Operation God save the King Operation Sea Lion pt II

General Dwight D. Eisenhower scanned the coast of Wales around the city of Swansea. He couldn't make out any fortifications of any extent, but he knew that the Nazis were there nonetheless.

"Jerry order the battleship divisions to lay in close and begin the bombardment." Eisenhower said to his aide without lowering his binoculars. Standing on the bridge of the aircraft carrier Enterprise next to him was the short, cigar chomping leader of free England, Winston Churchill.

Churchill was impatient but knew that without the "Yanks" this Operation would have been impossible, so he wisely kept his mouth shut. He glanced around at the fleet that seemed to stretch for miles in all directions. surrounding the Enterprise CV-6 were the other carriers of the American fleet. The USS Essex, CV-9, the USS Hornet CV-8, the USS wasp CV-7, the USS Yorktown CV-5, the USS Ranger CV-4, and the USS Intrepid CV-11. Not to mention the destroyers, cruisers, heavy cruisers, and afore mentioned battleships.

Eisenhower watched the bombardment ships as they moved into positions. In the background the sounds of aircraft taking off to join other planes from the other carriers could be loudly heard. Eisenhower had been given reliable intelligence that the English coast watchers would neglect to inform the occupying germans of the fleets arrival. This gave Eisenhower's invasion fleet precious time to establish a beachhead before the Germans could respond.

He swung his binoculars back to the battleships he could see as they formed up for bombardment. The president had authorized the transfer of most of the battleships from the Pacific fleet to the Atlantic. Since the mysterious destruction of the majority of the imperial Japanese Navy, the empire of Japan had gone mysteriously quiet. They had even scaled back operations in Manchuria, and China. That had enabled the US to strengthen it's various outposts and send the reinforcements needed to England.

To the South of the American fleet were the various units of the free Royal Navy. Units from almost every part of Britain's far flung empire.

Breaking Eisenhower out of his thoughts were the loud booms of the bombardment ships beginning their shelling. The liberation of England had begun.

Eisenhower knew that even with the tight security he had in place the German Navy was aware of his fleets presence. Several American and Canadian Corvettes had chased and sunk several uboats around the edges of the fleet.

Finally after several hours of bombardment, and a few more uboat scares, he gave the order for the invasion to begin. As he watched Higgins boats began circling their mother ships waiting to form the first wave. The 1st, 4th, 29th, and 90th infantry divisions as well as several composite ranger battalions would be going ashore first. Over 60,000 men in just the American troops alone in the first wave. He knew that the English troops were approximately around the same number.

Several dozen Hellcat fighters flew over the tightly circling landing craft when they suddenly broke their circles and began to form lines surging toward the beaches. He watched through his binoculars as they reached the shore and began to disgorge their troops. He could make out small repeated splashes in the water around his men from enemy machine gun fire.

He shortly began to receive messages from the beaches that the British "collaborators" who had assisted in the landings had begun to openly fight alongside his men. The officer in charge ashore of his beaches was General Raymond O. Barton of the 4th infantry division.

Barton, meanwhile was more than pleased at the lack of fight the enemy had shown so far. By now he had enough men ashore to attempt to breakout and.move inland. He ordered his 4th infantry division along with units of the other divisions to move to the prearranged stop point consisting of a line from Llanelli across the peninsula where Swansea sat, to Port Talbot on the south eastern flank of the peninsula.

In London Field Marshall Von Rundstedt was just waking up to a summons from his headquarters staff. Von Rundstedt wouldn't believe that the allies would use the coast of Wales for an invasion. Instead he believed they would use a moose isolated spot such as a location near Ilfracombe. A more remote and and harder to get to spot . Hitler had agreed and had ordered most of the elite occupation forces to that area to defend it, leaving most of the rest of England lightly defended.

Ireland had proclaimed neutrality between England and Germany so the German military machine had chosen to ignore that country for the time being. For that reason the allies had done the same. Scotland however had been a thorn in the side of the Germans since the invasion. An English general had chosen to stay behind while the majority of loyal Britain's had fled to Canada. He had taken the name William Wallace, and was causing the German troops in Scotland to reinvent the meaning of fear. This generals given name was Bernard Law Montgomery.

Eisenhower hated being aboard ship and not ashore with the men. He knew that good men were fighting and dieing because of his orders and he didn't care for it much. He had initially had some concerns over the invasion plans, however now that General Patton had gone ashore with the majority of his armored division he was pleased. Patton had smashed several German counterattacks and with his uncontested control of the air over the battlefront, his troops had pushed 50 miles inland. Reclaiming the rest of England from the nazi thugs would still be a long road, but progress was good so far. Eisenhower figured now would be a good time to report to his superiors in Washington DC. He turned away from the ships railing to head below to communications, writing the report in his head.