The Rise of the Third Reich

The night of August 23, 1944 enveloped the mouth of the Demerara River. The stars in the cloudless night sky were clearly visible, and they were almost connected to the Atlantic Ocean reflecting little waves under the moonlight. Such a night with good weather is perfect for a landing battle that can change the fate of mankind.

On the south bank of the Demerara River, the shanty town of Georgetown seems to have completely turned into a deserted ghost town. The entire city was in darkness, and there was no sign of any defense on the beach suitable for landing. Only a few old bulk carriers scuttled near the river mouth and the small port of Georgetown, with their superstructures still exposed out of the water, and the dismantled and destroyed dock facilities showed that the European Community troops had indeed taken some defensive measures.

The "Fletcher"-class destroyer "William D. Porter" belonging to the 31.8th Destroyer Group of the U.S. Navy ventured near the mouth of the Demerara River under the cover of darkness at around 9 pm on the 24th.

The bow of this "Fletcher"-class destroyer is now equipped with a "mine-breaker" designed to deal with anchor mines, and three to four kilometers in front of it, there is a "Sea Raven" whose hull has been degaussed. -class minesweeper. The 890-ton hull is not only equipped with a "mine-breaking guard" that can cut the iron chain of anchor mines, but also tows an electromagnetic mine-sweeping device that can simulate the magnetism emitted by the hull.

These two American warships formed a small mine-sweeping formation. Together with a dozen other formations of the same composition, they had to clear out a sea area that could be attacked in the shortest possible time for the US landing formation preparing to launch a landing operation.

In the bridge of the "William D. Porter", Captain Wilfred Walter personally steered the ship while silently praying to the Almighty God in his heart - never encounter any bad luck again. .

His worries are not unreasonable, because the destroyer "William D. Porter" has often encountered various unlucky things since it was put into service. It either collided with friendly ships or accidentally plunged deep into the water. The bomb was dropped into the sea and caused a false alarm in the entire fleet. Otherwise, the torpedo was accidentally fired and almost sunk the Soviet Union (this happened during the operation when the Soviet Union broke through the Denmark Strait and ran to the United States at the end of June 1943). Otherwise, the ship's artillery accidentally fired at the naval base...

In short, all kinds of unfortunate things have happened. If the U.S. Navy had not expanded too fast in recent years and there was a shortage of officers who could serve as captains, Captain Walter felt that he might have been expelled from the Navy.

But this time the "William D. Porter" was performing an unlucky mine-sweeping mission! If something like that happens, it won't be as simple as losing your job, but your life.

As for Captain Walter and all the crew on the "William D. Porter", what they need to pay attention to now is not only the German mines that will explode under the water at any time, but also the elusive torpedo boats of the Germans. And submarines, and of course there are Krupp cannons placed somewhere!

With the thin hull of the destroyer "William D. Porter", no matter whether it encounters mines, torpedo boats, submarines or shore defense artillery of more than 200mm, it will probably not end well.

Just when everyone on the bridge of the destroyer "William D. Porter" held their breath and was about to faint from nervousness. The phone rang suddenly, and then the destroyer's second officer was heard shouting: "Sir, the radar has detected an enemy aircraft! Distance 80, bearing 200, quantity 10, altitude 800..."

"What? What? The bearing is 200 degrees?" Captain Walter was stunned. "Over the land of British Guiana? The altitude is only 800 degrees... Is it flying towards us? Ask quickly."

A few minutes later, the second officer loudly reported again: "Sir, the enemy plane disappeared from the radar screen. Maybe it was a false alarm."

"It must be a false alarm again!" Captain Walter shook his head and said, "The situation report said that the Germans do not have an airport near Georgetown."

"Sir, do you need to report it?" The second officer of the destroyer was a little unsure.

"Report..." Just when Captain Walter could not make up his mind, a loud "boom" suddenly came from the front, startling everyone. Captain Walter had no intention of thinking about the "radar false alarm" incident - this kind of thing was not an accident at all to the destroyer "William D. Porter" - and quickly narrowed his eyes and looked forward.

There was no firelight on the sea, and through the moonlight one could clearly see that the minesweeper ahead was slowly turning. At this time, another loud noise came. Captain Walter exhaled softly: "It's turning, the 'Twig' is dropping depth bombs, let's turn and drop depth bombs too."

Dropping depth charges is a method of rapid mine clearance that can be used in relatively narrow sea areas - it is impossible to drop depth charges all the way on a long route, and the cost is too high. Moreover, using depth charges to detonate mines has a high probability of being missed, so it can only be used as an emergency measure.

Moreover, the movement of dropping depth bombs is very loud, and it is very easy to attract bombardment from shore artillery. It is really a big risk to drop depth bombs to clear the hull of the ship before the landing operation.

When the sound of the depth charge explosion reached the distant Atlantic Ocean, it was already so weak that it was almost inaudible. The large fleet carrying and guarding the main force of the U.S. 5th Amphibious Force had already launched a murderous battle formation covering hundreds of square miles of sea off the coast of Georgetown.

This was certainly a fleet of unprecedented size, probably rivaled only by the American offensive fleet in the Second Battle of the Hawaiian Islands. 9 of the world's most powerful battleships (4 Iowa-class, 4 Soviet-class, 1 North Carolina-class), 4 large fleet aircraft carriers and 20 escort aircraft carriers, as well as two to three hundred other ships of various types Combat ships, covering hundreds of transport ships and landing ships, have launched a landing formation on the dark sea. Hundreds of light cruisers and destroyers formed a semicircular warning circle on the periphery. In the center of the warning circle were battleships and aircraft carriers that were also firmly guarded by destroyers and light cruisers. In front of the battleships and aircraft carriers were the landing gear ready for beach landing. Ships, some of which have launched landing craft of various sizes, and the fully equipped American soldiers or the tanks and cars they drive have been squeezed into the "belly" of the landing craft, waiting to fight for the democracy and freedom of the Guyanese people. Go and fight the Germans to the death.

In order to avoid being discovered by German aircraft or submarines, all the ships on the sea did not turn on their searchlights. However, hundreds of air and sea search radars, as well as numerous sonar, were monitoring the sky and sea over and over again at this time. Any suspicious targets on the sea surface and underwater.

"Sir, the 31.8th Destroyer Group reported: The minesweeping operation has been completed. During the minesweeping process, they were not fired by German shore guns. Except for 2 minesweepers that were damaged by mines, the other ships suffered no losses and no personnel were lost. Report."

Admiral Halsey, commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet and commander of the 31st Task Force, who was sitting on the battleship "Iowa", received a message that "the mine clearance mission was successfully completed" at around 11:30 on August 23. report, and during the mine clearance process, the German army did not use shore artillery to bombard or interfere.

This may indicate that Germany really did not deploy heavy troops in British Guiana, otherwise it would not even have large-caliber shore defense artillery.

Halsey's tense nerves finally relaxed a little after hearing the report, and then he loudly ordered: "Tell Lieutenant General Turner that the landing operation can begin. Georgetown must be captured before dawn!"

At this time, less than 40 nautical miles southeast of the U.S. fleet, close to the coastline of New Amsterdam (a small town in Guyana), next to a shoal, 16 S100 torpedo boats had started their diesel engines, put away their anchor chains, and started heading 40 nautical miles away. The American fleet moved in. These are 16 torpedo boats of the 5th Torpedo Boat Detachment, led by Colonel Johnson himself. Their maximum speed can reach 42 knots. If you move forward at full speed, you can launch an attack in up to 1 hour!

But tonight, they weren't the only sneak attackers. In fact, these 16 torpedo boats alone cannot break through the warning circle composed of destroyers and light cruisers. American destroyers and escort destroyers have good sea search radars, and it is still possible to detect approaching torpedo boats. of.

Moreover, there is no radar on the torpedo speedboat, so you can only rely on the "cat's eye skill" to find your opponent. Therefore, when visibility is extremely low at night, the probability of a destroyer discovering a torpedo boat first is much higher than the probability of a torpedo boat discovering a destroyer first.

Therefore, relying solely on torpedo boats to attack the U.S. landing fleet with a large destroyer escort is unlikely to succeed. But tonight, Cam Huber has prepared a set of combos for the Americans!

Just as 16 S100 torpedo boats began to quietly move towards the target, six Type 21 submarines were submersing at a high speed of nearly 14 knots underwater closer to the U.S. fleet. The target also formed a huge formation on the sea. American landing fleet.

In the air, at an altitude of less than 100 meters above sea level, 36 Ju188E-2 torpedo bombers that had just taken off from the "Georgetown Island" airport were relying on the guidance of radar and radio altimeter to fly at a lower altitude. Search the American fleet on the boundless sea at flying speed!

And tonight's raid, carried out with the cooperation of aircraft, submarines and torpedo boats, is just the beginning of a series of disasters that the US military will suffer on the coast of Georgetown!