conspiracy

"You said earlier that we only have one infantry division near Bitavale."

"I didn't say the Raiders would come from near Bitavale." Manstein said with a "sinister" smile.

"Then where did your 'Raiders' come from?" Leon asked with interest.

Manstein stood up after satiating everyone's appetite, walked to the map, pointed to a place and said, "My 'Raiders' come from here!"

"Southern Line?!" Everyone was shocked when they saw the place Manstein was pointing.

"Haha, you're referring to the airborne troops on the southern front, right? It's interesting, as expected of Manstein!" Leon thought about it for a while, then laughed loudly, "The airborne troops who are fighting on the southern front will be The troops were suddenly dropped on the northern front, a surprise attack across an entire country, I think Norway will definitely be scared by your move."

The other officers also understood Manstein's intentions and couldn't help showing admiration.

Manstein's tactic of mobilizing troops on the southern front to raid the northern frontier cities across the entire country was something they could not think of and dare not think about, because this tactic violated the laws of previous wars, but it is undeniable that A bold move that, in the current circumstances, can do wonders.

Dare to think outside the box in a specific situation, this is the reason why Manstein is Manstein.

"Since there is no objection, let Manstein handle the issue of the 128th Division." Lyon stood up, walked to Manstein and patted him on the shoulder, and said, "You will immediately rush after the meeting. Go to the headquarters of the Twelfth Army and assist them in conquering southern Norway. When the battle for Norway is over, the Empire will hand over a heavier burden to you, I hope you will prepare first."

Hearing what the Führer means, he wants to re-promote me back to the commander-in-chief of the army group! God, I can finally return to the front line to take charge of the troops! Manstein thought happily.

"I will not be disgraced! My head of state!" Manstein saluted Leon, then turned around and walked back to his seat to sit down.

"Well, the problem of the 12th Army has been solved." Leon also sat back in his seat and said to everyone with a smile, "Then, the 13th Army, do you have anything to report?"

...

A day later, Manstein flew to the headquarters of the German Twelfth Army in Karaschok, Finnmark, Norway, as the envoy of the Führer, and temporarily took over the 127th and 129th Infantry Divisions besieging Sekmu. , the 128th Infantry Division, which was retreating, and the 7th Airborne Division of the Luftwaffe, who were ordered to stand by on the southern front, personally directed them to complete their plans.

After the various units participating in the operation clarified the mission requirements, the operation plan, which was named "Ball Lightning" by the Supreme Command, began to unfold in an orderly manner.

The 128th Infantry Division discarded all its heavy equipment as planned, changed from an orderly retreat to a panicked "rout", pretending to be hit hard by the Bitavale defenders, and lured the two Norwegian divisions behind them to pursue .

The two Norwegian divisions behind them did not catch up as excitedly as Manstein thought, but stopped in place and began to pack up the heavy equipment abandoned by the Germans.

This situation really caused Manstein to break out in a cold sweat. If the Norwegian troops chose not to pursue the 128th Infantry Division, then the 7th Airborne Division might be the main force of the Bitawale defenders when they airborne. The two Norwegian divisions of the 1990s met head-on, and the effect of the whole plan would be greatly reduced or even failed.

But fortunately, the annihilation of the German 128th Infantry Division was full of temptation for the Tawal defenders, so the two Norwegian divisions hurriedly picked up the heavy equipment discarded by the 128th Infantry Division, and then embarked on the pursuit of the 128th Infantry Division again. 's journey.

Seeing that the Norwegian army finally got on the hook, Manstein couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief and began to execute the next step of the plan - an airborne raid.

More than 8,000 soldiers of the 7th Airborne Division had already been prepared. After receiving the order from Manstein to attack, they immediately boarded the transport aircraft in an orderly manner. The mighty flew to the north line.

Such a huge group of aircraft flew from south to north, and naturally could not hide from the eyes of the Norwegians, the Norwegian Army Air Force and the Naval Air Force (Norway did not have the Air Force as the United States during World War II, only the Army Air Force affiliated to the Army. and the Naval Air Force, which was not merged into the Royal Norwegian Air Force until 1944, immediately took off their few dozen fighter jets to intercept the German fleet.

However, the Norwegian side did not know that these German planes were carrying airborne troops, let alone that these planes taking off from the southern line were targeting the other northern line of the country. They thought that these planes were carrying bombs. The Luftwaffe is the Want to engage in a round of deep bombing.

Therefore, after being severely beaten by the escorting German ME109 fleet, Norwegian Army Aviation and Hainan Airlines decided to flee and let the Luftwaffe continue to penetrate into their own depths.

Anyway, there is nothing important in the depth of my home. Let you blow it up, the Norwegian military thinks so.

When the German fleet saw that the Norwegian plane voluntarily gave way, they were immediately relieved. It seemed that the Norwegians did not know that the plane was carrying paratroopers, because if they knew, they would definitely fight to destroy the German fleet.

After all, Germany would have to lose 60 or 70 paratroopers for a single German transport plane, and their dozens of fighter jets could definitely replace one or two thousand German paratroopers.

The height of the German aircraft group was maintained at 6,000 meters, and the anti-aircraft guns on the ground posed no threat to them at all, so after escaping the interception of the Norwegian fighter jets, the road behind was smooth sailing.

Norway's land area is not large, only 387,000 square kilometers, so the German fleet flew from the southern tip of Norway to the northern tip of Norway in just over 2 hours.

After reaching the place, more than 100 transport planes began to slowly lower their heights. After descending to only about 1,000 meters above the ground, the soldiers of the German 7th Airborne Division leaped out of the cabin and quickly approached the ground. Finally, at 500 meters. The air turned into a blossoming white umbrella flower.

The city of Bitawale was originally defended by nearly 40,000 soldiers, but due to the successful strategy of the German army to move away from the mountain, there are only more than 6,000 soldiers left in one brigade in Bitawale. In the face of the raid of the elite airborne troops of the German army, They only held on for an hour, then abandoned their positions and fled towards Shiboten, which is dozens of kilometers away.

The main force of the Bitawale city defenders who were chasing the 128th Division outside learned that their hometown had been occupied, and immediately turned around and killed them in Bitawale City, trying to regain their positions.