Battle of the Third Reich Chapter 82: D day (2)

Because there was no interference and resistance from the expected enemy forces, the speed of the German transport of troops far exceeded the scheduled plan. The landing craft troops took only half an hour to send a regiment of infantry ashore. www.geiliwx.com With the passage of time, the pilots of the landing craft have become familiar with the hydrological environment on the route. After several round trips, they gradually become familiar with driving lightly. The speed of turning and turning around to help is getting faster and faster, hundreds of ships. The small landing craft shuttled back and forth between the beach and the boat group, and the trails that were dragged out formed regular ellipses on the water. The whole process was like a punting race.

The first infantry who came ashore were all light infantry, without carrying their own weight and heavy equipment. It was originally planned that the first batch of troops to land will be hit by various British firepower weapons. During the beach grabbing process, the speed is the first. The result of moving to the beach with more than ten kilograms of baggage will result in the enemy being like Killed like a duck.

Xu Jun has studied countless historical records about the Allied landings in World War II, and read the memoirs and photos of many people involved. In North Africa, Italy, Normandy, and the Pacific, every beach grab is like a blood sacrifice. Xu Jun is not prepared to make the same mistakes made by others.

The German soldiers are very lucky. They don’t have to rely on countless failures and the blood of thousands of soldiers in exchange for the final perfection of the landing tactics like their British and American counterparts. However, it now appears that the experience of the head of state Xu Da has not come in handy at all. If you want to verify the advanced nature of the head of state landing tactics, I am afraid that you have to find the next opportunity.

Guderian first discovered the problem. The German landing plans are all based on combat conditions. Each wave of landing forces is interlocked to ensure the continuity of the first-line assault force. Including a large number of deep breakthroughs and circuitous actions, so everything in the plan is to ensure firepower and troops.

However, the current situation is completely different. Guderian believes that the focus should be immediately shifted. Everything should be centered on consolidating the defense of the landing zone and establishing a forward base. It should be done before the British can react. This area becomes a solid bridgehead, and then follow the plan of the command. Launch the next round of attacks.

Guderian's suggestion touched Bok's itchy place again. The conservative commander-in-chief of the landing cluster now looks at this mustache more pleasingly. Bok immediately opened the landing transfer table with Guderian. Research what changes can be made at present, provided that it will not disrupt the normal landing order.

Guderian believes that the Mechano-Chemical Corps must first land and cooperate with the Naval Engineers to quickly build landing pontoons and simple docks. Next, the construction engineers and armored engineers will be sent ashore. These troops can immediately build fortifications and defense lines around the villages and towns, and lay airstrips at the locations delineated in the plan to establish forward airfields.

During this period, the two tank landing ships rushed to the beach according to the original plan and sent the two tanks they carried ashore in succession, so that the landing area could be protected by the armored force of one battalion before dawn, as long as they did not encounter With heavy artillery or the impact of British armored forces, infantry alone cannot break through this line of defense.

When the landing pontoon and dock are completed, the subsequent artillery and armored units will be able to continuously transport to the shore. All supplies and logistics systems can also be transferred to shore.

At the same time, the landing craft's delivery of infantry continued, but the infantry who subsequently landed can carry their own luggage and luggage. Carry some heavy weapons as much as possible, so as to reduce the pressure on front-line defense forces and logistics transportation.

The High Command did not expect that the British would abandon their villages and towns. In the original plan, this area would become a **** and cruel battlefield. The roads and buildings would definitely be severely damaged, so it was considered to be on the beach and outside the town. Establish supply points, barracks and material storage yards in the wild.

The command set out a timetable for this purpose in the plan. In addition, a large part of the engineers and equipment have been transferred and dedicated to the establishment of these facilities and units. So Guderian found out. Now these engineers and equipment can be saved, and they can be assigned to other important engineering tasks.

Because the Germans are now facing an entire community, and the entire area consists of two small towns connected together, one is the town of Wollman and the other is the town of Deere. Hundreds of years ago, these may have been two villages, but after hundreds of years of evolution and expansion, the two towns are now connected to one another.

Various buildings, houses, lanes and streets stretch along the beach for four kilometers, with a depth of two kilometers, forming an isosceles triangle as a whole. At the center of the longest base of the triangle is the three-story cake Dier Fort, and the corner south of the bottom is another castle, Fort Wolman.

Since the townspeople have fled, all houses are vacant, and the German army can now requisition any building at will without any obstruction. With so many ready-made houses, warehouses, workshops, and camps, the Germans no longer need to spend manpower and material resources to rebuild these buildings.

The town’s water supply and power supply system is intact. The Germans can use it directly after a short break. Even the bars, theaters, and entertainment facilities are completely preserved. The decoration is complete and the facilities are complete. The German soldiers can directly carry the bags. Check in.

Under Guderian’s reminder, Bok immediately discovered the crux of the problem, and he began to praise God’s apostles again. Without God’s favor, how could such a miracle be created.

Guderian's plan, Bok decided to accept it in its entirety, and as an experienced commander of the army group, he also put forward his own suggestions. Immediately report the current progress to the High Command, request the Air Force to drop a group of parachute troops here as soon as possible, and request the High Command to launch attacks on Dover and Folkestone in advance to attract the attention of the British Army.

The command line quickly returned, and Xu Jun personally responded. Xu Jun first expressed his appreciation for Bok’s decisive action in the telegram, and then he fully satisfied Bok’s requirements. The two reserve paratroopers have long been satisfied. You are ready to fly to Dier immediately. The Reichenau Group of the third echelon has set off and will arrive at the landing point in two hours. Finally, with regard to Dover and Folkestone, he let Bok not worry, those two places are currently struggling with artillery fire, and Bok can now act boldly.

The complete preservation of Deere Town saved a lot of energy for the German landing troops. More importantly, it saved a lot of precious time. A large number of construction engineering troops were sent ashore and joined the bridge construction project on the beach. .

The naval engineers have already started the assembly work of prefabricated pontoons. They connected eight-meter-long fully-sealed pontoons side by side with iron bolts, and then grouped four into a raft. The engineers first laid net-like steel beams on it, hinged with iron bolts, and finally laid a layer of sleeper pavement on the steel beams. These thick sleepers were fixed to the steel beams by long iron bolts, measuring 40 centimeters long. Thick, can withstand the crush of tanks and heavy artillery.

The naval engineers have gone through countless drills before this. They have long been familiar with these working procedures, and they quickly completed the construction of the basic modules. The navy used motorboats to tow these floating rafts to the beach, and then used movable bolts to connect them together. Soon an 800-meter-long pontoon bridge appeared in front of the Germans.

The naval engineering ship drove the steel pillars into the seabed and fixed the pontoon with anchor chains and iron bars to prevent it from being deformed and damaged by the impact of the waves. The engineers installed a movable springboard on the side of the pontoon near the beach. It is directly connected to the mechanized bridge built by the mechanized bridge engineering unit. This iron bridge is connected to the pontoon at one end, and the other end is directly laid on the top of the soil **** of the sand embankment. Soldiers and vehicles can walk directly from the pontoon to land.

The Army Corps of Engineers laid more than a dozen simple auxiliary roads on the beach. Engineering vehicles and transport vehicles were transported to the beach by the vehicle landing barges. The mechanized bridge trailers dragged the mechanized bridge components to the beachhead and assembled them by the bridge engineers. Other supplies were provided. Then follow the side road and quickly drive up the slope. The originally scheduled beachside replenishment point was cancelled because there are ready-made warehouses and courtyards to use, and there is no need to dig holes on the beach.

In the next two hours, the naval engineering unit and the army engineering unit cooperated tacitly to construct four identical pontoons. At the same time, two engineering ships started to pour water into the large cement caisson to be towed. These large cement components slowly sank to the bottom of the water at the position calculated earlier. Four huge steel pillars were inserted into the prefabricated fixed holes on the caisson, and then the tugboat A large flat-bottomed barge was towed and anchored between the four pillars with an anchor chain. The anchor chain was hooked on a movable iron ring on the iron pillar. The barge could float up and down with the rise and fall of the tide. In the end, the naval engineers connected one end of a pontoon bridge to the barge, and a complete floating dock system was formed.

Before sunrise~IndoMTL.com~The first floating dock was completed, and a large transport ship was immediately docked. The infantrymen carried their luggage and walked directly to the dock from the boarding ladder. Vehicles and materials were followed. The sling of the side crane was slowly lowered, and within a short while, the infantry of a battalion carried all the equipment and vehicles on the coast.

At this time, the sunrise is not far away, and the horizon in the east has gradually revealed a hint of whiteness. Bok and Guderian spent half a night of work, and successively sent four infantry regiments and an armored battalion to the coast. At the same time, all the engineering troops and a large amount of heavy supplies and ammunition fuel were landed.

Under the command of Bok, the landing German army has built a half-moon line of defense around the landing site. When the dawn was shining from the east and the first rays of the sun shone on the British beaches, this section of the coast had become a huge messy construction site. The streets of villages and towns were full of figures in gray uniforms and helmets. Full of trucks and barrel trucks of all colors, the transport ships on the sea are still constantly changing positions, one after another docking on the floating dock. A steady stream of infantry and trucks walked onto the land along the pontoon, and then dispersed to various assembly points and defensive positions under the command of the military police.

At 6:50 a.m. on the morning of d, Bock reported to the High Command that the German Army had successfully landed in the United Kingdom. He had moved the headquarters to Deesburg on the shore. The German Iron Cross flag was in the United Kingdom. Flying above. (To be continued)