The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 896

c893 Offensive preparation

With Eisenhower’s order, every grassroots combat commander received a large-scale map.

The map is sent to each landing ship and the company-level commander of the landing force. The picture shows a panoramic photo of the coast from the sea looking at each part of the landing site, showing buildings and other landmarks in detail, as well as daylight and moonlight data, as well as beach deslope curves, offshore current data, and tidal curves. Wait, each copy is printed with the name and boundary of each landing area.

These are the results of long-term detection by British and American intelligence personnel and French people. For the armored troops to be landed, there is even the softness of the sand on the beach.

The combat department of the Allied High Command and the headquarters of the 21st Army Group were also moved to the seaport city of Portsmouth on the south coast of England, and the Navy also set up a liaison agency here to facilitate front-line command.

Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower’s headquarters was located in a forest in the Portsmouth area… This was because of concerns about German bombing of the Allied forces.

However, it turned out that this was completely unnecessary. At this time, the German army had no ability to bomb Britain unless it used V1.

Then, the fire preparations before landing began.

In fact, this can hardly be said to be the beginning of fire preparations, because the Allied bombing of France almost never stopped… The bombing during the day was also particularly fierce.

It’s just that these bombings usually stop when it gets dark. Today, not only did they not stop, but they intensified.

From time to time, the sound of the engines of large formations of heavy bombers could be heard in the dark sky. It was low and powerful, like “rumbling” thunder, which seemed to shatter the entire sky together with the German ground defense facilities.

Before long, the sound of engines was drowned out by the swooping roar of planes and the explosion of bombs, and the coast of northern France was filled with explosions, flares, and German searchlight poles.

At this time, Rundstedt was a little panicked, because he received intelligence that the Allied bombing of Calais was unprecedentedly fierce… Hundreds of heavy bombers and medium bombers attacked the German shore artillery positions in Calais. , has lasted for several hours now, and the German coastal defense artillery positions on the beach have been hit by bullets and set on fire.

In contrast, the Allied bombing of the Brittany Peninsula was much less.

“This may still be a cover-up trick by the Allies!” Rundstedt said to himself: “They are still trying to convince themselves that their attack direction is Calais!”

But another voice asked in his mind: “What if the Allied attack target is actually Calais? Otherwise, why would the Allied forces spend so many bombs on the coastal defense guns?”

Rundstedt really wanted to call Rommel and ask about the situation there, but in the end he held back… He knew that he should have the demeanor of a general and could not mess up his position just because of a slight change in the battlefield.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of warships joined the bombing. Dazzling fires flashed on the dark sea. Tons of artillery shells fell from the sky with sharp whistling sounds, and then hit the coastal defense fortress of the “Atlantic Wall” heavily and exploded. Out bursts of flames.

The Germans had never seen such a high-density and long-term bombing. Casualty reports and damage reports poured into Rundstedt’s headquarters like snowflakes.

The staff officer was a little confused. He took the reports and said to Rundstedt in horror: “Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, if these are still feint attacks, how can we call them a main attack?”

“Calm down, Colonel!” Rondstedt replied: “This is probably a trick of the enemy to deceive us. Don’t be fooled by these performances!”

In fact, Rundstedt was not as calm as he appeared. He was also asking his staff the same question…

A few minutes later, when the staff reported to him the number of Allied fighter planes and warships detected by the radar station in the direction of Calais, Rundstedt could no longer bear it.

“What? They actually have more than a thousand bombers and more than a hundred warships in the direction of Calais?”

“Yes, Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief!” the staff officer replied: “No matter how we analyze the intelligence, the fact is that we were wrong. The direction of the Allied attack is Calais and not the Brittany Peninsula!”

Rundstedt immediately put Rommel on the phone.

“I would like to know how many warships and aircraft your radar station has detected?” Rundstedt asked.

“Sorry, Commander-in-Chief!” Rommel replied: “Our radar stations were destroyed by the Allies and we cannot get detection results!”

“There are more than a thousand bombers and more than a hundred warships in our direction!” Rundstedt said: “How to explain this, radar can’t lie!”

“I can’t explain this, Commander-in-Chief!” Rommel replied, then turned back to Qin Chuan and asked: “They detected a large number of bombers and warships!”

Qin Chuan answered without thinking: “That’s a trick done by the British. They deliberately left several radar stations in the direction of Calais, and then used transport planes to sprinkle aluminum and platinum in the air, disguised as a large number of warships and bombers to attack. false image!”

“That makes sense!” Rommel couldn’t help but nodded repeatedly, and then said to Rundstedt on the other end of the phone: “Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, the Allies know our situation clearly, and they can completely destroy every one of our radars. station, and the reason why there are still a few radar stations left in the direction of Calais is because we hope that we will be alarmed if we see something on the radar!”

Rundstedt hung up the phone awkwardly… Rommel’s words really made it seem like that. The few surviving radar stations were not secret, but they were miraculously safe and sound.

Originally, Rundstedt thought it was lucky, but now it seems that the British left them intentionally.

If it weren’t for Rommel and others, Rundstedt would have been deceived by the British again and hurriedly transferred his troops to Calais.

Because of this firm idea, Rundstedt could remain calm when the Allies had follow-up actions in the direction of Calais… Then, the Allies used the same method to disguise themselves as a large number of transport planes in Calais and flew to the rear of Calais and carried out a large-scale airdrop.

But in fact, only a few battalions were airdropped, and then these American troops lurked in the dark and played the long-recorded gunshots and commands to confuse the Germans.

If it was before, the German army might not dare to act rashly in the dark, but Rundstedt was basically sure that this was a scam, so he would not be polite to them. He ordered the German army to attack resolutely… As a result, several batches of these bluffing American soldiers were quickly captured.

At this time, Rundstedt got a definite answer… Rommel was right, the Allied attack direction was the Brittany Peninsula.