Iron Cross

"Sir, what should I do? It's getting dark, the plane is about to leave, and the brothers have suffered a lot. I'm afraid it will be difficult to survive the night." Colonel Carney, the commander of the 505th Regiment with an injured arm and blood all over his body, rushed to Ridgway's side. asked anxiously. Half of the casualties occurred in the first half day. If it were other American troops, their morale would have collapsed long ago. However, the 82nd Airborne Division was the ace division led by Ridgway himself. The division commander himself took the lead in landing among the first batch and has been commanding on the front line. Everyone's morale was high. Still quite expensive.

"Hold on, it will get better. The second batch of troops will arrive at dawn tomorrow. We only need to survive these 10 hours." Ridgway panted heavily while watching the battle in the distance through the telescope, "Germany The human losses were not small, I think they lost at least 500 people, and the tanks and artillery were almost destroyed by the Army Aviation. We can hold on. "

He said this, but Li Qiwei was still a little worried. His troops seemed to be a little more than his opponent's, and his combat effectiveness was not weak. However, the opponent was actually able to defeat his own side under the heavy fire from the sky. This made him It's still a bit unbelievable now. Now he finally began to believe what the veterans on the African battlefield said - a week against the Germans is better than a year on the training ground, provided you can survive. Li Qiwei is a proud man, but at the same time he is also quite rational and objective. He believes that if he exchanges places with the German army, he will never achieve this effect.

However, due to admiration, he still had to fight when he should. He did not think that he was at the end of his rope. He even became more confident the more he fought. What's strange is that it has been dark for a long time and the German troops from the opposite side have not yet launched an attack. Could it be that the enemy also needs to rest and recuperate due to heavy casualties? That's good news.

However, he did not dare to take it lightly, let alone place his hopes on the opponent's recovery. He believed that he must be prepared for night battles, close combats, and fierce battles. While chewing the K rations commonly used by airborne troops, he explained to his men in an orderly manner: "The German army is probably adjusting its troops and making plans. The first attack will be stormy. Everyone must be mentally prepared, but there is no need to Don't be afraid, we can get a steady stream of reinforcements. The Germans only have this few troops, and every one they fight will be missing. As long as we persist, the final victory will definitely be ours.

When defending at night, we cannot gather hedgehogs together, as this will easily lead to enemy firepower. We should maintain small teams in squads and platoons to form battle groups, use recoilless guns and bazookas, and take advantage of rugged terrain. The terrain found a way to knock out the Germans' heavy equipment - the thing that posed the greatest threat to us;

Secondly, all ministries must maintain smooth communication, use your Motorola walkie-talkies, find ways to gather your companions who were forced to disperse due to wrong parachuting positions during the day, launch counterattacks from different directions, and give the enemy the illusion that our troops are everywhere;

Finally, be brave enough to roam around and shoot, fight at night, and fight with the enemy with bayonets. Do not use flashlights and flares, which will soon kill you.

This is the most difficult night for us. At such a critical moment, officers at all levels must effectively play their role. The Airborne Division has always fought on the most critical, critical and difficult battlefields. Being surrounded is a common occurrence. We must Instill in the soldiers such a kind of confidence - we will get stronger as we fight, and the enemy will only get weaker as we fight. This will be the first battle in which our 82nd Airborne Division becomes famous! More than 1,000 kilometers away, hundreds of millions of Americans are watching us, waiting for us to create a miracle! "

Ridgway's passion and confidence infected everyone. Although the 82nd Airborne Division and its predecessor, the 82nd Infantry Division, had been in the army for a long time, they had rarely participated in actual combat. It should be said that almost no U.S. Army had participated in actual combat before the war. 82 Although the Airborne Division has always been a training model, it is also considered a new recruit. The German veterans used their experience to teach them a hard lesson today, and they paid a heavy price.

Only after the junior officers retreated, he quietly told his adjutant: "Send a telegram to Chief of Staff Taylor. At dawn tomorrow, I hope that the plane will arrive at the scene first to provide fire assistance, and then his people will come down later. All actions must be Hurry, if he is a minute earlier, we will be safer. All preparations need to be completed before early this morning. The soldiers must have a good rest, and let them write suicide notes. If anyone is afraid of casualties, let him get out of here in advance. 82 Airborne The division does not want cowards..." (Note: Maxwell Taylor is the chief of staff of the 82nd Airborne Division and Ridgway's most successful partner. In history, one of the two outstanding men became the commander-in-chief of the European Forces and the other became the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ——One division produces two big figures at the same time)

Li Qiwei's guess was correct. The Germans were indeed considering ways to attack. They had never fought such a frustrating battle. The sky was full of enemy aircraft, seemingly flying tirelessly and pouring firepower on the ground from time to time. The Marines were the most powerful. The No. 4 tank and armored vehicle units were blown to their knees. So far, only 7 tanks and 4 armored vehicles are available. The others were either destroyed by aerial firepower or were wiped out by the endless anti-tank firepower of the enemy on the ground.

The fixed 88mm anti-aircraft guns also suffered heavy losses, and only one is still usable. Originally, this thing was prepared to deal with the heavy tanks that the US armored forces might use during the landing. Unexpectedly, the enemy came with an airborne division with no tanks at all. The useless 88mm guns were forced to switch to air defense. Unfortunately, there were too many planes and too few anti-aircraft guns, and they became a thorn in the eyes of enemy planes. However, several Tornado anti-aircraft vehicles became the top contributors today, shooting down planes and infantry, and at least more than two enemy companies died under the salvo of 4 20mm machine guns.

Even at the most intense time of the Holm Battle, the Russians did not have such a firepower advantage. Therefore, in today's battle, the German army also suffered heavy losses, with more than 400 casualties.

Of course, they also keenly discovered that although the American troops on the opposite side had fierce firepower, effective cover, and a strong will to fight, their tactical command was rather rigid, much like the actions in classic textbooks, and they had not yet been able to integrate them according to the actual situation. This group of German veterans who had fought well immediately used their skilled tactical skills to teach their opponents a vivid lesson, and gained an advantage on the scene with fewer troops.

Fortunately for Ridgway, the German battalion he encountered was not a standard battalion of the Wehrmacht, in which each battalion had 1,000 people, and the three battalions added up to nearly 3,000 people, enough to kill all the 505th Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division that was put into battle in the first batch. He encountered a Marine Brigade, with less than 600 people in each battalion. After deducting the combat losses in Guyana, the non-combat casualties that sailed all the way, and the reserve personnel left on the fleet, the number of people actually put into battle in each battalion was less than 500, and the total number was only nearly 1,300, which was only half of the first wave of the 82nd Airborne Division. By nightfall, the German army still had nearly 900 people, and the US army had more than 1,600 people. Although the comparison of the forces of the two sides had improved relatively, they were still at a disadvantage.

Lieutenant Colonel Baker was the commander of this battle group. He called the three battalion commanders together to arrange the task. They also enjoyed K rations - this stuff was airdropped everywhere. The German soldiers soon found that it was better than their own configuration and richer in variety. They ate it with relish in the spirit of "not eating it for nothing".

A standard K ration has 12 servings of food, including 12 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, including butter, biscuits, cheese, sugar, jam, instant coffee, chocolate, chewing gum, canned ham, canned luncheon meat, bottle openers, spoons, napkins, matches, cigarettes, etc. This batch of exquisite goods actually included milk tablets and canned beef, which was really unexpected.

As for ammunition, it was floating everywhere, and you could pick it up with a casual scoop. The German army used both the Garand rifle and the Browning machine gun. The Garand and the G43 rifle were basically the same, but slightly inferior to the STG43 assault rifle. Unfortunately, the latter consumed too much bullets and would soon become unusable. Although the Browning light machine gun was not as effective as the MG42, the American 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun was very powerful. A skilled German machine gunner suppressed half a company of airborne troops with a machine gun in the afternoon. The German army also tried to use the American recoilless gun and bazooka, and praised the former, but did not think highly of the bazooka because it was not useful against armored targets.

Several veterans who survived the Holm Pocket commented: "If I could get such supplies every day on the Russian front, I could hold on for 18 months, not to mention 8 months!"

"What a pity, the Führer is not as generous as Roosevelt..."

"Sir, will there be warships to support at night?"

"No, it's easy to accidentally hurt our own people in the dark, and the fleet can't fire. However, General Marshal sent me a telegram, planning to withdraw the troops from the island tomorrow night. We just have to hold on for another 24 hours..."

Everyone nodded. Today's fierce air firepower made them realize that ground troops alone could not hold Bermuda Island. This pistol on the East Coast's forehead was too close to the US mainland and too provocative to the Americans. Apart from anything else, even if all these airborne troops were cleared out today, the Americans would deploy more troops tomorrow, and the Marines could no longer withstand heavy losses.

"We will gather our strength tonight and prepare to launch an attack at 10 o'clock to drive the Americans into the sea in one fell swoop..." Lieutenant Colonel Baker explained, "Now we need to discuss a safe plan. The enemy obviously has more troops than us, and their fighting spirit is not bad. What's more fatal is that there will be new reinforcements at dawn tomorrow, so the attack must be completed in one battle, otherwise it will be very passive. I asked the captured wounded, they belong to the 82nd Airborne Division, and they think they are the trump cards of the US Army. We have to destroy the confidence of this team."