Chapter 190: Secret Operation

The Ardennes has been a strategic location in Central Europe since ancient times. It is located in southeastern Belgium, northern Luxembourg and northeastern France, covering an area of ​​approximately 10,000 square kilometers. Because there are many forests here, it is also called the Ardennes Forest.

Although the roads in the Ardennes forest area are rugged, Manstein consulted tank expert Guderian and determined that with the excellent military quality and high mobility of the German army, a large-scale tank group could successfully pass through the Ardennes pass.

Of course, the French also knew that the Ardennes Forest might become a breakthrough place for the German army. Even during an exercise in France in 1929, an armored commander commanded troops to cross the Ardennes Forest in 60 hours. However, the terrain of the Ardennes Forest was simply not suitable for maneuvers by the Grand Army, especially the French army's clumsy armored forces at the time. Because of this, the infantry division and anti-tank guns originally planned to be deployed here were reduced to a light infantry division, which can serve as a patrol and alert.

The French army predicted before the war that the German army might attack France through the Ardennes Forest, but this did not attract France's attention. They would rather deploy millions of troops in the useless Maginot Defense Line than in the Ardennes Forest. To deploy any necessary military power, on the one hand, France relies too much on the terrain of the Ardennes Forest and underestimates the mechanization capabilities of the German army. On the other hand, if the German army does not go through the Ardennes Forest, then every soldier deployed there will be surplus. . It was precisely because of France's indifference that the German army encountered no decent resistance when crossing the Ardennes Forest. The German army also crossed the Ardennes Forest in less than 60 hours and brought the beacon fire to France.

No matter how dangerous the terrain is, there must be an army to defend it in order to show its effect. Otherwise, it will be no different from the endless terrain. France did not lose in the Ardennes Forest because it cannot be dangerous, but lost in its own inexplicable luck. .

At this moment, in the Ardennes Forest, which the French regarded as a natural chasm, hundreds of German scouts were cautiously groping forward. They had been walking through the forest for a day and a night, trying to find a road that would allow the armored troops to pass.

"Cut down the tree in front!" The sergeant leading one of the teams pointed at a towering tree in front and ordered.

They don't need to deal with trees of ordinary thickness. Tanks can break them directly. What they need to deal with are towering trees that are decades old.

A scout came over with a chain saw.

"Buzz buzz." As the rapidly rotating chain saw gears came close to the tree trunk, sawdust flew and the chain saw emitted streams of black smoke. Along the way, they sawed down countless trees. They had perfected their tree-sawing skills. After a while, the big tree that had been growing for decades slowly fell down and hit the ground heavily. on the ground.

The rest of the scouts swarmed up, sawed the big tree into several sections, and pulled it aside.

"keep going!"

Sometimes they will be very lucky to encounter a large area that does not need to be cleared, and tanks can go directly through these areas.

After walking for nearly three days, they finally saw that the forest ahead was gradually thinning. This meant that they were almost at the edge of the forest.

Several scouts moved forward cautiously until they saw the French sentry in the distance outside the forest, and then turned back. "There are no big trees ahead, and tanks can go right through."

"Great! Send a report to the headquarters quickly. The tank troops can pass through the forest!"

At this time, there was a tense atmosphere in the Berlin headquarters.

Marshal Rundstedt's eyes were a little red, and he hadn't slept much in the past two days. After all, this was a decisive battle, and the opponents were France, known as "Europe's most powerful country", and Britain, the most powerful naval power. This battle can be said to be related to the fate of the empire for thousands of years to come.

While he was anxiously walking back and forth, a staff officer hurriedly walked in. "Your Excellency, Marshal, there is news from the scouts in the Ardennes Forest that they have found a road through which the tank troops can pass. The intelligence department has also received news that France has transferred all its troops to Belgium, not even leaving any reserves. "

"Great!" Everyone in the room couldn't help but cheer. Having found such a way, it can be said that this surprise attack plan has been more than half successful. The main force of France and the British Expeditionary Force are stationed in the undefeated Belgium. When the German armored forces suddenly appear behind them, they will definitely be in chaos.

Marshal Rundstedt couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the phone. "Your Highness, the road to the Ardennes Forest has been found. Now we can attack at any time."

"That's good, I'm waiting for good news, and then you can leave immediately."

At noon that day, Imperial Foreign Minister Ribbentrop delivered a speech titled "Peace or War", severely rebuking Britain and France for pushing Europe into the pit of war. It also warned Britain and France to withdraw the declaration of war within six hours and withdraw the British and French coalition troops stationed in Libya.

At this time, Britain and France, which had already been trapped by Yannick's "Yellow Plan", would of course ignore Germany's warning. After all, according to the combat plan of the "Yellow Plan", Germany was preparing to attack France and its allies through Libya. Carrying out major assaults. Ribbentrop's speech actually became evidence to support the authenticity of this "yellow plan".

This is what Yannick hopes. After all, if Britain and France are really obedient and rescind the declaration of war, then wouldn't he have no name and how can he continue to fight?

As for the good news he was waiting for, it was the U-47 submarine secretly sent to Scapa Flow.

Scapa Flow is a semi-enclosed waters located in the northernmost part of Scotland, England, in the Orkney Islands. It is surrounded by the main island, Hoy Island, South Ronasay Island and a bunch of small islands in the archipelago. It is a good natural bay, about 24 kilometers long, 13 kilometers wide and 130 square kilometers in area. It is a closed bay with three channels leading to the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. It was once an important base of the British Royal Navy. In the First and Second World Wars, Britain controlled the North Sea. Since the ancient Viking era, Scapa Flow has been an area where warships frequently enter and exit, and this history continued until the British Royal Navy closed the naval port here in 1956.

Two famous events occurred in Scapa Flow. The first was at the end of World War I, when the defeated German Imperial Navy's main fleet, including battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers and destroyers, totaling 51 ships with a total tonnage of 400,000 tons, sank in Scapa Flow, which was called "Operation Rainbow".

The second thing is the strange ghost of Scapa Flow.

Scapa Flow was heavily guarded, and the British army stationed a large number of troops here for defense. On the shore defense, there were hundreds of large-caliber artillery, and dense anti-aircraft firepower was also deployed.

In World War I, two German submarines that attempted to infiltrate the port were tragic. On November 23, 1914, the U-18 submarine ran aground in the port, and all the crew members were captured. On October 28, 1918, the UB-116 submarine was detected by a hydrophone and then sunk, and all the crew members died. These two incidents made senior British naval officials believe that any attempt to break through Scapa Flow would never succeed.

But Dönitz didn't believe this. Based on the high-definition photos taken by German reconnaissance aircraft, he analyzed that although Scapa Flow had a large number of anti-submarine floating booms and sunken ships, the gap was also obvious. As long as the timing is right, at night, the surfaced submarine can quietly pass through the gap on the calm water and slip into the port.

This is a very dangerous task, but not impossible.

A German U-boat commanded by German Captain Gott Prien quietly slipped into Scapa Flow. Six torpedoes were fired at the Royal Oak battleship.

One of the first three torpedoes hit the bow of the Royal Oak, causing minor damage and no major movement on the ship. The funny thing is that the awakened British sailors did not care too much. They thought that the storage room or paint room where kerosene was stored had exploded. Because the Vanguard battleship had a similar inexplicable explosion in Scapa Flow before. Therefore, most of the sailors went back to bed and continued to sleep, not realizing that they had been attacked by German submarines.

The second wave of three torpedoes was fired again, and this time all three torpedoes hit. The Royal Oak battleship, which exploded violently, sank to the bottom of the sea in just a few minutes, and 833 people sank with the ship, including Rear Admiral Henry Blagrove, commander of the Second Fleet. Only 386 people were rescued, including Captain William Ben.

The British initially thought that the Royal Oak had exploded accidentally, but later realized that it was attacked by a German submarine. At this time, the U-47 submarine had already embarked on its way home. Two days later, Prime Minister Churchill officially announced the sinking of the Royal Oak, and also admitted that the German submarine's sneak attack was a bold and professional action.