The Rise of the Third Reich

Valparaiso, close to the vast Pacific Ocean, is a mountain city with many beautiful European-style buildings built along the hillside. From a distance, it looks like it is a port city in Western Europe. If you study the architectural styles here carefully, it is not difficult to find that the architectural styles in different areas of the city are different. The buildings in some areas are full of British style, some areas smell of Germany, and other areas have French style. Romance and Italian laziness. This very different architectural style was, of course, brought here by immigrants from different European countries.

During Valparaiso’s golden age—the city’s golden age from 1848 to 1914, which was then increasingly depressed by the opening of the Panama Canal—it attracted a large number of immigrants from Europe, who based their views on their home countries. Different from each other, communities full of European style were established one after another, and churches and schools were also established in their respective communities. thus retaining their respective ethnic identities and not being assimilated by Hispanics here in Chile. It is for this reason that most Chileans in the Valparaiso region still identify with their European homeland.

Sitting in a car and entering the somewhat depressed city of Valparaiso at dawn, Eisenhower felt a strong sense of hostility. Especially when the car passed through the "German Zone", Eisenhower almost had the illusion of entering Germany itself. Some blond residents, mostly old people, children and women cast hateful glances at the American convoy. Many of the boys were wearing brown, SA-like uniforms, the boys' uniform of the German school in Valparaíso. Eisenhower even saw a few older boys wearing swastika armbands!

Nazi Party and German symbols were everywhere, with swastikas on many buildings and the German Iron Cross on some. Most of the walls facing the street are painted with black paint, which looks extremely incongruous. Eisenhower knew that it was used to cover up the German slogans - naturally they were slogans promoting Nazi and fascist ideas!

"We seem to have arrived in Berlin!" Eisenhower muttered while sitting in the car.

"General, we will reach Little London in a while," said Wedemeyer, who was sitting next to Eisenhower. "It is much friendlier there, so the headquarters of the 10th Army is located in Little London."

"Little London" refers to the British immigrant neighborhood of Valparaiso, which is also the most architecturally beautiful and luxurious area in the entire city, with many bank and trading company buildings. The headquarters of the U.S. Army's 10th Army is located in a British bank building.

Because they all speak English, and there is a strange alliance between Britain and the United States, the residents of "Little London" are relatively friendly to the US military stationed there. However, Eisenhower still sensed many distortions. For example, he saw a portrait of a girl in uniform in the lobby of the bank building where the 10th Army Headquarters was located.

"Who is she?" Eisenhower asked. "Looks so fierce."

"She is Queen Elizabeth II."

"Elizabeth...that traitor?"

"Admiral, she is not some traitor here, but the Queen of England."

After listening to Wedemeyer's explanation, Eisenhower understood that the British expatriates in Valparaiso recognized Elizabeth II as their monarch. The same situation exists in the French Quarter of Valparaíso, where residents also do not identify with the Free French.

The US military who occupied Valparaiso was also a little unsure and did not dare to take drastic measures to bring order to the chaos. They only slightly rectified the German area and turned a blind eye to the political orientation of the British, French and Romans living in this city. , Close one eye.

"What about the Chileans?" Eisenhower asked, "What's their attitude?"

"Of course they are against us." Wedemeyer said truthfully as he led Eisenhower to the floor occupied by the 10th Army Headquarters. "What they want to build is a South American United States, and we are here to prevent them from realizing their dream. . So the Chileans are on the opposite side of us, and Santiago is turning into a Vladivostok!”

Vladivostok is now becoming a nightmare for the Japanese, with hundreds of thousands of attacking troops blocked in the ice and snow outside the Amur Peninsula. They braved the severe cold of more than ten degrees below zero and the Soviet artillery shells and bullets to launch continuous attacks, but they were unable to make a breakthrough.

Wedemeyer actually compared Santiago to Vladivostok, obviously not optimistic about the upcoming offensive.

…

When Eisenhower entered Valparaiso, his number one general, Lieutenant General Omar Nelson Bradley, was inspecting outside Santiago. He is one of the few "famous generals" in the U.S. Army who has fought with the German army in Europe.

Although in the end he left his troops and fled to Edinburgh wearing civilian clothes, from where he took a plane back to his country. But he still got reused - at least he knew how powerful those blond and blue-eyed supermen in Germany were, which was an amazing experience!

After returning to the United States, Lieutenant General Bradley was first sent to defend Newfoundland and formulated the defense plan for Newfoundland. Then he was sent to Brazil as a military adviser to help the Brazilian army defend Rio de Janeiro, and actually achieved success. At least the New Asbanian army has not captured the capital of Brazil so far.

Because of his excellent command ability in Rio de Janeiro, he was appointed commander of the 10th Army of the United States Army and was ordered to command all ground forces (including the Marine Corps) attacking Chile. As of December 20, he commanded as many as 14 divisions, including 12 infantry divisions, 1 armored division and 1 Marine division. The total force is as many as 220,000, with more than 1,000 tanks/tank destroyers - the old American infantry division has 76 tank battalions.

However, more than 200,000 troops and more than 1,000 tanks still cannot give Bradley the confidence to win, because he inspected the periphery of Santiago for a few days, talked to a lot of battalion commanders and company commanders, and found a very worrying situation - Chileans are defending their motherland New Asbania with great enthusiasm!

The situation that the Chilean people originally imagined to welcome the US Liberation Army did not happen, but a large number of Chilean youths enthusiastically joined the Chilean Corps of the New Asbanian Army! Therefore, the number of troops guarding Santiago is increasing every day. If we simply compare the number of people, it is probably more than the 10th US Army that is preparing to attack Santiago.

In addition, the equipment and training of the Chilean Corps of the New Azbanian Army are not as bad as imagined. In fact, the training level of the Chilean Army is higher than that of the US Army. They completely imitate the German Army. The training, tactics and equipment are all German-style, and even the military uniforms are similar to those of the German Army!

Moreover, Chile is still a relatively wealthy country (Chile and Argentina were both wealthy countries before World War II, and their national income was similar to that of Britain, Germany and France). It has accumulated a large amount of gold and foreign exchange by exporting guano, saltpeter and copper. Therefore, before and after the establishment of the New Azbanian Federation, the Chilean government purchased a large amount of weapons and ammunition from Germany and stored them in Santiago to prevent the United States from invading from the Pacific. I didn't expect it to come in handy now!

Therefore, the equipment of the expanding Chilean Corps is not bad. Although there are no tanks and self-propelled artillery, there are sufficient light weapons and various artillery are also well equipped. In the confrontation outside Santiago, the Chilean Corps did not let the American soldiers suffer.

"Admiral, we can't occupy the Chilean capital with less than 300,000 ground troops." Bridley, who returned to Valparaiso from the front, gave Eisenhower a disappointing answer. "The Chilean Corps alone is not easy to deal with. There are about 200,000 to 250,000 fully armed Chilean soldiers in Santiago. They are completely Germanized armies, and even their uniforms are exactly the same.

In addition, there are at least 3 German divisions in Santiago, and 50-100 Tiger heavy tanks!"

The Tiger tanks in Santiago belong to the German Marine Corps. It is a heavy tank battalion equipped with 66 of the latest Tiger K tanks, and its combat effectiveness is extremely strong.

"There are Tiger tanks?" Eisenhower also felt that the problem was a bit serious when he heard about the famous Tiger tanks.

Because he knew that the Tiger tanks belonged to the German heavy divisions, and usually only elite troops such as the armored divisions, armored grenadier divisions and marine divisions would have them. Moreover, the troops with Tiger tanks must also be equipped with a considerable number of Type 4 tanks and Hunter tank destroyers, and their anti-tank capabilities should not be underestimated. The more than 1,000 M4/M10/M36s in Bradley's hands may not be their opponents.

"How many more troops are needed?" Eisenhower asked with a frown.

"At least 500,000!" Bradley shook his head and said, "There will be a real hard battle to fight! According to the experience of the European battlefield, cities like Santiago with mountain cover and a large number of solid buildings are very difficult to fight, and the losses will be very heavy!

And we can't underestimate the fighting will of South Americans when defending their motherland. In fact, the Brazilians also made the invading army of New Asbania suffer a lot in Rio de Janeiro with similar terrain."

Eisenhower thought for a while, nodded and said: "Okay, 500,000 is 500,000! Omar, you continue to prepare for the siege, I will go to Washington to ask for reinforcements. They will definitely give it, because they can't afford to lose... Only by taking Santiago and bombing Buenos Aires, the United States can have a decent exit from the war."