scale landing operations will not occur yet.

Based on the above judgments, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff still insists that the German army’s main attack direction will be in the Caribbean.

…

"Checking the equipment one last time to see if there's anything missing?"

"Who else hasn't made a will? Hurry up and go to the military lawyer to make a will..."

"Quick, quick, move quickly!"

"Line up and get on the plane one by one..."

"Check the equipment fixation for the last time!"

While Truman, Wallace and William Leahy were discussing whether to send more troops to the northeastern battlefield in North America, a scene they had never dreamed of was appearing at more than a dozen large airports on the Azores Islands.

The huge tarmac at every airport is now filled with a huge transport aircraft. There are two models of these transport aircraft. One model of transport aircraft is the "big belly" ZSO523 "Super Giant" air assault transport aircraft. Its size looks almost twice as big as the Fokker 42, and its wingspan reaches 70 meters, the fuselage length exceeds 40 meters, and the fuselage looks particularly fat.

The other is the famous Fokker 42 long-range transport aircraft. This aircraft has a fuselage of 30.5 meters long, a wingspan of 41.5 meters, and a fuselage height of 8.8 meters. The empty weight is as high as 19.5 tons and the maximum take-off weight is 38.3 tons. The maximum speed reaches 515 kilometers/hour and the maximum range can reach 9,800 kilometers. When fully loaded, it can transport 10 tons of cargo or 60 fully armed paratroopers to a battlefield 2,500 kilometers away for airdrop.

Among them, the ZSO523 "Super Giant" air assault transport aircraft arrived one after another, and they were all parked at the airport of Terceira Island, the most heavily guarded main island in the Azores. At the same time as the arrival of these aircraft, a large number of heavy equipment and personnel belonging to the 1st Air Assault Brigade of the German Wehrmacht were also sent to Terceira Island by sea.

All the heavy equipment belonging to the 1st Air Assault Brigade, including E-25 tank destroyers, Type 4 H tanks, Puma series wheeled armored vehicles, Steyr command vehicles and trucks, as well as artillery of various calibers, are It has been installed into the "big belly" of ZSO523 and firmly fixed with chains. Ammunition, fuel and other supplies for the troops for five days were also loaded onto the plane. Now all that's left is for the combatants to board the plane!

The Fokker 42 transport plane landed at various island airports in the Azores between the early morning and early morning of April 25. They use the airport originally used by Me264. Because the number exceeds 500, the aircraft are crowded on the originally very spacious apron and occupy part of the runway.

When these Fokker 42 transport planes landed, large groups of soldiers and various airdrop supplies loaded in trucks had already lined up on the road outside the airport.

According to the provisions of the "Columbus Plan", 260 ZSO523 will transport more than 4,000 officers and soldiers of the 1st Air Brigade and more than 200 vehicles equivalent to a brigade-level armored group to Newfoundland - these cost up to millions of European marks 's giant planes are likely to become disposable items!

These aircraft alone will cost 260 million European marks and tens of thousands of tons of expensive aluminum alloys and special steel!

The 508 Fokker 42 transport aircraft will transport nearly 15,000 officers and soldiers from 18 paratrooper battalions and 2,580 tons of various airdrop materials to the airdrop site 2,500 kilometers away.