Chapter 104: The Fall of the Crescent Banner (II)

Is this the greatest city under heaven that the hearts of the Russian tsars have in their hearts, Constantinople, a symbol of hegemony and glory?

Now that I look at it with my own eyes, except for the minarets and temples, it doesn't seem to feel very good, right?

However, no matter what, as long as the city can be taken, the Russian soldiers of their own generation should be able to become gods, right?

The commander-in-chief of the 600,000-strong Eastern European coalition army, Marshal Vasilevsky, former chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army, was standing on a cliff on the western shore of the Bosphorus, holding a pair of high-powered military binoculars, overlooking the streets of Istanbul in the south, bathed in gunpowder smoke and flames. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

It was like five centuries ago, in 1453, when the Battle of Constantinople shook the West.

However, after five centuries of ups and downs, the cityscape of Istanbul today is very different from that of Constantinople in 1453. In the vision of Marshal Vasilevsky, the walls of Theodosius, which defended the city during the Eastern Roman Empire, have largely ceased to exist as the city expanded. The city limits of Istanbul are much larger than those of Constantinople during the Eastern Roman Empire. The Golden Horn, which once served as the boundary of the city, has been encased in the city by all kinds of private houses. The positions where Mehmed II once housed the Cannons of Urban, are also covered with houses and bazaars. From a distance, it looks high and low, quite messy.

But despite this, this does not detract from the great charm of the city of Constantinople in the eyes of Russians.

-- As the most powerful country in the Orthodox world, the Russians, who call themselves the "Third Rome," have always had a strong Constantinople complex. From a military, strategic and geographical point of view, Constantinople's value is self-evident, the city is located at the intersection of Europe and Asia, the city controls the east-west traffic between Asia Minor and the Balkans, and the shipping between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and sits on the flattest land bridge and the narrowest waterway in the Black Sea straits. If the Russians get Constantinople, it will be like getting the key to the Black Sea, and they can blockade the Black Sea at any time and freely enter and exit the Mediterranean. At that time, Russia's maritime strategy in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea will be fully revitalized and its status as a European maritime power will be truly established.

What's more, Constantinople's most valuable value stems from its great history. Constantinople is home to the largest Hagia Sophia in medieval Europe, and for millennia it was the central shrine of the Orthodox Church, where the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of Constantinople, was also based.

After the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, Russia became the most powerful state within the Orthodox Church. Russia has always presented itself as the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire. The Orthodox Church in Russia is derived from the Eastern Roman Empire. In addition to religion, the scripts of Slavic countries such as Russia, Serbia, and Bulgaria also came from the Eastern Roman Empire. Unlike the Latin alphabet commonly used in Europe, the alphabet used by most Slavs is known as the Cyrillic alphabet, which was created by the Eastern Roman missionary Cyril the Greek. The Eastern Romanization of Russian civilization is top-down, with the blood and genes of Eastern Rome, plus the core carriers of religion and writing, Russia has carried the imprint of Eastern Rome in art, architecture, literature and other aspects.

In the Tsarist era, if Russia could seize Constantinople, drive out the Turkish infidels, restore the Holy Land of the Orthodox Church, or even launch only one operation to liberate Constantinople, it would be able to use religion to make the Arrow King ramp up, promise political independence, and order the Orthodox states of the Balkan Peninsula to fight against the Turks, and then establish its own strong influence in the Balkan Peninsula and control half of the Mediterranean Sea in one go!

At the same time, if Russia can recover Constantinople and nominally inherit the historical legal system of the Eastern Roman Empire, then Russia will truly become the heir to at least half of the Roman Empire, and the undisputed co-ruler of the whole of Christendom!

It was precisely because of the temptation of this glorious goal that the Russians, who had just escaped barbarism and ignorance, would desperately raise their troops to the south, and carry out bold and reckless challenges again and again against the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which was still very powerful at that time, and passionately launched eleven Russo-Turkish wars in succession, vowing to "restore Rome (Eastern Rome) and return it to the old capital (Constantinople)". As for the current war, it can probably be regarded as the twelfth Russian-Turkish war.

-- Perhaps, the last Russo-Turkish war...... Although Tsarist Russia, ruled by the Romanovs, has long since disappeared, the Soviet Red Army, as the successor of Tsarist Russia, has not diminished its desire to capture Constantinople and even destroy Turkey.

At present, just like the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the besieging Soviets have surrounded the city from three sides, and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet has broken through the Bosphorus and broken into the Sea of Marmara, the smallest sea in the world, blocking Istanbul's sea lines of communication.

Previously, in order to blockade the Bosphorus, the Republic of Turkey set up a number of artillery batteries on both sides of the strait. But, like the British fort of Singapore, these Turkish batteries could only bombard the sea, and could not deal with the enemy coming from behind them. Moreover, the Turks were far less financially funded than the European powers, and the design and structure of the coastal defense fortresses were too old, and their ability to withstand air raids and bombardment was very poor.

Therefore, with the collapse of the 200,000 elite Turkish army on the battlefield of Eastern Thrace, hundreds of thousands of Soviet Red Army troops rushed along the southwestern shore of the Black Sea, and soon killed behind the batteries on the European side of the Bosphorus, and eliminated the defenders inside one by one from behind.

At the same time, the Soviet Air Force carried out more than 5,000 sorties of intensive bombardment of the Turkish coastal defense batteries on the Asian side of the strait. Three battleships of the Black Sea Fleet also ventured close to the shore at the exit of the strait, where they carpeted these batteries for a whole day.

Such a meteor-like ultra-high-intensity firepower strike soon caused those Turkish soldiers on the coastal defense batteries who had never seen the battlefield in their lives to break down one after another, and when a death squad of the Soviet punishment battalion rowed a rubber dinghy, crossed the strait more than 1,000 meters wide, and landed on the beachhead on the opposite bank, they encountered almost no resistance, and easily broke the last defense of the Bosphorus. Next, it took only three hours for the sappers of the Soviet Red Navy to clear the two mine nets hastily laid by the Turks, turning the front of the Black Sea Fleet into a smooth road.

Faced with the pressure of the Soviets, Istanbul was naturally in turmoil, and all Turkish citizens who had some family background began to flee the city with a soft heart. However, due to the rapid breakthrough of the Black Sea Fleet through the straits and the blockade of Istanbul's sea traffic, only a very small number of citizens had time to escape to the other side by boat, and the rest were trapped in the city, waiting quietly in fear for the final moment.

On the contrary, refugees from the war who had fled the fallen Turkish towns in Eastern Thrace continued to pour into Istanbul from all directions, making the city increasingly crowded and noisy, and more chaotic and turbulent, with various robberies and murders occurring frequently, creating a miasma.

But despite this, the Turks still had no intention of giving up resistance. The Turkish nationalist movement that the late "Father of the Nation" Kemal has engaged in over the past few decades has achieved some success. Compared to the end of World War I, Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, surrendered without a fight in the face of the British and French forces, and now Istanbul, which is no longer the capital, although the situation is more desperate, but it unexpectedly maintains the courage to fight.

Taking advantage of the short period of time that the Eastern European coalition forces had not yet entered the city, the military and political authorities in Istanbul mobilized the entire city's residents, organized them to collect firearms, build barricades, and stock up on water and food. At the same time, the citizens were instructed to urgently make some rudimentary weapons such as Molotov cocktails ♂ and large slingshots.

Even religious figures, who had been vigorously suppressed by the government of the Republic of Turkey, took to the streets with scriptures to boost morale at this critical juncture when the country was about to die, and called on the Turks in the city to summon up the courage to fight the invading infidels and atheists to the end.

And in the outlying positions on the outskirts of Istanbul, the allied forces of Eastern Europe, which had been driving straight in, were no longer as devastating and overwhelming as before. The retreating Turkish army, along with some urgently organized militias, began to stop in the satellite towns around Istanbul and regain their courage to resist with rudimentary fortifications and to destroy bridges and roads to slow down the enemy's advance.

As a result, as the battle line approached Istanbul, the intensity of the battle soon rose sharply, and it directly entered the white heat. Within a radius of 50 kilometers around the whole of Istanbul, there are many wars and corpses everywhere, countless Red Army soldiers and Turkish militia have launched the hottest and passionate collision, every second there are Red Army soldiers on a certain front who are killed and killed, and more Turks are martyred for the continuation of the country and the nation.

In this case, almost every time the Eastern European coalition forces advanced towards Istanbul, they had to pay the price of blood.

All in all, the Turkish defenders of Istanbul seem to have decided that the Soviets would not dare to drop atomic bombs on the city of Istanbul in order to protect a large number of historical monuments in the city and ensure the safety of the straits, and they were determined to fight to the end in this city, a symbol of national glory.

Moreover, the central government of the Republic of Turkey, along with the capital Ankara, has been wiped out in the mushroom cloud of the Soviet atomic bomb. And the Turkish regular army everywhere was also blown apart by the nuclear bomb bombing of the Soviet Red Army, and had to confront the 600,000 Soviet Caucasian Front troops killed from the northeast at the same time, and at the same time had to suppress the Kurdish uprising.

However, the millions of Turkish soldiers and civilians entrenched in Istanbul at this time were not completely without foreign aid......

“…… What the? An American fleet from Egypt, passing through the Dardanelles, broke into the Sea of Marmara? Just three hours away from Istanbul? What's going on? Didn't the Greeks already capture the Gallipoli Peninsula yesterday? ”

Listening to the report of one of the staff officers, Marshal Vasilevsky showed a surprised expression, "...... Why didn't they block the straits? ”

“…… This one...... Although the Greek South Thracian Corps successfully captured the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Turks destroyed all the coastal artillery before retreating in defeat, and it was difficult for the Greek army to block the strait with only field artillery. Moreover, the coastal defense artillery on the Asian side of the Dardanelles was still in the hands of the Turks, who had been shelling the opposite shore during the passage of the American fleet, suppressing the fire of the Greeks. ”

The staff officer replied, "...... According to aerial reconnaissance, the American fleet that came to the rescue had a light aircraft carrier, a cruiser, three destroyers and two fast transport ships, in addition to three old Turkish gunboats that had been in the Aegean Sea. ”

“…… It's good, this little bit of strength is not much, and the Black Sea Fleet should be able to deal with it! Not really, and our dive bombers. ”

Marshal Vasilevsky rubbed his forehead and sighed, "...... Since the Yankees insisted on squeezing in, there was no need to let them go back alive...... However, the stubborn enemy entrenched in Istanbul must also be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise there will definitely be more trouble if it drags on for a long time. Let the front-line airfields prepare special gas bombs! As long as the wind is right, saturation bombing the city of Istanbul! ”

So, at the front-line airfield in the Thracian plain, the Soviet ground crew opened the tightly locked secret warehouse, used a small car to launch special aerial bombs with yellow and black skull icons, and then carefully mounted them on the bomber's bomb rack and belly......

-- If there is one striking difference between World War III and World War I and World War II, it is that the chivalry of the belligerents has completely disappeared, and the lower moral limit has reached new lows. Not only did the atomic bombs of the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, bloom everywhere, but countless mushroom clouds were planted in Europe and Asia, turning historic cities into radiant ruins. Poison gas was also not limited to frontline battles as in World War I, but was commonly used to bomb enemy cities and massacre civilians. Even the bacteriological weapons that created the plague, an even more inhumane thing, are showing signs of being used on a large scale.

Therefore, Marshal Vasilevsky calmly gave the order for an indiscriminate gas war against Istanbul, and the Soviet Air Force also did not achieve the expected continuous large-scale and accurate bombing, so that the indomitable city was covered by Tabang ♂ poisonous fog for two days and two nights, and successfully wiped out two-thirds of the city's population, thus greatly "softening" the resistance of the Turks and basically realizing the complete reception of the city.

At the same time, the U.S. support fleet, which bravely broke into the Sea of Marmara, also ushered in their final end......

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Cyrenaica (Benghazi), Tobluk Military Port

On the heavy cruiser Wichita, which was temporarily used as a command headquarters, Admiral Eisenhower frowned and read the latest telegram received.

In general, it was basically bad news - there was enemy pressure on the border in the front, and there was a fire in the inner courtyard in the back.

After learning of the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Turkey, Admiral Eisenhower, despite his own difficult situation, gathered a fleet from Egypt and rushed to Istanbul with some arms and ammunition, hoping to help the Turks and keep the Soviet navy out of the Mediterranean Sea for as long as possible.

The Turks collapsed much faster than expected, and before the American fleet arrived in Istanbul, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet had already broken through the Bosphorus and was waiting outside the port of Istanbul - the American forces were forced to bombard three Soviet battleships with a heavy cruiser and a light aircraft carrier against the Soviet shore-based aviation...... I really can't find a more suitable word to describe it than to kill myself.

As a result, after a short and fierce battle, the flagship heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa was wounded and stranded and captured, the light aircraft carrier San Jacinto sank, and the two Brazilian-flagged fast transports carrying aid simply chose to surrender under the white flag, and two of the three destroyers accompanying it were sunk.

The last remaining destroyer, the Antony, finally barely escaped from the battlefield, and in the port of Banderma, on the southern shore of the Marmara Sea, joined up three Turkish gunboats that had been delayed due to aging engines and extremely low speed, but then found themselves cut off from the back - at the same time as the Battle of Istanbul broke out, the Soviets used a division of airborne troops to surprise attack Canakkale on the east shore of the Dardanelles, seized the Turkish batteries on the east side of the strait, and laid a large number of mines into the strait as fast as possible, Thus blocking the Dardanelles Strait, leaving the hapless destroyer USS Anthony stranded in the Sea of Marmara, with a total area of only 18,900 square kilometers, which is not as large as many freshwater lakes, and has no way out.

In the face of the telegram sent back by the destroyer Anthony, Admiral Eisenhower's heart was nameless for a while, and he really wanted to order them to quickly raise anchor and sail directly to Istanbul again, and to attack the Soviet fleet in a suicidal attack, and die there with a bang. But calm down and think about it, let them sink their ships in the harbor of Banderma, and then wait for an opportunity to cross the Asia Minor peninsula by land, search for ships in the southern Turkish ports, and return to Egypt on their own - after all, skilled sailors have become precious now. After the US Navy has been wiped out many times in a row, although with the huge industrial strength of the United States, a large number of brand-new ships can be produced quickly, but there is no time to train qualified seamen, and many newly commissioned warships do not even have a person who can use a sextant, they will only follow the battleship in front, and they will definitely get lost if they act alone......

The Soviets then telegraphed to the world that they had successfully captured Istanbul - it was clear that the Turks, who had eaten a lot of atomic bombs, could no longer stop the Soviet Red Army. In the next few days, the Grand Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy will march from the east and west of the Turkish Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar to flank and destroy Eisenhower!

However, the port of Suez was hit by another atomic bomb, the shipwreck blocked the shipping lane, and the Allied forces trapped in North Africa were cut off from supply lines!

I don't want anything on my side, and the enemy still has a few nuclear bombs that can be used to directly flip the table, how can such a battle be fought?

The frontal battlefield is in shambles, and the rear of the front line is on fire on all sides - just last week, a new wave of the crushed Syrian Arabs broke out in a new uprising, successfully capturing Damascus and Aleppo. The morale of the Free French colonial forces was extremely low, the indigenous soldiers either defected or took off their uniforms and returned home, and the white soldiers left the city without any resistance and fled to the neighboring Lebanese Republic.

Rebellions broke out in Syria, and the situation in Egypt deteriorated even more rapidly -- in order to dredge the Suez Canal, which had been blocked by the nuclear bombing, and restore this lifeline for the Allied forces in North Africa, less than a week after the nuclear bombing, the US military stationed in Egypt forcibly requisitioned 300,000 Egyptian laborers, and forced them to go to the radiation zone at gunpoint to clean up the river, repair the embankment, port facilities, and dig up the sunken ships. As a result, the restoration of the Suez Canal was not yet fully underway, and it provoked great widespread fear and riots throughout Egypt. In a very short period of time, the rebels occupied more than 20 small and medium-sized cities, paralyzed Egypt's railway transportation, and succeeded in turning the capital Cairo into a large battlefield, taking most of the neighborhoods one after another. More than 10,000 U.S. troops in the city were trapped in a few data points and struggled to defend it, like a few reefs in the middle of the sea that were constantly beaten by strong winds and waves.

Faced with such internal and external troubles, Admiral Eisenhower knew very well that he had to make another strategic retreat.

So, after weighing the pros and cons, Eisenhower pinched his nose and ordered the abandonment of Malta, Crete, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus, and the retreat of all armies and fleets to Alexandria, Egypt, preparing to suppress the Egyptian rebellion first, and then proceed to deal with the Soviet offensive.

However, for his latest order, which seemed very reasonable, all the staff officers said that they could not carry it out, because ......

“…… The Soviets just dropped an atomic bomb on Alexandria! Our fleet already has no home port available in the Nile Delta! ”

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PS: Recently, there has been another joke in the US election campaign, first the media claimed that Russia colluded with Trump to help send agents to poison Hillary. At the same time, the former director of the CIA openly echoed in a TV interview, saying that although there was no evidence, he "intuitively judged" that Trump must be a Russian spy -- if it was really so easy to poison Hillary, US officials would have been fed three corpse brain pills, leopard fetus Yijin pills, and by the way, 36 more life and death talismans would have been planted.

Also, the dignified director of the CIA has actually degenerated to the unreliable level of Taiwan's famous mouth...... I wonder if this once majestic organization has hit the streets to the point where it has begun to fabricate information and cheat funds all day long. (To be continued.) )