Chapter 1230 Chapter 1256 Atomic Bomb 13 Chapter 1257 Atomic Bomb 14

Newfoundland time, April 28, 1945, 11 o'clock in the middle of the night.

Admiral Erich Bey, commander of Task Force 15 of the European Combined Fleet, was wearing a raincoat and standing on the missile deck of the flagship battleship Bismarck. He watched with his own eyes as several sailors removed and repaired a Yagi antenna that was damaged by strong winds. .

At this time, his ears were filled with the roar of the sea breeze. Raindrops hit the thick steel plates, making a crackling sound. The nearly 50,000-ton hull was constantly shaking in the waves. If it were not for the well-trained old navy, there would be no Way to stand firm on the Bismarck. As for the "landlubbers" who were incorporated into the several-thousand-ton landing ships of the 15th Task Force (all of them were landlubbers compared to the old navy), Admiral Bei couldn't even imagine how dizzy they were now.

However, for the old navies who have been fighting in the North Atlantic for a long time, violent storms of this level are commonplace.

"It's done, sir!" A captain who was leading several sailors to repair the missile fire control radar shouted to General Bei, "The radar is repaired. As soon as the storm passes, our missiles will be of great use. "

Admiral Bey nodded, turned to Vice Admiral Lindemann, the captain of the Bismarck and commander of the 111th Battleship Group, and said: "Ernst, the 'fort' plan will be implemented soon. The Bismarck and Tirpi Please don’t make any mistakes.”

"Understood, General." When Major General Lindemann, who has a pair of big ears and is nicknamed the "Elephant of the Sea", answered, there was a look of worry that could not be wiped off his face.

General Bei understands what "Elephant" is worried about? The 111th Battleship Group (the groups under the European Combined Fleet are all composite and can operate alone) although it has 2 Bismarck-class battleships, 2 "Deutsche"-class heavy cruisers, 4 "Munich"-class air defense cruisers and 8 1936 The D-type destroyer is also covered by a minesweeper brigade, but it is not enough to break into Concepcion Bay.

Therefore, after Major General Lindemann received the order to forcefully break into Concepcion Bay, he expressed to General Bei several times that he could not complete the mission. And Erich Bay's view on the "Fort" plan was the same as Lindemann's - this was simply an impossible task! Therefore, Lindemann and his own opinions were reported to the 1st Fleet and the Atlantic Front.

However, Marshal Rolf Karls, commander of the 1st Fleet, and Marshal Lütjens, commander of the Atlantic Front, ignored them and strictly ordered that the "Fort" plan must be implemented.

Admiral Bei, who didn't know what to say to Lindemann, sighed, turned around and walked towards the commander's cabin at the stern of the ship. After entering the cabin and handing the raincoat to the adjutant, he hurried back to the commander's cabin.

"Sir, we have just received an order from the 1st Fleet Headquarters." Colonel Wolfgang Roman, Chief of Staff of the 11th Task Force, handed a copy of the telegram to Admiral Bei, "The command ordered that we must arrive on the 29th Arrive 20 nautical miles west of the entrance to Concepcion Bay before 3 a.m. and be on standby. In addition, all ship personnel must put on white protective clothing, goggles, masks and gloves before 3:30.”

"What?" Erich Bei was stunned again and again - what kind of orders are these? If it is 20 nautical miles close to the entrance of Concepcion Bay, it will be right under the muzzle of the US shore gun. If the weather turns fine, it may be attacked by US bombers... In this case, how can the fleet Can I be on standby? What's the difference between that and waiting to be beaten?

Also, why wear that weird white hazmat suit, along with sunglasses, a mask, and gloves? What the hell is going on? Why do Americans want to use chemical weapons?

Questions remain questions, but orders must still be carried out. Erich Bay immediately ordered Colonel Roman to convey the orders of the 1st Fleet to the various groups below and the landing fleet under the command of the 11th Task Force - which required wearing strange white clothes and sunglasses. It's not just the sailors who wear gloves. The army officers and soldiers who are so seasick that they can't even find the north in the landing ship have to dress up like this. In fact, this is not necessary at all, because these guys are all sick, so they can only Lying in the cabin to rest, there was no way to get on the deck.

At the same time, Lieutenant Brandt, who was guarding the Grays Harbor Airport, also received similar orders. He and his men had to put on protective clothing and gloves at 3:30 a.m. on the 29th, and were always ready to wear goggles and gas masks.

All buckets and water bottles carried by soldiers must also be filled with drinking water before 3:30. From 3:30 onwards, all drinking water must be from buckets and kettles.

In addition, all officers and soldiers must enter trenches or bunkers before 3:30, and all enter bunkers after receiving orders.

"Lieutenant Colonel, are all men in the trenches and bunkers?"

In an underground command post at the airport, Lieutenant Brandt loudly asked Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzenegger, who was responsible for commanding all German officers and soldiers at Grays Airport.

"Yes, Lieutenant." Lieutenant Colonel Schwarzenegger actually didn't know what was going to happen. "Everyone gets into the trenches and bunkers."

"But there's still a war going on," Brandt asked. "How can we fight when everyone is hiding?"

Schwarzenegger didn't know how to fight. This was the first time he encountered such an unknown order.

"Find a way to overcome it!" Schwarzenegger said with a frown. "The orders from above must be obeyed... There is no room for bargaining. I will personally inspect after 3:30, and anyone who does not comply with the orders will be placed in solitary confinement." "

Personal inspection and confinement were also orders from above. As a glorious National Socialist fighter and Nazi Party member, he naturally had to obey the orders of his superiors unconditionally.

"But..." Brandt is a socialist with the ability to think independently, and he does not want to lose his life because of the strange orders from the top.

"Nothing but!" Schwarzenegger's voice became louder, "An order is an order!"

Facing the furious Nazi giant, Brandt did not dare to say anything more. He could only attend the meeting with a lot of questions, and then got out of the bunker, risking his way along the deeply dug traffic trenches. The rain began to thin, and he walked towards the position where his paratrooper platoon was located.

While the rain became sparse, the American artillery shells became denser, and 105mm and 155mm grenades fell like raindrops. The powerful U.S. artillery group repeatedly plowed through the defense line that the German paratroopers had worked hard to build. Balls of orange fire exploded one after another on the position, lifting mine wires, sand, weapon fragments, and occasionally human limbs. sky. The 240mm cannons on Bell Island also joined the bombardment. Their power was huge. Every roar blasted a gap in the German front line, completely destroying all personnel within the range of its power.

This round of shelling was launched after the US military prepared for most of the night. The Americans braved the pouring rain and used trucks to drag more than 400 M1 105mm howitzers and M1 155mm howitzers to the front-line artillery positions, plus self-propelled artillery belonging to the 16th Armored Division and the 21st Armored Division (each with 54 M7 "Priest" or M12 self-propelled artillery) and the 240mm cannon on Bell Island, forming a strike firepower of more than 500 barrel artillery, repeatedly hitting the German forward positions at Grays Harbor Airport and Grays Harbor, shelling The fragments screamed and flew wantonly, turning the German front line into a terrifying sea of ​​fire.

Lieutenant General Walton Walker and Major General Ross stood on the height of a hill less than 5 kilometers away from Grays Harbor Airport, braving the falling rain and looking at the rolling fire in front of them through binoculars. Not far ahead of them was the ice-filled lake that shielded the north of the airport. The smoke from the German front was blown across the lake by the sea breeze, and reached the hill where the two American generals were watching the battle. The strong smell of gunpowder made the two I'm in a very good mood.

Of course the Germans can withstand this level of shelling, but losses are still inevitable. When they are sufficiently weakened by the bombardment, it will be the armored group's turn to attack!

Major General Ross put down his telescope and shouted loudly to Walton Walker: "Lieutenant General, they can't support it for long. Tomorrow at the latest, we can capture the Grays Harbor Airport. In addition, the troops attacking Grays Harbor have also deployed The deployment is in place and ready to launch an attack at any time.”

Walton Walker nodded, "Major General, as long as I'm here, you can command the troops to attack Grays Harbor... we must win it as soon as possible!"

Even though the Germans occupied a large area on the west coast of Concepcion Bay, the only ports that were really usable were Port Carboniel and Port Grace. The other fishing ports and beaches are of little use. At most, there are some infantry and a small number of tanks and armored vehicles. They are simply not enough to face the as many as 300,000 well-equipped American soldiers on Newfoundland.

Therefore, capturing Port Gray is basically half the battle won. If Port Carbonear is captured again, the US military will probably win the battle on Newfoundland!

"Lieutenant Admiral, welcome aboard the destroyer HMS Athabascan!" Captain Cook, chief of staff of the Newfoundland Squadron of the Royal Navy's Canadian Fleet, said to Fraser, who was aboard the destroyer HMS Athabascan. A military salute, "The Newfoundland Squadron is now ready to face the German invasion fleet!"

The Athabascan destroyer is a tribal-class destroyer with a full load displacement of more than 2,400 tons. It was incorporated into the Canadian fleet before the fall of the British mainland in 1943. It is currently the largest of all British ships stationed on Newfoundland, and is therefore the flagship of the fleet.

For Fraser, who had commanded a battleship, this small destroyer was really not worth mentioning. However, at this moment, he still showed confidence, nodded and said to his chief of staff: "Let me tell you, our submarine discovered a huge German invasion fleet 50 nautical miles west of Newfoundland. Their goal is Kang Septim Bay! Raise the Z flag now...The British Empire needs everyone to stand their ground!"

Chapter 1257 Atomic Bomb Fourteen

Although there is only a small "Tribal" class destroyer as the flagship, Vice Admiral Fraser, as the fleet commander, is confident of victory at this moment!

This confidence in victory is not unfounded blind optimism, but is completely well-founded. Because this Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy now has a large fleet that can exert its power in the offshore.

In addition to the flagship destroyer USS Athabascan, the Newfoundland fleet also had another 20 escort destroyers, as well as a large number of torpedo boats and U-class submarines. In the past two or three days, Fraser used the bad weather and darkness as cover to mobilize most of the ships to Concepcion Bay.

There is also the powerful Churchill Naval Fortress on the east coast of Conception Bay, which has 8 406mm cannons that can support the battle at sea at any time. In addition, the entrance to the bay is blocked by tens of thousands of mines. After the German fleet approached, Fraser even ordered the PT torpedo boats to block the waterway that was originally reserved for British and American ships to pass through. Now, from the entrance of Conception Bay to 5 nautical miles inland, there are dense mine blockades.

In order to prevent the mines from being cleared by the German minesweepers, Fraser also deployed a large number of PT torpedo boats in the mine blockade. As long as the German ships enter the mine belt, they will be hit head-on by the MK15 torpedoes fired by these PT boats!

The task of the 20 escort destroyers was to use their 127mm and 76mm main guns to protect the PT torpedo boats from the attacks of the German torpedo boats that ventured into the bay. The wooden PT boats were inferior to the steel-hulled S-100 boats in terms of tonnage, firepower and speed, so the encounter between the two would definitely be disadvantageous to the PT boats. Now that there were escort destroyers to protect them, there would be no big problem.

As for the German large surface ships, would they dare to rush into Conception Bay without breaking the minefield and the Churchill naval fortress on the east coast of Conception Bay?

Fraser thought about it and didn't think the Germans had any way to win the battle of Newfoundland.

At this moment, the drizzling rain finally stopped, and a ray of morning light shone directly from the east, revealing the white sky. Fraser looked at the direction where the golden light flashed and exhaled softly: "Good weather has finally arrived... The decisive battle is probably coming soon, right?"

...

"Marshal, the weather in the North Atlantic has improved."

"Improved? That's great." Marshal Lütjens, the commander of the European Community Atlantic Front, breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the report of the improved weather. "Have the early warning aircraft set off?"

"They set off a long time ago. Six Me264Hs and six Bv138Es took off 30 minutes ago."

It turned out that the windy and rainy weather not only appeared on Newfoundland, but also swept across the western North Atlantic, causing a large area of ​​sea to be covered by wind and rain. The early warning aircraft of the European Community Navy and the German Air Force could not take off, and even the reconnaissance capability of the Type 21 U-boat was severely discounted.

So in the past nearly 30 hours, the European Community Atlantic Front Command lost its monitoring of the North Atlantic, and could not dispatch carrier-based aircraft and shore-based Me264s to support the German paratroopers on Newfoundland.

Now the storm has finally ended as predicted, and the Atlantic Front Command can finally put most of the Atlantic Ocean under its own eyes again.

"Have the 20th, 21st, 10th and 15th Task Forces reported their losses?"

"Just reported," replied Air Force Admiral Karl Kohler, Chief of Staff of the Atlantic Front, "There are... 12 destroyers and landing ships damaged in the storm, all of which are lightly damaged. There are no reports of losses of large surface ships."

"Where is the 15th Task Force now?" Lütjens asked again.

Admiral Hermann von Fischer, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Atlantic Front and Chief of Staff of the European Combined Fleet, said: "Sir, the 15th Task Force has arrived at point T and can launch an attack on Conception Bay at any time."

Admiral Lütjens nodded slightly, and glanced at Air Force Marshal Kesselring sitting in a corner of the combat command center - he is the representative of the headquarters and also has the right to use the atomic bomb!

"Albert," Lütjens' tone suddenly became extremely solemn, "Are the 801, 802 and 803 bomber squadrons ready?"

The 801, 802 and 803 bomber squadrons are used to drop atomic bombs. They have now been deployed to the Angra do Hero Air Force Base in the Azores, and the three terrifying atomic bombs have also been in place and assembled (the plutonium-239 charge has not yet been installed in the atomic bomb, but it has been transported to the Angra do Hero Airport). All it takes is a command from Marshal Kesselring to carry out the atomic bomb drop operation.

"One of the bomber squadrons can be dispatched within two hours." Kesselring paused, "What is the target?"

"It's the entrance to Conception Bay," Lütjens said, "According to intelligence and reports from the 1st Air Assault Army, the Americans (and the British) have dropped a large number of mines there, probably more than 10,000!

There are also a large number of PT torpedo boats and U-class submarines operating in Conception Bay. There is no way to completely eliminate them in the short term. The only way is to drop atomic bombs! Use atomic bombs to blast a landing channel!"

Lütjens meant to use atomic bombs against mines, light submarines and torpedo boats... Compared with an American atomic bomb that killed tens of thousands of Japanese devils in another time and space, the "Heisenberg Device" No. 3 to be dropped in Conception Bay is probably the scum of the atomic bomb world, an atomic bomb used to "bomb fish".

But this is also the only tactic that can quickly clear Conception Bay and create conditions for the landing ships and the 111th Battleship Squadron to break in. This tactic of using atomic bombs to "bomb fish" was actually proposed by Hersman. He certainly knew about the Crossroads Operation in another time and space, and he also knew the tremendous power generated by the atomic bomb exploding in water.

At that time, the Americans placed a 21,000-ton atomic bomb 55 meters underwater. After the nuclear explosion was successful, about 2 million tons of seawater and sea sand were sprayed into the sky, and quickly formed a 1,800-meter-high, 610-meter-wide , 91 meters thick water wall. When the wall of water rushed to the beach 5.6 kilometers away, it was still 4.6 meters high and hit the beach repeatedly as many as 9 times.

There is no doubt that any mines, torpedo boats, submarines or other ships of insufficient weight that are within the range of the underwater explosion power of the atomic bomb will be destroyed. If an atomic bomb, let alone a mine, were hit at the entrance of Concepcion Bay, all the fish and shrimps would probably be killed.

In addition, if a water wall as high as 1,800 meters appears on the sea, it will definitely scare the American and British troops on the island. They may just surrender their guns. If they don't surrender, then they will drop two more atomic bombs. …

Marshal Kesselring nodded: "Okay... the target is Concepcion Bay." He paused, "Because the plane that drops the atomic bomb will drop the bomb from an altitude of 10,000 meters, the weather must be absolutely good. In addition, the atomic bomb is A 'semi-remotely controlled' bomb can adjust its impact point to avoid accidental damage. In this process, absolute air superiority is required to prevent American interceptors from getting close to the Me264 responsible for dropping the atomic bomb.

Finally, our troops on the west coast of Concepcion Bay must enter bunkers before the atomic bomb is dropped, and at the same time do protective work. "

Unlike the Americans in another time and space who used the atomic bomb as a strategic weapon from the beginning, the German Wehrmacht regarded the atomic bomb as a tactical weapon (if it was a strategic weapon, it would have to be controlled by Hitler), so it formulated a plan to use ground forces, navy Regulations for cooperating with aviation forces in atomic bomb operations. Of course, there are preparations to prevent radiation and accidental explosions. Although the accidental explosion of an atomic bomb is too big, no one can guarantee that it will never happen, so Brandt and his comrades dug it out. After several days in the pit, I also wore various "anti-atomic bomb" protective equipment.

"No problem... We have nearly 2,000 aircraft near Newfoundland." As soon as Lütjens finished speaking, he was interrupted by the staff's report.

"Report, the submarine U-3055 discovered a large American fleet on the Atlantic Ocean about 700 nautical miles southeast of Newfoundland!"

700 nautical miles southeast of Newfoundland, the U.S. Grand Fleet! ? How is this going?

Kesselring and Lütjens looked at each other, and Kesselring asked: "Their target is the Azores?"

"Maybe... right," Lütjens nodded, "The Americans probably... want to mobilize our main fleet."

"We can't let them bomb the Azores!" Kesselring said. "Even if Heisenberg 3 is released, there are still two Heisenberg devices and corresponding charges stored at the Port of Heroes base!"

Of course, the plutonium-239 that can be filled with two 20,000-ton atomic bombs cannot be damaged at all. Although they cannot be detonated by bombing - 40 kilograms of high-abundance plutonium-239 are contained in 40 strong lead containers. , and placed in different underground warehouses, it is impossible to produce a chain reaction. But it is still possible to cause nuclear leakage and heavy casualties.

In addition, 40 kilograms of plutonium-239 is a priceless metal. If it is damaged during enemy bombing, it will be a heavy loss!

"No, there will be no problem!" Lütjens immediately assured, "I will immediately mobilize the 10th Task Force to pursue it! The 10th Task Force has 8 Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers and 640 standing Fokker 636s fighter."

He thought again, frowned and said, "Albert, the 801st Battalion still has to attack immediately! Because our army's situation on the west coast of Concepcion Bay is very critical and we can't hold on for much longer."