On the night of June 6, all 5 panzer divisions on the front received clear orders from the wolf's den, and their command was given to Field Marshal Rommel. Free eBook Download // Almost immediately after they received an order from Marshal Rommel: to go, to Caen.

According to the orders of Field Marshal Rommel, these armored units were to take advantage of the protection of night, advance to the vicinity of Caen, and then the main force would wait for concealment near Caen, and wait until the next day, when it was nightfall, they would again advance towards Normandy, and at dawn the next day they would attack the British occupying the beach.

It was the first time in Marshal Rommel's life that he commanded so many armored units. Before that, there had never been so many tanks in his command in North Africa. It was also the first time that he had more tanks than the enemy on the opposite side, and before that, he always had only a fraction of the tanks in his hands. In the past, even if the enemy had several times more tanks than him, he could still beat the enemy to pieces. But now, he has no confidence in the future battle. This is because the opponent's air superiority is so great that it will make him lose confidence. In his hands, there were only 450 aircraft, although this number was already a lot larger than when he was in North Africa, but the combat aircraft of the enemy on the opposite side were at least thirty times more than his. He knew that if an attack were launched during the day, Allied bombers would be able to easily crush his armored division to pieces

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"Our air umbrella is subject to the weather, as well as the lighting. In the former, the key depends on whether God must test us, as for the latter. It's not like we're out of the question. Ron continued to speak at the military meeting, "If I were a German, I would definitely take advantage of the night march and then launch a surprise attack on the beach at dawn when the sun was just rising." At this time, they can become entangled with our army with only one shock, which will bring great difficulties to our air strike.

Therefore, I think we should be prepared at night like this:

First, we need to use night bombers to constantly bomb along the road to Caen, destroy road facilities, and drop time bombs to slow down the enemy's march at night.

Secondly, our Mosquito bombers, which can fly along the road, drop one or two flares from time to time. It is believed that this will also greatly reduce the speed of the enemy's maneuver.

In this way, as long as the Germans maneuvered at a reduced speed, it would be difficult for them to reach the predetermined concealment on time, and after dawn our attack aircraft would be able to blow them all into scrap metal. ”

"Excellent! Very good! Field Marshal Ted, deputy commander of the Allied forces, was the first to applaud, and everyone applauded.

"Your thoughts are similar to ours. In fact, our night bombers have already been sent. It's just that they didn't carry the time bomb you mentioned. Well, time bombs are a good idea, once they are dropped, they will explode from time to time, threatening all targets that pass through here, and it will take time to eliminate them. The most important thing the Germans are now lacking is time. Turner laughed, "They'll see it tomorrow night." ”

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Wittmann's tank was moving forward with its lights turned off, following the tank in front of him. The railway to the target has been completely blown up, and the road is full of craters, large and small, so that the tanks cannot be towed by trailers, but have to rely on their own engines, wasting precious motorcycle hours, moving forward on their own. Because the lights are turned off, the road ahead is completely invisible through the periscope. So the driver can only open the hatch and drive with his head exposed. This also made it necessary for the driver to constantly eat the dust raised by the tank in front of him. Although he was wearing a mask, Wittman was sure that after walking all night like this, when he arrived at the place, the guy could pour at least half a pound of loess out of his mouth and nose. What's worse is that the guy can't even put on goggles in order to see ahead, and Wittman is sure that the poor guy must be in tears by now.

Wittmann himself showed half of his body on the turret. He's in a higher position, so there's a little less dust blowing into him. Wittmann did this because it was more comfortable than being stuffed in a tank, although the Tiger tank with a double row of load-bearing wheels was far more comfortable than the No. 4 tank, and the 50-ton monster was more comfortable like a sedan than the T34 tanks of the Soviets that were previously familiar. But in any case, a tank is a tank after all, and staying in it, for a long time, is still uncomfortable. Second, Wittmann is also to make it easier to monitor the situation in the sky.

At this time, the roar of bomber engines was heard from the distant sky. Wittmann doesn't remember that this was the first batch of bombers encountered tonight, anyway, there were so many bombers in the United States and Britain that they were like locusts. Wittmann knew that the bombers were here to bomb the road again. In such a dark night, when there was no moon, the bombers could not detect them. These bombers are just bombing blindly against the map. Just twenty minutes earlier, a group of bombers had dropped bombs far behind them.

All the tanks immediately drove off the road, then quickly turned off their engines and stopped. Wittmann and his crew immediately jumped out of the car and quickly pulled a camouflage net for their Tiger tank. A few minutes later, a Mosquito bomber flying in front first dropped a barrage of flares. However, the brightness of these flares was still much worse than that of the sun, and they were still at least five or six hundred meters away, which was not enough for the bomber pilots to identify the tanks near the road that were covered with camouflage nets.

However, the target of the British was not German tanks in the first place, their target was only the road. Not long after the Mosquito bombers dropped flares, a large number of bombs fell on the road in front of the Germans.

"Damn! The road ahead is becoming more and more difficult to walk. The driver scolded.

The degree of jīng dropped by horizontal bombers has always been low. Although the British bombed the road about five or six hundred meters in front, it was entirely possible that the indiscriminate bombs would fly a few hundred meters away and explode into the tank group next to the road. This can only be a matter of luck. Just now, Wittman saw a string of disposed bombs fly into the queue of the first few No. 4 tanks. These tanks of more than 20 tons were so vulnerable to the attack of powerful aerial bombs that a No. 4 tank was lifted up by a bomb that fell two meters away from it, flipped over in the air, and then the turret was pointed down and slapped on the ground. Another tank was even more tragic, a bomb weighing at least 500 pounds hit it directly, and it was reduced to parts on the spot, the largest of which was a turret, which flew straight away, flew several tens of meters, and then landed less than 20 meters away from Weitmann with a bang.

This mistake by the British cost the Germans four tanks. Three of them were Type 4H and one was a more advanced Leopard. This loss was not great for the Germans, in fact, the number of tanks abandoned on the road due to various breakdowns during long motorized maneuvers was much higher. But a series of such bombings had far more serious consequences: a delay in time. At the current pace of the march, it is almost impossible to reach the preset hidden standby location before dawn. And all of them know. If, by daybreak, the armored units were still marching on the road unobstructed, what kind of blow would they have suffered?

In order to arrive at the destination in time, after the enemy plane disappeared, a new order was issued: the tank unit turned on its headlights, moved as fast as possible, and rushed to the hiding point.

Wittmann's Tiger tank turned on its headlights, and the vehicle sped up at high speed of about 30 kilometers on a potholed road.

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Before dawn, the attack aircraft group of the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing was already ready on the airfield. Their mission was to search for and eliminate possible German armoured units in the vicinity of Caen. At 4 a.m., the first batch of twelve P/A38s took off. A few minutes later, a second batch of P/A38s also began to take off. These P/A38s are loadouts arranged according to the most typical anti-tank missions. They each had two 37-mm cannon pods under their wings and a cluster bomb containing 50 small bombs under their belly. These small bombs all used a hollow charge, which, as long as they hit, could penetrate the top armor of a heavy tank.

At 5:15, the group arrived near Caen and began to search for targets along several roads.

In the final desperate run last night, some of the tanks made it to their destination, while others were left behind. Their establishment is also completely out of order. There were also some tanks, which broke down on the march and were thrown on the side of the road. Arthur searched as he flew along the road from Caen to Falais. Soon, the first team of victims appeared in front of him.

It was a dozen or so tanks and vehicles that had been left behind, tanks, assault guns, and trucks. Arthur aimed his nose at the convoy and rushed straight over. When the Germans spotted Arthur and them, they immediately became a mess, and they drove off the road, as if trying to disperse and flee.

Arthur dropped the cluster bomb on the belly first. The bomb exploded at a height of less than 100 meters above the ground, dropping 50 small bombs inside at once. The wingman who followed Arthur also dropped the bomb. 100 small bombs covered two tanks and two Opel trucks. Arthur pulled up the plane after dropping the bomb, and when he turned around, he saw the small bombs exploding, a Leopard tank, a No. 4H tank, and the two Opels.

There was also a Leopard tank in the convoy, which increased its throttle and tried to escape. But with a puff of black smoke rising from the exhaust pipe, the tank actually stopped: it seemed to be out of order.

Can such a dead tiger not be fought? Arthur swooped over, aimed at its chrysanthemum, and the three 37mm guns were in unison, and the tank smoked out, and then the tank door opened, and a German soldier covered in fire jumped out of the tank, rolling all over the ground.

As Arthur attacked the tank, his wingman was eyeing a Rhino self-propelled anti-tank gun. Compared to leopards, rhinos are much easier to fight. This self-propelled anti-tank gun uses an open fighting compartment. There's not even a canopy on top. Against such a target, even 37 guns will not be needed. Directly hit a shuttle with a 20-mm gun, and this self-propelled anti-tank gun was finished. The remaining Opel trucks were also in danger, and after those high-value targets were eliminated, they became the targets of a second round of attacks.