Chapter 723 Atlantic Strangulation War (32)

At 17:30, one hour after the German attack aircraft retreated, the reinforcement aircraft from Prince Edward Island rushed to the sky over Newfoundland. Lieutenant Colonel Tony, who was leading the flight, was worried that he would get lost if he couldn't find the place, but he found it at a glance - the place below was where there was fire and smoke and occasional explosions.

Since he couldn't find the enemy plane, he could only flutter and prepare to land, but he was hit by the anti-aircraft fire below. The nervous Canadian and American anti-aircraft gunners mistook them for German planes that came to attack again, and everyone was furious. Fortunately, the accuracy of these shells was not very good and no plane was shot down, otherwise this joke would be considered a big joke. However, Tony's face was very heavy. He was not annoyed by the mistake, but from this incident, it can be seen that the air defense capability here is not strong, or in other words, the firepower density is sufficient, but the training level of the anti-aircraft gunners is not good.

Since St. John's is a large area with many airports, although the Germans destroyed most of them, there are at least a few runways that can provide safe landing after simple repairs. Under the light of fire and lights, Tony's fleet took great efforts to land safely, and lost 4 aircraft for this. Fortunately, the pilots were lucky and escaped without any danger. But less than 40 minutes after they landed, Washington's new instructions came: let them and the remaining aircraft on the airport move to Corner Brook as soon as possible. Tony was so angry that he kicked away the half wing fragment next to the runway and cursed Washington for being a pig brain.

Is Washington a pig brain? It depends on the angle you look at the problem from.

It was Lieutenant General Ingram who proposed to have the Army Air Force move overnight. He believed that although there was no conclusive intelligence, the report sent back by the reconnaissance plane that was shot down today could infer that the German battleship force was also near the aircraft carrier formation. The enemy might withdraw overnight, but it was also possible that they would advance quickly under the cover of darkness and bombard St. John's before dawn to completely destroy the supplies and ships gathered there. Both were possible in terms of probability, but Ingram insisted that the Germans were likely to do so, otherwise they would have left Cape Verde and bombed Newfoundland once purely out of boredom.

This judgment immediately made everyone uneasy. At first, everyone believed that the German fleet turned to Newfoundland after being discovered by the Bermuda reconnaissance plane, and then sneaked away in the dark. Ingram's inference provided another idea, that is, the German fleet's initial target was Newfoundland, and Bermuda was just a means for them to make a feint to the east and attack the west. In other words, the Germans would never withdraw so quickly.

Although Admiral King insisted that it would be better if the Germans did not withdraw, so that Admiral Cunningham would have more time to intercept, most people frowned: Everyone knew the situation in Newfoundland. At most, there were only cruiser-level escort warships, and all of them were no match for the Tirpitz, not to mention that the Germans had at least 5 battleships of that level. If the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet were to face the German battleships, they would only be able to escape far away, not to mention the escort warships.

"Then the Germans might still land?" Eisenhower asked with a frown.

"Landing is better! There are two Canadian divisions on it, and the Germans will be in trouble." Arnold said viciously, "I will send the Army Aviation to bomb these bastards tomorrow morning."

The meeting reached a unanimous decision: the Canadian division was ready to guard against the German landing, and all aircraft temporarily went to Corner Brook to avoid the limelight and wait until tomorrow morning to attack again. The ships in the port were strictly ordered to evacuate as soon as possible, and they could go anywhere. In short, they could not stay in the port stupidly and die.

Marshall added instructions to the staff, asking the 101st Airborne Division to be prepared. If the Newfoundland land battle was not going well, Ridgway's 101st Airborne Division would be deployed again. There was silence in the conference room.

At 18:27, the German aircraft carrier formation recovered all the aircraft. All the returning pilots were excited and described the results of today's attack to the ground crew. They were full of optimism and high spirits. Some anxious pilots swallowed their dinner in a few mouthfuls and asked the ground crew to complete the oil and ammunition replenishment as soon as possible. They also planned to go to Newfoundland to bomb again at night. In the eyes of Marshall and other senior officials, the situation was not as optimistic as the pilots thought. The number of aircraft, supplies and ships on Newfoundland was far beyond their expectations. For the fleet, it is the safest and most reliable to retreat immediately, but the head of state has devoted so much effort to the Newfoundland campaign, even at the cost of Cape Verde. Can he just fight and leave easily? If these more than 300 ships are not sunk or taken away, can it still be called a German navy that has been professionally breaking trade for 30 years? Mashar would be too embarrassed to see anyone when he returns.

"Where is Lieutenant General Bei's bombardment fleet?"

"The fleet is currently traveling at a speed of 27 knots, nearly 300 kilometers away from the port, and the estimated arrival time remains unchanged..."

"The enemy will definitely evacuate these freighters next. We can neither simply sink them nor leave them alone." Crank frowned and said, "I intend to dispatch 40-50 aircraft to form a night attack team to cooperate with submarines to attack the freighters that escaped overnight. If we only attack the big guys who escaped, the remaining ships should not dare to move. More than 300 ships are not so easy to move so quickly."

Ozawa nodded in agreement. What made him even more satisfied was that Berlin agreed to the cross-platform combat strategy, which meant that the aircraft lost in today's air raid (some shot down by the US military and some lost to anti-aircraft guns) could be quickly replenished. 19 aircraft is a small matter. , each of these pilots has been trained through untold hardships, and they are all treasures. The losses will be greater tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and he does not dare to take them lightly. Fortunately, the fleet currently has a spare crew of nearly 140 people, and the ground crew has used backup aircraft to make up for the gap lost in the afternoon. He was slightly relieved.

Everyone decided to dispatch 32 fighter jets and 36 He-218s at night to cooperate with the submarine operations, focusing on killing the freighters that wanted to escape. Ozawa added: "We must use fighter jets to straf the crowds on the pier, and we cannot allow the sailors to easily board the ship and leave..." …I believe there aren’t that many people stationed on those ships!”

At 18:36, Cunningham, who was leading the U.S. and British aircraft carrier formations to rush north, received a detailed telegram and learned about the raid on Newfoundland. He punched the wall with his fist in anger - no matter what, he would let the Germans Tricked! Spruance checked the chart in silence. The distance between the two sides was currently more than 2,000 kilometers, and it would take at least two days and one night to arrive. This made Cunningham even more anxious.

At 18:47, after much effort, Lord Thomas finally arrived at the pier. The situation at the scene made him take a breath of air. The pier had been repaired by bombs, and all the flat areas were noisy and crowded with people. There were not many transport boats working hard to get the sailors who came from all over the place to board the ship after hearing the news, but everyone was in a hurry to board their own ship. Everyone was blushing and refused to give in. It was noisy like a vegetable market. The fight broke out and the scene was chaotic. The port police were busy putting out fires everywhere and were unable to maintain order. There were Canadian infantry in the distance, but they were busy building fortifications to prevent the Germans from landing, and they didn't even bother to come here.

"Quiet, quiet, everyone, listen to the Lord's instructions..." The adjutant and the guards shouted at the top of their lungs, but the noisy crowd couldn't hear them at all, and they were all drowned in the noise.

The furious Lord Thomas seized the guard's Thompson submachine gun and fired a shot into the sky, scaring the crowd into chaos. The crowd that had been jubilant just now immediately turned into a group of frightened deer trying to run away, with crying everywhere. The sound, at least all the attention was focused here. With the shock of the crowd, Thomas climbed onto the roof of the car with the help of the guards, and shouted condescendingly at the top of his throat: "I am Thomas, chairman of the Maritime Commission, everyone, please listen. I order all sailors on the outer cargo ships to get on board and leave the port, as far away as possible!”

After his persuasion and pressure from the guards, everyone finally began to board the ship one after another in accordance with order. At around 8 o'clock, the outermost freighter blew its whistle and slowly left the port, one, two... and there were also Canadian and American frigates in the middle. They were also ordered to cover the departure of the ship as much as possible.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. In less than an hour, there was a buzzing sound at the port. No one could react at first, but Thomas' face changed drastically. Of course he knew it was the sound of a plane, and he also knew all the surviving American planes. They have all left the airport to "escape" to Corner Brook, and the only ones coming will be German planes.

Hearing the sharp whistling sound getting closer and closer, he shouted: "Lie down" and lay down on the ground first. A circle of people followed him and lay down, but more people were at a loss. Bf jumped down in the air -219 has begun to fire on the ground. Several machine guns and machine gun fires fell from the sky like fire sickles. The standing crowd were all targets of the strafing, neatly cut down like rows of wheat.

After the sound of "chuchuchu", only a few people were still standing on the pier. The crowd was either knocked down, squeezed into the water by panicked others, or trampled on each other. What made Thomas even more furious was that for more than ten seconds, A few minutes later, a German bomber roared down, and with a loud "bang", a 250-kilogram bomb exploded in the crowd. Shrapnel and air waves were harvesting the survivors unscrupulously. He felt that there was a mass of something coming from far away. It flew up and hit him on the head, then rolled to the side. He opened his eyes and took a sneak peek, almost spitting out all the bitterness in his stomach - it was clearly a piece of human arm.

At this time, the port's anti-aircraft firepower began to shoot into the air as if they had just woken up from a dream, and a lot of people cried loudly - Where is our plane? The mentally fragile sailors couldn't bear this kind of torture. They got up from the ground screaming and prepared to flee far away. They were knocked to the ground mercilessly by aerial fire before they had gone far...