afterglow

Chapter 330 Becoming Your Own Home?Encounters in the dark
Bergen, a historic port city founded in the eleventh century, is also Norway's second largest city with a population of about 11.

Such a population size is not enough for Daming in the East, and it is not as good as some counties.

January [-]th was a Tuesday, and the next day was still a working day, so the citizens did not relax.

Not many people felt anxious that night, and no one even had "war" on their minds.Compared with the distant and unreachable war, tomorrow's work seems to be more important?
Although radio stations and newspapers have been flooded with cloudy information about the situation in Europe this month, optimistic people don't think these events will have much impact on them, and they should just let it go as usual.

Since the "breakup" with Sweden 34 years ago, the Norwegian-Swedish alliance that existed for nearly a century has ceased to exist. Norway has thus gained independence and maintained its independence in the European War without being involved in the war.

In this era, a small country with few people has no significant advantages, and it cannot be compared with a big country in terms of living standards and social welfare.

For such a small country, the costly national defense construction has naturally become a very low priority investment.

Just after nine o'clock in the evening, most of the lights in the residential area had been extinguished. It was another ordinary and cold night.

The biting cold wind howled, the wet snowflakes began to fall one after another, and more and more people fell asleep.

Here at high latitudes, the sun sets at around three o'clock in the afternoon in winter and does not rise until around nine o'clock the next morning. The days are very short.

"Really? Send the light signal again, and I will go to observe now."

In the brightly lit command headquarters of the Bergen Naval Base, the burly and tall Rear Admiral Manus put down the microphone, then quickly left his office and went straight to a higher observation point.

The guards at the Coastal Observatory and the lighthouse have discovered something unusual—an unidentified fleet is approaching!
Accompanied by several military officers, Major General Manus, who hurried to the observation office, looked carefully through the large-magnification telescope here for a while, and his heart suddenly became cold.

Those ships who had been refusing to respond finally gave out a light signal, the meaning is very simple and straightforward-we are the Royal Navy, entering the port.

Do you consider this your home?
"Your Excellency, this is an illegal invasion!" the lieutenant colonel next to him said angrily: "We have to respond."

"Send a warning light signal and tell them to leave immediately."

"Yes."

The instructions issued by Oslo are not to have substantial conflicts with the British and French, but they can resist as appropriate when encountering the Germans.

Obviously, Admiral Manus did not have the courage to disobey orders. He also knew that in the coming turmoil, disobeying the will of Britain and France would definitely be the worst policy.

Later, after returning to his office, one call after another came, and several coastal defense units and the army were calling for instructions.

Most of the ships moored at the Bergen Naval Base are old and the most "advanced" ship is a minesweeper that served ten years ago.Some ships are not even equipped with a radio station, so that they need to go ashore to find a telephone to communicate with the command, otherwise they can only use light signals or semaphore.

At the beginning, Fort Fell, Fort Larry, Fort Helen, and Herald Coastal Defense Torpedo Launcher also used searchlights to illuminate the British fleet entering the port area, but they were ordered to turn off the lights immediately to avoid misunderstanding.

The old 210mm howitzers and 450mm torpedoes are both products from about 30 years ago. They are considered products of the grandfather's generation, but this does not prevent them from being still powerful enough.

It's just that the ammunition was in worse condition than the weapons. The Norwegian artillerymen were surprised to find that the fuses of the artillery shells taken out of the warehouse were made 20 years ago. They didn't know whether they would detonate if they were to be fired.

The British completely ignored the warning lights issued by the Norwegian army.

Just ten minutes later, the destroyer full of Royal Marines stopped at the berth of the Bergen Naval Base.

Subsequently, the heavily armed British soldiers quickly disembarked under the illumination of the searchlights in the port area.

The Norwegian officers and soldiers watched silently. Compared with the officers who felt ashamed and helpless, most of the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief.

After dawn the next day, the citizens seemed to feel that they were still dreaming - groups of British soldiers wearing khaki uniforms and Tommy helmets marched on the streets, as well as trucks towing artillery.

At this point, people finally realized that the war was about to reach Norway.

Berlin learned of the news that the Anglo-French Joint Expeditionary Force had officially landed in Norway in the morning, which was exactly in line with the estimates of the General Staff.

So should we act immediately, or with a 24-hour, 48-hour delay?
The generals naturally wanted to act immediately, which would be most beneficial, but some people thought it should be two days later.

For example, Otto thinks that it is more reasonable to wait for things to ferment a little before implementing the plan, because the two sides have not even had a little bit of friction, and it is very inconvenient to make a fuss.

【This Otto-Braun is not Li De, but the one from SPD. 】

After comprehensively considering the suggestions of the generals, Ernst finally decided to launch the operation after thirteen hours - such a long night can effectively cover the navy and landing forces from entering the Oslo Fjord.

In the evening of the same day, on the wharf of the Port of Kiel, teams of army officers and soldiers lined up neatly began to board the ship under the supervision of the navy.

What kind of strategic needs to build what kind of navy, what kind of navy to order what kind of warships, the heavy cruiser Peek is a typical German-style ocean-going destroyer, with a very high speed.

As long as the Royal Navy is a little negligent, she can quickly rush out of the North Sea at a speed close to 34 knots, throw off the British pursuers, and then cross the Atlantic Ocean, easily destroying any merchant ships with 203mm naval guns.

A total of more than 76 army officers and soldiers from the regiment headquarters, 1st battalion, 2nd battalion, mountain artillery company, and reconnaissance company of the 600th Mountain Infantry Regiment will directly board naval warships instead of transport ships-they will serve as pioneers to establish a solid foundation for the follow-up troops stronghold.

The Germans believed that slow transport ships could not keep up with high-speed warships, so they made such an arrangement in order to land ashore in the fastest time.

More than 600 of them were on the USS Peake, and the remaining 1000 were on several destroyers.

The first mate, Lieutenant Colonel Fane, inspected the ship very carefully. Army officers and soldiers were asked not to go on deck without permission to prevent accidents.

These landlubbers also received a small lifebuoy for each of them. They were told that in the event of an accident, they must swim as far as possible after abandoning the boat and jumping into the sea, otherwise they may be pulled into the abyss by the whirlpool.

At midnight that day, in the heavy snow, the fleet uniformly using low-visibility dark paint left the dock.

The goal of the first group is Oslo, the capital of Norway. The commander is Major General Brod. The battle formation consists of the heavy cruiser Peek, the light cruiser Rothenburg, three destroyers and two torpedo boats.

In addition, the support formation consists of nine minesweepers, two barges, two oilers, and eight transport ships.

The fleet of dozens of ships plunged into the deep, dark night and soon disappeared at the end of the hazy horizon.

After leaving the port, the fleet first sailed east, then turned north, bypassed Denmark and went straight into the Oslo Fjord.Out of political considerations, Deutschland did not take action against Denmark. Instead, it deployed tens of thousands of soldiers at the border and conducted extensive exercises. At the same time, it continued to exert diplomatic pressure, hoping that the Danish side would be able to understand it and obediently capture it. In this way, both sides All decent.

On the 12th, at 47:10 noon Oslo time, the temperature was -[-]°C and the sky was sunny.

Less than forty nautical miles away from the fjord, the lookout post of the destroyer "Dannenberg" was observing the sea conditions in the distance with a telescope. He thought it would be ordinary again, but a flash of light made him suddenly shake. shock.

He immediately opened his eyes wide and tried to find the flash, and then he locked on something reflecting sunlight about 1000 meters away.

what is that?It can't be a submarine's periscope, can it?

According to memorized combat briefings, the Norwegians did deploy three submarines in the Oslo No. [-] coastal defense area.It's old, but as long as it can fire a torpedo, it's deadly enough - a rusty knife can kill, too!
The battle alarm sounded immediately, and the sailors rushed to their respective battle positions.

"Boom boom boom——"

Someone was so nervous that they misheard what the officer said and fired a string of 20mm shells at something reflective in the distance.

"Ceasefire! Ceasefire! What are you doing?!"

The fleet continued to sail in a zigzag pattern, but the speed was reduced to 14 knots to avoid interfering with active sonar detection.

Several destroyers successively reported that the active sonar did not find any suspicious targets. As the distance got closer, the sailors realized that it was just a piece of floating broken metal plate.

Wars have always been full of oolongs and accidents. Shortly afterwards, the destroyer Detlingen reported that the pressure of its No. [-] boiler had dropped for unknown reasons, and it was suspected that there was a leak in the pipeline.

She had to break away from the fleet and stop the ship for emergency repairs. Major General Brod naturally would not miss the opportunity for this—surprise is the key to victory, so the fleet continued to march northward, heading straight for Oslo.

At this moment, Major General Gosta, the commander of the First Coastal Defense District, was pacing back and forth anxiously in his headquarters that had just been repaired.

Just an hour and a half ago, a Swedish merchant ship sailing in the North Sea encountered the German fleet, so it hurriedly sent a telegram back to Stockholm, and the news quickly reached Gosta.

This fleet is larger in scale. They set sail from Wilhelmshaven, aiming at a series of port cities in western Norway. They will continue to divide their troops in the process and capture Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. .

"The British and the French are too shameless! They will definitely attract the Germans. This is an excellent excuse!" Major General Gosta, who is usually kind, now looks sad.

The German fleet has already appeared to the west, so what about your own side?

The Oslo Fjord is a long and narrow bay vertically extending from north to south. The firepower on the east and west banks can effectively block enemy ships that break into the bay.

A series of forts built on both sides of the strait formed two lines of defense. The outer defense line deployed small and medium-sized artillery, supplemented by mines and sea mines to cover the main fort.

The inner defense line is centered on Fort Oscar, where powerful 210mm howitzers and 305mm howitzers are deployed.

On paper, the Norwegians' defensive strength here is not bad, but the problem is that because of the small country and few people, the Norwegian army simply does not have enough manpower, and many forts are in a state of severe shortage.

A week ago, in order to improve the situation, Gosta simply dismantled the two forts and dispersed the officers and soldiers to other forts.

The major general realized that he had to do something, and it seemed a bit... clumsy to not respond at all.

He ordered: "We must not ignore any danger signal. The Germans are likely to invade. Knuth, issue an order for combat readiness, let the Huoyu Fort and the Mokelu Fort lay mines in their minefields, and all officers and soldiers return to the At the post, the minelayer laid mines to block the strait."

Lieutenant Colonel Knut, who stood upright, raised his hand and saluted, "Yes! Your Excellency, do we still need to conduct active reconnaissance? Some of the aircraft of the aviation wing are available for dispatch."

"Okay, let them search south of the fjord."

It is not too late?

No, it's too late, it's all too late.

After receiving the order, the Norwegian officers and soldiers began to perform their duties.

The engineers came to the preset minefield with a four-wheeled carriage, brandished a shovel, and buried mines one by one; while at the pier, the sailors used the boom to lift the mines one by one to the track at the tail of the minesweeper.

This is obviously very time-consuming, how can it be possible to cram for the moment?
A seaplane and biplane service aircraft of the air wing took off one after another and began to fly south along the strait.

However, it was approaching sunset at this moment, and the pilots who lacked night flight and search training could hardly take on this task. They did not want to risk their lives, so they drove the plane back to the airport under the sunset.

The sun slowly sank into the horizon, and the world fell into darkness once again.

There are certain risks in performing mine-laying missions in the dark, so the Norwegian sailors on the three mine-laying boats were cautious.

Even though they were wearing thickened winter clothing, it was so cold in Oslo at night in winter that everyone outside was almost freezing, and even the temperature inside the cabin could barely be maintained at around 18°C.

"No, no, it's too cold. I'll go in for a while, but my hands are already numb."

A tall and thin sailor was trembling, and exhaled white steam while speaking. When he turned around, he seemed to see a black shadow moving in the night on the right front.

"Lieutenant, is there a ship in our direction at three o'clock? I saw a shadow."

The searchlight at the bow of the boat was pointed there, and the round white light immediately revealed the original shape of a "small boat".

The slender hull, the integrated torpedo tube, the flying flag...

Grass!This is a German torpedo boat!
"Alarm!" the ensign yelled sharply.

"call out--"

A red signal rocket roared into the sky, like a retrograde meteor piercing the night.

On the bridge of the Peek Heavy Cruiser in the distance, the commander, Major General Broad, put down his binoculars and said calmly: "The whole ship is ready for battle, close the watertight doors, suspend radio silence, and check the communication."

(End of this chapter)