On January 1, 1945, the Georgetown Island base in Guyana was basking in the joy of victory. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the last weeks of 1944, after more than three months of procrastination, the almost forgotten Battle of Georgetown was finally decided. Exhausted by the brutal jungle warfare and the blockade of the German Navy and Air Force, the American landing force chose to give up, leaving behind a city razed by the flames of war, countless destroyed equipment and more than 20,000 American lives, boarding a fast troop carrier converted from a flat-deck destroyer almost empty-handed, and retreating to the island of Trinidad, 500 kilometers away, at the risk of being sunk by mines, submarines and missiles dropped by German planes at any moment.

On the last night of 1944, more than 1,000 U.S. Marines who remained in charge of the palace in Georgetown were ordered to surrender to the attacking Germans, and the battle, which was almost overlooked in the historical accounts of World War II, finally ended with a resounding victory for the European coalition.

However, for Air Force General Kamhuber, commander of the Georgetown Island Command, holding "Georgetown Island" as an forward base was only the beginning of success.

While most of the people at the Georgetown Island base were celebrating the victory and the arrival of 1945, Camhuber was leading his staff to watch several big-bellied Me323 transport planes slowly land on the green "grass airfield" at the heavily guarded Georgetown Island No. 1 airfield.

The hatch of one of the Me323s opened, and a gangway protruded, and a lieutenant colonel in a dark blue naval aviation officer's uniform was seen emerging from the cabin, and then walked quickly in front of Kamhuber and gave a German salute.

"Günther," said Kamhuber, bowing his right hand in return, then asked, "have all the mines arrived?" ”

"It's all here, a total of 800 new 'Oystermines', and the Yankees on Trinidad are going to taste the blockade now."

The lieutenant colonel of the Air Force is named Gunter. Radesch was the commander of the 11th Torpedo Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the German Naval Aviation, stationed on Georgetown Island. The regiment was transferred from German Europe on 10 September to replace the previous aviation regiment, which had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Bermuda. The regiment has two groups equipped with 40 Ju188E-2 torpedo bombers and one escort group equipped with Me410 night fighters, and its combat capabilities are very strong. In addition to night torpedo bombing missions, it is also possible to perform night minelaying missions in waters behind enemy lines.

After the Battle of Bermuda, the planes of the 11th Torpedo Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Naval Air Force mainly carried out mine-laying missions, dropping an unknown number of magnetic mines on the route from Georgetown to Trinidad.

However, magnetic mines are now a bit outdated, and the magnetic minesweepers developed by the Americans have good performance and can already minimize the damage of magnetic mines. Therefore, it was impossible to succeed in blockading Trinidad with magnetic mines, but fortunately, the German General Staff had been prepared for a long time.

"'Oysterlei' is very easy to deliver," said Günther. "It looks and operates exactly like a magnetic mine, but the principle of detonation is different." ”

How did "Oysterlei" detonate, Günther. Radsch didn't know either, because no one told him - it was a military secret, and the person in charge of the bomb didn't need to know about it.

As Radsch and Humbel spoke, they walked into a headquarters located in the woods next to Airport 1 on Georgetown Island. In addition to the new "Oyster Mine", Radsch also brought the latest airdrop minelaying plan.

In a dark room inside the headquarters, Humbel and several officers in Air Force and Navy Air uniforms listened attentively to Radsch's speech. Lieutenant Colonel Radsch pointed to a gray aerial photograph of Trinidad with particles reflected on a large screen with a long wooden stick, describing the area and precautions for the airdrop mines. The officers who listened to him were familiar with Trinidad, and many of them had carried out numerous bombing and mine-laying missions around the island over the past two years.

However, they were very surprised by the intensity of the minelaying mission this time. According to the order conveyed by Lieutenant Colonel Radesch, from now on the 11th Torpedo Bombardment Aviation Regiment of the Naval Aviation will be fully engaged in night minelaying missions. As long as weather conditions permitted, 70-80 sorties of Ju188E-2s were to be dispatched every night to drop mines around Trinidad, starting on 2 January. And not only the 11th Torpedo Bombing Regiment will send Me410 night fighters to escort it. The Luftwaffe stationed at Cayenne and Belém also sent a large number of bombers and night fighters to attack facilities on Trinidad to cover mine-laying operations.

"Alright, let's take a look at the defense map."

Photographs of Port of Spain were shown on the screen, with red and orange logos everywhere. These are the locations of the anti-aircraft artillery and the searchlight areas that have been identified so far, and they are all areas that must be carefully avoided during this minelaying operation.

"Turn on the lights."

When Lieutenant Colonel Radesch finished speaking, Admiral Humbel ordered the lights to be turned on. Several squadron leaders and group leaders of the aviation regiment blinked, as if they were still digesting what they had just heard.

"Well, that's the way it is." Admiral Humbel stood up, faced the crowd, and said in a loud voice, "This war has been fought for more than five years, and now only the United States is left, an enemy who can be considered to be of sufficient weight." From now on, we are marching on the United States! ”

"March to America!"

"Hooray, Germany!"

All the German officers stood up, raised their right hands and shouted loudly.

……

"Mr. President, Mr. Vice President."

Washington, White House. Late at night on January 2, Donovan, director of the U.S. Strategic Intelligence Agency, walked briskly into the Oval Office. Seeing Wallace, who was still president, and Kennedy, who was soon vice president, he bowed slightly, and then reported in an anxious and quick tone: "Reliable information from the Soviet side, the Germans are about to attack!" ”

The Germans were about to attack......

Wallace and Truman exchanged glances, both of which were incomparably complicated—if they could fully support Roosevelt, the war would surely be over by now. Although the United States lost 200 billion (US dollars), its dominance in North America can certainly be retained. The future must be a definite revival......

"Do you know where the target of the attack is?" Kennedy took a breath and asked.

"Trinidad."

Donovan's answer was expected, but Kennedy still chased after him: "Reliable sources?" ”

"Reliable." Donovan said, "The Soviet Cheka had very high-ranking spies on the White Russian side. According to the report, German Reich Field Marshal Hersmann visited Petrograd on a date to inform the puppet Russian empress of the upcoming Caribbean war and asked the empress to send more cannon fodder to the war.

In addition, he revealed during the talks that a new type of mine will be used to blockade the island of Trinidad in order to stop our reinforcements. ”

"Mines?" Wallace shook his head, he had the impression that the Germans, although the mines were very powerful, did not really block anything. On the contrary, the United States used its own mines well, and tossed the Japanese devils enough.

"Inform the Joint Chiefs of Staff of this information." Wallace commanded, and just as he was about to ask Donovan about Argentina, a phone rang on his desk.

He picked up the telephone receiver and William. Leahy's voice rang out, "Mr. President?" ”

"Yes, I'm Wallace."

"President, Trinidad is under air strikes." Leahy reported on the phone that "the scale of the air raids was huge, and the Germans dispatched at least a few hundred to a thousand aircraft!" ”

"1000? Coping, huh? ”

"Yes, we can handle it." William. Leahy answered in the affirmative.

Hundreds of German aircraft were not much for the US military on the island of Trinidad. There are more than 300 P-61 night fighters on the island alone, and there are no less than 300 F4U and F6F (both shore-based) that can take on night combat missions. Although the effectiveness of night interception is not comparable to that of daytime, night bombing is no less effective, and it is impossible to destroy the numerous military bases on the island of Trinidad.

However, at this time, William, who gave assurances to Wallace, was able to make assurances. Admiral Leahy could not have imagined that the night bombardment launched by the Germans tonight would be very difficult to deal with, and that there were no as many as 1,000 planes flying to Trinidad. While radars on Trinidad and nearby U.S. Navy ships did spot that many targets, not all of them were aircraft, and almost half of them were air-launched Reaper 1C cruise missiles.

Luftwaffe's 1st Air Force, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe's 1st Air Force, who had planned tonight's air raid operation, was in full swing. Major General Molders felt it was too dangerous to send up to 1,000 warplanes to bomb Trinidad, especially since the Me264 and Ju288 were not very durable aircraft. Besides, the night bombing is not accurate. So when he participated in the formulation of the "Fort Gauch Plan" a few months ago, he proposed a "Thor Plan" to "cover" air-launched missiles with night fighters and a small number of Ju188E-2 torpedo bombers (minelayers) to Trinidad for a mission, and it was quickly supported by Air Force Commander-in-Chief Kesselring.

So all the heavy and medium bombers of the Me624, Ju288, Do217 and other models involved in tonight's combat operations fired their missiles at a distance of 300 kilometers from the island of Trinidad.