Although the German reserves and the American reserves reached the vicinity of the target almost at the same time, the strength of the two reserves was clearly different. The fastest update 78 novels // The total number of German troops stationed in Cherbourg was only 4,000, and the area to be defended was very large, so the strength left as a reserve in the end was only a little more than a company, about 150 people. However, the U.S. forces have very abundant troops, not to mention that in the hands of General Collins, the commander of the 7th Army, there are as many as one division in reserve. Even the commander of the Dalton regiment, who was in charge of attacking the area, had in his hands a whole battalion of infantry and a reserve of five tanks.

Therefore, although the Germans put in reserves, they were not able to repel the Americans, and they were not even able to block the other side. It just slows down the opponent's advance. What's worse is that some other directions have also been unable to support and are losing ground one after another. By this time, General Schlieben had no reserves at his disposal.

Now, the only thing that can be comforted by the Germans is the depth of the fortifications in the port of Cherbourg, so there is still room for the Germans to retreat. At least for the time being, there is no danger that the entire line of defense will be directly pierced. And the losses of the Americans are not small. As Clausewitz said in On War, in most cases, defense is a more powerful form of warfare than offense.

For example, if in an unobstructed wilderness, a few American soldiers with 1 semi-automatic rifle meet several German soldiers with Mauser 98k bolt-action rifles. For shè, the unlucky ones must be the Germans. Because the semi-automatic shè in the hands of the Americans was much faster than the Mauser 98k in the hands of the Germans. But if a couple of Germans squatted in the trenches with a Mauser 98k, a couple of Yankees charged into the trenches with 1 semi-automatic rifles. Then the situation will immediately turn against the Yankees. Because of the trenches, the German soldiers were exposed to a much smaller area that could be attacked. To hit them, you have to make sure that your bullets hit head-sized targets, otherwise they won't be effective. In contrast, the Germans were effective in hitting any part of the Yankees.

It was only the simplest fortification, a trench. If you add barbed wire, all kinds of machine gun bunkers, artillery bunkers, plus minefields, anti-tank trenches, anti-tank cement piers, and so on. The advantage of the defending side will be more obvious.

Although the Germans had to retreat due to their lack of numbers, the American army also had to pay a price for every step forward. Especially when the American troops broke through the fortifications on the perimeter and began to face the core fortifications of the Germans. The battle is even more difficult.

Unlike the outer fortifications, which are mainly civil structures, which are mainly used to retard opponents, the fortifications in the core fortification area are made of reinforced concrete. Here, the traffic trench was no longer open-air, and the Germans added prefabricated reinforced concrete covers to it. Although these covers could not withstand the direct hits of the 203 mm guns and the repeated blows of the 155 mm guns, the covers and the layer of soil covering them could block the view of the American pilots, making it impossible for them to detect the movements of the German troops. And through these communication trenches, in some cases, the Germans could even move behind the Americans to launch a sneak attack. In Area 5, several German soldiers used a communication trench that the American army did not find to sneak behind the American troops, and there they used their tank killers to kill 4 4 Sherman tanks in one go.

In addition to the tunnelized traffic trenches, there are also more pillboxes in the core fortification area. These concrete bunkers are also far more robust than the previous civil bunkers. Against those bunkers, the power of the 4 tank's 76mm guns was quite sufficient, but here, unless you can shè through the shè holes in the bunkers, the 76mm high-explosive shells will only hit them with a loud bang. In less than 20 seconds, you'll see the G-42 machine gun in this bunker spew out deadly tongues of fire again.

If only these machine gun bunkers were enough, the modified version of the 4 Spitfire could easily eliminate them. However, there were more anti-tank gun pillboxes here. The concrete casings of these pillboxes withstood even a direct hit from a 155-mm gun. 4 guns of 75 tanks hit on it, like tickling. These bunkers were equipped with a weapon that could kill 4 tanks in one blow - PAK-43 88-mm anti-tank guns.

It is almost hopeless for a tank to directly challenge such an anti-tank gun pillbox. No, if the attackers were Soviets, they would most likely have used S-152 assault guns to solve the problem. If the S-152 can't move, the Soviets will brave the artillery fire and pull up the 203-mm gun to shoot straight at it. This style of play, of course, will bring a lot of casualties. Although after the whole battle was fought, the Soviets did not necessarily suffer losses, even if they were permanent losses. But when the Soviets broke through the German lines, the Germans were always able to play a high exchange ratio.

The U.S. Army does not have such large-caliber assault guns as the S-152, and in fact, the U.S. Army does not have the habit of letting the bayonets on the suppression artillery rush up and fight the enemy. The Americans' solution has always been to rely on air power.

However, the pillboxes equipped with the PAK-43 anti-tank guns did not need to be deployed very far because of the powerful guns and the long range. These bunkers were located relatively far back, and the grenades could no longer carry the smoke bombs to the vicinity of the bunkers. However, this does not mean that the Americans have no choice.

Air liaison Jim had now discovered a pillbox equipped with a PAK-43 anti-tank gun more than a thousand meters away. He glanced at Stern, the other air liaison, and the two nodded to each other. They all pulled out a flare gun and separated left and right. When the two men had separated themselves for some distance, they raised their flare guns and fired a series of flares in the direction of the anti-tank gun pillbox. Two green flares pulled out two bands of light, and at the extended intersection of these two bands of light were the German anti-tank gun pillboxes.

Carter flew a P/A-47 attack plane along the green ribbon of light. Under the belly of his plane hung a huge special anti-concrete fortification bomb weighing 1,600 pounds. He had already spotted the anti-tank pillbox, so he dived down at an angle of almost 90 degrees and dropped the bomb at an altitude of 800 meters.

The bomb did not directly hit the roof of the anti-tank gun pillbox. It landed about 4 meters to the left of the bunker. The speed of its fall from a high altitude caused it to burrow into the dirt and explode violently. A violent explosion immediately tore open the side walls of the anti-tank gun pillboxes. The entire bunker was also overturned.

However, there are still too few aircraft in Ron's 21st Attack Aircraft Wing that can carry out such dive bombing missions. The density of fire they provide is far from enough. It was not possible to completely suppress those anti-tank gun pillboxes. So, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, the momentum of the US military attack began to weaken. By half-past three, the American attack stopped.

After several hours of attacking, the American forces had completely occupied the outer positions of Cherbourg and launched several rounds of attacks on the core positions of Cherbourg. Destroyed quite a few of these targets. However, now, if the attack continues, the losses of the US military will also increase. And before dark, the U.S. military also needed to build a new line of defense against German night attacks. And that takes time. So General Collins decided that this was the end of today's attack.

After the attack was stopped, the artillery fire of the US Navy fleet was again added to cover the German positions. Under the cover of artillery fire, the tank recovery vehicle dragged back the 4 tanks that were destroyed on the battlefield one by one. Many of these tanks were not particularly badly damaged, and they were dragged back for repairs, and in a few days, they would be able to return to the battlefield and shout: "Folks, I'm back Sherman!" ”

After towing the tanks back, the Americans began to retreat and disengage with the Germans. The U.S. forces withdrew very far back, and almost gave up all the parts they had captured today.

"General? After we withdrew like that, didn't we let out all the results of the day's battle? Ron asked Collins, somewhat puzzled.

"Oh, it doesn't matter, it would be nice if the enemy would come out and restore the old positions." Collins replied, "There are positions where the fortifications are absolutely impossible to recover in one night's time." The defense of this area cannot be restored for a short time. If the enemy came here to fight us, the exchange would have made them want to kill themselves. There are only a few of them in total, and if we really play like this, we will have an easy time. However, it is quite possible that they sent people out at night to lay mines. We should also send troops to hunt down these sappers. ”

"That's just as well." Ron nodded, "It's like the airfield we just got from the Germans." If a few months ago, the Germans had put a wing of fighters on that airfield, we would have died of joy! ”

"One of our great strengths is the superiority of our personnel, and I estimate that the Germans will suffer no small casualties today, and the troops must be extremely tired. Attack them again at night, and tomorrow we will be able to storm the city. Collins appeared extremely confident.

"By the way, immediately send another envoy to demand that the Germans surrender, and they should know that they will definitely not be able to withstand tomorrow."

……

The Germans refused General Collins' request, saying that they would continue to fight until the last moment. And this did not surprise the Americans. As night fell, some squads began to be sent out.

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