New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

A series of huge explosions shook the entire airport. When the smoke and dust from the explosion dispersed, Bington saw that the entire airport had changed: on the 88mm anti-aircraft gun positions on the left and right sides of the airport runway, the 88mm anti-aircraft guns that originally stood there The millimeter antiaircraft guns were overturned on the ground by the shock wave of the explosion. Some antiaircraft guns were even thrown tens of meters away from the position by the air waves. There was also an 88mm antiaircraft gun that was thrown high up, and then the barrel was facing down. drop down.The long gun barrel is inserted straight into the ground, while the heavy gun mount is held high in the sky, which is exactly in line with the famous saying of Zhang Bangchang, a famous poet in the Republic of China: "One day it will be turned upside down, and the bottom will be thinner than the top."

As for the German fighter jets that were originally parked on the tarmac, the situation was even more tragic.In this way, the plane is already light, and it has wings and a large wind area. They were all blown tens of meters away by the shock wave, and without exception, the wings and tail fins were broken. It was detonated in the explosion, so most of the fuselage only had some fragments left.

"This airport is absolutely useless today." Boington looked down at the devastated airport in the sky, shook his head, and said to the other fighters, "There is nothing to do here, we'd better go back. Go back Hang some bombs, maybe there is still time to blow up the German shock troops."

……

Although the fighter jets of the Luftwaffe did not arrive as scheduled, the German assault was already imminent and had to be launched.After making so many sacrifices, it was possible to gather the strength of the five armored divisions, so how could they give up because of the setbacks of the Air Force.Besides, all German commanders, from Field Marshal Kruger down to any private in the German attacking force, know that the Air Force is absolutely unreliable.Probably in the whole of Germany, only Hitler believed that the Air Force could temporarily provide a protective umbrella for the assault force.

According to the plan, the assault will start in the early hours of the morning. Before it is fully lit, they will break into the US military's formation and try to fight the US military's dog-toothed situation. In this way, the US heavy bombers will be completely useless. It will be quite difficult for the Chinese attack aircraft to act in such a situation.

On the other hand, for this operation, the German army also greatly increased the number of anti-aircraft guns, especially self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. It was mounted on various chassis they found, such as half-track chassis, 38t tank chassis, and even Opel truck chassis.

In addition to anti-aircraft guns, various machine guns have also been fully utilized. The mg-131 13mm aviation machine gun brought in from the Air Force warehouse was welded on an iron frame, and then installed on an Opel truck as an anti-aircraft machine gun. ; In addition, the army's own mg-34 and mg-42 are also mounted on anti-aircraft racks, mounted on trucks and even BMW r75 motorcycles.Of course, the Germans also understand that the 34mm machine gun bullets of mg-42 and mg-7.92 are obviously not powerful enough now, and using them to bite those attack aircraft is basically not much different from scratching an itch.However, considering that some P-51 fighter jets of the U.S. military also like to come to attack the aircraft, it is very useful to use this to hit the p-51. If, in case, it happens to hit the radiator of the p-51 belly .And in order to increase deterrence, the Germans also changed the ratio of tracer bullets to ordinary bullets, from 1:5, that is, one tracer bullet for every five ordinary bullets, to 1:3, that is, three ordinary bullets with one Send tracer bullets.This actually reduces the lethality, because the lethality of tracer bullets is not as good as that of ordinary bullets.But this can make the firepower fired by the anti-aircraft machine gun appear more intensive, so it can more effectively interfere with the attack actions of the enemy's attack aircraft.

In addition, the German army also brought double copies of various smoking devices.It's just that the wind in the preset breakthrough area is a little stronger on this day, and the wind of about 3-5 is estimated to blow away the smoke quickly.

Although it is claimed that five armored divisions were invested in this counteroffensive, many of them also included many ace units of the Waffen SS.But in fact, in the previous battles and subsequent transfers, most of these units were seriously damaged. There are five armored divisions, and the total number of tanks is only more than 300.Fortunately, judging from the results of radio monitoring, on the opposite side of them, the strength of the US military is not too strong, there is only one infantry division.

In order to achieve surprise, the usual reconnaissance activities before the counteroffensive were prohibited, so that the German army had almost no knowledge of the deployment of American troops forward.In particular, they have absolutely no knowledge of how the US military deploys minefields.

At 03:30 in the morning, half an hour before the start of the full-scale attack, the German army sent engineers to the front of the US military to find and mark the US minefields.Half an hour is obviously not enough to complete such a task, so before the attack began, the German engineers did not find many minefields.This is also expected by the Germans. In theory, the U.S. military, which is in a comprehensive advantage, should not sell as many landmines as the Soviets did in Kursk. In addition, the U.S. military should not have time to set up so many mines. field.

In addition, also in order to ensure the suddenness of the assault, the shelling that is indispensable when launching an attack under normal circumstances has also been compressed.Under normal circumstances, to launch an assault of this scale, there should be at least an hour of artillery preparation. If it is the Soviets, it is normal for the artillery preparation to take up to 3 hours.But now, the shelling time has been compressed to 15 minutes.If the enemy had decent fortifications, it would be almost impossible for such bombardment to do much damage to them.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, the German attack officially began.The German army concentrated all the artillery they could muster. In addition to conventional suppression artillery, even 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 75mm anti-tank guns were used to pour shells on the US positions. The elevation angle of the pak-40 anti-tank gun is limited, and it is impossible to launch the grenade far enough under normal circumstances. The Germans also specially built some slopes for this purpose, and put these 75mm guns on it. This method is used to raise the artillery elevation angle to obtain sufficient range.

At this time, the infantry units of the German army had already entered the attack position first, and they were less than 1000 meters away from their attack target, so their various mortars also joined the ranks of artillery preparations.

Although the German artillery fire was brief, it was very violent.Amidst the roar of the cannons, the ace of the Germans - armored forces appeared.

Wittmann and his Tiger tank rushed to the forefront.His comrades spread out on the left and right, and rushed towards the enemy's position.The attack seemed to exceed the enemy's expectations, so his Tiger tank was not attacked until the first trench was crossed.But his teammates were not so lucky. On his right, a Tiger tank ran over a mine, its tracks were blown off, and several road wheels were also damaged.It seems that the range of minefields temporarily marked by the engineers is not accurate.

The U.S. military did not seem to have deployed many troops in the first line of defense, so the German army broke through three trenches in one go. By the time the sun rose, they had already broken through the first line of defense of the U.S. military.But this result did not make Wittman happy. On the contrary, he had an ominous premonition that the mouse was being watched by the cat.

Compared to Wittmann, who had only a bad premonition, Field Marshal Kruger, known as "Smart Hans", broke through three trenches when he learned that the armored forces had encountered almost no resistance. When the defensive force in the trench was only about one to one and a half battalions, the marshal had already confirmed that the Americans had already prepared for this desperate assault on the Germans, and his army had already fallen into the U.S. human trap.He was sure that the Americans would have a real line of defense somewhere ahead, and that the road from the first line of defense that had just been conquered to that line must be full of anti-tank mines, and at this time , It was already dawn, but the German army failed to form a staggered situation with the US military as planned, and they would inevitably be attacked by the Allied forces in the air.If you are more sensible, you should terminate the attack plan now, quickly turn to defense, and even prepare to retreat immediately.But, can Field Marshal Kruger make such a decision now?

Kruger knew that he could not make such a decision. If he could make such a decision, he would have withdrawn his troops across the Seine.Now, even if we know that the U.S. military is prepared, we can only bite the bullet and go on doing it.

As Kruger expected, when the German armored forces advanced in depth, various minefields first appeared.Those anti-tank mines were buried in the ground. When the infantry walked over them, they did not respond due to insufficient pressure. Once the tanks pressed up, there was a loud noise.

What's more terrible is that the Allied bombers appeared.However, the Allied forces also seemed to have underestimated the advancing speed of the German army, so these four-engine big guys all passed the leading armored force of the advancing army, and dropped the bombs behind them.Hearing the violent explosion sound coming from behind, Wittman let out a deep breath.He has seen the power of these heavy bombers with his own eyes.If he is bombed like this, even a powerful Tiger tank can only be turned into parts again.

Wittmann also knew that the bombing of these bombers meant that the follow-up troops had absolutely no way to keep up.In this way, if you encounter the enemy's defensive position, it will be very difficult to form a breakthrough.

The landmines along the way kept reducing the number of German tanks. In fact, the damage to these tanks is not serious. If they are repaired, they can return to the battlefield in a few hours at most.However, Wittmann knew that these tanks would definitely not have such an opportunity.The Allied attack aircraft will certainly not let go of these tanks that have lost their mobility.

Along the way, the German army temporarily lost more than 30 tanks due to landmines. Most of these tanks were the more elite Tiger tanks and Leopard tanks that took the lead.The second line of defense of the U.S. military finally appeared in front of them. At this time, various suppression artillery from the U.S. military also began to hit their heads and faces.Wittmann retracted his body into the turret, closed the top cover, and began to prepare to launch an impact on the target.