At the southernmost tip of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, the waves of the Baltic Sea crash against the cliffs of the coast, and a dilapidated little church looks lonely against the backdrop of the droplets beneath your feet. Perhaps hundreds of years ago he witnessed the power of the Vikings, and now it can do nothing but silently protest against the Nazi invasion.

On the other side of the chapel, a row of inconspicuous stone bungalows lie next to each other, mottled with plaster walls and tangled vines that make them look as desolate as ancient buildings.

It was not a desolate place, and immediately after the invasion of Denmark, the Germans converted the row of bungalows into radio listening stations. From the beginning of the invasion of Poland, the German army attached great importance to radio technology, and in order to obtain the enemy's secrets, a large number of listening facilities began to be built.

This one in Copenhagen, for example, is mainly used to listen to radio signals from the eastern Baltic Sea and Sweden. The standard title of the listening station is a fixed interception station, and the code name is generally "so-and-so weather station", for example, this one is called Copenhagen weather station.

At the Copenhagen Weather Station, there are all kinds of listening facilities, such as a radio reception room, a lateral control room, a data analysis room, a communication room, an administrative office, a conference room, an emergency kitchen, a rest room, a storage room, and ...... The power and heating systems were hidden in the basement, and the garage and barracks for soldiers were distributed near the bungalows. The roof of the "weather station" also stands a tall wooden tower supporting a glittering spiderweb-like antenna.

Since the launch of Operation Barbarossa, the Copenhagen weather station has intercepted a considerable number of radio signals from the Red Army, such as the information transmitted by the Red Army's high-power radio stations, such as the communication between the Red Army Air Force and the ground towers. But on the day of August 1. They obtained the most important information in the simplest way.

This was despite the fact that the long-range aviation fleet of the Red Army was subject to strict radio control. Radios are switched off on all aircraft from the time of takeoff. However, after the take-off of the attack group, the Red Army ground commanders stationed in Königsberg inevitably had to send a brief coded communication to the Air Force Operations Department of the General Staff and the Military Commission, informing them that Operation Broken Leg 2 had been carried out as planned.

At about the same time that the telegram arrived in Moscow, it was intercepted by the Copenhagen weather station, which was home to some of Germany's best cryptographers, who quickly restored the telegram into clear text and quickly delivered it to the stationmaster.

The text indicates that the bomber group of the Red Army had just set off from Königsberg for the Baltic Sea. The destination is unknown, but there are a large number of planes, and they are all Soviet long-range bombers. The young station commander immediately issued a clear warning to the air defense command in all areas that could be attacked, including Knaben.

The long-range attack that tried to achieve the "surprise attack" revealed its whereabouts from the beginning, and it can be said that the Copenhagen weather station played a major role. And soon, the German Sofia radar also caught the shadow of the group, but to the embarrassment of the Luftwaffe, few of their fighters were able to take to the air to intercept them, because the planes and pilots were all evacuated. It can be said that Li Xiaofeng's deception plan played a key role, if there was no deception plan. The consequences will be dire.

Oslo, the general headquarters of the Luftwaffe in Norway. Major General Stauberg was also awakened by the warning from the Copenhagen weather station, and as Goering's air force representative sent to Norway, the major general did quite a bit of work to initially set up an air defense network in Narvik and Knaben.

Stabag deployed the elite 100th Motorized Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment in Knaben, which had 20 anti-aircraft batteries, seven armed with 88 guns, five armed with 105-mm and 128-mm heavy anti-aircraft guns, and the remaining eight anti-aircraft batteries armed with 20-mm and 37-mm guns. In total, these units are armed with 166 anti-aircraft guns of various types.

In addition, the Norwegian "Imperial Allied Army" also has a certain number of anti-aircraft guns, with a total of almost 100 guns, although most of them are small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, but no matter how small the mosquito is, it is not meat.

Not only did the Konaben area have a large number of anti-aircraft guns, but the air defense forces also deployed a certain number of anti-aircraft balloons, about 60 of them. In addition, a small number of BF-109s of the Luftwaffe could go into battle.

Judging by the number jù on paper, Knaben is by no means a soft persimmon, on the contrary, it is a hedgehog. The only good news is that the KGB's intelligence work is quite detailed, basically figuring out the local air defense configuration and marking it on the map in detail.

In the early hours of the morning, when the Copenhagen weather station and the Sofia radar kept sending alerts, Major General Staberg asked in the headquarters: "Where are they going?" ”

"I don't know, but I'm sure it must have been coming for us!"

It is true that what were the goals in the Nordic region that the Soviet Union should focus on? Except for Narvik and Knaben, no matter which one it is, it is within the defense zone of Major General Staberg. However, what makes the major general more entangled is, what is Narvik? Or Knaben?

This is not the slightest sloppiness, Stabagg's fighters are really limited, most of them are deployed in the direction of Narvik, because of the short legs of the BF-109, they have a limited time to stay in the air, if they can't accurately judge the enemy's target, the interceptor group will probably be in the air.

However, Staberg is also a little clever, Knaben is south of Narvik, and the enemy planes coming from the Baltic direction can only attack Narvik if not Knaben. So he first gave the Knabaen anti-aircraft artillery unit an order for combat readiness of the first level, and ordered the only poor fighter left in the south to harass the enemy planes. To be honest, Stabag is not optimistic about his fighter force, because according to radar, this wave of aircraft has a large number of fighter escorts. It would be nice to harass the enemy.

As time passed, when the Red Army's bomber group crossed the Kattegat Strait, the Sophia radar lost its signal, and the rest was a matter of luck. However, Starberg's luck was not good, and the fighters who set out to intercept did not find the enemy plane, wasting aviation fuel in vain.

He could only deduce the location of enemy planes on the map, and this blindness continued for an hour, until a telegram came from the air defense observation post at Haugesund, north of Stavanger: "A large number of enemy planes have been observed to cross the sky above, and the preliminary estimate is more than a hundred!" ”

The report was a source of relief for Stuberge. Finally found the location of the enemy aircraft. And it is clear that the enemy aircraft are heading for Narvik. It seems that the Russians are ready to blow up Narvik in one fell swoop, and the next thing he needs to do is order Narvik's troops to enter the battle positions and let all the fighter units take off to intercept them.

Immediately, Staerog's mood improved, with the air power in the direction of Narvik, it was enough for the enemy planes to eat and walk, and he believed that the pilots, who had prepared for battle in advance, could happily go on a hunt.

It has to be said that Staberg was a little too happy too soon, he didn't expect it. The goal of the Red Army was not Narvik, but Knaben. Major Congreve was dazed by the rain clouds and miscalculated the voyage, and then flew over Haugesund.

It was only after flying over Haugesund that Major Congreve suddenly discovered this huge "mistake", and soon the huge group began to turn around and fly back towards Knaben.

But poor Hans didn't know about this, and they were still waiting in Narvik to wipe out the Red Army's bombers! Even more terrifying was the fact that Colonel Welbeck, commander of the 100th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment in Knaben, learned that the target of the enemy aircraft was Narvik. The order of the first-level combat alert was canceled without authorization, and the anti-aircraft gunner, who had been busy for most of the night, went to sleep with black circles under his eyes indignantly. And what they didn't expect was. Just as they were falling asleep, the bombers of the Red Army came uninvited.

The air raid sirens sounded in the sky, and the rear team turned into the front team, allowing the Pe-8 group to attack first, and through the thin morning mist, the Ivan could see the unique terrain of Northern Europe, which was completely different from their homeland. However, at this time, Ivan had no intention of admiring the fjords and mountains of Norway, lowered the operating lever, and suddenly lowered the altitude and rushed towards the intended target.

According to the low-altitude bombing tactics developed before the war, the Ivan had to bomb the bulky long-range bombers as high as the treetops. The official version is that "treetop height" can drastically reduce the time each aircraft is exposed to the threat of enemy anti-aircraft artillery, but the planners ignored the fact that lowering the altitude can certainly shake off those medium- and large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, but for small-caliber anti-aircraft guns with flexible reactions, it can be just right.

The gunners on the ground and the machine gunners on the planes began to fire at each other, and the flashing ballistics were so conspicuous in the early morning. "As we flew over the Norwegian villages, we could see the villagers waving to us from the morning, and behind these 'welcoming crowds', near the rows of cottages, another welcoming ceremony was being prepared, with four 88-gun guns, 5 or 6 37-gun spitting tongues of fire......

"The plane continued to move forward, the machine gunner fired wildly all the way to the ground, and next to a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun, I noticed that a woman was hit by a stray bullet, and my good friend Boris, the machine gunner, felt very sorry and felt that he had hurt his proletarian brother. I could only comfort him by saying: 'She shouldn't be next to the anti-aircraft guns, she's probably a damn Nazi!' ’。 As we flew over the village, we could see a large number of German soldiers rushing out of the houses, shooting at us with all the weapons they had at hand, from machine guns to pistols, and even one idiot threw grenades at us......"

But to tell the truth, the attack of the German anti-aircraft artillery units was not too fierce, and a considerable part of the anti-aircraft guns did not even have time to remove their armor, and only a small number of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns played a role, which can only be said to have caused a little trouble to the Red Army pilots.

Most of the Pe-8s finished dropping their bombs, and the 500-kilogram bombs hit the ground just after they left the bomb bay, and they exploded a few minutes later. Because of the small amount of harassment received, the Pe-8's bombing accuracy was quite high, and more than 30 planes destroyed the two main pits of the Knapben molybdenum mine, and one of the 500-kilogram aerial bombs was even thrown directly into the depths of the mine, and the violent explosion completely destroyed the mine.

Compared to the luck of the Pe-8, the Tu-3, which entered the attack route in the second and third waves, was somewhat unlucky. By the time they arrived at Knaben, the German gunners had basically entered the gun position, and the 88 guns, 105 guns, and groups of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns formed a tight net of fire, which put a lot of pressure on the Tu-3 to break in like moths to fire.

And a small number of German fighters who arrived at the scene also came into play, such as the Tu-3 bomber No. 7013, nicknamed "Komsomol member", which was strafed by German fighters.

German pilots who participated in the battle recalled: "We thought that the Russians would carry out high-altitude bombing, so we searched at an altitude of about 7,000 meters, as is customary. But nothing was found. Just when we thought we had been tricked by the tower again. There was a roar from the headphones: 'Idiot! Read on! Read on! ’。 I turned the fuselage sideways, craned my neck and looked down, and was immediately taken aback, the crazy Ivan actually flew at an altitude of 150 meters in a bulky four-engine bomber, my God, this is simply playing with life! These crazy Ivan are simply insane! ”

At that time, Hargreeve, the pilot of the "Komsomol member", flew in the front, and he only had the target in his eyes, and he did not think at all that in addition to the fierce anti-aircraft fire on the ground. There will also be a group of uninvited guests from high in the sky. Semenov, the machine gunner in the tail of the aircraft, was the first to spot the enemy aircraft, and while alerting the crew, he raised his machine gun and fired at the BF-109, but what people did not expect was that this fearless little man was quickly killed, and an 88-mm shell directly hit the tail machine gun tower where he was.

After the loud bang, a large red explosion with black smoke appeared in front of Captain Dmitry, the pilot of the "Gauger", who was closely followed by the "Komsomol member", and in his words, Semenov was torn apart in an instant, and soon a large amount of fuel leaked from the wing, which was riddled with bullet holes. Soon the "Komsomol members" were surrounded by a cloud of flames!

At that time, Hargreif had two options, either quickly drop the bomb and find a flat farmland to make a forced landing. Or quickly pull up the height and let the crew members skydive. But the crew of the "Komsomols" and Hargreve did not choose to escape. Surrounded by flames, Hargreve held on to the lever and continued to advance at a low altitude, because he had to finish dropping the bomb!

Hargreeve's background was not good, his father was a count of the tsarist era, and as a descendant of an aristocracy, Hargreve was not treated well by the Soviet government, where the proletariat was the master. Two requests to join the army were denied, three applications to join the party were rejected, and he participated in the Battle of the Haraha River and the Spanish Civil War, and he could reasonably be promoted to captain, but his family members stuck him. If it weren't for the sudden outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Hargreve would have had to retire and go home.

It stands to reason that he had every reason to release water and to put it on the ground, but he did not do that, in his words: "There is no reason or excuse for refusing to defend the motherland!" ”

After the Komsomol caught fire, Hargreve continued to fly, and after dropping bombs on the target, his car was completely surrounded by smoke and flames, and even the cabin was already burning. Surrounded by flames, Hargreve calmly held the lever, smiled at the co-pilot who was also surrounded by flames, and then resolutely dived down towards the third and most difficult mine tunnel to destroy.

Hargreve put into practice what he said at his last meeting before departure: "If tomorrow we can't get the job done, if we can't destroy that damn mine, the Germans can use it to produce more weapons to slaughter our comrades." For the sake of my comrades, for my comrades-in-arms, and for the thousands of Russian mothers, I will be the first to rush to it, even if it is broken! ”

Captain Dmitry witnessed the scene of his old superior, also an old friend, Hargreeff, rushing to the pit in his "Tall Man", and at this time Hargreeve's explanation before take-off rang in his ears: "If I can't lead the boys back, you will lead them!" ”

At this time, the "Gao Lao" was also in great trouble. The mundane haystacks in the village can also turn into deadly killers, and the anti-aircraft guns hidden in them spew tongues of fire, and next to the haystacks, the chicken coop that was still common just a while is also filled with anti-aircraft guns as the roof is violently pushed open.

And just as Captain Dmitry was getting away from the farmer's offensive and approaching the target, he was attacked by a strange weapon - an anti-aircraft artillery train. The armored train consisted of a locomotive and ten carriages, usually disguised as a wagon. The 6 combat wagons are usually closed and can be opened immediately during battle, and there are a total of 22 light and medium anti-aircraft guns inside, of which two quadruple 20-mm anti-aircraft guns can fire in all directions at 360 degrees.

By order of Stabagg, the anti-aircraft artillery train was well hidden outside Knabaen in order to make enemy aircraft suffer at the first opportunity. True, this long column of "fire-breathing" caterpillars surprised Dmitry and his comrades.

The train that spewed tongues of fire with all its might was beyond the range of the KGB's intelligence reconnaissance, and it greatly stimulated the pilots. Before they set off, no one had ever told them that they still had this kind of thing. This well-camouflaged armored train with fierce firepower made the Ivan suffer greatly, shooting down at least four Tu-3s in a row.

It wasn't until Captain Dmitry, after witnessing the heroic death of Major Hargreve, gritted his teeth and approached him, firing heavily at him with a machine gun on one side and dropping bombs at him at an ultra-low altitude on the other. When the bomb was dropped, the height of the "tall guy" was already less than 50 meters, and when the bomb was dropped, the belly of the plane almost grazed the roof of the train.

However, there is a risk and a reward, as Dmitry's bomb hit the anti-aircraft train accurately, and the huge inertia and impulse caused the train to derail and roll over. However, Dmitry's adventure did not end there, and after getting rid of the anti-aircraft train, he encountered new troubles, as the bombs dropped by the previous batch of Pe-8s exploded one after another, and the flames and smoke greatly interfered with the view of the Tu-3 group...... (To be continued......)

PS: Sorry, I'm busy at work in the morning, and I'm late for the update!

Bow and thank the armored train, Huyan haha, the lost remnant maple and the comrades of the long journey into the night!