Chapter 817: Winter war

Time entered the early 1940s, and the sea was no longer as calm as before.
In fact, since September last year, the brutal naval war has already begun between Germany and Britain.
This war was initiated by the Germans. After the official declaration of war between Britain and France, the little man ordered a full blockade of Britain.
At that time, he commanded with a tone of worry, anger, anxiety, and fanaticism: "If you can't let it die, then completely trap it on an isolated island."
That night, the British passenger ship Athena was sunk by a German submarine with a torpedo. The death toll exceeded 100, including more than 20 American citizens.
Officially based on this incident, the United States will mobilize several large passenger ships to safely bring citizens from all over Europe back to the country.
Two days later, three large luxury passenger ships were sunk off the coast of Spain. These are important British ships.
If the attack on the merchant ship merely made the British angry, then the attack on Scarpa Bay launched in October was a formal provocation against the Navy.
In October, an important British naval base, Scapa Bay, was bombed by German aircraft, and the'Royal Oak' warship sank.
The incident immediately aroused the reaction of the British Admiralty, and the British retaliated against it.
Churchill, then Navy Secretary, visited Scarpa Bay and held talks at Admiral Forbes's flagship to discuss counterattacks.
The meeting finally decided to strengthen the water gates and obstruction ships, establish minefields and increase patrol boats in the unprotected eastern waterway of Scarpa Bay.
In addition, artillery positions to control entrances and exits will be arranged. In order to prevent aerial attacks, the Navy Department plans to add 92 heavy anti-aircraft guns and 60 light anti-aircraft guns to ensure that enemy aircraft cannot launch unscrupulous attacks above their heads.
Many remote searchlights, defensive balloon nets, etc. will also be added to the base.
Churchill hopes that these deployments will be completed within March of this year to return the threatened fleet to return.
Until these deployments are completed, Scarpa Bay can only temporarily serve as a gas station for ships.
At this time, the whole of Europe was in a ‘strange war’, a strange state of so-called ‘declaration without fighting’ against Germany by Britain and France.
The strange war is what the French call it. The Germans call this ‘seated war,’ and the British call it ‘false war. ’
No one knows when this situation will continue, but all countries are looking for ways to end this seemingly absurd ‘war. ’
In order to fulfill his ambitions, Churchill, who served as navy minister, completed the deployment to the navy and took the initiative to ease the relationship between Chamberlain and Chamberlain.
The Chamberlain couple was invited to the naval base as a guest, arranged for them to visit the defense deployment of Scarpa Bay, and listened to Chamberlain bragging about how his father invested funds to develop the land here at the end of the last century and earned a lot of money.
In fact, during this period, because of the change of identity and the different patterns, Churchill endorsed Chamberlain's plan of "improvement of disaster."
This stance comes from deep-rooted class roots. He is happy to see that the war is passed on to the Soviet Union, allowing the German and Soviet tigers to fight and fight for your life.
When he spoke abroad, his evaluation of the Soviet Union also changed, although he used a lot of false words to cover up.
But in fact, the core he pointed out is no different from Chamberlain. He changed his original attitude and hated the Soviet Union again.
Both of them agreed to increase troops to Finland, and at the same time resume negotiations with Germany, so that the conflict between Germany and Soviet Union broke out again, shifting the trend of war.
At this time, Finland has been mobilizing the country for a long time in February, with a total of more than 450,000 troops, including about 150,000 main forces and more than 300,000 reserve troops.
In addition, there are reserve 100,000 and 100,000 women's service teams, which are responsible for producing military needs during the war and providing various services for the army.
The Finnish authorities are also actively seeking help. They first found Germany, because compared with the United Kingdom and France, which have betrayed the Czech Republic and Poland, the Germans have a higher reputation than them.
However, the attention of the Germans was totally lost on it.
From the panic and anger that Britain and France officially declared war on, to the now high ambitions and the desire to completely conquer Europe to change the world, his vision is much bigger than his heart.
It is a pity that the little dwarf is preparing for the invasion of Western Europe wholeheartedly, and has no time to ‘take care of’ his little brother, and he is even more reluctant to intensify the conflict with the Soviet Union.
Although Britain and France expressed their willingness to send troops to support, they were indeed prepared accordingly.
However, Sweden and Norway feared Germany and feared that the war would spread to the entire Scandinavian peninsula, and rejected the British and French borrowing requests.
The war developed rapidly, and Finland originally believed that it could resist the Soviets for half a year to a year by virtue of geography and people's hatred of invaders.
At first, the progress of the war was indeed detrimental to the Soviet Union. In the four regions that attacked Finland across the border ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Only the northern section successfully achieved its intended purpose. The Soviets in the remaining regions were defeated and forced to stop the attack and redeploy.
In the Karelia isthmus, the Soviets broke through the Mannerheim line and suffered another blow.
In the ensuing battle, the Finnish army used various anti-tank weapons and sleigh troops to spit the farts of the Soviets in the snow.
In the northeastern region of Lake Ladoga, the large units of the 2 Soviet divisions were siege by the Finnish army, and the remaining troops were forced into defense.
In the Kitele region, a long period of offensive and defensive battles were carried out. At the beginning of the year, they were surrounded by the Finnish army and their supplies were cut off.
Most of the strength of the two divisions was sieved and nearly 20,000 were killed and wounded. The rest of the troops shrank and retreated, passively turning into defense.
There are many similar battles. In general, in the early days of the war, the Finnish army exhausted the Soviets and the polar bear was completely stunned.
Although the Finnish army displayed heroic fighting ability in order to defend the country, the gap between the two sides could not be relied on for courage alone.
After many defeats, the Soviet Union decided to increase its investment in the Finnish war.
500 planes loaded with artillery shells were launched, and more than 400 artillery pieces were deployed at positions to carry out long and violent large-scale attacks on the Finnish army and its rear.
In the 24 hours before the offensive started again, a total of more than 300,000 rounds were fired, destroying a large number of firepower points and fortifications of the main Finnish forces.
The planes were dispatched frequently, dropping bombs on the Finnish army's defense line, and blasting the snow and jungle below with airborne machine guns.
With the suppression of artillery fire, the Soviets launched another offensive. After three days of brutal close-range battle, the Soviet 7th Army broke through the Mannerheim line of defense and opened a breakthrough in its main defense zone enough to accommodate the passage of mechanized troops. .