The decisive battle against the Third Reich - Chapter 955

c952 amphibious tank

“They are coming!”

When Qin Chuan and Eberhard were smoking a cigarette together, someone shouted.

Qin Chuan and Eberhard quickly threw away their cigarettes and raised their rifles.

Looking across through the sniper scope, Qin Chuan unexpectedly found that the US military was still launching a forced crossing under the cover of tanks like last time, and this time they didn’t even have enough tools for the forced crossing, because there were many makeshift rafts, and many US soldiers made some temporary floating tools and planned to swim across… To be honest, in this case, swimming alone would be safer than using assault boats or rubber boats.

However, this is also obviously inconsistent for the US military, which has always been equipped with very high-end equipment.

“Something is wrong!” Eberhard said: “The Americans shouldn’t fight like this! They are a little too brave… They know that they can’t break through our defense line like this!”

Qin Chuan understood what Eberhard meant: the German defense has not weakened, and the US firepower and offensive intensity have not increased but decreased. Therefore, unless there is an unexpected situation, it will be difficult for the US military to break through the German defense line.

Qin Chuan immediately contacted Kuhn on the Great Solsey Island in the north.

“Report the situation!” Qin Chuan said, “Did the Americans attack you too?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!” Kuhn replied, “They obviously lack swimming tools. I think they should have placed their main force on Highway 69!”

To be more precise, because Montgomery was obstructing them, the supplies of the US 3rd Army were not sufficient. Later, the US 3rd Army even had to drag the German artillery and shells seized from the warehouse from the Normandy attack to the front line and put them into use.

After hanging up the phone, Qin Chuan hid in the trench in a daze, letting the gunshots and artillery sounds outside, and from time to time there were a few shells that exploded nearby, causing a piece of rubble and even blood and body parts to fall from the sky.

If this situation happened to the Soviet Union, Qin Chuan would not find it strange at all.

The characteristic of the Soviet army is that their pressure is not from soldiers or public opinion, but from superiors or Stalin, that is, they are responsible to their superiors rather than to their subordinates. This led to the Soviet commanders being able to blindly demand that soldiers charge bravely, and even to shift the blame to the soldiers if they lost the battle.

The US military was different. They were responsible to both their superiors and subordinates, and public opinion could even force the commanders to explain themselves or even be questioned by the military.

For example, Patton was not promoted because he did not fight well. In fact, his performance on the battlefield was much better than Montgomery’s. His problem was that he spoke without thinking in front of the media, and the “ear-pass incident” was held tightly by the media, resulting in Patton’s talent but Eisenhower not daring to use him.

From this point of view, when commanding operations, Patton did not dare to let American soldiers rush up and die like now.

On the other hand, the grassroots officers and soldiers of the US military also have greater autonomy. If they believe that this is a meaningless battle to sacrifice the lives of their subordinates, then they will choose to disobey orders.

In other words, the US military must have their purpose in doing this. To be more precise, there is a reason for Patton to persuade his two infantry divisions to carry out this meaningless forced crossing.

What is this reason?

The only reason is that the forced crossing by these two divisions was a feint.

If it was a feint to attack Big and Little Solsey Island, then their real target of attack should be…Shambier Island!

Thinking of this, Qin Chuan hurriedly called the baker in charge of Shambier Island.

“Get ready for battle immediately!” Qin Chuan ordered: “The Americans are likely to attack you!”

“But, Lieutenant Colonel…” The baker asked in confusion: “How can they get here!”

“I don’t know!” Qin Chuan replied: “I only know that they can come here, do as I say!”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!” The baker responded, and then immediately organized the defense of Shambier Island.

But the baker was a little helpless… There were only more than 3,000 people stationed on Shambier Island, and these 3,000 people were not cadets. They were more car soldiers, cooks, maintenance personnel, etc. Some of them had never even shot a few times.

Even so, the baker ordered them to enter the bunkers and trenches to prepare for defense.

After Qin Chuan gave the order, he held up a telescope and stuck his head out to observe the movements of the enemy across the river.

Then he saw “smoke” on one side.

In fact, it was not “smoke”, but the exhaust of tanks and vehicles… Qin Chuan made a judgment at the first time that it was an armored unit with a large number of tanks.

However, tanks cannot cross the river, so what use are a large number of tanks? !

The next second, Qin Chuan understood.

“Amphibious tanks!” Qin Chuan shouted: “They have amphibious tanks, and they may also have amphibious landing ships!”

Eberhard couldn’t help but widen his eyes when he heard this.

“Lieutenant Colonel!” Eberhard said: “You mean, they are equipped with amphibious tanks and amphibious landing ships like us?”

Qin Chuan didn’t know how to answer… The idea of ​​amphibious tanks and amphibious landing ships should be said to be originally from the Americans. They invented these things according to battlefield needs when fighting the Japanese army in the Pacific battlefield and applied them to the European battlefield.

Qin Chuan just used them on the German army in advance based on his own advantages.

But there was no time to explain so much at this time. Qin Chuan replied: “Yes, they plan to use amphibious tanks to force a crossing of the Moselle River. Their target is Chambier Island… Tell them to be prepared for anti-tank!”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel!” Eberhard immediately conveyed the order to Chambord Island.

“Concentrate all artillery in the middle river!” This was Qinchuan’s second order.

The so-called middle river channel refers to the middle position between Little Sorsey Island and Big Sorsey Island.

This was supposed to be the area with the strongest firepower, because the Big and Little Solsey Islands could form crossfire on it.

The problem is that most of the artillery on the Big and Little Solsey Islands are abandoned… As mentioned before, the artillery on the forts have been replaced by machine guns, and only some of the worn-out artillery are concentrated at the rear according to model and caliber. Used as artillery.

Therefore, Qinchuan did not dare to hope that they could block the offensive of the US armored forces.

So Qin Chuan issued the third order: “Concentrate all ME63 to the central part!”

Before Qin Chuan finished speaking, he saw US armored troops appearing in the sight of the telescope… It was just as Qin Chuan guessed, those amphibious landing tanks, because Qin Chuan saw some of the tents on their bodies through the telescope. It’s even inflated and ready to go into the water.