The Rise of the Third Reich

"Long live victory!" Two soldiers standing guard outside the Joint Intelligence Command Center of the General Staff Headquarters of the National Defense Forces raised their hands in salute to General Stuart of the Airborne Forces Headquarters. Student waved his hand and walked into the room through the open door.

In the spacious and bright hall of the Joint Intelligence Command Center, around the huge sand table, Imperial Marshal Hersmann and his main assistants, including Air Force Commander-in-Chief Kesselin, First Munitions Director Guderian, Navy Commander-in-Chief Raeder, Marine Corps Commander Graham and Naval Aviation Commander General Hubert Weiss were exchanging opinions in a low voice.

It is now the afternoon of April 26, 1945, Berlin time. "Operation Columbus" has been launched for more than 24 hours and has achieved initial success.

Nearly 20,000 German paratroopers landed on the island of Newfoundland by parachute and airborne, and also occupied the Port of Carbonear and its surrounding areas on the Avalon Peninsula near the exit of Concepcion Bay. At the same time, it also controlled most of Grays Harbor, another key point on the west coast of Concepcion Bay. If it were not for the bombardment of the US large-caliber artillery on Bell Island in Concepcion Bay, the entire Grays Harbor would have been completely destroyed. The Germans took control.

In addition, several airborne combined battalions that landed on Newfoundland also took the lead in the battle with American armored forces. Not only did they firmly block the opponent west of Grays Airport, but they also completely destroyed about 50 American armored vehicles during the battle. Human tanks, including many M26 heavy tanks!

However, victory in the first battle does not mean that the battle on Newfoundland is guaranteed, because the German army is still facing great difficulties.

When Hessmann saw General Student, he waved at him and asked, "Kurt, how is the situation?"

It turned out that Stuart had been in the communications center of the General Staff just now, using the radio there to communicate with Commander Hipple of the 1st Air Assault Corps on the island of Newfoundland.

"Not bad," Stuart raised his hand in salute, "but there are not many surprises. Judging from the fighting situation on the first night, the US Army's performance was quite satisfactory, and there was a lack of progress in the use of armored forces. problem, but their artillery utilization level is very high, almost as good as ours. And there are a lot of tanks and artillery. It seems that the 1st Air Assault Army will have a hard battle. "

It is to be expected that Americans are rich in capital. This country has an industrial strength that is almost equal to that of the entire Europe. The total output of steel, oil, and automobiles greatly exceeds the output (owned output) of the European Community. When the huge industrial strength is converted into military production, it will naturally be able to provide the troops with enough weapons and equipment.

As for the European Allied Forces, because they were separated by the vast Atlantic Ocean, they were unable to devote enough troops to Newfoundland in time. Therefore, they were greatly disadvantaged in terms of the number of troops and firepower.

When the panic caused by the surprise attack on the US military is over, the US military on Newfoundland will crush the small number of German paratroopers with overwhelming force and firepower.

It is inevitable that the paratroopers will fall into an unprecedentedly difficult battle!

"We are also discussing this issue," Hersman nodded, "and the Admiral (referring to Redl) has also proposed a method for Navy surface ships to break into Concepcion Bay to provide direct fire support for ground forces."

Because they had long expected that the airborne troops would be hit by the superior strength of the United States, Hersman and others had been studying methods to support the airborne troops since lunch.

Air support is certain, but because Newfoundland is too far away from the large shore-based aviation base controlled by the European Community coalition forces, air support can only be mainly relied on carrier-based aircraft, which may not be strong enough.

There is only one way to solve this problem, which is to use large surface ships to forcefully rush into Concepcion Bay and use naval guns to provide support for ground forces.

"Are we going to allow naval surface ships to enter Concepcion Bay?" Admiral Stuart was not surprised, because this plan has long been in the plan of "Operation Columbus" and is one of a series of candidate sub-plans. .

According to the provisions of the "Operation Columbus" plan, once the U.S. artillery firepower on Newfoundland is too strong and the Air Force/Naval Aviation successfully destroys the 406mm coastal defense cannon of "Churchill Naval Fortress", at the same time, the mines in Concepcion Bay are also destroyed. If it is cleared, the European Combined Fleet will send large surface ships into Concepcion Bay to serve as floating forts.

"Can we destroy the cannons of Fortress Churchill now?" Stuart asked again with a frown. "It seems we don't know their exact locations yet, right?"

This issue was not under his control, but he still knew it very well, because when formulating the "Operation Columbus" plan, the issue of how to destroy the "Churchill Naval Fortress" had always been the focus of research. They even considered using airborne troops to raid the fortress, but in the end they gave up because the fortress was too tightly defended and instead used remotely controlled guided missiles to destroy the fortress' armored turrets.

However, it is not easy to use remotely controlled guided missiles to destroy the armored turrets of the fortress. Because the Americans had suffered enough from missiles for a long time, they naturally took precautions and carried out a lot of camouflage work on the turrets and turrets (the turrets housing the 240mm and 203mm heavy guns) to make them difficult to detect.

In addition, the German Navy also expected that the Americans would use smoke bombs to cover the turrets and forts, making it impossible for remote-controlled guided missiles to accurately strike.

Moreover, due to the confidentiality work of the Americans (British), the German army still does not know how many armored turrets and reinforced concrete forts there are in Churchill Fortress, let alone how many 406mm cannons there are.

On the first day of "Operation Columbus", the artillery at Fortress Churchill did not fire a single shot.

"Yes!" Admiral Redl nodded, "We have a way to expose them!"

"What can we do?" Student asked again.

Redl said: "Using two Bismarck-class battleships as bait to lure the Americans' cannons to fire... I think they are bait that the Americans cannot refuse!"

"Two Bismarck-class ships?"

Student was obviously taken aback. Although the battleships had now lost their status as sea kings, it was still a bit too "generous" to take out two Bismarcks at once to "feed" the American cannons.

"They are two Bismarck-class ships," Hersman said. "They will approach Concepcion Bay at Newfoundland time. If the operation goes well, these two super battleships will be anchored on the west coast of Concepcion Bay. Large-caliber artillery supports Wehrmacht paratroopers on the ground."

The Bismarck-class battleships were chosen to serve as "baits" and "floating batteries" not only because they are attractive enough, but also because the Bismarck-class underwater protection is very good and can withstand a certain number of mines and torpedo attacks - according to intelligence, the United States and Britain Many magnetic mines were laid in Concepcion Bay, and a PT torpedo boat was also deployed.

This is a big threat to invading large surface ships.

"Report!" At this time, a staff officer from the General Staff quickly walked in and raised his hand, "The Submarine Command reported that the Type 21 U-boat performing a warning mission discovered a huge submarine in the waters near 150 nautical miles southeast of New York. American Fleet!"

Hersmann, Raeder and Kesselring looked at each other, and Hersmann said: "Here they come!"

Redl nodded: "It must be the main force of the US Navy in the Atlantic, and it should include a large number of fleet aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft."

Hessmann looked at Kesselring and asked, "Can I fight?"

"It's still a bit far away," Kesselring took a look at a copy of the telegram from the staff. "That position is beyond 3e264 from the Azores and is simply out of reach... Unless a one-way bombing tactic is used to allow the pilot to complete the mission. Fly a plane and go skydiving or landing over Newfoundland.”

Theoretically, the Germans could use the Me264 to conduct one-way bombings without the German-controlled area on Newfoundland. But that would require the pilot to jump into the sea. Retrieving people from the sea would be much more difficult than searching for parachuting pilots on land on the west coast of Concepcion Bay controlled by the Germans. If not, a large number of pilots will be turned into "disposable items".

Therefore, before the start of "Operation Columbus", the tactic of using one-way bombing to attack the east coast of the United States was only theoretical - the east coast of the United States was not without air defense. If a small formation of several aircraft broke through, the possibility of being shot down was extremely high. . Investing a large number of aircraft for one-way flights is likely to result in the loss of a large number of pilots, which is simply unaffordable.

But now that there is a piece of land on Newfoundland for pilots to settle, one-way bombing has become a truly feasible tactic.

"Where's the Navy?" Hessman asked again, "Can we fight?"

"The Navy has no problem," Redl said confidently. "We have 15 large fleet aircraft carriers and 10 Kesselring-class aircraft carriers near Newfoundland. In addition, there are 8 missile ships and 12 battleships also in Newfoundland. It’s enough for a decisive battle near Finland Island!”

Among the 15 large aircraft carriers mentioned by Redl, 10 are "Zeppelin" class (including B41), 2 are "Adolf Hitler" class, and 3 are French "Joffre" class aircraft carriers.

The eight guided missile ships are four "Kaiser Wilhelm II" class guided missile cruisers and four guided missile battleships modified from the O class, Scharnhorst class and Dunkirk class.

The 12 battleships include 2 "Hindenburg" class, 2 "Bismarck" class, 3 "Richelieu" class, 3 "Veneto" class and 2 "Schleicher" which have just been commissioned. "class battleship. Among them, the "Schleicher" class is the "Lion" class battleship originally designed and built by the British. A total of 4 ships were built. After the British mainland surrendered, they were all acquired by Germany and then continued to be built in British shipyards. Its No. 1 ship "Schleicher" and No. 2 ship "Hersmann" have been completed and commissioned and have joined the European Combined Fleet.