Chapter 94: The true meaning of war is to hurt each other Strictly speaking, the nuclear explosion in London that occurred on the morning of October 13 was only part of the red camp's strategic bombing of the British mainland.
This majestic and large-scale "100-hour bombing" can be said to have created a new record in the history of human war.
On this day, a group of bombers taking off from air force bases along the coasts of France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, in units of a hundred aircraft, carried out unprecedented and crazy bombings on towns throughout the United Kingdom.
Countless bombs were hit from Portsmouth and Coventry to Glasgow, Scotland.
The farthest-flying bomber group even made a sneak attack on Northern Ireland.
The total number of bombers and escort fighter jets deployed reached an insane 60,000 sorties.
In order to provide crews for such a large fleet, the Soviet Red Army itself was really overwhelmed, so it had to mobilize a large number of French, Dutch, Belgian, Hungarian and even German and Italian pilots to "volunteer" to participate in the war through the Communist International organization to show "Red Europe" of unity.
In this way, during this "one hundred hours of bombing", tons of mass murder weapons were inhumanely dropped on the unprepared British.
Suddenly, the bombing secrets of "Red Europe" flew over British towns and countryside like a swarm of locusts, literally blocking the sky and causing the citizens to flee in all directions.
The entire UK was filled with dazzling explosions, flames and overwhelming smoke, as if the end of the world was coming.
Prior to this, although the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union had fought fiercely on the European continent, they rarely conducted air raids on each other's home towns.
The Royal Air Force cannot organize a group of bombers to take off from the island of Great Britain, cross the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and attack St.
Petersburg.
The distance is too limited and too far, and it needs to pass through so many countries along the way.
If they are intercepted layer by layer, every attack will probably be You have to be prepared to never come back.
The Soviet Union deliberately exercised restraint.
Even if it occasionally sent aircraft into the skies over the United Kingdom, it was mainly Isaac leaflets.
Even if bombs are really dropped, the targets will be limited to British air force bases, ground radar stations and some areas where military industrial enterprises are concentrated, such as lower London and areas along the Thames River.
Therefore, as time went by, British civilians in various places who had been prepared to dig air-raid shelters in their backyards to hide food, and who were always ready to act as marmots to avoid bombings, gradually slackened off.
Especially those towns in northern England.
They had never been bombed during the British Air War with the German Nazis.
Naturally, they do not have much anti-air raid experience now.
As we all know, Nazi German military aircraft generally used " Known for its "short legs", its attack range is difficult to reach even in northern England, let alone Scotland and Northern Ireland.
As a result, now, they have to pay the price with blood and lives for these untimely laxities and laziness.
In order to knock the British Empire out of the country as quickly as possible, the Soviet Union and its allies mercilessly dropped the most powerful bombs on all British towns on the target list: against industrial towns and port terminals, they mainly threw conventional explosive grenades and incendiary bombs. bombs; for rural towns that had little industrial equipment to destroy, they aimed at killing personnel as their biggest target, and threw even more inhumane sarin and tabeng gas bombs.
As a result, many "ghost towns" and "ghost villages" have popped up all over the UK, where the buildings appear to be intact, but everyone and animals fall to the ground dead.
Because they have not been invaded by foreign enemies for a long time, and there have not been many earthquakes and natural disasters.
For this reason, British villages and towns generally have a long history , a building can often trace back hundreds of years of history.
The central areas of many villages and towns still maintain the layout of centuries ago.
The streets are narrow, the layout is compact, and there are almost no gaps between houses.
Once a large gas bomb is hit, Can cover the whole town in a few minutes As a result, in the face of the large-scale distribution of these latest nerve gases, which were far more lethal than mustard gas during the First World War, many ancient British villages and towns were plunged into disaster.
Many residents of the villages and towns did not even have a chance to react, and they died directly in their own homes. at the dining table and on the bed.
Of course, brave British pirates, no, British gentlemen, will not just take a beating without fighting back.
On the contrary, the civil defense artillery in every town operated all the anti-aircraft guns they could find on hand, wildly spraying rain of bullets into the sky.
Red and blue tracer bullets were flying all over the sky, which was indescribably gorgeous.
However, the range of most anti-aircraft guns was generally too short and could not threaten the strategic bomber group at an altitude of 10,000 meters.
Even if they fired the barrel red, they could only watch as huge bombs fell from the sky.
As for the heavy anti-aircraft guns that can hit an altitude of more than 10,000 meters, there are only more than 200 of them in the whole UK.
They can only focus on protecting some big cities, and don't dream about less important rural areas.
At the same time, the young men of the Royal Air Force also flew their steel war eagles, soaring in the blue sky of their homeland, bravely fighting against foreign enemy aircraft attacking from all directions, and indeed achieved certain results.
However, due to the mushroom cloud of the London nuclear explosion, it greatly interfered with the command and communication systems of the Royal Air Force, forcing each air force base to fight independently.
It received neither instructions nor the latest intelligence.
The radio was full of various messages.
A false rumor.
The result is that British fighter jets often cannot find the enemy after taking to the sky, wasting their troops.
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What is even more tragic is that when they run out of fuel and return, they often find that the airport runway has been bombed into holes, and they can only find a patch of grass to make an emergency landing. .
All in all, in the early days of World War III, the Soviet troops stationed in Europe mobilized the power of the entire "Red Europe" to launch the "100-hour bombing" on the British mainland, which can be called a record-breaking air raid unprecedented in the history of human war.
During these four days and four hours, the entire European socialist camp dispatched more than 62,000 sorties of various types of aircraft to conduct strategic bombings on more than 1,000 cities, villages, towns, military bases and ports throughout the UK. , its scale was huge, its duration was long, and the heavy losses it caused to the target far exceeded the most pessimistic expectations of the British side.
The last backbone that supports the British Empire and the last pride in the hearts of the Anglo-Saxons is about to be knocked out.
It is conceivable that among the tragic people all over the country, the capital city that suffered the most heavy losses was naturally London, which suffered an atomic bomb.
In fact, compared to the tragic situation in Madrid after the nuclear explosion, the situation in London after it suffered the first nuclear bomb was relatively good.
Because of the fierce resistance of the Royal Air Force and the thick smoke released by the ground air defense forces, which caused serious interference to the Soviet strategic bomber group, the impact point of the nuclear bomb was slightly deflected and did not hit Westminster or the London Financial Center.
These core points of the city have fallen on The Wembley area in northwest London.
Therefore, London's famous landmark buildings such as the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Hyde Park, etc., after London suffered the first Soviet nuclear bomb, actually remained intact for the time being.
Intact except for being covered in a layer of radiation dust.
But even so, the world-famous world capital, the heart and glory of the British Empire, was actually hit by an atomic bomb from the brutal and brutal Soviet Bolsheviks, and a large urban area was reduced to a radioactive wasteland.
This has shaken the confidence of the citizens of the British Empire. and morale, it still caused a devastating blow.
If you add in the human losses in Gibraltar and Scapa Flow, as well as the tragic casualties caused by the Soviet Air Force's strategic bombing of other British cities, then the death toll in Great Britain in the first week of World War III was actually very high.
It broke the one million mark in one go.
Obviously, this is a heartbreaking number.
After all, in terms of population, not only could Britain not be compared with giants like the United States and the Soviet Union, it was even far behind "little" Japan, which had a population of only 46 million before the war.
At this moment, the number of legal citizens in the entire UK is probably about to fall below the 40 million mark, and the gender ratio is even more imbalanced.
If it were in the early stages of the war, this would only arouse the British's hatred of the enemy, boost their morale against the enemy, become a blood debt they recorded on the enemy's account, and inspire them to seek revenge.
But by this time, the feelings in the hearts of ordinary British people were more of numbness and despair.
It is undeniable that the citizens of the British Empire in this era are very proud.
In their memories, the unprecedented empire that the sun never sets dominates the world.
It has led the world's technological trends for decades after the industrial revolution.
The Royal Navy swept across the seven seas, and the Army They also hit France, Russia and Germany on the head one after another.
The two famous universities of Cambridge and Oxford are full of professors and scholars, and the literature and art of the Victorian era are dazzling.
It can be said that they are both civilized and military, and they are invincible in the world.
Any attempt to destroy the golden sign of the British Empire will be counterattacked at all costs.
Therefore, in the early days of World War II, the entire British Empire was united.
People of insight shouted patriotic slogans, and loyal and courageous people from all walks of life, including scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, enthusiastically signed up to join the army.
However, there is a maximum threshold for human society to tolerate injury and death, and Britain has been bleeding in the war for six full years.
Although the national pride and patriotism in the chest still exist, the feelings of depression, numbness and despair are also increasing day by day.
As a result, after being hit by several nuclear bombs, many British people were completely mentally shattered.
Although the propaganda department of Churchill's wartime cabinet was still trying its best to advocate sacrifice and incite revenge, saying that the British Empire was at its most critical moment, everyone was forced to make a final roar.
Unfortunately, there were only a few responders, and everyone's heart was like a tree.
Because now Anyone with a discerning eye can see that at this point in the war, the British Empire is already struggling to its death.
The glorious Royal Navy of the British Empire has been completely disabled, and the even more glorious Royal Air Force is also half disabled.
The British Army has lost an entire generation of British young men.
Now they have to rely on black people and Arab infidels to defend the homeland.
Looking at this British The empire is coming to an end Since the collapse of the empire is irreversible and cannot be reversed with courage and perseverance, then even the most patriotic British citizens can only look after their own family first.
When the empire is over, it will be over.
But can you let my son go first?
Going home with my husband Such decadent thoughts are rapidly rising among the British people, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to suppress them.
Looking at the subtle eyes around him, Prime Minister Churchill is very clear that if he cannot do something to boost morale as soon as possible, he may lose the chance of stepping down with dignity.
None, but it is possible that like Mussolini in Italy, he will be suddenly dismissed by the king and put under house arrest, and then thrown on the trial bench and hanged as a war criminal.
However, after losing the main force of the Royal Navy, he was trapped on the island of Great Britain and could do nothing at all.
Therefore, Prime Minister Churchill, who was in dire straits, had no choice but to place his last hope on American allies.
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Italian Peninsula, Port of Naples While the island of Great Britain was convulsing in mushroom clouds and poisonous gas, the American and British Allied forces entrenched in southern Italy were also trembling in front of the torrent of iron armor of the Soviet Red Army.
Starting from the day World War III broke out, an alarming outbreak broke out in southern Italy controlled by the Allied forces. flow of refugees At this moment, if you stand on the towering Mount Vesuvius and look down, you will see that every road, dirt road and mountain road is filled with crowds of people, jostling and jostling, under the capitalist government’s unremitting efforts for many years.
Under the demonized education and out of fear of the Bolsheviks, All the Italians who had a little more money were packing up their belongings, dragging their children with them, taking all the means of transportation they could find, carrying all the belongings they could take away, and hurriedly left their cities and headed south. , and fled to various ports where ships could be found.
On the roads south of the capital Rome, which serves as the military dividing line between the north and the south, convoys of fleeing people marched all the way south, crowding all the roads.
Horse-drawn carriages, cars, rickshaws, donkey carts, bullock carts and livestock all crowded the same road.
And the poorer the Italian refugees are, the more reluctant they are to give up any property.
From pots and pans to furniture and appliances, boxes and luggage, clothes and food, they all take them with them and pile them up on their cars.
Not only does it slow down the speed, but it also seriously blocks the view of the vehicles behind, thus causing many traffic accidents.
For the US military in combat, this untimely flow of refugees is really a nightmare.
Millions of refugees not only paralyzed the entire southern Italian road network, blocked most of the high-grade highways, and blocked the backup troops being mobilized to the front line in Rome, they also overturned the U.S. military's pre-set roads on the roads.
The fortification roadblocks and even the minefields laid by the US military were destroyed, which really made the US military feel like crying without tears.
At the same time, the urban area of the Port of Naples was also in chaos.
The streets were full of citizens carrying luggage on their heads, and they rushed to the dock with loud shouts and cries.
Men, women, old and young, all shouted, kicked and beat each other without courtesy, vying to board any ship that could go to sea.
Even a small sloop can hold twenty or thirty people.
Many small fishing boats capsized directly at the pier because they were overcrowded.
The refugees who fell into the water did not have time to struggle in the water, and were dragged to the bottom by heavy packages and coats soaked with seawater.
On the murky water beside the pier, which is always covered with yellowish-brown foam, there are now dozens of dead bodies of poor people who were drowned before, but no one on the shore will even look at them.
Everyone only thinks about them.
Use all means to escape.
Among them are also many Spanish-speaking frontline defeated troops.
Since the war against Japan has not been going well and the force consumption is huge, the Pentagon has to tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, and gradually transfer the elite troops of the US military in Europe to the Pacific battlefield to put out the fire.
At the moment, Italy In fact, more than half of the so-called "American and British Allied Forces" on the front line are soldiers and horses from South American countries.
These South American troops wore uniforms aided by the United States and carried American weapons.
At first glance, they seemed quite decent, but after the actual fight, their true colors were quickly revealed.
The United States and the Soviet Union had just declared war on each other, and the two armies began to exchange fire in the city of Rome.
In less than twenty-four hours, many troops from various South American countries, who had lost their armor and were in embarrassment, poured into Naples in jeeps and trucks.
As time went by, more and more broken troops fled into Naples, and the port area was filled with South American soldiers with desolate and frightened faces.
And they are never afraid to shoot at anyone who dares to block them.
The small number of loyal US military police can no longer restrain these damn guys and can only watch the port turn into a mess.
Standing on the marble balcony of an Italian hilltop villa that had been temporarily requisitioned as a headquarters, overlooking the chaos in and around Naples with a high-powered telescope, General Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the U.S.
Forces in Europe, felt very heavy.
Compared to the red camp's half-hearted attempt to besiege Switzerland, the Soviet Union did not know whether they had plans to use war as a training ground, or they had the intention of consuming other brands.
The main force on the Swiss battlefield was basically composed of volunteer troops from various newly established socialist countries in Europe.
The proportion of genuine Soviet troops was very small, so progress was relatively slow.
On the Italian battlefield, which faced the U.S. military stationed in Europe head-on, the Soviets were mobilized with all their best troops.
Before the attack began, Marshal Konev's North Italian Front already had a total of 850,000 troops and about 7,000 tanks.
To the south of the military demarcation line, General Eisenhower, the commander-in-chief of the US military in Europe, had only 300,000 Allied troops and less than 1,000 tanks.
Therefore, when the war officially broke out, Marshal Konev naturally marched straight in and destroyed everything.
Eisenhower could only rely on the Mediterranean Fleet, which had the only advantage, to defend several coastal strongholds, struggling to support itself under the onslaught of the Soviet Red Army, and hoping to persevere until the situation was reversed.
However, in this head-to-head contest, the cards Eisenhower held were really bad.
Not only was the force at a disadvantage, but its quality was also far inferior to that of its opponents.
Even air superiority could not be guaranteed.
Such a headwind battle was restricted at all times, which made Eisenhower indescribably uncomfortable.
At this time, on the battle map of South Italy spread out in front of Eisenhower, the red arrow representing the Soviet Red Army had cut into pieces the blue box representing the US and British Allied defense zones.
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As the troops of various South American countries collapsed without a fight, Adrien The eastern defense line on the Adriatic side was basically completely collapsed and no longer existed.
The Red Army's armored forces actually rushed all the way to the port of Brindisi, which guarded the exit of the Adriatic Sea.
As for the western defense line where 100,000 genuine US troops are stationed, the Soviet side seems to be concerned about the extremely valuable ancient buildings in Rome and is unwilling to invest heavy firepower in indiscriminate bombing.
Therefore, both sides are currently still in the city of Rome.
They were engaged in low-intensity street fighting.
Since the US military occupied several ports near Rome, even if it was cut off from land transportation with the south and relied on sea supplies, the battle could still be fought.
But at the same time, there were still 150,000 Soviet Red Army troops who simply bypassed the city of Rome and penetrated all the way towards the Allied rear hinterland, dividing the US military into several port strongholds that could not respond to each other, and could only rely on sea routes to maintain logistics. supplies, barely able to contend with the invincible Soviet army on land.
Originally relying on the US-UK joint Mediterranean fleet that controlled the sea, Eisenhower was still confident that he could continue to hold on on the Italian peninsula for one to two months.
But the problem is that due to the nuclear explosion in Scapa Flow, the British mainland, which lost the protection of the Royal Navy Fleet, was almost completely exposed to the Soviet Red Navy.
After losing control of the sea and air at the same time, the Soviets' iron-clad torrent seemed ready to cross the channel at any time and land on the southern beachhead of the island of Great Britain.
Churchill's wartime cabinet was horrified by this, and naturally had to dispatch the Mediterranean fleet to return to the mainland.
Therefore, when he was about to lose his last bit of advantage, General Eisenhower, who was unable to make a living without rice, had actually decided to preserve his strength, gradually abandon the Italian battlefield, withdraw his troops and materials to North Africa, and restart the fight with the Soviets across the Mediterranean.
Confronted.
However, before withdrawing from Italy, according to the instructions of the White House and the Pentagon, he still has some things to do.
"Send another telegram to the front line to ask whether the Pope has safely evacuated from Rome.
Tell the front line commander that this is the highest priority."
Task" The reason for such an arrangement is that the current Catholic Pope Pius XII is pro-American and British.
As early as World War II, he had a cold attitude towards the Nazi and fascist regimes, and at the same time secretly informed the Allies.
After the fascist regime in Italy was completely destroyed and the American and Soviet armies separated half of Italy with Rome as the border, Pius XII jumped up and down, trying his best to incite Catholics to confront the Bolsheviks.
Obviously, this caused a lot of trouble for the establishment of the Italian socialist regime and the strategic planning of the Soviet Red Army.
It also put Pope Pius XII on the Kremlin's blacklist: It is conceivable that when the Vatican was captured by the Red Army , what kind of treatment will this pope enjoy in the hands of atheists and Orthodox Christians in the Soviet Union?
Although most Americans are Protestants, the entire Latin America in the south is Catholic territory.
If the Pope, a man with extraordinary influence, is put on trial or even the gallows by the Soviets, it will have very bad consequences.
Therefore, even before the outbreak of World War III, the Allies had been persuading Pius XII to withdraw from Rome.
It would be best to move the entire Holy See to the safety of America.
I believe that Catholics in South America would be happy to donate money to build a new church.
Of the royal palace.
But Pius XII has been lingering and refusing to agree, because the Holy See, like the government, cannot give up its base at will.
This world has been dominated by winners and losers since ancient times.
Once the Vatican, the "state within the city" embedded in the city of Rome, is abandoned, how many people in the world are willing to recognize his status as the "pope in exile" in case Stalin takes over?
After Rome, if a new pope and a new Holy See are established, wouldn’t the Catholic world be subject to a second great schism?
However, in any case, all these expectations are in the future, and the Soviet Red Army's artillery shells are right in front of us.
In the end, after the Third World War broke out and the city of Rome was reduced to a battlefield, Pius XII could no longer stand proud and could only half-heartedly agree to the US withdrawal proposal.
Therefore, Admiral Eisenhower did not wait long before he received good news from the Roman front line that Pope Pius XII and the cardinals had withdrawn from the Vatican, carrying a large number of holy relics and classics, and transferred them to Sardinia on six landing ships.
But the problem is that although Pius XII reluctantly agreed to withdraw from Rome, which was directly facing the artillery fire of the Red Army, he said he was unwilling to leave Europe again.
Not to mention going to the Americas, they are not even willing to go to North Africa, insisting on staying on the territory of Europe until the last minute.
"In this case, let the Holy See stay in Sardinia for a while.
Anyway, the Soviets don't have much fleet in the Mediterranean.
They should not be able to attack the island for the time being.
Is this Pope really willing to die as a European?"
Eisenhower said this disapprovingly, seeming to have forgotten the precedent of the Nazi German airborne troops occupying Crete, "Then, according to the latest instructions from the Pentagon, the B29 Super Fortresses on Sardinia responsible for the nuclear bombing of France should also We have already set off.
In order to prevent the Soviets from retaliating, we will evacuate the headquarters to the warship later.
In such a vast Europe, there is no safe city." oshow7: