afterglow

Chapter 645: A trap, a big trap; what the hell is that? !

"Just as I thought, they really came." The president immediately asked: "Has the Boeing factory been bombed?"

"Had not received this report, the Boeing factory should be intact."

After receiving a negative answer, the president did not speak, but looked a little relieved.

There is a small town called Everett in the northern suburbs of Seattle, where Boeing’s largest factory is located. At its peak, it could produce 300 B-17 heavy bombers every month.

This factory has always existed. Later, Boeing expanded the Everett factory and began to manufacture Boeing 747, Boeing 767, and Boeing 777 passenger aircraft.

Americans certainly dare not take such an important place lightly.

They directly learned from the British approach during the English air war - there is always a loophole in a perfect plan. Since it is impossible to intercept the enemy bombers 100%, they might as well camouflage the main targets well so that the enemy bombers cannot find them or hit them.

To this end, the US military hired Hollywood set designer John Detley as a consultant to guide the camouflage work.

Many painters, carpenters, landscape artists, and prop masters were involved in the work. They designed a huge plan - to cover the huge factory with a complete set of shelter sheds and then arrange the model.

The entire factory was covered with a shed with fake roads and lawns painted on it, as well as fake trees, cars, and houses. It was so realistic that the factory looked like an ordinary suburban park and sparse residential area from a bird's eye view. It was clearly a worthless target.

Americans! So cunning!
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"Mr. President, the Secretary of the Navy has also been notified and is on his way."

Because this was the first time that the mainland was attacked by air, and it happened in a big city like Seattle, the nature of this matter determined that it would not be minimized.

That night, the Secretary of State, the Army Chief of Staff, the Secretary of the Navy and others drove urgently to the White House to discuss the matter.

"The press release is being written that the federal government will cover the costs of civilian casualties," Secretary of State Dean Allison said.

He paused, then calmly narrated: "In addition, we should encourage people to buy this type of injury insurance and impose additional income tax on insurance companies."

"This air raid is likely to inflame public sentiment," George Marshall mused, "but this is not a bad thing."

War propaganda mainly emphasized and exaggerated the ideological threat. The overwhelming and pervasive propaganda made a considerable number of people believe that Europe was in dire straits and did not doubt the justice of their own side.

However, this set of rhetoric could not be applied to the Ming Dynasty in the East, causing the public to question the rationality of the Pacific War and the voices of opposition to it to grow louder and louder.

But the Hawaiian Islands are the bottom line and we cannot give in. If the Ming army were not still entrenched in Hawaii, we could negotiate now.

Ming and Mei had several secret contacts, and the core disagreement was the ownership of Hawaii.

If the public discontent forces the federal government to give up Hawaii to meet the peace talks, that would be terrible - from now on, the West Coast will never have peace and will have to be on guard every day.

This is exactly what the American upper class is most worried about right now.

So on the one hand, they intensified their propaganda and emphasized the importance of Hawaii to the public, and on the other hand, they were determined to try their best to counterattack Oahu.

Henry Arnold, commander of the Army Air Force, said briskly: "I have a good idea to tell you. We have found that if we attach two external fuel tanks to the wings of the Super Fortress, it can fly 5500 miles (8851 km), which means we can attack the flaming oil fields on their western border."

"The western border?" Secretary of State Dean Allison asked in amazement. "That's too far away. Why would we want to carry out a suicidal operation?"

"You are wrong, Mr. Secretary. Flying through Siberia, it is only 4000 miles from Nome to the Flame Oil Fields, which is 1200 miles from British Indus."

"That's crazy! That means flying over the Himalayas!"

"So what? The flying goddess Earhart completed a round-the-world flight in her biplane, so why can't the guys from the Army Air Corps fly over the Himalayas in their Super Fortresses?" Henry Arnold said with a smile.

"Well, you have the final say. However, I am still worried that this air raid will irritate the Chinese. Their emperor is a woman with a very strange temper."

"Isn't this a brilliant idea?"

"what do you mean?"

"Nimitz believes that the conditions for another naval battle are now in place," Navy Secretary Frank Norfolk explained on his behalf. "If we annoy the Chinese, they are likely to send a fleet to attack Alaska. This is a trap. The Pacific Fleet can ambush them. As the Chinese idiom goes, 'be fully prepared and wait for the tired enemy to come.'"

"This is very risky." Dean Allison looked at the Secretary of the Navy with suspicion. "There have been too many failures. Is the Navy confident that it can defeat the enemy now?"

Frank Norfolk looked at the two men and said sincerely: "We will make every effort to win. Mr. Secretary of State, Mr. President, please trust the Navy."

"I hope you can fulfill your duties and assume the effectiveness corresponding to the military expenditures." Dean Allison's tone was very flat.

The president uttered the word "do it" and then changed the subject and asked: "What about the Mexican and Brazilian divisions? Are they capable of combat missions?"

"It's weaker than the average American division, even though we give priority to people with a good education, but... it's only a slight improvement." Army Chief of Staff George Marshall replied somewhat helplessly.

"Can you give me a rough reference data?"

"Uh... Mr. President, I think it's about 70%."

"Okay, I guess that's enough for some basic combat."

The military is certainly not a yes-man. Although the federal government is happy to see more foreign volunteers participate in the war and reduce domestic casualties, the military is more resistant.

The US military formed six infantry divisions in the first batch, mainly composed of Mexicans and Brazilians. The second batch planned to form six more, but it is still on paper and has not been implemented.

Because the military righteously stated that war cannot be joked about, their performance in actual combat must be evaluated before considering whether to proceed with the second batch formation plan.

The 151st and 152nd Mexican Volunteer Infantry Divisions were planned to be deployed to the Pacific theater.

The 153rd, 154th, 155th and 156th Brazilian Volunteer Infantry Divisions were faster and were being prepared to be transported to Russia to join the British and American Expeditionary Force.

If the Pacific battlefield in September was just a slap between Ming and the United States across the ocean, then the Balkan Peninsula in the same period could be said to be a big fight. Under the command of General Otto Felter, the German Army Group J, consisting of 22 infantry divisions, 6 mountain divisions, and 2 armored divisions, set out from multiple locations in Hungary and Austria, and simultaneously carried out multiple offensives, advancing deeply into Yugoslavia.

In the north, General Werner Thiele commanded Army Group G's 20 infantry divisions, 4 motorized infantry divisions, and 3 armored divisions, which set out from Hungary and Slovakia and quickly broke into Romania.

The General Staff was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, deploying a million troops for the operation in the Balkans.

The Kingdom of Galicia surrendered almost without a fight, and the German army announced that it would give up resistance just a few hours after crossing the border. Both armies suffered only dozens of casualties.

The same was true of the Kingdom of Romania. Because the upper echelons lacked the will to resist resolutely and tenaciously, the morale of the army was low, and many troops surrendered after only symbolic resistance.

Because of the existence of the Ploiesti oil field, the relationship between DSS and Romania has always been delicate. For the latter, how dare it act presumptuously with such a powerful neighbor next to it?

Apparently the Romanians are still relatively rational and do not place all their hopes on the unreliable British.

Therefore, a large part of the crude oil produced by the Ploiesti oil field from the 1920s to the present has been provided to the German Socialist Republic on a priority basis in accordance with the trade agreement, and Romania does not dare to vigorously crack down on pro-German elements in the country.

The welcoming atmosphere even slowed down the German army's march to a certain extent, and the chaos caused by traffic accidents and traffic jams lasted even longer than the fighting.

In order to capture the Ploiesti oil field intact, the German army also dispatched airborne troops, with an airborne chasseur company as the advance detachment, followed by an entire paratrooper division.

During this period, London issued instructions without hesitation - destroy the Ploiesti oil field and do not let it be used!
A month ago, the British Army sent 1 officers and soldiers of the 1.3st Airborne Division to Constantinople. The original intention was to quickly deploy them to Bucharest if the war situation became unfavorable, to forcibly control the Romanian king and senior politicians to prevent them from surrendering to the German army.

Now London has suddenly changed its mind and demanded an airborne raid on the oil fields, doing its utmost to destroy them - because the Union Jack gentlemen were worried that bombing alone would not be enough to destroy them thoroughly.

Fortunately, Ploiesti is just a few dozen kilometers north of Bucharest, so the action plan does not need to be completely overturned and started over again.

Operation codename: Operation Slapstick.

Thus, white parachute flowers bloomed in the blue sky, and the British and German paratrooper units met unexpectedly in the Romanian oil fields.

A battle that was destined to go down in history as "the most chaotic melee in history" broke out.

The Germans were fighting the Romanian army. When the British arrived, they started to fight the Germans. The Germans then turned their guns to fight the British. The British defended and fought the Romanian army. The Romanian army received an order not to resist, but they didn't know whether to fight the British or neither of them...

The German paratroopers were called Green Devils because of their green camouflage uniforms, and the British paratroopers were called Red Devils because of their red berets. These two absolutely elite troops fought a fierce battle that lasted for a whole day and night around the Ploiesti oil field.

The British airborne troops deployed a small number of Mk7 Tetrarch airborne tanks. These small gadgets weighing only 7.6 tons were normally vulnerable, but the lightly equipped German paratroopers had no armored vehicle support, which caused them great trouble and many attacks were repelled as a result.

The effective range of recoilless rifles and rocket launchers was too short, so it took a lot of effort to eliminate the threat of these light airborne tanks.

There are twelve refineries lined up near the Ploiesti oil field. The factory area is nearly ten kilometers wide and is lined with chimneys.

During this period, the British army sent small forces to attack these refineries, but they found that the amount of explosives they carried was far from enough to achieve complete destruction. Later, some additional explosives were transported, but it was still not enough. A Royal Engineer Company that went to reinforce was also ambushed by the German army and suffered heavy casualties.

The fierce fighting lasted until the next morning, when 28 Wellington medium bombers and 19 Halifax heavy bombers took off from Constantinople and came to help.

Because the British army placed colored smoke canisters on the ground to indicate targets, and there was almost no interference from anti-aircraft guns, the hit rate of the bomber formation's low-altitude bombing was quite impressive.

At this time, the large German army that was advancing straight ahead was approaching.

However, due to the situation, the British 1st Airborne Division had to gather its troops and retreat to the southeast. A rough estimate of the losses in this battle was about 2800 people, including combat casualties, accidents, and prisoners.

The Ploiesti oil field, which had been devastated by the war, was in ruins, with black smoke rising into the sky, the air filled with the smell of oil, bloodstains, bullet casings scattered all over the ground, and the bodies of officers and soldiers from both sides could be seen everywhere.

Although the farce operation did not achieve perfect results as expected, the British army estimated that it cut production by about 55%, of which 20% could not be restored in the short term - the annual output of the Ploiesti oil field is about 980 million tons.

Mid-September, Hawaii.

It can be said that Zhou Changfeng was worried about military and national affairs. He had to command the battles on the front line, look at the overall war situation, pay attention to the court's decisions, and keep an eye on scientific research progress.

Small-scale fighting on Maui continued as usual. Neither side launched an all-out attack, and the fighting was limited to individual key tactical locations.

During this period, the US military lost dozens of platoon-level strongholds and several companies due to piecemeal tactics.

After suffering losses from this strategy, Lieutenant General Simon Buckner also made adjustments and greatly strengthened the combat effectiveness of the second-line reserve forces.

He used M8 Greyhound armored vehicles, M8 Scott self-propelled howitzers, and M3 half-track vehicles to form many reinforced company-level mobile task forces, which were on standby at all times. Once the Ming army besieged a stronghold with a larger force, they would quickly set out to put out the fire and rescue the enemy.

Overall, this countermeasure was very effective. The piecemeal tactics no longer worked, so Zhou Changfeng tried a trap - luring out a US mobile task force and then sending out a well-prepared mechanized force to launch an attack.

"Almost there, one more round of rapid fire, then prepare for the attack."

"Order!"

As the sun set in the west, more than 20 armored vehicles and nearly 200 American troops were surrounded on a gentle slope and set up a circular position for resistance. On the Ming army's side, more than a dozen Clouded Leopards and a large number of Marine infantry were ready to go.

Dense bullets flew through the air, and shells kept falling into the US military positions and exploding, emitting flashes and spreading smoke.

At this moment, US military reinforcements also rushed in and tried to rescue the mobile task force.

Zhou Changfeng saw something strange through the gun scope. Behind those round Shermans were several large and bulky tanks, which looked extremely sturdy.

"Ah? What is that?" he asked in surprise.

A major staff officer took out a recently printed pamphlet, flipped through a few pages, and reported: "Type 6 heavy tanks, very few in number, the Germans have encountered them in Europe, weighing more than 50 tons, with armor 100 millimeters thick."

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(End of this chapter)