May 27 was destined to be an anxious night, and such an emergency meeting was being held not only in Moscow, but also in London, but unlike the silence on the Soviet side, people in the basement of Downing Street in London had already begun to bang on the table and yell. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhukov deduced the strategic rhythm of "encircling on all sides and blossoming in the center" through the enemy's briefing, and Marshal Brooke relied on a B-29 reconnaissance plane to obtain the news that the German fleet was heading north.

In the afternoon of the same day, this conscientious reconnaissance plane discovered the German fleet carrying out the Navy Seal Project more than 1,400 kilometers north-west of Ireland, and when the news of four fleet aircraft carriers, eight light aircraft carriers, five battleships, countless cruisers, destroyers, auxiliary warships, and freighters heading north was urgently transferred to London, the entire power center of the British Empire suddenly boiled.

The brave reconnaissance plane deliberately lowered its altitude in order to see clearly, and he soon paid the price, six Do-412s swarmed up and shot them down, leaving the British with only a fragmented telegram, but it was enough to outline the Axis' plan of action - a large fleet appeared in the sea less than 1,200 kilometers southwest of Iceland, and if you still have a brain, you can guess what the other side wants to do.

After receiving the news at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Marshal Brooke's first reaction was to ask the Air Force to send a group of heavy bombers to attack, but Admiral Potter told him that there was not enough fuel in Britain now, and even if there were, it would be night when the planes were ready to go out and fly over the fleet, and nothing could catch up except empty fuel consumption!

"The landing of the Germans must be prevented!" This is the unanimous thought of all, and this thought even overrides the concern about the situation in India.

There are two pieces of news coming from the Indian battlefield this afternoon, there is only one good news, but there are two bad news: the good news is that the two British divisions have basically successfully completed the disembarkation and deployment of personnel, but it will take a little time for some heavy equipment and supplies; The first bad news came from the Anglo-Indian army, which, after two weeks of resistance and fighting, took the important towns of Kanpur and Lucknow in the United Province (now Uttar Pradesh), opening the way to Delhi - the Japanese vanguard was less than 350 kilometers from the outskirts of Delhi, and the total strength of the Anglo-Indian army was less than 90,000 if the new reinforcements were not taken into account. From a military point of view, since the Ganges River is located in the United Provinces, the Japanese army can easily dispatch and transport personnel, and the next battle will inevitably be the defense of Delhi.

The second bad news came from the TF44 fleet, although the Americans could not control the life or death of London, but after hearing that the main force of the combined fleet arrived in the Indian Ocean and lost 7 warships in just one day, everyone still gasped. Although the Combined Fleet was obviously headed for Spruance, if the encirclement and suppression were fruitless, they would support the Japanese landing operation, and the British and Indian forces would be completely annihilated.

Moreover, this was the last time to import supplies, supplies, and personnel for India, and it was only by selling more than 40 ships to Germany and a few warships that had escaped the net that the Germans tacitly agreed not to bomb Karachi - if they did, these two divisions would be immediately incapacitated.

Several bigwigs discussed and discussed, and found that there was basically no better way to let the British and Indian troops fight to the end of "one person, one bullet". The situation in India was not yet known, and the German fleet popped up again. Several people examined the military force at hand and found that they could not use enough effective force to contain it.

Potter swore that he was ready to take out heavy bombers to bomb, but everyone was not optimistic about this, heavy bombers against surface targets were undoubtedly anti-aircraft guns to hit mosquitoes, and the probability of hitting was too low, unless it still made some sense to deal with the landing fields of the German army; The Royal Navy could not now come up with a warship larger than a cruiser except for the unfinished capital ship on the slipway, and sending other ships out was tantamount to death; As for the army, there are 3 million troops on the island, but even if they are paratroopers, what use can they play in the anti-landing campaign if they cannot transport heavy equipment and can only carry light weapons?

After urgent deliberations, the three military chiefs reported to the cabinet on the one hand, and on the other hand, they came to the unanimous conclusion that the United States must be called for help, and the American Atlantic Fleet must be dispatched, otherwise Iceland will not be able to protect itself.

"Did you inform the Icelandic defenders?"

"Noticed, fucking is urgently assembling ......" Speaking of this situation, Field Marshal Brooke shook his head, the first reaction of the news to the American command in Iceland was actually impossible, and only after repeated confirmation did he panic and act, all kinds of American GIs were dragged out of cafes, movie theaters, parks and even unknown bushes, many of them were fighting with Icelandic women, how could they be a little ready to go to war? Although the situation of the two British divisions was a little better, they were much worse than the preparations for the landing of the Germans in the British mainland......

"What do Americans say?"

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff is holding an emergency meeting, but Marshal Deere's preliminary communication does not seem to be good." Pound's mood seemed quite irritable, and Dill and the Royal Navy liaison officer who stayed in the United States sent a message that although the two Essex-class aircraft carriers Bennington and Hancock had been completed, they had just been delivered the day before yesterday and were currently undergoing sea trials in Pisacek Bay.

In this case, it is simply not possible to go into combat. When I asked how long it would take, I was told that it was early July.

"Early July?" Pound jumped to his feet in the command and scolded, "Don't wait for the beginning of July, Iceland will be finished in another week." ”

"There are nearly 60,000 American troops in Iceland, don't they even care about their own troops?" Brooke couldn't believe his ears either, "The new one can't be dispatched, at least 1 aircraft carrier and escort aircraft carrier can come out to contain the Germans." ”

"No, they didn't ......," Admiral Fraser smiled wryly, "and a part of the escort aircraft carriers are covering the landing of the US Army in South America in the Caribbean." ”

Only the US Army Airlines said that a batch of B-29s would take off from Newfoundland early tomorrow morning to bomb the German fleet, but it was clear to everyone that the formation of heavy bombers flying 2,000 kilometers was really of little significance compared to the aircraft carrier fleet.

Churchill was shocked by this, and personally sent an urgent telegram to Roosevelt, hoping that he would intervene, and an hour later the call came back -- not Roosevelt's signature, but Vice President Truman's.

"Your Excellency, the war situation has reached an extremely critical juncture, and I have sent a telegram to the Icelandic defenders, urging them to persevere to the end and thwart the German landing attempts, and to provide air support...... In view of the fact that the naval strength is at a low point for the time being, and we prudently believe that it will not be possible to dispatch an aircraft carrier fleet before the end of June, we implore your Royal Air Force and Royal Navy to support Iceland in various forms and to do their utmost to ultimately thwart the German landing attempt......"

The suggestion that the Americans believed that the Royal Navy, although it had no capital ships, could at least send torpedo boats, destroyers, and submarines to carry out night raids to carry out the task of breaking diplomatic relations and attacking, angered Marshal Pound, and he believed that this was the meaning of the Americans to let the Royal Navy all die.

He snatched the telegram and tore it to pieces: "Whoever loves to save Iceland will save it, I won't wait!" Let the planes bring back the British troops from Iceland! Let the Americans themselves go and fight with the Germans! ”

Churchill said angrily: "If Iceland is lost, what will Britain do?" The Americans can do without Iceland, can we lose Iceland? ”

"What if you lose it?" Pound's eyes widened, and he slapped the table and shouted, "The Royal Navy's capital ships are all gone, what do you want us to do?" Lao Tzu wants an armistice with the Germans! Armistice! Roosevelt doesn't want us? Wow, I'm messing with Hitler! ”

"You ......," Churchill trembled with anger.

Attlee frowned and asked the other two, "Do you think Iceland can hold without naval support?" ”

"It's basically hard." Brooke shook his head, "There are more than 400 planes on Iceland, but this is not enough to guarantee the advantage of sea supremacy, it is easy to exhaust it; Iceland lacked large shore artillery, the Germans had 5 battleships, and if they had forcibly covered the Icelandic coast with firepower, it would have been easy to find a beachhead, and if the Germans had landed successfully, we would have lost the battle - it was obvious how much combat strength the American forces in Iceland had. ”

"Then the key question now is whether the Royal Air Force and the Icelandic Air Force can contain the enemy's landing attempts?" "As long as the Germans can't get ashore, it doesn't matter if we send the navy or not?" ”

"It should not be overlooked that the distance between the airfields in the north of Scotland and Iceland is almost 1,200 kilometers, which is significantly more than the range of the Spitfire, and our bombers and attack aircraft will have to rely on P-51\P-47 fighters for escort, and after the escort, these fighters can only land in Iceland and cannot return in the same batch." Potter said with a wry smile, "The key is that the recent long-term German air raids have not only drastically reduced our aircraft and pilots, but also the high-grade aviation fuel reserves are also in an emergency, and it is okay to maintain high-intensity air strikes for a few days, if we fight a war of attrition similar to the current British mainland, we will not be able to withstand this pressure." ”

Churchill said sullenly: "Don't move, the navy should not move, take out all the aviation fuel reserves, and let the Royal Air Force take active action to deal with the German fleet tomorrow." ”

While he was talking, the confidential staff officer suddenly ran in in a panic: "Report, the German army is conducting a large-scale air raid on Iceland!" ”

"What?"

"The German fleet is so fast?"

"No...... Not a German carrier-based aircraft, a German air force that took off from Norway! ”

In the Berlin High Command, Jeshunek reported to Hoffmann with great ambition: "The Norwegian Air Force has launched the first round of air strikes against Iceland, with 407 jets, 413 Ju-188s and 246 Ta-152 fighters escorted this afternoon, using Hs-393 and hail bombs to carry out high-altitude precision bombing; Tonight, 174 Me-264s, 106 Ju-488s, 81 He-277s, and more than 60 captured B-17\B-29s will be carpet bombed; In the early hours of tomorrow morning, more than 400 carrier-based aircraft will carry out the third round of air strikes...... In the next 48 hours, we will always have our planes in the skies over Iceland! ”