Today is the rì of the action, but from the very beginning, this operation shows a whole lot of signs of unhappiness. From the second half of the night, an unexpected night fog covered Caen airport. The thickness of this fog was only about 20 meters. Standing on the tower of the airport and looking out, the scenery is really good, with a sea of slowly undulating clouds and mist under your feet, and you can see the bright stars in the sky when you look up. However, if you look at it from the ground, it is gray all around, and you can hardly see anything clearly. Although the runway was lit up, the visibility was not good enough. Although it was barely able to take off, the efficiency of the plane's sortie was greatly reduced.

This also led to the fact that the sortie of attack aircraft of the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing was almost half an hour later than scheduled.

However, the main units of the 82nd Airborne Division were boarded in the UK. Airports in the UK are fog-free. The soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division boarded the plane on time, and then flew towards the target area under the gaze of the starry sky. The group of transport planes they were flying in went undetected by the Germans when they crossed the Allied Line of Control and the Germans. This is mainly due to the fact that with the advance of the Allies in Europe, the German army's relatively complete radar system has been hit a big gap.

However, when the group was approaching the target area, they were still under fire from German high guns. Several C-47 transport planes were hit, and the paratroopers on these transport planes had to pick their umbrellas in advance.

But in general, the transport fleet went well, and they, escorted by the P-51 fleet of the Ninth Air Army, reached the predetermined airspace and began the airdrop. In fact, such a large-scale use of airborne troops by the Allies was indeed unexpected by the Germans. So the 82nd Airborne Division was not attacked by the Germans in an organized way when it was airborne, and if anything, it was that the wind was a little stronger than expected, so that the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division landed with a larger spread than expected, and it took more time to concentrate. In addition, there were some unlucky soldiers who fell into the river, and compared to the British parachutes, the American parachutes were more complex and difficult to unravel, at least with one hand. As a result, several paratroopers were killed by American-style parachutes - this was the entire casualty of the first parachute soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The paratroopers who fell to the ground began to move towards their respective goals. Their first goal was to capture two bridges across the Duz-Val Canal, one near Grave. This goal also went exceptionally smoothly, because the Germans were not well prepared for the Allied airborne, and there were only platoon-level garrisons on both bridges, and the armament was very mediocre, basically no heavy weapons, only a few MG-42 machine guns. Therefore, although the German garrison estimated that it would be the target of attack after seeing the Allied parachute, it was impossible for such a weak force to block the 82nd Airborne Division. The soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division found that the quality of these German troops was also very problematic. They didn't even know when they were using the MG-42 machine gun that every time they finished one or two shots, they should immediately change to a different position. You know, although the Airborne Forces do not have any heavy weapons, they still have mortars. As a result, these MG-42 machine guns of the German army only hit two shuttles before they were blown into the sky by falling mortar shells.

Without the support of the MG-42 machine gun, the German infantry was unable to compete with Jīng's American paratroopers. The speed of the M1 semi-automatic rifle is much higher than that of the Mauser 98K in their hands, and more importantly, when a second shot is missed and a second shot is needed, the Americans do not need to pull the bolt with the butt off their shoulders like the Germans, and then aim again, but only need to adjust the aiming line slightly to fire the next shot.

The Americans themselves were outnumbered by the Germans, and their firepower was much more fierce, and the Germans stayed behind the sandbags and felt the American bullets flying like raindrops, making them completely unable to raise their heads. The occasional few Germans who tried to return fire were quickly knocked to the ground by bullets from several rifles.

The Americans quickly approached the Germans and threw grenades at their sandbag bunkers. Then he rushed to the bridge. By this time, most of the Germans had either taken their last breath or had only one breath left, but there were still some Germans who swung their sapper shovels at the Yankees. If their opponents were Russians who believed that "bullets are stupid, bayonets are heroes", they might be happy to compare Mosinagan with triangular stingers to German sapper shovels. But Americans don't have such a hobby. Although the M1 semi-automatic rifle could also be equipped with a bayonet, in the eyes of the Americans, the greatest use of this bayonet was to open a damn can of spam, not to fight the enemy. In close combat, the Americans have a better weapon - the M1911A1 pistol.

The U.S. Army has always had a tradition of allowing soldiers to buy their own weapons. For a long time, the old men in Congress have regarded cutting the army's military spending as their duty, and as a result, for a long time, the weapons equipped by the US ** team are the cheapest ones on the market. As the saying goes, cheap is not good, so the soldiers of the American army simply can't believe the things prepared for them, and they will always buy themselves a batch of weapons when they are about to go to the battlefield. After World War I, the U.S. Army was cut down to 100,000 men, and most of their weapons were packaged and sold to "peace-loving" people around the world. Of course, people had to pick up better goods, but as a result, the rest of the things that were left for American soldiers were picked up. Some soldiers found that the gun they used was older than their age after they entered the army. As a result, the soldiers, who had little confidence in the goods procured by zhèngfǔ, simply paid for themselves to arm themselves, and pistols naturally became a common weapon for American soldiers, and it became a tradition for every soldier to have a pistol.

After the start of World War II, the army had sufficient military spending, of course, it would no longer pit its own soldiers on guns, and Uncle Sam, who respected tradition, simply unified the standard of pistols for soldiers to provide better logistics. As a result, almost every soldier had an M1911A1 pistol in his hand.

Facing the Germans who pounced on them with sapper shovels in their hands, the Yankees quickly pulled out their M1911A1 pistols. This pistol that uses .45 caliber bullets has a super stopping effect. Generally speaking, even a strong man like Rambo, as long as he is not injected with a lot of amphetamines, and he is hit by such a bullet on his torso, he can only fall immediately. Unlike 9 mm caliber gadgets, it often happens that the enemy is hit several times, and the enemy still has the strength to return fire. As a result, a few brave Hans died heroically for their country at the crisp sound of the M1911A1 pistol, as General Patton had expected.

The two bridges were quickly occupied, and the 82nd Airborne Division was considered a good start to the operation. Immediately afterwards, the main forces of the division quickly occupied the Grossbek Highway and set up a blockade there. Even the 508th Paratrooper Brigade, which had been delayed in launching an attack on the target due to communication failures in its original history, did not encounter any trouble this time - just after Ron slapped the British in the face, the Americans went back and equipped their troops with double radio contact, and the liaison officer of Ron's 21st Attack Aircraft Wing brought two sets of communication equipment over, and as a result, one set of radios really went wrong, but fortunately, the other sets of radios were still working. As a result, the unit also launched an attack on time, and successfully captured the 600-meter-long Nijmegen highway bridge, which was handled by only one squad of Germans.

Just as they had occupied the bridge on the front foot, a German SS armored battalion appeared here on the back foot. If they had moved a little later, they might not have been able to get off the bridge. But now it's a step too late, it's the Germans. Although the paratroopers lacked anti-tank weapons, it was impossible for just one battalion of armored units to recapture the bridge.

At this time, the attack aircraft of the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing finally arrived in the target area. Although only four P/A-38 attack planes arrived in the first batch, their appearance immediately panicked the German armored forces who were launching a tentative attack on the bridge.

In the midst of the rockets of several P/A-38 attack aircraft, the armored battalion of the Germans began to retreat. Eventually, they left four armoured vehicles behind and fled. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the bridge was suddenly attacked by the Germans' large-caliber suppression artillery, forcing those planes to immediately carry out the task of searching for artillery, they would have to pay a much greater price to escape.

Later, as the fog at Caen airfield lifted, more attack bombers came to the area, and the Germans, perhaps restrained by these planes, did not launch a counterattack against the 82nd Airborne Division for the rest of the day.

"Quick, move fast!" Sergeant Neymar was digging a bunker at the bridgehead with his squad, "Hurry up, we must dig the fortifications before dark, or the Germans will kill you at night." ”

The German armored battalion that appeared in the morning, although it failed to take the bridge, also surprised the Americans. According to the intelligence of the Americans, there should be no German armored forces in this area. Obviously, as Ron accused, the Allies did not understand how many troops the Germans had and how they were deployed when planning the attack.

"Obviously, that armored unit was just passing by temporarily, and it happened to happen, and their attack was not a prepared attack. The Germans did not react at that time. But at night, the Germans will definitely launch an organized counteroffensive. We must withstand their counterattack! It will be a night to decide xìng. General Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said to his subordinates.