Chapter 924 Turning Point (3)

Although Vice Admiral Bei knew about the existence of a capped aircraft carrier, he had never known the details. He was a navy officer, but he was only responsible for leading battleships to fight. He had been playing with naval guns and torpedoes all his life. He was not very familiar with conventional aircraft carriers, let alone the specific tactics of special aircraft carriers. Today, after a night of careful observation, he finally understood: the key to the artificial dock is that the deck that looks flat is actually composed of thousands of steel plates that can be raised and lowered - no wonder the whole ship looks like a forest of steel columns. The tanker below is the specific carrier to maintain balance. In fact, it does not have to be a tanker. If you are willing to spend money, you can use a battleship, and the size can be even larger!

He couldn't help but sigh, but soon found the problem: "Isn't this thing expensive? Just use it up once?"

"Of course not, that's too wasteful." Gauss said, "The construction cost of this ship is higher than that of a standard Axis-class aircraft carrier. How can you bear to use it once? It can be reused. You can imagine the specific principle of submarines."

"Submarine? Oh... I see, I see... Smart! Smart!"

There are nearly 20,000 tons of fuel in the cabin of the transport aircraft carrier. Although it is submerged in the sea, it is very close to the beach, and it can conveniently and flexibly provide fuel supplies to the front line through pipelines. At the beginning, less fuel is pumped away, and the ship is as stable as Mount Tai. When the ship needs to float, just close the sea valve first to ensure that no water enters the bottom of the ship, and then pump out the fuel in the reserve oil tank, and then suck the seawater between the two layers of the bottom of the ship into the empty compartment, and use the characteristics of the oil tanker that multiple compartments are divided but can be connected to continuously introduce seawater into other empty compartments-equivalent to gradually emptying the seawater at the bottom of the ship.

Then use other ships to assist in pumping water. If the technology is skilled, it can be operated simultaneously - discharge oil in compartment A and pump water in compartment B. Like a submarine, it needs to let seawater flow into the cabin when diving, and then use compressed air to empty the seawater when floating up. Those huge oil tankers are first used as transportation containers, and then act as buoys after draining the seawater.

When the tide rises, the floating operation can be carried out. When the seawater in the cabin is emptied to a certain extent, the buoyancy gradually increases, and the oil tanker sunk to the bottom of the sea slowly floats up again, and then exits smoothly - of course, the seawater in the cabin cannot be completely drained. Complete drainage will cause the bottom cabin to be too light, the overhead deck to be too heavy and the center of gravity to be unstable, which will easily capsize when encountering wind and waves.

As they were talking, 4 cargo ships were approaching the artificial dock. The engineers quickly built a horizontal steel bridge and used a small flag to indicate that the construction was completed and the cargo could be unloaded.

The first vehicle to come out of the Will was the Tiger. The 48-ton heavyweight slowly drove along the steel bridge to the artificial dock, and then from the artificial dock to the beach along another steel bridge. The steel bridge with a unit load of more than 100 tons successfully withstood the test. Except for the "creaking" sound, there was no deformation or twisting, and the artificial dock made of steel plates was as stable as Mount Tai. There was thunderous applause at the scene - when the heavy armored troops landed, the Americans were completely finished!

Then came the standard 10-wheel trucks loaded with materials and supplies. Each fully loaded truck weighed less than 10 tons and could pass continuously.

The four bridges continued to operate, like a trickle of streams merging into a torrent, forming a huge and strict transfer system. A large number of anti-aircraft fighters shuttled and patrolled in the air - the landing vanguard had controlled the Reykjavik Airport, and the engineers repaired it overnight and barely restored two runways for fighters to take off and land - the fighters transferred from Norway in the early morning finally had a place to stay.

"Gauss, let's go ashore!"

"Won't you wait? Let the troops clear the enemy. It may not be safe now." Lieutenant General Bei advised Rommel, "There are too many cargo ships piled up on the dock now. Tirpitz is embarrassed to compete with them."

"No, I can take the lifeboat to go ashore. The commander must be with the troops! I am here to fight, not to see the scenery. I must let the soldiers see that I am with them!" Rommel laughed, "I wanted to land last night, but Berlin told me that I must land at dawn today, and said that it was an order from the Führer himself."

"Okay then! I wish you all the best!"

"Thank you for the great assistance of the navy. The Icelandic campaign is first of all the credit of the navy!" Rommel warmly hugged Lieutenant General Bei, "Especially your naval guns, which frightened the enemy!"

"This is Berlin Radio, this is Berlin Radio, it is currently 9:17 on May 29th, and now we are interrupting the important news of the Icelandic campaign. Now we are interrupting the important news of the Icelandic campaign:... Our army has successfully landed in Iceland. Field Marshal Rommel and his staff have set foot on land. Now please ask the military reporter to interview Field Marshal Rommel and listen to his thoughts at this moment..."

"Dear Führer, fellow soldiers who fought bloody battles, and all patriotic German people..." Rommel, who got off the landing craft and waded ashore, could not hide his excitement. He waved to the officers and soldiers within his sight and responded to their enthusiastic cheers. He shouted into the microphone in an excited tone, "I am now standing on the solid land of the Icelandic beachhead. Our army has cleared the enemy's resistance and is launching a fierce attack on the enemy in depth. Listen, the overwhelming bombing and artillery sound is a signal to us and the enemy-we are here! The invincible German soldiers are here! We will liberate Iceland, which has been occupied by Britain and the United States for several years, as soon as possible. The final victory will definitely belong to us! Long live the Führer!"

"Long live!"

The cheers rang out, and the spotlights lit up at the right time. Whether in the front or in the back, there was jubilation everywhere!

Lieutenant General Bay, who was watching from afar on the Tirpitz, nodded and said to the people around him: "I finally understand why the Führer wanted Marshal Rommel to land in the daytime!"

On May 29, the main forces of the Armored Training Division, Ceylon Brigade, and Indian Brigade landed in Iceland and launched a frantic pursuit. Although the enemy had nearly 80,000 troops, they had neither a reliable defense system nor sufficient counterattack force, so they could only retreat in a hurry, while also having to deal with the German attack aircraft overhead.

The anti-tank trenches that they had high hopes for and hoped to use to block the enemy were unstoppable in front of the German Sherman bridge tanks. The 502 Heavy Armored Battalion, which took the lead and had been equipped with Tiger 2 tanks, showed great power. Carius alone killed no less than 7 tanks at a long distance - 4 Shermans and 3 M10s, with a shooting distance from 1,500 meters to 2,400 meters. Among them, the turrets of 2 Shermans were forcibly lifted off and ignited a raging fire, which looked like saluting with their hats taken off.

During the day, Arnold's Army Air Force once again summoned up the remaining courage and gathered 91 B-29s to carry out air strikes. The British also dispatched more than 240 aircraft, but the German army not only had naval carrier-based aircraft, but also a large number of land-based fighters. The British and American aircraft that came to the air strikes suffered a devastating blow. The B-29 loss rate was as high as 79%, and the British aircraft loss rate was also over 60%. Only two Mosquitoes were lucky enough to drop bombs on the artificial port. One bomb missed and had no effect. The other bomb hit the port, but the thickness of 50mm blocked the 500-pound high-explosive bomb, making it return in vain and eventually shot down by fighters.

Even if the British occasionally blew up a few steel plates, it would be useless. These steel plates were all independently divided and spliced. If a few of them were damaged, they could just be replaced.

The completion of the land-based airport marked the beginning of the German army's complete air superiority, which was enough to make Smith and the British and American allies despair, but what made them even more desperate was that the US Atlantic Fleet, which had been promised to contain the German naval forces, could not come.

That afternoon, in the bridge of the Franklin, Nimitz held two telegrams and cried silently. The staff around him looked gloomy and lowered their heads and dared not speak.

The first telegram reported the news that the TF44 fleet was completely destroyed, Spruance was seriously injured, and his life and death were unknown;

The second telegram reported the news that the German fleet landed in Santa Catarina, Brazil entered a state of emergency and fell into a full panic.

Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent Nimitz clear instructions: "Turn around and protect South America!"

This was the second turnaround order Nimitz received in just a few months: the last time he was supposed to encircle and kill the Crank fleet, but went to Iceland because the German main fleet was dispatched; this time he was supposed to rescue Iceland, but was forced to turn around because the German army landed in South America.

"Alas..." He punched the wall and cried bitterly, "Iceland is finished, finished, but how can I be worthy of Andrew..."

But he dared not disobey orders and could not disobey orders. Although the German fleet had lost some warships in the past two days, the British and American forces that suffered losses could not send out more powerful air forces. Ozawa still had 2 regular aircraft carriers and 4 escort aircraft carriers, and they also had land-based support. His strength and capital were still stronger than his. The US military had suffered enough losses from the German land-based aircraft last time, and they would never dare to confront them head-on.

But harassing the German supply line was not an easy task: the Germans did not send out the second batch of troops, and simply relied on the 1st Division and 2nd Brigade that had landed to fight an offensive war with fewer troops. Unless they fought with the German fleet near Iceland, they could not effectively find the target to attack - whether it was the Azores or Cape Verde, they were all hedgehog nests that Nimitz would never dare to touch.

Brazil is the core interest of the United States. If Brazil cannot be saved, the entire strategic situation in South America will be ruined. Nimitz still knows the priorities. He can only explain his pain to the British officers and soldiers serving on the Franklin with tears in order to gain everyone's understanding.

Nimitz didn't know that there were 200 U-boats waiting for him on his way to Iceland. There were more than 60 of the most advanced XXI-class submarines, each with 23 powerful oxygen torpedoes, enough to send the entire Atlantic Fleet into the sea several times.

"Turn around and go to Brazil!" Then there was a long sigh.

"Night Fighter, attack!" Then there was a confident shout.

As dusk fell, two completely different orders were issued!