Chapter 1201 Target, Newfoundland!

"What? The Germans might be targeting Newfoundland?"

Washington, DC, White House. President Truman, who was having breakfast, had just gotten up when he heard the bad news that frightened him.

"Could it be a feint?" he asked Wallace and William Leahy, who came to the White House to report.

"There is the possibility of a feint attack, but we cannot ignore the danger." Wallace's eyes were red when he answered the question, obviously he had not slept all night. It turned out that he had a meeting with the highest levels of the military at the Pentagon until midnight last night. Just after the meeting ended and he wanted to take a nap, the report of German bombers taking off from the Azores arrived. So Wallace was busy arranging interceptor missiles and air defense work in big cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. By five or six o'clock in the morning, even worse news came!

William Leahy looked as haggard as Wallace, with an elderly face listless. He frowned and said: "Mr. President, the German air raid was large-scale. According to the report of the early warning aircraft, they dispatched at least 1,200 There are about 900 fighter planes among them.”

"900 fighter jets?" Truman took a breath, "Have their aircraft carriers arrived near Newfoundland?"

William Leahy nodded: "It should be...so their target is likely to be Newfoundland, Nova Scotia Peninsula, Cape Breton Island, St. Pierre Island or Miquelon Island, or it may be in the Atlantic Ocean." Sable Island, 160 kilometers from the Nova Scotia Peninsula.”

Because the United States lost Atlantic sea control in the Bermuda Battle, it also lost air control along the Nova Scotia Peninsula-Bermuda line in the Newfoundland Air Battle. As a result, the defense of the eastern coast of North America fell into a great passive position, and it was necessary to defend the long coastline and many islands. The Germans can use their sea and air superiority to attack any point. As long as one point is broken through, the entire defense line will collapse. Of course, this collapse does not mean that the German armored forces have reached New York and Washington, but that Germany has obtained a starting base for dropping atomic bombs!

Now, the Allied defense line in the direction of Labrador was in danger. If there are further problems along the lines of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, St. Pierre, Miquelon and Sable, then the United States will really be in big trouble. Because that area is only more than a thousand kilometers away from the most prosperous areas in the eastern United States, not only the range of the Me264 bombers can be covered, but also the range of a considerable number of German fighter jets is enough to escort the Me264.

In addition, once there are islands covering the mainland of the United States, it will be easier for the German aircraft carriers to approach the eastern coast of the United States. This means that the carrier-based version of the Me262 jet aircraft can also escort the Me264 equipped with atomic bombs!

"Can we hold it?" Truman asked. "Do we have enough troops there? Do we need to send reinforcements?"

"It's not needed yet," William Leahy shook his head. "We have enough ground troops there, and our maritime forces can also handle the landing."

The ground troops seem to be sufficient. On the island of Newfoundland with difficult terrain, the total number of various ground troops reaches 250,000; on the small island of St. Pierre or Miquelon, there are tens of thousands of elite troops. French Army (Free France); more than 350,000 ground troops are stationed on the Nova Scotia Peninsula and Cape Breton Island, where the terrain is more conducive to landing; 160 kilometers away from the Nova Scotia Peninsula, the terrain is long and narrow, with a land area of ​​80 An elite Marine Division is also stationed on the square kilometer Sable Island. More than 30,000 magnetic mines and anchor mines are deployed around the island, completely blocking all possible landing beaches. For this reason, even the maritime traffic on the island has been blocked. was interrupted, and all supplies relied on air transportation.

In addition to these troops already deployed on the front line, the Allied North American Northeast Command also has a large number of reserve troops, including 4 armored divisions, 12 infantry divisions (American mechanized infantry divisions) and 4 airborne divisions, a total of 20 The strength of a division.

In addition, the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet has also deployed the 1st Fleet (homeport in New York) on the northeastern coast of North America. Although there are no large ships, there are a number of destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines and various troop carriers (including landing ships) and transport ships. Still enough.

The British Royal Navy (Canada) has also deployed a powerful Canadian fleet (home port of Quebec City), which is a main fleet with battleships and heavy cruisers. Although it cannot have a decisive battle with the European Combined Fleet on the ocean, it can rush out of the St. Lawrence River when the German troops land and give the German landing fleet a hard blow while they are doing land operations.

"What about the aviation force? Do we need to increase it?" Truman also knew that the land force in the northeastern theater of North America was sufficient, and there was no shortage of maritime force. Even if it was lacking, there was nothing we could do about it. What we could really consider increasing was the aviation force.

William Leahy replied: "The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that we need to be prepared to dispatch aircraft from the Caribbean and the East Coast for reinforcements at any time. There will be no problem."

Now the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff does not have much reserve aviation power available, so it has no choice but to tear down the east wall and repair the west wall. Moreover, this "Eastern Wall" cannot be demolished casually. What if the German actions on the northern front are a bluff?

After all, the Germans basically have no way to invest in shore-based fighter jets on the northern front, which leaves them to rely on carrier-based fighter jets to compete for air supremacy.

Moreover, the distance from the Azores and Iceland to Newfoundland is too far, and most shore-based bombers cannot reach it. Only a small number of Me264s can be used in air strikes on Newfoundland.

As for the Nova Scotia Peninsula, Cape Breton Island and Sable Island, even the Me264 cannot reach them.

Therefore, even if the Germans can use carrier-based aircraft to fight for air superiority, there are not many bombers to drop bombs, which greatly reduces their air superiority.

In addition, the American F-13 reconnaissance aircraft has not yet found a particularly large fleet on the Atlantic Ocean near Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, St. Pierre, Miquelon and Sable.

If the Germans want to successfully land in the above-mentioned areas, at least 100,000 well-equipped officers and soldiers must be transported ashore at a time, which requires at least hundreds of transport ships and landing ships-it is not the unguarded Labrador area. Without a large force and firepower support fleet, the landing is impossible to succeed.

It is impossible for such a large fleet to escape the detection of the S-band radar on the F-13. Their absence means that a large-scale landing operation will not happen for the time being.

Based on the above judgments, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff still insists that the main attack direction of the German army will be in the Caribbean Sea.

…

"Check the equipment for the last time to see if there is anything missing?"

"Who else has not made a will? Hurry up and go to the military lawyer to make a will..."

"Hurry up, hurry up, move!"

"Line up and get on the plane one by one..."

"Check the equipment fixation for the last time!"

While Truman, Wallace and William Leahy were discussing whether to send more troops to the northeastern battlefield of North America, a scene that they could never have imagined was appearing at more than a dozen large airports in the Azores.

The huge aprons at each airport are now full of huge transport planes. There are two models of these transport aircraft. One model is the "big-bellied" ZSO523 "super giant" air assault transport aircraft. It looks almost twice as big as the Fokker 42, with a wingspan of 70 meters and a fuselage length of more than 40 meters, and the fuselage looks particularly fat.

The other is the famous Fokker 42 long-range transport aircraft, which has a fuselage length of 30.5 meters, a wingspan of 41.5 meters, and a fuselage height of 8.8 meters. The empty weight is as high as 19.5 tons, and the maximum take-off weight is 38.3 tons. The maximum speed reaches 515 kilometers per hour, and the maximum range can reach 9,800 kilometers. When fully loaded, 10 tons of cargo or 60 fully armed paratroopers can be sent to a battlefield 2,500 kilometers away for airdrop.

Among them, the ZSO523 "super giant" air assault transport aircraft arrived one after another, and all stopped at the airport of Terceira Island, the most heavily guarded main island in the Azores. At the same time as these planes arrived, a large number of heavy equipment and personnel belonging to the 1st Air Assault Brigade of the German Wehrmacht were also sent to Terceira Island by sea.

All the heavy equipment belonging to the 1st Air Assault Brigade, including E-25 tank destroyers, Type 4 H tanks, Puma series wheeled armored vehicles, Steyr command vehicles and trucks, and artillery of various calibers, have been loaded into the "big belly" of ZSO523 and firmly fixed with chains. Ammunition, fuel and other supplies that can be used by the troops for 5 days are also loaded on the plane. Now all that is left is for the combat personnel to board the plane!

The Fokker 42 transport planes landed at the airports of various islands in the Azores between the early morning and early morning of April 25. They used the airport used by the original Me264. Because the number exceeded 500, the planes filled the originally very spacious apron and occupied part of the runway.

When these Fokker 42 transport planes landed, the soldiers of the brigade and various airdropped supplies loaded on trucks had already lined up on the road outside the airport.

According to the "Columbus Plan", 260 ZSO523s will transport more than 4,000 officers and soldiers and more than 200 vehicles of the 1st Air Brigade, equivalent to a brigade-level armored group, to Newfoundland - these giant aircraft costing millions of European marks are likely to become disposable!

These aircraft alone will cost 260 million European marks and tens of thousands of tons of expensive aluminum alloys and special steels!

And 508 Fokker 42 transport aircraft will deliver nearly 15,000 officers and soldiers of 18 paratrooper battalions and 2,580 tons of various airdrop supplies to the airdrop site 2,500 kilometers away.