Chapter 574 Intelligence
Washington, Pentagon.
Two o'clock in the morning.
There was a solemn and tense atmosphere in the war room of the Navy Department. President Roosevelt, who was sitting in person, frowned and held one Camel cigarette in his hand. Since entering the war room, he has smoked many cigarettes. Pack of cigarettes.
Ernest on the side couldn't stand it anymore and started to persuade him. "Mr. President, the doctor said you can't smoke so much, it's not good for your health."
President Roosevelt nodded, put out the cigarette in his hand on the ashtray, but within a few minutes, he lit another one and asked. "Where is the fleet?"
A naval staff officer pointed to a certain spot on the sand table. "We should be here as planned." Because the fleet needs to maintain radio silence, they don't know the specific location and can only infer based on the original plan.
Greenland time is 4 hours ahead of Washington, USA. The correspondent suddenly reported at 2:30 a.m. Washington time. "Report, the fleet has broken radio silence. They encountered a German patrol." Since they have encountered the enemy, there is no need to continue to maintain radio silence.
Ernest was heartbroken and said loudly. "Confirm fleet position!"
Soon, a combat staff officer marked the fleet's position on the sand table. After calculating the distance, Ernest discovered that the fleet's location was less than two hundred kilometers away from Greenland. A smile appeared on his face and he looked at President Roosevelt. "Mr. President, it seems that we are lucky. We were exposed less than two hundred kilometers away from Greenland. Even if the Germans wanted to support them, they were too late. We will definitely win Greenland!"
President Roosevelt breathed a sigh of relief. "God bless!"
What followed was a series of enemy reports, but Ernest was not too worried and even relaxed a little. "It seems that the intelligence is quite accurate. There are no large warships in Greenland." So far, all we have encountered are destroyers and speedboats. There is not a single large warship. And a few destroyers are not scary at all for a fleet.
Then there is no more.
After waiting for more than ten minutes and no follow-up report, Ernest couldn't help but wonder. "what happened"
The correspondent was also confused. "No news from the fleet."
Ernest frowned slightly. "What do you mean there is no news? Ask them what happened." Now that the radio silence has been broken, the fleet will report every move. Why has there been no news for so long?
After a while of fussing, the correspondent reported again. "Report, there is no response from the fleet!"
"Is it a fleet radio failure?" This thought flashed through his mind, and Ernest shook his head in denial. There are so many battleships in the fleet, and each one is equipped with a radio. It is impossible for so many radios to malfunction at the same time.
Half an hour passed, but there was still no news. President Roosevelt's brows were furrowed into knots, while Ernest was pacing back and forth anxiously.
They even called in technicians to carefully check the radio equipment. After repeatedly confirming that there was no problem with their own radio station, the technician thought of another possibility. "Could it be that the Germans are conducting radio jamming on the fleet?"
Later generations have multiple methods to deal with radio interference, such as spread spectrum, frequency hopping, burst, kidney-shaped antenna, etc. However, current American radio technology is not very developed, and there is no effective anti-interference method.
A faint sense of uneasiness flashed through Ernest's heart. If the Germans really carried out radio jamming, wouldn't it mean that they were well prepared?
Half an hour, one hour, two hours... The hands of the clock on the wall pointed to five o'clock, and the time in Greenland was nine o'clock in the morning, but there was still no news.
President Roosevelt tremblingly took out a bottle of medicine from his pocket, poured out a few pills, took the water glass handed over by his secretary, and swallowed it with difficulty.
Ernest, who was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, pacing back and forth, suddenly slapped his forehead. "Quickly, contact Davis Team." Davis Team is the reconnaissance team that secretly sneaked into Greenland. The information about the German deployment in Greenland came from this team. They would surely know if the fleet approached Greenland and launched an attack.
After a few minutes, the correspondent shook his head again. "Report, Davis team can't be reached either."
The uneasiness in Ernest's heart became more and more intense. "Damn, what the hell is going on?!"
Lucas, the U.S. ambassador to Spain, was awakened by a sudden phone ring while he was sleeping. Because Spain did not declare war on the United States, the U.S. Embassy here did not evacuate.
"Who is this in the middle of the night?!" Lucas yawned and turned on the bedside lamp, seeing that the time was now four in the morning. He reached out and picked up the phone that was still ringing, and said vaguely. "Which one?"
"Ambassador Lucas, I have a very important secret here. I think you will definitely be interested in it."
Lucas frowned in disgust, and when he heard the voice, he knew it was Salazar, the Spanish deputy head of state. After contacting him a few times, he discovered that this guy was simply a greedy vampire. Even if he revealed a little bit of information, he would ask for a huge price. "What kind of information is that? Wait, you'd better tell me the price first."
"As for the price, this time it's cheaper for your country. It's one billion US dollars."
"****!!" Lucas instantly greeted the female family members of Deputy Head of State Salazar's family. Mudd, is this bastard crazy about money? ! The last time the German flying bomb cost 500 tons of gold (about 600 million U.S. dollars), President Roosevelt has not approved it until now. Now it costs one billion U.S. dollars? ! “Sorry, we don’t have that much money!!”
"How about 700 million? 500 million? 300 million? 100 million is okay, right? There won't be this store after passing this village. This is about your fleet..." Before he finished speaking, Lucas interrupted him simply. "I will ask President Roosevelt for instructions." Upon hearing this guy's crazy price reduction, he knew that this must be worthless information. After saying that, he hung up the phone and continued to sleep soundly.
I slept until 6:30 in the morning, got up, washed and was about to have breakfast, when the phone rang again. "Mr. Ambassador Lucas, have you asked President Roosevelt for instructions? This is the last chance. If it is later, your fleet will..."
"I'm just asking for permission." After leaving these words, Lucas hung up the phone again. "He seemed to have said fleet just now? What fleet?" The sneak attack on Greenland was a top-secret operation. Naturally, he, the ambassador, did not know about it, so he did not take the fleet mentioned by Deputy Head of State Salazar to heart and ate breakfast leisurely.