"Marshal Lütjans sent a telegram saying that most of the repair and maintenance of the battleships had been completed and that they were ready to take part in new battles, but that the Ludendorff and Tirpitz had to be overhauled, and that they would not be able to go to war again in three or four months. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Separately, French Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Dar Lang sent a telegram saying that the Richelieu was now ready to take part in the fighting. The French replaced the turret for the Richelieu, and now it is equipped with 2 3-pack 406mm turrets. The French Navy wanted to see how this artillery would perform in real combat. "Field Marshal Raeder first reported on the situation with the battleship forces of the Navy at an operational meeting of the Ministry of Defense chaired by Hersman.

Most of the battleships that had fought in the last night battle in the Ice Sea were now ready to go to battle again, with less Ludendorff, Tirpitz and Barbarossa, but one more Richelieu with 406mm guns.

"Enough, enough." Hersman's fingers tapped lightly on the conference table, "The Confederate fleet in Scapa Bay has been evacuated, and now all it takes is a few battleships to bombard the coast." ”

Scapa Bay was also not a place to stay for the Allied Combined Fleet, frequented by German planes from Ireland and Norway. So the fleet withdrew in mid-December '42, and now the only maritime forces to defend the island of Britain are destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, and mines.

"The main threat now is mines and torpedo boats." Raeder laughed and said, "There are certainly no large-caliber shore guns near the landing site we chose, and there are very few British submarines operating in the North Sea and they do not pose a threat." ”

The General Staff and the Naval Command, on the instructions of Hersman, developed a plan for an invasion called Operation Norman. The landing site was chosen on the east coast of England, that is, on the North Sea coast. It was not the focus of the defense of the British there, and now there is not much cargo to transport through the North Sea, so there are not many British submarines operating in the North Sea.

"What threat can mines and torpedo boats pose?" First Quartermaster Halder smiled and shook his head, looking confident. "And now is not the season for landing, the British will not go all out to guard against it, and we will definitely make a surprise attack."

On Hersmann's recommendation, Halder was to command an army group to invade Britain in the capacity of a general. If the invasion was successful, Halder, the conqueror of England, would become a field marshal and would be eligible for the rank of chief of the General Staff.

"Of course there will be no problem with landing," Hersmann said, standing up and walking over to the large military map hanging on the wall of the conference room, followed by a group of German generals in attendance. "The problem is the possible counterattack by the Anglo-American forces after the landing...... In particular, the first 24 hours of the operation will be critical. The enemy will throw in armored forces, and our air power will most likely be limited due to the weather."

It's not the right time to land on England soil, with high winds and waves in the North Sea and foggy weather commonplace.

So a large-scale landing with the participation of hundreds of thousands of people was impossible, and Operation Norman was only a medium-sized landing operation. The first wave of troops will not be large, and it is very likely that they will be met with a fierce counterattack.

"There will be no big problem," said Halder with a laugh, "and the purpose of Operation Norman was only to create a bridgehead on the coast of central England and to create the conditions for a large-scale invasion in the spring." So it was only necessary to control a small plot of territory close to the coastline, where our landing force would be supported by fire from battleships and heavy cruisers.

And we will also have tanks ashore, we now have T9 tank landing ships that can send Tiger tanks directly to the beachhead! ”

The T9 tank landing ship is the latest model of the T-type landing ship, with a light load displacement of 1,700 tons, a full load displacement of 4,100 tons, and a beach-grabbing limit displacement of 2,700 tons.

The deck compartment of such a big guy has a volume of 2,700 cubic meters, and it can accommodate up to 10 Tiger heavy tanks during the beach-rushing operation.

So in "Operation Norman", the Germans will throw 1 terrible battalion of heavy armor!

"Your Excellency, the movement of the enemy's counter-forces will not be easy," interjected Field Marshal Weville, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, "for we will carry out a massive bombardment of the land and railways in the middle of England before the landing operation begins." We now have a decent number of heavy bombers for massive carpet air strikes! ”

Val T. Weaver was originally a "strategic bomber" in the Luftwaffe, and in the mid-30s advocated the development of heavy long-range bombers. However, at that time, Hersman and Kesselring insisted on the path of the tactical air force, and did not give long-range bomber forces room for development. It was not until after the victory of the Western Front in 1940 that significant resources began to be invested in the development of long-range bombers.

By October 1942, the ME264 long-range bomber, jointly developed by Messerschmitt and Fokker, finally began mass production. In addition to the ME264, Fokker, which is good at introducing excellent foreign models, also brought back the Italian P.108 heavy bomber for mass production.

So the Luftwaffe now had two heavy bombers, the ME264 and the P.108, with a large bomb load.

In addition, because British planes killed the Pope, Italians had a very high enthusiasm for bombing Britain. So after the end of the Mediterranean campaign, the Italians began to work on the development of bomber aviation, and now they have amassed more than 500 P.108 heavy bombers that can carry out bombing missions over Britain.

"If you count the P.108 bombers of the Italians and the DO217 with a fairly large bomb load (which can carry 4 tons), we now have more than 1000 bombers that we can use to bomb the middle of England." Field Marshal Wever, commander-in-chief of the Air Force, said with some pride, "In fact, through strategic cooperation, we can also force Britain to submit." ”

Hersman smiled and said, "But I don't want a British bombed to the ground...... There are so many factories, mines, and so many well-built cities, how bad is it that they have all been blown up? After all, it won't be long before Britain becomes a member of the European Community. ”

This is called "the whole country first, and the country second", Hersman remembers that it was said in "The Art of War".

He paused, then asked, "Valt, when will the bombing start?" ”

"Three days later, on the 1st of January 1943," said Marshal Weville, "the weather forecast said good weather in the middle of England from the 1st to the 3rd. ”

"How many planes are sorted?"

"There will be 2,000 sorties from bombers alone!" Whiffle replied, "In addition, there will be a large number of Fokker Zero and FW-190 fighter sorties. ”

Hersman smiled, "Very well, this is a great New Year's gift for Churchill!" ”

……

"This is an M4 medium tank?" Standing in the Foreign Office building on Whitehall Street, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had just delivered an inspiring New Year's message, was now watching the convoy of tanks rumbling through the street outside his window.

"It's an M10 tank destroyer." U.S. Army Lieutenant General Stilwell, who stood with Churchill, replied.

Lieutenant General Stilwell, who is now the chief of staff of the newly established Allied Supreme Command in Europe, said to Qiu Fatzi with a smile: "Considering that the Germans have relatively strong tanks, all the tanks that are being shipped now are M10 tank destroyers.

In addition, there is an M10 assault gun that is even more powerful than the M11 and will soon arrive in Europe. This assault gun was also modified from the hull of the M4 tank, and had a 90mm anti-aircraft gun, which was enough to fight the German Tiger tank. ”

Roosevelt, the captain of the transport group, finally sent Churchill some good things at the end of 1942, including 200 M10 tanks, 120 P47 fighters, more than 1,000 guns of various types, as well as a lot of ammunition and tens of thousands of tons of C3 fuel (Hitler also received 30,000 tons of C3 and 3 T2 tankers).

Now General Patton's 2nd Panzer Division finally has tanks and artillery!

However, wheat and egg meal still could not be delivered, so the British people still spent this New Year's Day in hunger.

In addition to starvation, the British people witnessed a political crisis in the last days of 1942. Their King, George VI, did not return from a visit and is now stranded in Canada. Prime Minister Winston Churchill used the authority of the Reich Defence Act to declare martial law and a state of emergency. Deputy Prime Minister Attlee led all Labour Cabinet members out of the wartime cabinet!

Churchill then again used the Reich Defence Act to ban all activities of the British Labour Party and to ban the British Fascist Alliance......

In the midst of all this series of events, the British people do not know whether they are now living in a progressive state of democracy and freedom, or whether they are ruled by a government of d.

And the German propaganda against Britain (including radio and leaflets) declared that there had been a coup d'état in Britain! The coup d'état was carried out by Churchill in collusion with US President Roosevelt, and the Americans detained George VI who visited the United States, while Churchill seized power in Britain, suppressed the opposition, put Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Windsor under house arrest, and turned himself into a powerful figure - this story was made up by Goebbels.

In order to calm the people, Churchill had to arrange a New Year's Day parade with British and American soldiers, and also invited Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Windsor to review the troops.

The American tank destroyers that are now passing through Whitehall Street are on their way to the parade.

Just as Churchill and Stilwell were preparing to leave the Foreign Office building and head to Hyde Park to preside over the parade. A Prime Minister's adjutant suddenly ran up to Churchill and reported in a low voice: "Prime Minister, the phone of the Fighter Command, there is a very large group of German bombers approaching the British coastline!" (To be continued.) )