Chapter 580 Operation Sea Lion 2

In the British Wartime Headquarters underground on King Charles Street in London, England, a huge English Channel defense map was hung here after Churchill returned from his inspection of the Channel front.

On the map, starting from Norfolk at the eastern entrance of the strait to Cornwall in the west, ten counties have become places where large armies gather. The numbers of the troops, the codes of the forts and the frontline airports were densely marked.

To break it down, there are a total of 5 armored brigades, 5 motorized infantry brigades, 10 motorized infantry divisions, 10 infantry divisions, 5 air defense divisions, 5 air defense brigades, 5 fortress divisions and 5 fortresses. The brigade number was clearly listed. More than 400,000 British officers and soldiers, 1,000 tanks of various types, 2,000 anti-aircraft guns of various calibers, 2,000 cannons (excluding large-caliber coastal defense guns), and countless mortars and machine guns were placed On the northern shore of the English Channel in southern England.

There are also 62 forts equipped with coastal defense artillery with a caliber of 10 inches or more (including 10 inches), standing on the front near the beach. The muzzles of more than 350 huge cannons are pointed toward the English Channel in the south, ready to blast into pieces any enemy fleet that attempts to approach.

24 frontline airports and dozens of air defense boundary radars are also deployed on the land of 10 counties on the north coast of the English Channel. More than 1,500 Spitfire and P51 fighter jets are ready to take off at any time.

A little further away from the English Channel, there are hundreds of military airports belonging to Fighter Command, Bomber Command and Coast Air Force Command. The total number of fighters, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and torpedo attack aircraft on standby exceeds 5,000 aircraft!

The total strength of the reserves deployed in the second line, the defense line near the North Sea, or the garrison used to defend the City of London exceeded 1 million. They operate thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and countless light weapons, guarding carefully constructed lines of defense, and are ready to completely annihilate the invading enemy at any time.

In Wales, Scotland, which are further away from the Germans, and even Northern Ireland, which seems unlikely to be invaded, there are also hundreds of thousands of British officers and soldiers and thousands of aircraft of various types standing ready.

In addition to these more than 2 million elite front-line troops, there are 44 so-called "county divisions." They are local troops of the United Kingdom, somewhat similar to the National Guard in the United States and the local defense forces in Germany. However, these "county divisions" have been strengthened and trained in the past two years and are now very formalized. Many of the British Army's first-line infantry divisions are now adapted from these "county divisions" - after a "county division" is reorganized, a "county division" with the same number will be re-established, so the number of "county divisions" is not the same. It will decrease and it will always be 44.

The entire mainland of the United Kingdom, in the spring of 1942, was already a barracks with millions of British soldiers in uniform. Anyone who wants to capture it will inevitably pay unimaginable casualties.

However, in this dark and damp underground headquarters, which is easily reminiscent of a dungeon, few people think that these millions of armed British can be relied on to defeat the invading Germans. The task of these British cannon fodder is only to delay the British mainland. It’s just time to fall.

Because they all know that there are huge loopholes in the defense of the British mainland!

"Mr. Prime Minister, the Home Defense Command believes that the island of Great Britain is very well defended."

In the conference room, after introducing the defense situation of the British Island, the commander of the Home Defense Force, Baron Ironside, suddenly pointed the baton in his hand at the island of Ireland, which is next to the British Island.

He said: "But the defense of the island of Ireland is empty. Except for our two divisions and one armored brigade with less than 40,000 people in Northern Ireland, there are only about 40,000 Irish troops. Their equipment level is very poor, And the will to resist is very weak, unless we get help, otherwise..."

"So is it possible for the Germans to invade Ireland?" Churchill smoked a cigar and frowned. "Is it possible?"

"There is such a possibility," replied Viscount Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. "Currently the Germans are concentrating troops and ships in Brest, Antwerp, Zeebrugge, and Wilhelmshaven. Brest, located on the Atlantic coast, has very With good port facilities, it is expected to become the main departure port for the German army, and it is only 250 nautical miles away from Ireland. The Germans can easily transport several motorized divisions to Ireland, and for the airborne troops, the distance of 250 nautical miles is also small. Not too far away. If the Germans capture Cork and Waterford (Irish port cities), it will be difficult for us to protect Ireland from a German invasion."

"Ireland..." Churchill took two puffs of his cigar, frowned and was silent for a while, "Those Irish are really troublesome. If we want to protect them, they will probably regard us as invaders, right?"

"That's for sure!" Viscount Brooke said, "This will save the Germans trouble. They don't have to occupy it at all. They can just take over Cork and Waterford."

It turns out that the British have long known that Ireland is a big hole in the British homeland defense system - something that Hessmann, the "cheated" German god of war, can think of, and of course the political and military elites of the British Empire can also think of it.

Everyone in this group is something of an expert on Ireland. When it comes to the "Irish Account of Change", they can keep it for three days and three nights.

So everyone knows that most Irish people hate Britain, even though the rulers of Ireland say they want to be neutral and oppose any enemy invasion. But how can a person who can sit in the wartime cabinet command center not see through the minds of the Irish?

The Irish are looking forward to the Germans coming! Once the Germans come, they will have the opportunity to truly break away from Britain and become independent, and they can also take back Northern Ireland. The reason why they shout "neutrality" and say they want to resist is to the British, and they are only prepared to resist the British army.

But these experts on Irish issues are helpless with the Irish. If they had a way, Ireland would not become a free state with a president like it is now-although it is still a member of the Commonwealth in name, it is actually an independent country.

"Mr. Prime Minister," Viscount Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, said to Churchill, "The only feasible solution now is to deploy more troops in Northern Ireland and support the Irish immediately after the Germans land in Ireland."

Churchill thought for a moment, frowned and asked, "Does that mean our army will take the offensive on the island of Ireland?"

The statement of supporting the Irish is pure self-deception. Now the British Army must fight in Ireland if it wants to enter. It must not only fight the Irish, but also the Germans.

"Yes, there is no other way." Viscount Brooke nodded.

Churchill knew that Viscount Brooke was right. Even if the British Army invaded now, it would not be possible to completely control the island of Ireland within a few days, because the Irish had been prepared for it. At that time, the Irish will sing and dance to welcome the German Nazis...

"Okay," Churchill exhaled a large puff of white smoke, "Then let's start preparing for the Irish War. Put more troops in Northern Ireland, and it's better to put two more armored divisions. We must let the Germans know how powerful we are!"

...

"It's really big!"

"Yes, Reich Marshal, it and the Gustav gun are the largest cannons in the world. After assembling, it needs 4 special load-bearing rails to make it move."

"Can it destroy the British artillery on the other side of the channel?"

"If it can hit, it will definitely destroy it. This is an 800mm caliber cannon. The armor-piercing shells it fires weigh 7.1 tons. What can't be smashed? But it's not easy to hit the target across the channel."

The commander of the "England Army Group" and an artillery and engineering expert, General Ludwig Beck, who was introducing the situation to Hessmann who came to inspect at the front line in Calais, France.

This general was actually an opponent of Hessmann's war proposal, but he was just an isolated opponent and could not form an opposition. After Hessmann took control of the General Staff, he was assigned a sinecure and left alone.

He had a good personal relationship with Schleicher, so after Schleicher became the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, he asked him to be the commander of the army group. However, the army group under his command was a bluffing army group. There were a lot of army numbers under it, but the actual force was very limited. The most lethal of them was the so-called "Calais Coast Artillery Group".

The "Dora" cannon that Hessmann was inspecting now belongs to the Calais Coast Artillery Group.

In addition to this 800mm cannon, the Calais artillery group also has another 800mm Gustav cannon; 10 280mm K-5 large-caliber artillery (4 of which are railway guns and 6 are installed on the turret); 1 210mm K-12 artillery with a range of up to 115 kilometers; 8 French Cruz Bruno 280mm cannons; 2 French Scheer Bruno 280mm cannons; 3 French Lange Bruno 280mm cannons K-3 mobile artillery mobile artillery; 10 210mm K-39 mobile artillery, and four armored turrets "Friedrich Augusta" turret (triple 305mm cannon), "Heinrich" turret (twin 280mm cannon), "Oldenburg" turret (twin 240mm cannon) and "Skifried" turret (twin 380mm cannon).

There are a total of 51 large-caliber long-range artillery pieces, which seem powerful, but the only ones that can really pose a threat to the British armored batteries in Dover are the two 800mm cannons "Dora" and "Gustav". The other cannons can only be used to block the Channel.