cicada

Chapter 1472 European Battlefield
Upon seeing Gu Qi and Wu Jingzhong, Zuo Zhong immediately stood up and laughed, gesturing for them to sit down: "Old Gu, Old Wu, you've worked hard, please sit down."

Gu Qi nodded to Wu Chunyang and respectfully replied to Zuo Zhong: "Vice-Sir, the work on the British side has been completed. The Allied forces and the Germans are currently locked in a stalemate in Western Europe, so we are hurrying back."

Wu Jingzhong didn't speak, but bowed slightly. Since the X-Teacher incident, the King of Quotes has become very low-key.

There was no other way; anyone who had spent several days alone in the underground party's territory would have to be careful with their words and actions upon returning.

To help Lao Wu, Zuo Zhong sent him to England on official business. Otherwise, not only would he not be able to become the stationmaster of Tianjin, but he wouldn't even be able to go to Tianjin in the future. He would only be able to wait to be transferred to Xiaoliuqiu to cut sugarcane.

Wu Jingzhong was well aware of this, so as soon as he saw Zuo Zhong, he placed a cigar box on his desk.

Zuo Zhong opened the box, took out the cigars, smelled them, and exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, Montecristo, it's been a long time since I've seen such beautiful Cuban goods. Come on, have a taste."

As he spoke, he threw one to each person. Due to the war between the United States and Japan and the German wolf pack tactics in the Atlantic, South American cigars had been out of stock for a long time during the Republic of China era.

The office quickly filled with smoke. The group sat down on the sofa in the reception area, enjoying cigars and chatting.

Zuo Zhong first asked Gu Qi, "Old Gu, you weren't very clear in the telegram. What preparations did the Allied forces make before landing in Europe?"

“There’s a lot to learn. Lao Wu and I have really broadened our horizons this time.”

Gu Qi's expression was complicated, and Wu Jingzhong nodded in agreement, clearly indicating that the two were deeply moved this time.

Gucci then recounted their trip to England. After arriving in England by plane, they first went to 2 Great George Street, London, to report. This was the office of the London Oversight Office.

Zuo Zhong took a puff of his cigar and muttered to himself, "The London Supervisory Office?"

This organization is somewhat unfamiliar; at least the FIRC has not collected any relevant intelligence. It seems that the British are quite good at keeping secrets, but they are only transparent to the Soviet Union.

Gu Qi, who was standing nearby, explained, "That's right, this is a highly confidential agency. The internal identification symbol is a statue of Saturn, the half-human, half-goat god of agriculture."

"The current director is John Bevan, a lieutenant colonel in the army, nicknamed the 'Fraud Mastermind.' Although his position and rank are not high, he has a lot of authority."

Zuo Zhong seemed to be deep in thought. Saturn was a mischievous sprite in ancient Roman mythology who was good at deceiving people. He seemed to have guessed the duties and scope of work of this supervisory office.

Sure enough, the next second Gucci introduced their pre-war mission at the supervisory office: to use all strategic deception methods to draw the Germans' attention away from the actual landing site, Normandy.

Unlike island landings between the US and Japan, where the US military's victory was assured once they landed on the beachhead, land landings have a greater depth, and even landing on the beachhead does not guarantee success.

When the Allied forces attacked Italy, the German army pinned down the landing troops on a narrow beachhead. If it weren't for strong naval and air support, the British and Americans would have been driven back into the sea long ago.

The German troops stationed in France were far superior to those stationed in Italy in terms of both equipment and combat capability. Coupled with France's well-developed railway and highway network, the Allied forces would encounter even fiercer resistance.

Therefore, the Allies bombed the transportation network in western France and blocked transportation around Normandy, while simultaneously carrying out strategic deception in an attempt to mislead the German High Command.

The former was the Air Force's job, while the latter was the responsibility of the Oversight Office, for which the Allied high command convened all intelligence forces.

The British Military Intelligence Bureau, SOE, the US Office of Strategic Services, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and FIRC were all involved in the operation.

Zuo Zhong became interested and asked Gu Qi to explain the details of the plan. For reasons of secrecy, the Allied forces did not inform the Nationalist government about this matter.

Gu Qi replied "yes," and then began to talk about a plan called "Zeppelin," the core of which was Romania and Hungary.

Several months earlier, as Red Russia approached Romania and Hungary, both countries sent secret envoys to contact Britain and the United States to discuss surrender. However, British radio and newspapers "inadvertently" leaked the information.

Upon learning this, the Germans planned to send troops to occupy both countries, but the German army, which was engaged in fierce fighting with the Red Russia and the Mediterranean Allied forces, had no troops to spare and had to withdraw three armored divisions and one infantry division from France.

Faced with the ferocious German army, the Hungarian army collapsed at the first contact, the prime minister was imprisoned in a concentration camp, and Romania was so frightened that it immediately suspended its secret contacts with Britain and the United States.

Thus, although Germany controlled the situation in Southern Europe, it lost four elite divisions in France, and the Allied objectives were perfectly achieved.

Zuo Zhong thought to himself, "The British are at it again, once again, using their traditional skill of betraying their teammates."

As soon as this idea crossed his mind, Gu Qi revealed an even more cruel and despicable plan.

"Lieutenant, at the end of last year, the German Gestapo stationed in France cracked an Allied intelligence group called 'Prosperity,' and dozens of resistance fighters were arrested."

"The Germans coerced the 'Prosperity' group's radio operators to continue contacting British headquarters in an attempt to obtain more intelligence, but the operators took the opportunity to send secure codes to London."

Gu Qi's expression was serious, and his tone was full of respect for the French telegraph operator. No matter what country you are in, as long as you are fighting for justice, you are a patriot and deserve respect.

The so-called security code is to misspell or repeat a word at a certain position in the coded message according to an agreement. If this is not done, it means that the radio station has been controlled by the enemy.

Upon hearing this, Zuo Zhong had already guessed the British's plan: they would pretend not to know and use this to their advantage.

As he expected, Gucci stated that the British not only ignored warnings and continued to contact the "Prosperity" group, but also airdropped large quantities of weapons, explosives, communication equipment, operational funds, and even agents as requested. These supplies and personnel fell into the hands of the Gestapo as soon as they landed. The prisoners were subjected to severe torture and eventually confessed their mission: to attack the German command post, communications hub, coastal artillery, and power supply system in Calais to coordinate with the Allied landings.

With a raised eyebrow, Zuo Zhong said, "The British used weapons and equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and the lives of countless agents as a price just to provide a false intelligence. This is a brilliant move by the British. No wonder the Germans fell for it."

Thinking deeper, perhaps even the exposure of the "Prosperity" group was the work of British intelligence agencies. Compared to the overall strategy, what do a few dozen deaths matter?

After giving a cold laugh, he asked Gu Qi another question: "Old Gu, I heard you guys did a good job and even helped the Allied forces recover huge losses?"

Gu Qi and Wu Jingzhong exchanged a smile, and then Wu Jingzhong, as their representative, recounted what had happened.

Actually, this was a coincidence. Due to differences in race and skin color, FIRC could not participate in front-line field missions and could only provide some intelligence at most.

With nothing to do and unable to go out, Gu Qi and Wu Jingzhong had to find their own ways to pass the time.

One day, Wu Jingzhong, who had nothing to do, played a crossword puzzle from The Daily Telegraph. In the answers, he found some familiar words.

"Overlord", "Neptune", "Zeppelin".

In the Allied plans, Overlord was the code name for the operation to land in Northwest Europe, and Neptune was the assault phase of Operation Overlord.

It's a coincidence that a code name related to the landing operation appeared in the newspaper, but what about three in a row?
Shocked, Wu Jingzhong reported the matter to John Bevan, the head of the supervisory department. Bevan was greatly alarmed and immediately arranged for agents to investigate.

However, after investigation, the staff of The Daily Telegraph were found to be innocent, and the person who created the crossword puzzle was just a teacher at a primary school in London, whose daily behavior was normal and had no connection with the Germans.

According to eyewitnesses, the person either attends classes or stays at home with family, rarely going out or meeting strangers. The leaker couldn't possibly be a primary school student.

With the landing date fast approaching and no progress made on the suspected leak, the pressure on British and American intelligence agencies is immense.

At this point, Gu Qi proposed an approach: to conduct an in-depth investigation into the network of relationships of the question setter and the people associated with that network, such as colleagues and students' relatives and friends.

With a clear direction, the British Military Intelligence Service invested a lot of manpower in screening and soon made a discovery.

One of the test setter's students' neighbors was serving in the military, specifically as a staff officer at Allied Command. Coincidentally, this person had recently visited the student's home.

British and American agents were not to be trifled with; they immediately apprehended the person who set the questions and searched his residence and office.

Technicians discovered antipyrene residue at a concentration of 75% on students' workbooks by irradiating them with ultraviolet light.

Antipyrene is a common laxative and also a high-grade dark writing ink that can be developed with a 10% ferric chloride solution. German intelligence agencies frequently distributed it to undercover agents.

Shortly after, British intelligence officers discovered a radio station in the school gardener's stables in the suburbs.

Clearly, the question setter, the gardener, and the Allied staff officer were all German moles. The staff officer used the neighbor's son's homework as a medium for transmitting intelligence, a very covert method.

Now that the source and method of the intelligence leak have been identified, the three suspects were immediately arrested.

Fortunately, the staff officer who had just been turned only had time to provide the German Security Service with the code name for the landing. If it had been a day later, the other side would have sent out the details of the landing operation.

Needless to say, the Allies successfully landed in Normandy, liberated Paris, and the front lines are now getting closer and closer to the German mainland.

After listening, Zuo Chong praised Gu Qi and Wu Jingzhong, saying that they had indeed brought honor to the Military Intelligence Bureau, and that this matter could be written into history books in the future.

Gu Qi smiled and said a few words of modesty to Zuo Zhong, then suddenly took out a document, which was his military observation report on the landing operation, and the content was very detailed.

It encompasses everything from pre-war preparations to the situation of both sides, from the course of the battle to tactical and technical observation and application, and from logistical support to intelligence operations.

This report is somewhat beyond the scope of the KMT army, since the KMT army no longer has organized mechanized units and air force, but there are some aspects that can be learned from it.

Zuo Zhong accepted the report with satisfaction, planning to find an opportunity to send it to the Northwest. It might come in handy in the founding war a few years later; after all, you need to know yourself and your enemy.

In addition, he also saw some familiar unit designations in the report, such as E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

At this very moment, this unit, which was naturally surrounded, was battling the Germans and the bitter cold in the white hell of Bastogne, while also experiencing the power of 88mm anti-aircraft guns firing horizontally.

While everyone was still discussing, Song Minghao, with his protruding belly, walked into the office. He greeted Gu Qi and Wu Jingzhong, then leaned close to Zuo Chong'er and whispered his report.

"Co-pilot, the observers are in position and can report the airport situation to Ms. He at any time."

　① Band of Brothers

　　(End of this chapter)