Reborn as a police officer in South Africa

The 8th Infantry Division is a force composed entirely of southern African officers and soldiers. The division has 18,000 men and is equipped with three infantry regiments and one artillery regiment. Strictly speaking, it is a mountain infantry division.

When the first batch of landing troops launched the landing operation, the temporary dock had not yet been built, and heavy equipment such as tanks and heavy artillery could not go ashore. Therefore, the landing troops were all pure infantry divisions. Their task was to open up landing sites and resist the possibility of the Germans

counterattack.

Although heavy equipment cannot go ashore, the firepower of the landing force is still very powerful. In addition to traditional machine guns and mortars, the 8th Infantry Division also has 110 amphibious tanks from the Marine Corps. These are all the first batch of landings.

Apart from the British 7th Armored Division, it is the most powerful armored force in the army.

At six o'clock in the morning, the transport ship of the 8th Infantry Division arrived at Sword Beach under the cover of the fleet. This is the easternmost beach among all five landing sites. The mission of the 8th Infantry Division is to land as quickly as possible after landing.

They captured the shipping center of Cannes in northern France. Cannes is only about 15 kilometers away from the beach of Sword.

In order to better provide fire cover for the landing troops, the Air Force dispatched "Super Sky Fortress" and close ground support aircraft, while the Navy dispatched 15 destroyers to arrive less than 1 kilometer away from Baojian Beach to conduct close-in inspections of the German fortresses on the shore.

Range shooting.

The Germans still attach great importance to defense work. As early as 1942, Mustache ordered the construction of a 4,000-kilometer-long defensive position along the Atlantic coast. This line of defense was called the "Atlantic Barrier."

The "Atlantic Barrier" project was huge. Germany dispatched a total of 260,000 people, invested 13 million tons of concrete and 120,000 tons of steel, and built defensive positions at about 15,000 key nodes in an attempt to prevent the Allied forces from landing on the Atlantic coast.

This plan is similar to the idea of ​​​​the Maginot Line, which is to defend the enemy from outside the country.

However, Mustache did not accept the lessons of the Maginot Line. When the Germans attacked, the Maginot Line did not play any defensive role. Instead, the French elite troops ignored the forces coming from other directions because they wanted to defend the Maginot Line.

attack.

When the French built the Maginot Line, their national strength was pretty good and they had a sufficient budget.

When the Germans started building the Atlantic Wall, the Russian battlefield was in a stalemate and the North African battlefield was losing ground. Therefore, the Germans simply did not have enough ability to complete the plan. By the time Operation Overlord began, the Atlantic Wall was only less than half completed.

Only 68% of the Channel Coast project program has been completed, and only 18% of the Normandy area has been completed.

The 8th Infantry Division was lucky. The German defenses on Sword Beach were very weak. The 155mm coastal defense guns on the coastal defense batteries were even camouflaged using telephone poles, so the Marine Corps' amphibious tanks easily landed on the beach.

The losses caused by the sporadic German counterattacks were not even as great as those caused by wind and waves.

The British 3rd Infantry Division, which landed on Sword Beach at the same time as the 8th Infantry Division, was not so lucky.

The mission of the 3rd Infantry Division was to land on the west side of Sword Beach, then advance to Juno Beach, and join the Allied troops landing on Juno Beach to build a huge landing site.

Unlike the steel landing craft of the 8th Infantry Division, the landing craft of the British 3rd Infantry Division were made of wood and had poor resistance to wind and waves. Not long after the landing craft set off, 20 landing craft were lost due to strong wind and waves, and nearly 700 British soldiers were lost.

The army disappeared.

Because there is no suitable port supply, Allied officers and soldiers must carry as much combat supplies as possible and be prepared to be without supplies in the next few days, or even a week or so.

When each soldier boarded the landing craft, he carried various combat supplies weighing more than 30 kilograms. This caused many British soldiers to sink directly to the bottom after falling into the water, making it impossible to escape.

Even if it is not overturned by wind and waves, the landing craft still faces the threat of German mines and shallow sea obstacles.

These mines were ordered by Rommel. Compared with forts, mines are more concealed, harder to detect, and more effective in defense. Not long after the battle began, the British army had a tank landing ship, a destroyer, and

Two minesweepers were sunk by German mines.

The minesweeper was sunk by a mine——

This is amazing enough.

The tragic fate of the British 3rd Division, which was lucky enough to reach the beach, had just begun.

The German defense force in the Normandy area was seriously insufficient. There were only six divisions in the entire area. Except for the relatively elite German 21st Tank Division, the other five divisions were all second-line troops with severely insufficient training and morale.

The 21st Tank Division is deployed on Sword Beach.

The combat effectiveness of the 21st Tank Division is still good. The British officers and soldiers who arrived at the beach after hardships were suppressed by the 21st Tank Division's crazy firepower.

The British wooden landing craft could not provide any protection for the British officers and soldiers, and German machine gun bullets could easily tear the British landing craft into pieces.

The British officers and soldiers on the landing craft were unlucky. One bullet could penetrate three or four people in a row and still maintain lethality.

The British soldiers did not want to stay on the landing craft and wait for death, so they jumped into the sea to escape. This caused a group of British officers and soldiers to drown. Before the battle actually broke out, the number of casualties in the British Third Division had exceeded a thousand people.

A division of the British army has about 18,000 men. According to British army tradition, if the casualties exceed 20%, the troops must retreat to rest and recuperate. If the casualties exceed 30%, the morale of the troops may completely collapse.

At this time, the British 3rd Division had no retreat. The officers and soldiers who were lucky enough to reach the beach could only bite the bullet and launch an attack on the German fortress. Major General Vian, commander of the British 2nd Squadron, sent a telegram to the headquarters, requesting the Southern African Air Force to provide the third

The 3rd Division provided air support and launched an attack on the German beachhead.

This telegram did not attract the attention of the command, because greater trouble appeared at Gold Beach and Omaha Beach.

The 50th Division of the British Army landed at Gold Beach. This division was unlucky when it landed. It lost all communication equipment and lost contact with the headquarters. The headquarters is now unclear about the landing situation at Gold Beach and plans to set off later.

The British 7th Armored Division did not dare to enter the battle.

The U.S. 9th Army that landed in Omaha was subjected to a tenacious sniper attack by the Germans.

In the early Allied reconnaissance, the German defense in Normandy was weak and the air attack was strong. It was expected that there was only one regiment on Omaha Beach, and it was an infantry regiment composed of reserves, so there was nothing to worry about.

Rommel was still very powerful. Although he had serious differences with Gerd von Rundstedt, the commander-in-chief of the German Western Front, in terms of defensive arrangements, Rommel still sent the German elite 352nd Infantry Division to Normandy to take charge of

Defending Omaha Beach is a main regiment of the 352nd Infantry Division.

When the U.S. 9th Army landed, the weather conditions were equally bad, and the U.S. military suffered heavy losses. During the landing process, 10 landing craft and about 300 officers and soldiers were lost due to strong wind and waves.

The landing of the armored forces was equally unsuccessful.

After the Marine Corps in Southern Africa was equipped with amphibious tanks, the US military imitated Southern Africa and also equipped its troops with amphibious tanks.

Facts have proved that the performance of US amphibious tanks is far behind that of southern Africa. Of the first batch of 32 amphibious tanks launched by the 9th Army, 27 sank directly to the seabed due to strong wind and waves as soon as they were launched. Among the five that survived,

Two were destroyed by the Germans, and only three reached the beach.

Weather is still the biggest enemy. Not long after the landing battle was launched, sporadic light rain began to fall in the sky. Soon the light rain turned into moderate rain, which brought more difficulties to the landing battle.

For two full hours, not a single American soldier washed up on the beach on the west side of Omaha, and only occupied a 9-meter-wide section of beach on the east side. The landing operation could be said to be a complete failure.

Among all the landing points, the landing at Juno Beach was not smooth. Due to bad weather and navigation errors, the landing at Juno Beach had to be postponed for twenty minutes. These twenty minutes gave the Germans more time.

Prepare.

Fortunately, the Juno Beach defense force was also a regiment. This regiment was mainly composed of Russians and Persians. It had poor combat effectiveness, low morale, and backward equipment levels. Therefore, the Allied forces successfully rushed to the beach.

Utah Beach, which was the smoothest, also had mistakes, and they were outrageous. After the Allied landing craft rushed to the beach, they discovered that the landing point was one kilometer east of the planned location.

In short, there are all kinds of mistakes, flooding every beachhead.

Compared with the British 50th Division, which had lost contact, and the U.S. 9th Army, which was suppressed on the beach by the Germans, the troubles of the British 3rd Division were not worth mentioning. Gavin directly called the headquarters of the 8th Division in Southern Africa.

Let the 8th Division send amphibious tanks to assist the British 3rd Division.

"Should we launch an attack on Cannes as planned?" Xie Jianye, commander of the 8th Division, hesitated a little, not knowing whether he should continue the attack.

The Allied forces launched landing operations on five beaches at the same time, with the purpose of converging with the Allied forces that had airborne in Normandy in advance to build a huge landing site and create favorable conditions for subsequent attacks.

Now, with the exception of the 8th Division in Southern Africa, almost all Allied troops participating in the war are making slow progress. If the 8th Division rashly launches an attack on Cannes, its flanks will be exposed to the Germans and they will also be besieged by German troops.

.

As the landing operation unfolded, Rundstedt and Rommel finally determined that the Allied landing point was Normandy rather than Calais. The German counterattack would come at any time. At this time, it was more important to defend firmly rather than attack rashly.

"Organize defense on the spot and wait for progress in other directions." Gavin did not advance rashly. If the German counterattacks came in droves, the 8th Division would not be able to withstand it.

At present in 1944, Germany has deployed 179 divisions and 5 brigades on the Russian battlefield, 13 divisions in Norway and Sweden in Northern Europe, about 21 divisions in Italy, and 35 divisions in the Balkans.

In France, Belgium, and the Netherlands on the Atlantic coast, the German army deployed a total of 60 divisions, 23 of which were deployed in Calais.

Now Rundstedt is transferring the German troops deployed in Calais to support Normandy. The elite German armored divisions under Longmire are also speeding up. If the Allies cannot complete the construction of the landing site as soon as possible, they will die.

very ugly.

Therefore, Gavin is not able to support the British 3rd Division now, because all the attention of the Allied air force is on attacking the French communication lines.

The failed air strike last night did not affect the morale of the Allied air force. Today, the Allied forces dispatched a total of 2,600 combat aircraft to carry out frantic attacks on key targets in France. German reinforcements and French railways were the key targets.

The jet fighters sent from southern Africa to the British mainland also joined the team in combat this time and finally appeared in the skies of France.

Compared with the ugly Me-262, the Southern African jet has a smoother shape, more advanced performance, and an unprecedented practical ceiling of 15,000 meters, which is enough to form an overwhelming advantage over all the main fighters of the German army at this time.

What is disappointing is that when the Southern African jets entered the battlefield for the first time, they did not encounter German jets. Not even a German piston fighter was seen. It seemed that the Germans had completely given up.

French sky.

It won't work if you don't give up.

When Operation Overlord began, the Allies could send 13,000 aircraft to fight in Normandy, while the German air force deployed throughout France only had 400 fighter jets.

This battle is impossible to fight, 14,000 versus 400. The Allies have cutting-edge fighters produced in recent years, while the Germans' most advanced fighters are in Russia. There is a serious asymmetry in the combat strength of the two sides.

The ground forces are also asymmetrical.

When the British 3rd Division landed, the German 21st Tank Division was capable of counterattack.

But at this time, the commander of the German 21st Tank Division had gone to Paris for business and was not in Normandy at all. The chief of staff had no right to mobilize troops, so he had to send the only 24 Panzer IV tanks he had to Sword Beach.

Although No. 4 is not as advanced as No. 5, it still has an advantage when dealing with amphibious tanks of the British and American armies.

The problem lies in the configuration of the troops. The chief of staff did not have the authority to send troops, so these 24 Panzer IV tanks did not even have accompanying infantry, and they went to Sword Beach alone.

At this time in Normandy, although the ground battle was intense, the winner had already been decided in the air. The Luftwaffe did not dare to attack, and Allied fighter planes were overwhelming.

Not long after the 24 No. 4 vehicles set off, they were attacked by the Allied air forces. First, they were dived and strafed by fighter jets, and then dive bombers attacked in turn. Finally, they encountered the Southern African amphibious tanks sent to support the British 3rd Division, and the entire army was annihilated.

"Order the troops to defend on the spot. We have to wait for the friendly forces to catch up. There are also our transport planes. Why haven't the heavy equipment been sent over yet?" Xie Jianye hopes that the transport planes can send over the artillery that the mountain infantry needs most. It doesn't matter if there is no airport.

, can be airborne. The airdrop capability of the Southern African Air Force is still very strong.

Of course, it can only be a small-caliber artillery that has been lightweighted and suitable for use by mountain troops.

If the heavy artillery is not good enough, it will probably turn into a pile of scrap metal if thrown down. Moreover, the supply of artillery shells will always be a big problem before the proposed dock is built.

"The transport plane is busy transporting the second batch of airborne troops. The American airborne troops are also in trouble." Chief of Staff Blomfield's expression was hard to describe. After many battles, the American airborne troops still failed to turn over.

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