New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

Although the German reserve team and the US reserve team arrived near the target almost at the same time, the strength of the two reserve teams was significantly different.The total number of German troops stationed at Cherbourg was no more than 4000, and the area to be defended was very large. Therefore, the final reserve force was only a little more than one company, about 150 people.However, the troops in the hands of the U.S. Army are very abundant, not to mention that in the hands of General Collins, the commander of the 7th Army, there is as many as one division of the reserve team.Even Captain Dalton, who was in charge of attacking this area, had a whole battalion of infantry and a reserve of five tanks.

Therefore, although the German army invested in the reserve team, it failed to repel the Americans, and even failed to block them.It just slowed down the speed of the opponent's advancement.What's more terrible is that some other directions have also appeared to be unable to support and retreat steadily.At this time, General Schlieben had no reserve team available.

Now, for the Germans, the only consolation is that the fortifications in the port of Cherbourg are very deep, so the Germans still have room to retreat steadily.At least for the time being, there is no danger of the entire line of defense being pierced directly.And the loss of the Americans is not small.As Clausewitz said in "On War", in most cases, defense is a more powerful way of fighting than offense.

For example, if in an unobstructed wilderness, a few American soldiers with m1 semi-automatic rifles met a few German soldiers with Mauser 98k bolt-action rifles.When it comes to shooting, the unlucky one must be the German.Because the rate of fire of the semi-automatic in the hands of the Americans is much higher than that of the Mauser 98k in the hands of the Germans.But if a few German guys are squatting in the trenches with Mauser 98k, and a few Yankees are charging towards the trenches with m1 semi-automatic rifles.Immediately the situation would turn against the Yankees.Because of the trenches, the exposed area for German soldiers to shoot is much smaller.If you want to hit them, you must ensure that the bullets you shoot can hit the head-sized target, otherwise it will be an invalid attack.In contrast, any part of the Yankee hit by the German is effective.

But it is just the simplest fortification - a trench.If you add barbed wire, various machine gun bunkers, artillery bunkers, open or dark, plus minefields, anti-tank trenches, anti-tank concrete piers and so on.The advantage of the defensive side will be more obvious.

Although constrained by insufficient numbers, the German army had to retreat steadily, but the US military had to pay a price for every step forward.Especially when the US military broke through the outer fortifications and began to face the core fortifications of the Germans.Combat is even more difficult.

Unlike the outer fortification area, which is mainly used to delay the opponent and is dominated by civil structures, the fortifications in the core fortification area are all reinforced concrete structures.Here, the traffic trench is no longer open to the air, and the Germans added a prefabricated reinforced concrete cover on it.Although these covers cannot withstand direct hits from 203mm guns, nor can they withstand repeated hits from 155mm guns, but the covers and the layer of soil covering them can block the sight of American pilots, making them unable to The movement of German troops was discovered.And through these traffic trenches, sometimes the German army can even move behind the Americans to launch a sneak attack.In Area No. 4, a few German soldiers used a traffic trench that the U.S. Army had not discovered to sneak behind the U.S. Army, where they used the tank killers in their hands to kill four M4 Sherman tanks in one go.

In addition to the authentic traffic trenches, there are also more bunkers in the core fortification area.The firmness of these concrete bunkers is also far beyond those of the previous civil structure bunkers.To deal with those bunkers, the power of the 4mm gun of the m76 tank is quite enough, but here, unless you can shoot the shells through the shooting holes of the bunker, otherwise, the 76mm high-explosive bombs hitting it will not be enough. There was only one bang.In less than 20 seconds, you will see the mg-42 machine gun in this bunker spit out deadly flames again.

如果仅仅只有这些机枪碉堡那也就罢了，改装版本的m4喷火坦克可以轻而易举的消灭它们。但是，在这里还有更多的反坦克炮碉堡。这些碉堡的混凝土外壳甚至都能顶住155毫米炮的直接命中。m4坦克的75炮打在上面，就像挠痒痒一样。而这些碉堡里却装备着可以对m4坦克一击致命的武器——pak-43式88毫米反坦克炮。

It is almost hopeless for tanks to directly challenge such an anti-tank gun bunker.No such fortifications, if the attackers are the Soviets, they will probably use the su-152 assault gun to solve the problem.If the su-152 can't be fired, the Soviets will brave the gunfire and pull up the 203mm gun to shoot directly.This style of play, of course, will bring a lot of casualties.Although it is considered a permanent loss after the entire battle is over, the Soviets may not necessarily suffer.But when the Soviets broke through the German defenses, the Germans always had a high exchange rate.

The U.S. Army does not have a large-caliber assault gun like the su-152. In fact, the U.S. Army does not have the habit of letting the bayonet on the suppressed artillery rush up to fight the enemy desperately.The American solution has always been to rely on air power to solve it.

However, the bunkers equipped with pak-43 anti-tank guns do not need to be deployed very forward because of the powerful artillery and long range.The position of these bunkers is relatively rear, and the rifle grenade can no longer launch the smoke warhead near the bunkers.However, this does not mean that Americans are helpless.

Jim, the air-to-air liaison officer, has now discovered a bunker equipped with pak-1000 anti-tank guns more than 43 meters away.So he glanced at another air-to-air liaison, Sten, and the two nodded to each other.They all took out a flare gun, and then separated left and right.When the two people separated for a certain distance, they raised the signal guns in their hands and fired signal flares continuously in the direction of the anti-tank gun bunker.Two green flares pulled out two light bands, and at the point where the extension of these two light bands intersected was the German anti-tank gun bunker.

Carter flew a PA-47 attack aircraft along this green light belt.Hanging under the belly of his plane was a huge, 1600-pound, purpose-built anti-concrete bomb.He had found the anti-tank gun bunker, so he swooped down at an angle of nearly 90 degrees and dropped the bomb at an altitude of 800 meters.

The bomb did not hit the roof of the anti-tank gun bunker directly.It landed about 4 meters to the left of the bunker.The speed brought by falling from a high altitude made it completely drilled into the soil, and then exploded violently.The violent explosion immediately tore the side wall of the anti-tank gun bunker.The entire bunker also collapsed.

However, in Ron's 21st Attack Aircraft Wing, there are still too few aircraft that can perform this kind of dive bombing mission.The density of firepower they provide is far from adequate.It is impossible to completely suppress those anti-tank gun bunkers.Therefore, around three o'clock in the afternoon, the momentum of the US military's attack began to weaken.At 03:30, the American attack stopped.

After several hours of attack, the U.S. military has completely occupied Cherbourg's outer positions and launched several rounds of attacks on Cherbourg's core positions.Many of the targets were destroyed.However, now, if the attack continues, the losses of the US military will increase.And before dark, the U.S. military also needs to establish a new line of defense that can defend against German night attacks.And it takes time.So General Collins decided that today's attack would stop here.

After the attack was stopped, the artillery fire of the US Navy fleet joined in again, covering the German positions.Under the cover of artillery fire, the tank rescue vehicle dragged back the m4 tanks that had been destroyed on the battlefield one by one.Many of these tanks were not particularly damaged. They were dragged back for repairs, and after a few days, they could return to the battlefield and shout: "Folks, I'm Sherman is back!"

After dragging the tanks back, the U.S. troops began to retreat and disengage the Germans.The U.S. troops withdrew very far back, giving up almost all the parts captured today.

"General? After we retreated so far, didn't we give up all the results of the day?" Ron asked Collins a little puzzled.

"Oh, it doesn't matter, it would be great if the enemy would come out and restore the old positions." Collins replied, "There are positions where the fortifications can never be restored in one night. The defense of this area It is also impossible to recover in a short time. If the enemy comes here to fight us, the exchange ratio will definitely make them feel distressed and want to commit suicide. There are only a few of them in total. It is very possible that people will come out to plant landmines. We should also send troops to hunt and kill these engineers."

"That's true." Ron nodded, "It's like the airport we just got from the Germans. If the Germans put a wing of fighter jets on that airport a few months ago, we would definitely I'm so happy!"

"One of our major advantages lies in our superiority in personnel. I estimate that the casualties of the Germans today are definitely not small, and the troops must be extremely exhausted. If we harass them one night at night, we will be able to enter the city tomorrow." Collins said. Very confident.

"By the way, we will send military envoys again immediately to ask the Germans to surrender. They should also know that they will never be able to survive tomorrow."

……

The Germans rejected General Collins' request, saying they would continue fighting until the last moment.And this did not exceed the expectations of the Americans.As night fell, some detachments began to be sent out.