The Rise of the Third Reich

"Marshal Lütjens sent a telegram saying that most of the battleship repair and maintenance work has been completed and can participate in new battles at any time. However, Ludendorff and Tirpitz must be overhauled. There are no 3-4 It is impossible for Yue to go to the battlefield again.

In addition, French Prime Minister and Defense Minister Darlan sent a telegram stating that the Richelieu was now ready to participate in the battle. The French changed the turret for the Richelieu, and now it is equipped with two 3-unit 406mm turrets. The French Navy wanted to see how the artillery would perform in actual combat. "Admiral Redl first reported on the situation of the Navy's battleship force at the Department of Defense operational meeting chaired by Hersman.

Most of the battleships that participated in the last night battle on the ice can now be used on the battlefield again. Although the Ludendorff, Tirpitz and Barbarossa are missing, there is an additional Richey equipped with a 406mm main gun. Leave a number.

"That's enough, that's enough." Hessmann tapped his fingers on the conference table. "The Allied fleets in Scapa Flow have all evacuated. Now we only need a few battleships to bombard the coast."

Scapa Flow was also not a good place for the Allied fleet to stay for long, as it was frequented by German aircraft from Ireland and Norway. Therefore, this fleet withdrew in despair in mid-December 1942. Now the only maritime forces defending the British Isles are destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines and mines.

"The main threats now are mines and torpedo boats." Redl said with a smile. "There are certainly no large-caliber shore guns near the landing site we chose, and there are very few British submarines operating in the North Sea, which does not pose a threat."

The General Staff and Naval Command formulated an invasion plan called "Operation Norman" based on Hersmann's instructions. The landing site was chosen on the east coast of England, that is, the North Sea coast. It is not a focus of British defense, and there is not much cargo to be transported through the North Sea now, so there are not many British submarines operating in the North Sea.

"What threats can mines and torpedo boats pose?" Halder, the First Munitions Director, smiled and shook his head, appearing confident. "And now is not the right season for landing. The British will not take full precautions and will definitely let us succeed in the surprise attack."

On Hersmann's recommendation, Halder would command an army group to invade Britain as a general. If the invasion was successful, Halder, the conqueror of England, would become marshal and eligible for promotion to chief of the general staff.

"Of course there will be no problem with landing," Hessmann stood up and walked to the large military map hanging on the wall of the conference room. A group of German generals attending the meeting followed behind him. "The problem is that we may encounter counterattacks by the British and American coalition forces after landing...especially the 24 hours after the start of the operation will be very critical. The enemy will invest armored forces, and our air power is likely to be greatly affected by the weather. limit"

Now is not the right season to land in England. There are often strong winds and waves on the North Sea, and thick fog is commonplace.

Therefore, a large-scale landing involving hundreds of thousands of people was impossible. "Operation Norman" was only a medium-sized landing operation. There will not be many troops landing in the first wave, and it is very likely that they will encounter a fierce counterattack.

"It won't be a big problem," Halder said with a smile. "The purpose of Operation Norman is just to build a bridgehead in the central coastal area of ​​England to create conditions for a large-scale invasion in the spring. So it only needs to control the small ones close to the coastline." Just a piece of territory, where our landing force will be supported by firepower from battleships and heavy cruisers.

And we will also have tanks ashore. We now have a T9 tank landing ship, which can directly send Tiger tanks to the beach! "

The T9 tank landing ship is the latest model of the T-type landing ship. Its light load displacement reaches 1,700 tons, its full load displacement reaches 4,100 tons, and its beaching limit displacement is 2,700 tons.

The deck compartment of such a big guy has a volume of 2,700 cubic meters, and can accommodate up to 10 Tiger heavy tanks during beach operations.

So in "Operation Norman", the German army will invest a terrifying heavy armor battalion!

"Your Excellency, the enemy's counterattack force mobilization will not be easy," Air Chief Marshal Weaver interjected, "because we will carry out large-scale bombing of the land and railways in central England before the landing operation begins. We now have a considerable number of heavy bombers and can carry out large-scale carpet strikes!"

Val T. Weaver was originally a "strategic bomber faction" in the German Air Force. In the mid-1930s, he advocated the development of heavy long-range bombers. However, at that time, Hessmann and Kesselring insisted on the path of tactical air force and gave no room for the development of long-range bomber forces. It was not until the victory of the Western Front Campaign in 1940 that a large amount of resources began to be invested in the development of long-range bombers.

In October 1942, the Me264 long-range bomber jointly developed by Messerschmitt and Fokker finally began mass production. In addition to the Me264, the Fokker Company, which is good at introducing excellent foreign aircraft models, also brought back the Italian P.108 heavy bomber for mass production.

Therefore, the German Air Force now has two heavy bombers with large bomb loads, the Me264 and P.108.

In addition, because a British plane killed the Pope, Italians were very enthusiastic about bombing Britain. Therefore, after the Mediterranean Campaign ended, the Italians began to work hard to develop bombing aviation. Now they have accumulated more than 500 P.108 heavy bombers that can perform bombing missions over the United Kingdom.

"If you include the Italian P.108 bomber and the Do217 with a considerable bomb load (which can carry 4 tons of bombs), we now have more than 1,000 bombers that can be used to bomb central England." Air Force Commander-in-Chief Marshal Weaver He said somewhat proudly, "In fact, through strategic cooperation, we can also force the UK to surrender."

Hessman smiled and said: "But I don't want a Britain that is bombed into ruins... There are so many factories, mines, and so many well-built cities. What a pity it is to bomb them all? After all, Britain It won’t be long before we become a member of the European Community.”

This is called "putting the country first and destroying it second". Hessman remembers it being said in "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

He paused and then asked: "Val T, when will the bombing start?"

"Starting three days later, that is, January 1, 1943," Marshal Wiffle said, "the weather forecast says that there will be good weather in central England from January 1 to 3."

"How many planes are dispatched?"

"The bombers alone will dispatch 2,000 sorties!" Weaver replied, "In addition, there will be a large number of Fokker Zero and Fw-190 fighter jets."

Hessmann smiled and said, "Very good. This is a very good New Year's gift for Churchill!"

…

"Is this an M4 medium tank?" Standing in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building on Whitehall Street, British Prime Minister Churchill, who had just delivered an inspiring New Year's speech, was now looking out the window at a convoy of tanks rumbling past on the street.

"It's an M10 tank destroyer." U.S. Army Lieutenant General Stilwell, who was standing with Churchill, replied.

Lieutenant General Stilwell is now the chief of staff of the newly established Supreme Allied Headquarters Europe. He smiled and said to Fatty Qiu: "Considering that the German tanks are relatively powerful, all the tanks shipped now are M10 tank destroyers.

In addition, there is an M11 assault gun that is more powerful than the M10 and will soon be shipped to Europe. This assault gun is also modified from the hull of the M4 tank. It has a 90mm anti-aircraft gun, which is enough to fight against the German Tiger tanks. "

Roosevelt, the transport captain, finally sent some good things to Churchill at the end of 1942, including 200 M10 tanks, 120 P47 fighter jets, more than 1,000 artillery pieces of various types, a lot of ammunition and tens of thousands of tons of C3 fuel (Hitler also Received 30,000 tons of C3 and 3 T2 tankers).

Now General Patton's 2nd Armored Division finally had tanks and artillery!

However, there is still no way to transport wheat and egg powder, so the British people still spend this New Year's Day in hunger.

In addition to starvation, the British public witnessed a political crisis in the final days of 1942. Their king, George VI, has not returned from a trip and is now stranded in Canada. Prime Minister Churchill used the authority of the Imperial Defense Act to declare martial law and a state of emergency. Deputy Prime Minister Attlee led all Labor cabinet members to withdraw from the war cabinet!

Churchill then once again used the authority of the Imperial Defense Act to ban all activities of the British Labor Party and at the same time banned the British Union of Fascists...

Under this series of changes, the British people don't know whether they are living in a progressive country with democracy and freedom, or whether they are being ruled by a repressive government.

And the German propaganda against Britain (including radio and leaflets) claimed that a coup had occurred in Britain! The coup was launched by Churchill in collusion with US President Roosevelt. The Americans detained George VI who was visiting the United States. Churchill seized power in the UK, suppressed the opposition, placed Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Windsor under house arrest, and transformed himself into a Became a powerful figure - this story was made up by Goebbels.

In order to calm people's hearts, Churchill had to arrange a New Year's Day military parade attended by British and American soldiers, and also invited Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Windsor to come out to review the troops.

The American tank destroyers now passing through Whitehall Street are going to participate in the military parade.

Just as Churchill and Stilwell were preparing to leave the Foreign Office building and go to Hyde Park to host the military parade. An aide to the Prime Minister suddenly ran up to Churchill quickly and reported in a low voice: "Prime Minister, this is a call from Fighter Command. A very large group of German bombers is approaching the British coastline!"