In London, England, in the British War Headquarters under King Charles Street, a huge map of the English Channel defense was hung after Churchill returned from an inspection of the Channel front. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

On the map, starting with Norfolk at the eastern entrance to the Channel, and ending in the westernmost part of Cornwall, ten counties have become places of great armies. Densely marked with the number of the unit, the code of the battery and the front-line airfield.

If you count carefully, there are 5 armored brigades, 5 motorized infantry brigades, 10 motorized infantry divisions, 10 infantry divisions, 5 air defense divisions, 5 air defense brigades, 5 fortress divisions and 5 fortress brigades. More than 400,000 British officers and soldiers, 1,000 tanks of various types, 2,000 anti-aircraft guns of various calibers, 2,000 cannons (excluding large-caliber coastal defense guns), and countless mortars and machine guns were placed on the north shore of the English Channel in southern England.

There are also 62 batteries equipped with 10-inch or more caliber coastal defense cannons, standing at the front of the beachhead. More than 350 huge guns pointed their guns at the English Channel to the south, ready to blast to pieces enemy fleets trying to get closer.

Twenty-four front-line airfields and dozens of airfield radars are also deployed on 10 counties on the northern shore of the English Channel, and more than 1,500 Spitfire and P51 fighter jets are ready to take off.

And a little further away from the English Channel, there are hundreds of military airfields belonging to the Fighter Command, the Bomber Command and the Coastal Air Force Command, with a total of more than 5,000 fighters, bombers, reconnaissance planes and torpedo attack aircraft on standby!

The total strength of the reserves deployed on the second line, the troops on the defensive line near the North Sea, or the garrison used to defend the city of London exceeded 1 million. With thousands of tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, and countless light weapons at their disposal, they guard carefully constructed defensive lines and are ready to annihilate the invading enemy.

In Wales, Scotland, and even Northern Ireland, which seemed far away from the Germans, there were hundreds of thousands of British officers and soldiers and thousands of aircraft of all kinds on standby.

And in addition to these more than 2 million elite front-line troops, there are 44 so-called "county divisions". They are local forces in the United Kingdom, somewhat similar to the National Guard in the United States, the local defense forces in Germany. However, after nearly two years of strengthened armament and training, these "county divisions" are now very regularized. At present, many front-line infantry divisions of the British Army have been adapted from these "county divisions" -- after a "county division" is reorganized, a "county division" with the same name will be re-established, so the number of "county divisions" will not decrease, and it will always be 44.

The entire United Kingdom itself, in the spring of 1942, was already a large barracks of millions of uniformed Britons. Whoever captures it will inevitably pay unimaginable casualties.

However, in this dark and damp underground headquarters reminiscent of a dungeon, few people thought that they could rely on these millions of armed British to defeat the invading Germans, and the task of these British cannon fodder was only to delay the fall of the British mainland.

Because they all know that there is a huge hole in the defense of the British homeland!

"Mr. Prime Minister, the Home Defense Command believes that the defense of the island of Great Britain is very tight."

In the conference room, Baron Ironside, the commander of the Home Defense Force, who had finished briefing on the defense of British Island, suddenly pointed the baton in his hand to the island of Ireland, which was next to the British Island.

"But the island of Ireland is defence-empty, and there are only about 40,000 Irish troops, apart from our two divisions and one armoured brigade in Northern Ireland, which is less than 40,000," he said. Their level of equipment is poor, and their will to resist is very weak, unless they get our help, they ......"

"Is it then possible for the Germans to invade Ireland?" Churchill smoked a cigar and frowned, "Is this possible?" ”

"There is such a possibility," replied Viscount Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, "that at the moment the Germans are concentrating troops and ships in Brest, Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Wilhelmshaven. Brest, located on the Atlantic coast, is expected to become the main departure port for the Germans due to its very good port facilities. And it was only 250 nautical miles from Ireland, and the Germans could easily transport a couple of motorized divisions to Ireland. And for the Airborne Forces, the distance of 250 nautical miles is not very far. If the Germans had seized Cork and Waterford (the port cities of Ireland), it would have been difficult for us to protect Ireland from German invasion. ”

"Irish ......," Churchill took two puffs of his cigar and frowned and was silent for a moment, "those Irish people are really troublesome, and if we are going to protect them, they will probably think of us as invaders, right?" ”

"That's for sure!" Viscount Brooke said, "Then the Germans will save trouble, they will not have to occupy it at all, they will just go and take over Cork and Watford." ”

It turned out that the British had long known that Ireland was a big hole in Britain's domestic defense system -- Hirschmann, the "deceitful" German god of war, could think of it, and of course the political and military elites of the British Empire could also think of it.

All of them were experts on Ireland. When it comes to "the Irish's changing accounts", they can keep it for three days and three nights.

So they all knew that most of the Irish hated the British, even though the Irish rulers all spoke of neutrality and opposition to any enemy invasion and all that nonsense. But how could a person who could sit in the wartime cabinet command not see through the mind of the Irish?

The Irish are looking forward to the Germans! As soon as the Germans came, they had a chance to truly gain independence from Britain and also regain Northern Ireland. The reason why they shouted "neutrality" was that they would resist. It was all for the British, and they were only prepared to resist the British army.

But all these Irish experts were helpless to the Irish, and if they had to find a way, Ireland would not have become the free state with a president that it is now a member of the British Commonwealth, but in fact an independent state.

"Mr. Prime Minister," said Viscount Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to Churchill, "it is now feasible to deploy more troops in Northern Ireland and to support the Irish as soon as the Germans land in Ireland." ”

Churchill thought for a moment, frowned and asked, "That means our army is going to take an offensive on the island of Ireland?" ”

The claim of supporting the Irish was pure self-deception, and now the British Army had to fight not only the Irish, but also the Germans if they wanted to enter Ireland.

"Yes, there is no other way." Viscount Brooke nodded.

Churchill knew that Viscount Brooke was right, even if the British Army invaded now, it would not be possible to take full control of the island of Ireland in a few days, because the Irish had already prepared. Then it will be time for the Irish to welcome the Nazis with songs and dances......

"Well," Churchill exhaled a large puff of white smoke, "then let's start preparing for the battle of Ireland, put more troops in Northern Ireland, preferably two more armored divisions, and make sure the Germans know how good we are!" ”

……

"It's huge!"

"Yes, Marshal of the Reich, it and the Gustav cannon are the largest in the whole world. Once assembled, it requires 4 special load-bearing rails to make it move. ”

"Can you use it to destroy the British batteries across the channel?"

"If it can hit, it will definitely be destroyed, this is an 800mm caliber cannon, it fires an armor-piercing bullet weighing 7.1 tons, what else can't be smashed? However, it is not easy to hit the target across the strait. ”

Hersmann, who was inspecting the front line in Calais, France, briefed Ludwig Bushmann, commander of Army Group England and an expert in artillery and engineering. General Baker.

The general was in fact an opponent of the Hirschmann war proposition, but he was an isolated opponent and could not form an opposition. And after Hersman took control of the General Staff, he was placed in an idle post and hung high.

And he had a very good personal relationship with Schleicher, so after Schleicher became commander-in-chief of the Western Front, he was asked to be the commander of the army group. However, the army group under his command was a bluff army group, and the subordinate army group had a large number of numbers, but the actual strength was very limited. One of the most lethal is the so-called "Calais Coastal Artillery Group".

The "Dora" cannon that Hersman is inspecting is now part of the Calais coastal artillery group.

In addition to this 800mm cannon, the Calais gun group also had another 800mm Gustav cannon; 10 K-5 large-caliber guns of 280mm (4 of which were train guns, 6 were placed on batteries); 1 215-mm K-12 gun with a firing range of up to 115 km; 8 doors Frenchman Crutz. Bruno 280mm cannon; 2 doors French Schell. Bruno 280mm cannon; 3 doors of French Lange. Bruno 280mm cannon; 6 240mm K-3 mobile guns; 6 Zeiss 240mm mobile guns; 10 210mm K-39 mobile guns, as well as four armored batteries "Friedrich. Augusta "battery" (triple 305mm cannon), "Heinrich" battery (twin 280mm guns), "Oldenburg" battery (twin 240mm cannon) and "Skifried" battery (twin 380mm guns).

There were a total of 51 large-caliber long-range guns, which seemed to be very powerful, but the only real threat to the British armored batteries in Dover was the "Dora" and "Gustav", two 800mm guns, and the rest of the cannons could only be used to block the strait. (To be continued.) )