It was not only the British who made a mistake in this operation, but also the Americans. Baidu search: Reading novels // For example, when airdropping supplies, because there are too many departments that need to be replenished, there are all kinds of materials that need to be airdropped, so, well, it's not too surprising to make mistakes occasionally. Now, for example, the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division, which was guarding the bridge, got their new supplies - Coca-Cola + Spam + chocolate.

If these things were issued to the lads of the 82 Airborne Division in France, they would have been very happy, because, after several years of war, the standard of living of Europeans was already a mess. In France, all it takes is a piece of chocolate, or a jar of spam, which all the Yankees hate, to have some romantic story with a beautiful French girl. Now, however, the Germans on the other side, though as poor as the French girls, would not line up to surrender to the Americans just because they had spam or chocolate. They'll just scream and pounce, kill the Yankees, and then feast on the looted Spam. Now, what the boys of the 82nd Division need most are mines, barbed wire, and anti-tank guns.

"Damn it! Send a message to those fools and tell them to get us something useful before it gets dark! "Camp Commander Rumas's face turned green.

With its strong industrial capacity, the Allies were quite extravagant in terms of supplies, and any supplies were backed up in Britain. However, the transportation capacity is a bottleneck, in one day, so many troops and so many supplies have to be airdropped, which almost occupies the capacity of the transport aircraft department. Therefore, once such a mistake is made, it is easy to disrupt the mission rhythm of the transport aircraft unit if it is immediately reissued.

Fortunately, when studying the battle plan, at Ron's suggestion, the Allies still made preparations for such a situation. In addition to transport aircraft, the Allies had a large number of bombers. Although these bombers cannot be used to airdrop paratroopers, and because of the limitations of the magazine, they cannot carry some large items, such as jeeps or anything, but they are not a problem to use them for airdropping ordinary weapons and ammunition. Even something like the M1 57mm anti-tank gun could be dismantled, repackaged, and then airdropped using the oversized magazines of the British's Lancaster bombers.

……

Sergeant Dulles, a scout of the German Waffen-SS, was ordered to take his squad to reconnoiter the situation of the American paratroopers who had occupied the bridge over the Nijmegen highway at noon and to prepare for a counteroffensive at night.

This task is a bit difficult. Because of the strength of the US military, the area controlled by the two ends of the bridge is not too large. This would have given the scout a great degree of zìyou. However, the area was all plains, and the only commanding height, a hill less than 100 meters high, was also under the control of the American army, which made it difficult for the German scouts to find a position where they could see the depth of the American position.

Dulles cautiously leaned towards the bridge from a field of sunflowers, which was large and had a lot of sunflower in it, which could provide them with good cover. The edge of the field is only a little more than a kilometer from the bridgehead, and it is even closer to the position that the American army is building, and although it is still impossible to see the whole picture of the American position, it can at least be seen more clearly.

The U.S. military was obviously aware of the danger of this large area of sunflower fields, so Dulles found that the U.S. military had a lot of machine guns on this side. However, Dulles also discovered something that struck him as strange: there was no barbed wire on the positions of the American troops. In addition, no matter how carefully Dulles observed, he did not find any anti-tank guns of the American army.

"Maybe the US army does not have anti-tank guns? They are only going to rely on Bazooka against tanks? Dulles thought. The American Bazooka was significantly superior to the German "Iron Fist" in shè, but its power was very questionable. The armor-piercing depth of 112 mm theoretically had a chance to penetrate the 110-mm thick armor plates of the Tiger tank from the front. But in fact, due to uncertain factors such as the angle of hit and the detonation distance, it is almost impossible for this rocket to penetrate the Tiger or Leopard tank from the front. Of course, the U.S. anti-tank guns could not penetrate the front of the Tiger and Leopard tanks, but at least they could fire at the tanks from a greater distance, rather than within 30 yards like Bazooka.

"The Americans don't seem to be ready." Thinking so, Dulles gestured to his comrades behind him and cautiously crept back. He felt that he had seen everything he could see, and that it was time to go back.

At this moment, the sound of aircraft engines came from the sky, and it was audible that it was a large group of planes.

"Are there any new enemy reinforcements?" Dulles stopped retreating and climbed back into the same observation position he had just taken. The location was hidden behind some long thatch.

This time it was not the transport group that Dulles imagined in the sky, but a group of Lancaster heavy bombers. The four-engine bombers began to lower their altitude, all the way down to about 500 meters, which allowed Dulles to clearly see the bombers' open magazines.

"What are they going to do?" Dulles thought.

A series of parachutes fell to the ground. One of the long things floated all the way towards Dulles, and landed a little behind Dulles.

"Damn! This thing is going to attract the Yankees. Dulles immediately fell to the ground and crawled backwards. At the same time, he also grabbed the STG-44 assault rifle in his hand. He did not dare to retreat too quickly, so that he would be easily detected by the Americans, and just 400 meters away from him, there were two M-2 large-caliber machine guns.

At this time, Dulles saw that ten American soldiers had already run towards this direction. It seems that the Americans knew that this area of sunflower could be dangerous, so the ten American soldiers were all deployed in a straggler formation, and the M1 semi-automatic rifle was also held in the hand rather than on the back. In addition, through the telescope, Dulles also saw that the machine gunners of the two M-2 machine guns were also ready to fire.

Dulles knows that the more dangerous it is, the more calm it is. The enemy was still more than a hundred meters away from him, and they were not walking fast. The American soldiers divided into two groups and covered each other to leap forward. Dulles estimated that by the time they reached their position, they should have been able to retreat into the depths of the sunflower field. By that time, the M-2 machine gun, which was the most dangerous to him by the enemy, would not come in handy.

Without thinking about the mission, Dulles even wanted to ambush the Yankees in this field of sunflowers. Here, everyone's field of vision is very limited, and the distance from which they can see is very small. Although there were only 5 people on his side, relying on the powerful firepower of the STG-44 assault rifle and the advantage of ambushes, Dulles was confident that he would completely annihilate these Yankees. What the? Mortars and M2 machine guns for the Americans? There is really no need to think about this, because Xiang Rì Aoi will block their view, and they will kill their own people if they fire blindly.

Dulles had now retreated to the side of the falling thing. Now the dense Xiang Rì Aoi had completely blocked him, and his few comrades-in-arms behind him were already checking that thing.

"What is this?" Dulles asked, in a suppressed voice.

"Judging by the size and weight, it should be the barrel of an anti-tank gun." One soldier replied in a low voice that he had not used his dagger to cut through the canvas package outside without Dulles' permission.

"Take a look at the opening, move quickly." It is quite normal for items to tear the canvas wrapper a little during landing.

The soldier pulled out his dagger, made a cut in the canvas, smeared some dirt on the scratch, and sprinkled a little into the package.

"It's the barrel of a 57-mm anti-tank gun." Dulles glanced at it, nodded and said. Now he can be sure that the enemy will definitely have anti-tank guns in his hands.

"Alright, let's go, the Americans are coming. Clean up the traces and don't let them find out. We'll be back later. Dulles said.

A few soldiers carefully wiped off their tracks, and then disappeared into the jungle of Xiang Rì Aoi.

……

More than ten minutes later, Dulles once again appeared at the front of the American position with the scouts, but this time, he changed his position slightly. Because he couldn't be sure if the Americans had found any traces they had left behind.

This time, Dulles saw that there was a noticeable change in the position of the US military, the outermost layer of snake-bellied barbed wire had been pulled up, and more snake-bellied barbed wire was also being assumed. The snake-bellied barbed wire fence is easy to erect, especially suitable for situations like the current need to quickly erect barbed wire.

In addition, Dulles saw that some Americans were busy laying mines on the front line. Those that can only be carried one at a time, like a large round cake, are anti-tank mines, and those that can be carried in a large bag by one person are the most hated anti-infantry mines by the infantrymen.

Dulles knew that the Americans' anti-infantry mines were the most dangerous. It had a pitifully small charge, just enough to blow off the soles of the feet. Unless you fall and drop your head on a mine, the mine will never kill you. But on the battlefield, wounded and disabled comrades-in-arms are much more troublesome than dead comrades. When a teammate dies in battle, you can shout: "Brothers, avenge **!" "Maybe it's going to boost morale. But if everywhere there is a shout: "Medic, help me!" "That's completely different, not to mention that in order to send these wounded down, you also have to get at least two healthy fighters who can be used for combat off the battlefield at a critical moment. And the return of those wounded will put more pressure on logistics, and he will never return to the battlefield.

Dulles quietly pulled out a small notebook and sat down in one place with a marker: a minefield.

At this time, the sound of the engines of airplanes was heard in the sky again.

"It's going to get dark soon, do they have anything else to send over at this time?" Dulles thought as he looked up at the sky. He soon discovered that this time it was not a transport plane or a heavy bomber like the Lancaster, but a group of P/A-38 attack aircraft.

A leading P/A-38 attack aircraft swooped down on the field and dropped a bomb.

"They found us? How is this possible? It is impossible to spot us on the plane. And if the guys on land had spotted us, they would have hit us directly with M2 machine guns or mortars. ”

The bomb landed on the ground and immediately pulled out a wall of flames nearly 100 meters long.

"Napalm!" Dulles immediately understood that the Americans were not worried about this nearby cornfield and simply let the planes drop incendiary bombs. Once the fire is burned, there is no need to worry about the Germans.

Although the incendiary bomb was not aimed at Dulles, Dulles knew that if he didn't run quickly, he would definitely be burned to death. So he could no longer care about the enemy's M2 machine guns and mortars. He leapt to the ground, then turned and ran off into the distance.