Compared to the 82nd Airborne Division, the 1st Airborne Division of the British Army had much worse luck. The climatic conditions over the target area were unfavourable, the clouds were low, and after reaching the approximate position, the transport fleet had to descend to a dangerous altitude of about 400 meters in order to find the target. And at this height, not to mention the high shè guns, even the MG-42 machine guns of the Germans could hit them. And since the beginning of the strategic bombing, the Germans have made a whole lot of all kinds of high-flying guns. And with the disappearance of the Luftwaffe, Germany's air defense relied almost entirely on these high guns.

This also brought about a consequence, that is, the number of German anti-aircraft guns was surprisingly large, and when the transport aircraft group was reducing the altitude to search for targets, a group of bombers flew into the killing range of the German anti-aircraft guns.

The German anti-aircraft artillery unit was quite composed, and did not begin to fire heavily until the plane was fully effective. In the first round of shè strikes, two transport planes were knocked down and at least three were damaged. After such a blow, the transport aircraft group became a mess, and as a result, two more transport planes crashed because of a collision. By the time the transport fleet finally escaped from the range of the anti-aircraft guns, it had already lost 5 transport aircraft.

It's a real slap in the face. In order to avoid a similar situation again, when the transport planes identified the ground position, they were much rougher, and as soon as they reached a roughly similar position, they threw the paratroopers down.

As a result, after the airborne troops landed, it took an extra hour and a half to gather the soldiers. Moreover, in order to ensure the safety of the next batch of airborne troops when they land, half of these airborne troops will be left behind to protect the airborne sites. The other half (the 1st Airborne Brigade) is moving towards the goal, the Anheng Heng Bridge.

In order not to immediately alarm the Germans, and in order to avoid the known high guns, the British chose a landing point a little far from the target, and the 1st Airborne Brigade had to march 13 kilometers after landing to reach the target. Now, however, the British did not know, because of the lack of intelligence before the war, that near their airborne landing site was the station of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps, which had just been transferred by the Germans to wait for weapons to be sent from home.

As soon as the British airborne, the Germans noticed. At that time, the German "armored troops" who were waiting for tanks to be sent from China without tanks at all were shocked, and many Germans thought that the Allied airborne troops were coming for them.

In fact, it was not only the German "armored units" that thought that the British were coming for them, but a group of paratroopers landed not far from the headquarters of Field Marshal Modell. This startled Modell. Someone told Moder that on the Western Front, the enemy's spy system was quite strong, and the territory of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands was full of spies who worked for the British and Americans, or ordinary people who sympathized with the Americans and the British. Coupled with the sky full of reconnaissance aircraft, every move of the German army could easily be detected by the Americans and the British. The unsuccessful counteroffensive launched by Marshal Kruger not long ago illustrates this: Kruger took all possible measures to ensure the suddenness of this attack, but the fact was that the Americans and the British had already prepared anti-tank fortifications waiting there.

Therefore, Marshal Moder had every reason to believe that the Allies, by some means, knew his position, so he sent airborne troops over to seize him. Moder even remembered that during the Battle of Moscow, the German army had also sent airborne troops to launch a surprise attack on Marshal Zhukov's headquarters, but it was only because of a misjudgment of the strength of the Soviet command that it did not succeed. And Moder looked at the troops around him, well, the number is really not much, in comparison, the British airdropped a lot of troops, if they are really surrounded by them, I am afraid that I will really be a prisoner. There has never been a captive field marshal in the history of Germany - ah, no, Paulus, the coward, was. But you must not be such a coward.

"I'll fight until the last minute." Stroking his ivory-handled Ruger pistol, Mauder said to himself.

Of course, being able to dodge the enemy is better than martyrdom anyway. So Moder ordered at the first moment: transfer immediately. The headquarters was suddenly busy, and the things that could not be packed up, especially the documents that were too late to be taken away, were all burned by a fire.

Modell got into a barrel car, and the rest of the people got into the car, and the convoy quickly left the headquarters and began to move in other directions. Moder knew that on the Western Front, where the Allies had absolute air supremacy, it was a very risky act for convoys to appear on the road during the day. The hapless Rommel suffered such losses twice, and according to Rommel's experience, it was best to take a bucket car, which was too ordinary for the Allies to generally regard as the first target.

Just as Moder was in a hurry to transfer the headquarters, the British were also bothering with the Type 22 radio communication machine. As Ron had said beforehand, the iron ore mines in that area were so much of a radio interfere with the radios, that the Type 22 radio communication machine, which had a very limited communication range, had even less of a distance.

However, this time the British were also prepared, and at the suggestion of the Americans, the British modified a Lancaster bomber. This modified Lancaster bomber has been circling over the Airborne Forces. Its mission is to provide an intermediary for the communications of the airborne troops, and when the airborne troops on the ground are unable to send a message to the distant command, they can change the channel and send a message to the closer plane, which in turn will relay the message to the command. There is no doubt that in doing so, an intermediate link is added and efficiency is reduced, but it is better than no signal at all.

However, the British still underestimated the seriousness of the problem, and almost all of the Type 22 radio communication machines in the hands of the troops of the 1st Airborne Division could not communicate directly with the command, and even their contact with each other was problematic. And all these signals have to be transferred through such a Lancaster, and the people on this Lancaster are almost dying, but there is still a serious blockage in a large amount of information.

As a result, more than an hour was wasted before the 1st Airborne Brigade was able to move towards its goal. However, it had been three hours since they landed.

The British walked less than a kilometer towards the Anheng Heng Bridge before encountering the German ** team. The 2nd Panzer Corps, after a period of confusion, began to send reconnaissance units to the British, and then the two sides collided head-on and fought.

This fight, it was endless, the British did not have heavy weapons, the German armored forces, there were no armored vehicles, and a group of light infantry. And in battles between light infantry, it has always been difficult to decide the winner in a short period of time. As a result, they fought and walked until dark, and the British did not reach the bridge.

Marshal Moder, after changing the command center three times, finally understood that the British were not coming for him, but for the bridge. It wasn't because he was sluggish, but because, he couldn't believe that just when he was almost desperate to defeat the enemy, the enemy actually gave him such an opportunity.

"The enemy's airborne forces are here to seize the bridge. Mobilize troops, hold the bridge, and they will fail! "In the new command center, Field Marshal Moder was issuing an order," sent a telegram to Field Marshal Rundstedt requesting that the command of the SS 2nd Panzer Corps be fully transferred to me. Enemy troops were advancing along the Dutch roads. I know very well that the road has only two lanes, and the sides of the road are a lot lower than the road, and the soil is so soft that any vehicle will sink into it. The American M4 tanks had narrow tracks and would have sunk in, and those things of the British were no exception. This means that they simply can't get off the road. By blocking the highway, you can effectively stop them. Buy time for us to eliminate those paratroopers. I commanded ......"

……

The British 30th Army was delayed for several hours due to organizational problems, and soon they realized that something was wrong. The land on both sides of Highway 69 is gradually declining, and now the road is almost a meter above the ground. And this height difference is widening.

"Damn the Low Countries!" Tank soldier Victor scolded. He knew that if the difference in elevation between the road and the ground widened a little, if he tried to drive his Churchill tank off the road when attacked, he might just turn it upside down. However, once you engage the enemy, you must spread out your formation, otherwise everyone will be crowded on the road, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Obviously, Victor is not the only one who has discovered this problem, in fact, even a driver like Victor can feel the problem, and it would be strange if the officers above couldn't find it. Thereupon......

……

Several C-47 transport planes flew over the ranks of the British 30th Army, and they were surprised to find that the British stopped again.

"Hey, buddy? What are the British doing? ”

"I don't know, whatever! We're just responsible for sending these things to the 82nd Airborne Division. ”

……

The 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army is busy consolidating its bridgehead. The Germans were constantly shelling the bridge, and the attack planes of the 21st Attack Wing were scrambling around trying to find the German artillery positions. However, the neighborhood was full of woodland, and although the P/A-38 dropped quite a few bombs, and according to them, they had already taken out a lot of enemy artillery, but all kinds of shells continued to fall on the positions of the 82nd Airborne Division. As a result, the guys in the air team also have to admit that most of the targets they killed are probably fake targets. You know, the Germans didn't care about the patent problem at all, and after they discovered the inflatable false target of the US military, they immediately went over without any restraint, and even Ron had to admit that the matter of identifying the false target was really not something that could be solved by the aviation army at the current level of technology.

"Brothers, come on. Be sure to set up your position before dark. Damn it...... Barbed wire, mines, and anti-tank guns haven't been delivered yet! Battalion Commander Lumas, who was in charge of guarding the bridgehead, complained.

"Battalion commander, something has been delivered!" A soldier ran over to Camp Commander Rumas and said.

"Good! Hurry up and set up! Lumas looked at the soldier and saw that his face was wrong, so he asked, "What's wrong?" What happened? ”

"Battalion commander, the things were delivered, but the things they sent were not what we wanted, and they sent the wrong things