It was a Mosquito night fighter of the British Royal Air Force that shot down the German night fighter, and after shooting down the German Bf-110 night fighter, the Mosquito night fighter spun over the battlefield, and apparently, the burning train below also attracted it. High-speed updates //

By this time, the remaining U.S. B-25 bombers had entered the attack route and began to drop bombs. The bombs eventually tore the train to shreds. It can be regarded as the end of this night's confrontation.

The next day was a sunny day, and if some time ago, the group of the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing must have begun to take off before dawn, and by the time the sun rose, most of the combat planes had already flown out. Now, it was already eight o'clock in the morning, but most of the combat planes of the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing were still parked on the ground, and the ground crew was unhurriedly inspecting and maintaining those planes, while most of the pilots were reading magazines and playing poker in the pilots' club.

However, Caen Airport is still very busy, with planes taking off and landing constantly, almost non-stop. And near the airport, there are also planes constantly circling, waiting for the command to land.

A large number of C-47 and C-54 transport planes landed on the runway one after the other and then taxied to the tarmac to a halt. A large group of ground workers swarmed up, unloading the unloading, inspecting the aircraft for inspection. In a short time, the cargo on the transport plane was emptied, and the supplies - fuel, weapons, ammunition, medicines, food, Coca-Cola, and all sorts of other things - were unloaded in sorts and then lifted by a crane onto the Dodge 10** truck, which had been waiting in line there for a long time. The trucks picked up the supplies, drove out of the airport, and sped off in different directions.

And the transporters, who had already emptied their cargo, barely stayed for a moment, immediately started their engines, taxied along the taxiway to the end of the runway, and then quickly took off. Both main runways are now so busy that transport planes returning with empty loads can only be arranged to take off on the dirt runways on both sides of the main runway.

Anyone who sees such a scene will naturally know that a large-scale attack is about to begin. If at this time there were so many German planes flying over this airfield, the various planes that were parked on the tarmac would have been worried about which target to attack, and how many targets they had carried more than they carried. Of course, it was impossible for the German planes to fly here, in fact, in the immediate area, the planes of those airfields of the Germans hardly took off during the day, because from dawn there were always American P-51 fighters that did not want to go around there. Almost any plane that dared to take off was beaten by the Americans and beaten to pigs' heads.

The port of Cherbourg was completely destroyed, although the Allies showed what seemed to them to be an engineering prowess, and it took only a week to make the port workable - a speed that almost dared the Germans to destroy it. But being usable is not the same as being fully recovered. It will not be a short time before the port is fully restored.

The two "mulberry" artificial harbors on the Normandy beachhead, the one in the United States that was badly damaged in the storm, have now recovered somewhat, but they are still out of use as soon as there is a little bit of wind and waves. The one on the British side is still in good condition, but this kind of artificial harbor will quickly reduce its efficiency in the event of wind and waves. Relying on these two ports, it would have taken much longer to prepare enough supplies for a large-scale assault, which would have given the Germans more time to fill the gap. In order to increase the speed of material delivery, almost all existing airfields on the European continent under Allied control were turned into airfields for transport aircraft, and other aircraft were basically unable to take off and land.

Caen Airport was no exception, and yesterday evening a team of experts flew to the airport and immediately took full control of the airport from Ron during the day and control of all runways except for a spare dirt runway at night.

The leader of the group was an airline expert in airport dispatch before the war, and many of his team members were not active military until now. Under the dispatch of his team, this airport suddenly burst out with an amazing throughput capacity, which made Ron, who was also used to seeing big scenes, a little dumbfounded, and also made him sigh: "The masters are really in the people." ”

But now, instead of staying in the tower and stealing the scheduling skills of others, Ron stayed in the war room with some command staff to discuss the gains and losses of yesterday's battle.

"Last night, we managed to find six targets and destroyed all six. This shows that even at night, our system of 'ground intelligence gathering, sending out aircraft, searching for targets, confirming targets, destroying targets' is quite effective. This model should be further promoted in the future......"

After talking about the achievements, it is natural to talk about the lessons learned. In fact, in the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing, the analysis of the successes of the enemy's tactics and its own shortcomings has always been the focus of such meetings.

"We are improving, but our enemies are not idiots, they are also improving. Last night, the progress of the Germans really scared me. Ron said, "Captain Prick, you participated in last night's operation, tell me about yesterday." ”

Prek stood up, nodded to everyone, and said, "Last night, my eyes were flashed by an exploding flashbang, and I couldn't see at all for a long time. It was only with the help of my backseat machine gunner Paul that I was able to barely get the plane to the vicinity of the airport. For more than an hour, I couldn't see anything, and had to rely on Paul to give me the numbers on the meters—poor Paul had to twist his body to see them, and his neck was still aching. It wasn't until I got close to the airport that my eyesight gradually regained – or I would have had to find a place to skydive. ”

"Very well, thank you for telling us about the situation." Ron motioned for Prick to sit down, and then added, "This trick of the Germans is quite effective, at least at night. So let's talk about it, what can we do to prevent it? ”

"The distance between us and the target is generally about two thousand meters, and it takes two to three seconds from the time the Germans fire their 88-millimeter-high guns to the time the shells explode." Mission Support Brigade Captain Clark?? "That's enough time for our pilots to close their eyes or put on their goggles." Pilots on night missions can be equipped with a bright light goggle that can be put on quickly. ”

"I feel that our AC-47 attack aircraft have more options. Our AC-47 has two pilots. Then when performing such tasks, at least when launching an attack, the co-pilot should first put on his goggles to ensure that he can continue to fly the fighter in the event that the captain is temporarily blind. In addition, pilots should be trained to adapt to flying under some completely blind conditions and by reporting instrument numbers from the back seat. The rear-seat machine gunners of the P/A-38 attack aircraft were also trained to report the instrument numbers. "The Boeing of the aviation brigade also gave his opinion.

"It would be nice if we had a weapon that was farther away, such as a weapon that could launch a relatively accurate attack from 3-5 kilometers away, so that we would have more time to react, and even after the enemy opened fire, we would have time to give him a guy first and then take defensive measures." Thomson, the captain of the maintenance brigade?? Lieutenant Colonel Baker always preferred to think in terms of equipment, "For example, as far as I know, the Germans even put 75 mm guns on the noses of bombers and used them to fight tanks. If the installation is the same, I think it would be fine to put an M1 75mm howitzer in the nose of an aircraft the size of the C-47. But it's really inconvenient to use this way. If I get a C-54, I think it should be fine to put it in the cabin and through the hatch. You might even be able to try a larger M2. ”

"That's a solution, but it's not just in front of you." "When it comes to enemy flashbangs, I think we should copy some of them and put them on our night planes," Boington said. If we are attacked by enemy night fighters, we will release one or two of them to blind the eyes of these Germans! ”

……

"Well, everyone's summary of yesterday's battle is quite comprehensive." Ron said, "Next, we're going to talk about what we're going to do......

Ron informs everyone in part that the Allies are about to launch a new round of large-scale offensive against the Germans. The news was completely expected. After all, just look out the window, look at the hectic airport, look at the long queue of Dodge trucks, and the fool knows that offensive action is imminent.

Strangely enough, however, most of the preparatory tasks assigned by Ron were such as assisting light infantry without any heavy equipment to defend against enemy armored forces, or supporting light infantry to capture enemy light infantry, or even point targets for armored defenses - when did the Allies degenerate to the point where they had to rely on light infantry to fight against other people's armored troops? Besides, the Allied infantry divisions are not called infantry divisions, but the armored forces attached to them are not much worse than the enemy's ordinary armored divisions. Don't......

After the meeting adjourned, Boington and Ron came out of the war room together. Several Dodge trucks were driving past them, and Ron saw the AA logo worn by the soldiers on the trucks with white letters on a blue background.

"of the 82nd Airborne Division." Boeington said, "...... Ron, do you know some of the details of that plan, like we're going to use the Airborne Forces on a large scale or something. ”

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