"Long live victory!" Two soldiers standing guard outside the Joint Intelligence Command Centre of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht saluted Senior General Student of the General Headquarters of the Airborne Forces. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info Student waved his hand and walked into the room through the open door.

Inside the spacious and bright hall of the Joint Intelligence Command Center, surrounded by a huge sand table, Imperial Marshal Hersmann and his key aides, including Air Force Commander-in-Chief Kesselring, First Quartermaster Guderian, Navy Commander-in-Chief You Raeder, Marine Corps Commander Graem and Naval Air Force Commander Hubert. General Weiss was exchanging views in a low voice.

It was now the afternoon of April 26, 1945, Berlin time, and Operation Columbus had begun more than 24 hours and had achieved initial success.

Nearly 20,000 German airborne troops landed on Newfoundland by parachute and airborne, and also occupied Port Cabernier and its environs on the Avalon Peninsula near the exit from Concepson Bay. At the same time, it also controlled most of Grace Harbor, another key point on the west shore of Concepson Bay, and if it were not for the bombardment of American large-caliber artillery on Bell Island in Concepson Bay, the whole of Grace Harbor would have been completely controlled by the Germans.

In addition, several airborne composite battalions that landed on Newfoundland also took the lead in the confrontation with the American armored forces, not only blocking the opponent firmly west of Grace Airport, but also completely destroying about 50 American tanks in the engagement, including many M26 heavy tanks!

However, victory in the first battle did not mean victory on the island of Newfoundland, because the German army was still facing great difficulties.

When Hersman saw General Studenter, he beckoned at him and asked, "Kurt, how's the situation going?" ”

It turned out that Student had just been at the communications center of the General Staff, using the radio there to communicate with Shipper, the commander of the 1st Air Assault Corps on the island of Newfoundland.

"Not bad," Student saluted, "but there weren't too many surprises. Judging by the first night's engagement, the U.S. Army performed decently, and there was a lack of progress in the use of armored troops, but the level of their artillery use was very high, almost on par with ours. And with a lot of tanks and artillery, it seems that the 1st Air Assault Army will have a tough battle to fight. ”

It is to be expected that the Americans will have a lot of money, and the country has almost the same industrial power as the whole of Europe, and the total production of steel, oil, and automobiles greatly exceeds that of the European Community. When the huge industrial strength is transformed into military production, it will naturally be able to provide the troops with enough weapons and equipment.

On the European side, because of the vast Atlantic, they could not put enough troops into Newfoundland in time, so they were greatly inferior in terms of number of troops and firepower.

When the panic caused by the surprise attack is over, the American forces on Newfoundland will crush the few German paratroopers with overwhelming strength and firepower.

It is inevitable that the paratroopers will fall into an unprecedented bitter battle!

"We're also discussing this," Hersman nodded, "and Marshal [referring to Raeder] has proposed a way for naval surface ships to break into Concepson Bay for direct fire support for ground forces." ”

Because they had long expected that the airborne troops would be attacked by the superior forces of the United States, Hersman and others had been studying ways to support the airborne forces since after lunch.

Air support is certain, but because Newfoundland is too far away from the large shore-based air bases controlled by the European Community coalition forces, it can only rely mainly on carrier-based aircraft for air support, and the intensity may not be enough.

And there is only one way to solve this problem, which is to force their way into Concepsin Bay with large surface ships and use naval guns to support ground forces.

"Do you want to let the surface ships of the Navy into Concepson Bay?" General Student was not surprised, as this plan had long been part of Operation Columbus's plan and was one of a series of candidate sub-programs.

According to the terms of the "Operation Columbus" plan, once the U.S. artillery fire on Newfoundland is too strong, and the air force/naval aviation successfully destroys the 406mm shore defense artillery of the "Churchill Naval Fortress", and the mines in Concepson Bay are cleared, the combined European fleet will send large surface ships to rush into Concepson Bay to act as floating batteries.

"We can now destroy the artillery of Churchill Fortress?" Stud asked again, frowning. "Doesn't it seem like we don't know exactly where they are?"

This issue is not his responsibility, but he still knows it very well, because when the "Operation Columbus" plan was formulated, the question of how to destroy the "Churchill Naval Fortress" has always been the focus of research. He even considered using airborne raids to capture the fort, but in the end he gave up on the fort's tight defenses and used remotely controlled missiles to destroy the fort's armored turret.

However, it is not easy to destroy the armored turret of a fortress with a remotely controlled missile. Because the Americans had long suffered enough from missiles, they naturally had to take precautions, and carried out a lot of camouflage work on the turrets and batteries (those where 240mm and 203mm heavy guns were placed) to make them difficult to detect.

In addition, the German Navy also expects the Americans to cover the turrets and batteries with smoke bombs, so that remotely controlled missiles cannot accurately strike.

Moreover, due to the secrecy of the Americans (British), the Germans did not know until now how many armored turrets and reinforced concrete batteries there were in the Churchill fortress, let alone how many 406mm cannons there were.

And on the first day of operation of "Operation Columbus", the artillery of Churchill Fortress did not fire a single shot.

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

"What's the solution?" Student asked again.

Raeder said: "Use two Bismarck-class battleships as bait to lure the Americans' artillery into fire...... I guess they are bait that the Americans cannot refuse! ”

"Two Bismarck-class?"

Student was obviously taken aback, although the battleship has now lost its status as a sea overlord, but it is still a little too "generous" to take out 2 Bismarck-class cannons at once to "feed" the Americans.

"It's two Bismarck-class," Hersman said, "and they'll be approaching Concepson Bay in Newfoundland time." If the operation goes well, the two super-battleships will anchor on the west coast of Concepson Bay to support the Wehrmacht paratroopers on the ground with their large-caliber guns on them. ”

Bismarck-class battleships were chosen as "decoys" and "floating batteries" not only because they were attractive enough, but also because the Bismarck-class had very good underwater protection and could withstand a certain number of mines and torpedo attacks - according to intelligence, the United States and Britain laid a number of magnetic mines in Concepsin Bay, and also set up PT torpedo boats.

This is no small threat to the large surface ships that invade.

"Report!" At this time, a staff officer of the General Staff walked in quickly and saluted, "The Submarine Command reports that the Type 21 U-boat on the alert mission has discovered a huge US fleet in waters near 150 nautical miles southeast of New York!" ”

Hersmann, Raeder, and Kesselring looked at each other, and Hersman said, "Here they are!" ”

Raeder 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." ”

Hersman looked at Kesselring and asked, "Can you fight?" ”

"It's still a bit far," Kesselring glanced at as he took a copy of the telegram from his staff officer, "that location is more than 3,600 kilometers from the Azores, and Me264 can't reach it at all...... Unless the tactics of one-way bombing are used, and the pilot is allowed to parachute or land over Newfoundland after completing the mission. ”

Theoretically, without the Germans in the area of control of Newfoundland, the Germans would be able to use the Me264 for one-way bombing. But that would have to make the pilot jump into the sea, which is much more difficult to get out of the sea than to search for a parachuted pilot on land on the west coast of the German-controlled Strait of Concepschen. If you don't do it, a large number of pilots will be turned into "disposables".

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 theoretically -- the east coast of the United States was not without air defense, and if several planes broke through in small formations, the possibility of being shot down was extremely high. And investing a large number of planes to play a single trip is likely to lose a large number of pilots, and simply cannot afford it.

Now, with a piece of land on Newfoundland for pilots to settle in, one-way bombing has become a real tactic.

"What about the Navy?" Hersman asked again, "Can you fight?" ”

"There is no problem with the Navy," Raeder said confidently, "and we have 15 large fleet carriers and 10 Kesselring-class carriers near Newfoundland." In addition, 8 missile ships and 12 battleships are also near Newfoundland, which is enough for a decisive battle! ”

Of the 15 large aircraft carriers mentioned by Raeder, 10 are of the "Zeppelin" class (including the B41 type), and 2 are "Adolf. Hitler" class, 3 are French "Xiafei" class aircraft carriers.

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

The 12 battleships included 2 battleships of the "Hindenburg" class, 2 "Bismarck" class, 3 "Richelieu" class, 3 "Veneto" class and 2 battleships of the "Schleicher" class that had just been commissioned. Among them, the "Schleicher" class is the "Lion" class battleship originally designed and built by the British, a total of 4 ships were started, all of which were acquired by Germany after the British mainland succumbed, and then continued to be built in British shipyards. Its No. 1 ship, "Schleicher", and No. 2 ship, "Hersmann", have been completed and commissioned to join the Combined European Fleet.