Chapter 912: Encirclement (4)

May 27 was destined to be an anxious night. Emergency meetings were held not only in Moscow but also in London. However, unlike the silence on the Soviet side, someone in the basement of Downing Street began to bang the table and roar.

That afternoon, Zhukov deduced the strategic rhythm of "seven-sided encirclement and central flowering" through enemy information reports, and Marshal Brooke obtained the news that the German fleet was heading north with a B-29 modified reconnaissance aircraft.

This dedicated reconnaissance aircraft discovered the Axis fleet implementing the SEAL plan more than 1,400 kilometers west-northwest of Ireland. When the news of 4 fleet aircraft carriers, 8 escort aircraft carriers, 5 battleships, countless cruisers, destroyers, auxiliary warships, and cargo ships heading north was transferred to London through radio waves, the entire power center of the British Empire was boiling.

This brave reconnaissance plane deliberately lowered its altitude to see more clearly, but soon he paid the price for it. Six Do-412s rushed up and shot it down, leaving the British with only an incomplete telegram, but it was enough to outline the Axis' action plan - a huge fleet appeared on the sea less than 1,200 kilometers southwest of Iceland. Anyone with a brain could guess what the other side wanted to do.

Marshal Brook's first reaction was to let the Air Force dispatch a heavy bomber group to attack, but Admiral Porter regretfully told him: By the time the planes were ready to go and flew over the fleet, it was already night, and nothing could be done except wasting fuel!

"The Germans must be prevented from landing!" This was the unanimous thought of everyone, even overwhelming the attention to the situation in India.

There were two pieces of news from the Indian battlefield, only one piece of good news, but two pieces of bad news: the good news was that two British divisions successfully landed and deployed personnel, but some heavy equipment and supplies would take some time; the first piece of bad news came from the British Indian Army. After two weeks of resistance and battle, the Japanese army took over Kanpur and Lucknow, the important cities of the United Provinces of India (now called Uttar Pradesh), and opened the passage to Delhi. The Japanese vanguard was less than 350 kilometers away from the suburbs of Delhi, and the total strength of the British Indian Army was less than 90,000 if the newly reinforced troops were not included. From a military analysis, since the Ganges River runs across the United Provinces, the Japanese army can easily dispatch and transport personnel, and the next battle must be the Delhi Defense War.

The second piece of bad news came from the TF44 fleet. Although London had no control over the lives of the Americans, everyone gasped when they heard that the main force of the Combined Fleet arrived in the Indian Ocean and sank seven of its own warships in just one day. The Combined Fleet was obviously heading for Spruance, but if the encirclement and suppression failed and it instead supported the landing operations of the Japanese Army, the British Indian Army would be completely destroyed.

This was the last time to import materials, supplies and personnel to India. Only by selling more than 40 ships to Germany and a few warships that escaped by chance did the German army tacitly agree not to bomb Karachi. If they did, the two divisions would lose their combat effectiveness immediately.

Several bigwigs discussed and found that there was basically no better way to defend India except to let the British and Indian troops fight to the end "one man and one bomb". Before there was a clue to the situation in India, the German fleet appeared again. Several people examined the military forces at hand and found that they could not come up with enough effective forces to contain them.

Porter vowed to send out heavy bombers to bomb tomorrow, but no one was optimistic about it. Heavy bombers were like anti-aircraft guns hitting mosquitoes when dealing with surface targets, and the hit rate was too low. It was still useful to deal with the German landing site. The Royal Navy could not produce a warship larger than a cruiser except for the unfinished main battleship on the slipway, and sending other ships out was tantamount to sending them to death. As for the army, there were 3 million people on the island, but they could not rush to Iceland to help. Even the most easily deployed paratroopers could not transport heavy equipment and could only carry light weapons. What role could they play in the anti-landing campaign?

After an urgent discussion, the three major military leaders came to a unanimous conclusion: they must ask the United States for help, and the US Atlantic Fleet must be dispatched, otherwise Iceland would be difficult to protect. The cabinet was immediately notified of this news.

"Have you notified the Icelandic garrison?"

"Yes, the garrison is urgently gathering..." Marshal Brooke shook his head when he talked about this situation. When the news reached the U.S. military headquarters in Iceland, the first reaction was that it was impossible. After repeated confirmation, they acted in a panic. The American soldiers were dragged out from cafes, cinemas, parks and even unknown bushes. Many of them were having a hot relationship with Icelandic women. How could they be ready to go to war? Although the situation of the two British divisions was better, it was worse than the preparations for war in Britain.

"What do the Americans say?"

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff is holding an emergency meeting. From the initial communication of Marshal Dill, it seems that the situation is not good." Pound's mood seemed quite irritable. Dill and the Royal Navy liaison who stayed in the United States sent a message that the two Essex-class aircraft carriers, the USS Bennington and the USS Hancock, had just been delivered the day before yesterday and were currently undergoing sea trials in Pisacek Bay. The first group of projects had not yet been completed, and the carrier-based aircraft equipped with the ship were also incomplete and urgently needed to be run-in, so they could not be put into combat at all.

When asked how long it would take to be ready, the answer was that it would be the earliest in early July.

"Early July?" Pound yelled in the headquarters, "No need to wait until early July, Iceland will be finished in a week."

"There are nearly 60,000 American troops on Iceland, don't they even care about the American troops?" Brooke couldn't believe his ears, "If the new aircraft carrier can't be deployed, at least there is still one aircraft carrier and escort aircraft carrier to contain the Germans."

"They didn't..." Admiral Fraser smiled bitterly, "Most of the escort carriers are covering the US Army's landing in South America in the Caribbean."

Only the U.S. Army Air Forces has made it clear that it will take off a group of B-29s from Newfoundland to bomb the German fleet tomorrow morning, but everyone knows that compared with the aircraft carrier fleet, the heavy bomber formation flying 2,000 kilometers is really of little significance. .

Churchill was deeply shocked by this, and personally sent an emergency telegram to Roosevelt, hoping that the latter would intervene. An hour later, the call came back - not with Roosevelt's signature, but with Vice President Truman's signature.

"Dear Prime Minister, the war has reached an extremely critical juncture. I have sent a telegram to the Icelandic defenders to encourage them to persevere to the end and thwart the German landing attempt. In addition, our army will provide aviation support... In view of the fact that the naval strength of the Atlantic Fleet is currently at a low At the bottom, we cautiously believe that it is impossible to dispatch an aircraft carrier fleet before the end of June. We sincerely ask your Royal Air Force and Royal Navy to support the Icelandic operation in various forms and do their best to ultimately defeat the German landing attempt..."

The Americans believed that although the Royal Navy did not have capital ships, it could at least send torpedo boats, destroyers, and submarines to launch night raids to break diplomatic ties and attack. This suggestion angered Marshal Pound, who believed that the Americans were asking the Royal Navy to die. meaning.

He grabbed the telegram and tore it into pieces: "Whoever wants to save Iceland, go and save it. I won't serve you any more! Let the planes bring back the British troops in Iceland! Let the Americans fight the Germans on their own. beat!"

Churchill said angrily: "What will happen to Britain if we lose Iceland? Americans can live without Iceland, but can we lose Iceland?"

"So what if we lose it?" Pound stared, slapping the table and yelling, "We have all the Royal Navy's battleships, what else do you want from us? I want an armistice with the Germans! Armistice! Roosevelt doesn't want us? Okay. Wow, I’m going to hang out with Hitler!”

"You..." Churchill was shaking with anger.

Attlee frowned and asked the other two: "Do you think Iceland can be defended without naval support?"

"It's basically difficult." Brooke shook his head. "Iceland has more than 400 aircraft, which is not enough to guarantee the advantage of sea control; Iceland lacks large shore guns, and the German army has 5 battleships. If the enemy uses firepower to cover it, it will be easy." Once we find a beachhead and successfully land the Germans, we will lose the battle - it is a well-known fact that the US military in Iceland has many combat capabilities.”

"The key question now is one. Can the Royal Air Force and the Icelandic Air Force contain the enemy's landing attempt?" Eden asked, "As long as the Germans can't get ashore, it doesn't matter whether the navy is dispatched?"

"You can barely say that. But what cannot be ignored is that the airport in northern Scotland is nearly 1,200 kilometers away from Iceland, which greatly exceeds the range of the Spitfire. Bombers and attack aircraft will only rely on P-51\P-47 fighter jets for escort, and these The fighter jets can only land in Iceland and cannot return in the same batch," Portel smiled bitterly. "The key is that the recent continuous air attacks by the Germans have not only drastically reduced the number of aircraft and pilots, but also the high-grade aviation fuel reserves have been running low, which has remained high for several days. We can provide strong air support, but if it turns into a war of attrition similar to what we are currently experiencing in the British mainland, we cannot afford the pressure."

Churchill said in a muffled voice: "Don't move the Navy, use all the aviation fuel reserves for the Royal Air Force to use, and deal with the German fleet tomorrow."

While he was talking, a confidential staff officer suddenly ran in in a panic: "The German army is conducting a large-scale air attack on Iceland!"

"What?"

"The German fleet is so fast?"

"No...it's not a German carrier-based aircraft, it's a German air force taking off from Norway!"

In the High Command in Berlin, Jeshunek reported to Hoffmann confidently: "The Norwegian Air Force has launched the first round of air strikes on Iceland. This afternoon, a total of 407 Ar-234 and 413 Ju-188 bombers were dispatched, consisting of 246 Ta-152 fighter escorts, using Hs-393 and hail bombs to perform high-altitude precision bombing; tonight, 174 Me-264, 106 Ju-488, 81 He-277 plus more than 60 captured B-17\ B-29 will carry out carpet bombing; tomorrow morning, more than 400 carrier-based aircraft will carry out the third round of air strikes... In the next 48 hours, there will always be our aircraft over Iceland!"