Chapter 1178 Admiral Clark's Defense Line

With confidence in the success of the "Statue of Liberty Project", General George Patton boarded a high-speed transport plane C-69 and flew back to his headquarters in Port of Spain. The day after Patton left, another giant of the US Army, General Mark Wayne Clark, commander of the US Ground Forces in Canada and commander of the 15th Army Group of the Allied Forces, also rushed to the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia.

Clark, who is only 47 years old this year, is the youngest general in the history of the US Army and was previously the youngest lieutenant general. He is the elite among the elites of the US Army, recognized as the future Army Chief of Staff and amphibious warfare expert - his title of amphibious warfare expert is strange, because he is not from the Marine Corps and has never fought an amphibious operation. In fact, he has not been on the battlefield since the end of World War I.

But the top amphibious warfare expert in the US military is not Lieutenant General Richmond Turner, who specializes in landing operations in the Navy, nor is it the Marine Corps's tough general Holland Smith, nor is it George Patton, who fought with Turner and Holland Smith in the Hawaiian Islands for almost a year. Instead, it is Admiral Clark, who made his mark in an amphibious landing exercise in 1939 and was selected by Marshall. After that, he rose to prominence and served as the deputy chief of staff, chief of staff and commander of the US garrison in Canada after the United States entered the war, always ready to command a multinational coalition to counterattack the European continent.

In the past two years, in addition to preparing for the counterattack in Europe, Admiral Clark has been formulating various combat plans to defend Canada. As an amphibious warfare expert, Clark knows very well that it is not easy to defend the coastline of eastern Canada.

Because the coastline of eastern Canada is too long and there are many bays. In the spring and summer when the climate is relatively mild, there are too many bays suitable for landing and anchoring large fleets. And what bothers Clark the most is that most of the bays in eastern Canada are in areas with extremely inconvenient land transportation.

Although the extremely inconvenient land transportation is conducive to the defenders to contain the landing enemy forces from advancing in depth, it also makes it difficult for the coalition ground forces guarding the east coast of Canada to launch a counterattack, and there is no way to deploy too many ground defense forces in those bays with inconvenient transportation. Because the garrison needs logistical support, if the logistics cannot keep up, the troops cannot fight at all. In many remote bays, supplies cannot be transported by land at all, and can only rely on sea transportation. The sea transportation route is now threatened by German submarines. Once the Germans start the landing operation, they will definitely block it with surface ships and aircraft carriers, so the sea transportation supply route is not reliable at all.

Sea transportation is unreliable, and land transportation cannot support the army's operations due to road conditions and distance restrictions. Therefore, Clark could not deploy his army on the entire eastern coastline of Canada-in fact, in most areas of the eastern coastline of Canada, there are only a small number of Canadian militia and light ships of the British Royal Navy to guard. If the Germans really landed in a bay, they would not encounter strong resistance at all.

"...They can land in any bay north of Newfoundland, and they will surely succeed easily because there is not much defense. Then the Germans can build temporary airports and ports there, and deploy their jets and Fw190 or Fokker 636 to the North American continent. Then use there as a base to launch air strikes on Newfoundland. With the support of these shore-based aircraft, the German fleet can send landing troops to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, St. Pierre and Miquelon!"

In a conference room in the Pentagon, Clark, a recognized amphibious landing expert, is explaining his views to the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As an amphibious warfare expert, Clark knows that the bays distributed along the long coastline of eastern Canada are actually "islands" and cannot be defended at all if the sea control is lost. And the Germans only need to seize one of them to obtain air bases near Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Then it will be a war of attrition between shore-based aircraft and shore-based aircraft! If we refer to the exchange ratio of the US-German air war of attrition over Trinidad and Tobago, the Allied air power in eastern Canada will soon be unable to hold out. By then, Newfoundland and the Nova Scotia Peninsula will be difficult to defend!

"If this situation really happens," asked Marshall, who promoted Clark, "can your people defend Newfoundland and Nova Scotia?"

"It's very difficult," Admiral Clark seemed very worried. "Newfoundland is not a big problem, because the coastline there is relatively rugged, with many cliffs and there are not many beaches suitable for landing craft to run ashore. Moreover, there are usually terraces and highlands as high as tens of meters near these beaches and gravel beaches. They are all natural fortresses and are impossible to conquer. Even if the Germans use tsunami bombs, it will not be very effective.

But the Nova Scotia Peninsula is a bit troublesome. There are many sand beaches there, and the terrain on the island is relatively flat. There are also Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island nearby, which are also suitable for landing.

In addition, near Newfoundland, there is a small French territory called St. Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean about 20 kilometers away from the southwest coast of Newfoundland, and there is also a very narrow island called Sable. The terrain of these islands is also relatively flat, with many beaches suitable for landing, and the area is not too small, enough to build a large airport."

The current Secretary of War Wallace was also listening to the report in the conference room. As soon as General Clark finished speaking, he frowned and asked: "In other words, as long as the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton Island , St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands, and Sable Island fall, will there be a huge hole in our defense line in eastern Canada? "

"It's not a huge hole," Clark emphasized, "it's the collapse of the entire defense line... because those areas are less than 1,600 kilometers away from New York, and the farthest islands from New York, St. Pierre and Miquelon, are more than 1,500 kilometers away. The nearest southern tip of Nova Scotia is less than 800 kilometers away.”

This distance not only allows the Me264 bomber to fly to New York and drop atomic bombs, but even German missiles may be launched from the base in Nova Scotia to bomb New York and Washington!

Moreover, the United States’ method of countering the German atomic bomb—using B-29s loaded with bacterial bombs to launch one-way attacks on Europe will also be affected by the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, St. Pierre Island, and Miquelon Island. The fall of other places makes it impossible or difficult to implement.

After hearing Clark's words, the generals present looked at each other. This amphibious landing expert who has never fought an amphibious landing battle is absolutely right. Currently, the Allied forces (the United States, Britain, France, etc.) do not have adequate military strength, especially naval and air forces. They do not have enough power to deploy sufficient aircraft and warships on the east coast of Canada, the east coast of the United States, the Caribbean, and the Bermuda Islands. .

Therefore, in terms of naval and air force strength, the Allied forces are currently adopting a focused deployment approach, firstly ensuring sufficient strength in the Caribbean battlefield, and secondly ensuring the security of the east coast of the United States and the Bermuda Islands.

In order to ensure the absolute security of the Caribbean battlefield and the east coast of the United States (including Bermuda), the naval and air forces on Canada's east coast have been reduced in the past few months.

"It is said that the German attack target is Trinidad and Tobago," Wallace frowned and asked the generals present, "Can you be sure?"

The generals looked at each other, and no one answered Wallace's question. Although all current signs indicate that Germany’s target is Trinidad and Tobago, war is inherently full of deception. Who can guarantee that the Germans are not bluffing on the Caribbean battlefield?

There was a silence in the conference room, which seemed a little awkward. After a while, General Henry Arnold of the Army Air Force was heard to say: "Mr. Secretary, if we stop the bombing of Buenos Aires and the bombing of Santiago, The offensive will increase the number of 1,500 fighter planes on the eastern front of Canada..."

"No," Wallace immediately vetoed Arnold's proposal. "Our operations in Chile and Argentina are about to succeed. That will be decisive."

The generals all sighed inwardly. In fact, the United States was in a dilemma in both Chile and Argentina.

As early as last November’s general election vote, the U.S. government claimed to have invaded Santiago, the capital of Chile. This statement is not true in a strict sense, because the Santiago region is very large, not only the urban area, but also the area. Very rural area. The U.S. military reached the outskirts of San Diego before the voting day on November 6, 1944, and surrounded San Diego on three sides. The situation at that time did indeed look good, and the U.S. military seemed to be about to liberate Santiago.

However, after the election, the development of the situation disappointed Wallace and the new President Truman. Although they did their best to meet Eisenhower's request for additional troops, the offensive against San Diego proved long and bloody. The bloody battle began in mid-December 1944 and has continued until now, almost March 1945. Eisenhower's troops only captured less than one-third of the urban area of ​​San Diego, but suffered more than 100,000 casualties.

The air raid on Buenos Aires was also costly but had little effect. Although the bombs and incendiary bombs dropped by American heavy bombers turned most of the urban area of ​​Buenos Aires into ruins, Juan Peron's regime has not been overthrown... At least so far, Peron Still hiding in the basement of the Rose Palace and giving orders. The Americans paid a huge price for the air strikes that lasted for several months. More than 2,800 fighter planes did not return after performing missions.