Iron Cross

Rank accompanied Skorzeny back to the secret base on the outskirts of Berlin overnight. Along the way, the latter took the time to introduce to him the composition and related characteristics of the team.

Considering the importance of the mission, Rank had already thought about the size of the team as much as possible. Unexpectedly, he still underestimated the Führer's determination: the size of this commando team was far larger than he imagined, with 50 people, each of whom They all speak English and have unique skills. Since the operation was expected to take place at night, the training ground close to actual combat training was now in full swing. After a few minutes of observation, he saw that they were the best drivers: they were the best drivers when it came to driving, and there were no vehicles, armored vehicles or even tanks. By the way, the camp is full of British right-hand drive vehicles. They drive smoothly and without any hindrance; when it comes to action, they are the best soldiers. All kinds of British weapons, whether they are Sten submachine guns, Enfield rifles or cloth They can all skillfully operate the Lunt light machine gun, with almost no hits within 200 meters, and their hand-to-hand combat skills are such that they can win with one move. He dared to say that he had never seen such soldiers. The Italian paratrooper brigade among the 100,000-strong African Army was considered to be elite infantry, but there was probably no one with such skills.

They are now wearing full British military uniforms, and if anyone breaks in without knowing it, they will probably be frightened half to death - a British commando team of this size infiltrating Berlin will turn the world upside down. Now he finally understood why the Führer asked the commandos to go in a submarine, because it was impossible for so many people to quietly enter the British Isles through airdrops.

"Sir... what you see now is not all, but only 48 people. Another 2 people will be airdropped in advance tonight to conduct preliminary enemy reconnaissance. Once they gain a foothold, they will immediately send us electricity. To be honest, you It's late. If you join the team earlier, it would be the most ideal and safest way for you to airdrop first." Skorzeny is very humble, and his attitude now is much better than in the first meeting.

"It's a pity that I only found out about this today." Rank smiled sheepishly, "And I don't know how to parachute, and I don't have as many military skills as you, so I can't lurk first. I hope I won't cause you any trouble during the operation. I will perform my duties as well as possible according to your requirements.”

"Don't think so. You have skills that none of us have. The success of the operation mainly depends on your performance." Skorzeny has read all of Rank's files and resume on the road. Ke was the last to join and was not from a military background, so he looked down upon him. On the contrary, Rank has all the abilities he dreamed of: a typical civilian officer who does not look murderous, making it easy to play the role of an aristocratic officer. Having lived in the UK for many years, his personality and habits are closer to the standards of a British person. He is also familiar with all the details of British customs. His standard Oxford accent is something that no member of the commando team has. What's more important is that Rank has already played the role of a British officer once. With this kind of magnanimity and experience, it will be more seamless to play again.

Skorzeny was now very grateful to the Führer for his discernment. He originally wanted to simply cooperate with the British gangster named Chapman, but he would have to keep an eye on him at worst. But every time the head of state told him not to worry, someone better would come. He always thought it was a comforting word, but he didn't expect that what the head of state said was completely true. The person who came was better and more suitable than he imagined.

"We have been training for more than a month. Everyone except me is from the original Brandenburg army. In order to create a reasonable British environment as soon as possible, we tried our best to play the role of British soldiers - from props to queues, from This is how he acts and talks." Skorzeny pointed to the British-style displays in his headquarters, with a defense map of the British Isles posted on the back, and said proudly, "This looks like a typical British regiment. In order to quickly improve everyone's English level, the commando team set a rule: daily communication must be in English, and no one dares to leak a sentence. If you speak German, you will be fined 1 mark, and everyone will supervise each other, no one will be exempted.”

"This immersive effect must be very good." Rank praised, "Who came up with this? It's great!"

"Do you know how it feels to be forced to speak all in English? I haven't spoken English for a long time after graduating from college. It was terribly uncomfortable when I picked it up at first. My mouth was slurred as if it was curled up. But I am still the captain, so I have to To tell them to do this or that, they just say 'Yes, sir' or 'No, sir'... But it worked really well," Skorzeny said very proudly. "The first week. I received a fine of 384 marks, the second week I received a fine of 121 marks, the third week it was only 17 marks, and you know what happened last week? Not 1 mark, our players were completely integrated. If they showed up in the city now, they would probably be picked up by the military police as British spies."

"Really?" Rank joked, "That would be so fun."

"Of course." Skorzeny suddenly laughed, "Speaking of this, there is a more interesting thing."

"What is it?"

"We usually train at night and don't fall asleep until after 5 o'clock in the morning. The biological clock is completely destroyed, and sometimes there are some problems with sleep. Last week I went to check the ward and found three people talking in their sleep: one said there was movement and the captain was playing the trumpet. Assemble; the other said, pull it down, it is early morning, I clearly heard a wild cat in heat; the third said, you are both talking nonsense, it is clearly a wild dog fighting, okay? These are not the key, the key is these words. It was said in English.”

"Hahaha." Both of them laughed heartily.

Skorzeny handed Rank a stack of photos: "This is the location of the target. The Air Force had taken aerial photos of this place before during the British air raid, but they did not realize what was underneath and mistakenly thought it was just an ordinary noble manor. I ignored them and just archived them as general information. It took me a lot of effort to dig them out of the old papers. At present, almost no one in the country knows about the situation there. And I don’t dare to send a reconnaissance plane there. I can do it during the day. I dare not say that we cannot break through the air defense network. It would be troublesome if we alarmed the enemy and alerted them. "

Rank nodded and began to look at the photos carefully.

"My plan is to take three steps: the first step is for us to act as British military police and seize control of the place; the second step is to use Air Force bombers to carry out precision bombing of the place at night, destroying the facilities and eliminating most of the people through bombing; the third step After the bombing started, we pretended that the British military police came to the rescue and took the opportunity to eliminate the fish that slipped through the net. "

"Precision bombing?" Rank raised his eyebrows, "Are we capable of doing this?"

"Yes! But it needs to be arranged in advance." Skorzeny used magic to pull out a suitcase from under the bed, revealing the equipment inside and introduced, "This is a positioning system recently successfully developed by imperial scientists. He has 4 Dry batteries and corresponding signaling equipment can continuously emit two fixed-frequency electromagnetic waves. This frequency is different from the normal communication wavelength but can be detected by machines. Special receiving equipment will be installed on our aircraft to calculate the orientation based on the difference method. The approximate distance is displayed, and then precise guidance can be performed. The closer the aircraft is to this device, the stronger the signal in the receiver will be. When the distance is only 20 kilometers, the oscilloscope will display the bright spot and the aircraft position point, and when the two centers coincide. Just in the best state for bombing, each set of devices will form a bright spot. If the target range is relatively large or more precise positioning is required, multiple systems can be used at the same time. We have tested it many times and are convinced that this set of devices is effective. And the greater the number, the more accurate it is – I plan to bring 8 sets of equipment this time.”

Rank nodded in understanding.

"If it was a simple bombing, I only need to place the equipment and let myself escape. I don't even need to dispatch so many people. But the head of state emphasized that there is only one chance to attack this mission. If this failure occurs, it may happen again next time. There is no chance, and the focus of the mission is to eliminate the enemy. It is best not to miss any, so we must have people staying on site to replenish the guns, and the number cannot be too small," Skorzeny clearly detailed. After thinking about the action plan, "You have to know that the Air Force lacks 4-engine bombers. It is also difficult for other bombers to fly to the UK to bomb. At the same time, the British radar is very powerful. The concentration of large cluster formations will immediately remind them of air defense. We can only use 2- Three bombers carry out secret flight bombing in small formations. No matter how accurate their bombing is, the ammunition and lethality effect carried by these aircraft are always limited, and manual coordination is required. "

"The only convenient condition for the operation is that after the preliminary investigation by our spies in the UK, the British authorities wanted to keep this secret to prevent us from spying on the relevant situation. The security force in the area is not very strong. Most of them are policemen and there is only a small team of military police. It presents a pattern of being tight on the outside and loose on the inside. There is a regiment of troops stationed about 15 kilometers away from this place, which can quickly provide support. The disadvantage is also the same, because there are not many troops and the environment is relatively closed, our rash appearance may arouse their suspicion. The risk of exposure is high.”

"We may need to redesign the entire action plan." Ranke said slowly after reading the detailed plan and hand-drawn map, "You have considered many detailed factors, but the response method is wrong, and there are also problems with the description of the local area. Our difficulty does not lie in the specific operations. The British commandos of 50 cannot defeat two battalions, but the risk of exposure is very high."

Hearing this sentence, Skorzeny became nervous: "Please tell me carefully."

"I've been to that place twice..." Ranke slowly entered into the memories of the past, which was a memory that had been dusty for a long time.