The Rise of the Third Reich

Georgetown, Guyana.

August 18, 3:50 in the morning.

Snow-white searchlights pierced the night and illuminated a small seaport facing the Atlantic Ocean. This is a port with a long history. It has been a stronghold of Western colonists in the Americas since the end of the 15th century. Spain, the Netherlands, France and The British had repeatedly fought for it. It was occupied by the Netherlands in the 17th century, and was transferred to the British Empire in 1814. But such a once prosperous port had inevitably declined by the 20th century.

The port of Georgetown is small and its facilities are very rudimentary. The area near the port area is filled with low-rise shanties where Indians and black people live, and there are almost no beautiful European-style buildings. No one can imagine that Europeans arrived here earlier than they arrived in New York.

When a fully loaded T-1 landing ship with a displacement of 3,750 tons docked with a crude and somewhat irresponsible dock, all the buildings in the port area had their doors and windows closed, and there were no sights on the empty streets. Even though it was half a civilian, there was no dense scene with many sentries. It seems like this is a deserted port that has long been abandoned.

However, Major Rudolf von Ribbentrop, who had just come off the Soviet-German battlefield, was still able to use his extremely keen battlefield intuition to find the anti-aircraft gun positions covered with camouflage nets in the Georgetown port area, which was almost an airport. No other defenses were found.

"Comrade Major, is this the American continent?"

A volunteer named Tymoshenko (also called Timoshenko) from the Kingdom of Little Russia (Ukraine) followed little Ribbentrop on the deck and looked at the small and dilapidated port and city in front of him. asked very disappointed.

"Peter, this is the American continent. It's not as prosperous as you imagined, right?" Little Ribbentrop looked back at this burly little Russian with a golden beard - he can join the European Communist Party The Little Russian volunteers in the vanguard of the Physical Expeditionary Force are not newbies on the battlefield. They are all veterans who have fought the Soviet-German War for more than two years!

Sergeant Major Peter Nikolayevich Tymoshenko was a Ukrainian SS volunteer. He participated in no less than 100 battles in more than 2 years of war and was a true battlefield veteran.

Of course, little Ribbentrop himself is not bad either. He first entered the battlefield in the Battle of France and has now fought in the World War for more than four years. During this period, he also participated in officer training and was promoted from an ordinary soldier to an SS major.

After coming off the Soviet-German battlefield, he was appointed to the 5th SS Panzergrenadier Brigade because he could speak some Russian. Commander of a battalion (armored battalion).

Several men wearing dark green short-sleeved military uniforms seemed to be waiting on the dock. Little Ribbentrop saw a man with a tall figure and a handsome face. The brim of his military cap was pushed down very low, and his whole body showed an unstoppable look. The thirty-year-old SS colonel with a warrior-like attitude jumped onto the gangway and walked quickly to the deck of the T-1 landing ship.

Little Ribbentrop knew this man. He was the famous "Panzer Meier", the former acting division commander of the 12th "Hitler Youth" Division of the SS - a 34-year-old division commander even in the SS, where promotion was relatively easy. Chuuya is a legend!

However, the acting division commander of "Panzer Meyer" did not work for too long before he was demoted. In fact, he became the division commander by accident, because his boss was the original division commander Colonel Witte on a front line on the edge of the Caucasus Mountains. During the inspection, he was killed by Soviet guerrillas. As the highest-ranking officer in the 12th SS Division, Meier, who was still a lieutenant colonel at the time, became the acting division commander and commanded the troops to fight for several weeks until the Soviet Union officially ceased war. .

Subsequently, the German troops on the Soviet-German front began to rest and recuperate. Some troops and officers in better condition were drawn out of the first batch and formed into some small but very elite brigades, which were sent to the Americas as the advance troops of the European Community Expeditionary Force.

The "Panzer Meyer" also got the same opportunity and was sent to America as the brigade commander of the newly formed 5th SS "Queen Kira" Panzergrenadier Brigade.

"Rudolph, welcome to Georgetown Island."

After Meyer and Ribbentrop raised their hands to each other, they half-jokingly said to him: "This is actually an island located on the South American continent."

"Is this an island?"

Little Ribbentrop was stunned, "Looking from the map, the northwest sides of Georgetown face the Atlantic Ocean, and the other two sides are quite flat land."

"It's land." Meier nodded, "But unlike European land, British Guiana (actually part of the Republic of Guyana) has about 215,000 square kilometers, which is larger than the Kingdom of Poland, but has a population of less than 200,000 , and most of them are concentrated in the coastal areas near George Town, engaged in fishing and agriculture. Walking 10 kilometers inland from the coastline of George Town, there are endless virgin forests with no roads and no residents. It's a sea of ​​forests. So Georgetown is actually an island... We actually came to the American continent to defend the island."

"But... I didn't find any defensive facilities." Little Ribbentrop frowned, "I didn't find any defensive facilities except for a few anti-aircraft gun emplacements. And there are shanties along the coastline. Isn't this possible? Will it seriously affect our shooting sight?"

"Not bad, you are worthy of being a veteran of the four-year world war." Meyer turned his head, raised his hand and pointed to the southwest and smiled, "We have to walk 40 kilometers inland along the Demerara River. We must hold on to the 'Georgetown Island'. Since 1942, our people have been constructing there, building docks, large airports, barracks, anti-artillery bunkers, artillery positions, anti-aircraft positions and simple roads, and also stockpiled numerous We don’t have enough supplies. We’ll take the landing ship there after dawn and wait for the Americans to come and die!”

The plan for the defense of British Guiana was formulated by General Falkenhorst when he was Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force in Guyana. It follows the principle of "fortress defense" and concentrates its forces on one point of defense. Moreover, the strategy of "defending the interior but not the coast" was adopted to avoid putting the defenders under the threat of heavy artillery from US surface ships.

Therefore, the real "Georgetown Island" is not on the seaside, but 40 kilometers away from the coastline (this distance is enough to avoid the bombardment of the main guns of the American "Iowa" class battleship), surrounded by endless tropical rainforest. Among them, the only way to communicate with the outside world is through the narrow Demerara River, a very hidden airport built in the rainforest, and difficult-to-pass forest paths.

…

When it was getting dark, Ribbentrop Jr. and "Panzer Meyer" were already on their way to "Georgetown Island", still aboard the fully loaded landing ship with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons.

The landing ship sailed slowly in the inland river, upstream. Both Ribbentrop and Meier stood on the deck "looking at the scenery", actually familiarizing themselves with the terrain.

"Is there no road to walk on?" Little Ribbentrop noticed that large areas of virgin forest appeared on both sides of the strait - it is hard to imagine that Europeans arrived here more than 400 years ago!

"There are no roads 10-15 kilometers away from the coastline," Meier said. "This area relies entirely on water transportation. Although we Europeans have been operating here for 400 years, we have obviously not developed it seriously. This is a problem for us. A good thing, as long as the Demerara River is mined during wartime, the Americans will have no choice but to fight jungle warfare with us."

"Colonel, what kind of boat is that?" Little Ribbentrop's eyes were sharp. He saw a blue and gray camouflage-colored boat on the water beside the river.

"It's an S-boat!" Meier glanced at the boat. "It's an S100 torpedo boat, belonging to the 5th torpedo boat detachment of Colonel Johnson. Colonel Johnson is also the naval commander-in-chief of Georgetown Island."

The S100 torpedo boat is the largest torpedo boat owned by the German Navy, with a displacement of 117 tons. It has three Daimler-Benz MB511 supercharged diesel engines and can reach a speed of 42 knots.

In addition to its large tonnage and fast speed, the S100 boat also has strong armor and powerful firepower. It is equipped with a 20mm machine gun, a 40mm anti-aircraft gun and two 533mm torpedo launch tubes. It also has a mine skid at the stern. , can be used to lay various types of mines.

In addition, the endurance of the S100 boat is also amazing, reaching about 700 nautical miles, which is about 1,300 kilometers. It is enough to rely on the fuel it carries. It can set off from the port of Georgetown, go around the American-controlled Trinidad Island (about 500 kilometers away) and come back again. Its combat efficiency can be compared to that of a destroyer.

It is precisely because of the long range, high speed and strong firepower of the S100 boats that the German Navy deployed the 5th Torpedo Boat Detachment, which has 16 S100 boats, to Georgetown.

For more than two years from 1942 to the present, the 5th Torpedo Boat Detachment has used Georgetown as a base to conduct frequent sorties, cooperating with the "Beast" class torpedo ships and larger destroyers to attack American ships near Trinidad. They launched an attack and sunk a total of thirty or forty various ships, which was definitely a great achievement for a torpedo boat.

In addition, the S100 boat can also be used to lay mines. The S100 boat now discovered by Major Ribbentrop was rushing to the mouth of the Demerara River to lay mines.