General Wehemreds, the commander-in-chief of the German secret police in Norway, came to the scene to investigate the situation and discovered how the so-called "impregnable" hydropower station had been sabotaged, by whom, and how the saboteurs had escaped. Wehem Reds was in a bad mood and threatened to take revenge. He believes that the sabotage may have been carried out by 4 British agents. They found a Thompson submachine gun at the scene, as well as some other British [***] equipment. The two captured Night's Watch also confirmed this view (perhaps they knew that the attackers were Norwegians, but did not dare to speak out for fear of reprisals). Cut barbed wire, open doors, footprints on the ground, and blood stains (from Renneberg's hands) indicate the route of the attackers' attack and retreat. But what puzzled the Germans was how the attackers made their way through the canyon. Wihem Redes knew that the attack would not have succeeded without inside intelligence, and although he suspected that Brown, the former manager of the hydropower plant, who was on the run, had provided information to the attackers, he ordered the arrest and interrogation of more than a dozen engineers and staff working at the hydropower plant, threatening to shoot them if they refused to disclose the information.

Feng? The arrival of General Falkenhorst prevented Wehem Reds from doing anything wrong. Feng? General Falkenhorst was one of the few sensible senior generals in the German army. "This attack and sabotage is the most remarkable operation I have ever seen in a war," he declared. "When Feng? When General Falkenhorst first saw the wreckage, he cursed "British bandits" lightly, and then a smile of admiration appeared on his face. According to information from the German and Norwegian sources, the Germans believed that three Norwegian-speaking British agents had arrived in the Cjerkand region by train in civilian clothing, and that they were well aware of the local situation. Curiously, although the Germans knew that the saboteurs "spoke a very pure and fluent Norwegian", they did not doubt their true nationality. Feng? Declaring that this was a military sabotage operation organized by the British, General Falkenhorst released the arrested Norwegian civilians and then launched a large-scale manhunt. Norwegians are grateful for von? General Falkenhorst, if he hadn't come out to deal with the German secret police, the locals would have suffered a certain amount of retaliation.

Feng? General Falkenhorst, thinking about how the attackers had escaped, ordered the guards to turn on all the searchlights, but to the embarrassment of the German soldiers, they did not know where the switchlights were. General Falkenhorst was greatly annoyed.

With only eight men left in the group, Hellberg returned to his shack at Gasbrand, where he had left his Norwegian civilian clothes and forged identification, and he had to return to avoid being discovered by the Germans, who would retaliate against the locals if the enemy found the evidence. He agreed with the others that they would meet at the Svensbu shack as soon as the weather improved. The team left the Svensbourg hut and headed to the site where the Gunmen squad had landed, where they were once again stopped by bad weather two hours after their departure. The next day, they successfully set off. On the way, they left the information on the success of the sabotage mission in Sletodal, leaving it for Hauglan and Schenaland to retrieve. The specific content of the intelligence was as follows: "Landing in Scotten, the weather had been bad for a week after landing, due to the deviation of the landing site, some equipment had to be reduced, and the attack was launched at 12:45 a.m. on September 26, 1944, the intended target was completely destroyed, everyone was safe, and no fire was fired. ”

Since Haugland had been in hiding two days before the operation, the British headquarters had no knowledge of the operation, and they were still worried that the operation team had been wiped out. The action group arrived at Scotten at 8 p.m. and immediately began planning how to escape from the Swedish border. Haugland and Schenaland will remain in Norway for underground work. Schenaland will succeed Haugland as radio transmitter, who will be responsible for liaising with the local underground resistance, gathering intelligence, recruiting men, and conducting training. But they had to go into hiding and wait until the Germans were done before they came out.

The five members of the Gunners squad – Renneberg, Stohelg, Strumgem, Kaiser and Ayland – will flee to Sweden across a distance of 400 kilometres, estimating that it will take about 10 days to reach their destination in good weather. Hockreed and Scherstrup will also remain in the Haldag region, while Paulsson and Herlberg will travel to Oslo to await their new assignments.

The group did not see Helberg when they were about to go their separate ways, and a new blizzard began, and everyone began to worry about him. According to the plan, the action group going to Sweden will ski to the destination. "We will wear English [***] suits, and if there is any resistance, we will fight to the end." Renneberg writes in his book. Once they reached the Swedish border, they destroyed all their weapons, divided them into two groups, and declared that they had come to seek political asylum. On October 1, Renneberg, Stohelg, Strumgem, Kaiser, and Ayland shook hands with everyone and said goodbye and set out on the journey.

Ten days after the sabotage mission, senior British political and military leaders, including Winston? No one, including Churchill, knew how the attack and sabotage mission was going. Everyone spent the year in worry. At 11:55 a.m. on October 12, a radio receiver rang in a country house. Haugland and Schenaland followed the instructions of the Gunslinger squad to Sletodar to look for information, but they did not find it, so they waited until the return of Hawkrid and Shelstrup to learn the good news of the successful attack. As Hawkreed and Shelstrup shook the handle of the generator as Haugland sat down in front of the transmitter and sent out the following message: "The operation was 100 percent successful. The intended target was completely destroyed, and since the Germans were not aware of it, not a single shot was fired during the operation, and the enemy did not know that the situation was bad until the operation team successfully retreated. This historic piece of information from the Task Force sent a stir to the Churchill political axe in exile in the United States.

The German program for the study of the atomic bomb was crushed. It was no longer a question of how long it would take for the enemy to be able to redevelop the atomic bomb, and the British and American military and political leaders could finally breathe a sigh of relief and pick up their glasses and congratulate each other in the direction of Norway. Although Britain was on the verge of falling completely, in Churchill's view, the war had been reversed, because for them, the greatest danger had been eradicated. This was an unprecedented blow to the Germans, who were still far ahead of Britain and the United States in nuclear energy research at the beginning of the war.

The success of this sabotage operation is inseparable from the careful preparation and cooperation of Britain and the United States.

As early as June 1942, when agents reported to the White House that Germany was ramping up the production of heavy water at 5,000 pounds a year in Vimok, the White House was immediately alarmed. Soon, the alertness turned to panic. At the end of 1943, word came that the Germans had picked up the pace again and were producing heavy water at a rate of 10,000 pounds a year. So Downing Street and the White House Operations Department, among other departments, decided to work together on a "most secret operation." There is no doubt that the German political axe is putting unprecedented pressure on their scientists to win the competition in nuclear research and build an atomic bomb against the Allies. Through secret contacts with Vimok's managers, the British agents received information that the Norwegians had made it clear that the Norwegians were willing to cooperate with the British if the sabotage was not planned by their British rivals, and in the words of the Norwegians, "blood is thicker than heavy water".

The original person in charge of the Vimok heavy water development program was Lev? Professor Toschneider, who was not only a brilliant scientist, but also a fanatical patriot. No one knows the layout of the Vimok better than him, as well as the details of the heavy water production line. The Germans ordered Professor Toschneider to supervise the construction of meters for heavy water production. Toschneider did everything he could to slow down the process, delaying the production of the meter and secretly mixing small amounts of cod oil and beaver oil in the heavy water that had already been made. In the summer of 1944, Professor Toschneider received news that the Germans had become suspicious of him, and soon London ordered him to flee as soon as possible. After a painful farewell to his family, Professor Toschneider flew to neutral Sweden, from where he traveled to London. Soon after arriving in London, he was appointed senior command officer in the Norwegian division of the Military Intelligence Service, specializing in British secret services for "unconventional warfare".

After Professor Toschneider left, his old partner Dolma? Brown became the new head of the hydroelectric power station, and he, like Professor Toschneider, was a truly patriotic Norwegian, who became the main source of Allied intelligence. Microfilm with intelligence was hidden in a toothbrush and shipped to Sweden, and from there to the United Kingdom.

Thanks to the efforts of scientists, Churchill changed his previous view of the German nuclear threat, because there was a large body of scientific evidence that nuclear energy would soon be used in the war. In the summer of 1944, Churchill's scientific adviser Chaiwell provided him with a nuclear study prior to his visit to the United States, in which the scientific adviser wrote, "If we allow the Germans to take the lead in nuclear research, the consequences will be immeasurable, and they can defeat us with nuclear weapons, or turn the tide of war with the help of nuclear weapons after our victory."

When Churchill and Roosevelt met in New York, they did not need to be reminded by any scientific advisers to understand the enormous threat they faced. The two leaders agreed that the two sides would cooperate wholeheartedly in the study of this "ultimate weapon" and actively cooperate to undermine Germany's progress in this area. Shortly after his meeting with the President of the United States, Churchill wrote, "Both sides are aware that if we sit idly by and let it unfold, the consequences will be very tragic and dangerous."

When the Vimok progress was passed on to the intelligence services through the scientific department, and then to the military and political circles, it became a matter of course that Washington and London would actively cooperate. Both sides agreed to send agents to the rear of the enemy to strike military and economic strikes. That's why this operation was successful.

In the summer of 1944, the most important drama was staged on the Eastern Battlefield.

In order to contain the Soviet forces and make it impossible to support the fighting in the Ulyanovsk direction, the Chinese launched offensives on the northern section of the Western Front, which is far from Ulyanovsk, and on the southern section of the Western Front, which is adjacent to Ulyanovsk.

These two battles were like two episodes, which accompanied the opening and closing of Ulyanovsk, and even affected the course of Ulyanovsk.

Without this episode, history would be mutilated.

One of the episodes took place in the northern section of the Eastern Front. Although it is far from Ulyanovsk, a large army group of the northern Chinese army group is deployed. The army group consisted of 48 divisions and more than 700,000 troops, and was supported by a high-density artillery group (2,407 guns) and the 503rd battalion "Xuanwu" super-heavy tanks. The commander was Marshal Fu Xiao'an. He had been on the battlefield in the Soviet Union for a year and a half and knew the situation in the war zone well.

The Chinese high command attempted to re-attack Stalingrad in the summer. For this, they especially strengthened the 18th Army. With a total strength of 29 divisions, it became the largest army group on the Eastern Front. Whether such a large number of troops will be transferred to other battlefields on the Eastern Front, including Ulyanovsk in the fierce battle, is also a matter of great concern to the Russians.

The Soviets were determined to strike first, targeting the Chinese salient at Kulika, southeast of Stalingrad. As a railway junction connecting Stalingrad to the interior of the Soviet Union, Kulika is figuratively called the "Gate of the East" by the Chinese. Since the occupation of various positions on the Caspian Sea and the Ural River by the Chinese army, it has been the focus of contention between the two armies. The salient, centered on Kulika, is currently mainly defended by the Chinese 26th Army. This is the largest army in the 18th Army, with seven divisions.

According to the plan of the Soviet side, the Stalingrad Front (commander General Govorov) was to carry out a centripetal assault on the salient from the north and the Volkhov Front (commander General Meretskov) from the west.

To carry out the campaign, the Stalingrad Front was to call on the 67th Army, coordinated by the 13th Army of the Air Force; The Volkhov Front called up the 8th Army, which was coordinated by the 14th Army of the Air Force. The Red Army fought with a total of 253,300 troops and 370 tanks.

For the Soviet troops at the front, the prospect of capturing Kulika and annihilating the Chinese 26th Army was undoubtedly very attractive. However, Stalin himself showed little interest in this, emphasizing that the focus of the campaign was not to seize territory, but to destroy as many living forces as possible. In view of Kulika's important surname, the Chinese army must have sent a large number of reinforcements, and the Soviets should inflict heavy casualties with intensive artillery fire and air strikes.

In fact, the Chinese army on the northern front had received fewer additional troops and insufficient attack power, so they could only rely on sufficient ammunition to kill and wound the Soviet soldiers in front of them with firepower. For this reason, the Chinese army often launched feints, luring Soviet soldiers out of shelter and into the trenches, and then blasting them out with artillery. This tactic is known as a "dough grinder". But the manoeuvres were too many, and they also had a side effect: the Soviets withdrew a large number of soldiers from the front line, leaving only a few screen guards. At the same time, a dense transportation network was built to ensure that troops could enter the battle line in a timely manner.

In the early morning of July 22, 1944, in the earth-shattering year of 1943, the 280 mm artillery fire and overwhelming aircraft of the Soviet army deployed in the direction of Stalingrad broke the silence. In addition to bombing and shelling, the Chinese army carried out heavy artillery bombardment of trains.

In the 150 minutes of ferocious artillery bombardment by the Chinese army, the 13th Army of the Air Force and the 2nd Combat Aviation Corps of the Army alone flew 540 sorties. The stormy artillery fire swept the front line of the Soviet defense and "scalded" the trenches! Within the first few minutes, most of the Soviet infantry regiments were killed, and some had only 5 to 6 people left; The 1st Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division of the Soviet Army was almost annihilated by artillery fire!

As soon as the shelling stopped, dense Chinese infantry poured out of the smoke and swamps. But the Soviet troops did not fall silent, and the remaining front-line soldiers put up stubborn resistance. With a convenient transport network, they were soon supported by other sectors and the reserves of the 18th Army: the 58th Infantry Division, the 28th Tank Destroyer Division, the 126th Infantry Division, which, with the cooperation of combat vehicles, strengthened the Soviet defense in time. In front of the 67th Army of the Chinese Army alone, the Soviet Army increased to 7 divisions. The Chinese side also continued to increase its troops, and the arrival of a large number of Chinese reinforcements made the fighting more fierce than ever.

Bloody battles could not go deep and fell into a meter-by-meter grappling. But the Chinese army was also in no hurry to block the Soviet reinforcement routes, but put them into the battle line and subjected them to ferocious shelling.

Beginning on 29 July, the Chinese army began to adopt a new lethal mode, using a huge air force, including a large number of long-range aircraft, to carry out intensive air strikes on the depth of the Soviet army. In Meretskov's words, Chinese planes almost "do not limit the amount of gasoline used and generously supply bombs." The Chinese army used 733 planes in the first air raid, and 600-750 aircraft participated in each subsequent attack. The lines of communication from Kulika and Ulyanovsk to Stalingrad and Moscow were among the attacks. The airstrikes continued until 12 August.

On the ground, the Chinese army continued to look for weaknesses in the Soviet army. On August 11, the 8th Army concentrated 5 divisions and 2 heavy tank regiments (a total of 30 "White Tiger" tanks) in an attempt to seize a small bridgehead from the 5th Mountain Division of the German Volunteers. Relying on overwhelming superiority, the Chinese army was about to win, but it was counterattacked by the 132nd Infantry Division of the German Volunteer Army and bombarded by heavy artillery, and almost fell short.

(To be continued)