"Boom, boom, boom......"

When a series of violent explosions were heard, the commander of the 6th Army of the United States Army and commander of the ground forces on the island of Newfoundland, Joseph Murphy. Vice Admiral Collins was watching the battle at the Naval Fort "Churchill" near the port of St. John's (the capital of Newfoundland). Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

St. John's is the largest city on the island of Newfoundland and an excellent ice-free harbor located on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy on the Avalon Peninsula, at the mouth of the St. John's River. The population is not large, only a few tens of thousands.

Although it is not the core of Newfoundland, but is located in a corner of the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula, it is a natural priority because it has the best port on Newfoundland.

Since the "fall" of the British mainland in 1943, the engineering units of the United States Army have been working in and around St. John's, building the largest "Stilwell Military Airport" on the island of Newfoundland (in honor of Vice Admiral Stilwell, an American freedom fighter who defended England) and "Churchill Naval Fort" (in memory of Churchill, the great anti-Nazi fighter).

The former is now under air attack by hundreds of Me264 bombers, and the latter is the core of the U.S. military's defense on Newfoundland and the headquarters of Lieutenant General Collins. At this moment, he was standing at the observation port of one of the spectacle forts of the "Churchill" naval fortress and watched the air raid.

The situation was very bad, and it was beyond the expectations of Lieutenant General Collins. The Germans actually used dozens or hundreds of remote-guided (TV-guided, to be precise) missiles to fire from Concepson Bay, 15,000 meters away from the Stilwell military airfield. This distance completely exceeded the maximum range of the 127mm anti-aircraft guns deployed at Stilwell Military Airfield. Therefore, the Americans can now only watch as one missile after another accurately lands on the runway of the airport, blowing up large craters one after another.

Oh, and not exactly watching it, anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns on airfields can also attack the missiles themselves. However, the effect of the attack was not good, and it didn't hit much, and most of the missiles seemed to hit the target. But such a result is actually not very interesting, because the big pothole in the airport runway is not difficult to repair. The Americans have long been prepared, and the repair teams at every airport have a large pile of mechanized equipment, and the speed of filling the pits is very fast.

"It seems...... Stilwell Airport is going to be paralyzed for a day or two! "Commander of Naval Fortress Churchill and Commander of the Newfoundland Fleet of the British (Canadian) Royal Navy Bruce Murphy T Austin. Vice Admiral Fraser also stood with Vice Admiral Collins watching the battle, muttering and shaking his head, his face looking very ugly.

The reason for his depression was not only the vague situation on the island of Newfoundland, but the news from Labrador that the enemy who had landed under the banner of the British Royal Army! And it also claimed that it was to liberate Canada......

"The other airports in Newfoundland are now the same as the Stilwell military airport, right?" Vice Admiral Fraser put down his binoculars, shook his head and said to Collins, "Joseph, will the Germans really land on the island of Newfoundland?" ”

"Maybe." Collinton paused, frowning, "But it doesn't matter, Newfoundland's defenses are strong enough, if they are going to land, they will definitely suffer heavy losses!" And...... The F-13 of the Navy's First Fleet also did not find a new landing fleet 500 nautical miles near Newfoundland. Did you Royal Navy find anything? ”

"We didn't ...... either," Vice Admiral Fraser shook his head. With the exception of the 10,000 or 20,000 Germans who landed in Labrador, there was not a single officer or soldier of the German ground forces near the island of Newfoundland. ”

Lieutenant General Collins shrugged his shoulders and frowned tightly: "What if tens of thousands of people are going to land?" We have more than 200,000 men, and more than 50,000 people from three airborne divisions (part of the 18th Airborne Corps) ready to be airdropped to Newfoundland. The island's stockpile of weapons, ammunition and other supplies was enough to support 300,000 troops for six months, and the terrain of Newfoundland was so dangerous that the Germans could not succeed. ”

Newfoundland is completely different from Trinidad in that the latter has flat beaches and flat islands. The island of Newfoundland is full of terraces, and the most common cliffs on the coast are tens of meters high. There is such terrain around the port of Joseph that there is not even a beach! As long as a few regiments were deployed on the cliffs, the Germans, with their 1 million troops, could not go ashore.

But why did the Germans now spend so much money to blow up the airfield with expensive guided munitions? Don't they know that American sappers, who have a lot of construction machinery, are very good at filling holes?

"Could it be airborne?" Vice Admiral Fraser was still not reassured, "The Germans are the best at sneak attacks with airborne troops." ”

The British vice admiral was actually deceived, but it was of no avail, because he himself did not believe in this judgment.

"It's unlike......ly," Collins looked confused, "Our troops have long been on the highest level of alert, how can they be defeated by airborne troops who don't have any heavy equipment?" And we still have two or three thousand tanks / tank destroyers, and the airborne forces of the Germans can beat so many tanks? ”

While the two men were discussing the battle situation, there was no continuous explosion in the direction of Stilwell's military airfield. The missile raids finally ended, and the Me264 in the sky and the Fokker 636 that escorted them also flew away. Lieutenant Admiral Collins and Vice Admiral Fraser also finished watching the battle and returned to the headquarters at the heart of the "Churchill Naval Fortress" along a completely underground passageway.

The "Churchill Naval Fortress" was built on a cliff face several tens of meters high and was divided into two parts, above ground and underground.

The above-ground part is mainly a concrete battery and an armored turret for shore defense artillery (240mm cannons and 406mm naval guns capable of 360-degree firing are respectively installed or installed), as well as a variety of light artillery, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, as well as spectacle forts for observation.

The underground of the fort, that is, the various facilities built into the interior of the terrace at a height of several tens of meters (hollowing out a large area of the platform), including storage warehouses for weapons and ammunition, winding underground passages, shelters that can withstand the impact of 460mm heavy artillery and Reaper missiles, and the core headquarters located in the strongest part of the fort to maintain communication with all Allied forces on the island of Newfoundland by means of wired and wireless communications.

As soon as they returned to the busy and unusual core headquarters, Lieutenant General Collins and Lieutenant General Fraser received even more strange news.

"Sir, I have just received a briefing from the Allied Command in Northeast North America that there is now a large group of slow-moving heavy bombers approaching the island of Newfoundland, which is expected to arrive in as soon as seven hours."

"A huge fleet of slow-moving heavy bombers?" Lieutenant General Collins was stunned, "Do you know what kind of bomber it is?" ”

"I don't know." The staff officer shook his head, "I just know that there are a lot of them, and the speed is very slow, only about 300 km/h." ”

Collins turned his head to look at Vice Admiral Fraser of the British Royal Navy, who had served as Third Sea Attainer and Deputy Commander of the Home Fleet and had some research on German aviation weapons.

"It could be a transport plane." Fraser's brows furrowed tightly, "Maybe the Germans did not have enough long-range heavy bombers and converted heavy transport aircraft into bombers." Maybe...... Perhaps these planes were loaded with airborne troops. ”

"Airborne Forces?" Lieutenant General Collins just wanted to ask the staff officer how many planes there were, and the staff officer on the side reported a new situation, "Sir, the Allied Command in Northeast North America has sent another bulletin, and another huge bomber group has taken off in the Azores, also flying in the direction of Newfoundland. ”

What's going on?

Collins and Fraser looked at each other, and Collins said, "Will the Germans send two waves of airborne troops?" ”

Fraser thought for a moment and said: "A large transport plane can carry dozens of airborne troops at most, even if 1,000 transport planes are dispatched, it is forty or fifty thousand people, and it is impossible to have any heavy equipment." Because the heavy equipment is all landed by gliders, gliders cannot fly more than 2,000 kilometers. ”

"If it's really a transport plane," Fraser paused, speaking his judgment, "the target can't be Newfoundland, but Saint Pierre and Miquelon." ”

"Impossible, right?" "There are 65,000 Free French fighters there, and they're well armed, and there's strong fortifications to rely on, and tens of thousands of airborne troops can move them?" Collins said. ”

"It's hard to say." Fraser shook his head slowly, "The current French Empire is the second pillar of the European Community, and the interests of France are actually reflected. And...... The Free French fighters and supporters of Petain's government were in fact the same kind of people, and the General de Gaulle was in fact the successor of Petain and Weygand! ”

Vice Admiral Fraser's words were a bit harsh. But there was nothing wrong with that, because the backbone of Free France was not the French White Left - at that time the French White Left was all kinds of intellectuals who did not want to fight, and there was no military madman like Charles de Gaulle, who wanted to form mechanized troops to raid Germany all day long. Therefore, the backbone of Free France was originally the big right Pai who shouted and shouted and killed Germany, and they were all the "disciples and grandchildren" of Petain and Weygand.

And their disagreement with Petain, Wei Gang and others is just to admit defeat or not, and there is even a suspicion of betting on both ends!

Now France's position in the European Community is not low, sitting firmly in the second position (in the original European system led by Britain, France's position is also the second, and now it is still the second, but the position is more stable and the security is more secure), and it has also obtained rich economic benefits, and has realized the long-cherished wish of fully integrating French North Africa into the mainland, and the territorial area has been greatly expanded.

Is it necessary for the Free French Movement to continue to struggle in this situation?