"Your Excellency, the amphibious assault ship USS Norwegian Sea has been sunk, and Vice Admiral Paulus's whereabouts are unknown!"

At noon on May 2, Hersman was in the Department of Defense cafeteria with Natalie Brown. While Leshinskaya was having dinner and discussing Soviet politics, Stauffenberg brought him bad news. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

"An amphibious assault ship," Hersman scratched his head, "even Paulus is gone......"

The loss of the ship was expected, but the loss of the Norwegian Sea was actually carried by the headquarters of the 1st Marine Division, which was a bit of a disadvantage. And even Paulus, the unlucky bastard, can't even change the unlucky person? It seems that we must pay attention to this problem in the future, and use less unlucky eggs in wars......

"And who's in command of the 1st Marine Division now?" Hersman asked.

"It's the commander of the 1st Marine Brigade, Walter Brown. Colonel Wink," Stauffenberg replied. "Field Marshal Schleicher asked him to temporarily act as commander of the 1st Marine Division."

Hersman nodded, Volcker. Wink was a lucky guy who fought for the Third Reich to the end, and led his troops to break out of the Soviet encirclement and become West Germans. It seems that Schleicher chose a good division commander for the 1st Marine Division, and the battle for Ireland was not a big problem.

"Are there any other losses besides the Norwegian Sea?" Hersman took a sip of his coffee and asked.

"Rhine aircraft carrier Zhongchuang, Maria. The missile cruiser USS Teresa, the destroyer Z44 was sunk by a mine, as well as 1 food carrier and 1 T-ship. By the way, the missing Rear Admiral Landsdorf was found last night, his torpedo boat was overturned by the waves set off by the explosion of a 16-inch shell and had to swim to the beach in Calais. ”

"Got it." Hersman nodded, "What about the air?" ”

Stauffenberg replied: "In the air, we had absolute superiority, shooting down more than 330 enemy aircraft and losing less than 50. ”

"Not bad," Hirschman smiled wryly, "but they sank an amphibious assault ship after all...... This is a good result, and should have inspired the British to launch a second wave of airstrikes, but it will be good for our airborne operation in Ireland. ”

He turned his head and asked Natalie with a smile. Leshinskaya, "If we had a quick victory in Ireland, Stalin would probably not have dared to attack us on the Eastern Front, right?" ”

Natalie nodded, "Yes, Stalin was a more cautious opportunist, and if we could conquer Britain quickly and at a slight cost, then he would rather spend the rest of his life in the shadow of Germany as the leader of the Soviet Union than risk becoming a martyr of GCISM and die for his ideals." And...... I believe that the vast majority of Bolshevik cadres in the Soviet Union now think so. If we were to be caught up in a protracted and large-scale bitter war in Ireland, then Stalin would have made the mistake of opportunism. ”

……

"Two aircraft carriers and a battlecruiser...... That's great! This is a major victory! ”

Churchill was enjoying a delicious and hearty lunch, and the finest Scotch whisky, when he got the war report. It's not about celebrating anything, it's part of Churchill's daily life, which in his words is "not demanding, just the best". Even though the whole of Britain fell into an extreme shortage, Churchill, as prime minister and a great nobleman, was able to enjoy a superior material life.

"Prime Minister, our losses are not small," said the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Viscount Brooke, frowning as he read the report, "and 336 aircraft have not returned, a loss rate of more than 33%. Of the aircraft returned, more than 120 were unserviceable because of severe damage...... The total number of killed, seriously wounded, and missing crew members exceeded 2000. ”

"So what?" Churchill took a sip of whiskey and asked nonchalantly. For the huge losses of the Royal Air Force and Royal Naval Aviation, he had long been accustomed to numbness.

In fact, the current British air power has long fallen into a vicious circle, at the beginning Britain and Germany had good pilots, but the British aircraft were not powerful, and they also encountered the high and low combination of the BF-109 and the Fokker Zero, and the result was that the air battle became a send-off.

The old pilots at the beginning of the war were quickly exhausted, and in order to make up for the lack of pilots, the training time had to be shortened, which caused the pilots to become more and more unskilled and die faster and faster. Although the situation has improved slightly after the RAF was heavily equipped with Mustang and Spitfire, recently the pilot's training time has been curtailed again due to fuel shortages.

Viscount Brooke shook his head and said: "We also lost more than 1,200 aircraft and more than 2,100 crew members in the fierce air battles that took place yesterday during the day and night, as well as the air raids by German aircraft. The losses were unprecedented, and if this continued fighting, the Royal Air Force would soon be exhausted. ”

"The Royal Air Force must keep fighting!" Churchill commanded in a somewhat stern voice, "Now is the most critical moment, for the battles that may break out in the south of England and Ireland will determine the survival of the British Empire, and everyone must fight with all their might." ”

Qiu Fatzi paused, and then instructed his secretary: "This afternoon I will make a national broadcast to tell the people the news of the victory in Normandy, and at the same time ask them to be ready to fight to the end!" ”

……

France, Brest, headquarters of the German Army on the Western Front.

Chief of Staff Herman. Balk rushed into Field Marshal Schleicher's office. Because of the sinking of an amphibious landing ship and the disappearance of a vice admiral of a marine, Schleicher was in a bad mood and paced back and forth in his office without much lunch.

"Marshal, the 5th Fleet and the landing fleet were subjected to the second wave of air raids by the British!"

And a second wave? Schleicher couldn't help but gasp.

"Can you resist it?"

"There is no problem, this time the Air Force Joint Command on the Western Front is preparing to dispatch 600 fighters."

Although the Air Force Joint Command on the Western Front has 6,000 commonly used aircraft, these aircraft are not all day fighters, but also include a large number of heavy bombers, medium bombers, torpedo bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft. There are about 1,800 fighters that can really be used for air combat during the day, and many of them are short-legged aircraft, which is difficult to use intensively. And you can't send all the fighters out at once, you have to use them in waves. Therefore, the dispatch of 600 aircraft to support the 5th Fleet and the landing fleet is already the limit, and there are 67 carriers on the 3 aircraft carriers of the 5th Fleet (originally 72), all of which are Fokker Zeros. Therefore, there are 667 aircraft that can be used for air combat, which can definitely damage the British Royal Air Force.

"According to radar detection, the British Air Force has about 1,000 aircraft in the second strike wave," Herman said. Lieutenant General Balk said, "Counting the previous first strike wave, the British have already dispatched 2,000 aircraft." Moreover, they also had to leave a certain number of fighters to defend the important cities on the mainland, cover the fleet in Clyde Sound, and also deploy fighters in the north of Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and the Shetland Islands. Therefore, the number of fighters that can be used for maneuvering is very limited, so General Jeshunek suggested that the airborne troops attack! ”

"Now?" Schleicher looked at the wall clock on the wall, "It's only 1:20 p.m....... If the airborne troops were to be dispatched, the time to Dublin should be around 5 p.m. Isn't it too early? ”

It was not yet dark at 5 o'clock, and the airborne troops were vulnerable to ground fire from the Irish army. However, this is not the main problem, the main problem is that the British may send warplanes to intercept the airborne group.

"It's not early, it's just 5 o'clock." Herman. Lieutenant General Balk laughed, "The second strike wave of the British has just returned at 4-5 o'clock, and the airports in the south of England will be very busy. The Air Force will also take the opportunity to dispatch the Ju.88 to throw aluminum foil, and will also dispatch the Ju.288, P.108 and He-219 to carry out high-altitude penetrations to attract British Spitfire and Mosquito takeoffs. Then they won't be able to send many planes to stop us from landing. ”

Schleicher was finally relieved at this time, nodded and said: "Okay, order the airborne troops to attack Dublin, and control the Irish government no matter what!" ”

The plan to control the Irish government was Otto. Lieutenant Skorzny came up with a brain-opening and at the same time quite feasible plan. The scheme was codenamed "Project Phoenix", and "Phoenix" refers to Phoenix Park in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. It is a huge park of 707 hectares that was founded in the 17th century. Originally, it was planned to build a royal deer park, so it had a large meadow, but later the deer park became a park, but a large area of meadow was preserved. After the Irish War of Independence, Ireland's presidential palace (Commonwealth Command) was located in this Phoenix Park, and 800 meters away from the main entrance of the presidential palace was a meadow for large transport planes to take off and land.

Otto who used to travel to Dublin. As soon as Lieutenant Skorzny saw the meadow and the presidential palace not far away, he immediately thought of the idea of allowing transport planes and gliders to land here. And the 7th Airborne Division of William. Feng. Lieutenant General Sussman had an even bigger brain, and when he learned of Lieutenant Skorzny's idea, he immediately told him that the Messerschmidt company was developing a super-large transport aircraft ME323 that could carry tanks, and that this transport plane could land on uneven grass.

So, a seemingly whimsical plan was in Otto. Lieutenant Skorzny and the staff of the 7th Airborne Division worked out the plan - 10 10-ton 38T tanks and 240 heavily armed infantry were airborne at the gates of the Irish presidential palace using 12 ME323 transport planes that had just been delivered. (To be continued.) )