Chapter 1196 Landing in North America XII

By the evening of April 19, 1945, the beach line of Hare Bay Island and its nearby Hare Bay, which stretched for several kilometers, was already piled with supplies and troops. The engineers even built a beach in the wilderness of Hare Bay Island. A very crude field airfield.

Russian and Finnish military personnel showed a rare spirit of cooperation this time. Together with the landing fleet crews from Germany and France, they have been conducting transfer operations for thirty or forty hours in a row, and have also built many defensive positions and anti-aircraft guns. position. Everyone exerts their physical and mental energy and performs extremely strenuous physical labor. However, the landing troops of the two brigades have not yet completed landing, not to mention the large number of vehicles, artillery and light "Oliga" tank destroyers they possess.

In order to make the troops on the expedition to North America more comfortable on the road (because the landing troops used are not Marines who are accustomed to the wind and waves at sea, comfort must be considered during the journey), in this "Iceberg Plan", the landing troops They were traveling on two "Bremen" class amphibious assault ships. The amphibious assault ship of this level has not been completely modified and does not have a stern hatch or a landing craft cabin. Therefore, it is very troublesome to land vehicles and heavy equipment. The ship's crane can only be used to lift the vehicles onto the landing craft. This kind of hoisting operation must be carried out when the visibility is good and the wind and waves are not strong, so the efficiency is very low.

Therefore, the transfer and landing operations took almost 40 hours. Only about 40 vehicles were actually transported to the beach, and only about 50 artillery pieces (including heavy mortars) were transported to the beach. With this heavy equipment and less than 2 brigades of officers and soldiers, they could not withstand the Yankees' massive counterattack.

While the transfer to land operations was racing against time, a fierce air battle was underway over Hare Bay Island and Hare Bay. Under the clouds, hundreds of fighter planes were strangled together, big, small, single, double, four-shot, strings of bullets and artillery shells, bombs and rockets, marking their respective lines in the sea and sky. From time to time, there are fighter planes that quickly fell after being shot, and parasols hanging from the pilots descended from the sky.

This is the third wave of large-scale air strikes launched by the Americans on April 19. Like the previous two times, more than 500 fighter planes were dispatched. Not only did they conduct air strikes on the landing beaches, they also attacked the 21st Task Force and the landing fleet on the sea.

American bombs continued to fall on the beach, which was filled with weapons and equipment. Every time a bomb landed, it splashed huge pillars of sand. At the same time, everything nearby that could be affected by the shock wave was overturned and blown to pieces. It also caused a lot of casualties to the officers and soldiers of the Russian and Finnish troops working on the beach, and made the beach landing operation even more chaotic.

In addition, on the ocean near Hare Bay, the 21st Task Force and the landing fleet in an air defense formation also suffered considerable losses. The American F7F finally proved its worth once again in today's battle. Relying on their sturdy body and extremely fast dive speed, they broke through the air defense of the European Combined Fleet time and time again, dropping many heavy bombs on the decks of the two large amphibious assault ships, causing these two giant ships to lose It lost the ability to take off and land aircraft (the Fokker Zero fighters on the ship had long been transferred to the Hare Bay Island field airport), and also seriously damaged the heavy cruiser Deutschland.

However, US military fighter jets also paid a high price on the 19th. In the first two waves of air strikes alone, more than 200 fighter jets were shot down by German fighter jets, anti-aircraft guns and ship-to-air missiles.

Reinhardt and Ribbentrop Jr. had not slept for forty or fifty hours. Reinhardt was one of the first officers to land. His mission was to report to the headquarters of the 1st Armored Grenadier Brigade of the Russian Royal Guards. Hit the front station. Later, Ribbentrop Jr. also led some personnel from the 1st Armored Grenadier Brigade of the Russian Royal Guards to land on Hare Bay Island. These brigade personnel established a temporary headquarters in a forest selected by Reinhardt. The brigade commander, Colonel Levizzo, had not yet landed, so little Ribbentrop took command. For more than thirty hours, he continued to urge the troops to build fortifications and camps on Hare Bay Island and the northern beach of Hare Bay. He also sent a reconnaissance team to search nearby, but no Allied troops were found. There is not even a trace of the troops stationed here.

However, little Ribbentrop still did not dare to let down his guard. He stayed up until the night of April 19, sitting on a pile of ammunition boxes with red eyes, listening to the Russian staff report on the landing and reconnaissance situation.

"Colonel (Russian military rank), on the 24th, all of our 1st Panzer Grenadier Brigade of the Royal Guards will be able to land ashore."

"During the day today, several companies responsible for reconnaissance have advanced 10-15 kilometers inland and established more than a dozen fire positions. In the process, they did not encounter any enemy troops. It seems that the Americans are There are no defensive forces deployed in this area.”

Little Ribbentrop let out a breath and turned to look at Reinhardt, who was already a little sleepy.

"What do you think? Reinhardt?"

"Oh, it looks like we can gain a foothold," Reinhardt said. "We seem to have caught the Americans off guard."

"Really?" Little Ribbentrop shook his head, "I'm not as optimistic as you. I always have a hunch... that we will suffer heavy losses on the beaches of North America!"

"Heavy losses? Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ribbentrop Jr. frowned, "This is our mission. We are the bait... That's why we landed on the most remote beach in North America. Now we can't go anywhere. We can only wait here for the Americans to come to us. And they will definitely be fooled, just like the bait operations planned by the General Staff in the past.

So we will inevitably encounter a hard battle, which will attract the attention of the Americans and create conditions for landing in the Caribbean."

Ribbentrop Jr. guessed his mission, but he didn't guess the real main target. Like everyone else, he still believes that the real main attack will take place in the Caribbean.

Like Ribbentrop Jr., the US Joint Chiefs of Staff also believed on the evening of April 19 that the main attack would take place in the Caribbean.

If it weren't for Truman's request, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would not even send part of the 18th Air Force (the 18th Airborne Corps has 5 airborne divisions, namely the 101st Airborne Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, the 11th Airborne Division, the 13th Airborne Division, and the 17th Airborne Division) to the Labrador coast to launch a counterattack.

"Mr. Secretary," Army Chief of Staff Marshall reported to Wallace at the Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting on the evening of April 19, "The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions are ready. Tomorrow morning, the 82nd will land near Hare Bay. The 101st will land on April 20 or 21. Two divisions at a time should be enough to drive the Germans who landed in Labrador into the sea."

"Two divisions should be enough." Wallace's view on the German landing in Labrador was the same as the Joint Chiefs of Staff - it must be a feint, and it was impossible to launch a main attack there. As for building a large airport there to take off and land Me264 to bomb New York and Boston, it was easier said than done.

There was not even a decent port there, so how could engineering machinery and construction materials land? Moreover, the air raids of the Army Air Force were not vegetarians. During the day on the 19th alone, more than 1,500 sorties of fighter planes visited Hare Bay.

In this case, it would be fine to build a few field airports that can take off and land small planes like the Fokker Zero, but it is simply a dream to build a large airport.

"Then take action," Wallace said, "The American people need a victory that can boost morale."

In fact, the morale of the American people who do not know the truth is quite high, and the morale is low among the government officials and monopoly tycoons who know the truth.

"Okay, okay." William Leahy nodded repeatedly.

At this time, Wallace suddenly saw that General Arnold, the commander of the Army Air Force, who had just returned from Canada, had a solemn face, so he asked: "Henry, is the air force enough?"

"A little nervous." Henry Arnold shook his head, "The Germans are progressing too fast, and their combat effectiveness is stronger than we imagined... and the air force stationed in Canada has suffered too much loss. If we don't replenish it, I'm afraid there will be problems."

"Problem?" Wallace asked, "Henry, do you think the Germans will land on Newfoundland or Nova Scotia?"

"This... is unlikely." Henry Arnold shook his head. "But we still have a gap in our forces in eastern Canada. I suggest that the 14th and 15th Air Forces stationed in South America be withdrawn immediately and reinforced to Canada."

The 14th and 15th Air Forces are stationed in Chile and Brazil respectively. The former is mainly responsible for air strikes on Buenos Aires, and the latter is mainly responsible for supporting the Brazilian army's operations.

If these two air forces are completely withdrawn, it means the complete defeat of the United States in South America. Because once the American air force leaves, the ground forces stationed in Chile will naturally withdraw. And without the support of the US Air Force, the Brazilians will definitely have only one way to lose. In this way, the already precarious New Aspania dictator Juan Peron will become a figure at the level of the founding father.

"Mr. Minister," Arnold certainly knew Wallace's thoughts-"losing" South America is very painful. "Compared to South America, North America is our foundation, and we should minimize the risk."

Wallace nodded and was about to express his agreement when a phone on the conference table suddenly rang. Wallace picked up the receiver and heard the voice of Donovan, director of the Strategic Intelligence Agency.

"Henry, I just got news from Buenos Aires. There was a large-scale protest in front of the Rose Palace Plaza at noon today. More than 100,000 people gathered there to oppose Juan Perón's militarist line!"