Chapter 990: Little Mouse

Norway is close to the Arctic Circle, so in May, the days come very early, and the nights are relatively short. It was for this reason that when the Allied bombers were returning, the sky before them was already bright. The azure sky, the azure sea—what awaited them would be a grand welcoming ceremony to celebrate their victory.

This was the Allies’ first large-scale, successful air raid on a German-occupied territory, and a direct bombing of Germany’s rather important steel-producing region. They did not yet know what a grand combat result they had achieved, but the mission had been completed. For every pilot, this was something to be thankful for.

After all, they were still alive. After all, they were still alive after having been through a battle. To survive in this war was an absolutely celebratory affair. So on the way back, laughter and cheers began to appear in these bombers, and everyone’s mood began to relax.

The total number of B-17 bombers that had reinforced Iceland was over 340, and this time the Allies had sortied a total of 231 bombers. On the return trip, there were still 152 left. The bomber group, which had lost 79 planes, had suffered significantly fewer losses than during the mission to bomb Romania. The facts proved that in terms of losses alone, night bombing was indeed an effective means of evading the German air defense forces.

“Hey! Peter! What do you want to eat when we get back?” The plane was still bumping, but everyone’s mood was different. The co-pilot sat in his seat, staring at the seemingly endless sea in the distance, and asked the captain beside him in a relaxed tone.

“I want a drink! It’s a pity that the supplies on Iceland are really not much. They only have a small amount of beer on ration, and it’s all private stock sold by the captains at a high price,” the captain said, his deadpan expression from the mission gone. He flew the plane while chatting with his co-pilot.

A dangerous mission was over. There was no need to be so gloomy on the way back. The sound of singing even came through the radio. Everyone’s mood was brightened by the already-lit sky.

“Hey! What’s that over there?” In the clouds, a pilot saw a black dot coming from straight ahead. These black dots gradually grew larger, and finally turned into German fighters with auxiliary fuel tanks slung under them. Because they were flying head-on, and the German fighters were extremely fast, the two sides met in the blink of an eye.

When Akado was urgently building up the Norwegian air defenses, he had not forgotten to use the already-occupied northern Britain to provide a forward base for his fighter interception net. These were the 14 German fighters that had taken off from the two small field airfields on the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands. They had been ordered to wait here for the American bomber group returning from Norway and to intercept these lambs waiting to be slaughtered, which had no escort.

The German fighters had plunged into the bomber formation at the moment when the American planes were most relaxed, and then, with the principle of “one hit and run,” they had emptied their ammunition in one dive and had then quickly returned to base. In fact, the fuel of these German fighters was also almost gone. They had no capital to get entangled at all, so after taking a small advantage, they had decisively left.

Having already flown halfway, the American bomber force had been inexplicably intercepted by the German fighters on time. These planes had disengaged before the Americans could even come to their senses. The entire dive attack, most of the American planes hadn’t even had time to return fire to “make a point.”

In a short engagement of less than half a minute, several American planes had been turned into sieves by the German fighters. After all, the German fighters were generally equipped with 30mm cannons, which had a very great destructive power against the American planes. Although their ammunition capacity was limited, in an opportunity like this, where they hit and ran, it was clearly more of an advantage.

Then these German planes, which had already lost their altitude advantage and also had no fuel to fight a protracted battle with the American planes, just like that, under the gaze of everyone, accelerated and fled the engagement area. The entire battle had come and gone quickly, an embodiment of the “hit and run” interception tactic to an unparalleled degree.

An American plane, its cockpit hit, began to trail thick smoke and slowly head for the cold sea. Another plane, because its wing had broken off, was already spiraling and had crashed into the sea. These pilots, who had luckily survived the hail of artillery fire over Norway, had so cluelessly died on their way home.

“Iceland ground command? We’ve been intercepted by German fighters. Five bombers have been shot down. We may need ships to rescue the pilots in the water!” the American commander reported helplessly to the ground command on Iceland, watching the American plane that was trailing thick smoke as it plunged into the sea.

Compared to those Allied pilots who had crashed in the Norwegian interior and had then been captured or directly killed in action, the crews of these few planes were the truly pitiful ones. They had to sink with their planes into the sea, and then soak in the cold seawater, waiting for rescue ships to arrive, or to be frozen to death in the North Atlantic.

Who would have thought that the two inconspicuous small field airfields on the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands, which together could only launch 14 planes, would at a time like this bravely sortie their only aircraft and inflict such huge casualties on their enemy.

In fact, ever since Germany had occupied the southern part of the British homeland and Northern Britain had surrendered, the air force of the Chamberlain regime and the German Air Force had been painstakingly managing the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands. Unfortunately, due to the interference of British and American submarines, and just as the Allies had had great difficulty in building up Iceland, Germany’s desire to turn the two airbases into forward outposts for bombing Iceland had also been fraught with all sorts of problems.

From 1938, when the Faroe Islands and the Shetland Islands had officially become islands under German jurisdiction, the number of German transport ships sunk on these two routes had already exceeded 70. In some inconspicuous places, the Allies were also, in their own way, creating all sorts of trouble for the German army.

The B-17 bombers, after having been through all sorts of hardships, had finally returned to the Iceland air defense circle. Here they were met by the British fighters that had come to welcome them. Ten Hurricane fighters with Rolls-Royce engine modifications appeared near these bombers, as if to welcome these triumphant warriors.

“The bombers dropped all their bombs, but at that time we already knew that the Germans had interfered with the drop with their firelight. The degree of target destruction may be far less optimistic than we had imagined,” General Hugh Dowding said, his arms crossed, analyzing to the American Army Air general. “I think to have destroyed a tenth of the target is already a very high estimate.”

The Americans had a very high evaluation of this bombing. A few hours ago, they had believed they had already paralyzed a third of Norway’s iron ore production. But this estimate, even Roosevelt himself did not believe, so in the end, the degree of bombing destruction was set at a jubilant one-fifth.

Now for the British to pour cold water on the achievements of the American bombers like this made the American general a little embarrassed. “General Dowding, we were responsible for attacking all of Norway. This plan was authorized by President Roosevelt. You need to assist us in defending the entire airspace over Iceland. This is your duty. As for superfluous words, it’s best not to say them, right?”

Clearly, General Hugh Dowding was also unwilling to bring up this matter again. But he felt it was necessary to stop the Americans from continuing to send their men to their deaths so senselessly. “The losses from a night bombing have reached this level. To lose a quarter of the planes in one bombing raid, I think the entire plan needs to be studied again. It would be more appropriate.”

Hearing this proposal, the displeased expression on the faces of the American Army Air generals disappeared a good deal. They also felt that this level of loss was simply too fatal. It was almost unbearable even for the wealthy America. After all, these planes were materials and money. Even if they didn’t feel sorry for these, they had to feel sorry for the time it took to build them, right?

But the leading American Army Air general still gritted his teeth and made up his mind. He said to Hugh Dowding, “Tomorrow… no, tonight, we must continue this kind of bombing. The replacement planes will be flying in soon, and our losses will soon be made up for. The Germans are at an extreme disadvantage in this respect. They have no equipment to immediately replenish Norway!”

“Tomorrow… no, tonight, continue to bomb Norway?” Hugh Dowding was shocked by the Americans’ crazy plan. He really couldn’t have imagined that the Americans would be so unafraid of sacrifice at a time like this. Perhaps it was really because they had overestimated the results of the night raid, which had prompted them to continue to bomb at all costs.

Thinking of this, Hugh Dowding, on the contrary, had no intention of continuing to persuade them. He was happy to see the Americans bleed in the war, because that would reduce the pressure on Britain after this war was over. And so he nodded, found a random excuse, and left the conference room. “I’m going to inspect our air defense positions. I won’t be accompanying you two any longer.”

The American Army Air general watched as Hugh Dowding turned and walked out of the conference room, sneered, and muttered with a hint of sarcasm, “The British have had their spirit broken by the Germans. Now they are as timid as a mouse in a hole.”

“Yes, and this little mouse doesn’t even know it’s just a mouse anymore. It still wants to point fingers at us,” another American Army Air officer said, nodding in agreement. “They don’t even have the courage to leave here and attack Germany, as if holding this place has already taken all their effort.”

The American general who had spoken first laughed heartily. “Perhaps, in a few more years, there will be no more Britain, just this pitiful place called Iceland…”

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