The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 904

c901 suppressive fire

The retreat of the U.S. 5th Infantry Division unsurprisingly descended into chaos:

Landing craft one after another rushed to the beach despite shells and bullets, loaded with soldiers and about to evacuate, but they were covered by German artillery fire.

This is the artillery unit deployed by the German army about five kilometers behind… Under normal circumstances, they hide in bunkers and do not take action, even when the enemy lands.

The reason is that once you take action, you are likely to be discovered by Allied fighter planes and implement fire suppression.

However, when U.S. landing craft intensively come ashore to evacuate U.S. soldiers, it is worth risking discovery, because this can cause casualties several times or even dozens of times to the U.S. military’s effective forces.

As a result, swarms of artillery shells roared in, blasting up water columns on the beach and sea water. They also sank and overturned the landing craft one by one.

Coupled with the rain of bullets fired at them by German tanks and soldiers hiding in fortifications, the entire beach was rolling around like a pot of boiling water, and the American troops inside were like ants on a hot pot, scurrying around everywhere. Many people were injured and screaming, and even jumped into the sea desperately and swam in the opposite direction… They no longer cared about whether they could survive the waves, they just wanted to leave this hellish world as soon as possible.

Eisenhower looked at the map in front of him with a gloomy expression. From time to time, a staff officer would hand him a telegram and report casualties to him, but Eisenhower didn’t even want to hear this anymore… He was already a little numb. .

At this time, there were only five hours before the landing operation, and only eight hours since the airborne troops were airborne. However, the casualties at this time had far exceeded the pre-war casualty figures estimated for 24 hours.

The heaviest casualties are undoubtedly the 4th and 5th Infantry Divisions that attacked “Utah Beach”. The number of casualties has now reached more than 9,000. There are also many missing people, and some who continue to be suppressed on the beach and unable to move… …Few soldiers can be rescued.

The number of casualties on this beach alone reached the total of the other four beaches combined.

In addition, the three airborne divisions that parachuted behind the defense line do not know the exact situation… because they are scattered in various places and do not know each other’s situation.

But Eisenhower knew that if the Germans were prepared, that is, if they knew that the Allied forces were going to land in the Brittany Peninsula, these three airborne divisions would probably be in trouble.

“General!” At this time, Montgomery hurriedly walked into Eisenhower’s headquarters.

“Monty!” Eisenhower said with a straight face: “You came just in time. I think our strategic deception has failed. How do you think we should clean up this mess?”

“That’s exactly what I’m here for!” Montgomery said, “because I heard you ordered the 4th and 5th Infantry Divisions to retreat…”

“I have no other choice, Monty!” Eisenhower replied: “Their opponent is the 21st Armored Division, and I can’t just watch them be slaughtered!”

“General!” Montgomery objected: “But if we abandon Utah Beach, we will expose the flanks of the Omaha Beach landing force to the Germans, and then there will be Golden Beach and Juno Beach. , and finally ‘Sword Beach’…”

“I know, Monty!” Eisenhower said: “But do you have a better way? You also know that our intelligence has serious errors… The enemy’s garrison on the ‘Atlantic Wall’ is not a coastal defense division with poor combat effectiveness. Maybe this is true, but the Coastal Defense Division was only used by them to deal with our bombing. Afterwards, the more powerful troops immediately took over the Coastal Defense Division’s fortifications, and we were unable to break through their defense lines, especially ‘Utah Beach’!”

“Of course I know, General!” Montgomery replied: “So, but we can’t just admit defeat!”

“Do you have any better ideas?” Eisenhower spread his hands.

“Although there is no better way, we can try!” Montgomery pointed at the map and said: “We can partially withdraw the troops at ‘Utah Beach’, and then use naval guns and air power bombing to hold off the ‘Utah Beach’ The German 21st Armored Division prevents them from reinforcing troops from other directions and poses a threat to our landing operations. As long as there is a breakthrough in other directions, we can immediately circle to the rear of Utah Beach and surround it! ”

Eisenhower thought for a while and then said hesitantly: “Navy guns and air power… Monty, this means that we will cause friendly fire to our own people!”

“That was covering fire for them!” Montgomery said, “If we didn’t do this, their casualties would have been even more severe!”

What Montgomery said was obviously an excuse, but from a practical point of view he was correct: the casualties of the US military on “Utah Beach” were inevitable, and the only difference was whether they died at the hands of the enemy or at the hands of their own people.

If it was the former, not only would the casualties be greater, but the Allies would not be able to attack the German forces on the line of defense.

The latter is just the opposite.

Therefore, anyone who can do addition and subtraction knows what to do at this time.

After thinking about it, Eisenhower nodded and agreed to the plan.

Major General Logan, who was under German fire suppression on the front line, only received a brief order: “We will implement fire suppression on the enemy and order your people to take cover on the spot!”

“Suppression fire?” Major General Logan asked doubtfully, “What kind of suppression fire?”

But he didn’t get any reply, and the phone on the other side was hung up.

But there was no need to reply, because there was already a roar of artillery shells in the air.

Major General Logan easily knew from the whistling sound and direction that it was a large-caliber naval gun fired from the sea, so he hurriedly shouted to the surroundings: “Lie down and hide!”

Along with the naval guns, there were also thousands of various fighters and bombers carrying out the bombing. In fact, the United States and Britain had assembled a total of 2,077 bombers at this moment… They will continue to bomb the “Pacific Barrier” for up to two hours in the future.

The first to be dispatched were the Royal Air Force’s “Halifax” heavy bombers and “Lancaster” heavy bombers. They received orders to use the coastline as the starting point and drop bombs in the direction of the German army with a depth of one kilometer to carry out carpet bombing.

There is no need to say more about what this means. Their bombing range includes the remaining forces of the US 4th and 5th Infantry Divisions.

They had to do this because if they didn’t, they would not be able to effectively kill the German troops stationed at the “Atlantic Barrier”.

Whether the 4th and 5th Infantry Divisions can survive depends on God’s blessing.