"Albert, this is an order to drop no more than 3 atomic bombs on the island of Newfoundland and its vicinity, with orders from me and Chancellor Hitler, and now to you. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

While Stettinius was on his way to Chicago with Truman's signed order, Reich Field Marshal Hersmann was seeing off Kesselring at Tsosen Airport. Kesselring will go to Brest as a special representative of the base camp to assist Field Marshal Lütjens, but his main mission is to personally master the dropping of the atomic bomb!

Hitler had now signed Hersmann's written proposal to drop the atomic bomb - the document that Hersmann now handed over to Kesselring! In triplicate, they were kept by the Prime Minister's Office, the Wehrmacht General Staff and Kesselring himself.

According to this document, the parts of the "Heisenberg Device" and the plutonium-239 charge, which have now been delivered to the Azores, will be assembled into three atomic bombs with a yield of 20,000 tons. At the same time, three bomber groups responsible for dropping atomic bombs were stationed at the Port de Heroísmo airfield on the island of Newfoundland.

By the way, although the bomber brigades with the numbers 801, 802 and 803 have the number of "brigade", there are only 20 fighters in common use. It includes 2 Me264K long-range bombers responsible for dropping atomic bombs, 2 Me264H long-range radar early warning aircraft and 16 He219G long-range escort fighters.

In the atomic bomb dropping operation, one of the two Me264Ks will carry an atomic bomb, and the other will carry a radio remote control device to operate the "Heisenberg device" - unlike the American atomic bombs in history, the "Heisenberg device" is actually a remote-controlled guided bomb, which can be controlled by adjusting the tail of the atomic bomb. Although the maneuverability is not as good as that of the Hs-293 and Fritz-X series bombs, it is much better than ordinary bombs. With this "remote-controlled" atomic bomb, the Me264K long-range bomber can drop bombs at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, and the possibility of being shot down by the enemy is greatly reduced.

The two Me264H long-range radar early warning aircraft will conduct early warning patrols on both sides of the atomic bomb dropping aircraft formation to help the Me264K long-range bombers carrying the atomic bomb avoid the enemy's interceptor group.

As for the 16 He219G long-range escort fighters, they have a large range no less than the Ju288, although they cannot provide full escort for the bombers of the Me264 series, but with the German-controlled area on the west coast of the Strait of Concepschen, the He219G taking off from the Azores can use the tactics of shuttle flight to escort the Me264 of the atomic bomb dropping aircraft formation.

Not just any fighter and fighter pilot can perform the task of escorting atomic bombers, fighters not only need a large range and excellent high-altitude performance, but also need to have a certain ability to protect against radiation. And the pilots are also specially trained to know how to get out of the airspace of a nuclear explosion.

Of course, the Germans could not have just sent 16 He219s to defend the precious atomic bomb planes.

The 16 He219Gs were the close guards of the Me264K, and were only guarding around the Me264K bombers responsible for dropping the atomic bomb.

And further afield, where the airspace is not affected by a sudden atomic bomb blast - there are usually a large number of Me262T or Ta152 high-altitude fighters (according to the Luftwaffe, the altitude of the atomic bomb should be more than 10,000 meters) to clear the enemy aircraft to ensure that the vast majority of enemy interceptors are kept within 15 kilometers of the Me264K bomber equipped with the atomic bomb.

"It's up to you and Ruttjens to decide where to drop an atomic bomb," Hersman told Kesselring from the ramp of a ready-to-take Fokker 42 long-range personnel transport plane, "but the target must be on Newfoundland or in the nearby waters, and St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland, and other cities with a high concentration of peaceful residents are not to be targeted." ”

"I understand, I understand." Kesselring smiled and nodded, "Newfoundland is a territory of the British Empire, and the inhabitants on it are all British citizens. ”

This is a matter of political correctness, atomic bombing of American cities is okay, but bombing British (Canadian) cities is not, so the atomic bomb can only be used as a tactical weapon on the battlefield of Newfoundland.

Hersman nodded, his voice already lowered, and he said, "Albert, there has to be an atomic bomb explosion on Newfoundland, at least once, do you understand?" ”

This requirement was not in the official order given to Kesselring, but it was mandatory.

"At least once?" Kesselring looked at Hersmann, "Is it for the Americans?" ”

"Yes!" Hersman nodded, "The Americans must be given a taste of the power of the atomic bomb, which will help in the peace negotiations after the Battle of Newfoundland." ”

In Hersman's plan, the Battle of Newfoundland was the "ultimate battle" of conventional warfare. After the capture of Newfoundland, Germany had bases for nuclear bombings in New York and Washington. The richest and most prosperous parts of the United States were all under the threat of the German atomic bomb.

And with bases capable of nuclear bombing New York and Washington, there is no need to think about driving tanks to Manhattan -- in fact, they can't hit them! Two or three hundred thousand American GIs and countless tanks and artillery on the island of Newfoundland alone were enough to give the Germans a headache.

If you were to land on the North American continent and fight a land war in Braunschweig or Maine, it would be a torrent of American steel drowning the German Nazis.

Therefore, after the Battle of Newfoundland, the world war was basically over, and peace negotiations were to be carried out. Before the peace talks began, it was certainly necessary for the Germans to use an atomic bomb on the battlefield to prove its power. The Americans must be shown the power of the atomic bomb before they will obediently pay for it!

……

By the time Kesselring boarded the plane and flew to Brest (France), where the headquarters of the European coalition Atlantic Front were located, with the order signed by Hersmann and Hitler authorizing the dropping of atomic bombs, it was already the night of April 26 on the island of Newfoundland.

In the past day, as both sides were busy mobilizing troops, except for the fierce battle for Grace Harbor on the west bank of Concepson Bay, there was a miraculous calm on the island of Newfoundland.

The German paratroopers, who had engaged in fierce battles with American armored forces on the night of the 25th and the early morning of the 26th, began to shrink after dawn on the 26th, and the troops retreated to the perimeter of Grays Harbor and the line of Grace Harbor airfield. In addition, on the narrow peninsula north of Port Grace, the larger Port of Cabernier, as well as the Old Pericon and the Basque Islands near the top of the peninsula and their environs, were also firmly under the control of the German airborne forces.

If you look at the map, at the time of the night of April 26, 1945, the Germans controlled the island of Newfoundland as two close and almost contiguous strongholds (Port Grace and Port Cabernier) and a narrow strip of coastal strip (from the Port Cabernier defense to Old Perrican (the top of the peninsula's topography). The distance from the German-controlled area from the southernmost airport of Port Grace to the northernmost point of Old Pericon was about 60 kilometers, and a coastal road ran through the narrow area, connecting all the strongholds.

The reason why such a long snake formation, which is militarily unfavorable to defense, was not an unreasonable blind command, but to facilitate the landing operation that was about to begin.

Because the 60-kilometre front controlled almost the same length of coastline, there were two small ports (Port Grace and Port Cabernier), six fishing ports, and two small islands of great importance (one was Cabernier Island, located outside Port Cabernier, which was the key point of control of the port; One is the island of Basque near Old Pericon), and 4 modest airports (Port Grace, Port Cabernier, Old Perrican and Victoria). And the starting point of this long front is the Port Grace Airport.

Ensign Brandt had not closed his eyes for almost 48 hours by this time, and he was almost collapsing from exhaustion, but he and his twenty men were still holding on to fortify the fortifications around the Port Grace Airport.

These trenches were not built by Brandt's men, otherwise they would have died of exhaustion even if they were all Germanic Supermen. The trench used to guard the airport was excavated and expanded on the basis of the original fortifications built by the American army, using construction machinery abandoned by the Americans. It was very large, with not only the trenches and trenches surrounding the airfield on three sides (the Grace airfield was flanked by a lake), but also a number of ring fortifications that had been excavated on the basis of huge craters from the Reaper's missiles, which could not only defend against shelling, but also serve as separate defensive strongholds, and a deep communication trench between them and the outer trenches.

There are also smaller craters that have been converted into vehicle or artillery bunkers, but to Ensign Brandt's surprise, these are built facing the bay to the east, and the vehicles and artillery are best protected from attacks from the direction of Concepson Bay during hiding......

Could it be that these bunkers were used to defend against the 240mm artillery of the U.S. Army on Bell Island? It seems that there are only a dozen 240mm cannons there, how many tons of ammunition can be dropped? Do you need to be so nervous?

With a head full of question marks and almost a collapse of exhaustion, Brandt met his boss, Gaunt. Captain Billing.

"Herbert, Fokker 42 just airdropped some protective equipment to us." Gaunt. As soon as Billing arrived at Brandt, he told him: "The higher authorities have ordered that these supplies be distributed to every paratrooper immediately...... So you immediately find a few people to go to the battalion headquarters and get the protective equipment back. ”