The decisive battle against the Third Reich

But there’s really no “remedy.”

This is a dangerous aspect of amphibious landing warfare... For example, the Allied forces landed a total of 132,715 people on 5 beaches. These 130,000 people were transported up in batches by landing craft. They did not evacuate like in land operations. Just withdraw.

Even retreat is much more difficult than attacking because there is no suitable port and the landing craft will be suppressed by German artillery fire and unable to approach.

"No, we have no retreat!" Eisenhower said: "We can only continue to attack!"

After thinking about it, Eisenhower ordered the staff: "Order the air force and fleet to suppress 'Utah Beach' with all their strength, and the 5th Infantry Division will take over the task of the 4th Infantry Division to attack 'Utah Beach'!"

"Yes, General!" the staff officer responded and passed on the order.

Eisenhower's order was correct. Since retreat was impossible and an attack was necessary, "Utah Beach" must be regained.

Otherwise, the entire flank of the U.S. landing surface will be exposed to German firepower, which is likely to cause the collapse of the entire offensive line. By then, it will not be a problem of heavy losses for the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, but all the ongoing The more than 100,000 Allied troops who landed would be surrounded and annihilated.

Eisenhower also specifically ordered the 8th Air Force, which was responsible for cooperating with the landing operations: "Find and destroy all the German tanks. They will seriously hinder our landing operations!"

What Qinchuan felt here was that the shells were hitting the beach in flakes.

Suddenly, howls and explosions rang out all around, but Qin Chuan could still tell that most of the bombs that exploded along the coast were aircraft bombs.

This prevented the US military from effectively killing the tanks of the 21st Armored Division... The battlefield was filled with smoke and visibility was low. On the other hand, the tanks hid in the blind spots of the bunker fortifications and covered themselves with camouflage canvas as soon as the air defense warning was issued. .

This is a good air defense tactic that the armored forces have prepared long ago:

Hiding in the blind corner of the bunker can effectively avoid artillery shells coming from other directions.

The camouflage canvas is the same color as the bunker's cement fortifications, and some even have some twists painted on it. Looking down from the air, the tank looks like a small bunker, and it is difficult to find that it is a tank.

Of course, this kind of camouflage will not be effective under intensive and indiscriminate bombardment from naval guns.

But as Qin Chuan thought, the Allies were unlikely to directly cover and fire with naval guns in this case... because this would directly injure a large number of surviving US 4th Division soldiers on the beach.

Although friendly fire is inevitable on the battlefield, and to some extent this still suppresses the German army and covers the retreat of the US military.

But the problem with the US military is that it is greatly constrained by the pressure of domestic public opinion. They must take into account the accusations of surviving soldiers and the pressure from the news media... General Patton was criticized for slapping a soldier several times due to a misunderstanding when he inspected the front line. It also ruined his political future.

By the same token, Eisenhower must also consider the safety of the remaining troops of the 4th Infantry Division when implementing the next step of operations.

Otherwise, the news media will soon appear with a headline: "Frontline soldiers fought bravely under enemy fire, but they dodged the enemy's bullets in front of them, but they couldn't dodge the artillery shells fired from behind!"

Eisenhower would soon become a target and explain the incident in detail.

This is also the reason why the landing points of US naval gun shells are always farther away from the defense line, while the front line is mostly bombed by bombers and strafed by fighter jets.

No one can be sure whether this approach is good or bad.

Because the battlefield is a real place, this approach seems to be correct on the surface, but it leaves more casualties to the US 5th Infantry Division that follows... They have to face the German bunker fortifications and tank.

Qin Chuan did not need to consider this issue. He only knew that he and his men endured the blasts and vibrations above their heads in the bunker fortifications.

No one knows how long this fortification can last, or whether it will suddenly collapse and bury everyone in the fortification.

Fortunately, none of this happened. The explosion gradually became weaker but never disappeared.

I don't know who shouted: "They are coming, the enemy's landing troops!"

Qin Chuan got up and looked out from the perforation hole. Sure enough, he saw many landing craft riding the wind and waves on the smoky sea. They occupied all the space that the perforation hole could observe, so Qin Chuan could not estimate how many there were.

"Prepare for battle!" Qin Chuan ordered loudly.

The German soldiers immediately set up their guns on the perforations.

The bunker fortifications of the "Atlantic Fortress" are somewhat similar to the "Maginot Line". There are many large and small perforations on the bunker to maximize the combat effectiveness of the soldiers. It is also composed of underground fortifications and ground fortifications, but it will be smaller than the "horse fortifications". The "Chino Line" was much cruder... This does not seem surprising. The "Atlantic Wall" was too long to be built like an underground city like the "Maginot Line."

At the forefront was the tank landing ship.

It was a big guy with a fully loaded displacement of more than 4,000 tons... It was originally a cargo ship converted into a British transport tank. The Americans thought that it would be easier for the tank to get on and off the ship, so they opened a large opening in the front of the hull and installed it. A landing bridge, so when transporting tanks to their destination, there is no need to use cranes and other equipment to lift the tanks... These tanks, armored vehicles or cars loaded with supplies can drive to the dock on their own.

Later, I suddenly thought, why not develop a special tank landing ship that can quickly land tanks to carry out landing operations?

So there was the LST tank landing ship... It was designed to be very suitable for landing on shoals, because its counterweight is mainly in the rear half, and the front half of the bow has a shallow draft, so it can easily rush to the beach and lower the landing bridge.

This is what they did at this time, one after another drove onto the beach, then opened the cabin from the left and right sides like a monster opening its mouth, and lowered the landing bridge from the inside... A few "Sherman" tanks " It opened with a rumble.

Then, one landing craft after another followed the beach and dropped a large number of American soldiers. At the same time, the machine guns, rocket launchers, etc. on the landing craft fired randomly at the bunker fortifications on the shore.

The wounded soldiers of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division were carried onto landing crafts one after another.

But this prestige of the US military is obviously only temporary. They can do all this safely only because the German soldiers did not receive the order to fire... They need the US military to get closer so that the German tanks are safer.