The Third Reich in Desperation

Third Reich Episode 356

But at this time, even Stephen beside him felt that Rommel's bold words were a bit premature.

It's just that everyone didn't expect that Rommel's rhetoric hadn't finished yet: "We will march to the Nile! Once the situation turns around, we will take this area back!"

Text 5Chapter 16 Simultaneously

Europe, both sides of the English Channel.

The Luftwaffe, with 3 large air teams in this lifetime, can achieve this grand strategic goal of their air battle in England.

Herman Morgan Taylor's Second Air Force struck from the Low Countries and Northern France.Field Marshal Hugh Speller's Third Air Force strikes from northern France.General Hans Stumpf's Fifth Air Force, sortie from Denmark.

In addition, a small Norwegian air force will also be involved in the air defense of northern Germany.

The German Second and Third Air Forces have a total of 1029 fighters, 975 bombers, and 516 dive bombers, making them the main force in the Air Force.

The Fifth Air Force stationed at Danish airports was much smaller, with a total of 123 bombers and 110 twin-engine Messerschmitt-34 fighters.

Moreover, in this life, Catherine correctly understood the role of radar, and based on the information provided by Reinhardt, she destroyed 6 large radar stations in southern England, making the Luftwaffe's battlefield reconnaissance and early warning no longer what it was in history. behind the opponent.

On the other hand, the already exhausted and exhausted Royal Air Force lost a large amount of vitality after the failed attack on the German military port, making them powerless to even defend their homeland.

The British army has lost a large number of fighter planes and pilots on the land of the European continent, and they have not been able to return to their original size.

The confidential files in Churchill's hands have already shown that the British Air Force was severely damaged after the blows in late summer and autumn, especially the casualties of a large number of elite pilots, which were almost irreparable losses.

As early as the end of 1940, the sun had already set for the British Empire.

At the same time, according to the estimates of the German Naval Operations Staff, in order to meet the requirement of 10 people to land on a 200-mile-long front in the first wave of the army's invasion, the German Navy has actually successfully recruited 1722 barges and 1161 motorboats. , 47 tugboats and 155 military transport ships.

It can be said that the Sea Lion Project has reached the final step where everything is ready and the only thing left is Dongfeng!

Finally, on March 1941, 3, Reinhardt gave the order to begin Operation Overlord.In order to completely relieve the worries of the Third Reich, Reinhard didn't even have time to spend time with his pregnant wife, Bonna.

Bonna found out she was pregnant in May last year, and now it is indeed March of the following year.In other words, in a short time, the first flesh and blood of Reinhardt who came to this world will come.But at this critical moment when he was about to become a father, Reinhardt had to leave his family in Berlin and go to Paris to participate in the "battle of turning points" in the decision-making process!

In later generations, many people believe that the turning point of World War II was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, or the German army's defeat at Stalingrad, or Li Yunlong's occupation of Pingan Grad...

But in Reinhardt's eyes, what really determined the direction of World War II and the final fate of the Third Reich was the unfinished war between Britain and Germany.

If Britain can be occupied, then the Third Reich will have no worries on the Western Front and will be able to invest more troops to confront the Soviet Union.

Moreover, with the fall of the British Isles, it will be extremely difficult for the U.S. military to open up a second battlefield on the western front in the future, because there will no longer be suitable islands in the Atlantic Ocean that can be used as large-scale troop staging areas and starting points for landing fleets.

If Roosevelt had a brain twitch and let the landing force set off from the mainland of the United States, on this long route, under the care of the German U-boat wolves, the safety of the US transport fleet could never be guaranteed.

Therefore, Germany does not need to build an "Atlantic Barrier" on the Western Front in order to defend the United States, Canada and other countries, which consumes a lot of manpower and material resources, and leaves millions of troops to be restrained here.

Because Norway joined the alliance, the German army has freed up nearly 30 Wehrmacht troops originally stationed in Norway.The successful merger of Hungary and Germany gave Germany an extra 25 SS troops.Once the British Isles are falling, Reinhardt can at least draw another 45 troops from the original Western Front troops.

In this way, Germany will have an early advantage of 100 million more than in history in the duel with the Soviet Union.Of course, this is based on the fact that the size of the National Defense Forces is comparable to history.Today, the Wehrmacht and SS of the Third Reich are originally 90 larger than in the same period of history.

The return on the army's strength is one aspect, and more, there is a return on the navy.Compared with Italy's acquisition of a HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier, Reinhardt's upcoming spoils are likely to be the entire Royal Navy's home fleet.

Moreover, the warships of the British home fleet are not rare for Reinhardt.What he really valued were the military ports of the British Empire, shipbuilding technology, and the "Eagle" class aircraft carriers in the UK, which were halfway started.These are things that cannot be taken away.

With all of this, even if there is only a pile of scum left in the British mainland fleet, Reinhardt can use the above spoils obtained after the British failed to build a fleet at full capacity.

At that time, the U.S. Navy fighting on two fronts, and the German Navy fighting on one front, it is really unknown who will threaten whose coastal areas.

For the success of this landing battle, on the one hand, Reinhardt approved the addition of three Italian battleships through Rossi, the super spy buried in Italy by the Gestapo. Three French Navy battleships who had been waiting to avenge the British.

With the acquiescence of Spain, the French and Italian navy have detoured and gathered at the Brest naval port.As for the British Mediterranean Fleet, because of the heavy losses in the previous battles with the Italian, French and German navies, it was unable to obstruct it this time.

Adding the German 3 battleships, a total of 9 battleships, 16 new German cruisers, 6 Zeppelin-class large aircraft carriers, a large number of destroyers, and flying fish-class small aircraft carriers are enough to ensure that the firepower to land on the coast is suppressed. .

Thanks to the "blessing" of Operation Rainbow, the German Navy, which eliminated the old warships, is now almost all the latest large warships!

Of course, for the sake of secrecy, the warships sent by France and Italy were equipped with German liaison officers.These liaison officers will not announce the mission objectives to the allied naval commanders until they are about to set sail.

After all, Churchill, with the analysis and help of Lord Gott, the commander-in-chief of the local army, who had withdrawn from Dunkirk, had always determined that the main attack point of the German army would be White Road, Dover, Brighton and other directions in southern England.

After all, attacks in these directions can shorten the transportation distance of the German landing forces, or can quickly blitz London after landing.

However, Reinhardt, who learned about the thinking of the British army from the memoirs of World War II, happened to be with the help of Paulus's high command and staff, and formulated a completely opposite plan to seize the arc-shaped highland from the Thames Estuary to Portsmouth The first target, and then advance to the first phase of the battle plan on the Rochester and Southampton lines.

Once this plan is implemented, the German landing force will avoid the last main force of the British army, and unexpectedly appear in the other direction of the British army's defense!

Everything seems to be more and more similar to the Normandy landing in history.

With insufficient troops, the defenders can only guard the important strategic points they estimate.But the landing party can appear in any direction they want to log in.In order to solve the problem of replenishing supplies in areas without ports, Reinhardt also copied the pontoon pier design invented by the Allied forces during the Normandy landing.

With this design, the German army does not have to occupy the dock to ensure the smooth supply of follow-up materials.And you can use pontoon docks and airdrops at any place you want to land to ensure sufficient supplies for the first wave of troops.

In the future, when the situation opens up, those ports on the south coast of England will naturally become the pockets of the German army sooner or later.

Text 5Chapter 17 Landing Exercise

Before the deadline for launching the landing operation on Britain, the No. 3 submersible tank, which is a new weapon of the German army, conducted a small-scale battle on Peel Island in northern Germany before the landing operation in order to improve the consideration of the victory of the war. The secret mock landing walkthrough.

The sea where the exercise is located is not calm, the waves are getting bigger and bigger, and there are constant "rumbling" sounds in the distance.

On the sea 3 nautical miles north of the coastline of Pele Island, three German battleships were arranged in a line above the sea.The rolled up waves roared and hit the hull of the battleship, making a chilling sound of crashing waves.

Although the landing site chosen by Reinhardt was an area where the British army was negligently guarded.However, the Allies still brought out Germany, France and Italy this time, with a total of 9 battleships, 2 shallow-water gunboats, 16 cruisers, 45 destroyers, 6 large aircraft carriers, and 14 escort aircraft carriers, forming four fire support brigades , to provide naval gun fire support for the four landing beaches on the arc from the Thames to Portsmouth.

During the exercise, because the Italian and French fleet had not yet arrived, the German army used its three battleships to participate in the simulated exercise.

The German Army sent the No. [-] diving tank to participate in the performance.

The modified No. 5 tank has extraordinary amphibious capabilities.Thanks to the unremitting efforts of the young Anderson engineer, after he took over the modification task of the No. [-] tank, he strengthened its diving ability, which can increase the diving depth of the tank to a full [-] meters!

This exercise is also to prove whether the modified No. [-] tank does have such diving capabilities.

During the exercise, the German transport ship drove the No. [-] tanks out of the ship with the assistance of the German landing soldiers at a position tens of meters away from the coastline, and each of the No. [-] tanks also successfully used its Excellent concealment and diving ability, normal progress in water.

It wasn't until the No. [-] tank exposed its gun barrel that the drill soldiers guarding the cab found their tracks.

After boarding the shoal, the first thing that caught the eyes of the German drivers of the Panzer III was a piece of wood that seemed harmless. The wood was placed in front of them harmlessly, like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Crushed by the thick armor of the No. [-] tank.

According to Reinhardt's request, the content of all the exercises this time was not told to the participants in advance, the purpose is to restore the authenticity and suddenness of the battlefield, so no one knows how many mysteries are contained in these logs.

According to the feelings of the tank drivers, it seems that these logs are just obstacles used by the British army to block the bullets of the landing troops or to act as a cover. result.

It is a pity that the vanguard of the No. [-] tanks participating in the exercise did not know the power of this kind of thing, so they directly drove over it and were eliminated from the exercise early.

A driver of a Panzer III ignored the logs and rushed straight towards them.Then, he heard the news that he was out on the communication channel.

It turned out that all these logs were equipped with simulated jumping mines. Once triggered, the explosion would kill the surrounding people.This is also very threatening to tanks. Those No. [-] tank drivers who did not believe in evil just now may suffer if they encounter actual combat.