On June 19, 1944, the day the U.S. Army successfully cut off the Cotentan Peninsula and made Cherbourg a completely isolated city, storm season finally arrived. Visit to download txt novel // Gale winds up to level 8 howled across the strait, setting off waves several meters high. This is truly a disaster for the ships that are operating in the strait.

Originally a sailor on a shrimp fishing boat in Florida, Jim joined the Navy when the war began, becoming a sailor on a tank landing ship. Early in the morning, the navy had already received a notice that there would be a gale. So all the ships that were supposed to leave for England and bring more supplies were grounded, and the same was true of Jim's tank landing ship. All the ships stopped as far as possible to anchor in sheltered places, of course, there were not many such places, and even not many places that were really suitable for anchoring. Therefore, some ships that are not very important can only be docked in the more dangerous open seas.

Jim's tank landing ship is unfortunately among the less important ones. In order to avoid danger, the personnel of the tank landing ship all left the ship and went to land. As for the poor ship, it was left to fate.

In the morning, the wind was stronger, the waves were getting stronger, and the crests of the waves began to foam more and more. Jim stayed in a bunker left behind by the Germans, from where he could look out over the Strait. He saw that the boat he was in was swaying in the wind and waves. If it weren't for the anchor chain holding it tightly, it wouldn't know where it would have drifted.

However, as the wind and waves increased, the situation of the boat became more and more troublesome, and after a big wave, Jim saw that the boat seemed to be moving backwards for a while.

"Oh no, it's anchored!" Jim couldn't help but scream.

The so-called anchor refers to the anchor's grip is not enough, when the sum of the external forces such as the wind flow of the ship is greater than the grip generated by the anchor and the anchor chain, the anchor will move on the seabed, the anchor of the ship has not played a fixed role on the ship, the position of the ship will also move, and the ship will drift with the wind and move in the sea. It is not surprising that the seabed near Normandy is not particularly suitable for anchoring.

Ship anchoring often leads to major accidents such as ship grounding and collision with other ships. And now, in the downwind direction of that boat, there are several boats, and if you don't say it's good, there will be a collision accident. But now there is no one on board, so it is impossible to do anything to remedy it. Everything is left to fate.

The speed of the boat's movement gradually increased, and at this time, perhaps the iron anchor suddenly hooked something on the bottom of the sea, the boat slammed, and the bow of the ship also sank towards the sea, and a large wave rushed directly to the bow.

"Oops, the anchor chain is breaking!" At Jim's side, another sailor, Romney, made such a judgment.

As he had expected, the bow of the ship jerked upward, leaving the bow almost entirely out of the sea, revealing a red rust-proof coating, and the stern sinking deep into the water. Then the boat drifted along the direction of the wind, and the speed became faster and faster.

"It's going to crash!" Jim could barely look at it anymore.

Just as he expected, the tank landing ship slammed its ass into the bow of a transport ship, and then the two boats drifted down the wind together.

"The stern is flooded! You see the hull is a little slanted. ”

"No salvation!"

"Damn, those boats are going towards Mulberry!"

The Mulberry Harbor was the most critical thing in the whole of Normandy, and most of the supplies needed by the landing force were brought ashore through it.

"The structure of the Mulberry A artificial harbor is very strong, so it should be fine." One person said.

"I hope so, I dare say, there is absolutely no problem with such a ship crashing into it. You haven't seen how big those caissons are, how thick the steel structure is under those floating docks! But today, such storms ...... God bless America. ”

The two boats slammed into the floating dock of the Mulberry A artificial harbor, and the pier shook a little, and then the whole thing scattered. The steel tanks that were floating on the water slammed into the nearby docks......

……

Later that day, Ron received such an order. This order demanded that the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing temporarily cease its attack in the direction of Cherbourg and divert all its striking forces to attack the road system from Germany to France.

"How could such an order come suddenly?" Ron wondered, wasn't this a job that the Eighth Air Force was busy doing right now? So I continued to look down. In the briefing that accompanied the order, he learned something about it.

In the storm, the Mulberry A artificial harbor was badly broken. The floating dock disintegrated, the caissons broke, and the cruciform steel pieces collided with each other and were severely damaged. It's almost like being destroyed. And the Mulberry B artificial port on the British side has escaped a difficult situation because of the better sea-based structure, and the loss is not large, but the throughput capacity in the short term will also be reduced.

At the landing beachhead, the Allies had a total of 7 tank landing ships, 1 large personnel landing ship, 1 oil tanker, 3 barges, 7 trawlers, 67 landing craft sunk by strong winds, 1 cruiser and 1 ferry ship damaged by collision with each other, and some ships were injured by the detonation of hydraulic mines laid by the Germans due to rough winds and waves. The storm also threw nearly 800 ships onto land. Judging by the current situation, the unloading work may have to be stopped for at least 4 to 5 days.

Seeing this, Ron immediately understood the dangerous situation of the Allies right now. The supply of all the landing forces was almost cut off. If at this time, the Germans launched a counterattack again, it is really difficult to say whether the Allied forces, which had lost their supplies, would still have the strength to withstand the German attack, or how much it would cost to withstand such an attack.

"Fortunately, the Germans have also suffered heavy losses in the military forces nearby, and I am afraid that they will not have the strength to launch a large-scale attack." Ron thought to himself, with some glad he could. But he immediately saw such information again.

On the basis of aerial reconnaissance and other intelligence, the Germans had transferred the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions, which had just been withdrawn from the Soviet battlefield and were preparing to use them in the Normandy theater.

To be honest, these two panzer divisions are still not comparable with ace units such as the SS Bannerguard, Reich, Skeleton, Viking. But you must know that there is really nothing too bad in the top 10 divisions of the Waffen-SS. If it weren't for this storm, Ron wouldn't have worried about what the two Panzer Divisions would have done, and with the Allies' overwhelming material strength, let alone just two second-rate SS Panzer Divisions. Last time, the Allies had withstood the attacks of the Imperial Division and the Flag Guard Division, and now, after so many days, more troops have landed on the European continent, and the range of the beachhead is constantly expanding.

But now it is really difficult to say, after the loss of the port, if the Allied forces who are short of supplies are caught by the enemy's armored forces, the result can be quite tragic.

Now Ron immediately understood the meaning of the order, which was to use air superiority to prevent the enemy from transporting troops through the road system to Normandy, which was the most important thing now.

After silently reading all the information, Ron said to Scott, "Scott, you go and get ready, and notify all officers above the squadron to convene an emergency meeting." ”

"Okay, General!" Scott saluted him and walked out.

……

From this day on, in the northern part of the Normandy Peninsula, you will hardly see the Allied combat planes that were always visible. The pace of advance of the US ground forces has also slowed down significantly. And in the skies over the road and rail lines from Germany to France, the number of combat aircraft increased dramatically.

The bombers of the Eighth Air Force bombed almost every road, railway, and bridge they could see, but to be honest, their heavy bombers were really not generally inefficient when they hit point targets such as bridges. For example, a railway bridge west of Paris, the B-17s blew it up five or six times before they could actually blow it up. Bridges, whether road or railroad, once destroyed, would be repaired much slower than other targets, and it was clear that attacking them was the most effective means of delaying the Germans.

To carry out the blockade mission, the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing received additional attack aircraft, first of all, AC-47 attack aircraft. The pilots needed for this kind of aircraft can directly call in the pilots of transport aircraft of other units, and there are many candidates such as gunners in the Eighth Air Force. The day after Ron received the order to block the road, six more converted AC-47s were sent to the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing. Their presence made it almost impossible for the Germans to move during the day.

But at night, the weakness of the AC-47 became very apparent. Such aircraft are not capable of self-defense. During the day this problem was not obvious, because the fighters of the Germans had long been beaten stupid. But at night, the problem arose, the night fighters of the Germans were quite active. It would be a dead end for something like the AC-47 to meet the night fighters of the Germans. Moreover, they also do not have the ability to attack and destroy bridges. However, the arrival of another batch of aircraft changed the situation. This aircraft is the P/A-47 attack aircraft, which is a modification of the P-47.

Although this aircraft is not an authentic dive bomber, it has also been modified to have the ability to dive and drop bombs at large angles. On June 22, the first batch of 6 P/A-47s was handed over to Ron along with the pilots.