I have to say that half of the students of this batch of old birds are easy to teach, first of all, the psychological state of the old birds is more stable, even if they are beaten to the ground, there is no need to worry that they will collapse. And with them, it is much easier for rookies to adjust their mentality. And once the mentality is adjusted, the progress in learning will be quite obvious. The trainees' performance in confrontation training is getting better and better, for example, in the training of safari courses, rookies are now shot down much less often, and they can often hunt the "old foxes" of the "reverse cross". Two weeks later, the "Hunters", who had an overwhelming numerical advantage, finally leveled the exchange ratio.

In terms of ground attack, the progress of the cadets is also very obvious, they now have a clear understanding of the shooting characteristics of the enemy's various anti-aircraft guns, and even as long as they glance at them, they can immediately judge the type of anti-aircraft guns, and quickly make reasonable dodge actions that make it difficult for the anti-aircraft guns to aim, but do not consume too much energy and interfere with their own attacks on the target.

More than a month later, the new cadets finally ushered in their graduation exams, and a confrontation drill with a complex tactical background was about to begin.

The tactical background of this exercise is set as follows:

After landing on the French coast, American troops began to advance towards France and the borders of Belgium and the Netherlands. In order to encircle the enemy forces, the U.S. military sent airborne troops to occupy a vital railway bridge and a small town to the west of the bridge. But at this time, something unexpected happened to the American army, and a full armored division of the German Waffen-SS was stationed near this place. And in the previous reconnaissance, the Americans went and did not find them. Now about two regiments of airborne troops parachuted here will face attacks from an enemy several times their own, including an armored division!

The besieged paratroopers lacked heavy weapons, and although several M1 anti-tank guns of 57 mm caliber were urgently airdropped, the number of anti-tank guns or suppressed artillery was still seriously insufficient. The Germans had more than 100 suppressed guns of 75 mm caliber or more and more than 200 tanks and self-propelled guns. Among them are the powerful Tiger tank, the Panther tank and the Cheetah self-propelled anti-tank gun. The 57-mm anti-tank guns in the hands of the American paratroopers were difficult to destroy from the front, even with shell-piercing shells.

No other unit of the US military was able to rush to relieve the siege in a short time, and now only the Army Air Corps could save the situation. The task of the Army Aviation was to fully support the encircled paratroopers, providing them with fire support until the other relief troops arrived.

"The greatest threat to the ground forces of our army is, first of all, the suppressive artillery of enemy troops. The enemy had hundreds of various artillery pieces in their hands, among which also included some big guys of 6-inch caliber. The depth of our ground forces defense is very limited, all within the range of these artillery strikes, and due to the rush of time, our ground forces also lack sufficiently strong fortifications. If they were allowed to open fire, the Germans, even if they came, would be light infantry, and they might be able to push two paratrooper regiments in one morning. So, these artillery groups are our key targets. At the preparatory meeting, Scott was making mission arrangements for the trainees.

"In addition to artillery groups, enemy tanks, especially heavy tanks, are also targets that we must focus on. Our ground forces lack effective anti-tank weapons, and there is little effective against tanks, especially heavy tanks, except for laying mines and risking death with bazooka from the side. So anti-tank, this is basically completely dependent on us. In addition, the enemy may also be supported by a small number of fighters...... Now let's assign the tasks of each department......"

……

"Cagliari, look at the road at 3 o'clock!" Michel, the navigator of the B-25, shouted at the captain Cagliari.

Cagliari looked down to the right, where there was a quiet grove that seemed to be nothing. But the path outside the woods was almost completely turned over - the tracks of the armored troops.

Cagliari took his fleet around the woods: no traces were found as the armored units left when they left the woods. This means that this is most likely a staging point for enemy armored forces.

"Bring me the map!" Cagliari said.

"Okay," Michelle flipped through the map.

"From here, it's a distance of six kilometres to our defensive position, with a section in between that that passes through a large undulating area." Michel raised his head, "It's not impossible to start from here, but it will expose the armored forces to air strikes for a considerable period of time." So I think this forest is mostly a fake target......"

……

Sergeant Louis is fixing an inflatable model of an 88 mm gun on the gun emplacement. Next to this fake 88 gun, there is a large row of the same goods. In fact, there are so many fake targets like this that there are people on the students' side calling out. They say, could it be that the Germans were so well prepared in advance, even so many false targets?

If they see a target and attack it, whether it's true or not, the students will be exhausted, and they can't compare to those who blow up balloons. As the saying goes, what can be built is better than what can be fried, and what can be blown is not as good as what can be blown. The ability to identify false targets will largely determine success or failure.

However, as long as you fly low and observe carefully, the inflatable model is still easy to identify. For example, now, in a reconnaissance plane flying over the position, Pilot Cook made the following mark on the map: "False target! ”

Of course, strikes to some dangerous areas are necessary, regardless of whether there are any signs of enemy forces there. After research, we identified the most dangerous areas, from which the enemy could pose the greatest threat to the defensive positions in a short period of time. So some B-25 bombers were sent to sweep these areas even at night.

Will the enemy attack at night? That's a big problem. Although the cadets have also had some training in night attacks. However, the effectiveness of attacking at night is definitely much lower than during the day. So at first, the trainees were very worried about the problems of this time period.

But in fact, it can be a big problem for the attacker at night. Under the condition that there is always a cluster of attack aircraft in the sky, when the suppression artillery group fires at night, the flash of the muzzle of the gun will be particularly obvious, and it is almost impossible to avoid the eyes of the attack aircraft. And at night, it was difficult for anti-aircraft guns to cover these guns. Therefore, if the enemy chooses to attack at night, they must be prepared to quickly lose most of the suppressive artillery under the attack of attack aircraft. On the other hand, attacking tanks have a greatly affected field of view, making it easier to fall into the trap of enemy infantry.

So a purely night attack is not a desirable scenario. In general, the best time to attack is dawn. During this time, when attacking forces are assembled in the staging area and advancing towards the target, they can be covered by nightfall. And when they attacked, it was dawn, which made it easier for them to attack. Therefore, the time of dawn is the most dangerous time.

Now, night had fallen, and the trainees and the American troops simulating the German army were making final preparations.

In the dim starlight, Sergeant Louis commanded his squad to put away the inflatable models in the dark, and then pushed a real 88mm gun into the gun emplacement......

Near the paratrooper line, the paratroopers heard the roar of the tank's tracks coming from all directions, and at an altitude of only 400 meters above the ground, the engine of a reconnaissance plane was running at idle speed, the plane was gliding quietly, and the pilot opened the cockpit and listened intently to the movements below.

"Drop the flares!" In one of the loudest places on the tank's tracks, the driver, Colte, gave the order, and he increased his horsepower at the same time.

A flare was thrown, and a few seconds later, it burst into flames in the air, a white light that lit up a large area. But there was nothing there, only the roar of tank tracks was still coming.

"Damn, these guys are so cunning! This must be the sound they played through the horns! Colt understood immediately.

"The enemy covers the real moving tanks by setting up these tweeters everywhere and playing the sound of the tanks moving. Enemy tanks may be entering the starting positions. ”

……

A squad of M5 tanks with their headlights turned off was slowly advancing on the road to the assembly area in the dark. The tanks were camouflaged with tree branches, so that when necessary, when they stopped on the side of the road, they looked like trees on the side of the road from the air. At this moment, the sound of the engines of the planes was heard in the air, and the tanks immediately stopped, and the motors were turned off. After a while, the sound of the plane died down. The tanks began to move on the road again.

……

A full 12 B-25 bombers took off from the airfield loaded with bombs. Some of their aircraft are tasked with standing by near suspicious locations, and every once in a while, reconnaissance aircraft drop flares on suspicious locations, and as soon as they find targets, they will drop bombs on them. Other bombers will drop time bombs on several major roads to disrupt "enemy forces" that may be passing through. In addition, there is a group of P-38s, also loaded with ammunition and cruising in the air, whose main targets are those enemy artillery groups that may appear at any time.

"We can let the enemy's artillery fire the first shell, but we must not give them the opportunity to fire the second!" Before getting on the plane, Arthur, who led the team, said with confidence.

On the other side, four Mosquito night fighters painted all in black are also quietly approaching the battlefield.