When Lieutenant General Pei arrived outside the harbor of St. John's and launched an artillery bombardment, Marcal and others in the distance were relieved, but they soon became uneasy, because Lieutenant General Pei reported that more than 100 Allied freighters had been captured, and at the same time reported that the Allied forces on the island were probably not quite numerous—the sailors who had fished out of the sea said that there were at least two divisions and two Canadian divisions. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although only one of the two divisions was located near St. John's and the other in York Harbour and Conabrook, Marchar was still worried: he had only four battalions of marines, one of which was armoured, one of which was panzergrenadier, and two of which were flintlock battalions (traditional infantry battalions), and although they were very elite, they had a total strength of 2,500 men, making it difficult to deal with an enemy 10 times his size.

"Why did the Führer insist on landing on the island of Newfoundland?" "Not only are we outnumbered by the enemy, but Newfoundland is closer to the United States and Canada than Bermuda, and the enemy will soon be able to get reinforcements, and it will be difficult to win a landing campaign." Could it be that the Führer had the intention of taking control of Newfoundland as a bridgehead for the invasion of North America? ”

Martial and Ozawa shook their heads at the same time: not to mention 4 battalions, even 4 regiments or even 4 divisions are difficult to accomplish this goal, and the biggest problem of Newfoundland is that it is too close to the United States and too far from Germany, and there is no possibility of long-term occupation.

"However, we can't destroy this Anglo-Canadian route base without landing, and the landing battle will help buy us ......time," Ozawa muttered, "We must find a way to get these 100 freighters back with supplies, and this alone is very tricky." ”

Machar also calmed down from the initial ecstasy: "It is not easy to properly arrange their retreat, if the main force of the fleet carries the freighter team, the enemy will definitely rush over, and the freighter must be arranged to go before the main fleet can talk about retreating." ”

"The freighter can go to the nearest Azores, but at the speed of the Victory, it will take four days even if the captive crew on it cooperates...... There will be too many unpredictable factors in 4 days, and at the very least, the British and American aircraft carrier formations will be the first to pounce. ”

"So the landing must be arranged to attract the attention of Britain and the United States, and we must get these more than 100 freighters back." After figuring out this section, Machar, who has rich experience in breaking diplomatic relations, immediately ordered, "Convey the order to Vice Admiral Bei, transfer some heavy cruisers and destroyers from the main fleet and escort the delivery ship with the lightning detachment to retreat first, and the rest of the fleet to cover the landing of the marines, so as to make a breakthrough." ”

Vice Admiral Pei, who also has a wealth of experience in breaking diplomatic relations, has sent the heavy cruiser Hipper and the S-boats of the Thunder Strike Detachment to perform the role of a shepherd dog without waiting for Marchar's order, but this shepherd dog can really bite - in the darkness of the night, an unwilling Canadian sailor opened the sea valve, allowing the freighter to sink after entering the water. The German fleet did not notice this anomaly because it was gathering the Allied sailors and officers who had fallen into the water earlier on the periphery, and when it was too late to realize that the ship was slowly sinking, Vice Admiral Bey, who was thundering, immediately ordered to open fire.

The Hipper first fired fiercely at the ship with 203mm naval guns at a close range of more than 2,000 meters, and then the S-boat swarmed up and opened fierce fire on the Canadian sailors who jumped into the sea or tried to escape in a lifeboat, and fired fiercely with four 20mm machine guns, leaving no armor left. Such a bloody scene really shocked everyone present, and they now know that the Germans are not joking, they will be serious! Several other ships that tried to follow suit immediately put an end to this "unwise" behavior, and even if the captain was willing to do so, he was beaten to the ground by the sailors who rushed up to him with a survival instinct.

"Once again, surrendered ships must obey orders, and any act of vandalism will be regarded as resistance and will be killed!"

As the minutes passed, the German landing force was getting closer and closer to the port, but Christian's Canadian division was under heavy artillery fire, and several 8-inch shore guns on which he had high hopes were dumbfounded by the Veneto-class with ferocious 381mm Italian cannons less than an hour after the German artillery bombardment was launched. Most of the soldiers who initially tried to build fortifications on the pier and beachhead were wiped out by heavy artillery fire.

In view of the fact that there were still many enemy bases remaining in the direction of York Harbour and Conabrook, Ozawa's plan for the fleet was to take advantage of the dark time before dawn to launch an attack, the attack aircraft group would take off at 3 o'clock, complete the bombing mission before 5 o'clock, and be sure to destroy and suppress the US air force in that direction, and then return at dawn, and the action would be a little more hurried to catch up with the landing campaign that would start at 9 o'clock.

Arnold also deployed an early morning counterattack, according to his idea: long-range bombers in Maine should take off at 3 o'clock, take advantage of the range advantage after dawn to spot the enemy fleet, and then attack the enemy fleet with air power from Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. However, in the selection of targets, he did not choose the German artillery fleet with a clear position, but asked the troops to give priority to attacking the German aircraft carrier formation.

The scene now seemed to be back to the tense atmosphere of the Caribbean campaign, and in view of the lessons of the previous battle, he hoped that he could do better, but unfortunately most of the main force of the army was gathered around Bermuda and the corresponding east coast in advance, and it was really difficult to mobilize, and Arnold used all his strength to transfer only more than 100 planes to Prince Edward Island, and at the same time concentrated more than 200 planes in Maine - more troops had to be redeployed after dawn. The Canadians are also trying to mobilize troops and aircraft, but their reaction speed is slower than that of the Army and they cannot be counted on in the short term.

But even with such a little good intention, Ozawa was not willing to let Arnold achieve, just after 5 o'clock, busy all night, Arnold, whose eyes were full of bloodshots, received bad news, the German air raids on Cornabrook and York Harbor, although more than 10 enemy planes were shot down, but most of the nearly 100 planes gathered here were destroyed, and they were no longer capable of carrying out the early morning assault mission, and the airport was basically destroyed, and it was impossible to provide support in the short term, so angry that Arnold scolded people in the war room for a long time.

What made the leaders of the United Nations congregation even more angry was that Lord Thomas sent a telegram saying that due to the heavy German artillery fire, the Canadians had lost more than 1,000 troops and all the shore defense guns, and were forced to abandon the pier and the coastal line of defense to move to depth, and asked the American army to quickly dispatch army support. Angry, Marshall slammed his glass on the spot - the Germans had not yet landed, and the Canadians were so virtuous.