Chapter 1223 Atomic Bomb 5

"Albert, this is an order to drop no more than three atomic bombs on Newfoundland and its vicinity. It contains orders from me and Chancellor Hitler. Now it is handed over to you."

When Stettinius was heading to Chicago with Truman's signed order, German Imperial Marshal Hersmann was seeing off Kesselring at Zossen Airport. Kesselring will go to Brest as a special representative of the headquarters to assist Admiral Lütjens, but his main mission is to personally control the dropping of the atomic bomb!

Hitler has now signed the written proposal submitted by Hersmann to drop the atomic bomb - the document that Hersmann is now handing over to Kesselring! Three copies are kept by the Chancellery, the General Staff of the Wehrmacht and Kesselring himself.

According to this document, the "Heisenberg Device" components and plutonium-239 charges that have now been shipped to the Azores will be assembled into three 20,000-ton equivalent atomic bombs. At the same time, three bomber squadrons responsible for dropping atomic bombs entered the Porto Angra do Porto Airport on Newfoundland.

By the way, although the bomber squadrons numbered 801, 802 and 803 all have the number of "squadron", they only have 20 fighter planes in common use. Including 2 Me264K long-range bombers responsible for dropping atomic bombs, 2 Me264H long-range radar early warning aircraft and 16 He219G long-range escort fighters.

In the operation of dropping atomic bombs, one of the 2 Me264Ks will carry the atomic bomb, and the other will carry a radio remote control device to operate the "Heisenberg device" - unlike the American atomic bombs in history, the "Heisenberg device" is actually a remote-controlled guided bomb, which can control the landing point by adjusting the tail of the atomic bomb. Although the controllability is not as good as the Hs-293 ​​and Fritz-X series bombs, it is much better than ordinary bombs. With this "remote-controlled" atomic bomb, the Me264K long-range bomber can drop bombs at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, and the possibility of being shot down by the enemy is greatly reduced.

The two Me264H long-range radar early warning aircraft will conduct early warning patrols on both sides of the atomic bomb-dropping aircraft formation to help the Me264K long-range bombers carrying atomic bombs avoid the enemy's interception aircraft group.

As for the 16 He219G long-range escort fighters, they have a long range that is no less than that of the Ju288. Although they cannot provide full escort for the Me264 series of bombers, with the German-controlled area on the west coast of Conception Bay, the He219G taking off from the Azores can use shuttle flight tactics to escort the Me264 of the atomic bomb-dropping aircraft formation.

Not just any fighter and fighter pilot can perform the escort mission for the atomic bomb bomber. Fighters not only need a long range and excellent high-altitude performance, but also need to have a certain degree of radiation protection. And the pilots have also undergone special training and know how to leave the nuclear explosion airspace.

Of course, the Germans could not just let 16 He219s escort the precious atomic bomb-dropping aircraft.

The 1264K's personal guards were only guarding around the Me264K bomber responsible for dropping the atomic bomb.

In the airspace farther away - which would not be affected by the sudden atomic bomb explosion - there would usually be a large number of Me262T or Ta152 high-altitude fighters (according to the regulations of the German Air Force, the height of dropping the atomic bomb should be above 10,000 meters) responsible for clearing enemy aircraft to ensure that most enemy interceptors were blocked within 15 kilometers around the Me264K bomber carrying the atomic bomb.

"The target of dropping the atomic bomb is decided by you and Lütjens," Hessmann told Kesselring at the gangway of a Fokker 42 long-range personnel transport plane that could take off at any time, "but the target must be located in Newfoundland or the nearby waters. In addition, St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland, and other cities with densely populated peaceful residents cannot be used as targets for dropping atomic bombs."

"I understand, I understand." Kesselring smiled and nodded, "Newfoundland is a territory of the British Empire, and the residents are all British citizens."

This is a question of political correctness. It is possible to consider dropping atomic bombs on American cities, but not on British (Canadian) cities, so atomic bombs can only be used as tactical weapons on the battlefield in Newfoundland.

Hersmann nodded, his voice lowered, and he said: "Albert, there must be an atomic bomb explosion on Newfoundland, at least once, do you understand?"

This requirement was not in the official order to Kesselring, but it must be done.

"At least once?" Kesselring looked at Hessman, "Are you going to show it to the Americans?"

"Yes!" Hessman nodded, "We must let the Americans feel the power of the atomic bomb, which will help the peace negotiations after the Battle of Newfoundland."

In Hessman's plan, the Battle of Newfoundland was the "ultimate battle" of conventional warfare. After taking Newfoundland, Germany had a base for nuclear bombing New York and Washington. The richest and most prosperous areas in the United States were all under the threat of German atomic bombs.

With bases that can bomb New York and Washington, there is naturally no need to consider the problem of driving tanks to Manhattan - in fact, it is impossible to hit it! The two or three hundred thousand American soldiers and countless tanks and artillery on Newfoundland alone are enough to give the German army a headache.

If they were about to land on the North American continent and fight a land war in Brunswick or Maine, the endless American steel torrent would have drowned the German Nazis who were overconfident.

So after the Battle of Newfoundland, the world war was basically over, and peace negotiations were to be carried out. Before the peace negotiations officially began, it was of course necessary for the German army to use an atomic bomb on the battlefield to prove its power. The Americans must see the power of the atomic bomb, and then they will pay for it!

…

When Kesselring boarded the plane and flew to Brest (France), the headquarters of the Atlantic Front of the European Allied Forces, with the order signed by Hessmann and Hitler to allow the release of the atomic bomb, it was already the night of April 26 on Newfoundland.

In the past day, because both sides were busy mobilizing troops, except for the fierce battle for Grace Harbor on the west coast of Conception Bay, there was a miraculous calm on Newfoundland.

The German paratroopers, who had fought fiercely with the US armored forces on the night of the 25th and the early morning of the 26th, began to retreat after dawn on the 26th, and the troops retreated to the outskirts of Grays Harbor and the Grays Harbor Airport. In addition, on the narrow peninsula north of Grays Harbor, the larger Carbonil Port, as well as Old Perricone and Basque Island near the top of the peninsula and their surrounding areas, are also firmly controlled by the German airborne troops.

If you look at the map, when the night of April 26, 1945 came, the German control area on Newfoundland was two strongholds that were close to each other (the Port of Grays Defense Zone and the Port of Carbonier Defense Zone) and a narrow strip of coastal land (extending from the Port of Carbonier Defense Zone to Old Perricone (this is the top of the peninsula terrain). The distance from the Port of Grays Airport in the southernmost part of this German-controlled area to Old Perricone in the northernmost part is about 60 kilometers. There is a coastal highway passing through this narrow area, connecting all the strongholds together.

The reason why such a long snake formation that is not conducive to defense militarily is not a blind command without reason, but to facilitate the landing operation that is about to begin.

Because the more than 60-kilometer front controls almost the same length of coastline, there are two small ports (Port of Grays and Port of Carbonier), 6 fishing ports, 2 small islands with very important geographical locations (one is Carbonier Island outside Carbonier Port, which is the key to controlling the port; the other is Basque Island near Old Pelican), and 4 small airports (Grace Harbor Airport, Carbonier Port Airport, Old Pelican Airport and Victoria Airport). The starting point of this long front is the Grays Harbor Airport.

Lieutenant Brandt had not slept for almost 48 hours at this time, and he was almost exhausted, but he and his twenty or so men were still forcing themselves to strengthen the fortifications around Grays Harbor Airport.

These trenches were not built by Brandt's men, otherwise they would be exhausted even if everyone was a German superman. The trenches used to guard the airport were built on the basis of the fortifications originally built by the US military, and were excavated and expanded using engineering machinery abandoned by the Americans. The scale is very large. Not only are there trenches and trenches surrounding the airport on three sides (Grace Airport is next to a lake on one side), but many circular anti-artillery fortifications have also been excavated - these anti-artillery fortifications are huge fortifications blown up by death missiles. The craters were built on the basis of the craters, which could not only defend against artillery bombardment, but also serve as independent defense strongholds. They were connected to the outer trenches by a multi-deep traffic trench.

Some smaller craters were transformed into vehicle or artillery shelters, but what made Lieutenant Brandt feel a little strange was that these vehicle and artillery shelters were built facing the bay in the east, and the vehicles and artillery could most effectively avoid attacks from the direction of Conception Bay during their hiding period...

Are these shelters used to defend against the US 240mm cannons on Bell Island? There seemed to be only a dozen 240mm cannons there, how many tons of ammunition could be dropped? Is it necessary to be so nervous?

With a head full of question marks and almost exhausted, Brandt met his superior, Captain Gunter Billing.

"Herbert, Fokker 42 just airdropped some protective equipment for us." Gunter Billing said to Brandt as soon as he saw him: "The superiors also ordered that these supplies be distributed immediately to every paratrooper... So you should find a few people to go to the battalion headquarters to get the protective equipment back."