Through the thick iron doors of the bomb shelter, Wittmann could still feel the vibrations from above. With this tremor, wisps of dust fell from the top of the reinforced concrete bomb shelter, and the bomb shelter was filled with the smell of dust. The dugout itself had an exhaust system, however, this system was not opened. Instead, all the vents were tightly closed. When the Allies landed the day before yesterday, they dropped a bomb of incredible power. The bombs were filmed by the Germans and sent to the German research institute for study. According to the inferences of German scientists, the bomb was actually an aerosol bomb that threw out a large amount of combustible aerosols in the first explosion, which would enter the fortifications with the air and then explode. So if you want to defend against such bombs, you have to keep them airtight, and when bombed, not a bit of outside air can let them in.

At the same time, German weapons experts also told that the bomb consumes oxygen when it explodes. Therefore, after the explosion is over, the explosion area will be in a state of hypoxia for a considerable period of time. Therefore, the personnel inside the fortification also need to prepare oxygen. And this jǐng proclamation was also verified when the Allied forces landed. The fact that the British and Americans did not use chemical protective clothing when they entered the blast area, and that some counteroffensive units wearing chemical protective clothing lost their combat effectiveness in a very short time after entering the explosion area, is the most powerful proof of this inference

So, now hiding in the bomb shelters, the German armored soldiers have a small oxygen cylinder with them. However, there is no lack of oxygen in the bomb shelter yet, so no one uses this thing. Everyone just raised their heads and looked at the roof of the cave, feeling the constant vibrations coming from outside.

The shock from the explosion gradually faded away, but it was not possible to get out yet. Because there may also be a severe lack of oxygen outside. According to the calculations of those weapons experts, this lack of oxygen could last almost twenty minutes. Therefore, everyone still has to stay in the bomb shelter honestly.

"Hey, what kind of battle is this!" Being locked up in a confined space, people's emotions are particularly prone to fluctuations, so it is natural to get imprisoned.

"Did any of you ever fight like this?" The man who had just said that he was alive continued, "All actions can only be done at night, and during the day, if you want to survive, you have to go to a hole in the ground. We've all become rats. ”

"Even if you move at night, you have been bombed all night!" The other said, "What's the matter?" I've been bombed all the way, and now I'm being bombed again! Both Yankee and British bombs grew from trees? Such a moneyless litter! ”

"What about our Air Force? They just watched us being bombed? Don't they have a whole bunch of aces who shot down two or three hundred? What are they doing? Another person spoke.

"You're stupid! Still counting on the Air Force? ”

"It's not a supplementary soldier, why are you still so naïve?"

"Expect those who fly in the sky to fight for those of us who crawl on the earth? Did you wake up? ”

"That's it, except for a time when they were quite tough in the Kuban, they are the fastest at all times."

Wittmann knew that the Luftwaffe did not have a good reputation here in the Army. Because the Air Force always likes to blow the cowhide loudly, and once they are at a disadvantage, they always run faster than the Army. Plus, well, I'm not afraid of not knowing the goods, I'm afraid of comparing goods. Army soldiers have seen more than once how the Soviets' air force fought. His attack planes had never seen that the opponent had more fighters than escort planes, so they casually dropped their bombs and returned home. On the contrary, even if there are no escort aircraft, they will force an attack on the target under artillery fire. Even, many Soviet planes that were hit and caught fire would even hit ground targets directly with flames. The Luftwaffe had never done that.

But it is not good for such conversations to continue, and it will lower the morale of the soldiers. So Wittman stepped up.

"The gap between the Air Force and the enemy in terms of strength is too great, they only have a total of 450 aircraft, and most of the pilots are rookies among rookies. And our enemy has tens of thousands of aircraft, and the pilots are also experienced guys. To tell the truth, if our air force rushes out, the enemy will be able to wipe them out in less than a morning. Still, as far as I know, when we attack, they're going to strike hard. Just like in the Kuban. ”

"Really?" Someone asked.

"Really!" Wittman replied.

"Well, if they can hold out for an hour, we'll be able to drive all those Brits into the sea."

"By the way, there is one thing I still want to remind everyone." Wittmann said, "There was a British fleet near the beachhead. Watch out for their naval guns. ”

By this time, it had been almost twenty-five minutes since the bombing was over. The air inside the bomb shelter was getting muddy. "When the time comes, let's go out and have a look, and hopefully we won't lose too much," Wittman said. ”

Everyone opened the closed iron door of the bomb shelter and walked out.

The scene outside is like the surface of the moon seen through a telescope. There are craters all over the place. Some of the trees that had been blown off by the bombs were lying there, still emitting wisps of green smoke. But the most important concern is the situation of the tanks.

Part of the tank group hidden in the woods was bombed. However, only one unlucky Type IV H tank was directly hit by an aerial bomb. The tank was basically blown to pieces, and it was probably useless except to be refurnace as scrap steel. Some of the remaining tanks, although not blown to shreds like that, are still far from intact.

The least damaged was Wittmann's Tiger tank. An aerial bomb that exploded more than ten meters from the tank broke its right track, and also damaged two load wheels. A little further away from Wittman's tank, one of Powell's Leopards flipped on its side. The tankman went in and looked at it, and then said that this thing should be righted and repaired a little, and it should be fine. However, it is not easy to straighten this guy of more than 40 tons, because the rescue tank in charge of this work has also been overturned.

After a period of statistics, the losses were identified. At this assembly point, a total of twelve tanks were unable to participate in the assault at dawn the next day due to various damages. The situation in other areas is unclear, but at least one assembly point was also hit by air strikes.

……

"The intensity of the enemy's attack on Caen today has been significantly reduced, and our scouts have found that the enemy is laying mines along the road, and several assembly points have been bombed or shelled, and the enemy has almost bombed the woodland near them."

"So the British may have realized the danger." Field Marshal Rommel thought to himself, "If only the tank units hadn't been deployed so far away in the beginning." That way you won't suffer such a big loss before launching a surprise attack. After this series of air raids, the structure of many units was about to be thrown into disarray. ”

But now, the assault is already ready to be launched. Rommel decided that he would go to the troops as usual to look at them and cheer them up. "Success or failure depends on the assault in the early hours of tomorrow morning!" He thought so.

Rommel chose to go to the troops this time in an ordinary barrel car. The Mercedes-Benz sedan that was given to him was so conspicuous that in today's situation of complete air supremacy, traveling in that car was simply sending a message to the opposing pilots or enemy paratroopers operating nearby, "Come and shoot me, I'm very important." "Rommel didn't want to be killed by the stragglers in his own zone of control, like Vatutin. Also in his fleet was a half-tracked self-propelled 20-aircraft gun, an SDKFZ234/2 "PUMA" 8-wheeled wheeled armored vehicle with a 50-mm gun, 3 Opel trucks, and two BMW motorcycles. This is enough to deal with enemy paratroopers that may be encountered. There is also an Opel sedan in the convoy, and its presence can definitely guarantee that Rommel's barrel car will not become the target of the first priority.

Around 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the sun was about to set, and Rommel's convoy set off.

……

Boynton had been in the sky for two hours with his wingman. But he still managed not to encounter a single German plane.

"Damn it! I knew that maybe I should change to a P/A38. In this way, there is no need to maintain such a height to perform the jǐng ring task, and you can go down to find trouble with the Germans on the ground. "The P/A38 in the airspace he was responsible for had gone back because of a lack of fuel. It's already 6 o'clock in the afternoon, so there will be no new attack planes coming over for a safari. Boynton looked at his gas gauge and saw that he had plenty of fuel.

"Why don't we make a cameo appearance as an attack plane, go down for a spin, and then go back when it's all dark?" Boynton said like a wingman.

"Yes, sir! You're too wise. Seriously, the air supremacy mission is so boring that I'm going to fall asleep. ”

As a result, the four P81 fighters began to rapidly reduce their altitude.

After flying along the kilometer for a while, the sky became darker and darker. Boynton still didn't meet any targets.

"After another five minutes along this road, we'll climb up and head back." Boynton said, shaking his head.

Just then, a convoy appeared in front of them.

"Target found!" Boynton shouted, pulling the cāo pole and starting to climb a little higher, keeping a good view of the convoy.

"Two armored vehicles, one of which is a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, and a small car! Maybe a big fish!. I attack self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, 02 attacks another armored car, 03 attacks sedans, 04 attacks trucks! Boynton gave the order, and then took the lead in swooping towards the convoy.