The telegram was sent by Lieutenant General Walter Smith, commander of the Icelandic garrison, and it was not long, but the information revealed in the telegram made everyone sit still. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The Joint Chiefs of Staff originally believed that there were more than 400 planes in the Icelandic direction, and that the British, whether they wanted to or not, could at least produce more than 1,000 planes, and that it would be enough to deal with the attack of the German fleet.

But the Norwegian Air Force's air raids shattered this dream!

The air raid formation, composed of more than 1,000 Ju-188, Ar-234, and Ta-152, fully summed up and carried forward the tactics of holding high and striking high in British air raids, ignoring the interception of US fighter planes, roaring and throwing Hs-393 and hail bombs at predetermined targets, and focusing on attacking US airfields, radar stations, oil depots, and ancillary facilities (such as searchlights).

The U.S. Army Air Force deployed in Iceland was considered to have the highest level of combat readiness and the best military discipline among the Icelandic defenders, and it also understood that it was disadvantageous to send fighter planes to climb blindly under the tactics of holding high and attacking high, and asked the fighters to stay in the middle of the altitude as much as possible and wait for the German aircraft group to descend altitude. However, the tactics are changing day by day, and this time Germany used the Hs-393 to carry out precision attacks, and the anti-radiation attacks with hail did not need to effortlessly descend to the altitude.

A small number of US pilots who could not resist the rush were beaten down by the German pilots -- the high-altitude combat capability of the P-47 and P-51 was not much different from that of the Ta-152, but the problem was that the pilots were too inexperienced, and many of these pilots had experienced large-scale battles for the first time, lacked adaptability and combat experience, and were few in number, and the opponents they faced were all veterans of the Western Front who had repeatedly resisted strategic air raids in the past few years, and the results were not surprising.

When the American pilots tried their best to find a good airfield and a flat land, the German heavy bomber formation came again, because most of the radar stations had been destroyed in the first round of air raids, so the German formation was only discovered when it was very close, and only a small number of lucky people were able to replenish fuel and ammunition to take off again to meet the enemy, but even if they flew it was useless, the sky was pitch black, and a few searchlights could not keep up with the German air raid formation.

This time it was no longer Hs-393 and hail that were dropped, but a large number of butterfly bombs, incendiary bombs, and conventional aerial bombs, and this time the focus was still on the airfield -- the Germans were determined to paralyze the American aviation capability on the ground, and the strength of the Icelandic army was not in the eyes of the Germans, in the words of Jeshunek, "I believe that Field Marshal Rommel had the means to deal with those tens of thousands!" ”

By the end of the second round of air raids, Lieutenant General Walter Smith told London and Washington in horror that although the army had suffered less than 1,000 casualties, only a fraction of the more than 400 planes had been left -- less than 50 planes were intact and still functional, and the island's air facilities were almost completely destroyed.

Poor Smith did not know that Washington had rejected London's request for naval assistance, believing that Iceland was in an important location, and there were 60,000 American officers and soldiers on it, and that the country would definitely rescue him, and London would definitely send planes to assist him, so he hurriedly sent a telegram, hoping that the Royal Air Force would support him with 300 fighters.

The truth is 1000 times more cruel than he thought: there is no navy! There are no planes!

Churchill agreed to provide the Americans with a batch of planes, but Admiral Portal, chief of staff of the Air Force, disagreed: "I will keep the planes and fuel for the defense of the British Empire, even if the defense of the Faroe Islands will require planes." ”

At the same time as the second round of air raids on Iceland, the Faroe Islands, which are only more than 300 kilometers away from Norway, were also attacked: some of them took off from Norway, some of them were from Denmark, and the most important thing was more than 150 V2s fired from the direction of Bergen, and these missiles with a range of 400 kilometers relied on a speed of more than Mach 4 to blow up most of the Faroe Islands' air facilities and planes with lightning speed. Then the air raid group arrived, destroyed the remaining facilities with impunity, and also assessed the offensive effectiveness of the rockets, the degree of coordination - perfect!

The British then remembered that the Germans still had the rocket thing, and it seemed that this thing had a much longer range than they expected: it means that the Germans could not only hit London, but also the Manchester line in the center? It was even more panicked when it was revealed, and those middle classes might run to Scotland again, but the military situation was urgent, and no one wanted to say this.

"We can't hold our home without Iceland." Churchill sighed, "It's a defense of the homeland in another sense." ”

"Prime Minister, that's not what you said back then." Potter quipped, "The French offered planes, and you said you would stay to defend your homeland." Without France, we will defend our homeland on our own! Now it's the same situation, we don't have Iceland on our own! ”

Back then, it was Qiu Fatzi himself who instructed the fighter commander Dao Ding not to send planes, and later, in order to cover up, he insisted that Dao Ding himself did not agree, and sent him into the cold palace to explain to all parties. Now the exact same situation has come, Churchill is really dumb and can't say what he suffers from.

He slapped the table and yelled, "You dare to disobey orders? I'm going to remove you! ”

"Withdraw, I don't care." Portall shrugged sarcastically, "Believe it or not, I told the RAF pilots that Washington itself didn't care about the 60,000 Americans in Iceland, so why would it want us to send planes?" Do you see if anyone is willing to die for the Americans in Iceland? ”

Pound followed: "If the Americans are willing to send a fleet, I agree with the Royal Navy to send these 300 fighters!" ”

"You!" Churchill was so choked that he couldn't speak.

"I think so." Aiden stood up and said, "Send a telegram to Marshal Diere, asking him to be as tactful as possible but to tell the Americans that we can support the planes, but the Americans must guarantee to send a fleet to support!" ”

Attlee asked, "What if the Americans still don't agree?" ”

"Then ......," Aiden twitched, his face twitching, "it is better to let Duke Hamilton come forward to discuss a political solution than to let him waste his life in Iceland for nothing." ”

After Hess returned home, Duke Hamilton, who served as the commander of the Royal Air Force wing, became the second channel of communication between the two countries, and even established a dedicated hotline radio station, with Aiden in charge of contact, and the essence of this sentence was best known to everyone.

Churchill was horrified to find that the three major army chiefs of Brooke, Pound, and Potter were indifferent when they heard the news, but instead felt a sense of relief, and the other members of the cabinet also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

When Aiden made a statement about a political settlement, Comrade Stalin slowly turned around, and behind the bright and dark pipe was a gloomy face: "Comrades, now is not the time to hold anyone responsible, is this war our aggression against others?" Did we take the initiative to fight the Germans? This was clearly a general war of international imperialism in a vain attempt to destroy communism, but it was carried out by the Germans. Do you think that the Americans and the Japanese will not attack the Soviets after winning the war? Immature! Now is the time for the whole party and the people of the whole country to unite and look forward, to think about where the Soviets are going from a strategic point of view, and to consider issues from the perspective of the overall situation and from the perspective of the long-term interests of the people and the fundamental interests of the party......

As soon as his words fell, his old comrade-in-arms, Marshal Voroshilov, was the first to stand up and take a stand: "I think Comrade Stalin's admonition is very correct, there is no doubt that we have lost this war, but if we consider it from the point of view of the communist movement, we have not completely lost it all - our heroic and stubborn resistance has thwarted the attempts of the fascist bandits to strangle Soviet power and to exterminate the Bolshevik Party, so that they realize that there is no way to destroy us and have to sit down and think seriously about a political solution." Comrades, we are the spark of the world revolution, and when the White Terror is pervasive, the most important thing is to preserve the spark, preserve the living force, and preserve the possibility of a comeback. The idea of fighting with the enemy and pulling it down is outright blind activism. ”

Kalinin, a veteran Bolshevik revolutionary and chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, made the second statement: "I think what Comrade Stalin has just said is very crucial. The communist movement is never smooth sailing, there must be peaks and valleys, and this is in line with the law of the spiral of the development of things, and we should not get carried away at the peak and think that the Soviets are omnipotent; At the trough, we must not lose confidence that the Soviets will soon be defeated. Seeking an armistice is not a surrender to the enemy, still less a renunciation of communist beliefs, ideals, and paths, it is just a tactic, a strategy for the better development of communism. We should temporarily get out of the war, restore our economy, recuperate our energy, and strike again when the two imperialist countries, Germany and the United States, continue to fight each other, and when the international communist movement is in full swing again! ”

Except for Ganganovich (who also served as political commissar), who assisted Zhukov in managing the Central Asian Special Front, the rest of the committee members took the floor one by one, highly supporting Comrade Stalin's proposition and believing that it was possible to negotiate with the Germans -- what had been said to be negotiated after the battle was fought was nothing more than the initiative to win the battle and the passivity after defeat.

Stalin suddenly called the name of Meretskov, who was present at the meeting but had not spoken: "What do you think? ”

"I support the decision of the Party Central Committee to send people to negotiate with Germany, and at the same time I propose that Comrade Tolbukhin lead a total of 1 million troops of the Northwest Front, the Volkhov Front, and the Reserve Front to prepare to meet the unfavorable situation in the south, and as for myself, I ...... stand up and reply aloud, "I will lead 800,000 commanders and fighters of the Moscow Front and 2 million working class to hold the capital and contain the rest of the enemy army. ”

Stalin patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction: "Very good, when the time comes, please ask other comrades of the Politburo to go to Omsk to preside over the work, and I will stay in Moscow with you." ”