A strong man in a handsome Type 40 armored vehicle black combat suit got out of the hatch on the top of the E-25 tank destroyer that was pushed away, and then jumped to the grass with vigor, rushed to the Steyr-type command vehicle in which Hersman was riding, and gave a military salute: "Hi! Hitler! ”

Hersman also raised his right arm and returned the salute, he felt that the strong man in front of him was a little familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere, but he couldn't remember it. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Reich Marshal, SS Lieutenant Colonel Gustav. Schwarzenegger salutes you. ”

The strong man shouted again, and Hersman came to his senses. The person who came turned out to be the "governor" and his father, no wonder he looked familiar.

Air General Student, who was sitting next to Hersmann, said proudly to Hersmann at this time: "Reich Marshal, he is the battalion commander of the 101st Air Assault Battalion to which the 1st Air Assault Brigade belongs, and the commander of the ace tank destroyer battalion transferred from the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Division...... The officers and men of our 1st Air Assault Brigade are all selected from the front-line units of the Wehrmacht Army, Marine Corps and Airborne Corps, and each one is elite and equipped with the best armoured weapons. ”

Hersman nodded, of course he knew about the situation with the 1st Air Assault Brigade. Because the order to form this special unit was signed by Hersman. And he is also very familiar with the main combat vehicles of the 1st Air Assault Brigade, the E-25 tank destroyer and the No. 4 H tank.

The former was part of the E-Series Tank Project, which was intended to replace the No. 4 and its variants, with combat vehicles such as the E-25, E-25 Tank Destroyer, E-25 Assault Gun and E-25 Self-Propelled Artillery.

However, by January 1944, when the prototypes of the E-25 tank and the E-25 tank destroyer had passed the acceptance of the Wehrmacht, the war on the European continent had long since ended, and there were not many Soviet tanks like the sea that needed the E-25 to deal with.

Moreover, the E-50 tank series has been very well developed, not only the E-50 tank and the E-50-2 tank (an upgraded version of the E-50, equipped with a 105 mm KwK45 L/52 B tank gun, with a total combat weight of up to 63 tons), but also the E-50 tank destroyer equipped with a 128mm main gun and the E-50 self-propelled gun equipped with a 155mm howitzer (an improvement on the Schneider M1929 model).

So the market space left for the E-25 was so limited that the E-25 tank program was eventually cancelled, but the E-25 tank destroyer and E-25 assault gun projects were retained - not because of how good the E-25 tank destroyer and E-25 assault gun were, but because the German and French arms manufacturers who invested heavily in the E-25 program wanted to recoup their costs.

Therefore, the Wehrmacht and the French Army purchased the E-25 as a standardized product of "medium anti-tank destroyers and assault guns", and used them to replace the No. 3 assault gun and Grizzly assault gun of mechanized infantry (called Panzergrenadier in Germany) and motorized infantry - the E-25 assault gun and E-25 tank destroyer used the same chassis, but it was more than 30 centimeters higher than the latter, reaching 2.5 meters. The armor on the front of the hull was also thickened to 100mm, and a 150mm infantry gun was replaced. As for the total combat weight, it was also several tons heavier than the E-25 tank destroyer, reaching 32 tons.

However, as the main force of the 1st Air Assault Army, the 1st Air Assault Brigade of the Wehrmacht was not equipped with 32-ton E-25 assault guns. Instead, the "ancient" No. 4H tank was taken out and paired with the E-25 tank destroyer.

"Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzenegger," Hersman asked, after looking at the burly "old governor" in front of him, "how does it feel to fly on the ZSO523?" ”

"Very nice and very spacious." Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzenegger said, "In addition to one E-25 tank destroyer, the cabin can also hold 200 rounds of artillery shells and one squad (10 people) of fully armed airborne troops." And the flight was very smooth, and it felt like riding a Fokker 42. ”

The Fokker 42 is currently the main transport aircraft of the German and French air forces, and this aircraft was also developed as a passenger aircraft, which is very comfortable to ride.

"Reich Marshal," interjected Admiral Hipper Airborne, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat of Steyr's car, "the ZSO523 Air Assault Transport is simply an aircraft tailor-made for the capture of Newfoundland from the air." It has a range of 2,700 km with a full load, just right to fly from the Azores to Newfoundland. And it can land on even a slightly steep grass, and if you don't think about taking off again, most of the platforms on Newfoundland can be used for ZSO523 landing. ”

The ZSO523 was developed in collaboration between Zeppelin in Germany and Saint-Cosso in France. It has a wingspan of 70 meters, a length of 40.25 meters, a full aircraft weighing 52 tons, can carry 30 tons of cargo, and is powered by six 2,100 hp Orona-14R air-cooled engines. It is possible to fly 3800 km at a cruising speed of 310 km at an altitude of 2700 meters.

Although the range and speed of the ZSO523 are quite different from the Luftwaffe's main transport aircraft, the Fokker 42, it has features that the Fokker 42 does not have, and can land on terrain such as grass and farmland. Because this aircraft was developed on the basis of the Me323 transport aircraft, the predecessor of the Me321 was a large glider used by the Airborne Forces, which was originally used to carry out air assault missions. In the process of development, the ZSO523 retains the characteristics of the Me323 and Me321, becoming a "large air assault transport aircraft".

"How many ZSO523s are ready?" Hersman asked again.

"Now there are 221 and by the beginning of April there will be more than 250, of which two-thirds are ours and a third belong to the French," said General Student. However, these aircraft can be used in Operation Columbus. ”

"Operation Columbus" was part of the "Gochburg Plan," and the main content of the project was to land on the island of Newfoundland -- unlike the American amphibious landing expert Clark's vision, the Germans did not think that the island of Newfoundland would be difficult to climb. On the contrary, in the eyes of the German General Staff, the flat Nova Scotia Peninsula and its surrounding islands of Prince Edward and Cape Breton were easy to climb on, but difficult to gain a foothold.

Because the Nova Scotia Peninsula was connected to the North American continent and was connected by railroad to the northeastern United States, the Americans not only expanded the railroad but also built many roads. Hundreds of thousands of troops can also be transported from the east coast of the United States to Nova Scotia very quickly.

The distance between Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia is too close, less than 1 km at its narrowest point. Not only are there ferries that can quickly transport large quantities of personnel and equipment from Nova Scotia to Cape Breton, but the Americans have built many pontoon bridges to connect the two places. The so-called "island" is actually part of the Nova Scotia Peninsula.

In addition, Prince Edward Island is located in Hillsborough Sound, and the landing fleet must pass through the Cabot Strait, which is only 100 kilometers wide (between Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland), to enter the bay, which is not very safe.

As for the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which are only 20 kilometers from Newfoundland, they are ideal for landing, and the terrain and location of the island are just right. But it was French territory, home to the Free French government since 1943, when Britain surrendered – and the Free French movement, led by Charles de Gaulle, now seemed to have no chance of returning to France.

But this did not mean that the Free French had few followers, on the contrary, as the Pétain-Darlan government went further and further down the "Pan-Aryan line". In the eyes of many French nationalists, such a line undoubtedly abandoned the pride of the French nation and made the great France a small henchman of the barbaric Germany. As a result, many French nationalists gathered under the banner of de Gaulle, giving it the possession of the large French Freedom Corps.

However, the British (Canadian) government was reluctant to allow the French Freedom Corps to be stationed in Canada, because of the large number of French residents in the eastern Canadian provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The French residents of Quebec, in particular, have always been very unhappy with being ruled by the British. If a group of armed nationalists from France proper, Quebec could be in jeopardy.

Since the British did not allow the French Freikorps to enter Canada, de Gaulle and his large numbers of Freikorps soldiers were stationed in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, which was part of French territory. As a result, the two small islands, with a land area of only 242 square kilometers, are now home to more than 65,000 Free French troops. Moreover, it is well-armed, fully equipped with American style, not only with a variety of light weapons and artillery, but also with more than 300 tanks/tank destroyers of the M4, M10 and M36 series.

In addition, de Gaulle and his die-hard French nationalists also regarded Saint-Pierre and Miquelon as France's last place of honour and were ready to make a show here. From the second half of 1943, with the support of the United States, the Free French Army began to build defenses on the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and the work continues to this day, and the two islands are now densely fortified and bunkered, making it difficult for the European coalition to completely suppress them in a short time.

Therefore, the seemingly dangerous terrain of Newfoundland has become the main target of "Operation Columbus"!