The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 952

c949 Forced crossing

The first thing Qin Chuan did after entering the position was to test the communication.

“Report the situation!” Qin Chuan said into the walkie-talkie.

“10 Everything is normal!” Eberhard replied: “Two artillery pieces were blown up!”

“20 Everything is fine!”

“30 everything is fine!”

The first number represents each “island”, and the second number represents each area on the “island”. If it is the command headquarters, it is “0”. The other areas are arranged by serial number, so that you only need to report the serial number during the call. Each other immediately knows where and what is going on.

The sound of gunfire slowly stopped, and it wasn’t until the smoke dissipated that Qin Chuan realized that it had been getting light for a while.

Qinchuan got into the trench with his rifle. Compared with the fortress’s bunker fortifications, Qinchuan preferred the trenches built by soldiers.

This is not to say that the bunkers of Metz Fortress are not strong enough. In fact, Metz Fortress is nicknamed “Little Maginot”. In addition to using artificial canals as “moats” on its three “islands”, There are many revolving forts on the “island” similar to the Maginot Line… They were obviously built when the French were stationed here. Although they have been rusty and disrepaired for a long time, the artillery has also been moved by the students. Come out and use it as a teaching aid.

But this thing only requires a few machine guns to be set up on the perforations, and it is another solid defense point.

However, Qin Chuan still likes to crawl in the trenches.

This may be the difference between veterans and recruits… Recruits always like to find a strong fortification to hide in to protect themselves from harm, but veterans hope that they are free at all times and have more space that they can use at any time. Run fast to dodge bullets and projectiles.

“Lieutenant Colonel!”

“Lieutenant Colonel!”

…

Seeing Qin Chuan coming up with a gun, all the military academy cadets looked at Qin Chuan with admiration.

“Don’t look at me, soldiers!” Qin Chuan reminded: “You should keep your eyes on the crosshair and aim it at the enemy, not on me!”

The soldiers burst into laughter, and then followed Qin Chuan’s order and turned their attention to the muzzle of the gun again.

Qin Chuan chose a position, raised his binoculars and looked forward. He couldn’t see anything in the smoke, only the “rumbling” motor sounds of some tanks and the sound of explosions one after another… This was the US military searching and advancing. The explosions should be It is a masterpiece of US mine-clearing tanks, or it may be US soldiers using grenades to clear mines.

Qin Chuan observed the surrounding environment.

This is a line of defense on Petit Sorsey. The Moselle River, which is more than 100 meters wide, flows through the west side of Petit Sorsey from south to north. When the French were stationed here, they dug a large five-story The ten-meter-wide artificial river circles around Little Solsey Island and then returns to the original river channel.

The other two “islands” are similar.

Therefore, if the Americans want to pass the Metz Fortress, they must at least cross the river in front of them. Qin Chuan wants to know how the Americans can do it.

“Lieutenant Colonel!” Eberhard led a few communications soldiers to Qin Chuan’s side and reported, “We may have encountered the U.S. 3rd Army!”

“Third Army?” Qin Chuan couldn’t help but frowned, which meant that his opponent was Patton.

“Yes!” Eberhard replied: “Werner and two people went out for reconnaissance last night. They brought back a prisoner. According to the prisoner’s confession… what we are facing is the 20th Army of the US 3rd Army!”

Qin Chuan nodded.

Although this is unexpected, it is also expected, because only Patton can have such a fast speed… His combat motto is similar to Rommel, both are “attack, attack, attack again!”

Patton can be said to be luckier than Rommel.

Because Rommel often fought with insufficient supplies.

It can also be said that Patton was not as lucky as Rommel.

Because Rommel always gained the trust of the head of state and had great decision-making power, but Patton was restricted in everything. His boss Bradley at this time was even Patton’s former subordinate, and this subordinate was still using some kind of strange method. Glorious way to steal Patton’s plan.

Just as I was thinking about it, tanks drove out of the smoke on the other side of the river. The minesweeper tanks drove ahead. The sound of the chains hitting the ground and cutting through the air could be heard across the river.

Perhaps realizing that it had reached the river bank, the minesweeper tank slowly retreated… It did not dare to turn around, because turning around would expose the weak armor on its rear.

Then, “Sherman” tanks emerged from the smoke one after another, one every ten meters, at least dozens of them at a glance.

Then, dozens of tanks each adjusted the angle of their turrets and then spit out flames one after another towards the other side of the river.

At the same time, the mortars and howitzers in the rear of the US military roared again, and another piece of artillery shells poured in the direction of the German position.

However, this time the bombing was somewhat different from the previous fire preparations.

Because Qinchuan saw through the telescope that US soldiers carried out many assault boats and rubber boats from behind the tanks, apparently intending to forcefully cross the Moselle River.

This is actually an offensive advantage in this kind of terrain… There is a river between the enemy and ourselves, so the artillery and tank crews know the boundaries between the enemy and ourselves very well, and they can accurately hit the German positions with artillery shells.

Of course, the shortcomings are also obvious. US tanks cannot cross the river. Even the river with a width of more than 100 meters cannot be erected with bridge tanks, so this method can only be used to forcibly cross it.

In fact, Barton also considered a method, which was to build a floating bridge.

But on the one hand, it was because the US 3rd Army was not well prepared… Before Patton got the detailed map from the French, he thought that the Metz Fortress was just a field fortification, so he only thought about tanks to cover the infantry and then everything would be over.

Then he realized that he needed to cross the river.

However, there was no time to prepare equipment such as pontoons. All Patton could do was to collect as many assault boats and rubber boats as possible as a tool for forced crossing.

Even assault boats and rubber boats were seriously insufficient. In the end, the US soldiers could only use shell boxes and tires to assemble rafts to launch an attack. Some soldiers even blew condoms into balloons as lifebuoys to swim across the river.

Of course, this was more of a way for Patton to preserve his strength. His real trump card was the 7th Armored Division.

The German army certainly didn’t know this at this time.

When the US soldiers rowed the famous rubber boats and assault boats into the center of the river, Qin Chuan shouted: “Fire!”

The German soldiers who had been prepared for a long time pulled the trigger and poured dense bullets at the US soldiers in the middle of the river.

The assault boats and rubber boats were completely defenseless, and American soldiers were crowded on the boats, so wherever the bullets passed, a bloody storm was immediately set off.