Four Hundred and Fifty Four Iceland

London, England. Perhaps this city will soon become London, Germany, but at least in Churchill's mind, it will always be London in England. Churchill stood at the door of the basement, looking at the black smoke from the exploding shells in the distance, the rubble at his feet, and a hanged British officer a few steps away.

The individual's body is just hanging on the lamp, and there is a card on the chest that I am a coward. These officers are all trying to escape or retreat and lose their positions. But the most critical point is not that they are really cowardly, but that they question Churchill's leadership. Just after receiving a telegram from His Majesty the King, they wanted to overthrow Churchill's leadership, but Churchill noticed it in advance and sent someone to hang them.

Now Churchill still keeps his word in the south of England, because most of the people left here are his confidants and loyalists. They declared that the king's order was false and that the radio broadcasts had been controlled by the Germans, encouraging people to continue to resist until the last moment. But relying on the devastated southern region of the UK, how can it counter the hundreds of thousands of troops of the A Group Army supported by Germany?

Failure, for the current Churchill, is only a matter of time. He turned around, looked at the soldiers following him, pointed at the man's body lonely and said, "Let's put it down, choose a cemetery for a proper burial."

The gray sky in London is nostalgic. Churchill smiled wryly, watching his soldiers frantically untie the rope from the telegraph pole to remove the corpse, and suddenly felt that he should never have complained that the sky in London was always gray. Because even if the sky is gray, it seems that the sky in the motherland is better than the sky in the occupied areas.

But he couldn't help but feel emotional, because another round of shelling by the German army began. Escorted by several soldiers and officers, he returned to the dark basement and returned to the cruel reality. The German army is only 700 meters away from where he is in a straight line. At this distance, even a 60mm mortar can easily shoot.

"Prime Minister... There is no need for us to stay here. If you want, we can leave soon and go to Brighton. We will board the ship in the south and retreat to the southwestern Cornwall peninsula." Behind Churchill, a The officer suggested: "As long as the frontal defense area is shortened, there should be no problem in defending the Cornwall Peninsula with the strength in our hands."

"Stop persuading me." Churchill waved his hand and said, "I know you are doing it for my own good, and I am very grateful. But your suggestion ignores one point. If London is lost, what is the point of our resistance. As long as the German army occupies London, Britain will be completely over. At that time, even if we hold the Cornwall Peninsula, no one will follow me."

There is another problem that Churchill did not explain, that is, with the combat effectiveness of the German armored forces, it is not bad in the city. Once it goes to the field battlefield, who can say that they can hold the line of defense? At that time, it will not be the end of retreating steadily, and if he escapes from London, where can he retreat in the end?

In fact, he still holds power here,

The reason why the royal family or other British powers did not fall into trouble is also part of the reason: the Scottish regime represented by Chamberlain hoped that Churchill could hurt Germany and win status and stability for the future northern British regime. Another reason is that the British royal family is struggling in Canada, and they also need time to find their real shelter.

To put it bluntly, going north to Canada was just an expedient measure. The place the British government was really looking for was Iceland, an overseas territory of Denmark. The British royal family has deployed troops in the south and is deploying a huge plan to escape the shell. This plan is to attack Iceland, occupy it and make a home there.

Now about 1,000 British soldiers have landed in Iceland, and the residents of the island have not put up any decent resistance. The German navy was busy hunting big fish near Britain, and had no leisure to go to a place like Iceland to find the trouble of a small British force. By the time the Germans realized that the British were planning to establish a base in Iceland, it was too late.

A total of 10,000 British people were transferred from the British mainland to Iceland for defense. Even the United States hoarded strategic materials that should have been sent to the British mainland to Iceland. Some British fighter units also fled here, forming a considerable number of Icelandic air defense forces.

In order to support the United Kingdom not to move the back garden of the United States in Canada, the United States even mobilized 4,000 volunteers, carrying weapons and equipment as mercenaries, and transported them to Iceland. These troops were ordered to help Britain control and consolidate Iceland's defense line. By the time the German navy discovered the attempts of the United Kingdom and the United States, the actual strength of the United Kingdom in Iceland had exceeded 20,000, and there were more than 300 fighter jets.

Obviously, it is unrealistic to launch an attack on Iceland under such circumstances, so Germany had to repeat the same trick and ordered the German submarine force to go north to start a new round of strangulation of Iceland's transportation routes. But obviously this kind of strangling operation is not very effective, because Iceland is actually far away from Norway and the British mainland, and the distance for submarines to fight west of Iceland is very long, which is naturally much more difficult than blocking the UK.

And the United Kingdom seems to want to regard Iceland as their forward base for counterattacking the British mainland. They hoarded supplies in Iceland and trained troops. They even expanded the troops bit by bit to a scale that caused headaches for the Germans. On March 20, The number of British defenders on Iceland was expanded to 23,000, organized into two integrated infantry divisions, and even equipped with 110 brand new American m3lee tanks.

Originally, there were not many residents on Iceland, so at this moment, the entire island is basically composed of British combat troops, and the amount of supplies is much smaller. In fact, even if the total amount of supplies to maintain 50,000 British troops for a week , not as much food as a British London needs every day.

Therefore, it is obviously unrealistic to trap the British defenders on Iceland, especially when the German naval power is not fully withdrawn from the British mainland, it is even more like a fantasy. It is not an easy task to organize the landing force to take back Iceland again. Now the German transport ships are going all out to maintain the supplies of the British Army Group A, and there is no force at all that can be deployed to transport combat troops and materials to far away Iceland.

"The navy can guarantee the launch of the landing operation, but it is estimated that 3,000 soldiers will be lost, and the navy cannot guarantee the transportation task of maintaining the Icelandic garrison." This is what Raeder said to Akado, and it is naturally judged indirectly. Planned execution for landing in Iceland.

Another speechless news is that the results of the army's calculations are more pessimistic than those of the navy. The result of the first landing deduction has two failures and one tragic victory. Keitel's Group B Army will pay a price of 10,000 for this landing, and after the victory, Germany will maintain a maximum of 5,000 troops on Iceland. This scale will be easy for the United States or the United Kingdom to retake Iceland in the future.

Of course, the plan given by the Air Force is simpler: it is okay to bomb Iceland with butcher bombers, but it can only rely on naval aviation for escort. As for the effect of the bombing, Dick and Catherine, the two air force commanders, were very pessimistic: Iceland did not have any decent industrial system, and apart from attacking some airports, it was a complete waste of bombs.

In the end, the commanders of the navy, army, and air force agreed that the contradiction was concentrated on the German navy. If the German navy is strong enough to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in the future, then the British army in Iceland will not be a threat; Lost because the navy is weak.

Therefore, the German side took a lenient attitude towards the movements of the Icelandic British team. Akado can't come up with any good way to deal with the Icelandic British army now. He can't guarantee that his troops can successfully land across several kilometers, and he can't completely block the Icelandic route and trap the British on it.

In fact, the British royal family, or the orthodox British government-in-exile, is arguing with the local rulers in Canada at this moment. In fact, Canada, as a colony of the United Kingdom, has already begun to exercise most of its independent sovereignty a few years ago. Now that the British government has come to prepare to restore the country in Canada, it is obviously a move that makes the local rulers very dissatisfied.

Therefore, the British royal family hit a soft nail in Canada. In addition to announcing support for the British government against Germany, Canada was not even willing to provide the United Kingdom with an area to restore the country. Therefore, after the British government-in-exile arrived in Canada, it did not announce the move of the capital. class news.

In the end, the representatives of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom signed a secret agreement in Washington. The United States will transport materials to support the British mainland operations to Iceland, support the establishment of a forward base for the restoration of the country in Iceland, and continue to fight against Germany there; This British counterattack plan has contributed, but the British royal family must "get out"; the United Kingdom promised to leave North America and no longer move the capital in Canada.

The name of this agreement is the "US-UK-Canada Alliance Agreement", which allows the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to jointly deploy counterattack forces in Iceland. Of course, another result of this treaty is that because he lost his job in Canada, Montgomery was ordered to go to North Africa. As the chief of staff of the British Army in North Africa, he officially began to confront Rommel, his lifelong enemy.