Bergen, a historic port city founded in the 11th century, is also the second largest city in Norway - with an urban population of approximately 110,000.
This kind of population size is not enough for the Ming Dynasty in the east, and it is not as good as some counties.
January 17th 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 thought about the "war". Compared to the distant war, tomorrow's work seems more important?
Although radio stations and newspapers have been full of gloomy information about the situation in Europe this month, optimistic people do not believe that these events will have much impact on themselves, and they should leave it alone as usual.
Since the "breakup" with Sweden thirty-four years ago, the Norwegian-Swedish alliance that existed for nearly a century has ceased to exist. Norway has thus gained independence and remained independent during the European War without being involved in the war.
In this era, small countries with few people have no significant advantages, and their living standards and social welfare are completely unable to compare with those of large countries.
For such a small country, hugely expensive national defense construction naturally becomes a 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, moist 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 in the morning the next day. The days are very short.
"Really? Send the light signal again, I'm going to observe now."
In the brightly lit Bergen Naval Base headquarters, the burly and tall Major General Manus put down the microphone, then quickly left his office and went straight to a higher observation point.
The coastal observation post and the security personnel at the lighthouse discovered something unusual - an unidentified fleet was approaching!
Accompanied by several officers, Major General Manus hurried to the observation point and looked carefully through the high-magnification telescope here for a while, and suddenly his heart went cold.
The ships that had been unresponsive finally sent out a light signal, the meaning was very simple and straightforward - we are the Royal Navy, entering the harbor.
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 light signal warning and tell them to leave immediately."
"yes."
The instructions issued by Oslo were not to engage in substantial conflict with the British and French, but they could 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 crisis, going against the wishes of Britain and France was definitely the next step. Even if he could not stay out of the matter, he had to not become enemies of Britain and France.
Later, after returning to his office, calls came one after another. Several coastal defense units and the army were calling for instructions.
Most of the ships parked at the Bergen Naval Base are old and dilapidated, and the most "advanced" ship is a minesweeper that was commissioned ten years ago. Some ships are not even equipped with radios, so they need to go ashore to find a phone to communicate with the command post. Otherwise, they can only use light signals or semaphores.
At the beginning, Fell Battery, Lery Battery, Helen Battery, and Herad shore defense torpedo launcher also used searchlights to illuminate the British fleet entering the port area, but were immediately ordered to turn off the lights to avoid being misunderstood.
The old 210mm howitzers and 450mm torpedoes were both produced about thirty years ago. They are considered products of the grandfather 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 twenty years ago. They didn't know whether they would detonate if they were to be fired.
The British ignored the light warning signals from the Norwegian army.
Just ten minutes later, a destroyer loaded with Royal Marines docked at the berth of the Bergen Naval Base.
Subsequently, heavily armed British soldiers quickly disembarked under the illumination of searchlights in the port area.
The Norwegian officers and soldiers watched in silence. Compared to the officers who felt humiliated and helpless, most of the soldiers felt relieved in their hearts.
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 in the morning that the British-French Joint Expeditionary Force had officially landed in Norway, which was completely consistent with the estimates of the General Staff.
So should we initiate action immediately, or should we delay it for 24 hours or even 48 hours?
The generals naturally want to act immediately, which is the most advantageous, but some people think that it should be two days later.
For example, Otto believed that it would be more reasonable to wait for things to ferment a little before implementing the plan, because there was not even a little bit of friction between the two parties, which was very inconvenient to make a fuss about.
[This Otto-Braun is not Li De, but the SPD guy. 】
After comprehensively considering the suggestions of the generals, Ernst finally decided to launch the operation thirteen hours later - such a long night could effectively cover the navy and landing forces entering the Oslo Fjord.
In the evening of that day, at the pier of Kiel Port, groups of army officers and soldiers lined up neatly began to board the ship under the supervision of the navy.
What kind of navy should be built according to what kind of strategic needs, and what kind of warships should be ordered by what kind of navy. The Pick heavy cruiser is a typical first-class German-style ocean-going destroyer with a very high speed.
As long as the Royal Navy is a little bit negligent, she can quickly rush out of the North Sea at a high speed of nearly 34 knots, throw off the British pursuers, and then roam across the Atlantic, easily destroying any merchant ship with her 203mm naval gun.
A total of more than 1,600 army officers and soldiers from the regiment headquarters, 1st and 2nd battalions, mountain artillery company and reconnaissance company of the 76th Mountain Infantry Regiment will directly board the navy's warships instead of transport ships - they will serve as pioneers to establish the foundation for the follow-up troops. A solid stronghold.
The Germans believed that the slow transport ships could not keep up with the high-speed warships. In order to land ashore as quickly as possible, they made such an arrangement.
More than 600 of them were aboard the Peake, and the remaining 1,000 were divided among 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 person. They were told that if an accident occurred, they must swim as far as possible after abandoning the ship and jumping into the sea, otherwise they might be pulled into the abyss by the whirlpool.
At midnight that day, in heavy snow, the fleet uniformly painted in low-visibility dark paint sailed away from the dock.
The target of the first group is Oslo, the capital of Norway. The commander is Major General Brod. The battle formation consists of the heavy cruiser Peak, the light cruiser Rothenburg, as well as 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, bypassing Denmark and then heading straight into the Oslo Fjord.
After leaving the port, the fleet first sailed east, then turned north, bypassing Denmark and then heading straight into the Oslo Fjord.
Due to political considerations, the German Society did not take action against Denmark. Instead, it deployed tens of thousands of troops at the border and conducted large-scale exercises. At the same time, it continued to exert diplomatic pressure, hoping that Denmark would be able to understand and be captured. In this way, both sides All decent.
On the 19th, at 12:47 noon Oslo time, the temperature was -10°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 location of the flash, and then locked on an object that was reflecting sunlight about a kilometer away.
what is that? Isn't it the periscope of a submarine?
According to memorized war briefings, the Norwegians did have three submarines deployed in Oslo's first coastal defense zone. Although it is extremely old, as long as it can launch torpedoes, it is deadly enough - a rusty knife can also kill people!
The battle alarm sounded immediately, and the sailors hurried to their respective fighting positions.
"Dong dong dong——"
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 reported one after another that active sonar found no suspicious targets. As the distance got closer, the sailors discovered that it was just a floating broken metal plate.
War is always full of mistakes and accidents. Shortly afterwards, the destroyer Detlingen reported that the pressure of its No. 3 boiler had dropped for unknown reasons, and it was suspected that the pipeline was leaking steam.
She had to leave the fleet and stop the ship for emergency repairs. Rear Admiral Brod would naturally not miss the opportunity for this - surprise is the key to victory, so the fleet continued to move north and headed straight for Oslo.
At this moment, Major General Gosta, commander of the First Coastal Defense Zone, was pacing back and forth anxiously in his newly renovated headquarters.
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 even larger in scale. They set sail from Wilhelmshaven and are targeting a series of port cities in western Norway. They will continue to divide their forces in the process and capture Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. .
"The British and French are so shameless! They will definitely attract the Germans. This is a perfect excuse!" The usually amiable Major General Gosta now looked sad.
The German fleet has appeared in the west, but what about our own side?
The Oslo Fjord is a long and narrow bay that runs vertically from north to south. The firepower on the east and west coasts can effectively block enemy ships that break into the bay.
A series of forts built on both sides of the strait form two lines of defense. Small and medium-sized artillery is deployed on the outer line of defense, supplemented by mines and sea mines to cover the main forts.
The inner defense line is centered on Oscar Castle, where powerful 210mm howitzers and 305mm howitzers are deployed.
On paper, the Norwegian defense force here is pretty good, but the problem is that because of the small country and few people, the Norwegian army simply cannot gather the manpower, and many forts are seriously short of manpower.
A week ago, in order to improve the situation, Gosta simply dismantled two forts and dispersed the officers and soldiers to other forts, but this was essentially just demolishing the east wall to repair the west wall.
The major general realized that he had to do something, and his complete lack of reaction seemed a bit...clumsy.
He ordered: "We cannot ignore any danger signals. The Germans are likely to invade. Knut, issued a combat readiness order and asked the Hoyu Battery and the Mokluo Battery to lay mines in their minefields. All officers and soldiers returned to At the post, the minelayers laid mines to block the strait.”
Standing upright, Lieutenant Colonel Knut raised his hands 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 carried four-wheeled carriages to the preset minefield, wielded shovels, and buried mines one by one; while at the dock, the sailors used cranes to hoist the mines onto the track at the rear of the minesweeper.
This is obviously very time-consuming. How can it possibly be possible to improvise?
A seaplane and a biplane service aircraft of the aviation wing took off one after another and began to fly southward along the strait.
However, it was already approaching sunset, and the pilots who lacked night flight and search training found it difficult to take on the task. They did not want to risk their lives, so they flew back to the airport under the sunset.
The sun slowly sank into the horizon, and the world once again fell into darkness.
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 cold-proof clothing, it was so cold in Oslo at night in winter. 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 went in for a while and I couldn't feel my hands anymore."
A tall and thin sailor was trembling and exhaling clouds of white steam as he spoke. When he turned around, he seemed to see a black shadow moving in the night on the right front.
"Ensign, is there a ship at our three o'clock direction? I saw a shadow."
The searchlight on the bow of the boat was pointed there, and the round white light immediately revealed the original form of a "small boat".
The slender hull, integrated torpedo launch tube, flying flag...
Grass! This is a German torpedo boat!
"Alarm!" the ensign shouted sharply.
"call out--"
A red signal rocket roared into the sky, like a retrograde meteor piercing the night.
On the bridge of the USS Peake in the distance, commander Rear Admiral Brod put down his telescope and said calmly: "The entire ship is ready for battle, close the watertight doors, terminate radio silence, and check communications."
(End of chapter)
