81_81266 Führer Accardo once again left the already visible Mercedes, and in the early morning of February 11, he headed for Rotterdam, a port in the Netherlands, where Army Group A, which had just arrived in the north, and here also gathered 4,000 transport ships of various sizes from Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and other countries.

Germany was determined to make a quick decision and landed on British soil for the final blow. The operation was codenamed "Overlord". As the head of the German state, Accardo will personally supervise this operation, and the German navy, land, and air forces will unite to carry out the largest landing operation plan in human history.

The Air Force will dispatch 2,000 fighters and 1,500 bombers of various types to completely destroy the British landing grounds in the south-east of the United Kingdom. Destroy all obstacles along the coastline, bomb all nearby British airfields and defensive positions, and drive every British aircraft out of the airspace of the landing area.

The Navy will gather 2 Italian battleships, 3 French battleships, and 17 cruisers to ensure the suppression of fire in the landing area. The ships had already bypassed Spain and converged at the military port of Brest. Although the use of these warships greatly reduced the secrecy of the landing, Germany did not conceal its operational intention to land in England, so it could not be talked about secrecy.

Of course, the exact time and place of landing were kept absolutely secret, and the navy assigned liaison officers to each Italian and French warship, and the mission objectives were announced only after the fleet set sail in accordance with the principle of secrecy.

At the same time, Germany requisitioned almost all the ships it could find, some of them were real landing ships, some were temporarily converted landing ships, and many more were civilian ships in the hope that they could send the total number of landing troops that Germany needed to the beachhead at one time.

The first units to land in Britain included the 1st Division of Army Group A, the 1st Marine Division, which had been newly formed for less than a year, an armored battalion of the 2nd Panzer Division of the 2nd Panzer Corps, the SS Accardo Youth, which fought the hardest, and the engineer units directly under the entire army group and 200 special forces of the 0th SS Division. The total strength is about 40,000 people, and it is responsible for the initial beach landing and occupying the beach area needed for the follow-up troops to go ashore.

This time, the Army is preparing to make a huge enough hole in Britain's fortified coastline. More than half of the 40,000 soldiers were veterans of the French campaign, and 1,000 of them were even the elite of the Wehrmacht era. They prepared all the equipment they could take into account, endured a full 10 days of intense landing training, and even gave morphine to some of the recruits, using the stimulus to fill the fear of combat.

The landing site was chosen in the distant but unusually flat Norwich area, which had the advantage that the terrain was very suitable for the deployment of armored forces, and the disadvantage, like the Normandy region of France, lacked an important port city.

However, the German Führer proposed an innovative pontoon port design that would allow the German landing force to replenish supplies in the field where there were no ports - a rough calculation of the throughput of the German dock could provide the necessary supplies for 100,000 German soldiers in good weather conditions in the Atlantic.

Of course, Accardo also has a huge air superiority and the means of transporting supplies to supplies, if the two sides are added together, it should be said that it will not be a problem to ensure the operation of 120,000 troops, and the only thing that makes Rundstedt timid is what will happen to the British counterattack force at that time.

The Norwich area provided by the spies had many railway lines, and the more elite British 4th Army was deployed near the city of Norwich. Although this unit did not have the armored forces that Montgomery lacked, it was a relatively tenacious force in the sequence of other British troops.

Moreover, because of the flat terrain here, the British defensive positions are very well deployed, and there are a total of 3 complete defensive zones in front and back. Near the coastline, because there is no danger to defend, a large number of mines and obstacles have been laid. About 200 meters behind the beach was a permanent fortification of machine-gun bunkers and defensive positions, and the strongest line of defense of the British defenders.

About 40 large-caliber guns were deployed on this position, which could be adjusted at will, and two old open-air batteries built in the last century have been fortified into the fulcrum of the two main defensive positions. The entire theater was also supported by 2 280 mm caliber railway guns, and it can be said that the defensive measures were very perfect.

Moreover, the local defenders had a whole division, and although they were scattered along the long coastline, at least one regiment of infantry was deployed on any of the landing surfaces. The only thing that is not reassuring is that these troops are composed of some new recruits, and no one knows what their combat effectiveness is.

Montgomery and Churchill in Britain had guessed the direction of the German landing, believing that the Isle of Wight, Southampton, Brighton, and Dover in the southern part of Britain were the main direction of the German attack.

Brighton and Dover were heavily fortified by the British defenders. The only armored units in the hands of the British were also deployed in this direction. Churchill feared that the Germans would storm and land at Brighton, which was closest to the British capital, London, and that Montgomery and the Admirals of the Navy felt that the Germans would land at Dover, where the shortest Channel was in the best interest of German transport.

However, after repeated confirmation and comparison by German intelligence and the photos of reconnaissance planes, both Accardo and Rundstedt felt that landing in the southeast of Britain, that is, in the Norwich area, was the safest way. If the German team captures the two cities of Norwich and Ipswich, then even if Germany gains a firm foothold in the UK, London will be nothing more than a bag at that time.

Of course, there is also a more troublesome place to land in the Norwich area, that is, the Stuka bombers can only stay for a short time after flying here, which is one of the main reasons why the British side did not pay attention to the defense of the Norwich area. Because Montgomery believed that if the Germans landed in Norwich, then German air superiority would be neutralized by half.

However, no one knew that the Luftwaffe had a new attack aircraft called the Stuka 2 in service, and no one knew that the German paratroopers had been ordered to seize several nearby British airfields after parachuting in the Norwich area, preparing to forcibly establish front-line field airfields to ensure more timely air cover.

No one expected that the German Navy's High Seas Fleet had already made a detour to the North Atlantic with five battleships, ready to rush to the scheduled landing site to cover the German landing force, and the naval aviation composed of these four aircraft carriers had more than 130 Stuka bombers, which was enough to offset the trouble caused by the Luftwaffe in the Norwich area because of the distance problem.

On 12 February, the Luftwaffe bombed Dover on a massive scale, reducing the port city to rubble, and 200 bombers of various types washed the defensive positions along the coastline near Dover. The British government ordered the army to begin a general martial law, and the authorities estimated a 90% chance of a German landing the next day.

As a result, on February 13, the large-scale landing of the German army in Dover, which the British had been waiting for, did not arrive, but not even a German plane could be seen because of the weather. However, on this very day, the German army of 100,000 in the port of Rotterdam poured out of the nest, and rushed to their intended target on a huge fleet of cruise ships as large as thousands of tons and barges as small as hundreds of tons.

The wind was bitter, the waves were raging, and the soldiers were vomiting on the undulating ships with their weapons in their hands. Everyone did not know if the landing operation would be successful, they could only wait quietly, wait, and pray for good weather tomorrow morning.

"Report!" an officer rushed into Montgomery's office in a hurry and slapped a telegram on the general's desk: "General! urgent news from our intelligence officers that the army units deployed by the German army in the port of Rotterdam have gone to sea on ships!"

Montgomery abruptly stood up, walked to the front of the map, stared at the possible landing sites with his chin in his hands, and muttered quietly, "It's finally here......! Or Brighton?"

"Order the troops to cancel their vacations! All officers must return to their combat posts within an hour! Inform the Air Force to send reconnaissance planes, and be sure to find the German Navy's transport fleet! In addition, the artillery along the coastline is on first level alert, ready to meet the German landing force!" decided to bring Montgomery, who was blocking the water, back from his thoughts and ordered.

"Also, call the air defense forces to inform them that they should not save any strength, and that they should take out all their wealth and prepare for battle. Call the Prime Minister and tell him that there is a 100 percent chance that the German army will land within the next 24 hours! Let him be ready to direct the anti-landing operation throughout Britain. The victory or defeat is here!" he thought for a moment and said, "That's all, go and arrange it immediately!"

Sure enough, just as predicted by the German meteorological department, on the evening of February 13, the weather improved and the sky was clear. Standing in the palace of Rotterdam, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, looking at the horizon where the sea and the sky meet not far away, Accardo was full of heroism - after some struggle, he finally made his own bet. Now Germany's national fortunes will be determined after tomorrow's World War, whether to become the world hegemon or squatting in the basement to commit suicide, soon to know the answer.

Anna walked up behind Accardo with a coat and helped him drape it over his shoulders. She was now more willing to be the little woman leaning on the big tree of Accardo, and the most she wanted to do was to wait by Accardo's side and see the result that didn't matter