Shadow Spy

Chapter 455 The largest landing battle

7月7日晚22时，盟军空降突击引导组率先开始行动——26架运输机、每架载一个13人组成的空降引导组，从150米高度分别在各自的预定地区空降。

At three o'clock in the morning on the 8th, the first wave of airborne troops from three divisions of the Allied First Airborne Group Army, consisting of about 1.7 people, took off from three airport groups in the UK 1200-200 kilometers away from the airborne area on more than 250 transport aircraft. , heading to Normandy…

At 1136 a.m., 8 aircraft of the Royal Air Force launched an air attack on the German coastal artillery positions between Le Havre and Cherbourg, and 1083 bombers of the US [-]th Air Force began aerial attacks on the German coastal defenses.

At 7:2, the Allied sea fire support ships, five naval gun fire support groups consisting of 24 battleships, 74 shallow water gunboats, 80 cruisers, and [-] destroyers, began to carry out the [-]-kilometer landing on the Normandy coast. Sudden naval gun fire attack - due to its excellent suddenness, good results were achieved.

At 6000 o'clock, a huge fleet of more than [-] Allied navies advanced towards Normandy. Under the cover of minesweepers, many landing ships bypassed the reefs, broke through the dangerous shoals, and gradually approached the beachhead.

At [-]:[-], Li Junhao, the commander-in-chief of the landing operations on the amphibious command ship, issued an order: The beaching operation begins!

The naval landing fleet was organized into two task forces: the western and eastern task forces:

The Western Task Force, commanded by Rear Admiral Kirk of the U.S. Navy, was responsible for sending the First Army to the Utah and Omaha beaches to the west;

The Eastern Task Force was commanded by British Rear Admiral Vian and was responsible for sending the Third and Fifth Marine Corps to the three beaches in the east: Gold, Juneau, and Swade.

The senior leaders of the Allied Expeditionary Force are paying attention to the battlefield situation. The war situation staff of the headquarters are constantly reporting on the situation on the front line. At the same time, there are two special communications teams that send these war reports to No. 10 Downing Street and the White House in the United States... It can be said that, This largest landing battle in world history is attracting the attention of the whole world!
-

At [-]:[-], the Western Task Force, composed entirely of American ships, first arrived at the coast of Utah and Omaha and began to strictly implement the latest combat plan formulated under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Panson:

First, 4 battleships, 10 cruisers, and 30 destroyers first joined the bombardment;

Then, the U.S. Tactical Air Force's 9th Air Force, which had completed the Strait escort mission, took over from the 8th Air Force, which had run out of ammunition, and continued air attacks on German defensive positions on the coast;

At this time, the 280 auxiliary warships of various types in the fleet began to fly 350 armed attack Huey helicopters. They were low-altitude strike forces accompanying the offensive of land and sea forces;

More than 1700 landing ships began to move forward, large landing ships released amphibious tanks and combat vehicles, and small and medium-sized ships began to speed up the beaches...

What approaches the beach faster than small landing craft is the latest equipment brought by the navy and land forces themselves - small high-speed armored speedboats. These little guys with a displacement of only 25 tons are equipped with two twin 25mm rapid-fire cannons. The mission is to cover small landing craft with weak protection capabilities and suppress the beach at close range...

This is the beach landing tactic formulated by Li Junhao, using three-dimensional space tactics to destroy, contain, suppress, and prevent all defenders from counterattacking! ——

A little later, the Eastern Task Force also arrived at the designated location and began to implement the landing plan, and performed well!

This fleet is mainly composed of British warships, with a total of 3 battleships, 13 cruisers, 30 destroyers, 302 other warships, and 2426 landing ships. The British Tactical Air Force 2nd Air Force provides air cover.
-

The progress of this Normandy landing operation exceeded everyone's expectations - it was fast, with few casualties, and made great progress. The speed and results far exceeded expectations. The landing operations capabilities of land and sea shocked all the generals! In the three and a half years of formulating, revising, supplementing, and improving the plan, the "Overlord" combat plan has been very complete. The final official version of the documents alone exceeds 3500 pages, and plans have been made for various landing situations... …

The most optimistic estimate is to capture five beachheads within 24 hours and advance 10 miles inland to establish an initial landing site...

On the twelfth day of the battle (actually, it took 6 days from June 6 to August 8), the landing site was expanded to a frontal depth of 25 kilometers to enable the subsequent nearly 81 million troops to land in Europe. mainland!

But now the actual result is: in just 15 hours, the first wave of landing Marines captured all the beachheads, advanced 130 kilometers inland, established a huge landing site, and overfulfilled the mission. !

Before the war, allied commanders and staff believed that the most difficult place to capture was Omaha Beach, because the frontal width of the beach here was less than 200 meters, and there were no shelters or breakwaters on the beach, making it the most difficult place to capture. It is a place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is expected that the U.S. troops landing there will suffer heavy casualties, and it may take a long time to conquer...

In his previous life, the "Bloody Battle of Omaha" during the Normandy Invasion had a huge impact. There were countless various materials, film and television works, and Li Junhao had long been familiar with it!

Shortly before this battle, under Rommel's inspection and guidance, the German garrison built three reinforced concrete barriers in the shallow water area in front of Omaha Beach based on the original defense facilities, and laid them between the obstacles. mines were built on the coast; a large number of forts and trenches capable of strafing the beaches were built on the coast, and a large number of mines were laid on all access routes that the Allied forces might use to land...

In addition, Rommel also transferred the more powerful 352nd Motorized Infantry Division here. One regiment of this division guards the Omaha beach, and two regiments are deployed in Bayeux, several miles away from the beach, and can support at any time...

Therefore, on the entire Western Front battlefield, Omaha became the real "Atlantic Wall"!

This information was not discovered by the Allied reconnaissance department originally, but it was different now. The existence of Li Junhao made these situations transparent.

Historically, the U.S. Army's 1st Division and a reinforced regiment responsible for attacking Omaha Beach fought in a bloody day, suffering more than 3000 casualties, losing 27 amphibious tanks and nearly 70 amphibious armored vehicles, before finally landing successfully and opening up a deep and uninterrupted path. to the beachhead of 2 miles.

This time, Li Junhao made full use of the resources at hand, dispatching the three strongest main brigades in the First Army to take on the important task of attacking Omaha, and made special arrangements for their tactics and equipment to ensure that each Every detail is carefully targeted and does not give the defending German army any chance to counterattack!

(End of this chapter)