Chapter 983: The Norway Night Raid

Flying in formation in the pitch-black night sky was no easy task. During the day, a pilot could use his own eyes to adjust his speed, altitude, and distance from the surrounding aircraft. But at night, with visibility extremely poor, maintaining formation became a skill worthy of study.

First came the most skilled navigators, flying in a three-plane element at the very front of the entire bomber formation. Then came more planes, in three-plane elements, following behind these three. The rest of the aircraft extended out to the sides from this central axis, forming an even larger triangular flight formation. This massive formation was to keep the individual planes from getting separated in the night sky. When they got close to the Norwegian coastline, they would break up into several formations to simultaneously attack the entire Norwegian steel processing and mining industry.

In the dark of night, one B-17 bomber after another bumped and jolted in the air currents. In order to carry as much fuel as possible, these planes were only loaded with a small number of aerial bombs. The excess payload was taken up by fuel, so that these planes could return to the Iceland naval base.

The pilots nervously flew their planes, maintaining their flight attitude within the massive formation. Because they only needed to follow the lead aircraft, most of them did not have to worry about their flight direction. They just had to concentrate on controlling their planes and maintaining their relative position to the other aircraft.

These planes were all loaded with large-caliber defensive cannons. The bristling gun barrels made them look like dense porcupines. When flying in a tight formation, they could effectively deal with the threat of German aircraft. This was also the main reason the U.S. military had decided to bomb Norway. They were full of confidence in these modified bombers.

The roar of the engines in the quiet and dark night sky was monotonous and obvious. Almost no one spoke, because they knew that what awaited them was surely a sky full of German artillery fire. It was a test of life and death, one that would test whether everyone would be favored by the goddess of fortune.

“Maintain course!” in the lead bomber, the navigator, after checking his compass and nautical chart, looked up and said to the veteran pilot who was strictly controlling the plane’s flight speed. “We will be over Norway in another 35 minutes.”

On the stormy sea surface, on the conning tower of a German submarine, a duty sailor in a leather trench coat looked up at the starry sky. Because of the waves, he could not hear the sound of the plane engines, but the warning lights on the planes, which were maintaining their flight distance, he could see clearly with his binoculars.

“We’ve spotted the target! Immediately transmit this intelligence back to the command post in Norway! Quick!” the duty first officer ordered loudly to the NCO beside him. A wave crashed against the conning tower, splashing up a shower of cold water that struck the NCO’s face with a bone-chilling cold.

“This is U-240! We have spotted aircraft! A large number of aircraft! They are heading in the direction of Norway! I repeat! This is U-240, a large number of American aircraft have been spotted! Heading for Norway! Heading for Norway!” The radio operator was frantically tapping out the coded message, hoping to send everything he had discovered to his headquarters at the fastest possible speed.

In the German provisional air defense headquarters in Norway, a naval liaison officer snatched the newly torn-off coded message from the radio operator’s hand and rushed to the code-breaking room on one side. The cryptographers there translated this urgent piece of intelligence at top speed.

Then this naval liaison officer ran frantically to the side of General Kesselring and Army Group I commander Kleist. “Target spotted! U-240 has spotted the target!”

“Mark their position immediately! Now!” Kesselring ordered loudly. Not far behind him, a female NCO with a huge push pole cleanly stuck a red marker representing the target next to the position of U-240 on the map.

“The Americans are approaching the Norwegian coast! In another 20 minutes they will reach our core air defense position,” Kesselring said, looking at the map and deducing the speed and route of the American bombers. “If it were daytime, we could already be launching fighters to intercept. Unfortunately, it’s night now, and there’s still a long time until daybreak.”

General von Kleist, with his hands behind his back, listened as Kesselring, a professional air force commander, analyzed the enemy’s possible movements. He then asked, “Are the air force’s anti-aircraft gun units all deployed? Can they disperse the enemy bombers over the protected area?”

“Relying on anti-aircraft fire alone is not a solution… All we can do now is to pray that our night fighter units can achieve a relatively good combat record!” Kesselring said, looking at General von Kleist and answering his question. “This is their first large-scale sortie. I hope our massive investment in them has not been in vain!”

After he had spoken, Kesselring asked General von Kleist another question. “In terms of air defense, I have already done my best. My biggest question now is, how will the Americans, in a mountainous region like Sweden, in such a dark environment, find their ground targets to bomb!”

Kleist was also at his wit’s end over this matter. His troops had already been fully mobilized. Hundreds of thousands of German troops were searching every suspicious thing in the dark mountain forests. To be foolproof, he had even deployed helicopters and the small number of special forces assigned to him.

To indicate a target for high-altitude bombing, the only methods available now were to light a large fire or to provide illumination. As long as the other side was prevented from doing this, then the effect of the bombing would be greatly reduced, and they might even completely lose their target.

Just as General von Kleist was once again on the phone, urging his ground troops to search the suspicious areas as densely as possible, a German helicopter was flying rapidly over a dense forest on the edge of the mountains. This was its second pass over this patch of woods. The last time, the searchlight had found nothing.

But this time, it had clearly spotted something. And so, after passing over the woods, it had turned its nose around and had flown back quickly. The huge searchlight was sweeping back and forth on the ground, hoping to find the suspicious spot that had reflected the light just now.

“Suspicious object below! Lower altitude! Lower altitude!” the soldier controlling the searchlight on the helicopter shouted, reminding his comrade who was operating the machine gun to aim at the meticulously camouflaged small wooden cabin. The pilot, hearing the radio reminder, also began to slowly lower the aircraft’s altitude.

Not far away, the sound of a wolfhound barking came. A nearby German patrol quickly arrived. The signals soldier with a radio on his back reported the situation to the nearby friendly forces. The atmosphere immediately became tense. After all, this was the first suspicious building they had found.

Crack! From the small cabin, which was like a covered trench, a gunshot suddenly rang out. The bullet struck the helicopter, kicking up a shower of sparks. The huge searchlight was shattered to pieces. The machine gunner at the side, without a second thought, pulled the trigger under his finger.

Rat-tat! Rat-tat-tat! The machine gun roared, spitting a fierce tongue of fire. The dense bullets struck the roof of the concealed house. The withered branches and leaves and other camouflage materials that were spread on the roof were sent flying everywhere by the immense force. For a moment, the sound of splintering wood drowned out the screams of the people inside.

The German patrol in the distance had also arrived at the position. They approached the house with their rifles, under the cover of the machine gun. Then the machine gun suddenly stopped firing, and they seized the time to enter the house through the camouflaged pits around it. Inside lay the bodies of three to five men in civilian clothes. Beside them were scattered British Lee-Enfield rifles.

Fortunately, these German soldiers also found several barrels of gasoline in a storage niche dug into the wall of the pit. They had not been ignited by the machine gun’s strafing from the helicopter. It was clear that these men had intended to use these few barrels of gasoline to indicate the ground targets for the American bomber force.

“Report immediately! Say we’ve found some armed saboteurs hidden around the mining area!” the leading officer shouted to the signals soldier. “Quick! Notify headquarters! Have them focus their search on the mountainous forests that are easy to hide in!”

“Wooo… Wooo…” The shrill air-raid siren of the iron ore processing plant in the distance began to wail. The factory’s loudspeakers repeatedly broadcast the order for all personnel to extinguish their lights. The blackout had begun. All areas, including the cities, were to cut their power and extinguish their lights to prevent being spotted by the American planes.

“Quick! We’re running out of time! Have all units on high alert!” the officer shouted, having heard the air-raid siren in the distance. He knew the American planes were already approaching the airspace near Norway. So, as he gave the order, he raised his head, his deep-set eyes looking at the star-filled sky.

At that very moment, as everything was about to fall silent with the extinguishing of the air-raid sirens, gunshots suddenly came from all directions. The saboteurs who had been hiding in the dark had finally launched their fatal attack.

The Wehrmacht officer looked into the distance in surprise. Only now did he know just how large-scale the sabotage operation was tonight. Hearing the dense sound of gunfire, he drew the pistol from his waist and then, with a glance at his subordinates, said, “Immediately close in on the restricted area! If you encounter any suspicious person, open fire directly!”

After giving the order, he quickly headed towards the place where the gunfire was most dense, pushing aside the branches in his way and entering the dense forest. Behind him, the German Wehrmacht soldiers, holding their rifles, cautiously followed not far behind. The helicopter, having lost its searchlight, had risen to a safe altitude and had returned to base for repairs.

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