Chapter 1077: Islands on the Continent
Georgetown, Guyana.
August 18, 3:50 a.m.
The snow-white searchlight pierced the night and illuminated a small seaport facing the Atlantic Ocean. This is a port with a long history. It has been a stronghold of Western colonists in the Americas since the end of the 15th century. Spain, the Netherlands, France and Britain have fought for it repeatedly. It was occupied by the Netherlands in the 17th century and transferred to the British Empire in 1814. But such a port, which was once popular, had inevitably declined in the 20th century.
The scale of Georgetown Port is very small, and the facilities are very simple. There are low shanties inhabited by Indians and blacks near the port area, and there are almost no beautiful European-style buildings. No one can imagine that the Europeans came here earlier than they arrived in New York.
When a T-1 landing ship with a full load displacement of 3,750 tons approached a simple and somewhat irresponsible dock, all the buildings in the port area had their doors and windows closed, and there was no civilian on the empty streets, and there were no guard posts. It seemed as if this was a long-abandoned, deserted port.
However, Major Rudolf von Ribbentrop, who had just come down from the Soviet-German battlefield, was able to use his extremely keen battlefield intuition to find the anti-aircraft gun positions covered with camouflage nets in the Georgetown port area, which was almost an empty port, but no other defense facilities were found.
"Comrade Major, is this the American continent?"
A volunteer soldier from the Kingdom of Little Russia (Ukraine) named Tymoshenko (also known as Timoshenko) followed Ribbentrop onto the deck and asked very disappointedly at the small and broken port and city in front of him.
"Peter, this is the American continent. It's not as prosperous as you imagined, right?" Little Ribbentrop looked back at the burly little Russian with a big golden beard. The little Russian volunteers who could join the advance team of the European Community Expeditionary Force were not newcomers to the battlefield. They were all veterans who had fought in the Soviet-German War for more than two years!
And this Sergeant Major Peter Nikolayevich Tymoshenko was a Ukrainian volunteer of the SS. He participated in no less than 100 battles in more than two years of war and was a real veteran of the battlefield.
Of course, Little Ribbentrop himself was not bad. He had fought in the world war for more than four years since he first went to the battlefield in the Battle of France. During this period, he also participated in officer training and was promoted from an ordinary soldier to a major in the SS.
After coming down from the Soviet-German battlefield, he was appointed as the battalion commander of the 5th Battalion (Armored Battalion) of the 5th SS "Queen Kira" (Crown Princess of the German Empire, Crown Prince of the Russian Empire, Queen of the Kingdom of Little Russia) Armored Grenadiers Brigade because he could speak some Russian.
Several men in dark green short-sleeved military uniforms seemed to be waiting at the dock. Little Ribbentrop saw a 30-year-old SS colonel with a tall and handsome figure, with the brim of his military cap pulled down low, exuding an unstoppable warrior aura. He jumped onto the gangway and walked quickly to the deck of the T-1 landing ship.
Little Ribbentrop knew this man. He was the famous "Armored Meyer", the former acting commander of the 12th "Hitler Youth" Division of the SS. The 34-year-old commander was a legend even in the SS, where promotion was easier!
However, the acting division commander of "Armored Meyer" was demoted not long after he took office - in fact, he became the division commander by chance, because his superior, the original division commander Colonel Witte, was killed by Soviet guerrillas during a front-line inspection on the edge of the Caucasus Mountains. As the highest-ranking officer in the 12th SS Division, Meyer, who was still a lieutenant colonel at the time, became the acting division commander and commanded the troops for several weeks until the Soviet Union officially ceased hostilities.
Subsequently, the German army on the Soviet-German front began to rest and reorganize. Some troops and officers in better condition were drawn out in the first batch to form some small but very elite brigades, which were sent to America as the advance troops of the European Community Expeditionary Force.
And "Armored Meyer" also got the same opportunity and was sent to America as the commander of the newly formed 5th SS "Queen Kira" Armored Grenadier Brigade.
"Rudolf, welcome to Georgetown Island."
After Meyer and Ribbentrop Jr. saluted each other, Meyer half-jokingly said to him: "This is actually an island located on the South American continent."
"Is this an island?"
Ribbentrop Jr. was stunned. "From the map, Georgetown faces the Atlantic Ocean on the northwest and the other two sides are quite flat land."
"It is land." Meyer nodded, "But unlike the land in Europe, British Guiana (actually belongs to the Republic of Guyana) is about 215,000 square kilometers, larger than the Kingdom of Poland, but with a population of less than 20 10,000, and most of them are concentrated in the coastal areas near Georgetown, engaged in fishing and agriculture. Walking 10 kilometers inland from the coastline of Georgetown, there is an endless primeval forest. There are no roads, no residents, and it is a complete ocean of forest. So Georgetown is actually an island... We actually came to the American continent to defend the island. "
"But... I didn't find any defense facilities." Little Ribbentrop frowned, "Except for a few anti-aircraft gun positions, there are no defense facilities. And there are shanties along the coastline. Wouldn't this seriously affect our shooting line of sight?"
"Not bad, you are indeed a veteran who fought in the four-year World War." Meier turned his head, raised his hand and pointed to the southwest and smiled, "Go 40 kilometers inland along the Demerara River to the 'Georgetown Island' we have to defend. Since 1942, our people have been building there, building docks, large airports, barracks, anti-artillery bunkers, artillery positions, anti-aircraft positions and simple roads, and stockpiling a lot of supplies. We will take the landing ship there after dawn, and then wait for the Americans to die!"
The plan to defend British Guiana was formulated by General Falkenhorst when he served as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force in Guyana. It follows the principle of "fortress defense" and concentrates troops to deploy one point. In addition, it also adopted the strategy of "defending the inland instead of the coast" to avoid putting the defenders under the threat of heavy artillery from US surface ships.
So the real "Georgetown Island" is not on the seashore, but inland 40 kilometers from the coastline (this distance is enough to avoid the bombardment of the main guns of the US "Iowa" class battleships), surrounded by endless tropical rainforests, and can only communicate with the outside world through the narrow Demerara River, a very hidden airport built in the rainforest, and a difficult forest path.
...
When the sky was just getting light, Ribbentrop Jr. and "Armored Meyer" were already on their way to "Georgetown Island", still riding on the landing ship with a full load displacement of more than 4,000 tons.
The landing ship was moving slowly in the inland river, upstream. Both Ribbentrop Jr. and Meyer stood on the deck "looking at the scenery", actually familiarizing themselves with the terrain.
"Is there no road to go?" Little Ribbentrop noticed that there were large tracts of virgin forest on both sides of the river - it is really hard to imagine that Europeans arrived here more than 400 years ago!
"There are no roads 10-15 kilometers away from the coastline," said Meier, "This area relies entirely on water transportation. Although we Europeans have been operating here for 400 years, we obviously have not developed it seriously. This is a good thing for us. As long as we block the Demerara River with mines during war, the Americans can only fight jungle warfare with us."
"Colonel, what kind of ship is that?" Little Ribbentrop's eyes are sharp. He saw a blue and gray camouflage boat on the water beside the river.
"It's an S-boat!" Meyer glanced at the boat, "It's an S100 torpedo boat, belonging to the 5th Torpedo Boat Squadron of Colonel Johnson. Colonel Johnson is also the naval commander on Georgetown Island."
The S100 torpedo boat is the largest torpedo boat owned by the German Navy, with a displacement of 117 tons and three Daimler-Benz MB511 supercharged diesel engines, and its speed can reach 42 knots.
In addition to its large tonnage and high speed, the S100 boat also has solid armor and powerful firepower, equipped with a 20mm machine gun, a 40mm anti-aircraft gun and two 533mm torpedo tubes, and a mine slide is installed at the stern, which can be used to lay various types of mines.
In addition, the S100 boat has an amazing endurance of about 700 nautical miles, or about 1,300 kilometers. It is enough to rely on its own fuel to depart from Georgetown Port, go around the American-controlled Trinidad Island (about 500 kilometers away) and come back, and its combat efficiency can be compared with that of a destroyer.
It is precisely because of the long range, high speed and strong firepower of the S100 boat that the German Navy deployed the 5th Torpedo Boat Squadron with 16 S100 boats to Georgetown.
In the more than two years since 1942, the 5th Torpedo Boat Squadron has used Georgetown as a base and frequently attacked, cooperating with the "Beast" class torpedo boats and destroyers with larger tonnage to attack American ships near Trinidad Island. A total of thirty or forty ships of various types were sunk, which is definitely a great achievement for torpedo boats.
In addition, the S100 boat can also be used to lay mines. The S100 boat now discovered by Major Ribbentrop was rushing to the mouth of the Demerara River to lay mines.