Chapter 979: Cutting the Root

“It’s not troop transport. A transport fleet of this scale can only carry a few tens of thousands of men… At a time like this, transporting a few tens of thousands of men to Iceland is of no use,” a German intelligence analysis officer said, frowning at the documents in his hand and finally speaking to the people around him.

An officer in the distance immediately spoke up, expressing his own thoughts. “We must confirm the extent to which the Allied naval power in the entire North Atlantic has been strengthened, how many more warships they have, how many more transport ships.”

Another army general, sitting in his place, asked the officer beside him with a worried expression, “Is the Atlantic Wall really foolproof? It should be known that in Britain, our forces are not numerous. Once the Americans and British land in the British homeland, I want to know if we have the ability to drive them into the sea there.”

The general beside him nodded and then, with the pointer in his hand, pointed to the coastal areas of Britain and Ireland. “We have laid 300,000 mines on several of the suitable landing beaches. These places have been reinforced with 50,000 tons of reinforced concrete for coastal fortifications.”

“Every kilometer has a main machine gun position reinforced with reinforced concrete, and on average, there is a temporarily reinforced machine gun position as a supplement every 300 meters. We have deployed at least 70,000 soldiers in Ireland, as well as an armored battalion as support.”

“In the British homeland, we still have at least 300,000 soldiers ready and waiting. They have one panzer corps, which can at least repulse the landing of more than 200,000 enemy troops,” the German officer in charge of stating the defense of the British occupied territories said, giving a detailed introduction of the composition of the defensive system in some of the key sections, as well as the relevant tactics prepared by the German army.

“Resisting a landing is in fact only the middle link in the entire Atlantic Wall defense system. Once the long-range reconnaissance planes and submarine units have discovered the enemy’s movements, the carrier fleet will set sail and prepare for battle. Counting our carrier fleet, we can at most assemble over 1,000 aircraft near the enemy’s landing site, to seize air superiority and to annihilate the enemy’s landing transport fleet,” a person in charge of the naval department said with confidence. “Under the cover of the land-based aircraft near the coast, it is impossible for the enemy to seize air superiority, so the Atlantic Wall is impregnable.”

“On the other hand, we also have a mobile force of over 100,000 men in France. If the enemy were to land in Britain, we could still provide rapid support across the channel,” another German army officer joined in the discussion. He also believed that to cross the Atlantic and land was an impossible mission. “The Anglo-American navies are not yet that strong.”

From the defeat of Britain until now, the German army had had a year to strengthen the defenses of the entire occupied territory. In fact, the German army had indeed been doing so. They had conscripted a large amount of cement to build coastal fortifications, had laid out a dense radar air defense network, and had also deployed reconnaissance planes and a submarine warning net in the open sea.

There were also hundreds of thousands of German troops ready and waiting in Britain, Ireland, and France for the Allied attack. These units had a large number of tanks and cars, and their rapid mobility was very strong. And the German Air Force in these regions, to this day, maintained a powerful combat force of over 700 aircraft.

If necessary, there were also over 200 planes in Germany that could be sent as reinforcements at any time. This force was not the Hitler Youth of the SS that had been routed from the German-Soviet front in another timeline, but a well-trained, well-equipped main force. One in every ten of them had participated in a real war, and they were in no way inferior to the troops on the German-Soviet front.

In addition, with the main force of the German carrier fleet, which was content to be a “fleet in being,” hunkered down in Wilhelmshaven, the Americans would have to at least fully mobilize before they would dare to fight a landing battle of unknown outcome with the German army on the Western Front. This was also another reason why the main force of the German Navy was not going to the Mediterranean to make trouble. They had to be on guard against the United States suddenly pulling some kind of surprise attack like now.

“If it’s not personnel, then it can only be supplies. By the same token, it’s not tanks, nor is it land combat equipment, and it can’t be anti-aircraft guns either…” Because the intelligence was inaccurate, these German generals had no choice but to use the process of elimination to deduce, bit by bit, what the Anglo-American joint forces were preparing. Although this clumsy method was not very efficient, it could, by relying on guesswork, make the most complete preparations.

A German general waved his hand, rejecting the previous guess. “It’s not defensive anti-aircraft guns or materials like cement. We have no action to land on Iceland. The Americans would not suddenly go crazy and strengthen the defensive forces on Iceland. They are still preparing for an attack! It must be so.”

“Bombers! Their B-17 bombers are very similar to our ‘Butcher’ bombers. They can cover many places under their attack radius!” an air defense authority from the air force put forward his own view. He felt that the Allies would assemble bombers to launch a surprise attack on German industrial facilities without fighter escort.

It was not a land attack, nor was it a sea attack—then the threat of an attack from the air was particularly prominent. Large bombers could fly directly from Canada or the United States to Iceland, so it was only necessary to transport the ground crew and ammunition, as well as the supporting maintenance equipment and fuel. And the amount of these supplies was not small, which could completely explain the situation of the increased transport volume discovered by the submarine force.

To know that the enemy is preparing for an attack, and to know where the enemy is preparing to attack are two different things. There were too many places that could be attacked from Iceland. It was clearly not realistic for the German army to have a comprehensive defense.

A surprise attack on Ireland or even a bombing of Liverpool would not have a great impact on Germany. Liverpool had just partially restored its port functions and was not worthy of being a target for a large-scale bombing. Ireland was the same. Bombing there, apart from angering the locals, would have a very limited impact on Germany.

To bomb northern Britain and to bomb Ireland was basically a waste of troops. The Americans and the British could not possibly go to such great lengths to prepare for an attack with such a low cost-effectiveness. To bomb someone else’s land, and to have no interference or destruction to Germany at all—wasn’t that just sick?

To fly over Britain or Norway and then to attack the homeland was also not very likely. First, the range was too extreme, which would seriously reduce the bomber’s bomb load. Second, these planes would be intercepted by the land-based fighters deployed in the three directions of Britain, Norway, and Germany, and would be annihilated in the North Sea.

“Norway! The Americans want to bomb the iron ore production plants in Norway!” the German air defense authority who had just spoken slapped his hand and came to his own conclusion. “Only by bombing Norway is it worth them committing such a massive air force! And only by bombing Norway can they interfere with our domestic production!”

“Bombing! Bombing Norway is our only choice now. The infrastructure in Britain is relatively complete. If we bomb Germany, we will have to pass through there, and we will easily be detected by the German radar deployed there,” a British officer said with a triumphant air, looking at the B-17 bombers landing one after another on the Iceland airfield. “For today, we have worked hard for a long, long time.”

Britain’s insistence on holding onto Iceland was originally part of a plan to preserve a last sliver of hope for bombing Europe. Now, the production of America’s B-17 bombers had finally met the needs of the front, and they had finally accumulated a scale of nearly 300 in the homeland. This was what had given the Iceland airbase a certain strategic value.

On the other hand, the construction of Iceland also needed time. After a full year of a seesaw battle with the German submarines, the slowly built Iceland airbase had finally become usable. So the United States and Britain had immediately taken out this plan and had begun to implement it.

The last reason that had made the U.S. military only begin to execute this plan now was that Germany, during the air defense battle over Romania, had proven that its equipped fighter planes had the ability to tear through the Allied bomber defenses. So all the produced B-17s had to be modified, equipped with more powerful firepower and more advanced air force engines.

The Americans hoped to use a higher flight altitude, a more complete fire defense, and a faster flight speed to evade the German-equipped Ta-152 fighter and to suppress the 30mm cannon it was equipped with. For this goal, the newly produced B-17s had all been fitted with thicker steel plates and had also been equipped with larger-caliber cannons—which had seriously affected the B-17’s bomb load and had also reduced its range somewhat.

This time, the Americans felt their preparations were foolproof. After all, they had concentrated such a massive air force, and it was a concealed surprise attack. To achieve a certain combat result in the first battle could be said to be a sure thing. All the pilots had been strictly selected and trained and were sufficient to deal with the threat posed by the German fighters.

“The spies in Norway have brought back news that the Germans only have a few fighter units in Norway, with about 100 fighters. They can’t withstand a war of attrition and can’t stop our bombing of the targets in time,” an American officer said, looking at the B-17 bombers on the ground, one after another, and boasting to the British officer beside him. “The only problem now is, once we begin the bombing of Norway, how do we guarantee the security of the Iceland base…”

“We have the world’s most advanced Meteor fighter, more than 20… and also 20 Hurricane fighters and 31 P-40 Rolls-Royce improved models,” the overall commander of the British airbase, and also the current commander-in-chief of the Iceland British government-in-exile’s air force, Hugh Dowding, said. “Ever since the Meteor appeared, no German planes have ever come here again.”

“That’s good! We will take off in a few hours and launch a night raid on the Norwegian iron ore factories!” the American officer said with his hands behind his back. “God bless America!”

“God bless the British Empire!” Hugh Dowding also said, praying. Now, all he could do was to pray.

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